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Disability is a basic human condition that affects a significant proportion of the world's population, yet many disability- and accessibility-relevant issues remain pressing and insufficiently addressed. With three experiments, the current research investigates potential reasons for why marketplace disability accessibility has not been universally accepted. Potential barriers to greater accessibility in marketplaces may arise because such efforts appear at odds with other salient priorities, at micro (i.e. consumer) and macro (i.e. firm, policy, or societal) levels. In the proposed framework and resulting experiments, micro-level trade-offs prompt perceptions of personal cost and macro-level trade-offs prompt perceptions of firm morality. In turn, these perceptions mediate firm evaluations, showing that consumers at baseline respond negatively to accessibility. Critically, however, several practical interventions emerge from these processes. Marketers can mitigate consumers' negative responses to accessibility by employing simple framing choices such as emphasizing who benefits or noting what the purpose of the offering is. By demonstrating one way to better understand perceptions of the full spectrum of the consumer population, this research provides pathways for consumer researchers to further delve into disability-related research in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Once scaled, online platforms reconfigure value to remain competitive. Reconfiguration in online platforms may take a different form than in pipelines, as online platforms are intermediaries that generate network effects among the sides they connect. They also face stiff competition from other spheres due to lower barriers to entry. Why and how do online platforms reconfigure value? By examining 13 Indian online platforms that have achieved a certain level of success (such as tipped markets, investor confidence, or profitability), this article offers four strategies for reconfiguring online platforms: enhance interactions, enhance capabilities, offer new services, and nurture new transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social entrepreneurial ventures generally have lower profitability owing to poor value perceptions of their offerings, which negatively impact financial sustainability. A frequent antecedent is the negative view of marketing prevalent in the sector, requiring an attitudinal transformation. This study provides one such success story that demonstrates how a deliberate marketing-driven approach allowed social entrepreneurs in Eastern India to pilot a new venture with creative offerings that detected and filled a financially viable gap in the cultural clothing market. This paper makes a case for social entrepreneurship ventures to be market savvy in order to financially nurture their social mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractBetween the 1880s and 1950s, national mortgage markets were created in the United States and Canada. The formative role of institutions and federal governments are well understood. Personal (individual or ‘private’) lenders have been omitted from the narrative although, in the late 1940s, they still provided a quarter of residential mortgages in the United States and two fifths in Canada. Rarely targeted, they were collateral damage, especially, of state initiatives. The distinctive nature of mortgages, secured on real estate, made the creation of national markets difficult. The character of personal loans – local, non-standard, non-amortized, and often informal -- made their assimilation into any supra-local market especially challenging. Their significance declined in waves: the 1900s, 1920s, and then, under government influence, after 1945. They persist in the reduced gaps left by institutions. We should pay them more attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The claim that capitalism drives to commodify everything is widely made in late-20th century and early-21st century critical political economy and plays a central role in prominent theoretical frameworks and texts. The argument is, however, rarely articulated in any detail, and proponents do not explain why capitalism would drive to commodify not just very many things but everything. In this paper I carry out the first systematic review and critique of works making the claim. I show that the literature fails to define 'everything' and 'the commodification of everything' and identify significant weaknesses in the six implicit argumentative strategies these works employ. I also show that positions that might appear to reject the claim do not get traction on it. In the second section I reconstruct the argument by defining terms, positing six commodifying mechanisms that should emerge from capitalism's core features, and searching for 'things' the literature has ignored. The search draws especially on historical research into surprising examples of commodified violence, governance, authority and monopoly. My analysis both greatly expands the literature's theoretical and empirical scope and argues that capitalism generates de commodifying drives with respect to certain key 'things'. Capitalism does not drive towards 'the commodification of everything' under any non-trivial definition of the latter term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is creating an "accelerator state" through a multi-layered system to identify and fast track the growth of high-tech SMEs in strategic sectors. Certified high-tech SMEs enjoy unique advantages, most notably privileged access to public and private financing. An analysis of the "Little Giants" program—a central feature of the accelerator state—proves that selected firms are indeed benefiting from enhanced financing. The study also reveals flaws in its selection process. The implications for foreign actors are significant. The accelerator state aims to replace imports in key value chains, which poses a direct challenge to foreign firms. The blurred lines between state support and market forces in the scheme also make it more difficult for foreign governments to track distortionary practices and enforce fair competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education seems to be in a perpetual state of 'crisis'. The many hundreds of books and papers containing this specific, or other relevantly similar expressions, convey a sense of fear and angst. Yet, what are these various crises about, and which values and beliefs are seen as threatened or 'under attack'? This paper will provide an analysis of the 'crisis' literature and identify four major crisis themes – massification, marketisation, restitution and geopolitics, linked to their ideological basis and influences—including meritocracy, liberalism, restorative justice, and justice globalism. The second part of the paper analyses the massification crisis in Britain between the 1940s and the 1970s as a case example identifying how the principles of a meritocratic society played an influential role in the debate. It will be argued that the notion of 'universities in crisis' needs to be understood critically in terms of ideology and historically via the shifting and reshaping of such beliefs over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the role of shared meaning for organising Alternative Food Networks (AFNs). Extant research shows that organisational elements, such