Does Humour Influence Perceptions of the Ethicality of Female-Disparaging Advertising?

This article responds to calls for further research on ethical issues in advertising. The study examines whether advertising strategies which use female-disparaging themes are perceived as ethical, and what effect this has on ad and brand attitudes. It also examines whether or not humour assuages ethical evaluations of female-disparaging ads. The findings from an experimental research design, which included 336 British respondents, show that non-disparaging and non-humorous ads are considered to be the most ethical, while disparaging ads (regardless of the level of humour) are considered the least ethical. Across the board, female-disparaging ads are not perceived as ethical; however, high benevolent sexists appear to favour them most. Finally, an ad’s perceived ethicality mediates the relationship between ad disparagement and ad attitudes; likewise, an ad’s perceived ethicality and ad attitudes mediate the relationship between an ad’s female disparagement and brand attitudes. Female-disparaging ads should be avoided given that they are perceived as less ethical and given the impact that advertising has on behaviour, as well as on societal and moral values. Advertisers should also avoid using female-disparaging advertising themes, even light-hearted ones, since they constitute a risky strategy for the ad and the brand as they can backfire and alienate consumers

Linking Environmental Sustainability and Healthcare: The Effects of an Energy Saving Intervention in Two Hospitals

Set in a real organisational setting, this study examines the challenges of implementing environmentally sustainable behaviour in healthcare. It evaluates the success of a real energy saving behaviour change intervention, based on social marketing principles, which targeted the employees of two National Health Service (NHS) hospitals. It also explores the intervention benefits for three key stakeholders: the organisation/hospitals, hospital employees and patients. A rich secondary dataset containing actual workplace behaviour measures (collected via observations) and self-reported data from employee interviews and patient questionnaires is used for this purpose. The intervention encouraged three employee energy saving actions (called TLC actions): (1) Turn off machines, (2) Lights out when not needed, and (3) Close doors when possible; which led to energy savings and carbon reduction for the two hospitals. Hospital employees reported a greater level of work efficiency as a result of engaging in TLC actions, which increased the 'quiet time' periods in both hospitals. Indirectly, employees' TLC actions also improved patients' quality of sleep (which in turn is positively associated with greater patient hospital experience satisfaction). These findings shed light on the benefits of social marketing interventions targeting energy saving behaviour change for multiple stakeholders in healthcare organisations. They also illustrate connections between environmental sustainability and social and political pillars of corporate social responsibility. Additionally, organisational culture was highlighted as a key challenge in changing practices. To encourage long-term sustainable behaviour, this study recommends a pre-intervention assessment of infrastructure and equipment, the communication of expected benefits to motivate higher involvement of employees, the need for internal green champions and the dissemination of post-intervention feedback on various energy saving and patient indicators

Green, keen, and somewhere in between: An employee environmental segmentation study

\ua9 2024 Elsevier Ltd. Past research analyzes employee engagement in pro-environmental behavior by assuming all employees are similar in their values, beliefs, and norms (VBN). We argue that a segmented approach is more effective in understanding workplace pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) and seek to develop a typology of employees. Analyzing data from 702 office employees in the UK, this study yields a more finely grained segmentation of employee differences regarding environmental dimensions, personality traits, behaviors, and perceptions. Based on a cluster analysis methodology, this paper identifies three distinct employee segments: ‘Acorns,’ ‘Saplings,’ and ‘Trees.’ Theoretically, our findings suggest that the VBN theory should be expanded by integrating personality traits, and that organizational environmental policy makers should pay attention to the green subcultures that may form within clusters. Practically, our typology helps organizations design interventions to target different groups of employees with customized motivational strategies, communication tactics, and engagement approaches

Cause-Related Marketing and Ethnocentrism: The Moderating Effects of Geographic Scope and Perceived Economic Threat

Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Amongst the various factors that managers need to consider when designing a CRM campaign is the cause’s geographic scope, i.e., should the CRM campaign benefit local, national, or international communities? Although previous research has examined the importance of geographic scope in the effectiveness of the CRM campaigns, it has largely ignored consumer reactions to CRM campaigns from a local cultural identity perspective, such as ethnocentric identity. This study brings together these two important factors to examine (through the lens of Social Identity Theory) how consumer ethnocentrism affects CRM effectiveness in campaigns varying in geographic scope. We test our hypotheses through an experimental study of 322 British consumers and three different geographic scopes (UK, Greece, and Ethiopia). Our results show that ethnocentric consumers show a positive bias towards products advertised through national CRM campaigns; however, there is a diversity of reactions towards different international geographic scopes, based on the levels of ‘perceived economic threat’. Ethnocentric consumers prefer international CRM campaigns that benefit people located in a country posing a lower vs. a higher economic threat to the domestic economy and the self. Our study contributes to a broader understanding of factors affecting the effectiveness of CRM campaigns and help managers design better CRM campaigns by carefully selecting the geographic scope, after considering a rising consumer segment: the ethnocentric consumer.Business Economic and Informatics School Research Grant (SRG), Department of Management, Birkbeck, University of London, UK