Being 'fat' in today's world: A socio-cultural investigation of overweight and obesity. What does it feel like to constantly struggle with your weight? Over 60% of Australians are overweight or obese, and many of these have battled with their weight for most of their adult lives. In an innovative approach to obesity, researchers at Monash University, the University of Melbourne, the University of Canberra and Deakin University are investigating the poignancy of experience of living with obesity ....Being 'fat' in today's world: A socio-cultural investigation of overweight and obesity. What does it feel like to constantly struggle with your weight? Over 60% of Australians are overweight or obese, and many of these have battled with their weight for most of their adult lives. In an innovative approach to obesity, researchers at Monash University, the University of Melbourne, the University of Canberra and Deakin University are investigating the poignancy of experience of living with obesity in Australia. The aim of the study, which also includes a review of how obesity is represented by Australian newspapers, will use narratives to provide public health, health promotion and media strategies which resonate with the lived reality of obese and overweight people.Read moreRead less
Developing methods for benefit measurement in health-related economic analyses and their use in selecting public health promotional programs. The program involves the creation, validation and use of a suite of instruments for evaluating outcomes of health promotional programs, including adult and childhood obesity, depression and smoking - areas that are universally recognised as being of importance for the Australian community. The program will provide multiple scoring algorithms for each of th ....Developing methods for benefit measurement in health-related economic analyses and their use in selecting public health promotional programs. The program involves the creation, validation and use of a suite of instruments for evaluating outcomes of health promotional programs, including adult and childhood obesity, depression and smoking - areas that are universally recognised as being of importance for the Australian community. The program will provide multiple scoring algorithms for each of the instruments in order to test the sensitivity of results to assumptions made about social values, and will produce Australian estimates of the person trade-off weights used in the Australian and Victorian Burden of Disease studies (which presently use Dutch PTO weights). Read moreRead less
Competition in medical labour markets. A sharp increase in the supply of medical practitioners has occurred in Australia. This is expensive and has uncertain effects on population health, earnings, and the distribution of medical practitioners. The aim of this project is to examine the impact of competition and increased supply on the prices charged, the quality of care provided, and the health status of patients. The research also aims to examine the location choices of medical practitioners an ....Competition in medical labour markets. A sharp increase in the supply of medical practitioners has occurred in Australia. This is expensive and has uncertain effects on population health, earnings, and the distribution of medical practitioners. The aim of this project is to examine the impact of competition and increased supply on the prices charged, the quality of care provided, and the health status of patients. The research also aims to examine the location choices of medical practitioners and is expected to generate new and important evidence using unique longitudinal data.Read moreRead less
Patterns of Buyer Behaviour in China. A mainstream interest of marketers is the study of buyer behaviour (i.e., brand choice, repeat-purchase, switching, loyalty, segmentation, etc.) Much is known. But virtually all of this knowledge comes from Western studies. Yet non-Western nations, such as China, are now immensely important trading partners for the West.
This is the first systematic study of buyer behaviour in China to be based on formal analyses of consumer panel data. An assessment wil ....Patterns of Buyer Behaviour in China. A mainstream interest of marketers is the study of buyer behaviour (i.e., brand choice, repeat-purchase, switching, loyalty, segmentation, etc.) Much is known. But virtually all of this knowledge comes from Western studies. Yet non-Western nations, such as China, are now immensely important trading partners for the West.
