Pursuing Energy-Efficient Behavior in a Regulatory Environment: Motivating Policymakers, Program Administrators, and Program Implementers

This white paper examines how policymakers, program administrators, and program implementers can be motivated to pursue behavioral change in a regulatory environment. For the purposes of this report, behavior change is defined rather broadly, encompassing both behaviors associated with the purchase and installation of energy efficiency technologies as well as behaviors, decisions, and actions that might be thought of as more independent of technology. These include energy use habits, lifestyle choices, and consumption patterns. The insights and lessons discussed in this paper are drawn from a wide variety of sources including interviews with representatives from the energy and utility communities, and program documentation for energy-related programs and projects

CSi in South Africa: Examining CSI Strategy, Practice, and Attitudes with a Focus on Social Enterprise and Blended Value

The project aimed to: Identify attitudes and practices among leading CSI officers in South Africa surrounding CSI objectives, CSI strategy, and major philanthropy models, particularly social enterprise and blended valueAssess the market for Heart's Blended Value Proposition Funds among CSI officer

When Does the Influencer Matter?

The purpose of this research is to identify what factors contribute to the effectiveness of social media influencers’ posts. The first phase of this project studied people’s initial feelings towards social media influencers using a focus group. The results indicated that social media influencers are in fact effective and influential. The second phase of this study tested what factors increase and decrease the effectiveness of a social media influencers post, and what factors will get them the most engagement. This was tested through sixteen experimental conditions with different variations of a fake social media influencer post. Five dependent variables were tested, willingness to share the post, willingness to buy, attitude toward the brand, attitude towards the ad, and attitude towards the influencer. Four independent variables were also measured, size of the influencer (micro or macro), picture (present or not), discount (present or not), and level of purchase involvement (high or low), as well as several contributing variables about personality. The results contended that the presence of a picture in a social media influencers ad was had a positive effect on willingness to share the post, willingness to buy, attitude toward the brand, and attitude towards the ad. Discount also was significant to consumers’ attitudes towards the brand and the ad. Level of involvement and size of the influencer only proved to be statistically significant towards the effectiveness of the post when interaction effects were found between one or more of those variables. The research and analysis conducted will provide valuable information regarding the effectiveness of social media influencers and the relevance of them pertaining to technological shifts and advancements in the marketing field

Employer Involvement in Office of Disability Employment (ODEP) Demonstration Programs

[Excerpt] As part of the independent evaluation of ODEP’s demonstration program being conducted by Westat, the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) asked Westat to provide in-depth analysis of three issues that were identified at site visits and in Quarterly Reports during Phase II of the evaluation. This report provides in-depth analysis on the first issue—employer involvement in adult demonstration programs

Identifying target audiences on social network sites by analyisng user connections : a social network analysis approach for instagram

Social Network Sites offer users and brands a platform to interact by following each other and liking, commenting and sharing of content. This dissertation demonstrates that brands can leverage on rich data emerging from user-user-, user-brand-, and brand-brand-connections on Instagram to identify, understand and target new prospects. The concept of homophily suggests that users are mainly connected to other users they perceive as similar to themselves and to brands they identify with. Taking these insights into account, this dissertation aims to develop an audience selection approach to identify prospects that are likely to be interest in following a focal brand on Instagram. By extracting real network data from Instagram, users were segmented based on their “follow-relationship” to a set of exemplar brands that share a similar image with the focal brand. Four segments were identified and profiled: True-Brand-Lovers, Fashion Seeker, Hidden Treasures and Intangibles. Additionally, by taking secondary layer effects into account, a targeting experiment was conducted on Instagram to examine whether and to what extent resulted segments can be employed to find highly interested prospects. Findings disclosed that new prospects can especially be found by detecting overlapping followers between brands within the set. Moreover, tendencies were found that new prospects can be detected in the secondary layer of existing followers, especially when their connection to the set is taken into account as well. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that taking users affinity to other entities to account can help brands to define more precisely targeting decisions.As redes sociais oferecem a utilizadores e marcas uma plataforma para que interajam. Esta dissertação demonstra que as marcas podem aproveitar a rich data emergente de interações utilizador-utilizador, utilizador-marca e marca-marca no Instagram, para identificar, perceber e visar potenciais clientes. O conceito de homofilia sugere que utilizadores estão principalmente ligados a outros utilizadores que sejam semelhantes a si mesmos e a marcas com que se identificam. Esta dissertação ambiciona desenvolver uma abordagem de seleção de audiência para identificar novos clientes que poderão ter interesse em seguir uma marca no Instagram. Ao extrair dados reais do Instagram, os utilizadores são segmentados com base na sua “follow-relationship” para determinar um conjunto de marcas que partilham uma imagem semelhante com a marca focal. Quatro segmentos foram identificados e divididos: True-Brand-Lovers, Fashion Seeker, Hidden Treasures e Intangibles. Adicionalmente, ao ter em consideração efeitos de segunda camada, uma experiência de targeting foi conduzida no Instagram para examinar se e em que medida os segmentos resultantes podem ser utilizados para descobrir potenciais clientes altamente interessados. Os resultados indicam que potenciais clientes podem ser encontrados particularmente ao detetar seguidores sobrepostos dentro do grupo. Para além disso, foram encontradas tendências que indiciam que potenciais clientes podem ser detetados na segunda camada de seguidores, especialmente quando a sua conexão ao grupo é levada também em conta. Portanto, os resultados deste estudo sugerem que ter em conta a afinidade dos utilizadores a outras entidades pode ajudar as marcas a definirem com mais precisão as suas decisões de targeting

