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This paper aims to provide an overview of a social marketing intervention that aimed to increase physical activity (aligned to UN SDG 3) among adolescents in Bali, Indonesia.

Three sequential phases were followed to deliver the social marketing intervention. Phrase 1 (formative research) gained insights that guided a subsequent social marketing intervention. Phase 2 (pilot intervention) gathered preliminary results, to support the development of the final intervention. Phase 3 (intervention) evaluated the effectiveness of the two-month social marketing intervention.

The results from the intervention tested in this paper identified significant behaviour change in physical activity, demonstrating the effectiveness of the intervention. Furthermore, the paper identifies which intervention inputs contribute to behaviour change and which do not.

This paper describes the outcomes from an eight-week pilot programme that aimed to increase rates of physical activity for Indonesian adolescents and provides early evidence of impact.

This study found that providing adolescents with the opportunity to play team sports increases physical activity behaviour.

There is a lot of ground that needs to be made in terms of designing programs capable of achieving impact in the Global South. The approach reported in this paper can serve as a best-practice model for researchers wanting to drive lasting behaviour change to overcome known inequities in the Global South.

This paper aims to examine the socialization of alcohol through a reflective writing task within a social marketing program delivered to adolescents. The aim was to elicit adolescents’ experiences and perceptions of alcohol and investigate cognitions, emotions, attitudes’ and behaviors regarding alcohol.

This study used a qualitative approach in which 1,214 adolescents aged 14 to 16 years were invited to write a story about an experience that involved alcohol. Data were qualitatively coded, and themes were discerned by an inductive analytic process.

Adolescents’ perceptions of alcohol were arranged along a continuum from mere description with little analysis to reasoned reflection and cognition. Qualitatively different socializing agents, learning situations, processes and effects of learning were apparent in the narratives. Family roles influenced adolescents’ perceptions and experiences of alcohol.

This study supports the use of narratives and reflective introspection tasks as methods that uncover insights into the socialization of alcohol among adolescents. Findings provide guidance to social marketers and alcohol educators for future program design. By understanding the continuum of developing socializations toward alcohol, social marketers can effectively engage adolescents and design targeted programs involving key social learning variables that shape adolescents’ perceptions and experiences with alcohol.

Narratives provide a research methodology that can bring consumer voice to inform scenarios that can be delivered in future program design.

This study aims to review social marketing interventions reported in peer-reviewed literature from 2010 to 2019 that were conducted in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This paper seeks to further contribute to understanding on the health of the social marketing field, synthesising studies to examine the extent of use of social marketing’s core principles.

A total of 17 interventions, discussed in 31 papers, were identified in the review. Social marketing interventions were assessed against eight elements (social marketing benchmark criteria): behavioural objectives, customer orientation, theory, insight, exchange, competition, segmentation and methods mix.

Evidence in this review found that most interventions yielded positive outcomes. This supports social marketing’s efficacy in addressing the United Nations sustainable development goals within LMIC contexts. None of the social marketing interventions used all eight benchmark criteria. The study found that there was limited use of insight, competition and segmentation principles followed in social marketing interventions in LMICs. Finally, although present in a number of studies, theory and customer orientation were not applied to the full extent needed.

Findings indicate the social marketing field will greatly benefit from capacity building and training. Too few interventions labelled as social marketing are able to clearly apply and report application of social marketing’s fundamental principles, which is limiting programme effectiveness.

To date evidence reviews draw on interventions applied in high-income countries demonstrating extent of application of fundamental social marketing principles positively linked to behaviour change. This study extends the assessment of social marketing principles, delivering assessment of eight benchmarks encompassing insight and theory in an LMIC setting, demonstrating gaps in application and clear examples of application across all benchmarks to deliver a guide that people new to the social marketing field can follow.

The global food waste and food scarcity paradox is steadfastly increasing. This study aims to examine the effects of digital nudging as forms of positive and negative reinforcement to change food waste behavior and found that nudging positive reinforcement modifies this habit.

