Sonal Singh

Influencing behavioral change by customer engagement amongst youth

It is widely accepted that many social and health problems have underlying behavioral causes. Because these problems are rooted in human behavior, solutions to deal with them also lie in human behavior. This paper examines ways of integrating customer engagement in social programs to influence and initiate behavior change effectively with a special focus on youth. This work followed a theoretical deduction by use of a literature review. Social marketing places emphasis on behavior change, and one of the key challenges for social marketers is to ensure a perceived value for customers in taking up and maintaining positive behavior. If perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, and values influence behavior, then the central focus should be on the youth. Integrating youth is a prerequisite for effective social marketing programs and ultimately behavioral change. This approach will pave the way for effective brand positioning and brand loyalty in social marketing which has been lacking and requires more attention from researchers and policymakers. This paper outlines theoretical developments in social marketing that will increase the effectiveness of social marketing programs overall. Existing social marketing literature typically focuses on social marketing interventions and behavioral change. This paper uses customer engagement within a social marketing context so that social marketing programs are perceived as brands to which youth can relate.

Creating Alternate Futures Through Higher Education: The Refugee Mentoring Program

Abstract The transition from high school to university can be challenging and demanding for both young people and their families when even the most supportive conditions exist. For young people who have been through the refugee process, it can be particularly fraught for a number of reasons. These may include, e.g., challenges associated with the development of language competence, coping with posttraumatic stress disorder and its various manifestations, and dealing with significant differences in cultural expectations between family and school. In this chapter we present a case study of a university/school collaborative mentoring program that targeted young people from refugee backgrounds in Western Sydney, Australia. Issues associated with development and implementation of the program are presented and discussed, along with evaluative data on program effectiveness.

Interplay between entrepreneurial characteristics, organisational structure, corporate culture and SME performance: empirical results from Fiji Islands

This paper demonstrates how entrepreneurial characteristics, organisational structure and corporate culture combine synergistically within an eclectic framework of performance influenced by corporate growth, management’s optimism and product diversification in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Fiji Islands. Data analysis and key findings from a survey of 360 respondents indicate that performance of SMEs is neither influenced by the age nor the education level of the entrepreneur but rather their gender and ethnicity. Competitor orientation contributes more to the performance of SMEs than customer orientation. The implications of these findings with respect to SMEs in Fiji are discussed.

Towards Strong Local Governance: Current Reform Scenario in Fiji

This article examines how the historical context of poor central-local relations and inefficient service delivery structure is used by the current military-led government in Fiji as a ploy for its local government reform agenda. Based on an analysis of secondary information on local government structure and a review of the reforms undertaken by the Review/Reform Committee, this article identifies the concentration of economic and political power at the central level as one of the major obstacles towards empowering local governance in Fiji. The article emphasizes the need for effective institutional reforms to devolve governance and resources from the centre to the grassroots.