3,765 research outputs found
Fly me to the moon: from corporate branding orientation to retailer preference and business performance
Purpose – The airline aviation industry is both capital-intensive and competitive. Hence, the evolution of the sector needs original marketing strategies. To study the relationships between corporate branding and corporate image, taking into account two views, namely, corporate strategy and corporate expression in airline identity, this research aims to analyze the main indicators of the corporate branding that affect the outcomes of the corporate image.
Design/methodology/approach – In order to inspect the theories, the foundational configural model was assessed through the perceptions of 395 employees in Indian aviation companies. By employing complexity theory, this study matched the concept of equifinality, and it examined the data via a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis.
Findings – Findings show that corporate strategy positively influences corporate image and corporate expression. The corporate expression offers the verbal and visual facets of a brand. Surprisingly, the paper shows that there is no link between corporate expression and corporate image. It also suggests that corporate expression, including corporate community, corporate promise, and corporate personality, are all components of a corporate brand and do not influence the corporate image. Finally, the study highlights that corporate image positively affects superior business performance, which influences superior retailer preference.
Research limitations/implications - Our study identifies the corporate identity’s indicators (corporate strategy and corporate expression) that affect the corporate image, which results in stronger, superior business performance and retailer preference. It suggests that managers in the airline industry should follow the recommendations of this research by adopting more objective and fairer procedures to attain superior business performance and retailer preference. In addition, the continued growth and the financial impact of the airline sector require the use of pioneering branding strategies. Future study is needed in various nations to advance the generalizability of the research findings.
Originality/value – The paper is the first to study corporate brand, its sub-dimensions (corporate strategy and corporate expression), and their individual links to brand image, which involves experience, relationships, and visual identity
Probing non-standard decoherence effects with solar and KamLAND neutrinos
It has been speculated that quantum gravity might induce a "foamy" space-time
structure at small scales, randomly perturbing the propagation phases of
free-streaming particles (such as kaons, neutrons, or neutrinos). Particle
interferometry might then reveal non-standard decoherence effects, in addition
to standard ones (due to, e.g., finite source size and detector resolution.) In
this work we discuss the phenomenology of such non-standard effects in the
propagation of electron neutrinos in the Sun and in the long-baseline reactor
experiment KamLAND, which jointly provide us with the best available probes of
decoherence at neutrino energies E ~ few MeV. In the solar neutrino case, by
means of a perturbative approach, decoherence is shown to modify the standard
(adiabatic) propagation in matter through a calculable damping factor. By
assuming a power-law dependence of decoherence effects in the energy domain
(E^n with n = 0,+/-1,+/-2), theoretical predictions for two-family neutrino
mixing are compared with the data and discussed. We find that neither solar nor
KamLAND data show evidence in favor of non-standard decoherence effects, whose
characteristic parameter gamma_0 can thus be significantly constrained. In the
"Lorentz-invariant" case n=-1, we obtain the upper limit gamma_0<0.78 x 10^-26
GeV at 95% C.L. In the specific case n=-2, the constraints can also be
interpreted as bounds on possible matter density fluctuations in the Sun, which
we improve by a factor of ~ 2 with respect to previous analyses.Comment: Minor changes. Version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Probing Sterile Neutrino Parameters with Double Chooz, Daya Bay and RENO
In this work, we present a realistic analysis of the potential of the
present-day reactor experiments Double Chooz, Daya Bay and RENO for probing the
existence of sterile neutrinos. We present exclusion regions for sterile
oscillation parameters for each of these experiments, using simulations with
realistic estimates of systematic errors and detector resolutions, and compare
the sterile parameter sensitivity regions we obtain with the existing bounds
from other reactor experiments. We find that these experimental set-ups give
significant bounds on the parameter \Theta_{ee} especially in the low sterile
