Social marketing ethics: report prepared for the National Social Marketing Centre

This report has been developed by Professor Lynn Eagle from the Bristol Social Marketing Centre, Bristol Business School University of West of England with contributions fromstaff at the National Social Marketing Centre

Impact of integrated sustainability content into undergraduate business education

Purpose: This paper aims to compare the findings from a survey of a cohort of students at an Australian regional university across two time points: immediately on commencing their first semester of study and at the end of their final semester of study to determine whether, and in what ways, these students’ views concerning sustainability appear to have changed. This paper reports on a longitudinal study of the attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of undergraduate business students regarding a range of sustainability issues. Design/methodology/approach: A paper-based questionnaire was delivered to approximately 250 first year and 150 third year students. Findings: A factor analysis shows small but statistically different positive differences, which indicate that the revised curriculum has been successful in raising student awareness and achieving behaviour change. Research limitations/implications: The study focussed on Australian undergraduate university business students, which reduced generalizability of the findings. Practical implications: The findings of this study can inform instructors in higher education of student attitudes towards sustainability and climate change adaption and in turn inform changes to tertiary curriculum in sustainability and climate change adaption. Originality/value: The authors confirm that the research is original and that all of the data provided in this paper is real and authentic. As the paper reports on the third phase of the longitudinal study, some parts of the methodology have been previously published but differ as they reflect the third phase of the study. The results of this study have not been previously published

Are the sustainability-oriented skills and competencies of business graduates meeting or missing employers needs? Perspectives of regional employers

In the Anthropocene, universities play a role in developing students’ sustainability literacy and capacity to solve socio-ecological challenges. The objective of this study is to identify the generic and sustainability-oriented skills and competencies required of business graduates by regional employers. The regional focus meets a gap in the literature. An online survey of employers in North Queensland found that they attach importance to a wide range of skills and competencies and see sustainability as a key factor in future business success. Yet, there are contradictions in terms of their support for sustainability in the curriculum and business practices, particularly when it comes to the recruitment and selection process. Furthermore, contradictions exist between the university’s adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the weak interest displayed by prospective employers in graduates’ sustainability literacy. This study has important implications for regional universities. A reframing of the role of sustainability education in the curriculum is warranted, where a deeper connection is made between sustainability education and the values employers already hold. Recommendations for curriculum designers are made on how to foster and assess the competencies that business graduates need to meet the demands of regional business upon entering the labour market

Land managers decision making about water quality: views from extension officers of the Wet Tropics, Queensland, Australia