as rules, and hybridisation of conventional and alternative modes of food provisioning are important for AFN organisation. Yet, they might both enable and hinder the aims of AFNs. Complementing this body of research, the article investigates how AFN participants work out the appropriate kind of organisation for realising 'a promise of difference'. Introducing Zelizer's 'relational work', the article investigates how AFN participants foster a shared meaning of participating and thereby identify what practices are appropriate for its organisation. The analysis draws on extensive ethnographic materials from Swedish REKO‐rings (a direct marketing arrangement for local foods). The findings show how the REKO‐ring participants' relational work negotiates and establishes shared meaning; what practices are appropriate and inappropriate for organising decent food provisioning. The study contributes to extant research by showing the fundamental role of shared (and discordant) meaning for the organisation of market‐based alternatives to the current food system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on school choice within the public school system in Queensland, Australia. While school choice has typically been framed as a logic of economic rationalism (for middle-class families), in this paper we use Ahmed's concept of the cultural politics of emotion to describe a more complex dimension of choice through gendered community. We argue that mothers become responsibilized for school choice, and in the process become emotionally invested in school choosing. In managing their soft bodily desires and hard cognitive rationalities, they are responding to the emotional histories that stick to schools. The problem we frame through our empirical case is that there is a clash of cultures between the type of school mothers desire, and the reality of what schools are, and could ever be. This is the double-bind or 'cruel optimism' of mothering school-aged children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The illegal trade in totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi) is causing adverse social, ecological, and economic impacts. This illegal activity is accelerating the overexploitation of totoaba and pushing the critically endangered vaquita (Phocoena sinus) closer to extinction. Despite extensive efforts to recover vaquita populations, scant attention has been given to the totoaba trade as an independent issue. As a result, data on the totoaba trade are limited, which hampers robust analyses and development of effective interventions to reduce illegal harvesting. We used a previously developed framework specifically designed to examine dynamics of illegal markets and guide measures to mitigate illegal use of totoaba. This framework separates markets into 3 analytical levels: characterization of participating actors (e.g., fishers, intermediaries); examination of how actors interact within the market (e.g., organization of supply chains); and assessment of the overall market dynamics that result from these interactions (e.g., factors determining price and quantity). We reviewed existing literature (108 initial articles) and interviewed key market actors, academics, and nongovernmental organization experts (14) to obtain data for this framework. Our findings offer an overview of the totoaba illegal market operation, highlighting intervention points (e.g., customs agents) and areas where additional information is required to decrease information gaps (e.g., US local market). We describe the structure and complexity of this market, emphasizing the influential role of organized crime in shaping its dynamics (e.g., controlling prices paid to fishers and stockpiling). By providing a systematic and in‐depth understanding of the market operation, we aimed to establish a benchmark for effective interventions and future research aimed at reducing uncertainties. Our results provide a crucial step toward addressing this critical issue and can help facilitate development of effective strategies to combat the illegal totoaba trade and promote biodiversity conservation more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

States not only govern markets, but they also create them, often with the intention of expanding or improving the delivery of specific policy objectives. This article outlines one way they do this: prefiguration. States prefigure markets, and private market actors, when they imagine and instantiate new market products, logics, and practices. I illustrate prefiguration through an analysis of the history of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), the federal program that underwrites flood insurance in the United States. From the time of the NFIP's establishment, policymakers and officials have fashioned and continuously reformed a public program, and an insurance product, in ways that emulate an imagined primary private flood insurer. In doing so, though, they have gradually established the conditions under which private flood insurers can do business. This article contributes to scholarship on state 'marketcraft'. Whereas many scholars have addressed why governments turn to markets in the first place, and the consequences of doing so, this article offers a closer examination of what takes place in between: the specific activities that governments undertake as they pursue market creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reputation systems promote cooperation in large-scale online markets for illegal goods. These so-called cryptomarkets operate on the Dark Web, where legal, social, and moral trust-building mechanisms are difficult to establish. However, for the reputation mechanism to be effective in promoting cooperation, traders have to leave feedback after completed transactions in the form of ratings and short texts. Here we investigate the motivational landscape of the reputation systems of three large cryptomarkets. We employ manual and automatic text mining methods to code 2 million feedback texts for a range of motives for leaving feedback. We find that next to self-regarding motives and reciprocity, moral norms (i.e. unconditional considerations for others' outcomes) drive traders' voluntary supply of information to reputation systems. Our results show how psychological mechanisms interact with organizational features of markets to provide a collective good that promotes mutually beneficial economic exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inclusion of rural smallholder farmers in the export of horticultural products has two major implications: increased household income through a promising global market, which is a catalyst for productivity, cumulatively growing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and foreign exchange. So far, there are an estimated 2500 smallholder farmers who participate in the export of horticulture in Kenya. As a result, the current study sought to establish the nexus between quality control practices by the small holder farmers and the growth of the horticultural export market in Kenya. The study collected quantitative data using a structured questionnaire from a sample of 334 smallscale horticultural farmers who were randomly selected. Validity and reliability tests were performed before the main study. Then, descriptive and simple linear regression was used to analyze the data. Quality control practices can be measured through the Pre-production