A field experiment was conducted on 628 diners randomly split into experiment (n = 412) and control group (n = 216) in two separate dining locations over four weeks. Out of these, 412 diners were randomly subjected to tent cards with positive (n = 228) and negative (n = 184) reinforcement nudging and completed a questionnaire to ascertain if nudging affects their consumption behavior. Consumption waste per unit revenue was calculated from all 628 diners individually to analyze the financial impact between control and experiment groups.

SEM analysis reveals that positive reinforcement mediates between external motivators (social media and restaurant service) and reduction of food waste behavior. Further analysis also reveals that nudging has a higher three times effect on reducing food waste as compared with no nudging (control).

Positive messaging encourages behavior change more effectively as compared to negative ones. Gentle reminders of how everyone can personally be a “warrior” or “hero” in the fight against global food waste increases the likelihood of altruistic motivation in tackling these issues.

This study demonstrates how positive reinforcement in the form of nudges acts as key mediator to support reduction of consumer food waste on site, ultimately helping to reduce financial costs compared to those without nudges.

This paper presents a methodological analysis of the co-creation and evaluation of “Biobot Academy” social marketing program to promote socio-emotional skills and prosocial behaviour in children, using a Living Lab method. This paper aims to identify how using a Living Lab method can enhance the co-creation and evaluation of a gamified social marketing program with users and stakeholders. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to apply and further develop a Living Lab framework to guide social marketing program design.

Using a case study method, the Living Lab process was applied during the development of the gamified social marketing program for promoting socio-emotional skills and prosocial behaviour in children. In total, 28 online and in-person sessions over a two-year period led to program co-creation. Guided by a mixed method approach, testing was conducted in a non-randomised waitlist control trial, while qualitative data from in-game data capture, classroom observations and recordings were collected.

The application of the Living Lab method warranted improvements, specifically to the front-end and back-end steps of the existing process. While the non-randomised trial indicated effectiveness of the social marketing program across all outcome measures (self-awareness, empathy and prosocial behaviour intentions) compared to control, qualitative findings showed program improvements were needed on three specific aspects, namely, interactivity, user experience and comprehension.

This study provides methodological guidance for the application of the Living Lab method in other social marketing settings to help co-create innovative social marketing solutions with diverse stakeholder groups.

THE need to increase the productivity of British industry is a common topic and when it is discussed the more economic use of manpower is inevitably raised. What is often lost sight of is the fact that future gains of productivity will be derived, as they were in the past, from a wider use of better machines rather than from more intensive effort by human beings. Such machines are expensive. Some of them, like the sophisticated machine tools described by the grandiose name of ‘machining centres’, are extremely costly.

Purpose – The relationship of media influences and school shootings is analyzed on the background of an integrating metatheoretical framework, derived from socialization theory and a media appropriation model grounded in action theory.

Design/approach – Empirical findings and dynamic models of the significance of the media in the genesis of school shootings are integrated into the framework based on a review of the literature. Special focus is placed on the subjective functionality of the perpetrators’ prior media use, which is examined for its dependence on individual, cultural/societal, and interpersonal factors.

Findings – School shootings are a form of extreme violence where monocausal explanations fall short and cannot adequately account for the complex multifactorial causes of the phenomenon. However, we come to the conclusion that particular media do play a special role in the origination of school shootings, but in a way that can only be adequately comprehended if they are examined in connection with specific individual, socio-cultural, and interpersonal dynamics.

Originality/value – The chapter presents a conceptual frame within which possible relationships between media influence and school shootings are identified in the socialization contexts of the adolescent perpetrators.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the various methods available when conducting a pre‐employment screening investigation in attempt to hire honest employees, those less likely to commit fraud against their organization. While many companies perform the most basic type of background check, this paper suggests that companies need to go beyond the basics when hiring its employees.

By reviewing the existing literature and conducting interviews with experts in the area of background investigation services, the paper makes suggestions for companies to follow.

Merely relying on the most basic background check may lead to the hiring of the wrong employee, one likely to commit fraud. Companies should consider performing other screening techniques before hiring an employee.

Background checks have become a widely‐recognized method of pre‐employment screening. However, these checks are just one part of the employee selection process and companies should understand both the practical and legal implications of conducting additional testing.

The guidance provided in this paper will aid companies in the pre‐employment selection process. Both basic and more advanced techniques are discussed and companies can choose any or all of the recommended methods.