24 research outputs found

    Neural affective mechanisms predict market-level microlending

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    Humans sometimes share with others whom they may never meet or know, in violation of the dictates of pure self-interest. Research has not established which neuropsychological mechanisms support lending decisions, nor whether their influence extends to markets involving significant financial incentives. In two studies, we found that neural affective mechanisms influence the success of requests for microloans. In a large Internet database of microloan requests (N = 13,500), we found that positive affective features of photographs promoted the success of those requests. We then established that neural activity (i.e., in the nucleus accumbens) and self-reported positive arousal in a neuroimaging sample (N = 28) predicted the success of loan requests on the Internet, above and beyond the effects of the neuroimaging sample’s own choices (i.e., to lend or not). These findings suggest that elicitation of positive arousal can promote the success of loan requests, both in the laboratory and on the Internet. They also highlight affective neuroscience’s potential to probe neuropsychological mechanisms that drive microlending, enhance the effectiveness of loan requests, and forecast market-level behavior

    Success Factors in Healthcare Crowdfunding

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    Through overseas healthcare crowdfunding, many patients from developing countries successfully collect enough money for their treatments. Knowing the importance of this alternative financing tool, we studied the factors that affect the speed of healthcare crowdfunding. Timing — that is whether the campaigns were posted before, during or after American holidays — is significantly associated with a higher funding speed. Concerning macroeconomic conditions, if two patients hold the same characteristics except for their home countries, the one from poorer country statistically completes the campaign faster than the other. Moreover, the larger portion of universal funders the campaigns have, the faster the patients obtain the predetermined funding amount with the other variables remaining constant. Similarly, a higher percentage of active funders with profile pictures or name initials is associated with a faster funding speed. Furthermore, pictures with patients smiling attract a greater percentage of active funders to donate, which positively affects the funding success in the long term

    An Annotated Bibliography of Recent Literature on Current Developments in Philanthropy

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    As philanthropic organizations play an increasingly important role in societies around the world, the research on philanthropy – from giving and volunteering practices to regulatory frameworks to digital innovations – has also evolved in recent decades. It is important to develop a thorough overview of the relevant scientific discourses and literature on current developments in philanthropy. This will allow researchers and practitioners to enhance the understanding of philanthropy and to improve its practice worldwide. This report provides new insights on current developments and important changes in the global philanthropic landscape, including trends in global philanthropy and its interaction with other sectors of society

    Prêts pair-à-pair : analyse des multi-prêteurs, du langage et de la formation de groupes

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    Cette étude vise à mieux comprendre les choix d'Investissement d'un groupe particulier de crowdfunders, en l'occurrence ceux qui financement un grand nombre de projets (n ≥10). Pour ce faire, nous utilisons les données de Kiva, la plateforme en ligne la plus importante en matière de financement participatif à but non lucratif, et désignons les prêteurs concernés sous le terme de « multi-prêteurs ». Premièrement, nous évaluons le niveau de diversification des portefeuilles de prêts des multi-prêteurs et examinons comment leur capacité à sélectionner les meilleurs projets varie en fonction du niveau de diversification adopté. Deuxièmement, nous étudions le lien entre le langage intrinsèque (langage décrivant un prêt comme une opportunité d'aider les personnes dans le besoin) et la durée des campagnes d'une part et le lien entre le langage extrinsèque (langage décrivant un prêt comme une opportunité rentable) et la durée des campagnes d'autre part. Enfin, nous examinons l'effet d'être un groupe d'emprunteurs plutôt qu'un emprunteur seul sur la durée des campagnes de financement. Les résultats obtenus révèlent qu'il y a trois niveaux de diversification (faible, moyen et élevé) et que la majorité des multi-prêteurs adoptent une diversification moyenne. Ils montrent également qu'une diversification moyenne permet aux multi-prêteurs de choisir des projets qui réussissent leur campagne de collecte de fonds en peu de temps. En ce qui concerne le langage intrinsèque et le langage extrinsèque, nous obtenons des résultats qui vont à l'encontre de ce qui avait été préalablement remarqué dans les débuts de la plateforme Kiva. En effet, le langage intrinsèque s'est révélé être associé à une augmentation de la durée des campagnes de financement et le langage extrinsèque à une réduction de cette durée. Quant aux projets qui n'ont pas bénéficié de la contribution des multi-prêteurs, les résultats indiquent que le langage intrinsèque et le langage extrinsèque sont sans incident sur la durée des campagnes de financement. Par ailleurs, cette étude met en évidence un changement dans le comportement de prêts des prêteurs Kiva au fil du temps. En effet, nous avons remarqué, qu'avant 2010 le langage intrinsèque était associé à une réduction du temps nécessaire au financement complet et que le langage extrinsèque était associé à une augmentation de ce temps mais qu'à partir de 2010, cela s'est inversé. Enfin, pour le troisième objectif nous montrons qu'être un groupe d'emprunteurs plutôt qu'un emprunteur seul réduit le temps nécessaire jusqu'au financement complet des projets

    Precarious Crossings

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    Examines the underlying precarity in twenty-first-century immigrant fiction and reveals the contradictions inherent in neoliberalism as an ideology

    “Beautiful powerful you” : an analysis of the subject positions offered to women readers of Destiny magazine

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    Women's magazines are popular cultural forms which offer readers representations intended to advise women on how to work towards and achieve idealised femininities. They perform such a function within the wider socio-historical context of gender relations. In a country such as South Africa, where patriarchal gender relations have historically been structured to favour men over women and masculinity over femininity, the representation of femininity in contemporary women's magazines may serve to reinforce or challenge these existent unequal gender relations. Informed by a feminist poststructuralist understanding of the gendered positioning of subjects through discourse, this study is a textual analysis that investigates the subject positions or possible identities offered to readers of Destiny, a South African business and lifestyle women's magazine. Black women, who make up the majority of Destiny's readership, have historically been excluded from the formal economy. In light of such a background, Destiny offers black women readers, through its representations of well-known business women, possible identities to take up within the white male dominated field of business practice. The magazine also offers 'lifestyle content', which suggests to readers possible ways of being in other areas of social life. Through a method of critical discourse analysis, this study critically analyses the subject positions offered to readers of Destiny, in order to determine to what extent the magazine's representations of business women endorse or confront unequal gender relations. The findings of this study are that Destiny offers women complex subject positions which simultaneously challenge and reassert patriarchy. While offering readers positions from which to challenge race based gender discrimination – a legacy of the apartheid past – the texts analysed tend to neglect non-racially motivated gender prejudice. It is concluded that although not comprehensively challenging unequal gender relations, the magazine whittles away some tenets of patriarchy

    2016-2017 Undergraduate Catalog

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    Contains course descriptions, academic calendar, directory, and related information.https://digitalcommons.assumption.edu/undergraduate-catalogs/1001/thumbnail.jp

    Essays on trust and online peer-to-peer markets

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    The internet has led to the rapid emergence of new organizational forms such as the sharing economy, crowdfunding and crowdlending and those based on the blockchain. Using a variety of methods, this dissertation empirically explores trust and legitimacy in these new markets as they relate to investor decision making
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