measures, Production and post-production control measures. Findings indicated that there was a statistically significant relationship between quality control practices and the growth of horticultural export markets. It was however observed that, there are weak quality control practices among the farmers which lead to non-conformities of products. This implies that the exports from Kenya become less attractive and make the smallholder farmers less competitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy outcomes are determined not by the words in a statute but by the actions of private citizens. A policy's success or failure depends on how it shapes behavior and how that behavior shapes the future course of policy. To understand this process, we develop a model that combines the political and nonpolitical domains, focusing on competition policy and the regulation of markets. We show how the outcome of a policy change develops over time as firms respond in the market and interact with bureaucratic enforcement. We identify a critical threshold in market structure that determines whether a policy succeeds or fails, and discuss how the design of political institutions affects this level. The threshold represents a balancing of the path dependence of politics with the self‐correcting nature of markets. It establishes when political forces dominate those in markets and, thus, when a policy change has lasting effects on society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Cannabis policies are increasingly being liberalized, including the implementation of formal legalization policies of non-medical use and supply in multiple jurisdictions (initially in the Americas) towards improved public health and safety objectives. While focus on health indicators has shown mixed or adverse outcomes, less attention has been given to social-legal – and specifically crime-related – outcomes of legalization. We conducted a comprehensive literature and data review of key crime-related outcomes associated with non-medical cannabis legalization in four main domains, based on targeted searches of recent academic (e.g., journal publication) and 'grey' English-language literature sources: 1) cannabis-related crimes and enforcement, and other crimes; 2) cannabis-impaired driving and related motor-vehicle-crashes; 3) cannabis sourcing by consumers; and 4) cannabis market evolution and dynamics. The data identified were extracted, organized and narratively summarized by topic. The data reviewed suggest that cannabis-related crimes and enforcement have substantially decreased, yet arbitrary (e.g., racialized) enforcement patterns – involving both adults and youths – commonly persist in legalization settings; evidence for ecological effects on other (e.g., property, violent) crimes is mixed. The prevalence of cannabis-impaired driving does appear to be steady or decreasing, while levels of cannabis involved in motor-vehicle-crashes, and overall motor-vehicle-crash fatality levels appear to have increased. In North American legalization settings, the legal sourcing of cannabis has gradually increased to involve 50–70% or more of consumers alongside expanding legal retail market proliferation, while found to be influenced by multiple factors (e.g., product characteristics, price, use intensity). Conversely, legal cannabis sourcing remains much more limited in Uruguay's restrictive settings. Data on the evolution of illegal cannabis markets is very limited, suggesting some evidence for reductions of illegal production but also shifts or displacement effects (e.g., towards production for or distribution in non-legalization settings), leaving open questions as to the impacts of legalization in these domains. Overall, legalization appears to be meeting some of its socio-legal and specifically crime-reduction goals, yet while key data indicators are mixed or lacking. Focused and expanded research on crime-related outcomes of legalization policies is needed, also given limited benefits to date evidenced for health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How are taste judgments made and shared? Drawing on fieldwork among Ceylon tea brokers and buyers, the industry's de facto tea tasters, this article offers an ethnographic account of aesthetic judgment in practice. I ask, what makes a tea good? Tea tasters' unanimous response amounted to a market relativism of sorts that shifted attention away from the tasted object: “It all depends on the market.” Following my informants' contention, I show how industry actors are able to enact a tentative resolution to the fundamental paradox inherent in the judgment of taste, namely, its ostensibly subjective nature and simultaneous claim to objectivity. “The market,” invoked time and again by tea tasters, and imagined as inherently objective, affords the seamless translation of taste judgments into prices, intelligible and shareable quantities, prompting a reimagining of taste as an economic fact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve ambitious United Kingdom decarbonization targets, consumers will need to engage with energy services more so than they have done to date. This engagement could be active or delegated, where in the latter consumers pass responsibility for engagement to a third party in return for ceding some control over decisions. To date, insight into the barriers to consumer adoption of future business models has been limited. To address this gap this study explored benefits, risks and enabling conditions using two extreme consumer-centric business models, third Party Control and Shared Economy. The approach yielded information from stakeholders on what would have to be true for one of the business models to dominate the market. The results show substantial agreement across the expert groups on five key issues that will need to be addressed in the near-term to enable energy business model innovation in the United Kingdom market. These are: 1) Create space to enable business model innovation; 2) Ensure smart devices and data are interoperable and secure; 3) Improve the service standards of energy businesses; 4) Ensure business models work for consumers in all situations; and 5) Implement targeted carbon regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global demand for protein in the form of red meat is growing, especially in Southeast Asia, with income and population growth driving an increase in global beef consumption projected to continue from 2023 to 2032. This provides incentive for smallholder large-ruminant producers to build on production improvements obtained over the past decade to ensure long-term profitability and sustainability. This review aims to provide an update on advances in smallholder large-ruminant production and profitability in Southeast Asia over the past decade, as well as highlight ongoing challenges that require further investment from governments and the private sector to meet the growing regional and global demand for protein that is safe for human consumption. Improvements are discussed in detail across the areas of health, production and welfare, using outputs from research for development projects across Southeast Asia, specifically Cambodia and Laos which have high proportions of population living below the national poverty line. Areas covered include nutrition, disease control, diversification and farmer engagement. Ongoing challenges and opportunities are also