This is the first systematic study of buyer behaviour in China to be based on formal analyses of consumer panel data. An assessment will be made of how our analytical models, and associated findings, extend to new conditions (e.g., new geographical markets, sub-regions, traditional Chinese goods, different groups of buyers, etc.).Read moreRead less
Modelling the Diffusion of Innovation in Marketing Research. This project will identify and explain the utilisation of marketing research in Australian organisations. The major (but not exclusive) focus will be the diffusion of Internet-based marketing research innovations. Previous studies of marketing research have been limited, through focussing on only one sector (such as tourism) or aspect of usage, or by using small samples, or by excluding important Internet innovations or managerial eval ....Modelling the Diffusion of Innovation in Marketing Research. This project will identify and explain the utilisation of marketing research in Australian organisations. The major (but not exclusive) focus will be the diffusion of Internet-based marketing research innovations. Previous studies of marketing research have been limited, through focussing on only one sector (such as tourism) or aspect of usage, or by using small samples, or by excluding important Internet innovations or managerial evaluations. This project will investigate the diffusion of marketing research across many industrial sectors, over several years. The project will yield "benchmarking" benefits of immediate value, and enduring benefits through the continuing evaluation of innovative research practices.Read moreRead less
Exploring Consumers' Switching and Loyalty Behaviours: Brand Relationship Dynamics. For marketers and academics, understanding the ways that consumers develop relationships with brands is of utmost importance. Brands may inspire loyalty, repeat purchases, continued use, and switching behaviour over time. Yet, continued brand usage and switching behaviours have not yet been studied systematically from a relationship perspective. Fournier's (1998) perspective on brand relationships is used to unde ....Exploring Consumers' Switching and Loyalty Behaviours: Brand Relationship Dynamics. For marketers and academics, understanding the ways that consumers develop relationships with brands is of utmost importance. Brands may inspire loyalty, repeat purchases, continued use, and switching behaviour over time. Yet, continued brand usage and switching behaviours have not yet been studied systematically from a relationship perspective. Fournier's (1998) perspective on brand relationships is used to understand changes in brand behaviours as changes in underlying consumer-brand relationships. This study, using qualitative semi-structured interviews and longitudinal brand diary keeping, will uncover the personal, social, and cultural meanings associated with brand-related changes, significantly advancing our understanding of brand relationship dynamics.
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Modelling Consumer Decision States. This research will examine the evolution of consumer decision states as products/categories mature and investigate how choice experiments can be developed to predict new product choices. Technological developments have made it feasible to expose large numbers of respondents to choice experiments enhanced with a process of Information Acceleration. A longitudinal experimental approach is proposed that monitors consumers' awareness, consideration and choice for ....Modelling Consumer Decision States. This research will examine the evolution of consumer decision states as products/categories mature and investigate how choice experiments can be developed to predict new product choices. Technological developments have made it feasible to expose large numbers of respondents to choice experiments enhanced with a process of Information Acceleration. A longitudinal experimental approach is proposed that monitors consumers' awareness, consideration and choice for one mature and two new products. This will allow for the developing of models that take into account the different rates at which consumers progress through decision states, leading to improved forecasts of new product trial and adoption.Read moreRead less
A cognitive model for identifying optimal measures of beliefs. Belief measures are of high practical relevance. One current national example is measurement of beliefs about recycled water, which will affect state and territory governments' water conservation policies. Another is cultural values, measures of which can form the basis for initiatives to improve social harmony in Australia. The knowledge gained, however, is only as good as the validity of the belief measure employed. We will analyse ....A cognitive model for identifying optimal measures of beliefs. Belief measures are of high practical relevance. One current national example is measurement of beliefs about recycled water, which will affect state and territory governments' water conservation policies. Another is cultural values, measures of which can form the basis for initiatives to improve social harmony in Australia. The knowledge gained, however, is only as good as the validity of the belief measure employed. We will analyse the main types of measures used at present and develop improved belief measures which, when published, will increase the quality of research in the social sciences and enhance Australia's international scientific reputation.Read moreRead less
The identification and measurement of equity and other health sector objectives. The project will investigate public expectations and values about the health system. The results will: (i) challenge the recent WHO evaluation of health systems in which 75 percent of the total score came from objectives other than population health; (ii) provide policy makers with numerical scores to indicate the relative importance of different broad objectives (such as access and the distribution of health servic ....The identification and measurement of equity and other health sector objectives. The project will investigate public expectations and values about the health system. The results will: (i) challenge the recent WHO evaluation of health systems in which 75 percent of the total score came from objectives other than population health; (ii) provide policy makers with numerical scores to indicate the relative importance of different broad objectives (such as access and the distribution of health services and the question of access to services); (iii) provide health service researchers with numerical scores to indicate where there are higher priority services or recipients: for example, the young or those with long term disabilities.Read moreRead less
The effect of competition and doctor heterogeneity on prices charged by doctors. Prices charged by doctors can have important effects on health care costs, access to health care and health status. This research will examine the determinants of prices charged by doctors. The results will be important in understanding the pricing practices of doctors and their impact on health care costs.