Keep your eyes on the goal! The impact of consumer goal pursuit on the effectiveness of subtle marketing cues

Consumers are exposed daily to various subtle marketing stimuli such as colors, brand logos, products characterized by multiple attributes or advertising messages bombarding them from numerous channels. All these subtle marketing cues can influence consumer judgment and decision-making, very often without their awareness. This dissertation demonstrates how states of varying motivational intensity (active vs. completed goals; unfulfilled vs. fulfilled desires) affect how consumers respond to such subtle marketing cues. Some examples of such cues specifically explored in this dissertation are primes (subtle cues incidentally activating knowledge structures such as trait concepts and stereotypes; Bargh, Chen, and Burrows 1996) or assortment cues. These subtle marketing stimuli are often embedded in the context, but are at the same time inconspicuous and unobtrusive, mildly steering consumers into specific decisions and choices. Through a specific focus on states of varying motivational intensity this dissertation pinpoints when and how subtle marketing cues are most likely to influence consumer judgment, decision-making, and behavior. As such, it presents a more refined picture looking at processing of contextual information through the lens of currently active motivations. Therefore, the main contribution of this work is to contextualize previous findings, demonstrating not only when subtle contextual cues (e.g, primes, assortment cues) drive consumer decision-making, but also when they fail to shape these decisions

Smart Grid Technologies in Europe: An Overview

The old electricity network infrastructure has proven to be inadequate, with respect to modern challenges such as alternative energy sources, electricity demand and energy saving policies. Moreover, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) seem to have reached an adequate level of reliability and flexibility in order to support a new concept of electricity network—the smart grid. In this work, we will analyse the state-of-the-art of smart grids, in their technical, management, security, and optimization aspects. We will also provide a brief overview of the regulatory aspects involved in the development of a smart grid, mainly from the viewpoint of the European Unio