This report delivers results from the second round of data collection via an abridged survey based on the first round data collection, the land manager survey, which was originally delivered in the Wet Tropics region in 2016. The abridged survey was delivered in 2017 as second round data collection, at the request of the Natural Resource Management (NRM) agency, to extension officers and to land managers in the Wet Tropics region of Queensland, Australia (See Section 2.1). Due to the small sample size the analysis is primarily descriptive and compares responses from extension officers in 2017 to responses from land managers in 2016. The 2017 second round land manager survey data was not used as it incorrectly reports on irrigation practices, which are not used in the wet tropics, and not on nutrient or drain management practices. The report also provides recommendations for key stakeholders regarding possible actions that should be considered in future interactions between extension officers and land managers in the Wet Tropics and other cane growing regions. The final version of the abridged questionnaire is included as Appendix 1. The extension officers involved in the survey were from six of the nine river catchment areas of the Wet Tropics cane growing region (see Section 3.1.1). The experience of extension officers vary from 1-3 years to 35+ years in the industry. Insights from the analysis follow, along with a brief recommendation, which outlines strategies that can be used to fine-tune existing landholder interactions. Further explanation of the recommendations can be found in Section 8.0. Decision Making Influencers The data identifies that extension officers may be underestimating the importance of land manager decision influencers (e.g. protecting the Great Barrier Reef, family and servicing debt., see Section 6.2), which may lead to distrust or lack of respect for the extension officer. Misunderstanding the importance of decision influencers may change the way messages are sent and received, which can significantly affect the way that messages about water quality are processed and how they influence behaviour change. Recommendation: Use social network analysis to identify information gatekeepers and opinion leaders. Grants and Funding How extension officers perceive success and or failure in grant applications may present barriers or enablers for land managers who apply for grants or funding. If the land manager via the extension officer perceives a threat of not receiving a grant, then the land manager may not take the time to apply for any grants that are available and if they do apply, their application may be inhibited by the extension officers perceived rate of success i.e. they may not put as much effort into the grant application if they perceive it will not be successful. Recommendation: • Recognise the key role of extension officers and determine what professional development support might be beneficial in continuing to build trust and engagement with land managers. Workshops, Training Programs and Other Activities Extension officers responded that land managers sought information about workshops, training programs and other activities from their industry extension networks, industry bodies and friends and personal networks. At the time of the survey, the workshops, training and activities were important to improving land and soil management practices to raise awareness of water quality issues as well as accreditation and networking. Extension officers thought that land managers found all workshops useful, but in particular Six Easy Steps, soil health workshops and SRA Masterclasses were identified as most valuable. Extension officers indicated that holding workshops, training and other activities outside of the harvest season, targeting skills deficiency and better coordinated systems would make the activities work better for land managers. Extension officers responded that nutrient management, soil chemistry, more involvement with extension officers and strategic coordinated extension programs with assistance from the DEHP would help in future to assist land managers to make farm improvements. Recommendations: • Recognise land manager diversity but use typology principles to develop material and communication approaches to support extension officers • Build on the role of farmers whose views are respected as potential information gatekeepers/disseminators /role models. Nutrient Management Practices There are some disparities between extension officers and land managers thoughts on how land managers make decisions about nutrient management practices. When calculating fertilizer application rates, land managers rated tailoring their own fertilizer rates higher than using industry standards, while extension officers rated that they thought land managers used rated using industry standards higher than tailoring their own fertilizer rates. Both land managers and extension officers identified that land managers also use their advisors to calculate fertilizer application rates. This finding indicates with some confidence that land managers are calculating fertilizer rates using industry standards. However, extension officer’s anecdotal comments indicate that land managers may think they are using the industry standard (Six Easy Steps) but are incorrectly applying the standard and therefore may not be meeting the industry standard. This may be because land managers in addition to using best management practice are also calculating fertilizer rates based on experience, alternative methods, based on soil tests and by seeking advice from local private agronomists. The majority of farmers are using these tools to calculate fertilizer rates because their peers are also using these tools. Run-Off Management Practices In most cases extension officers indicated that land managers in the wet tropics do not capture run-off from their farms. However, when land managers do capture runoff, extension officers responded that they use grass headlands, drain systems, laser leveling and sediment traps or recycle pits. In 2016, 42% of land managers selected that they had recycle pits/sediment traps to manage run-off, whereas in this 2017 survey, only 15.8% of extension officers selected that land managers use sediment traps. Extension officers support this with anecdotal comments that there is a limited use of sediment traps in the Wet Tropics Region (see Table 25). Land managers are influenced by other farmers when using the systems that they choose to handle runoff. Extension officers are not sure if land managers in the Wet Tropics can afford to use the practices available for handling runoff, but were confident that they had the technical knowledge to handle run-off. Extension officers and land managers nominated industry extension advisors as people whose advice land mangers most frequently follow when handling run-off. The least important advisors for capturing run-off identified by extension officers were regional cane associations and Landcare. Other Innovative Practices Extension officers have identified that land managers are using other innovative practices including bed renovators, contour planting, experiments with flocculants (a particle clumping substance), grassed headlands and riparian vegetation, wet land bioreactors (a natural water purification process), sediment traps, minimum tillage, wetlands, spoon drains, subsurface fertilizer application, headland management, correct drainage, trash blanketing and spraying out and covering fallowed fields. One extension officer stated that “the innovation is about minimising the amount of sediment, DIN and chemicals, which is about placement, timing, farming systems; there are plans to intercept groundwater DIN using filters” as a solution to reducing runoff. Perceptions of Causes and Pressure on Water Quality Extension officers agreed (84.2%) that nutrient losses from cane growing are having an effect on the water quality of local streams, rivers and waterways and land managers (42%) disagreed, responding that cane growing has no effect on the water quality of local streams, rivers and waterways. By Contrast, while 30% of land managers believe that their activities are negatively affecting water quality, none of the extension officers believe that land managers take this view. About 13% of land managers were unsure and 15% took a neutral stance about nutrient losses affecting water quality and a small percent of extension officers nominated that they didn’t know if cane farming has an impact on water quality. Recommendations: • Ensure all communication, by whatever means, sends consistent messages irrespective of source, and channelling communication through trusted sources. Monitor media coverage and respond to inaccurate messages and develop proactive media relationships. • Review communication strategies, adding social media where appropriate. Need to recognise the overall diversity of information sources and preferences. • Proactive plans should be developed for combating or at least minimising the effects of competing and conflicting messages including negative media coverage (see Eagle et al., 2016, Section 2.7). We have reviewed media coverage of the Great Barrier Reef during 2016 (excluding tourism-related coverage). The findings indicate that the media presents a sensationalised and, at times, hostile perspective on reef-related issues (Eagle, Hay, & Low, 2018), although there is evidence that this is improving in the 2017 media analysis that is under way. A more detailed analysis is contained in the following sections of this report

Findings from a longitudinal study of farmer decision influencers for Best Management Practices, Queensland, Australia

This is the final report for this project – Harnessing the science of social marketing and behaviour change for improved water quality in the GBR: An action research project. It provides an analysis and comparison of data collected from land managers in the Burdekin (two data collection points) and Wet Tropics (WT) (three data collection points) regions. It also provides a number of specific recommendations for key stakeholders regarding possible actions that should be considered in future interactions with land managers

Harnessing the Science of Social Marketing and Behaviour Change for Improved Water Quality in the GBR: a documentary analysis of Reef Trust Tender (Burdekin) and Reef Programme

