Deciphering Consumer Commitment: Exploring the Dual Influence of Self-Brand and Self-Group Relationships

Consumer-brand relationships are highly valued as brand-committed consumers are thought to deliver many positive outcomes for affiliated brands. However, in addition to connections between individuals and brands, consumer-brand relationships also involve relationships between individuals and other brand users. Little attention has been given to the potential consequences associated with commitment to other brand users as compared to the brand itself. Therefore, our framework establishes two distinct types of consumer-brand relationships (i.e., self-brand relationships vs. self-group relationships) that differentially influence brand commitment versus group commitment, leading to contrasting effects on both desirable and undesirable brand outcomes. Specifically, our studies illuminate that while brand commitment is largely associated with favorable brand-related outcomes, group commitment does not protect against brand switching and is negatively related to willingness to pay price premiums and positive word-of-mouth. Our main contribution is uncovering how consumer-brand relationships face tradeoffs between brand and group attachments, whereby commitment provides both conditional benefits as well as unintended consequences

The Effect of Brand Crises on Endorser Reputation and Endorsement Portfolios

We often hear about a brand dropping a celebrity after the endorser has negative publicity. However, endorsers are not the only ones who are responsible for negative news; many brands also generate negative publicity as well. The growing frequency of brand crises and the demonstrated relationship between brand‐ and endorser‐reputation begs the question: What impact might a severe brand crisis have on a celebrity endorser\u27s reputation and endorsement portfolio? Study 1 finds that negative publicity only impacts the brand\u27s moral reputation if internal locus attributions are made. In turn, moral reputation positively impacts attitudes toward the brand, endorser, and other brands in their endorsement portfolio. Next, Study 2 discovers that endorsers may be perceived to have greater authenticity, leading to more favorable consumer attitudes, if they “drop” the offending brand. Finally, Study 3 finds that “dropping” the offending brand can mitigate negative spillover effects on attitudes toward bystander brands

Geodesic distance for right invariant Sobolev metrics of fractional order on the diffeomorphism group

We study Sobolev-type metrics of fractional order $s\geq0$ on the group \Diff_c(M) of compactly supported diffeomorphisms of a manifold $M$. We show that for the important special case $M=S^1$ the geodesic distance on \Diff_c(S^1) vanishes if and only if $s\leq\frac12$. For other manifolds we obtain a partial characterization: the geodesic distance on \Diff_c(M) vanishes for $M=\R\times N, s<\frac12$ and for $M=S^1\times N, s\leq\frac12$, with $N$ being a compact Riemannian manifold. On the other hand the geodesic distance on \Diff_c(M) is positive for $\dim(M)=1, s>\frac12$ and $\dim(M)\geq2, s\geq1$. For $M=\R^n$ we discuss the geodesic equations for these metrics. For $n=1$ we obtain some well known PDEs of hydrodynamics: Burgers' equation for $s=0$, the modified Constantin-Lax-Majda equation for $s=\frac 12$ and the Camassa-Holm equation for $s=1$.Comment: 16 pages. Final versio

Gauge invariant definition of the jet quenching parameter

In the framework of Soft-Collinear Effective Theory, the jet quenching parameter, $\hat{q}$, has been evaluated by adding the effect of Glauber gluon interactions to the propagation of a highly-energetic collinear parton in a medium. The result, which holds in covariant gauges, has been expressed in terms of the expectation value of two Wilson lines stretching along the direction of the four-momentum of the parton. In this paper, we show how that expression can be generalized to an arbitrary gauge by the addition of transverse Wilson lines. The transverse Wilson lines are explicitly computed by resumming interactions of the parton with Glauber gluons that appear only in non-covariant gauges. As an application of our result, we discuss the contribution to $\hat{q}$ coming from transverse momenta of order $g^2T$ in a medium that is a weakly-coupled quark-gluon plasma.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figures; journal versio

Reference design and operations for deep borehole disposal of high-level radioactive waste.

A reference design and operational procedures for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste in deep boreholes have been developed and documented. The design and operations are feasible with currently available technology and meet existing safety and anticipated regulatory requirements. Objectives of the reference design include providing a baseline for more detailed technical analyses of system performance and serving as a basis for comparing design alternatives. Numerous factors suggest that deep borehole disposal of high-level radioactive waste is inherently safe. Several lines of evidence indicate that groundwater at depths of several kilometers in continental crystalline basement rocks has long residence times and low velocity. High salinity fluids have limited potential for vertical flow because of density stratification and prevent colloidal transport of radionuclides. Geochemically reducing conditions in the deep subsurface limit the solubility and enhance the retardation of key radionuclides. A non-technical advantage that the deep borehole concept may offer over a repository concept is that of facilitating incremental construction and loading at multiple perhaps regional locations. The disposal borehole would be drilled to a depth of 5,000 m using a telescoping design and would be logged and tested prior to waste emplacement. Waste canisters would be constructed of carbon steel, sealed by welds, and connected into canister strings with high-strength connections. Waste canister strings of about 200 m length would be emplaced in the lower 2,000 m of the fully cased borehole and be separated by bridge and cement plugs. Sealing of the upper part of the borehole would be done with a series of compacted bentonite seals, cement plugs, cement seals, cement plus crushed rock backfill, and bridge plugs. Elements of the reference design meet technical requirements defined in the study. Testing and operational safety assurance requirements are also defined. Overall, the results of the reference design development and the cost analysis support the technical feasibility of the deep borehole disposal concept for high-level radioactive waste

