Assessing Perceptions of the Integrative Justice Model Propositions: A Critical Step Toward Operationalizing a Macro Model

Propositions underlying the theoretical tenets of the Integrative Justice Model (IJM), a normative, ethical framework for engaging in impoverished markets, are investigated for reliability in application. Santos and Laczniak provide numerous decision principles to help the marketer to evaluate fairness in the marketplace exchange, yet which are most reflective of the core tenets and most useful in application? Managerial perceptions of the extent to which the propositions reflect the core tenets of the IJM are evaluated in this critical step toward operationalizing the model. Factor analysis is implemented with a relatively small sample, a challenge particularly common in research with the impoverished or marginalized, to evaluate the decision principles most reflective of the core tenets, from the perspective of the marketer/manager. Normality is not considered a critical assumption of factor analysis where groups of like variables are clustered into underlying constructs. This work articulates a critical step in macromarketing research methods, exemplifying an approach resilient to micro samples under macro frameworks

Fostering Fair and Sustainable Marketing for Social Entrepreneurs in the Context of Subsistence Marketplaces

In recent years, in-depth, on-the-ground research has generated many insights into the nature and functioning of subsistence marketplaces and the people who operate in them. Such knowledge is bound to be useful to various companies and organisations, as they seek to engage such marketplaces, particularly for marketing managers, who quite likely have not had education or experience in marketing in such impoverished settings. This paper complements these practical insights with a normative ethical framework, presented in the marketing literature and labelled the integrative justice model (IJM) for impoverished markets, so as to synthesise a new framework for fair and sustainable marketing for social entrepreneurs in the context of subsistence marketplaces

NUMERICAL AND LABORATORY STUDY OF SEISMIC WAVES PROPAGATION, TEMPERATURE EFFECTS AND FLUID FLOWS IN MULTILAYERED MEDIA

Steel production by continuous casting is nowadays the most efficient method and the one that yields the best quality semi-finished products. The types of steel that can be produced varies greatly depending on the composition of the mixtures, the casting powders used to prevent oxidation and reduce heat loss, the cooling rate, and many other factors. During continuous casting, heat from the molten steel must be removed in large quantities and quickly to allow the first layer of solid skin to be created, so the continuous casting moulds, i.e. large hollow tubes generally made of copper alloys, are immersed in a conveyor with a closed water circuit where water circulates at high speed and pressure. In addition to water, there are also other parameters that can be monitored to increase production quality, such as powder deposition on the casting bath and steel level control. It would be useful to have automatic systems capable of replacing manual human control, to avoid the hazardous situations obviously present in steel mills, but also to increase knowledge of the production process through the acquisition of reliable data. This research aims to experimentally explore the possibility of measuring the level of molten steel in the mould by making time-of-flight measurements in the wall of the ingot using ultrasonic transducers similar the ones used for non-destructive testing of materials. These time-of-flight measurements are then converted to temperature and determine a thermal profile along the mould wall, from which the steel level is derived using an ad-hoc constructed algorithm. The research activity was divided into the realization of a real-time hardware and software system that was eventually adopted in real production systems as well. To understand how to design an initial prototype and how to choose the key parameters of the measurement system, a numerical model was implemented to simulate Gaussian beams, which are used to approximate the propagation of ultrasonic beams in even heterogeneous media, as in this case. The results obtained, both from numerical simulations and laboratory tests, made it possible to implement a first measurement tool that adopted a technique already known in the literature but innovative in the sense of application to an industrial context such as continuous castingSteel production by continuous casting is nowadays the most efficient method and the one that yields the best quality semi-finished products. The types of steel that can be produced varies greatly depending on the composition of the mixtures, the casting powders used to prevent oxidation and reduce heat loss, the cooling rate, and many other factors. During continuous casting, heat from the molten steel must be removed in large quantities and quickly to allow the first layer of solid skin to be created, so the continuous casting moulds, i.e. large hollow tubes generally made of copper alloys, are immersed in a conveyor with a closed water circuit where water circulates at high speed and pressure. In addition to water, there are also other parameters that can be monitored to increase production quality, such as powder deposition on the casting bath and steel level control. It would be useful to have automatic systems capable of replacing manual human control, to avoid the hazardous situations obviously present in steel mills, but also to increase knowledge of the production process through the acquisition of reliable data. This research aims to experimentally explore the possibility of measuring the level of molten steel in the mould by making time-of-flight measurements in the wall of the ingot using ultrasonic transducers similar the ones used for non-destructive testing of materials. These time-of-flight measurements are then converted to temperature and determine a thermal profile along the mould wall, from which the steel level is derived using an ad-hoc constructed algorithm. The research activity was divided into the realization of a real-time hardware and software system that was eventually adopted in real production systems as well. To understand how to design an initial prototype and how to choose the key parameters of the measurement system, a numerical model was implemented to simulate Gaussian beams, which are used to approximate the propagation of ultrasonic beams in even heterogeneous media, as in this case. The results obtained, both from numerical simulations and laboratory tests, made it possible to implement a first measurement tool that adopted a technique already known in the literature but innovative in the sense of application to an industrial context such as continuous castin