considered. Key improvements in smallholder large-ruminant production, health and welfare in Southeast Asia over the past decade include the introduction of strategies to improve nutrition through forage utilisation and disease control through vaccination and biosecurity as well as farmer engagement and diversification. However, major challenges continue in the areas of disease control and eradication, training, climate variability, gender empowerment and policy. Increasing global demand for red meat places smallholder large-ruminant producers throughout Cambodia and Laos in an ideal position to capitalise. To do this and gain improved regional food security requires ongoing investment in stakeholder training and adoption of appropriate strategies to ensure greater productivity from existing numbers and resisting increasing numbers in an environment with limited resources. Although the challenges for large-ruminant smallholders are substantial, the rewards for continual investment to improve health and production include increased household incomes and profitability as well as greater regional food security. Global demand for protein in the form of red meat is growing, especially in Southeast Asia, with income and population growth driving an increase in beef consumption. To meet this demand advances in smallholder large-ruminant production and profitability have been achieved. However, to achieve regional food security ongoing challenges and opportunities need to be addressed. This article belongs to the Collection Sustainable Animal Agriculture for Developing Countries 2023. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the pattern and degree of marketisation in the DPRK by drawing on sources from within that society. In doing so it creates a point of departure from most conventional analyses of the DPRK economy, which prioritise defector accounts. The conventional view, informed by these accounts, is that jangmadang (quasi-free markets) have been created by ordinary people to meet their basic needs. In this view, 'marketisation from below' started when the Public Distribution System broke down due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, upon which the DPRK economy had depended. It is also claimed that as the economy has failed to recover from its prolonged crisis, the State has become dependent upon these markets. However, a careful review of materials produced inside the DPRK indicates that marketisation started 'from above' in the early 1980s, with Kim Il Sung's directives to assuage the chronic shortages of consumer goods. As such, this article contends that marketisation in the DPRK began and has proceeded in accordance with the State's control and influence. The country's complete closure of its borders to prevent COVID-19 in the early 2020s confirmed that markets play only a limited role in DPRK society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By studying organizational creations, this article documents the reform trajectory of a non-Western country from 1947 to 2018, using a comparative analytical framework for the operationalization of reform trends on an original dataset – PSAD. Pakistan has paralleled Western world in following the ideal-type reforms without entirely shifting to the new models. Context matters, but the type of government – civilian or military – has not made vivid difference. No one reform type was pushed away; instead, country moved beyond hierarchies and markets creating blends, staging the co-existence of NPM with hierarchies and networks at its 40th. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overview of how macroeconomic shocks affect beef quality‐grade premiums and discounts in the U.S. fed cattle market is discussed. We review the shock transmission linkages along the beef industry supply chain and determine the economic implications for the finished cattle market. The analysis provides insight into how the fed cattle market responds to macroeconomic shocks. The economic implications of financial risk associated with the behavior of beef carcass quality‐grade premiums and discounts associated with the Great Recession and the COVID pandemic are contrasted and assessed. Data analysis indicates that macroeconomic shocks affect the quality‐grade premium pricing mechanism for finished cattle. The origins of the shock (aggregate demand versus aggregate supply) and government fiscal policy intervention determines how premium levels and premium volatility responds to a macroeconomic shock. Thus, beef carcass quality‐grade premiums are not only subject to industry idiosyncratic risk, such as swings in the seasonal demand for beef, but are also subject to systematic risk associated with business cycle fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The competitiveness of the companies depends on continuous progress, and the allocation of the continuous improvement is crucial in today’s market competition. The main approaches proposed in the literature are distributed and centralized policies. This research proposes a novel model for resource allocation that surpasses existing methods. It leverages throughput rate evaluation as the core principle. This model considers key improvement parameters and utilizes a mathematical framework to allocate improvement resources to each parameter. The experiments conducted concern failure parameters (Mean Time Between Failures and Mean Time To Repair), setup time, defective rate, bottleneck numbers and the increasing processing time of the bottleneck. The original contribution is twofold: the evaluation considers a wider range of conditions and their impact on flow line’s sustainability. The model emphasizes sustainability by focusing on minimizing the idle time of workstations within the flow line. Numerical analysis of the proposed model reveals a substantial reduction in total idle time improving the related energy consumption. Furthermore, the model achieves a throughput rate that closely aligns with the centralized policy, traditionally considered the most effective approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patents are legal delinquents. A growing body of empirical evidence demonstrates that patents repeatedly fail to fulfill the responsibilities they have been assigned in fostering innovation. But I argue here that in their moments of misbehavior, we can catch a glimpse of the social roles patents play when no one is watching. Drawing on insights from the sociology of markets, I argue that patents are surreptitiously performing functions familiar from the grocery store, the vegetable stand, or the barber shop. I suggest that patents are calculative, not in the mathematical sense, but in the sociological sense of structuring and facilitating market relations. This approach to discovering the social roles of patents opens the door to a new examination of patent purposes, and to understanding some otherwise inexplicable characteristics of patent law.

