Baryons with two heavy quarks

We consider general physical characteristics of doubly heavy baryons: the spectroscopy in the framework of potential approach and sum rules of QCD, mechanisms of production in various interactions on the basis of fragmentation model with account of preasymptotic corrections caused by higher twists over the transverse momentum of baryon, inclusive decays and lifetimes in the operator product expansion over the inverse powers of heavy quark masses as well as the exclusive decays in the sum rules of QCD. We generalize the methods developed in the effective theory of heavy quarks towards the description of systems with two heavy quarks and a single light quark. The calculations are presented for the masses, decay widths and yields of baryons with two heavy quarks in the running and planned experimental facilities. We discuss the prospects of search for the baryons and possibilities of experimental observation. The most bright physical effects concerning these baryons as well as their position in the system for the theoretical description of heavy quark dynamics are considered.Comment: review, LaTeX file, 32 postscript figure

Essays on Search and Matching Equilibria

This dissertation considers three separate applications of the theory of search and matching equilibria. The first chapter considers a partnership formation game, where agents on two sides of a market need to find a partner before a deadline, and search frictions make it difficult to find an acceptable partner. I characterize agents acceptance decisions – those with whom they would be willing to match – show existence, and provide a condition for uniqueness of equilibrium. This study provides a step towards a better understanding of matching behavior in non-stationary environments where agents have persistent type. The second chapter in this dissertation considers the import of adverse selection in a modern model of directed search in labor markets. Competition in this market drives firms to offer contracts that increase over time, limiting turnover. Adverse selection does not perturb contracts for less attractive types, but leads more attractive workers to accept initially low wages that grow faster than they would under full information. The final chapter of this dissertation explores the import of sequential search behavior in a model of equilibrium price setting by multi-product firms. On the one hand, the market produces results which affirm the common empirical focus on marginal distributions of individual goods’ prices across firms. On the other, when some firms do not offer every good, search behavior leads to interesting pricing patterns which would not occur in single-product markets

Personalizing online reviews for better customer decision making

Online consumer reviews have become an important source of information for understanding markets and customer preferences. When making purchase decisions, customers increasingly rely on user-generated online reviews; some even consider the information in online reviews more credible and trustworthy than information provided by vendors. Many studies have revealed that online reviews influence demand and sales. Others have shown the possibility of identifying customer interest in product attributes. However, little work has been done to address customer and review diversity in the process of examining reviews. This research intends to answer the research question: how can we solve the problem of customer and review diversity in the context of online reviews to recommend useful reviews based on customer preferences and improve product recommendation? Our approach to the question is through personalization. Similar to other personalization research, we use an attribute-based model to represent products and customer preferences. Unlike existing personalization research that uses a set of pre-defined product attributes, we explore the possibility of a data-driven approach for identifying more comprehensive product attributes from online reviews to model products and customer preferences. Specifically, we introduce a new topic model for product attribute identification and sentiment analysis. By differentiating word co-occurrences at the sentence level from at the document level, the model better identifies interpretable topics. The use of an inference network with shared structure enables the model to predict product attribute ratings accurately. Based on this topic model, we develop attribute-based representations of products, reviews and customer preferences and use them to construct the personalization of online reviews. We examine personalization from the lens of consumer search theory and human information processing theory and test the hypotheses with an experiment. The personalization of online reviews can 1) recommend products matching customer's preferences; 2) improve custom's intention towards recommended products; 3) best distinguish recommended products from products that do not match customer's preferences; and 4) reduce decision effort

Developing a theoretical framework of consumer logistics from a comprehensive literature review