Method development of a denuder based technique for the determination of the partitioning of nitrophenols

The formation of secondary organic matter (SOM), from the photooxidation of aromatic volatile organic compounds is currently quite poorly understood. One class of these secondary organic species are nitrophenols, which are formed in the atmosphere from the hydroxyl radical initiated photooxidation of aromatic hydrocarbons. Due to their semi-volatile nature, nitrophenols exist in the atmosphere in both the gas phase and in particulate matter (PM), which makes understanding their partitioning important in order to gain a better understanding of the formation, yields and processing of SOM. In this work, an application was developed for the IOGAPS (Integrated Organic Gas and Particle Sampler) system to determine concentration measurements for both gas phase and PM for a group of five nitrophenols in the atmosphere. These nitrophenols were found to exist predominately in the gas phase, with their partitioning between the two phases showing only slight dependences on ambient temperature and saturation vapor pressure

Middle Class Alterity: A Critical Discourse Analysis of National Economic Identity

Lacking concreteness and context, the use of the middle class in Canadian political discourse of recent years is simultaneously ambiguous and ubiquitous. What is meant by the middle class? Who is a member of this meta-material social stratification? Why is it so prominent in political rhetoric? And, what are the consequences of using the middle class as the primary identity guiding federal fiscal policy? With these questions in mind, this thesis explores the political discourse surrounding the usages of the middle class in an attempt to improve our understanding of how identity is operationalized discursively. Grounded in the theoretical work of Antonio Gramsci, it will be argued that discursively constructed identities, operationalized hegemonically through othering rhetoric, are used in politics to garner mass consent, frame individual/collective identity, and maintain structures of domination and oppression

The “Integrative Justice Model” as Transformative Justice for Base-of-the-Pyramid Marketing

Writing in Business and Politics, Santos and Laczniak (Business and Politics 14(1) 2012) formulated a normative, ethical approach to be followed when marketers e ngage impoverished market segments. It is labeled the integrative justice model (IJM). As noted below, that approach called for authentic engagement, co-creation, and customer interest representation, among other elements, when transacting with vulnerable market segments. Basically, the IJM derived certain operational virtues, implied by moral philosophy, to be used when marketing to the poor. But this well-intentioned approach raises a significant “So what?” question. Are such sentiments anything but lofty aspirations for idealists or are there steps to be taken by society and business managers of goodwill to make the adaptation of the IJM by corporations more likely and pragmatic? This paper begins to layout a roadmap that shows “how and why” the IJM might more likely be vitalized. The crux, as described below, is found in the transformational justice dimensions that are embedded in institutions (and supporting institutional arrangements); such external institutions provide a “power” impetus to assure the ethical rights claims that impoverished consumers have owed to them. In this way, the ideal exchange characteristics for bottom (or base) of the pyramid (BoP) markets argued for in the IJM can become actively transformational. The main contribution of this paper is that it begins to chart out the institutional system elements that need to exercise power in order to deliver a “fairer” marketplace for BoP consumers