Value-Based Segmentation of Community Stakeholders - Book Report/Review Example

Value based segmentation of community stakeholders A Critique By Devangini Mahapatra Chauhan With management of the natural environment having come to a critical phase in the past decade, organizations and governments alike are now in full throttle where these issues are concerned. This has ushered in an era of research and the subsequent modeling of theories upon which to develop applications that will help authorities arrive at breakthroughs where the arena of natural area management is concerned. The primary finding in this area as etched out by C. Winter, M. Lockwood and Morrison in their paper titled Value Based Segmentation of Community Stakeholders, demonstrates the fact that without the support of well defined partnerships, the government alone cannot do much. In their paper, these writers have tried to bring out the applications in context of community stakeholders who are those parties responsible for drawing from the natural resources to deal with consumer pressure and governmental regulations. These applications define how participation of people and strategic partnerships can help deploy the natural resources in keeping with the scarce nature of these resources, so as to ensure effective and optimum utilization with minimum depletion apart from coming up with techniques for gradual restoration in qualitative and quantitative terms. The paper explores and examines challenges and lessons learned from the implementation of community based natural resources management programmes various areas apart from being largely on primary data, with some secondary data sources. Further, the writers have drawn on various frameworks that have the potential to promote rural socio-economic development and natural resources management. Among the key factors identified as pivotal to the success of these frameworks and applications is broadening the consultation base during the mobilization phase of the programmes to facilitate effective community participation and representation. Preparedness by both the implementing institutions and participating communities is also highlighted as key to effective mobilization. This means moving away from a conventional consultative forum, to a more multi-faceted approach that will facilitate capturing the views of diverse user groups within the community. This paper lacks clarity where compliance strategies for various organizations - especially the privately owned one - are concerned. How do these applications plan of substituting the preparedness for these laws with a measure of deliberation where natural resources are concerned' The paper needs to accommodate the addressal of such issues where the role of each individual is concerned at a level where goals and the achievement of same as well as strategic implications for organization planning need to be taken into account. Further, as far as strategic elements of the applications are concerned, the paper needs to address the rights as far as partnership patterns in particular areas go. While the paper goes ahead to suggest that feasibility studies are required to address the above mentioned issues in terms of socio-economic, political and cultural characteristics inherent in communities to guide programme implementation, it has been recognized that these factors also go a long way in formulating an ethical approach to the research model used for such topics. In order to achieve increased community participation in order to enhance positive conservation attitudes, the paper discusses how a mobilization approach and practice will go ahead to facilitate the process and render it more effective at the end of the day. As far as research goes, this paper shows the merits and demerits of segmentation with a focus on the fundamental concepts of sociology. Realizing the potential benefits of segmentation in general, it goes on to make a case for value based practices in this regard as far as a critical understanding of the resource management settings and their contextual significance is concerned on an individual level. Further, with a clear distinction between the creation and analysis of data, this paper demonstrates clarity in the arena of the actions, behavior as well as research instruments in the stake holder's range of activities. This brings out the crux of sustainable development as far as value based segmentation and its implications are concerned. While segmentation studies have been dominated by practical surveys and cluster based analysis, the theories set forth in this paper suggest that values are the key element in determining an individual's behavior and preferences in context of various environmental issues. This is where the paper takes an ethical note by describing how robust models that attempt to describe empirical relationships have not come up with the desired or accurate results. In this case, the social variables are taken in context of quantitative research in the form of creation and use of resources, the stakeholder's contribution and other related factors that are important for the effective operation of this model. Consequently, the paper surges forward on the basis of a model that has laid the foundation for the precise description of certain ethic based relationships between values and preferences for the future management of natural areas. This has been achieved with the use of a new scale, i.e., the Natural Area Value Scale (NAVS), for measuring the relative strengths of individuals' intrinsic, non-use, use and recreation values for natural areas sufficing as the key element of the model. Apart from this, a variable that grouped people according to their common values has held special significance considering the fact that this paper places special emphasis on the ethic based creation of value based segmentation in its research quality and implications. It is imperative to note that segmentation is not a new technique, considering it has been'used constantly as a people-centric way of dividing the participant's and receiver's population by focusing on demographics related to the'area to be managed. This helps align aspirations to stakeholder segments in the area management process. The emerging trends in this arena point to a process of dividing the stakeholder population that shifts to a value-centric segmentation. In this regard, the polestar is on the active and passive attributes of needs and value. In effect, these attributes go on to describe the relationship between a participant and the area that this individual or group of individuals is familiar with, as well as the customer's long term value in a given project that has to do with sustainable development through effective management of the natural area and related resources. With the use of ethnography as a model of social analysis and research for complementing the elements sued to describe the model, the authors of the paper have attempted to describe the various methodologies that subscribe to the segmentation of participants on the basis of a value based model. Even though the analysis of segmentation studies is typically dominated by two prototypical designs, i.e., an a priori segmentation design and a clustering based segmentation design, there have been