The intention of the documentary analysis is to assess the way that messages to land managers about water quality in the Great Barrier Reef are presented in terms of their readability, message framing and message tone. Two programmes were selected: (1) the Reef Programme; and (2) the Reef Trust Tender (Burdekin). The programmes selected for evaluation had been marketed within both the wet and the dry tropics, and they had been designed for both graziers and cane farmers. The readability analysis has shown all three programmes to be written at a similar level well above the recommended reading level of grade / year 9. The documents associated with the Reef Programme (Burdekin), with a SMOG score of 13, were slightly more readable than documents associated with the Reef Trust Tender (Wet Tropics) (17) or the Reef Programme (Burdekin) (18)

Sustainability in the Business & Marketing Curriculum: : Exploratory Study

Ariadni Kapetanaki, Ross Brennan, and Lynne Eagle, ‘Sustainability in the Business & Marketing Curriculum: Exploratory Study'. Paper presented at the 50th Academy of Marketing Conference, Freedom Through Marketing: Looking Back, Going Forward, 3-6 July 2017, Hull University Business School, Hull, UK.The first sentence of the call for papers for the Academy of Marketing Conference 2017 asserts that marketing is increasingly seen as a force for good, particularly in connection with building awareness of environmental issues and sustainability. In this paper we focus on the education of business students, and particularly marketing students, in issues to do with sustainability. The primary purpose of this paper is to report on an empirical investigation of the beliefs and perceptions of our own students with respect to sustainability. This investigation is planned to be a benchmark study, so that we can track changes in students’ beliefs and perceptions as sustainability issues are further embedded within the curriculum. While environmental sustainability has been a matter of widespread interest and concern for many years, the 2015 Paris Agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) can be regarded as the most significant development in recent history. In October 2016 the Paris agreement achieved entry into force, having been ratified by 109 of the 197 Parties to the Convention. The central aim of the Paris Agreement is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change; the goal is to restrict global temperature rise to no more than 2 degrees Celsius this century, while making efforts to restrict global temperature rise to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (UN, 2015). Given the prominence received by sustainability at the political level, it is not surprising that business schools are being encouraged to include it explicitly within the curriculum. Business school accrediting bodies mandate the inclusion of sustainability in the business curriculum (see appendix for extracts from accrediting body requirements).Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Social marketing-based strategy for obesity interventions

Terms of reference for this projectWe were requested by Dr Julia Verne to provide a literature-based, judgement-based (i.e. no new primary research) draft social marketing strategy for addressing the rising rates of obesity within the South West region. Public health professionals should note that the strategy in this document emphasises how marketing techniques can be used for preventative approaches aimed at the general population. Curative approaches for the morbidly obese with acute health problems are outside our terms of reference

Winds of change: a study of the acceptability of renewable energy in regional Australia

Electricity is predominantly generated from fossil fuels in Australia, but concerns about climate change are driving a debate on how to bring about a transition to renewable energy (RE. Widespread public support is needed when developing large-scale energy infrastructures, such as wind farms, but the drivers of social acceptance have not received adequate attention

Key determinants of pro-environmental behaviour of land managers in the agricultural sector: literature review

This report is associated with NESP Tropical Water Quality Hub Project 2.1.3 Harnessing the science of social marketing and behaviour change for improved water quality in the GBR: an action research project. Using insights from the science of social marketing and behaviour change this project aims to aid strategies to: • implement (and test the efficacy of) changes to the marketing and engagement strategy associated with programmes designed to be rolled out under the Reef 2050 Plan • change key behaviours, particularly amongst those who have not previously engaged, to improve water quality (WQ). This document provides an extensive review of the existing literature that relates to proenvironmental behaviour, behaviour change and determinants of pro-environmental behaviour in agricultural settings. There is a specific focus on key determinants of behaviour particularly within the Theory of Planned Behaviour (ToPB) (Section 2.3). It is intended to be read as a supplement to the full Literature Review released prior to the commencement of the first round of data collection (Eagle et al., 2016). The literature review indicated that: • most research in the agricultural sector is about general attitudes towards the environment, best land management practices and perceptions of barriers and enablers to change in land management • there is a need to distinguish between descriptive and injunctive social norms1 which has not been done in agricultural behaviour studies • there is widespread recognition of the various inter-related factors influencing proenvironmental behaviour and affecting adoption of best land management practices • most research assumes a direct relationship between background factors and behaviour but the decision making is more complex • the determinants of behaviour are different depending on theoretical and econometric approaches • there is limited understanding of the relative importance and inter-relations between these factors, particularly for different segments of land managers • appropriate analytical methods and techniques such as structural equation modelling (SEM) or similar are required to analyse such complex relationships between behaviour, intentions, attitudes, norms and other factors • because of the interactive nature of the factors that influence ‘behaviours’ and behaviours related to water quality, there is a possibility (in the future) of creating some kind of pro-water-quality ‘index’ for analysis in the Structural Equation model in addition to individual behaviours which are often measured by binary responses (yes/no) or categorical responses. This is beyond the scope of the existing project. The ToPB has been used for guidance for the development of the surveys used with both cane growers and graziers