Cue utilization in the product authentication process: a framework and research agenda for product counterfeit prevention

Scholars suggest that consumers rely on heuristics to evaluate products. They employ both extrinsic and intrinsic cues to evaluate product quality and utilize the same cues to differentiate between counterfeit and genuine products. This has far-reaching public health, economic, product authentication, and even criminal justice policy implications due to the emerging ideas of criminalizing the purchase of counterfeit goods. In order to predict the viability and the possible effects of such a policy, a thorough understanding of consumer attitudes toward counterfeits, purchase motivation, and behavior, as well as of their ability to distinguish between genuine and counterfeit goods, is imperative. Building on cue utilization theory, this article develops a framework for understanding how consumers develop and utilize heuristics for product authentication in the context of intellectual property infringements and outlines a research agenda. Additionally, it helps to inform the development of prevention and enforcement efforts, in consumer education and enforcement agent training, as well as a basis for policy decisions.     

The development and initial testing of the AIM2 framework to assess risk and strengths in young people who sexually offend

Abstract

This paper describes the AIM2 assessment framework and the process of its development and initial testing. AIM2 is used to assess areas of concerns and strengths of young people. Some preliminary analysis is described, including the correlation of assessment items, their ability to discriminate between cases, their inter-rater reliability and a small-scale recidivist study. These analyses were used to develop AIM2. Results from the recidivist study identified a particular set of concern and strength factors associated with recidivism in the sample. We conclude that the inclusion of strengths-related items are important to consider as protective factors when assessing the risk of further sexually abusive behaviours. Limitations and future directions of AIM2 are also discussed.     

Dilemmas and Dimensions of Non-indigenous Organisms and Pathogens in the Marine Environment: A Sea Change

“Although scientific and technical approaches are indispensable in managing the problem, bioinvasions are fundamentally a human phenomenon, driven by economic activity and by our choices as consumers, travelers, gardeners, pet owners, fishermen, and so on … No one advocates an attempt to unscramble the world's biota and return it to some historical state, even if that were possible … Our ultimate goal ust be … to preserve or restore something we value: native biodiversity and the wild places and systems where it can thrive, the look of a landscape, a sense of place, the functioning of an ecosystem, the economic productivity of our working lands and waters, the health of people, animals, and plants.” ^{2 2} Yvonne Baskin, A Plague of Rats and Rubbervines: The Growing Threat of Species Invasions, 8, 17 (2002).      

Freedom of information: Developments in the United Kingdom

The great Iranian whodunit

Edward Shirley (pseud.): Know Thine Enemy: A Spy's Journey into Revolutionary Iran, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1997, 247 p. $24.00

The big con game

John Barron: Operation SOLO: The FBI's Man in the Kremlin, Regnery Publishing, Inc., Washington, D.C., 1996, 368 p., $24.95.     

Territorialising Sustainable Development: The Politics of Land-use Planning in Laos

Since the emergence of the sustainable development paradigm in the late 1980s, land-use planning has become a key arena for political debates over society-environment interactions and, in practice, an important means for territorialisation projects. The paper reviews the main planning approaches that have been employed over the past three decades in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, a country that has long been viewed as a valuable policy testing ground for the proponents of sustainable development. It highlights three concurrent territorialisation projects that have shaped the history of land-use planning and have fuelled tensions between central and subnational governments and local actors, national and foreign institutions, and land suitability and sustainability approaches. The paper argues that the latter tensions reflect an important dynamism and reactivity in the planning arena. It concludes that the capacity of land-use planners to adapt to specific contexts and evolving socio-environmental challenges should be harnessed in order to reconcile conflicting approaches to planning and, perhaps, to achieve sustainable development.     

Policy framing: Interest groups and the lead up to 1996 inter‐governmental conference

This article (completed before the Amsterdam Summit in June 1997) examines the ongoing attempts by key non‐governmental actors to influence the agenda of the 1996 Inter‐governmental Confederence (IGC). This IGC constitutes a good example of the ‘garbage‐can’ model of organisational choice, characterised by solutions chasing problems and problems chasing solutions. In the absence of a fixed agenda, key groups such as businesses, trades unions and environmentalists compete to ‘frame’ the IGC debates in a manner consistent with their own interests. Building on the policy fashion of the 1980s and 1990s, business has been particularly successful in establishing ‘competititveness’ as a central theme. Other groups, such as environmentalists and trade union may secure ‘side payments’ in return for continued support for European integration. As the IGC progresses, groups are likely to reformulate their preferences and engage in continuous ad hoc coalition‐building in order to achieve their objectives.     

Human rights fine a small price to pay for large royalty snatch

The failure of the UK government to deal expeditiously withan application to recover copyright royalties to which a formerstate employee turned spy was entitled constituted a violationof the human right to be tried in a reasonable time-frame.     

Disclosing Conflicts of Interest in Clinical Research: Views of Institutional Review Boards, Conflict of Interest Committees, and Investigators

Strategies for disclosing investigators' financial interests to potential research participants have been adopted by many research institutions. However, little is known about how decisions are made regarding disclosures of financial interests to potential research participants, including what is disclosed and the rationale for making these determinations. We sought to understand the attitudes, beliefs, and practices of institutional review board chairs, conflict of interest committee chairs, and investigators regarding disclosure of financial interests to potential research participants. Several themes emerged, including general attitudes toward conflicts of interest, circumstances in which financial interests should be disclosed, rationales and benefits of disclosure, what should be disclosed, negative effects of and barriers to disclosure, and timing and presentation of disclosure. Respondents cited several rationales for disclosure, including enabling informed decision making, promoting trust in researchers and research institutions, and reducing legal liability. There was general agreement that disclosure should happen early in the consent process. Respondents disagreed about whether to disclose the amounts of particular financial interests. Clarifying the goals of disclosure and understanding how potential research participants use the information will be critical in efforts to ensure the integrity of clinical research and to protect the rights and interests of participants.     

The MMORPG the merrier

Conducting an online search in late March 2006, an internetuser who keyed in the curious word ‘MMORPG’ wouldhave received more than 22 million hits. This confirms the growingsuspicion that MMORPGs are a phenomenon that is of increasingsocial, cultural, and economic significance and that, therefore,they will soon be creating fresh problems for intellectual propertylaw. MMORPGs (‘massively multiplayer online role-playing