A BRAND TRIANGLE MODEL to AVOID BRANDING MYOPIA

This article takes the metaphor of myopia to explain the most limited vision of brand, understood as the identifying sign of a product. As brand is a sign, we turn to semiotics, the science of signs, in order to apply a model which broadens the concept of brand to three dimensions: that of the identity sign itself, that of the object the sign refers to and that of the response of the market to the sign.Branding Semiotics, Brand Identity, Brand Marketing, Brand Response

CHILDREN THOUGHTS about BRANDS

The paper explores theoretically and empirically the brand concept among children. Group interviews were conducted to examine the children’s associations to this concept. The data analysis was organized according to a circular frame (the circept frame), which allowed a content analysis based on a sequence of analogical concepts. Children’s answers suggest that the concept of brand is apprehended by children of 6/8 years old, furthermore, that children of this age have skills to separate the brand from the product concept and described it as a source of guarantee, of identification and of promises vehicle.Brands, children, associations

Use and Perception of the Internet as a Marketing Tool to Promote Rural Tourism

Businesses and communities in rural areas face increased challenges to compete in the globalized tourism market. Rural areas and small communities often have rich endogenous natural resources, which may appeal to a stressed urban public, however, simply possessing these attributes is not sufficient, the must be communicated and promoted to the right people. The purpose of this study is to explore the use of Internet and online marketing tools to improve the competitiveness of small-scale rural tourism companies. The paper presents an overview of the perception, knowledge and use of Internet as a marketing toll by small-scaled rural tourism companies located in Portugal centre region and discusses the challenges and motivations involved in promoting rural tourism in a globalized market. A sample of small-scaled rural tourism companies was inquired about their attitudes toward the use of Internet marketing tools. The results show that Rural Tourism companies have limited knowledge of web marketing tools potential to support the rural tourism and highlight the need to increase the use of Internet as a marketing tool to globally communicate, promote and positioning rural tourism in order to leverage resources and create sustainability.Rural tourism, SMEs, Internet, Marketing, e-Commerce

The ‘de-territorialisation of closeness’ - a typology of international successful R&D projects involving cultural and geographic proximity

Although there is a considerable amount of empirical evidence on inter-firm collaborations within technology-based industries, there are only a few works concerned with R&D cooperation by low-tech firms, especially SMEs. Providing further and new evidence based on a recently built database of CRAFT projects, this study analyzes the relationship between technology and proximity in international R&D networks using Homogeneity Analysis by Means of Alternating Least Squares (HOMALS) and statistical cluster techniques. The resulting typology of international cooperative R&D projects highlights that successful international cooperative R&D projects are both culturally/geographically closer and distant. Moreover, and quite interestingly, geographically distant projects are technologically more advanced whereas those located near each other are essentially low tech. Such evidence is likely to reflect the tacit-codified knowledge debate boosted recently by the ICT “revolution” emphasized by the prophets of the “Death of Distance” and the “End of Geography”.Research and Development (R&D); proximity; SMEs

On the vulval morphology of some species of Bursaphelenchus (Nematoda: Parasitaphelenchinae)

The vulval pattern of six species of the genus Bursaphelenchus (B. abruptus, B. conicaudatus, B. fraudulentus, B. luxuriosae, B. mucronatus and B. xylophilus) was studied using scanning electron microscopy. A terminology for the vulval region structures observed is proposed herein and illustrated by micrographs and line drawings. It was shown that, of the studied species, only B. mucronatus and B. xylophilus share an identical morphology of the vulval region, all other species differing significantly from each other and from both B. mucronatus and B. xylophilus. This study indicates the diagnostic potential for variation in vulval morphology within Bursaphelenchus and it is recommended that such features are recorded in all future descriptions

NEETin with ICT

Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC) outlines that 49% of EU citizens identified “job creation” and 33% identified “education and skills” as the top priorities for science and technology innovation over the next fifteen years. Both documents justify the needs in Europe for the ICT field especially for the NEET (not in education, employment or training) citizens. On the other hand, Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs (GC4DJ) in Europe identifies: the training and matching digital jobs; certification; innovative learning and teaching; mobility; awareness raising; increasing effectiveness of education; increasing equity and producing positive impact in the economy, as a priority for European countries. NEETin is a project directed to NEET citizens, to be developed by Higher Education Institutions, VET providers and Enterprises in order to help to overcome a social European dimension through lifelong learning. By creating a Joint Vocational Education Training in Digital Competences in a collaboration between VET providers and the Enterprises, widening the access to higher education, in an innovative student-centred learning model to apply in a European level, we aim to contribute to improve the quality of Education. Through this certified JVET, NEET citizens will develop their digital skills and the success of employability of these learners will be enhanced.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sexual reproduction vs. clonal propagation in the recovery of a seagrass meadow after an extreme weather event

Marine flowering plants can reproduce sexually and clonally, and the relative contribution of these two modes can be dependent on the environmental conditions. Zostera marina, a seagrass widely distributed in the northern hemisphere, can form annual and perennial meadows with different proportions of sexual versus clonal propagation depending on the environmental disturbance regime. We study the hypothesis that the contribution of sexual propagation varies during the recovery of a seagrass meadow. In this case study, we compare the proportion of sexual versus clonal propagation of a perennial Z. marina meadow before its disappearance due to winter storms and after recovery. Before disturbance, genotypic diversity was high, indicating frequent sexual reproduction events likely to create an abundant seed bank. Seedling germination allowed the population to recover after the extreme disturbance. As months passed, seedlings became rare and finally absent, giving place to adult shoots. In an advanced stage of colonization, the shoots colonized the area by vegetative growth, which lowered the genotypic diversity. Despite this reduction over time, the genotypic diversity of the new meadow is still high, demonstrating the importance of sexual reproduction in meadow recovery and persistence.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Trends in Economic Research: An International Perspective

Given the recent efforts in several countries to reorganize the research institutional setting to improve research productivity, our analysis addresses the following questions: To which extent has the recent awareness over international quality standards in economics around the world been reflected in research performance? How have individual countries fared? Do research quantity and quality indicators tell us the same story? We concentrate on trends taking place since the beginning of the 1990s and rely on a very comprehensive database of scientific journals, to provide a cross-country comparison of the evolution of research in economics. Our findings indicate that Europe is catching up with the US but, in terms of influential research, the US maintains a dominant position. The main continental European countries, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, experienced some of the largest growth rates in economic scientific output. Other European countries, namely the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, have shown remarkable progress in per capita output. Collaborative research seems to be a key factor explaining the relative success of some European countries, in particular when it comes to publishing in top journals, attained predominantly through international collaborations.US, North-America, research performance, publications, rankings, Europe