Objectives: The study aims to shed light on the role of Yemeni markets in commercial activity during the era of the Rasulid State 626-858 AH/1228-1454 AD, which ruled Yemen for more than two centurieswhich is the Rasulid State.Methodology: To apply the study methodology, the study adopted the analytical method in studying the events of the study period, which formulated the role of the Rasulid State's commercial activity as well as its role in the markets inside and outside Yemen.Results: This state played a major role in stimulating trade, taking advantage of the geographical location in which it originated, which is Yemen, which made them a prosperous state. The results also showed that markets brought many merchants from different parts of the world. The country of Yemen has known seasonal commercial markets since the pre-Islamic period, as Al-Marzouqi mentioned that the Arabs had thirteen markets before Islam, of which he mentioned in Yemen the market of Al-Shihr Rabia Hadhramaut Aden and Sana'. The spread of these markets is considered a natural matter due to the commercial and agricultural activity that Yemen enjoyed, which made it necessary for it to establish markets to sell its internal and external products to obtain money.Recommendations: The study recommends the necessity of conducting many similar studies that deal with the commercial aspect and its activities through the necessary research and analysis in most Islamic countries and knowing how to reach distant countries in order to increase capital, and linking those previous economic activities to the present and taking lessons from the future.

In the past two decades, there has been a decline in the use of uniform-price auctions in favor of fixed prices in markets of peer-to-peer lending, equity crowdfunding, and initial public offerings. This article aims to analytically study why this trend might be occurring. The analysis reveals that, relative to a fixed price, a uniform-price auction leads to more herding and strategic delay of bid submission and, consequently, a smaller transaction completion probability and lower expected revenue. These predictions are consistent with the empirical regularities observed for the bidding behavior and funding outcomes on Prosper, one of the leading peer-to-peer online lending platforms, and those documented in the literature for markets of equity crowdfunding and initial public offerings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market structure maps spatially represent competitive relationships among brands and products. In these maps, each product is typically visualized in a single map location. Such visualization, however, does not adequately accommodate multimarket membership products (MMPs), which are products that compete in multiple submarkets that are each characterized by distinct competitors and consumer preferences. The author proposes a novel framework that accommodates MMPs by visualizing products in the local context of each submarket in which they compete. This framework is then used to study market structure in the digital camera market. Competitive relationships are inferred from consumers' online searches using bootstrapped neural product embedding. The research shows that 8% of cameras are MMPs and that 50% of all submarkets are affected by MMPs. The map generated with the proposed framework uncovers mismatches between manufacturer positioning and consumer perception of several cameras. An extensive comparison of the proposed framework with alternative mapping methods reveals that (1) commonly used mapping methods misrepresent MMPs' competitive positions in their maps and (2) ignoring MMPs can lead to distorted visualizations of the underlying market structure. Both problems compromise firms' abilities to accurately assess products' competitive positions and evaluate the effectiveness of their positioning strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Knowledge: International Journal is the property of Institute for Knowledge Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Previous studies have demonstrated that tangible and intangible transaction costs influence spatial price differences. The difference between the prices at which producers sell their goods, and the prices at which consumers purchase them is exacerbated by transaction costs. This indicates that farmers receive a lower price from buyers, who then charge consumers a greater price at urban marketplaces. However, existing documentation provides limited information on the relationship between spatial price differences and their drivers. Most research focused primarily on the co-movement of prices and the co-integration test, with little attention paid to the effects of transaction costs on spatial price differences. Thus, the paucity of information in the literature motivated the undertaking of this specific study. Therefore, this study assessed the impact of transaction costs on spatial price differences of maize in the Njombe District of Tanzania. A semi-structured questionnaire was developed and employed to collect information from maize traders. Also, checklists were used to collect information from market leaders. Both descriptive and quantitative analyses were undertaken. In the descriptive analysis, means and percentages were generated. On the other hand, in the quantitative analyses, the Ravalion model which is based on the co-movement of prices, was modified to fit the study in question and estimated. The outputs generated from the modified model were used for inferences. The estimated model results showed that transaction costs (transportation costs, years of schooling, bribery, and the number of maize bags carried in one trip) have significant effects on spatial price differences. Moreover, market leaders revealed that because of the poor quality of the roads, individual farmers find it challenging to deliver their produce to the Njombe market. Consequently, they obtain a low price when they sell their produce at the farm level. The study recommends deliberate measures to reduce transaction costs, such as improving urban and rural infrastructure, simplifying bureaucratic procedures that provide room for corruption, and, finally, promoting large-scale production or collective actions to reduce transaction costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public goods are an anomaly in neoclassical economics, a form of 'market failure'. They exist outside the efficient and equitable optimality of market exchange. It can be shown however that competitive markets are only efficient in short product cycles. Long-term objectives require social support. Corruption arises from the consequent private public interaction. Integrity, the absence of corruption, is a public good. Corruption has risen since the 1980s with privatization and outsourcing. How did European governments become honest in the first place? In the century after the 1770s, they moved from regarding public office as a form of private property to a conception of serving the public good. This integrity revolution was facilitated by Weberian bureaucracies, selected by academic merit and committed to impartiality by long-term incentives. The neoliberal revolution of the 1980s regarded bureaucracies as obstructive and slow. It admired the business corporation with its opaque procedures and charismatic leadership. Concurrently economics moved from neoclassical harmony theory to an asymmetric information model of 'opportunism with guile', providing doctrinal legitimacy for corruption. Corporate advertising is deliberately deceptive, and undermines the public good of trustworthiness. Digital platforms, powered by advertising, have subverted public discourse. Misinformation and disinformation have become prime risk factors for current societies. The practical operation of markets undermines the public goods of integrity and trustworthiness. The public good of