1,720,954 research outputs found
Factors affecting the organic products market in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal: A diffusion of innovation perspective.
No full textDoctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.Organic products, cultivated using agricultural practices that avoid synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, offer a sustainable alternative to conventional farming methods. However, in South Africa, adoption remains limited, hindered by consumer perceptions of organic food as unfamiliar and niche. This study explores the determinants of organic food adoption, integrating traditional consumer behaviour factors with innovation-oriented constructs from Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory and Consumer Innovativeness (CI). Employing a two-stage methodology, the study first conducted a systematic literature review to identify traditional and innovation-related drivers, followed by a quantitative analysis of survey data from 500 participants using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Results reveal that while traditional factors such as health consciousness and trust are significant, DOI constructs, including compatibility and relative advantage, also substantially influence adoption. These findings advance theoretical frameworks on consumer behaviour and offer actionable recommendations for marketers and policymakers to promote sustainable consumption practices in emerging markets
Barriers to organic food purchases in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
Full text linkMaster of Commerce. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2017.Concern about food quality has been increasing. The change from conventional to organic foods has been found to have benefits for the environment and for consumers Although a market for organic fresh produce has been found to exist in South Africa, there is incomplete understanding on South African organic consumers as research that relates to organic consumption is limited. Most research on organic consumption is conducted in international markets. Despite there being a market for organic produce, consumption levels in South Africa are low. The purpose of this research is therefore to explore organic consumption barriers in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
A review of literature discusses the profile of organic consumers, reasons for organic consumption and barriers to organic consumption found in other research. The study adopted the Theory of Reasoned Action, the Theory of Planned Behaviour and particularly the extended Theory of Planned Behaviour as the theoretical lens. A Conceptual Framework was developed to better unpack barriers to organic purchases. After Ethical Clearance was granted, data was collected using the Interview Guide. The researcher conducted interviews with participants who were aware of organic products but were not regular consumers of organic products. Snowball sampling was used to recruit participants to the study to better understand barriers to organic purchases in South Africa.
Generally, participants appear to be concerned about the environment, however, their concern for the environment is not leading to organic consumption (they were recruited for their non-consumption of organic products). Furthermore, participants have positive attitudes toward organic products, are not influenced by friends and family but are deterred by issues such as price, availability and labelling of organic products.
The recommendations include initiatives that will assist marketers with communicating organic benefits to consumers thereby explaining the reasons for higher prices and leading to consumer trust
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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