37,892 research outputs found

    The psychometric properties of a shortened Dutch version of the consequences scale used in the core alcohol and drug survey

    Get PDF
    <div><p>Background</p><p>Alcohol and drug misuse among college students has been studied extensively and has been clearly identified as a public health problem. Within more general populations alcohol misuse remains one of the leading causes of disease, disability and death worldwide. Conducting research on alcohol misuse requires valid and reliable instruments to measure its consequences. One scale that is often used is the consequences scale in the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey (CADS). However, psychometric studies on the CADS are rare and the ones that do exist report varying results. This article aims to address this imbalance by examining the psychometric properties of a Dutch version of the CADS in a large sample of Flemish university and college students.</p><p>Methods</p><p>The analyses are based on data collected by the inter-university project ‘Head in the clouds’, measuring alcohol use among students. In total, 19,253 students participated (22.1% response rate). The CADS scale was measured using 19 consequences, and participants were asked how often they had experienced these on a 6-point scale. Firstly, the factor structure of the CADS was examined. Two models from literature were compared by performing confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and were adapted if necessary. Secondly, we assessed the composite reliability as well as the convergent, discriminant and concurrent validity.</p><p>Results</p><p>The two-factor model, identifying personal consequences (had a hangover; got nauseated or vomited; missed a class) and social consequences (got into an argument or fight; been criticized by someone I know; done something I later regretted; been hurt or injured) was indicated to be the best model, having both a good model fit and an acceptable composite reliability. In addition, construct validity was evaluated to be acceptable, with good discriminant validity, although the convergent validity of the factor measuring ‘social consequences’ could be improved. Concurrent validity was evaluated as good.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>In deciding which model best represents the data, it is crucial that not only the model fit is evaluated, but the importance of factor reliability and validity issues is also taken into account. The two-factor model, identifying personal consequences and social consequences, was concluded to be the best model. This shortened Dutch version of the CADS (CADS_D) is a useful tool to screen alcohol-related consequences among college students.</p></div

    Critical review of the e-loyalty literature: a purchase-centred framework

    Get PDF
    Over the last few years, the concept of online loyalty has been examined extensively in the literature, and it remains a topic of constant inquiry for both academics and marketing managers. The tremendous development of the Internet for both marketing and e-commerce settings, in conjunction with the growing desire of consumers to purchase online, has promoted two main outcomes: (a) increasing numbers of Business-to-Customer companies running businesses online and (b) the development of a variety of different e-loyalty research models. However, current research lacks a systematic review of the literature that provides a general conceptual framework on e-loyalty, which would help managers to understand their customers better, to take advantage of industry-related factors, and to improve their service quality. The present study is an attempt to critically synthesize results from multiple empirical studies on e-loyalty. Our findings illustrate that 62 instruments for measuring e-loyalty are currently in use, influenced predominantly by Zeithaml et al. (J Marketing. 1996;60(2):31-46) and Oliver (1997; Satisfaction: a behavioral perspective on the consumer. New York: McGraw Hill). Additionally, we propose a new general conceptual framework, which leads to antecedents dividing e-loyalty on the basis of the action of purchase into pre-purchase, during-purchase and after-purchase factors. To conclude, a number of managerial implementations are suggested in order to help marketing managers increase their customers’ e-loyalty by making crucial changes in each purchase stage

    Measuring transparency in public spending: Case of Czech Public e-Procurement Information System

    Get PDF
    The objective of this paper is to analyze the potential of e-Government tools to enable the general public to oversee spending of public institutions. The paper illustrates the “watchdog” potential of reducing corruption by means of providing information to the public on the example of the Czech Public e-Procurement Information System (further called System). The System is an Internet portal, where public authorities announce their intention to purchase goods and services. Such announcements are monitored by private entities that can compete for the respective public contract. For our paper we used a web robot to collect data about public procurements from the System and utilized them for construction of an original Transparency Index, which rates institutions that award public contracts (so called contracting authorities). The composite Index is constructed as a weighted sum of ten various transparency indicators, computed separately for each contracting authority. This Index could serve as an efficient benchmark for continuous control and comparison of public institutions in the area of public procurement and demonstrates how an e-Government tool can contribute to greater openness and accountability of these public institutions and to enhancement of the civic engagement in the control of governmental activities. The results of our research suggest that although the System is good step forward, its current structure does not enable the public to effectively exercise public control over procurements spending of contracting authorities, because of serious difficulties related to viewing (and extraction) of aggregate data. On the other hand, on example of our Transparency Index, we demonstrate that if the System allowed for easier access to data on public procurements, it would serve as an efficient tool of public control and facilitate open government initiatives.public procurement, Transparency Index, efficient public control, open government, corruption