Impact of the earthworm Lumbricus terrestris (L.) on As, Cu, Pb and Zn mobility and speciation in contaminated soils

To assess the risks that contaminated soils pose to the environment properly a greater understanding of how soil biota influence the mobility of metal(loid)s in soils is required. Lumbricus terrestris L. were incubated in three soils contaminated with As, Cu, Pb and Zn. The concentration and speciation of metal(loid)s in pore waters and the mobility and partitioning in casts were compared with earthworm-free soil. Generally the concentrations of water extractable metal(loid)s in earthworm casts were greater than in earthworm-free soil. The impact of the earthworms on concentration and speciation in pore waters was soil and metal specific and could be explained either by earthworm induced changes in soil pH or soluble organic carbon. The mobilisation of metal(loid)s in the environment by earthworm activity may allow for leaching or uptake into biota

Direct photon production with effective field theory

The production of hard photons in hadronic collisions is studied using Soft-Collinear Effective Theory (SCET). This is the first application of SCET to a physical, observable cross section involving energetic partons in more than two directions. A factorization formula is derived which involves a non-trivial interplay of the angular dependence in the hard and soft functions, both quark and gluon jet functions, and multiple partonic channels. The relevant hard, jet and soft functions are computed to one loop and their anomalous dimensions are determined to three loops. The final resummed inclusive direct photon distribution is valid to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic order (NNLL), one order beyond previous work. The result is improved by including non-logarithmic terms and photon isolation cuts through matching, and compared to Tevatron data and to fixed order results at the Tevatron and the LHC. The resummed cross section has a significantly smaller theoretical uncertainty than the next-to-leading fixed-order result, particularly at high transverse momentum.Comment: 42 pages, 9 figures; v2: references added, minor changes; v3: typos; v4: typos, corrections in (16), (47), (72

An effective theory for jet propagation in dense QCD matter: jet broadening and medium-induced bremsstrahlung

Two effects, jet broadening and gluon bremsstrahlung induced by the propagation of a highly energetic quark in dense QCD matter, are reconsidered from effective theory point of view. We modify the standard Soft Collinear Effective Theory (SCET) Lagrangian to include Glauber modes, which are needed to implement the interactions between the medium and the collinear fields. We derive the Feynman rules for this Lagrangian and show that it is invariant under soft and collinear gauge transformations. We find that the newly constructed theory SCET$_{\rm G}$ recovers exactly the general result for the transverse momentum broadening of jets. In the limit where the radiated gluons are significantly less energetic than the parent quark, we obtain a jet energy-loss kernel identical to the one discussed in the reaction operator approach to parton propagation in matter. In the framework of SCET$_{\rm G}$ we present results for the fully-differential bremsstrahlung spectrum for both the incoherent and the Landau-Pomeranchunk-Migdal suppressed regimes beyond the soft-gluon approximation. Gauge invariance of the physics results is demonstrated explicitly by performing the calculations in both the light-cone and covariant $R_{\xi}$ gauges. We also show how the process-dependent medium-induced radiative corrections factorize from the jet production cross section on the example of the quark jets considered here.Comment: 52 pages, 15 pdf figures, as published in JHE

Right-invariant Sobolev metrics of fractional order on the diffeomorphism group of the circle

In this paper, we study the geodesic flow of a right-invariant metric induced by a general Fourier multiplier on the diffeomorphism group of the circle and on some of its homogeneous spaces. This study covers in particular right-invariant metrics induced by Sobolev norms of fractional order. We show that, under a certain condition on the symbol of the inertia operator (which is satisfied for the fractional Sobolev norm $H^{s}$ for $s \ge 1/2$), the corresponding initial value problem is well-posed in the smooth category and that the Riemannian exponential map is a smooth local diffeomorphism. Paradigmatic examples of our general setting cover, besides all traditional Euler equations induced by a local inertia operator, the Constantin-Lax-Majda equation, and the Euler-Weil-Petersson equation.Comment: 40 pages. Corrected typos and improved redactio

Electroweak Gauge-Boson Production at Small q_T: Infrared Safety from the Collinear Anomaly

Using methods from effective field theory, we develop a novel, systematic framework for the calculation of the cross sections for electroweak gauge-boson production at small and very small transverse momentum q_T, in which large logarithms of the scale ratio M_V/q_T are resummed to all orders. These cross sections receive logarithmically enhanced corrections from two sources: the running of the hard matching coefficient and the collinear factorization anomaly. The anomaly leads to the dynamical generation of a non-perturbative scale q_* ~ M_V e^{-const/\alpha_s(M_V)}, which protects the processes from receiving large long-distance hadronic contributions. Expanding the cross sections in either \alpha_s or q_T generates strongly divergent series, which must be resummed. As a by-product, we obtain an explicit non-perturbative expression for the intercept of the cross sections at q_T=0, including the normalization and first-order \alpha_s(q_*) correction. We perform a detailed numerical comparison of our predictions with the available data on the transverse-momentum distribution in Z-boson production at the Tevatron and LHC.Comment: 34 pages, 9 figure