Sue L.T. McGregor

Conceptualizing immoral and unethical consumption using neutralization theory.

Neutralization is a defense mechanism through which people downplay the repercussions of their behavior. This article demonstrates the ability of neutralization theory (especially 13 neutralization techniques) to contribute theoretical understandings into how consumers can justify the negative impacts of their purchasing behavior, how they can continually or periodically rationalize their less than moral and ethical consumption decisions. Guided by the intent to galvanize empirical and interpretative consumer scholarship informed by neutralization theory, 13 consumer vignettes were developed to illustrate the powerful insights to be gained from bringing this theoretical perspective to bear on the immorality of consumption.

Consumer scholarship and transdisciplinarity

A case is made for the place of transdisciplinary inquiry in consumer scholarship. After framing consumer studies as a discipline, the paper explains seven conventional modes of disciplinarity. Then, the discussion turns to the nuances of the transdisciplinary approach, and what consumer scholarship would look like within this perspective. Seasoned and emerging consumer scholars and practitioners are invited to brave the repercussions of stepping outside of their disciplinary boundary onto a rich fertile space where the academy meets society for the betterment of humanity. Consumer scholarship will never be the same.

Modeling the Evolution of a Policy Network Using Network Analysis

A six-stage model was developed to conceptualize the evolutionary process for policy networks, using the 20-year evolution of the Canadian Electronic Funds Transfer System/Point Of Sale (EFTS/POS) policy network as an example. A content analysis of 231 policy documents was used to create individual case studies of 16 stakeholders. These cases were vetted with respective stakeholders and then amalgamated into one large, chronological case study. These attribute data were converted to relational data, in the form of 51 matrices and four sets of sociograms, and then analyzed using network analysis. The results (a) show that, with some variation, the model provides a reliable map of the evolution of policy networks and (b) confirm that network analysis captures the attributes and properties of the relational dynamics inherent in stakeholder interactions during the development of policy. This augments the traditional approach of capturing the properties of actors, organizations or policy.

Transdisciplinary Pedagogy in Higher Education: Transdisciplinary Learning, Learning Cycles and Habits of Minds

This chapter explores what might comprise a transdisciplinary pedagogy in higher education. After describing the traditional intents of higher education, the conversation turns to how these must change in order to prepare graduates for the profound complexity of the contemporary world. A canvass of the nascent literature on transdisciplinary pedagogy revealed three large ideas that merit consideration by higher education curricula planners: (a) transdisciplinary learning (compared to disciplinary learning), (b) the transdisciplinary learning cycle, and (c) transdisciplinary habits of mind. Nine possible transdisciplinary higher education pedagogies arose out of this discussion: double loop learning, deep education, integrative curriculum, inquiry-based learning, value analysis, transformative learning, authentic curriculum, paradigm shifts, and learning communities. Upon reflection, higher education curriculum planners and instructors can benefit from gaining richer understandings of what learning looks like through a transdisciplinary lens, and how their pedagogical approach can change to ensure that TD learning thrives.

Service quality and student/customer satisfaction in the private tertiary education sector in Singapore

Purpose This paper focuses on students’ perceptions of the quality of non-academic services received in higher education. While the important role played by expectations and perceptions in students’ evaluations of such services has been discussed in much of the service quality literature, there is insufficient work in the private tertiary educational sector (PTES). Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between service quality, student satisfaction, and behavioural intentions in the PTES, using Singapore as a case study. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted quantitative research to address the research questions. Primary data were collected from 324 valid responses from a survey conducted in two private tertiary educational institutes (PTEIs) in Singapore. Findings The results suggested that perceived service quality is positively correlated to satisfaction; perceived service quality and satisfaction are positively correlated to favourable behavioural intentions; and the relationships among perceived service quality and loyalty and paying more for a service are mediated by satisfaction. Originality/value This study is significant as the results provide better insights for Singaporean administrators in PTEIs, which is an under-researched area. Generally, the results will have far-reaching implications for all stakeholders in the delivery and consumption of education services in PTEIs, within and beyond Singapore.

Transleadership for Transdisciplinary Initiatives

This article shares the genesis of a new idea we called transleadership, as it is informed by Nicolescuian transdisciplinarity. While aligned with several leading edge approaches to leadership, we propose that transleadership stands out because it emerges at the convergence of seven transconcepts: complexity (emergence), logic and reality, intersubjectivity, sensemaking, tensions, power and influence, leverage, and the creation of in vivo, hybrid knowledge. Transleadership accommodates the intricate and complex process of leading a diverse collection of (often contradictory) people, ideas, and consciousness to a new space and place where transdisciplinary knowledge can be created to address wicked problems facing humanity, using transdisciplinary thinking.

