The strategies that peanut and nut-allergic consumers employ to remain safe when travelling abroad

Copyright @ 2012 Barnett et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Background: An understanding of the management strategies used by food allergic individuals is needed as a prerequisite to improving avoidance and enhancing quality of life. Travel abroad is a high risk time for severe and fatal food allergic reactions, but there is paucity of research concerning foreign travel. This study is the first to investigate the experiences of, and strategies used by peanut and tree nut allergic individuals when travelling abroad. Methods: Thirty-two adults with a clinical history of reaction to peanuts or tree nuts consistent with IgE-mediated allergy participated in a qualitative interview study. Results: Travel abroad was considered difficult with inherent risks for allergic individuals. Many participants recounted difficulties with airlines or restaurants. Inconsistency in managing allergen avoidance by airlines was a particular risk and a cause of frustration to participants. Individuals used a variety of strategies to remain safe including visiting familiar environments, limiting their activities, carrying allergy information cards in the host language, preparing their own food and staying close to medical facilities. Conclusions: Participants used a variety of allergen avoidance strategies, which were mostly extensions or modifications of the strategies that they use when eating at home or eating-out in the UK. The extended strategies reflected their recognition of enhanced risk during travel abroad. Their risk assessments and actions were generally well informed and appropriate. A need for airline policy regarding allergy to be declared and adhered to is needed, as is more research to quantify the true risks of airborne allergens in the cabin. Recommendations arising from our study are presented.This study is funded by the UK Food Standards Agency under project code T07058

Determinants of information behaviour and information literacy related to healthy eating among Internet users in five European countries

Introduction. This study investigates how Europeans seek information related to healthy eating, what determines their information seeking and whether any problems are encountered in doing so. Method. A survey was administered through computer-assisted on-line web-interviewing. Respondents were grouped by age and sex (n=3003, age + 16) in Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Poland, and the UK. Analysis. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were used to analyse the influence of social, demographic, psychological and economic characteristics on the information seeking of the respondents. Results. Nearly half of those surveyed do not know where to look for information on healthy diets. Men, less well educated, poorer and sicker person know less about where to look for such information and are less likely to attempt finding it. Most of the respondents searching for information on the Internet use Google as a search tool. Conclusions. Individual and environmental factors affect information behaviour and should be taken into account in public campaigns aimed at changing eating habits of the population to increase their effectiveness. More emphasis should be placed on raising health information literacy of the information-poor, men, the uneducated, and the economically disadvantaged

FACTORS ANALYSIS OF FAILURE IN ONLINE BUSINESS ON BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION STUDENTS

The study aims to determine the factors that influenced the failure of online businesses run by Business Administration students from the class of 2017-2018, along with the most dominant element that caused the business to take a knock. The research was done using the descriptive qualitative method. The data collection process was in the form of in-depth observation and interviews with 12 sources who had failed to do business online. The data analysis technique used in this study is the Miles and Huberman model. The result shows that 14 factors caused the failure of online businesses run by Business Administration students from the class of 2017-2018, which are managerial incompetence, the lack of experience and skill, financial problems, business planning, wrong target market, business transition, inability to control stock, uncontrolled growth, location, marketing management, high product cost, poor management, consistency, and time management. The most dominant ones were business planning, managerial incompetence, and lack of experience and skill.The study aims to determine the factors that influenced the failure of online businesses run by Business Administration students from the class of 2017-2018, along with the most dominant element that caused the business to take a knock. The research was done using the descriptive qualitative method. The data collection process was in the form of in-depth observation and interviews with 12 sources who had failed to do business online. The data analysis technique used in this study is the Miles and Huberman model. The result shows that 14 factors caused the failure of online businesses run by Business Administration students from the class of 2017-2018, which are managerial incompetence, the lack of experience and skill, financial problems, business planning, wrong target market, business transition, inability to control stock, uncontrolled growth, location, marketing management, high product cost, poor management, consistency, and time management. The most dominant ones were business planning, managerial incompetence, and lack of experience and skill

Dr Google and the consumer: A qualitative study exploring the navigational needs and online health information-seeking behaviors of consumers with chronic health conditions

Background: The abundance of health information available online provides consumers with greater access to information pertinent to the management of health conditions. This is particularly important given an increasing drive for consumer-focused health care models globally, especially in the management of chronic health conditions, and in recognition of challenges faced by lay consumers with finding, understanding, and acting on health information sourced online. There is a paucity of literature exploring the navigational needs of consumers with regards to accessing online health information. Further, existing interventions appear to be didactic in nature, and it is unclear whether such interventions appeal to consumers’ needs. Objective: Our goal was to explore the navigational needs of consumers with chronic health conditions in finding online health information within the broader context of consumers’ online health information-seeking behaviors. Potential barriers to online navigation were also identified. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with adult consumers who reported using the Internet for health information and had at least one chronic health condition. Participants were recruited from nine metropolitan community pharmacies within Western Australia, as well as through various media channels. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and then imported into QSR NVivo 10. Two established approaches to thematic analysis were adopted. First, a data-driven approach was used to minimize potential bias in analysis and improve construct and criterion validity. A theory-driven approach was subsequently used to confirm themes identified by the former approach and to ensure identified themes were relevant to the objectives. Two levels of analysis were conducted for both data-driven and theory-driven approaches: manifest-level analysis, whereby face-value themes were identified, and latent-level analysis, whereby underlying concepts were identified. Results: We conducted 17 interviews, with data saturation achieved by the 14th interview. While we identified a broad range of online health information-seeking behaviors, most related to information discussed during consumer-health professional consultations such as looking for information about medication side effects. The barriers we identified included intrinsic barriers, such as limited eHealth literacy, and extrinsic barriers, such as the inconsistency of information between different online sources. The navigational needs of our participants were extrinsic in nature and included health professionals directing consumers to appropriate online resources and better filtering of online health information. Our participants’ online health information-seeking behaviors, reported barriers, and navigational needs were underpinned by the themes of trust, patient activation, and relevance. Conclusions: This study suggests that existing interventions aimed to assist consumers with navigating online health information may not be what consumers want or perceive they need. eHealth literacy and patient activation appear to be prevalent concepts in the context of consumers’ online health information-seeking behaviors. Furthermore, the role for health professionals in guiding consumers to quality online health information is highlighted

