Organizing Information Obtained From Literature Reviews – A Framework for Information System Area Researchers

Aim/Purpose: A literature review is often criticized for the absence of coherent construction, synthesis of topics, and well-reasoned analysis. A framework is needed for novice researchers to organize and present information obtained from the literature review. Background: Information and communication technologies advancement have yielded overwhelming information. The massive availability of information poses several challenges, including storage, processing, meaningful organization, and presentation for future consumption. Information System Researchers have developed frameworks, guidelines, and tools for gathering, filtering, processing, storing, and organizing information. Interestingly, information system researchers have vast information that needs meaningful organization and presentation to the research fraternity while conducting a literature review on a research topic. Methodology: This paper describes a framework called LACTiC (Location, Author, Continuum, Time, and Category) that we adapted from another framework called LATCH (Location, Alphabetical, Time, Category, and Hierarchy). LATCH was used to organize and present information on e-commerce websites for seamless navigation. We evaluated the LACTiC framework. Contribution: Information System Researchers can use the LACTiC framework to organize information obtained from literature review. Findings: The evaluation reveals that most researchers from information systems organize information obtained from the literature review category-wise, followed by continuum, author, time, and location. Recommendation for Researchers: Overall, the framework works well and can be helpful for researchers for an initial idea for organizing information obtained from the literature review. Future Research: To conceptualize the framework, the study was carried out using Information Systems related literature. To generalize the proposed framework, we may suggest that the study can be extended to other areas of business management, such as marketing, finance, operation, decision sciences, accounting, and economics.

The Indigenous Roles of Women in Household Food Security in Limpopo Province

The chapter describes women's roles in home-gardening to ensure household food security in a rural community in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Focus group discussions confirmed the women continue to produce indigenous crops as part of their cultural obligations to provide for household food security. This implies that the women are capable of maintaining the health and welfare of their households by ensuring food availability, accessibility, and utilization, which are important elements of food security. The study has implications for ending hunger and malnutrition as food is produced and preserved for future consumption. The food and preservation practices adopted by the women in the study could be incorporated into climate change mitigation and adaptation policies to address the challenge of poverty and malnutrition as per the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 2.

Theoretical Foundations of the First Purchase in Marketing

Consumer decision making as an important process in marketing sphere has been discussed in detail, but so far researchers as a rule have not focused the attention on how the purchase happens for the very first time. The current text is an attempt to develop the foundations and to make a conceptual framework of the first purchase in marketing and to outline its significance for current or future consumption, especially for the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). Together with a review of the extent to which the first purchase is considered and interpreted in the academic tradition in the field (and in practice), an attempt has been made to outline it as a phenomenon, since it can have significant benefits for better understanding consumer behavior and the further improvement of marketing communications. With this regard, it can be assumed that the first purchase is the initial step of acquiring consumer experience, which determines whether the product will continue to be purchased or not. Of course, all this is largely valid for the b2c (business to consumer) markets, for the products for individual and household consumption, and for the b2b (business to business) ones the particularities may differ significantly and need to be a subject of additional research efforts.

Application of Artificial Neural Networks for Virtual Energy Assessment

A Virtual energy assessment (VEA) refers to the assessment of the energy flow in a building without physical data collection. It has been occasionally conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic to residential and commercial buildings. However, there is no established framework method for conducting this type of energy assessment. The COVID-19 pandemic has catalysed the implementation of remote energy assessments and remote facility management. In this paper, a novel framework for VEA is developed and tested on case study buildings at the University of Melbourne. The proposed method is a hybrid of top-down and bottom-up approaches: gathering the general information of the building and the historical data, in addition to investigating and modelling the electrical consumption with artificial neural network (ANN) with a projection of the future consumption. Through sensitivity analysis, the outdoor temperature was found to be the most sensitive (influential) parameter to electrical consumption. The lockdown of the buildings provided invaluable opportunities to assess electrical baseload with zero occupancies and usage of the building. Furthermore, comparison of the baseload with the consumption projection through ANN modelling accurately quantifies the energy consumption attributed to occupation and operational use, referred to as ‘operational energy’ in this paper. Differentiation and quantification of the baseload and operational energy may aid in energy conservation measures that specifically target to minimise these two distinct energy consumptions.

Impacts of COVID-19 on patterns of meat and seafood consumption: evidence from Australia

PurposeIn 2020, mechanisms to limit the chain of transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Australia led to widespread restrictions on population mobility and business operations. Such conditions provide a natural experiment that may help to provide insights into consumer behaviour and future trends in food consumption. The overall objective of this study is to explore the possible impacts of COVID-19 on meat consumption patterns in Australia, both in the short and medium term, and to explore whether there have been impacts on the underlying drivers for consumption.Design/methodology/approachThe research reported in this paper analyses the impacts of COVID-19 on meat and seafood consumption in Australia, drawing on a national random survey of 1,200 participants in June 2020. Survey data on past and current consumption rates are compared to respondent estimates of their future consumption behaviour, and ordered probit models are used to identify whether consumption changes can be explained by socio-demographic, attitudinal or economic factors.FindingsTwo potential scenarios were evaluated to explore future consumption trends. The first “acceleration” scenario is that the restrictions would encourage people to speed up existing declines in meat consumption, perhaps taking more account of credence factors such as health, animal welfare and environmental issues. The second “transformation” scenario is that people will change consumption patterns, perhaps moving more towards home-cooked meals and increased consumption. Slightly stronger support was found for the transformation scenario, indicating that consumption rates for most meats and seafood will be stable or increase over the next five years.Originality/valueThis study capitalises on changed social and economic settings generated by COVID-19 to test the effects on consumption of meat (chicken, beef, pork, lamb) and seafood at a national level. Ordered probit models are applied to evaluate participant data on their future intentions for meat consumption to test two scenarios, finding stronger support for the “transformative” scenario than the “accelerate” scenario.