a habitable climate cannot be achieved by market methods. For long-term payoffs, 'free markets' are a harmful delusion, inefficient, corrupt, impossible to achieve, and not sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioural economics works toward more realistic accounts of economic action, which includes efforts to endogenise the 'social'. In its social strand, behavioural economics is specifically concerned with fair outcomes in interactive economic games, which are explained by reference to social preferences, norms and institutions. While these concepts also matter to scholars in political economy and socioeconomics, behavioural economists seek to go further in specifying their behavioural and evolutionary foundations. This article critically evaluates evolutionary research strategies in the social strand of behavioural economics, which aim to uncover the evolutionary origins of fairness in economic experiments. Representatives of this field offer new support for the classical idea of 'doux commerce', or the civilising function of markets, by suggesting that cooperation with strangers in economic exchange fundamentally shaped the course of human evolution. Their explanatory framework is gene-culture coevolution, which covers long timespans of human existence. However, the case for the virtuous effect of markets in human prehistory remains ambiguous: basic concepts, causal mechanisms, and timescales of analysis vary to an extent that it is possible to arrive at very different projections of 'doux commerce' into the past. With regard to the present, these fulfil a similar function in naturalising market moralities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores a facet of the relationship between trade marks and the criminal law in the UK in the interwar era, a pivotal period of transition in UK economic policy from free trade to a more managed economy. Drawing together insights from legal, business and economic history, we show that, in the interwar years, the context of domestic politics and wider international trade policy, produced a greater focus on the relationship between trade marks and market-place understandings of the national origin of manufactured products. This context included the passage of the Merchandise Marks Act 1926, a criminal law statute that stipulated the circumstances in which imported goods were to be marked with an indication of national origin, and included a criminal offence regulating trade marks enforced by prosecutions brought by the Board of Trade. We argue that the criminal law regulating trade marks became entwined with 'soft' trade policy, i.e. a means of protecting the domestic/Empire market falling short of tariff protection. Drawing on substantial original archival research, we explore the problems that confronted the Board of Trade when it enforced the 1926 Act in view of market realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Baccalaureate (IB) is a market leader in international education however, research suggests that it predominantly serves elite populations (Bunnell, T., M. Donnelly, H. Lauder, and S. Whewall. 2020. "International Mindedness as a Platform for Class Solidarity." Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education. Published online: 24 August 2020. doi:). Drawing on data from the IB and the Australian government, we explore the growth of the IB in Australia for a period of 11 years (2008 to 2019). Data analysis highlights the narrow growth of the IB amongst relatively homogenous schools, suggesting a period of 'distinction and expansion' that represents a troubling contradiction of the IB's stated goal to increase diversity in IB schools and contributes to the reproduction of class disparity in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crypto industry has been hit hard with various market forces and scams, leaving investors with trillion-dollar losses in recent years. The appropriate tax treatment of such losses has yet to be fully examined, as there is scant guidance and a dearth of academic literature on the subject. This Article attempts to fill this gap by applying general tax principles to crypto losses and making several recommendations to improve the clarity and consistency of tax results. It explores various theories of crypto loss “realization” (including theft, abandonment, and worthlessness), highlighting where additional guidance is needed. And it considers appropriate legislative limits on crypto loss deductions recognizing that, by offering a tax deduction subsidy, the government essentially shares in the risk created by crypto activities. The Article proposes a possible new tax framework for crypto losses—specifically, crypto losses should be deductible only against crypto gains and not against labor or other positive income. Such a rule would not be based on moral disapproval of crypto trading as opposed to other investment activity, but instead would be supported by the unified justification underlying many loss limitation rules in our tax system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Friedrich Hayek presents a demarchic conception of democracy as a solution for what he takes to be the inherently corrupt and totalitarian nature of liberal democracy. While still preserving the label 'liberal representative democracy', this Hayekian demarchy precludes parliamentary and governmental institutions from providing positive laws and policies on behalf of their constituents where this would require the transfer of the private property of individuals. Such laws and policies would, on this demarchic conception of liberal democracy, undermine individuals' free usufruct. I argue that demarchy's detachment from any concern with the well-being of many of its citizens is an illiberal and anti-democratic (sub)version of liberal democracy that increases populism and risks crushing liberal democracy between the pseudo- and anti-liberal support of a totalitarian majoritarian people's sovereign power and a minoritarian anti-democratic elite. As such, liberal democracy conceived of in Hayekian demarchic terms is itself an oppressive totalitarian political theory incapable of preventing an increase in illiberal and anti-liberal political forces. Moreover, I argue that it is imperative that we acknowledge and appreciate the extent to which demarchy undermines, rather than strengthens, liberal democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuous growth of the aquaculture industry implies increased demand for efficient sources of aquafeed, such as fishmeal. Pelagic fish are a desirable source of fishmeal due to their high nutritional content. Nevertheless, several pelagic stocks that have been exploited extensively for fishmeal production face ecological limits due to commercial exploitation, and the aquaculture industry is now seeking novel, efficient, and sustainable sources of aquafeed. The mesopelagic zone, an ecosystem with many scientific uncertainties, is being considered as a potential source for fishmeal, largely owing to the abundance of mesopelagic fish and their robust nutritional profile. However, both the ecological and economic viability of commercial exploitation of mesopelagic fish are not yet well understood. To understand the conditions that would make such an endeavor economically viable in the context of global fishmeal production systems, we use a bioeconomic model that assesses the economic consequences of