The Role of Consumer Surveys in Public Policy Decision Making

The Harm Chain

“…Identifying each group's expectations is essential. It would be extremely dangerous to believe organizations, or public policy makers, understand what each stakeholder group expects without some systematic evaluation process which in marketing parlance would be akin to assuming one knows what customers want, without ever asking them (Hastak et al, 2001). Hence, defining the scope of these issues is critical to developing successful solutions (Lober, 1997;Hastak et al, 2001).…”

“…It would be extremely dangerous to believe organizations, or public policy makers, understand what each stakeholder group expects without some systematic evaluation process which in marketing parlance would be akin to assuming one knows what customers want, without ever asking them (Hastak et al, 2001). Hence, defining the scope of these issues is critical to developing successful solutions (Lober, 1997;Hastak et al, 2001). In regards to identifying what these groups have at stake, this is closely related to phase one of the stakeholder process, as this considers how the stakeholder can be directly or indirectly harmed or impacted by the activities of other stakeholders.…”

“…How can those who are harmed be protected? Whilst public policy processes are often designed to explicitly involve a diverse range of stakeholders in the development of specific "regulations" or solutions (Altman and Petkus, 1994;Hastak et al, 2001) it is unclear if this means involving all stakeholders associated with the generation and regulation of harm. Chilton (2000) argues that existing public policy processes frequently fail to effectively consider the full network of exchanges that bring about and regulate harm.…”

Developing Better Public Policy to Motivate Responsible Environmental Behavior–An Examination of Managers' Attitudes and Perceptions Towards Controlling Introduced Species

“…Any failure to include these groups and their interests will potentially impede the success of policies (Altman and Petkus 1994, Buurma 2001, Gregory and Keeney 1994, Hastak et al 2001. Some authors have gone so far as to suggest that the only way to truly tackle large macro issues is through broad based collaboration (Gregory and Keeney 1994, Lober 1997, Sharma et al 1994.…”

“…That is, governmental activities will not bring about the desired social outcomes (Buurma 2001, Hastak et al 2001, i.e. the reduction of smoking in the example above.…”