Key research themes on travel behavior, lifestyle, and sustainable urban mobility

The concept of lifestyle adds a behavioral component to travel models that used to be dominated by engineering and econometric traditions. This article presents an overview of how lifestyle is defined and measured in transport studies, and how travel behavior is influenced by lifestyles. Lifestyles are often used pragmatically rather than theoretically in the behavior studies. Nevertheless, some important theoretical contributions have been made, especially in sociology by scholars such as Weber, Bourdieu, Ganzeboom, and Schulze who agree on the communicative character of lifestyles: individuals express their social position through specific patterns of behavior, consumption, and leisure. These behavioral patterns are shaped by underlying opinions and orientations, including beliefs, interests, and attitudes. Thus, travel behavior is not simply determined by price, speed, and comfort but is also related to attitudes, status, and preferences. Because lifestyle has many different dimensions, a variety of measurement approaches exists. Nevertheless, most studies suggest that travel behavior is conditioned by specific lifestyles. How lifestyles themselves can be modified to promote more sustainable patterns of transport has not received much attention to date. This article argues that lifestyles need to be considered as dynamic rather than as static and given, and that future research could delve more deeply into this area

Lifestyles and consumer behavior

In this article, the concept of lifestyle is traced to its early roots in personality psychology and in marketing. In the latter field, many commercial marketing firms have made strong claims as to the explanatory power of lifestyle dimensions, often based on procedures which have been kept secret, but researchers have seldom been able to verify such claims. In spite of this, the approach is very popular, has wide credibility and is often given very favorable media coverage. Probably because of this, it is often considered as a very important and promising approach by administrators working with the regulation of risk and risk communication. It may also be credible in some quarters because it affords a way of ‘explaining’ risk perception as being non-rational. In this paper, we give results from an empirical study of nuclear waste risk perception which is related to a basic risk perception model and three approaches to lifestyles: Kahle’s List of Values, a Swedish adaptation of the ‘Agorame´trie’ approach suggested by a group of French researchers, and Dake and Wildavsky’s Cultural Theory dimensions. It was found that nuclear waste risk perception could be modeled successfully with risk attitudes and perception data (basic model about 65% of the variance explained), but that lifestyle dimensions added virtually nothing to the explanatory power of the model.consumer behavior; lifestyle; risk

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

GMPLS energy efficiency scheme for green photonic networks

Since its emergence the internet has been a significant part of today's modern living. Defined by its interconnections and routing policies, it has fuelled increased demands for provisioning of new more advanced services that are able to dynamically react to changes within the network. These services however, lead to enormous energy consumption in contrast to a global drive for a greener environment. Hence the existence of an optical infrastructure that complies with the principles of zero-carbon emission is imperative. Subsequently, in this paper, we present an energy model of Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) network for more power efficient Green Photonic Networks. We are proposing a greener network design based on a novel routing algorithm to deliver power reduction through implementation of so called "Hibernation" approach. The scheme includes network topology such as group the nodes configuration, segmentation of the link/ports, and wavelength provisioning via partitioning. The performance evaluations of these energy saving schemes are investigated by including various challenging issue on "greening the internet" and reduces carbon footprint. In addition, to study the impact of wavelength request, blocking probability and power consumption in relation to network load is taken into account. A trade-off is observed between energy per bit, wavelengths offered (Erlang) and blocking probability as a result of the idling nodes

Functional food consumption in Germany: A lifestyle segmentation study

Due to increasing health consciousness among consumers, there is an ever‐growing demand for food and beverages with health‐improving components. Not only ‘light’ and low fat products are in demand, but increasingly so‐called well‐being products and food which can prevent certain diseases. The German market for functional food is still growing. But who are the German functional food consumers? In an online‐survey referring to the Food‐ Related Lifestyle by BRUNSØ and GRUNERT (1995) we tried to identify different groups of functional food buyers in Germany and to answer the following questions: If there are different consumer groups, how do they vary in their functional food consumption, their buying motives for functional food and their lifestyles? In conclusion, we have identified two different groups of functional food consumers in Germany: The “Health oriented functional food buyers” and the “Convenient functional food buyers” and give recommendations for marketing strategies. --functional food, cluster analysis, Food-Related Lifestyle

Segmenting Publics

This research synthesis was commissioned by the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to examine audience segmentation methods and tools in the area of public engagement. It provides resources for assessing the ways in which segmentation tools might be used to enhance the various activities through which models of public engagement in higher education are implemented. Understanding the opinions, values, and motivations of members of the public is a crucial feature of successful engagement. Segmentation methods can offer potential resources to help understand the complex set of interests and attitudes that the public have towards higher education. Key findings: There exist a number of existing segmentations which address many of the areas of activity found in Universities and HEIs. These include segmentations which inform strategic planning of communications; segmentations which inform the design of collaborative engagement activities by museums, galleries, and libraries; and segmentations that are used to identify under-represented users and consumers. Segmentation is, on its own, only a tool, used in different ways in different contexts. The broader strategic rationale shaping the application and design of segmentation methods is a crucial factor in determining the utility of segmentation tools. Four issues emerged of particular importance: 1. Segmentation exercises are costly and technically complex. Undertaking segmentations therefore requires significant commitment of financial and professional resources by HEIs; the appropriate interpretation, analysis, and application of segmentation exercises also require high levels of professional capacity and expertise 2. Undertaking a segmentation exercise has implications for the internal organisational operations of HEIs, not only for how they engage with external publics and stakeholders 3. Segmentation tools are adopted to inform interventions of various sorts, and superficially to differentiate and sometime discriminate between how groups of people are addressed and engaged. 4. For HEIs, the ethical issues and reputational risks which have been identified in this Research Synthesis as endemic to the application of segmentation methods for public purposes are particularly relevant

Global Market Segmentation for Value-Added Agricultural Products

International Relations/Trade,

One More Awareness Gap? The Behaviour–Impact Gap Problem

Preceding research has made hardly any attempt to measure the ecological impacts of pro-environmental behaviour in an objective way. Those impacts were rather supposed or calculated. The research described herein scrutinized the ecological impact reductions achieved through pro-environmental behaviour and raised the question how much of a reduction in carbon footprint can be achieved through voluntary action without actually affecting the socio-economic determinants of life. A survey was carried out in order to measure the difference between the ecological footprint of “green” and “brown” consumers. No significant difference was found between the ecological footprints of the two groups—suggesting that individual pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour do not always reduce the environmental impacts of consumption. This finding resulted in the formulation of a new proposition called the BIG (behaviour–impact gap) problem, which is an interesting addition to research in the field of environmental awareness gaps

Breaking Down the Chain: A Guide to the Soft Drink Industry

Provides an overview of the soft drink industry's earnings, structure, markets, and determinants of demand; major players; supply chain; marketing strategies; and policy and legislative actions in response to the sugar-sweetened beverage tax