including mesopelagic fish as a fishmeal source. Through simulations, we assess the economic implications of this hypothetical mesopelagic fishery on major pelagic fishmeal production systems. The mesopelagic fishery can be economically profitable for harvesters, and its addition to global fishmeal production reduces fishmeal market price, thus making it more accessible to aquaculture farmers and less profitable for pelagic fishers. While this may reduce fishing pressure on pelagic forage‐fish stocks, the implications of commercial exploitation of mesopelagic on key ecosystem services remain a concern. Recommendations for Resource Managers: The continuous growth of the aquaculture industry implies increased demand for efficient sources of aquafeed, such as fishmeal.Several pelagic stocks that have been exploited extensively for fishmeal production face ecological limits due to commercial exploitation, and the aquaculture industry is now seeking novel, efficient, and sustainable sources of aquafeed.The mesopelagic zone is being considered as a potential source for fishmeal. However, both the ecological and economic viability of commercial exploitation of mesopelagic fish are not yet well understood.We use a bioeconomic model to assess the economic consequences of including mesopelagic fish as a fishmeal source and the economic implications of this hypothetical fishery on major pelagic fishmeal production systems.The results show that mesopelagic fishery could be profitable for harvesters, and its addition to global fishmeal production would reduce fishmeal market price, thus making it more accessible to aquaculture farmers and less profitable for pelagic fishers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The politics of public space, such as food and retail markets, has predominantly been studied from place-based perspectives. Most studies focus on the intercultural interactions and social dynamics of inclusion and exclusion as they develop in these places. Less research attention has been devoted, however, to how questions of accessibility and emplacement are intrinsically related to everyday mobilities that surround and come together in public space. By interviewing and physically following market traders who work on the central outdoor market of a town in the Netherlands, this article approaches traders’ mobilities to and away from markets as social practices that involve careful navigation. Three contrasting narratives of mobility-as-navigation are outlined, relating to the stories of the ‘established’, ‘searching’ and ‘roaming’ trader. The findings demonstrate that differences in navigation can be explained by the interdependencies between both individual and material/structural factors. The focus on mobility-as-navigation reveals not only the complex and sometimes contested ways in which people differently move to and away from public space, but it also shows how it leads to differentiated presence on, and access to, these places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A prospective study was conducted from September 2022 to March 2023 to examine the occurrence and contamination rates of different parasitic stages on fresh edible fruits and vegetables in local markets of Erbil city. Eight different types of fruits and vegetables were selected from eight markets, and 144 samples were analyzed for parasites using direct sedimentation, indirect floatation (ZnSO4), Kinyoun, and trichrome staining methods. The highest total frequencies of parasites were detected using the direct sedimentation method (18.75%), followed by the indirect floatation method (6.25%), Kinyoun technique (5.55%), and modified trichrome staining (4.16%). A. lumbricoides (Ova) was detected with 4.16% using direct sedimentation, while no positive detections were observed with other techniques. Kinyoun technique identified Cryptosporidium spp. oocysts. For E. histolytica 1.3% were positive using the direct sedimentation method, while the other three methods showed no positive detections. Similar results were observed for G. lamblia where only the modified trichrome staining technique detected 0.69% with trophozoites and 1.3% with cysts. Additionally, the direct sedimentation method revealed the presence of nematodes at 2.77%, but no positive detections were made with other methods. Concerning Taeniid eggs, the indirect floatation identified 0.69% with ova, while other methods showed no positive detections. Lastly, the direct sedimentation method yielded 6.25% with unidentified flagellate protozoa, but no positive detections were found using the indirect floatation method, Kinyoun technique, or modified trichrome staining technique. The study concluded that Kinyoun and trichrome techniques are the gold standard for detecting different parasite stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The engagement between markets and cultural hegemonies is shaped by the politics that promote or deny the emergence of fresh legitimations in response to the opportunities offered to consumers by new commodities. In the case of Islam and the assisted reproductive technology (ART) market, core cultural values concerning procreation, family and lineage come into direct conflict with the potential consumer demand generated by new ART technologies. Shaped by the character of multiple Islamic modernities and the authority structures of religion and state, it is the Shi'a–Sunni divide which most illuminates the politics of emergence driving the different Islamic responses to those cultural tensions. In Sunni states the hegemonic challenge of the ART commodity market is contained by the senior clerics, the traditional intellectuals of Islamic authority, often acting in concert with the state apparatus. In contrast, in Shi'a states the flexibility of its religious authority structures underpinned by the principles of ijtihad allows the formation of an alliance between traditional and medical organic intellectuals which facilitates the consumer choice of both ART commodities and legitimating values. However, what remains unresolved is the long‐term impact of that trasformismo on the stability of the social structures which the Shi'a moral economy serves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores Michael Novak's understanding of the human person and his normative case for the market economy, specifically its points of agreement and tension with natural rights libertarianism. For Michael Novak, the imago dei provides the strongest account for the relationship between the market economy, human dignity, and natural rights. Rationalistic attempts, such as those within libertarianism, cannot adequately ground human dignity or sustain free institutions capable of serving the common good, the market economy, and political liberty. However, Novak's affinity to his libertarian interlocutors presents an opportunity for dialogue on the necessity of economic freedom and related theological influences on natural rights theory for securing human flourishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real estate plays an essential part in various sociological theories of political economy, state capacity, racecraft, stratification, and urbanization. However, since foundational insights about the novelty of commodified, emplaced private property from theorists like Du Bois and Polanyi, these disparate threads have not been tied together into a coherent field of study. Here, we