The loyalty effect

Authors: Oskar Bill, Alexander Jöndell Supervisors: Carl-Henric Nilsson Associate Professor Lund University ¬ School of Economics and Management Department of Business Administration Charlotta Johansson Associate Professor Lund University ¬ Faculty of Engineering Department of Automatic Control Purpose: The purpose is to predict customer loyalty by utilising big data. This will be done by combining two models: The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and the Net Promoter Score (NPS) using the benefits of each model, the cause and effect relationship in ACSI and the simple survey methodology in NPS. The findings are aimed to facilitate a work method enabling companies to use big data in order to predict customer loyalty to be able to pro-actively work with detracting customers and to grow future profits. Method: The methodology had both a quantitative and qualitative approach. By deducting a model from a theoretical analysis a linear relationship was derived between ACSI and NPS. The drivers of loyalty was then developed from a qualitative analysis and tested through a quantitative analysis of the relationships in the model. Findings: A relationship between the NPS and the ACSI was possible to prove. However, it was not possible to predict customer loyalty since the drivers of loyalty could not be explained with the available data and further research is therefore needed

From Wealth to Poverty: The Rise and Fall of Cod around Mount Desert Island

The history of cod fishing in the Gulf of Maine, particularly around Mount Desert Island and the Down East coast, begins with a tremendous diversity and volume of fish and ends in a marine ecological tragedy. It is a story of decline that cannot be told in isolation from farming and timber harvesting or from other fisheries. But it is also a story of people. Many thousands of people around Mount Desert Island in the last four hundred years have built their lives around cod and other fish. Cod drew settlers to the region, provided work in the fishery and in myriad ancillary businesses, and spawned social, cultural and economic systems that persist, despite the utter collapse of the fish themselves. This article is divided into two parts: the first, an historical account of the fishery in the Mount Desert Island region, proceeding from colonial European settlers through the early twentieth century and including an in-depth look at log books from the Frenchman Bay Customs District.3 The second part explores the last 100 years through interviews. Participants recall catching fish, working on wharves where fish were landed, and living through the transition to gear that could catch, as one interviewee put it, “every last fish

Speed and torque control strategies for loss reduction of vertical axis wind turbines

This paper builds on the work into modelling the generator losses for Vertical Axis Wind Turbines from their intrinsic torque cycling to investigate the effects of aerodynamic inefficiencies caused by the varying rotational speed resulting from different torque control strategies to the cyclic torque. This is achieved by modelling the wake that builds up from the rotation of the VAWT rotor to investigate how the wake responds to a changing rotor speed and how this in turn affects the torque produced by the blades as well as the corresponding change in generator losses and any changes to the energy extracted by the wind turbine rotor

A Challenge for a Male Noctuid Moth? Discerning the Female Sex Pheromone against the Background of Plant Volatiles

Finding a partner is an essential task for members of all species. Like many insects, females of the noctuid moth Heliothis virescens release chemical cues consisting of a species-specific pheromone blend to attract conspecific males. While tracking these blends, male moths are also continuously confronted with a wide range of other odor molecules, many of which are plant volatiles. Therefore, we analyzed how background plant odors influence the degree of male moth attraction to pheromones. In order to mimic a natural situation, we tracked pheromone-guided behavior when males were presented with the headspaces of each of two host plants in addition to the female pheromone blend. Since volatile emissions are also dependent on the physiological state of the plant, we compared pheromone attraction in the background of both damaged and intact plants. Surprisingly, our results show that a natural odor bouquet does not influence flight behavior at all, although previous studies had shown a suppressive effect at the sensory level. We also chose different concentrations of single plant-emitted volatiles, which have previously been shown to be neurophysiologically relevant, and compared their influence on pheromone attraction. We observed that pheromone attraction in male moths was significantly impaired in a concentration-dependent manner when single plant volatiles were added. Finally, we quantified the amounts of volatile emission in our experiments using gas chromatography. Notably, when the natural emissions of host plants were compared with those of the tested single plant compounds, we found that host plants do not release volatiles at concentrations that impact pheromone-guided flight behavior of the moth. Hence, our results lead to the conclusion that pheromone-plant interactions in Heliothis virescens might be an effect of stimulation with supra-natural plant odor concentrations, whereas under more natural conditions the olfactory system of the male moth appears to be well adapted to follow the female pheromone plume without interference from plant-emitted odors

Neuromuscular control and running economy is preserved in elite international triathletes after cycling

Running is the most important discipline for Olympic triathlon success. However, cycling impairs running muscle recruitment and performance in some highly trained triathletes; though it is not known if this occurs in elite international triathletes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of cycling in two different protocols on running economy and neuromuscular control in elite international triathletes. Muscle recruitment and sagittal plane joint angles of the left lower extremity and running economy were compared between control (no preceding cycle) and transition (preceded by cycling) runs for two different cycle protocols (20-minute low-intensity and 50-minute high-intensity cycles) in seven elite international triathletes. Muscle recruitment and joint angles were not different between control and transition runs for either cycle protocols. Running economy was also not different between control and transition runs for the ow-intensity (62.4 ^ 4.5 vs. 62.1 ^ 4.0 ml/min/kg, p . 0.05) and high-intensity (63.4 ^ 3.5 vs. 63.3 ^ 4.3 ml/min/kg, p . 0.05) cycle protocols. The results of this study demonstrate that both low- and high-intensity cycles do not adversely influence neuromuscular control and running economy in elite international triathletes.<br /

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