several major conceptual and methodological developments found to be of relevance in academic literature. In this context, the advancement of any kind of segmentation research depends largely on the effective narrowing of the gap that exists between the academically oriented research on segmentation and the application of segmentation research in the real world. In this regard, the paper examines the discrepancies that exist between the academic arena and the real world application process, so as to unravel a state where value will play an intrinsic role in determining the elements that should be derived from the priori segmentation design and the cluster based segmentation design in a bid to achieve the foundation for the building of a value based model for the segmentation of the stakeholders in the natural area management process. Further, the demands of such a model include the elements of sustainable development as well as the representation of various needs through a need based analysis in this arena. While clusters have been used as an underscore to understand the nuances of the nature of area based management by separate groups of people and interest groups forming the bulk of stakeholders, this paper also has elements of the priori segmentation design to demonstrate how the loyalty and demographic factor as far as value based elements are concerned. This is where the paper takes on the mantle of demonstrating the use of qualitative research for the understanding and measurement of various social phenomena attached to the operation of such models. In this case, there is a concerted effort to embrace the elements of participatory rural based approach in determining the research attitude and approach used by the authors of the paper. Successful'value based segmentation may be described as one that goes on to provide an understanding of when and how the population at the receiving end is likely to derive value, and how the stakeholder can effectively implement development programs to provide that share of value in the achievement of its development goals. In this, the model of participatory rural based approach is demonstrated through the quality of social inquiry that the authors have indulged in. In a nutshell, this inquiry helps give a summation of the purpose of research as regard the areas and their relevant stakeholders. The points of this inquiry may be described as follows: 1) Perform value based segmentation on the basis of stakeholder participation, 2) Perform targeted (response) modeling per segment'through the segmentation model, 3) Develop segment-based positioning statements, and development strategies in order to achieve'favorable customer response, and 4) Implement segment-based development strategies through stakeholders' communication and their activities. In this way, there is a "power balance" apparent in the research and analysis technique as far as the creation of reflection through the data obtained is concerned. While the data obtained was primarily from the samples of the general public, environmentalists in various areas were also analyzed to accommodate a structural equation model. The overall implications of this model lay in its the relative importance of particular value components in where the structural determination of nature conservation preferences were concerned. Apart from an individuals' willingness to make sacrifices on a personal basis in order to secure these preferences for protecting natural areas, this model fit differed for various samples. The implication of this is the fact that it provided a good fit for the general public sample, for which it was designed, and weaker fit for environmentalists. This finding contributes to a clearer understanding of the values that act as an underscore for the conservation decisions taken by the stakeholders. Also, it provides a basis for further research to develop the model's explanatory power as far as relevance of the stakeholder value in context of the physical environment is concerned. As far as the rural participatory model is concerned, the valued-based marketing practice assists in building enhanced understanding of the relationship between individual actions and the stakeholder's value in a project. As far as natural area management is concerned, the goal is to help participants test the various approaches as regards their effect on the value rendered to the process by the stakeholder. In this way, the paper has provided another important measure for informed decision-making in terms of research and the formulation of a strategy on that basis. In this regard, the tools used in this process include research classics such as segmentation, positioning, simulation, and forecasting, coupled with social science approaches such as resource allocation (geographies, categories, participatory model) resource optimization, cost analysis, process analysis, participant profitability and balanced results and their presentation. While value is not a very widely used term in social science research, as compared to strategy development, most studies in these areas fail to simultaneously and comprehensively define and consequently address the major dimensions of the participant, activity space and capabilities of stakeholders. For better understanding of participatory models along value based lines, in this paper, the authors have committed to a design-for-decision approach which defines the basic terms one requires in order to effectively address the issues specific to the various categories of participants and stakeholders involved. In this regard, the end result is that the authors provide various examples of tools and frameworks which can be used to implement an action and value-oriented approach in a practical and time-sensitive manner. The findings in this regard go ahead to suggest that environmentalists and stakeholders in various areas are more likely to respond to an extension program consistent with these motivations rather than a specific program aimed at the promotion of resource use efficiency. As far as ethics go, the authors need to examine ways in which value based segmentation will assist the participants of natural area management where management of environmental information and the quality of response to environmental crises are concerned. In this regard, the point missed out by the applications is one that has to do with the fact that effective response to such crises depends on the issues tackled by the stakeholders when it comes to the level of environmental commitment as regards the sources of information. This also has an influence on the level of value based segmentation of these stakeholders owing to their balance between negative and positive practices where their perceptions taken in tandem with the relative importance of their sources if information as well as the influence asserted by each individual on the natural environmental practices of the region are concerned. References: 1. Birckhead, J; Allan, C. People and Place: Social Science Dimensions. Faculty of Science. Module 2. Learning Material Centre, Charles Strut University, Australia. November 2006. 2. Winter C, Lockwood M, Morrison. Value Based Segmentation of Community Stakeholders: Applications for natural area management. 2003 Read More