oscillation region 0.01 < \Delta m_{41}^2 < 0.05 eV^2. These bounds can add to
our understanding of the sterile neutrino sector since there is still a tension
in the allowed regions from different experiments for sterile parameters.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
Observables sensitive to absolute neutrino masses: Constraints and correlations from world neutrino data
In the context of three-flavor neutrino mixing, we present a thorough study
of the phenomenological constraints applicable to three observables sensitive
to absolute neutrino masses: The effective neutrino mass in Tritium beta decay
(m_beta); the effective Majorana neutrino mass in neutrinoless double beta
decay (m_2beta); and the sum of neutrino masses in cosmology (Sigma). We
discuss the correlations among these variables which arise from the combination
of all the available neutrino oscillation data, in both normal and inverse
neutrino mass hierarchy. We set upper limits on m_beta by combining updated
results from the Mainz and Troitsk experiments. We also consider the latest
results on m_2beta from the Heidelberg-Moscow experiment, both with and without
the lower bound claimed by such experiment. We derive upper limits on Sigma
from an updated combination of data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy
Probe (WMAP) satellite and the 2 degrees Fields (2dF) Galaxy Redshifts Survey,
with and without Lyman-alpha forest data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
(SDSS), in models with a non-zero running of the spectral index of primordial
inflationary perturbations. The results are discussed in terms of
two-dimensional projections of the globally allowed region in the
(m_beta,m_2beta,Sigma) parameter space, which neatly show the relative impact
of each data set. In particular, the (in)compatibility between Sigma and
m_2beta constraints is highlighted for various combinations of data. We also
briefly discuss how future neutrino data (both oscillatory and non-oscillatory)
can further probe the currently allowed regions.Comment: 17 pages (RevTeX) + 7 figures (PostScript). Minor changes in text;
references added; results unchanged. To appear in PR
Smooth-rough asymmetric PLGA structure made of dip coating membrane and electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds meant to be used for guided tissue regeneration of periodontium
A surgical procedure for the repair of damaged periodontal tissue is Guided Tissue Regeneration (GTR), which involves the use of a barrier membrane to prevent soft tissue ingrowth and create a space for slow regeneration of periodontium and bone. GTR membrane should have pores able to facilitate the diffusion of fluids, oxygen, nutrients, and bioactive substances for cell growth, but also be impermeable to epithelial cells or gingival fibroblasts, which could overpopulate the defect space and inhibit infiltration and activity of bone-forming cells. In this paper, a bilayer PLGA membrane was realized by coupling the dip coating and electrospinning techniques. The rough layer of the double-sided structure was electrospun on the previously prepared smooth dip-coated membrane. A rotating drum collector at two rotating speeds was used to generate different fibers orientation. The bilayer membrane with different superimposed surfaces was successfully fabricated and characterized from a morphological, physicochemical, and the mechanical point of view. Performed analyses revealed that the membrane possesses suitable properties, especially from mechanical point of view, for its possible use as a scaffold for the GTR of periodontum. A high fiber alignment and improved mechanical properties with respect to available GTR membranes characterized the product resulting from this study
Hints of theta_13>0 from global neutrino data analysis
Nailing down the unknown neutrino mixing angle theta_13 is one of the most
important goals in current lepton physics. In this context, we perform a global
analysis of neutrino oscillation data, focusing on theta_13, and including
recent results [Neutrino 2008, Proceedings of the XXIII International
Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics, Christchurch, New Zealand,
2008 (unpublished)]. We discuss two converging hints of theta_13>0, each at the
level of ~1sigma: an older one coming from atmospheric neutrino data, and a
newer one coming from the combination of solar and long-baseline reactor
neutrino data. Their combination provides the global estimate sin^2(theta_13) =
0.016 +- 0.010 (1sigma), implying a preference for \theta_13>0 with
non-negligible statistical significance (~90% C.L.). We discuss possible
refinements of the experimental data analyses, which might sharpen such
intriguing indication.Comment: Minor changes in the text. Matches published version in PR
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