Design from Discard: A method to reduce uncertainty in upcycling practice

Upcycling is a suitable option for municipal solid waste recovery, especially, in the unorganized waste management scenario(s), where conventional waste recovery options are not efficient. Unlike standardized industrial manufacturing, upcycling is highly dependent on the quantity and quality of discards, and the involved stakeholders. Novel designs are required to suit varying considerations of every new upcycling set-up, and practitioners face uncertainty to parallel handle the variety and develop a design solution. A very few available design education based methods involve and guide design practitioners to handle the challenges in their case-based upcycling practice. However, these research studies are the first attempts to practice upcycling in an academic environment, and the results were limited to concepts and prototypes. This work categorically identifies the vital requirements regarding discard and stakeholders, discuss the theoretical foundation to handle the variety, and develop a practice-based design education method for upcycling practice. We propose a method - Design from Discard, to facilitate the participants to study the characteristics of discards, conceptualize a design as per the identified stakeholder(s), and accordingly develop upcycled designs. The method is explaining with an illustrative case where the design practitioner(s) conceive a new design from contextually discarded metalized film packaging. Finally, findings and research directions are addressed to bring new insights to the effective application of the proposed method as per diverse upcycling requirements

Sleepless due to social media? Investigating problematic sleep due to social media and social media sleep hygiene

Emergent research suggests that “fear of missing out” (FoMO)-driven nocturnal use of social media may result in sleep disturbances and adversely influence quality of sleep. Previous research in this area primarily focused on adolescents. Therefore, knowledge of these occurrences in young adults is limited. This study addresses this knowledge gap by investigating the associations of FoMO, psychological well-being (anxiety, depression), compulsive social media use (CSMU), and sleep hygiene (habits that promote/inhibit sleep) with problematic sleep adults in both academic and employment settings. Cross-sectional surveys were conducted to collect data from two cohorts including (i) full-time students (N = 1398), and (ii) full-time working professionals (N = 472). Data were analyzed with structural equation modeling. The results indicated that psychological well-being influences CSMU, which in concurrence with sleep habits, influences the association between FoMO and problematic sleep. Significant differences existed in the strength of the association between CSMU and FoMO between the two cohorts. Interestingly, FoMO is more strongly associated with CSMU among working professionals. This study provides novel insights into the differential effects of CSMU and FoMO on sleep behaviors in young adult students versus working professionals.publishedVersio

Sleepless due to social media? Investigating problematic sleep due to social media and social media sleep hygiene

Emergent research suggests that “fear of missing out” (FoMO)-driven nocturnal use of social media may result in sleep disturbances and adversely influence quality of sleep. Previous research in this area primarily focused on adolescents. Therefore, knowledge of these occurrences in young adults is limited. This study addresses this knowledge gap by investigating the associations of FoMO, psychological well-being (anxiety, depression), compulsive social media use (CSMU), and sleep hygiene (habits that promote/inhibit sleep) with problematic sleep adults in both academic and employment settings. Cross-sectional surveys were conducted to collect data from two cohorts including (i) full-time students (N = 1398), and (ii) full-time working professionals (N = 472). Data were analyzed with structural equation modeling. The results indicated that psychological well-being influences CSMU, which in concurrence with sleep habits, influences the association between FoMO and problematic sleep. Significant differences existed in the strength of the association between CSMU and FoMO between the two cohorts. Interestingly, FoMO is more strongly associated with CSMU among working professionals. This study provides novel insights into the differential effects of CSMU and FoMO on sleep behaviors in young adult students versus working professionals.publishedVersio

Social media users’ online subjective well-being and fatigue: A network heterogeneity perspective

Scholars have drawn increasing attention to the implications of the dark side of social media for users’ online subjective well-being (OSWB). We develop a research framework based on the limited-capacity model to examine the relationship between OSWB and social media fatigue. Moreover, we explore the associations between specific aspects related to network heterogeneity and social media fatigue for social media users in the United States of America (USA). Further, we examine the mediating effect of network heterogeneity on the association between OSWB and social media fatigue. We utilised a cross-sectional research design to collect data from Prolific Academic (N = 320) and analysed the data through structural equation modelling. The results indicate that OSWB is positively correlated with the network heterogeneity aspect of self-disclosure and negatively correlated with social comparison. OSWB, moreover, is negatively correlated with fatigue, while privacy concerns and self-disclosure are positively correlated with fatigue. Further, of the network heterogeneity aspects we considered, only social comparison is a partial mediator for the relationship between OSWB and social media fatigue. The findings provide insights into the pathways through which social media users’ OSWB and network heterogeneity can induce social media fatigue, raising critical implications for theory and practice.publishedVersio