Six emerging trends in media and communications - occasional paper

This paper examines six emerging trends in media and communications, which highlight that consumers are increasingly using personalised access pathways to communications and content services that cut across different networks, devices and services. Introduction The ACMA monitors industry and consumer data to identify changes in the media and communications environment and their impact on regulatory settings. Previous ACMA research, such as Broken concepts1 and the Emerging issues2 series of papers, has identified areas of regulatory strain resulting from changes in this environment. The ACMA’s 2014 data collection program highlighted six further trends that are of particular interest as they indicate challenges to the regulatory frameworks within which the ACMA works. These trends illustrate how developments in communications device technologies and over-the-top (OTT) services and content offer both: new opportunities for businesses and individuals as consumers and citizens potential challenges to confident and optimal use of these new services. The evolving media and communications environment offers new ways to understand and achieve policy objectives, and may expose alternatives to ’black-letter’ regulation. However, changes in media and communications can also strain the effectiveness and efficiency of existing regulatory settings designed in an environment where content and communication services have been delivered by network owners over dedicated networks and devices. The selected trends highlight that consumers are increasingly using personalised access pathways to communications and content services that cut across different networks, devices and services. This paper looks at the implications of these six trends for existing regulatory settings

Alter ego, state of the art on user profiling: an overview of the most relevant organisational and behavioural aspects regarding User Profiling.

This report gives an overview of the most relevant organisational and\ud behavioural aspects regarding user profiling. It discusses not only the\ud most important aims of user profiling from both an organisation’s as\ud well as a user’s perspective, it will also discuss organisational motives\ud and barriers for user profiling and the most important conditions for\ud the success of user profiling. Finally recommendations are made and\ud suggestions for further research are given

Consumer judgment and forecasting using online word-of-mouth

Empowered by information technology, modern consumers increasingly rely upon online word-of-mouth (WOM--e.g., product reviews) to guide their purchase decisions. This dissertation investigates how WOM information is processed by consumers and its downstream consequences. First, the value of specific types of word-of-mouth information (e.g., numeric ratings, text commentary, or both) was explored for making forecast. After proposing an anchoring-and-adjustment framework for the utilization of WOM to inform consumer forecasts, I support this framework with a series of experiments. Results demonstrate that the relative forecasting advantage of different information types is a function of the extent to which consumer and reviewer have similar product-level preferences ('source-receiver similarity'). Second, I investigate the process by which dispersion--the degree to which opinions are divided for a product or service--in WOM is interpreted. Using an attribution-based approach, I argue that the effect of WOM dispersion is dependent on the perceived cause of that dispersion, which is systematically related to perceptions of preference heterogeneity in a product category. For products for which preferences are expected to vary, dispersion is likely to be attributed to the reviewers rather than the product itself, and therefore tolerated. I provide evidence for my hypotheses in a series of experiments where WOM dispersion is manipulated and respondents make choices and indicate purchase intentions.PhDCommittee Chair: Bond, Samuel D.; Committee Member: Feldman, Jack M.; Committee Member: Hamilton, Ryan; Committee Member: Lurie, Nicholas H.; Committee Member: Van Ittersum, Koer

Measurement in marketing

We distinguish three senses of the concept of measurement (measurement as the selection of observable indicators of theoretical concepts, measurement as the collection of data from respondents, and measurement as the formulation of measurement models linking observable indicators to latent factors representing the theoretical concepts), and we review important issues related to measurement in each of these senses. With regard to measurement in the first sense, we distinguish the steps of construct definition and item generation, and we review scale development efforts reported in three major marketing journals since 2000 to illustrate these steps and derive practical guidelines. With regard to measurement in the second sense, we look at the survey process from the respondent's perspective and discuss the goals that may guide participants' behavior during a survey, the cognitive resources that respondents devote to answering survey questions, and the problems that may occur at the various steps of the survey process. Finally, with regard to measurement in the third sense, we cover both reflective and formative measurement models, and we explain how researchers can assess the quality of measurement in both types of measurement models and how they can ascertain the comparability of measurements across different populations of respondents or conditions of measurement. We also provide a detailed empirical example of measurement analysis for reflective measurement models

Compliance advisory service feasibility study

This report identifies areas or methods of regulatory compliance information and advice to SMEs in the region that are inadequate or deficient. It recommends additional services that will benefit SMEs in the region taking into account the business support simplification agenda, state aid, legal liability, environmental and equality issues