Reviewing the Relevance of SWOT Analysis Model on Social Media Marketing Strategy Design Framework

SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis has become a popular approach for strategy formulation in businesses. Today, social media networks are proving to be the most successful means of forming online communities and connecting with people across the globe. Social media can supply organizations with crucial decision-making data. In this dispensation, many people understand how to utilize social networks at a primitive level, but are eager to learn more concerning the concept of social media marketing strategies. This paper focuses on a how SWOT analysis can be used for the evaluation of social media marketing design framework. Keywords: SWOT Analysis, Social media, Online communities, Marketing strategies, Social media marketing design framework. DOI: 10.7176/JMCR/81-04 Publication date:August 31st 2021

The impact of new reporting requirements on local charities in the Waikato region

Charities play a significant role in society. Over 27,000 charities work in New Zealand for the welfare of the community. Prior to 2015, there was no mandatory requirements for financial reporting; however, some charities used “the for-profits standards”. But there was evidence of poor accounting standards. Since 2015, there was a significant change in reporting requirements issued by XRB. The main purpose of new reporting standards was to improve transparency, accountability and public trust. The new accounting standards brought more transparency and disclosure of non-financial information. There were a few negative impacts of this new regime as charities had insufficient knowledge about new standards, which resulted in deficient quality of reports. This research seeks to investigate the impacts of new reporting requirements on local charities in the Waikato Region. The method carried out for the research was semi-structured interviews. Under this method the accountants of three different charities in the Waikato Region were interviewed. The findings of the study were arrived at based on the analysis conducted. Some of major findings of the study criticised the new changes as they increased the workload of charities and created other related issues. There were some issues related to revenue recognition, and the outcomes were long term. It was a mixed review by the charities on the effectiveness of the “Charity Services”. The study concluded that the aim of new regime was for increased accountability, which may not have eventuated, as according to the research the charities instead face issues of workload, outcomes and revenue recognition

Optimisation of operations of wet vacuuming the carpets in Spotless services

The research topic, Optimisation of operations of wet vacuuming the carpets in Spotless cleaning services, was chosen by analysing problems in the operations of the organisation. Mixed methods involving survey and an interview, were used in the research. The survey was taken with thirty workers from the organisation, and the supervisor was interviewed. From the results, the findings are: • The machine is hard to pull and handle during the work • Time allotted to employees is insufficient to complete the work • Time allotment is a challenge for the supervisor • Safety & PPE measures needs to be increased Solutions for the problem faced by the organisation are: follow-up / refresher training programmes need to conducted: an upgrade to easy-to-use machines that will help the workers to do the work within the given time. If the organisation follows the recommendations it will help the company to optimise wet vacuuming service operations

“Can I use what I learnt at work?” Accounting education-practice gap

Approaching graduation, the first question for every student is “Will I be able to find a job?” If they find a job, the next question will properly be “Can I perform well at work” This research investigated whether students can use what they have learned when they start work, whether there is a gap, and what gap exists between accounting education and the requirements of practice. This study aims to identify the gap of expectation, skill obtained and skills required between student and practitioners’ point of view. This will provide information to students on what areas should they be paying attention to during study, and inform educators on where gaps exist, and brief employers on areas a graduate of accounting education may lack, so focused training can be provided. A questionnaire was designed using free survey tool Qualtrics. Questions were adapted from four different sources. The survey was sent to a Wintec CBITE accounting tutor. With their consent and permission, the survey link was posted onto a Moodle page to share with Wintec CBITE students. The researcher then collected data though Qualtrics. Analysis was done though Excel. A table was created for each question. Some answers were modified to match the literature’s format of presenting their result to show a fairer and equal comparison. The researcher received a total of 26 responses.,20 of which were from accounting major students. However, only 15 out of the 20 had completed the whole questionnaire. Comparison of the results gained from this study contrast with the literature. Conclusions and recommendations are still to be made

The drivers of motivation

This project has been completed for a medium-sized supermarket located on the southern side of Hamilton. They currently have 83 people employed to work there. The reason for researching the drivers of motivation is so employers can begin to understand the best ways to motivate their individual employees The aim of the project was to analyse what drives motivation in the workplace and to provide recommendations for the supermarket. Both a questionnaire and interview were used, the questionnaire with the purpose of gathering a large amount of quantitative data in a short period of time and the interview to build on the results received from the questionnaires and provide qualitative data. Only employees in the grocery and checkout departments were asked to participate. Results from the questionnaire and interview showed that when it came to store culture, most staff felt that it could improve, that the store’s values were not being displayed, and that if store culture improved they would be better motivated. The store culture was also identified as an important motivator, especially for the staff over 26 years of age. When data concerning training and development was analysed, it was found that both training and career development were important motivators, with most staff wishing to undertake training and/or career development opportunities if they arose. From the analyses of the results for the reward and recognition questions, the staff indicated they felt they were not valued as employees and would prefer to receive more feedback to help increase their motivation. Pay was the last motivator to be analysed. The respondents indicated that they felt an increase in their pay rate would improve their motivation. However, upon further analysis through the interview, it was found although initially they would be motivated whether this would permanently improve their motivation was questionable. There were three recommendations for the organisation. These were, to implement a reward and recognition programme that addressed meeting the three motivational needs of the staff mentioned above, rewards and recognition, pay, and training and development. The second was to improve store culture, which would involve taking existing store values and establishing them into everyday life at the supermarket, so they become a shared set of values by them team. The third was to undertake further research to investigate how the motivational needs for the supermarket industry, a typical low skill, entry level job may differ to that of a higher skill job