    Measuring human and Sustainable Development: An Integrated Approach for European Countries

    Get PDF
    During the last few years, sustainable development has represented one of the most important policy goals at global level and how to design specific policy actions, measuring performance and results continues to present a challenge. Scientific research has explored different analysis directions in order to identify a synthetic indicator to evaluate policy planning and achievements that goes beyond traditional income indicators such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In consideration of the social dimension of sustainable development, including health, education and employment, the Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations Development Programme represents a widely accepted methodology to be used as a starting point for building a more sustainable-oriented development index. The aim of this paper is to identify a numerical measure of what Amartya Sen defined as “sustainable human development” using a human development framework and adapt it taking into account more specific environmental aspects. For this purpose, building a complex Sustainable Human Development Index (SHDI) may be a difficult task because of data availability and the European countries – especially the European Union - could be a useful pilot area for testing the methodology. The most recent efforts of the EU to standardize statistical information at country level enable us to build more complex indicators, including those with economic, social and environmental dimensions. Long-term sustainability requires the maintenance of capital stock to guarantee constant or growing welfare levels. In a human development perspective, the sustainability condition has been directly analysed on the well-being side, assuming that a constant or growing SHDI could be the result of constant growing capital assets. An SHDI represents the core element of a comparative analysis to assess the effectiveness and the distributional effects of European policies, including environmental actions. Finally, a sensitivity analysis of the results will enable us to underline the key factors of effective sustainable human development and, at the same time test the real meaning of such a modified composite index compared with the existing GDP and HDI.human development, sustainable development, sustainability indicators

    Correlating densities of centrality and activities in cities : the cases of Bologna (IT) and Barcelona (ES)

    Get PDF
    This paper examines the relationship between street centrality and densities of commercial and service activities in cities. The aim is to verify whether a correlation exists and whether some 'secondary' activities, i.e. those scarcely specialized oriented to the general public and ordinary daily life, are more linked to street centrality than others. The metropolitan area of Barcelona (Spain) is investigated, and results are compared with those found in a previous work on the city of Bologna (Italy). Street centrality is calibrated in a multiple centrality assessment (MCA) model composed of multiple measures such as closeness, betweenness and straightness. Kernel density estimation (KDE) is used to transform data sets of centrality and activities to one scale unit for correlation analysis between them. Results indicate that retail and service activities in both Bologna and Barcelona tend to concentrate in areas with better centralities, and that secondary activities exhibit a higher correlation

    WEIGHTING DIMENSIONS OF POVERTY BASED ON PEOPLES PRIORITIES: Constructing a Composite Poverty Index for the Maldives

    Get PDF
    We work with a panel of bilateral trade flows from 1988 to 2002, exploring the influence of infrastructure, institutional quality, colonial and geographic context, and trade preferences on the pattern of bilateral trade. We are interested in threshold effects, and so emphasize those cases where bilateral country pairs do not actually trade. We depart from the institutions and infrastructure literature in this respect, using Heckman selection model-based gravity estimators of trade flows. We also depart from this literature by mixing principal components (to condense our institutional and infrastructure measures) with a focus on deviations from expected values for given income cohorts to control for multicollinearity. Infrastructure, and institutional quality, are significant determinants not only of export levels, but also of the likelihood exports will take place at all. Our results support the notion that export performance, and the propensity to take part in the trading system at all, depends on institutional quality and access to well developed transport and communications infrastructure. Indeed, this dependence is far more important, empirically, than variations in tariffs in explaining sample variations in North-South trade. This implies that policy emphasis on developing country market access, instead of support for trade facilitation, may be misplaced.poverty measures, living standard dimensions, aggregation, composite index, Maldives
    • 

    corecore