review three areas of recent scholarship relevant to understanding real estate—the political economy of place, property rights, and financialization—in order to draw out key insights from each. Overall, the political-economic and socio-legal aspects of real estate have been well-studied, but contemporary research has been limited by its parochialism. We argue that for a sociology of real estate to move forward, it must take a broader, more relational perspective; must become more international; and must confront the climate crisis—and that Polanyi's and Du Bois's contributions can be effectively mobilized toward these ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endörfer has recently argued that proponents of the harm principle are wrong to exempt market harms as potential justifications for state interference. I argue that – contrary to suggestions in Endörfer's article – John Stuart Mill did not exempt market harms from his harm principle. On Mill's view, the state can (as a matter of principle) legitimately interfere with free markets to prevent market harms where they occur but, on the whole, it is better policy not to interfere. Mill's general preference for free trade rests on utilitarian considerations and not on his harm principle, which does not exclude market harms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Stuart Mill is considered one of the most important representatives of the classical school of political economy. His intellectual development exhibited a gradual transition toward more socialistic views. This transition was partly the result of his interaction with French utopian socialists, which led Mill to theoretically construct an economic system lying between what is now called market capitalism and revolutionary socialism. For Mill, socialism would be a new organic period after the transitory and critical period of the "stationary state." This paper delineates the core tenets of Mill's stationary state and presents it as an early anticipation of what from the 1920s on is called "market socialism." Mill's optimistic vision of the stationary state was based on the spread of associations, the socialization of knowledge among all people, competition, and the importance of individuality. These elements are connected with Mill's idiosyncratic, liberal and utilitarianist vision of (market) socialism which prepares the ground for his socialist utopia based on the ideal "from each according to his capacities; to each according to his needs." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have examined the role of customer preferences, and demand-side characteristics more generally, in varied core strategy areas like market entry and timing, diversification, positioning, resource reallocation, and firm adaptation, among many others. We review this diverse demand-side literature and develop an empirical classification that identifies five archetypical customer value-creation logics seen in the literature to date. To apply each of these logics, a firm must look downstream with the intent of matching, leveraging, adapting, learning, or shaping customer preferences or market characteristics to create value for customers. For each value-creation logic, we detail the logic itself, how the demand side is characterized, how specific strategic decisions allow for value creation following the logic, literature gaps in the logic, and opportunities for future research. Opportunities include extending the work on existing logics, examining the combined effects of multiple logics, identifying understudied demand-side characteristics, and studying strategy applications for which demand-side attributes have received comparatively little attention to date. These include business models, corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate governance, and demand-side shocks. Finally, we address implications for managerial practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hunger and malnutrition in all forms continues to rise in Africa and Asia. Urban and rural communities' diets in Southeast Asia (SEA) are increasingly unhealthy, with consumption influenced by affordability and convenience. The cost of a healthy diet is a major barrier to accessing healthy foods in SEA. Wet markets are key places in food environments where people buy and sell a variety of foods. They are especially important for food and nutrition insecure communities. This mini narrative review explores the role that wet markets, in SEA food environments, play in providing local communities with access to healthy foods. Fourteen peer-review papers, published in English between 2017 and 2022, were identified during screening and analysed according to six food environment domains. Findings highlight that convenient access to wet markets facilitates access to fruits and vegetables in peri urban and urban areas. Fresh foods, most notably fruits, were viewed as being more expensive than processed foods which in turn influenced purchasing behavior. Divergent findings were presented in the identified papers regarding affordability of food in wet markets. Concerns about food quality and the use of chemicals and pesticides were raised. This review was constrained by several factors including the lack of consistent and meaningful definitions and typologies of the varied forms of wet markets. Looking ahead, better defined interpretations of wet markets can enhance the development and refinement of appropriate policies and actions and comparison of wet markets, in respect of access to diverse, healthy foods, vendor practices and consumer food choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of markets in North Korea has spurred discussion about the prospects for social change in the country. This article explores whether and how marketisation increases social trust among market participants and its implications for everyday politics in North Korea. We draw insights from the literature on social trust as well as empirical evidence from interviews conducted with Chinese business entrepreneurs operating in North Korea to better understand the relationship between market activity and trust in North Korea. We argue that market participants rely on a variety of strategies to navigate North Korea's ambiguous political and economic climate. These strategies are often adopted to increase transparency, access information, reduce uncertainty, and resolve business disputes between parties. Ultimately, each of these strategies is linked to building trust among North Koreans. At the same time, the North Korean state has also inserted itself into trust networks to extract additional resources from markets and (re)establish political control. Thus, in the everyday politics of North Korea, participation in informal markets reflects socialisation into norms and behaviours that increase trust while simultaneously providing support to the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2023, the Research and Development Market Strategy Division was established at NTT Corporation. Its mission is to create new value by combining research and development on the basis of the conventional product-out approach with marketing while being committed to creating an exciting future. We asked Sachiko Oonishi, NTT executive vice president, head of Research and Development Market Strategy, about the Division and her mindset as a top executive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]