Behavioral reasoning perspectives on organic food purchase

Consumers' rising interest in organic food has drawn the attention of the academic community. The literature on the topic is growing, but it mostly focuses either on the acceptance of or resistance toward organic food. However, marketing scholars argue that the development of more in-depth insights into consumers' reasoning processes, and especially the roles of values and context-specific reasons are needed. The present study bridges this gap by utilizing the novel behavioral reasoning theory (BRT) framework. Cross-sectional data from 307 consumers and non-consumers from India were collected to investigate associations among attitudes, reasoning, value, and purchase intentions. This research studies the moderating role of food safety concerns and buying involvement. Additionally, the mediating role of reasons and attitudes is examined. The results suggest that value was positively associated with reasons (for and against), whereas attitude and reasons (for) resulted in favorable purchase intentions. Reasons (for and against) fully mediate the association between value and attitude. Furthermore, attitude partially mediates the association of reasons and purchase intentions. The moderation effect was not found for food safety concerns, but a limited effect among studied associations was observed for buying involvement. The findings raise significant implications for marketers and policymakers.Peer reviewe

Social media induced fear of missing out (FoMO) and phubbing: Behavioural, relational and psychological outcomes

The penetration of smartphones and the subsequent social media use in modern workplaces have drawn scholars’ attention towards studying their influence on employees. This is a nascent yet critical field of study because initial inquiries have confirmed the significant adverse implications of smartphone and social media use for employee well-being and productivity. Acknowledging the need to better explicate the consequences of the so-called ‘dark side’ of social media use at work, we examine the association of FoMO and phubbing with both psychological (i.e. work exhaustion and creativity) and relational (i.e. workplace incivility) employee outcomes. We tested our proposed hypotheses, which rest on the theoretical tripod of the theory of compensatory Internet use, the limited capacity model and regulatory focus theory, through structural equation modelling (SEM) of data collected from 243 working professionals in the United States (US). The results suggest that FoMO has a positive association with phubbing, which, in turn, is positively associated with both psychological and relational responses. In addition, our analysis reveals the moderation effect of promotion focus on the association between phubbing and creativity. In comparison, we observe no moderation effect for prevention focus on any of the proposed associations. Our findings provide new insights into the impact of smartphone and social media use on employees and offer important implications for theory and practice.publishedVersio

Behavioral reasoning perspectives on organic food purchase

Consumers' rising interest in organic food has drawn the attention of the academic community. The literature on the topic is growing, but it mostly focuses either on the acceptance of or resistance toward organic food. However, marketing scholars argue that the development of more in-depth insights into consumers’ reasoning processes, and especially the roles of values and context-specific reasons are needed. The present study bridges this gap by utilizing the novel behavioral reasoning theory (BRT) framework. Cross-sectional data from 307 consumers and non-consumers from India were collected to investigate associations among attitudes, reasoning, value, and purchase intentions. This research studies the moderating role of food safety concerns and buying involvement. Additionally, the mediating role of reasons and attitudes is examined. The results suggest that value was positively associated with reasons (for and against), whereas attitude and reasons (for) resulted in favorable purchase intentions. Reasons (for and against) fully mediate the association between value and attitude. Furthermore, attitude partially mediates the association of reasons and purchase intentions. The moderation effect was not found for food safety concerns, but a limited effect among studied associations was observed for buying involvement. The findings raise significant implications for marketers and policymakers.publishedVersio

Why do people buy organic food? : The moderating role of environmental concerns and trust

Although consumer interest in organic food has risen over time, resulting in a generally positive attitude toward these organic food products, scholarly research suggests a comparatively low volume of its consumption in the market. This has resulted in an urgent need to study the motivations which enhance consumers' proclivity to purchase food items produced organically. The current research attempts to understand potential associations between motivations (intrinsic and extrinsic), attitude, and buying behaviour towards organic food. Self-determination theory (SDT) was applied to develop a theoretically grounded framework which was evaluated with 378 organic food consumers. The hypotheses were tested by analyzing the data through structural equation modelling (SEM), wherein environmental concerns and trust were the moderating variables. The study results demonstrate the significant influence of intrinsic motivation, integrated and external regulation on consumer attitude, and buying behaviour. But, attitude had no significant association with buying behaviour. The findings indicate consumers' motivation may be stimulated to encourage higher frequencies of purchasing organic food by emphasizing values that reflect motivations arising from ethical or green consumerism, health, and social benefits. Furthermore, policymakers should focus on avenues to integrate organic food as permanent parts of individual lives and a socially exalting behavioral action.Peer reviewe