Social Media Influencers- A Review of Operations Management Literature

This literature review provides a comprehensive survey of research on Social Media Influencers (SMIs) across the fields of SMIs in marketing, seeding strategies, influence maximization and applications of SMIs in society. Specifically, we focus on examining the methods employed by researchers to reach their conclusions. Through our analysis, we identify opportunities for future research that align with emerging areas and unexplored territories related to theory, context, and methodology. This approach offers a fresh perspective on existing research, paving the way for more effective and impactful studies in the future. Additionally, gaining a deeper understanding of the underlying principles and methodologies of these concepts enables more informed decision-making when implementing these strategie

Digital marketing in retail : what are the benefits a Swiss premium department store could reap when adapting to the changing environment of digitization? A maturity model

The force of digitization has empowered customers with an omni-present access to a worldwide bazar of products and information. This shift has compelled traditional retailers to expand their channels and touchpoints to wherever the customer wishes to be served. The new scattered landscape of touchpoints and the rapid development of increasingly sophisticated technology have confronted marketers with new challenges and opportunities alike. Meanwhile, Swiss premium department stores, are still considered ‘nondigital’. This thesis addressed their need for both an analysis of digital marketing tools and a guideline for its implementation. Therefore, the aim of this Bachelor’s thesis was to outline the benefits of a digital marketing transformation and to offer a new customercentric digital marketing maturity model tailored to Swiss Premium Department Stores. The research therefore focused on determining maturity stages and goals through an analysis of current marketing-, retail- and customer trends. Furthermore, digital marketing tools have been evaluated based on their benefits and were aligned to the corresponding stages. The findings show that a digital transformation is a rapidly evolving process retailers essentially need to keep up with. The thesis suggests three key milestones of a digital transformation to build an essential basis for the implementation of future technology: Mobile, big data and RFID. The major benefits of a digital transformation result from the increased connectivity of the customer that allows real-time interaction throughout the entire shopping journey. With new technological solutions, such as beacon technology, marketers are able to identify a customer before entering a store. Another major benefit, presents the increased on- and offline convergence, especially through interactive shopping tools such augmented reality. Both of the mentioned technologies benefit from big data, which allows to use a unified customer view to apply personalization as a powerful tool for almost any marketing appliance. Another significant finding is the extension of existing maturity models from a current final maturity stage of ‘omni-channel’ to ‘No- Line retail’. No-Line refers to collaboration with suppliers and competitors to jointly promote a shopping area. The digital marketing maturity model has been tested at the example of Magazine zum Globus AG. Testing the model has proved its applicability. Nevertheless, it is not universally valid. The model is tailored to Swiss Premium Department stores. Further research should focus on the possible synergies that can be generated within the retailing sector through emerging trends, such as smart-cities, to enhance ‘No-Line’ retail

Out of a Clear Green Sky: Online dialogues surrounding commercial passenger air travel & sustainability, post-COVID.

Even as it deals with the fallout from COVID-19 travel restrictions, commercial passenger air travel finds itself approaching an even bigger challenge: that of its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions through its everyday operations, which also contribute to its increasing vulnerability. As a complex transportation infrastructure, air travel is key to many other systems around the world in economic, social, logistical, political, and cultural spaces, and its entrenchment in these systems is driven in part by our own expectations of air travel as being an available option. However, the COVID-19 travel bans have brought a huge shock to air travel, and also a rare opportunity in this very busy industry to pause and deeply reimagine what the future could be. Through an exploratory process of using strategic and ethnographic foresight, and analyzing the differences between how air travel is conceived both in formal and informal online discourses, key insights are generated as to the possible areas of leverage for getting the air travel industry to change faster, and also to help its passengers care more about sustainability

PRIVATE INVESTMENT IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN ASIA

This study addresses the questions of future sources of technology for increasing food and agricultural production by considering the situation in Asia. This region of the world is particularly appropriate for studying these questions because of the dynamic changes in population and incomes. How much private research is there and what is it producing? Will the private sector compensate for declining public agricultural research investments in Asia? What can governments do to stimulate private research and protect farmers from harmful or defective technology? Agribusiness firm's R&D investments were evaluated in selected developing countries during 1996 and 1998 and compared with data from a similar study conducted in the mid-1980s. The largest amount of private research was in India where investment was about $55 million per year in the mid-1990s, followed by Thailand, Malaysia, and China. China's private R&D spending represents less than one one-hundredth of 1 percent of agricultural gross domestic product. In contrast, in Thailand and Malaysia, firms spent about 0.1 percent. From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, private sector R&D grew in real terms in the countries in our sample. However, at this rate, private research will not fill the gap needed to support rapid growth in demand for agricultural products. Foreign firms made an important contribution to private research in all of these countries. The most important policy that helped induce this growth was liberalization of industrial policy that allowed private and foreign firms to operate and expand in agricultural input industries. A second important policy was investments in public research. Patents and tax incentives seem to have had little effect so far, but could be important in the future.Agricultural research and development (R&D), private sector R&D, technology transfer, Asian R&D, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Social media, political polarization, and political disinformation: a review of the scientific literature

The following report is intended to provide an overview of the current state of the literature on the relationship between social media; political polarization; and political “disinformation,” a term used to encompass a wide range of types of information about politics found online, including “fake news,” rumors, deliberately factually incorrect information, inadvertently factually incorrect information, politically slanted information, and “hyperpartisan” news. The review of the literature is provided in six separate sections, each of which can be read individually but that cumulatively are intended to provide an overview of what is known — and unknown — about the relationship between social media, political polarization, and disinformation. The report concludes by identifying key gaps in our understanding of these phenomena and the data that are needed to address them

Social media, political polarization, and political disinformation: a review of the scientific literature

The following report is intended to provide an overview of the current state of the literature on the relationship between social media; political polarization; and political “disinformation,” a term used to encompass a wide range of types of information about politics found online, including “fake news,” rumors, deliberately factually incorrect information, inadvertently factually incorrect information, politically slanted information, and “hyperpartisan” news. The review of the literature is provided in six separate sections, each of which can be read individually but that cumulatively are intended to provide an overview of what is known — and unknown — about the relationship between social media, political polarization, and disinformation. The report concludes by identifying key gaps in our understanding of these phenomena and the data that are needed to address them

Covid Conspiracy Theories in Global Perspective

Covid Conspiracy Theories in Global Perspective examines how conspiracy theories and related forms of misinformation and disinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic have circulated widely around the world. Covid conspiracy theories have attracted considerable attention from researchers, journalists, and politicians, not least because conspiracy beliefs have the potential to negatively affect adherence to public health measures. While most of this focus has been on the United States and Western Europe, this collection provides a unique global perspective on the emergence and development of conspiracy theories through a series of case studies. The chapters have been commissioned by recognized experts on area studies and conspiracy theories. The chapters present case studies on how Covid conspiracism has played out (some focused on a single country, others on regions), using a range of methods from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including history, politics, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Collectively, the authors reveal that, although there are many narratives that have spread virally, they have been adapted for different uses and take on different meanings in local contexts. This volume makes an important contribution to the rapidly expanding field of academic conspiracy theory studies, as well as being of interest to those working in the media, regulatory agencies, and civil society organizations, who seek to better understand the problem of how and why conspiracy theories spread