Paper delivered at the 21st Logistics Research Network annual conference 2016, 7th-9th September 2016, Hull. Abstract Purpose: Logistics as a business discipline entered academic consciousness in the mid-1960s when work by marketing academics discussed the integration between marketing and logistics. However, the link with consumers in the point-of-origin to point-of-consumption typology was not explored until Granzin and Bahn’s conceptualisation and model of consumer logistics (CL) in 1989. Since then few contributions have followed and neglecting this aspect of logistics research is difficult to understand. Firstly, the consumer represents a productive resource as an important downstream supply chain member carrying out logistics activities and tasks. Secondly, logistics activities directed towards the consumer also act along a marketing axis, i.e. satisfaction and loyalty for an overall shopping experience both from transaction-specific and cumulative levels are influenced by product quality elements and service-related dimensions. This paper presents a theoretical framework for deeper research into the topic of CL. Research approach: A literature review was conducted first following philosophical or field conceptualization principles as a first step towards theory building. Data bases of major logistics and SCM journals were searched however the publication timeframe was not limited as the concept of CL is relatively new. Selection criteria and Boolean searches were conducted and keywords used within article abstracts and title fields of search. Due to a relative scarcity of contributions obtained by that approach and in-line with the principle of methodological triangulation, additional search strategies were applied using Google/ Google Scholar searches. The majority of the cited contributions were also cross-referenced and included in the analysis if appropriate. Findings and originality: The literature search yielded a mother population of 46 documents of which 24 have been considered relevant for further consideration. The document harvest was analysed using Granzin and Bahn’s original CL issues and additional features in order to explore, structure, articulate, orient, hierarchize and delimit the field of CL in the 21st century. Research impact: This paper updates Granzin and Bahn’s work to outline new and distinctive features of CL given the obvious changes in the retail landscape since their work 27 years ago, such as the Internet and omni-channel retailing. More broadly, conceptualizing CL in a holistic manner enhances SCM theory building by questioning traditional notions of time and space ranges, isolated marketing-merchandizing/logistics considerations, traditional understandings of sites /locations, and equipment (e.g. shopping cart or basket)/ infrastructure/ layout and buying stages that are in-line with external evolutions on organizational, technological and societal levels. Practical impact: Understanding and improving CL contributes to supply chain competitiveness via increased consumer satisfaction and loyalty, better order fulfilment via cost reductions and efficiency increases, and enhanced differentiation targeting consumers receptive for sustainability/ ethics/ mobility/ lifestyle/ life quality issues. A dedicated approach to CL also enhances management of repercussions and interactions with upstream/ B2B logistics, visible through retail stores being both a destination and a source for inventory, the rise of drop-ship vendor relationships and new fulfilment options and related infrastructure

Lançando anzóis: uma análise cognitiva de processos mentais em tradução

TIle search for a general concept which would explain concisely the nature of the translation process has been an ongoing theme within the field of Translation TIleory. Lately, this search has pondered on the nature of translation both as a product and a process and produced several attempts towards such a concept. However, ali of these attempts have remained, at their best, at a c1assificatory leveI. Trying to fil! this conceptual gap, this article criticizes the applicability of concepts such as equivalence and adequacy within the field of Translation Theory and, then, drawing on Sperber & Wilson (986), it offers a complementary view, based on Relevance TIleory, which amalgamates both Shannon and Weaver's (1949) Code Model and Grice's (957) lnferential Model. The theoretical discussion is illustrated with empirical material collected by means of thinking-aloud protocols from German/ Portuguese translations

The Influence of Sponsor-Event Congruence in Sponsorship of Music Festivals

This paper focuses the research on the Influence of Sponsor-Event Congruence toward Brand Image, Attitudes toward the Brand and Purchase Intention. Having reviewed the literatures and arranged the hypotheses, the data has been gathered by distributing the questionnaire to 155 audiences at the Java Jazz Music Festival, firstly with convenience sampling and then snowballing sampling approach. The analysis of data was executed with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The result shows the sponsor-event congruence variable has a positive impact toward brand image and attitudes toward the brand sponsor. Brand Image also has a positive impact toward purchase intention; in contrary attitudes toward the brand do not have a positive purchase intention. With those results, to increase the sponsorship effectiveness, the role of congruency is very significant in the sponsorship event. Congruency is a key influencer to trigger the sponsorship effectiveness. Congruency between the event and the sponsor is able to boost up the brand image and bring out favorable attitudes towards the brand for the success of marketing communication programs, particularly sponsorship. In addition to it, image transfer gets higher due to the congruency existence (fit) between sponsor and event and directs the intention creation to buy sponsor brand product/service (purchase intention). In conclusion, sponsor-event congruence has effect on consumer responds toward sponsorship, either on the cognitive level, affective and also behavior

e-Consumer Behaviour

Purpose – The primary purpose of this article is to bring together apparently disparate and yet interconnected strands of research and present an integrated model of e-consumer behaviour. It has a secondary objective of stimulating more research in areas identified as still being underexplored. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is discursive, based on analysis and synthesis of econsumer literature. Findings – Despite a broad spectrum of disciplines that investigate e-consumer behaviour and despite this special issue in the area of marketing, there are still areas open for research into econsumer behaviour in marketing, for example the role of image, trust and e-interactivity. The paper develops a model to explain e-consumer behaviour. Research limitations/implications – As a conceptual paper, this study is limited to literature and prior empirical research. It offers the benefit of new research directions for e-retailers in understanding and satisfying e-consumers. The paper provides researchers with a proposed integrated model of e-consumer behaviour. Originality/value – The value of the paper lies in linking a significant body of literature within a unifying theoretical framework and the identification of under-researched areas of e-consumer behaviour in a marketing context