Introduction to Special Issue on Transdisciplinarity

This special issue focuses on transdisciplinarity, understood as iteratively crossing back and forth and moving among and beyond disciplinary and sectoral boundaries to solve the complex, wicked problems of humanity. Five contemporary ideas are featured: (a) transleadership for transdisciplinary initiatives; (b) transdisciplinarity as a methodology for knowledge creation; (c) transdisciplinary conceptual change (mental shifts); (d) the transdisciplinary individual; (e) transdisciplinary generativity. In the first article, Sue L. T. McGregor and Gabrielle Donnelly tender, for the first time, the concept of transleadership, as it is informed by Nicolescuian transdisciplinarity. They offer the translead concept, which accommodates the intricate and complex process of leading a diverse collection of (often contradictory) people, ideas and consciousness to a new space and place where transdisciplinary knowledge can be created to address wicked problems facing humanity, using transdisciplinary thinking. Transleadership is concerned with bringing diverse minds together to better ensure the emergence and evolution of powerful, innovative approaches to wicked problems. They propose that transleadership emerges at the convergence of seven transconcepts (extrapolated from the literature via a thematic analysis): complexity (emergence), logic and reality, intersubjectivity, sensemaking, tensions, power and influence, leverage, and the creation of in vivo hybrid knowledge. Transleadership reflects the current shift of leadership as a solely individual activity to leadership as a co-creative act. Basarab Nicolescu prepared an article on transdisciplinarity as a new methodology for creating knowledge. He is considered to be the leading proponent of this approach. From his grounding in quantum physics, he describes three axioms of a transdisciplinary methodology, which he has worked out over the last 40 years: ontology (multiple Levels of Reality mediated by the Hidden Third), the Logic of the Included Middle, and knowledge as complex, emergent, and alive (epistemology). Nicolescu concludes that humanity is on the threshold of a New Renaissance, whereby people are getting closer to accepting that reality is plastic, knowledge is alive, and that addressing complex, emergent problems requires inclusive logic. He

Transdisciplinarity and Conceptual Change

This article tenders an inaugural discussion of how conceptual change theory can contribute to deeper understandings of what is conceptually involved when people attempt (or succeed) to transition from multi- and interdisciplinarity to transdisciplinarity. After explaining the nuances of Newtonian thinking (framed as formal rather than postformal thinking), the article shares a comparison of multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinarity along four dimensions. Special attention is given to Nicolescuian transdisciplinarity, an approach predicated on the new sciences of quantum physics, chaos theory, and living systems theory (rather than Newtonian and Cartesian thinking). Nicolescuian transdisciplinarity is a new methodology for creating knowledge and it comprises three axioms: multiple Levels of Reality and the Hidden Third; the Logic of the Inclusive Middle; and, knowledge as complex, emergent, and embodied. The discussion then turns to an overview of three basic approaches to conceptual change theory: knowledge as theory, knowledge as elements, and knowledge as context. The author then applies conceptual change theory to understand what is involved in moving toward transdisciplinary thinking, including four elements necessary for conceptual change to occur (intelligibility, plausibility, fruitfulness, and dissatisfaction with existing conceptualizations and mental models). The article concludes with the idea that transdisciplinary thinking is a form of postformal thinking (especially paradigmatic order thinking) and suggests that future conceptual shifts toward transdisciplinarity involve achieving a transdisciplinary conceptual tipping point.

Consumer Perceptions of Responsibility

This chapter is an inaugural attempt to conceptualize consumer perceptions of responsibility. In the introduction, the author makes the case for the emergent but under researched phenomenon of consumers’ self-ascribed sense of social responsibility. After teasing out the philosophical concept of responsibility, and the basic tenets of consumer perception theory, they are linked together for new insights into how this theory can inform understandings of consumer perceptions of responsibility. The scarce but growing body of literature about consumer perceptions of responsibilities is then summarized. This literature includes consumer felt responsibility, a sense of consumer responsibility, consumer orientations to responsibility, and corporations as architects of consumer perceptions of responsibility. The chapter ends with a discussion of how culture informs consumers’ perceptions of responsibilities. This includes an overview of Western and Eastern notions of responsibility, a summary of Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory and how it informs consumers’ perceptions of responsibilities, wrapping up with an exploration of the impact of the consumer culture on consumer perceptions of responsibilities. Scholars and practitioners are challenged to champion the evolution of the concept of consumer perceptions of responsibilities, with this chapter serving as an attempt to scaffold and jump start this political, philosophical, theoretical, and practical exercise.

Enriching Responsible Living Curricula with Transdisciplinarity

This chapter tenders a new approach for enriching responsible living curricula predicated on transdisciplinarity. It weaves together four large ideas to support the argument that learners can make more responsible life choices if they are exposed to a transdisciplinary-informed curriculum: transdisciplinary knowledge, transdisciplinary habits of mind (cognitive skills), transdisciplinary learning (iterative cycle), and the transdisciplinary learning approach (including the four pillars of education needed for the 21st century). The entire discussion is grounded in Professor Dr. Basarab Nicolescu’s approach to transdisciplinarity: Multiple Levels of Reality mediated by the Hidden Third (to reconcile conflicting perspectives); the Logic of the Included Middle; and, knowledge as complex, emergent, embodied and cross-fertilized.