The urban brewery

<p>The effects of an increasingly global and mass produced marketplace has led to a change in consumer values. In an attempt to mediate the current marketplace where consumers are beginning to experience exhaustion as their choices continue to increase, the consumer is employing new means of determining value. Value is increasingly being sough by the new consumer beyond the product itself, and includes the consideration of product customisation and honest production practice and promotion. Despite the development of techniques to mediate the current state of the consumption environment, there is a lack of research into how this could be explored through architecture. This thesis argues that architecture can be used to support the changing nature of the consumption environment, through a physical interpretation of the social needs of the new consumer. A reassessment of the environment designed for consumption is necessary, in order to physically facilitate the increase of consumer awareness of consumption habits and the effects of their given choices. The layout of this research is broken into two main bodies of work. Part one focuses on the architectural proposition through an analysis of literature, whilst part two explores the fundamental facets of the design solution. The new consumer addressed within the literature and alongside the case study and site analysis is translated spatially, throughout this design led research. The architectural application of new consumer ideals within a consumption program has resulted in the design - The Urban Brewery. The brewery program showcases the potentials for social values to be transformed into a spatial dialogue. Successful facilitation of the new consumer is sought through increased engagement between people, product and program. This thesis concludes that architectural integration of social values and spatial organisation is important to the construction of the future consumption environment.</p>

The urban brewery

<p>The effects of an increasingly global and mass produced marketplace has led to a change in consumer values. In an attempt to mediate the current marketplace where consumers are beginning to experience exhaustion as their choices continue to increase, the consumer is employing new means of determining value. Value is increasingly being sough by the new consumer beyond the product itself, and includes the consideration of product customisation and honest production practice and promotion. Despite the development of techniques to mediate the current state of the consumption environment, there is a lack of research into how this could be explored through architecture. This thesis argues that architecture can be used to support the changing nature of the consumption environment, through a physical interpretation of the social needs of the new consumer. A reassessment of the environment designed for consumption is necessary, in order to physically facilitate the increase of consumer awareness of consumption habits and the effects of their given choices. The layout of this research is broken into two main bodies of work. Part one focuses on the architectural proposition through an analysis of literature, whilst part two explores the fundamental facets of the design solution. The new consumer addressed within the literature and alongside the case study and site analysis is translated spatially, throughout this design led research. The architectural application of new consumer ideals within a consumption program has resulted in the design - The Urban Brewery. The brewery program showcases the potentials for social values to be transformed into a spatial dialogue. Successful facilitation of the new consumer is sought through increased engagement between people, product and program. This thesis concludes that architectural integration of social values and spatial organisation is important to the construction of the future consumption environment.</p>

Can Substitutes Reduce Future Demand for Wildlife Products: A Case Study of China’s Millennial Generation

China is one of the world’s leading consumer markets for wildlife products, yet there is little understanding of how demand will change in the future. In this study, we investigate the consumptive habits and attitudes of the millennial ‘Juilinghou’ demographic – a subset of society in China with the potential to substantially influence future demand for wildlife products. We surveyed 350 Chinese university students across Harbin and Beijing, China, and found that the intended future consumption of wildlife products was relatively low in this population but with a strong orientation towards wildlife products with medicinal properties. Seventy percent of those respondents who had used and/or intended to use wildlife products were willing to try substitutes, but this was heavily dependent on their price (cheaper) and quality. The insights gained through this survey are intended to meaningfully inform future initiatives to introduce sustainable substitutability into wildlife markets to alert future wildlife product consumers to alternative choices.

Mast seeding promotes evolution of scatter-hoarding

Many plant species worldwide are dispersed by scatter-hoarding granivores: animals that hide seeds in numerous, small caches for future consumption. Yet, the evolution of scatter-hoarding is difficult to explain because undefended caches are at high risk of pilferage. Previous models have attempted to solve this problem by giving cache owners large advantages in cache recovery, by kin selection, or by introducing reciprocal pilferage of ‘shared’ seed resources. However, the role of environmental variability has been so far overlooked in this context. One important form of such variability is masting, which is displayed by many plant species dispersed by scatterhoarders. We use a mathematical model to investigate the influence of masting on the evolution of scatter-hoarding. The model accounts for periodically varying annual seed fall, caching and pilfering behaviour, and the demography of scatterhoarders. The parameter values are based mostly on research on European beech ( Fagus sylvatica ) and yellow-necked mice ( Apodemus flavicollis ). Starvation of scatterhoarders between mast years decreases the population density that enters masting events, which leads to reduced seed pilferage. Satiation of scatterhoarders during mast events lowers the reproductive cost of caching (i.e. the cost of caching for the future rather than using seeds for current reproduction). These reductions promote the evolution of scatter-hoarding behaviour especially when interannual variation in seed fall and the period between masting events are large. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The ecology and evolution of synchronized seed production in plants’.