Partners in Profits: Small Businesses Move Slowly Into Cause-Related Marketing

Cause-related marketing (CRM) began in 1981 when American Express agreed to donate $I for every new credit card issued to the Ellis Island/Statue of liberty Restoration Foundation. Since then, the use of this strategy has been widespread and rewarding. Curiously, cause-related marketing has become associated with large corporations. The study presented  here confirms the lack of use of CRM among small businesses. This reluctance appears unfounded as those small businesses that have ventured into CRM agreements report success in terms of increased sales, attracting new customers and enhancing the store's image. CRM has gained in popularity and can be a viable strategy for small businesses looking to differentiate themselves. In a world of parity products  and services, this might be a key weapon in the small business arsenal

Exploring the Link Between Customer Care and Brand Reputation in the Age of Social Media

Consumers are more empowered than ever to share their customer care experiences. Through the use of social media and new communications tools and technologies, messages can be sent more widely than ever before. This research study examined the links between social media, customer satisfaction, brand reputation and customer loyalty. The Society for NewCommunications Research designed the research to examine how customer care influences brand reputation given the widespread adoption of social media. Objectives of the research included:To assess the extent to which consumers research and review companies' products/services online prior to making purchase decisionsTo assess the influence of social media on user opinions as they relate to the customer care experienceTo determine what types of online resources and social media are considered the most valuable sources of information about the customer care experienceTo assess the extent to which consumers are influenced by their own customer care experiences and how they think sharing that information online influences how others view products and brands

On Being Social: How Social Identity Impacts Social Commerce for the Millennial Shopper

Millennials are a technologically sophisticated generation, who have the purchasing power to change the face of retailing. A significant proportion of their shopping is done online and they utilize their social networks while engaging in the shopping process- a current area of interest termed “social commerce.” No single group is better positioned to take advantage of social commerce, and yet, it’s possible that Millennials are participating in social networks and online shopping in order to better define their social identities. This study summarizes data from three years of longitudinal research into the use of social media by Millennials on three platforms: Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. The results show that Millennials prefer to utilize the identity shaping aspects of social media and commerce. We recommend that platforms allow more identity formation in order to increase the likelihood that Millennials not only use the platform, but also make purchases through them

Once Upon A Time in the Fortune 500: How Storytelling Encouraged Businesses to Take a Second Look at Blogs

In the early 2000s about one third of the Fortune 500 hosted corporate blogs. By 2014, that number dropped significantly. Since then, the popularity of “storytelling” has been widely discussed by marketers. As Marketing began to use storytelling as a strategy, blogs began to mimic the structure of stories. The top companies in the 2018 Fortune 500 now have corporate blogs using this framework. Did storytelling help the Fortune 500 to rediscover blogging? This research investigates the use of storytelling as an impetus to blog and how the blogging of today has evolved away from the interactive experience first expected

Društveni mediji: istraživanje američkih poduzeća iz skupine The INC. 500

As a great challenge in communications, social media are widely accepted among the general population. Being very flexible and adaptable, they offer an opportunity of active participation to users, thus representing a public forum. This study presents the results of social media acceptance in the business world on a sample of the Inc. 500 companies in the US. The research found that familiarity, the value placed on social media and the use of different forms of social media are all related. These companies know that engaging social media requires education and a change of the management effort. They use them to gather critical strategic information by listening to what is being said about themselves and their competitors in the social media world. The Inc. 500 companies accept social media as a medium. They recognize that the marketplace is moving their conversations online and the business world needs to join in. These fast-growing, innovative companies offer us a glimpse of the business future because where they lead, others will certainly follow.Društveni mediji velik su izazov u komunikacijama i u svojim brojnim oblicima prihvaćeni su u široj populaciji. Vrlo su fleksibilni i prilagodljivi, a korisnici imaju mogućnost aktivnoga sudjelovanja u njihovome stvaranju i oblikovanju te na taj način predstavljaju živi javni forum. U ovom radu predstavljeno je istraživanje uloge društvenih medija u poslovnome svijetu, a na uzorku američkih poduzeća s najvećim stopama rasta, skupine The Inc.500. Istraživanje je usmjereno na pitanja o stupnju upoznatosti poduzeća s društvenim medijima, na njihovo korištenje za vlastite potrebe, stavove o važnosti i praćenju društvenih medija (radi dobivanja informacija o drugim sudionicima na tržištu). Rezultati istraživanja pokazuju velik interes anketiranih poduzeća za aktivno sudjelovanje u društvenim medijima i njihovo praćenje. Istraživanjem se otkrilo da su upoznatost s društvenim medijima, vrijednost koja im se pridaje i korištenje različitih oblika međusobno povezani. Može se zaključiti da su društveni mediji ušli u poduzeća Inc. 500. To su poduzeća koja shvaćaju da tržište svoje komunikacije prebacuje na internet i da se poslovni svijet tome mora priključiti. Ona nam nude pogled u poslovnu budućnost i kreću se u smjeru koji će drugi slijediti

Immanent Anthropology: A Comparative Study of 'Process' in Contemporary France

This paper presents a comparative critique of the ‘processual temporalities’ which infuse both social-scientific theorizing and selected Western cultural practices. Through study of a public-private partnership which emerged from a biotechnology project devised for producing ‘self-cloning’ maize for resource-poor farmers, I analyse how processual temporalities were central to re-gearing knowledge practices towards market-orientated solutions. In a study of characterizations of the ‘state of flux’ which affects life in a French peri-urban village, I explore how processualism is identified as a component of a metropolitan hegemony which villagers ‘resist’ through idealizing ‘enduring temporalities’ of cultural practice. Drawing on Arendt and Deleuze, I analyse processualism as a dominant contemporary chronotope, mediating and disciplining conflictive temporalities and practices, underwriting economic projects of deterritorialization and restructuring – whose idiom is also prominent in social-scientific paradigms. I substitute an ‘immanent anthropology’, which advocates a non-transcendental ontology of cultural practice and analysis – displacing anthropological analysis onto a polychronic temporal foundation

HDAC9 is implicated in atherosclerotic aortic calcification and affects vascular smooth muscle cell phenotype.

Aortic calcification is an important independent predictor of future cardiovascular events. We performed a genome-wide association meta-analysis to determine SNPs associated with the extent of abdominal aortic calcification (n = 9,417) or descending thoracic aortic calcification (n = 8,422). Two genetic loci, HDAC9 and RAP1GAP, were associated with abdominal aortic calcification at a genome-wide level (P < 5.0 × 10-8). No SNPs were associated with thoracic aortic calcification at the genome-wide threshold. Increased expression of HDAC9 in human aortic smooth muscle cells promoted calcification and reduced contractility, while inhibition of HDAC9 in human aortic smooth muscle cells inhibited calcification and enhanced cell contractility. In matrix Gla protein-deficient mice, a model of human vascular calcification, mice lacking HDAC9 had a 40% reduction in aortic calcification and improved survival. This translational genomic study identifies the first genetic risk locus associated with calcification of the abdominal aorta and describes a previously unknown role for HDAC9 in the development of vascular calcification

Large-scale genome-wide association studies and meta-analyses of longitudinal change in adult lung function.

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous loci influencing cross-sectional lung function, but less is known about genes influencing longitudinal change in lung function. METHODS: We performed GWAS of the rate of change in forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) in 14 longitudinal, population-based cohort studies comprising 27,249 adults of European ancestry using linear mixed effects model and combined cohort-specific results using fixed effect meta-analysis to identify novel genetic loci associated with longitudinal change in lung function. Gene expression analyses were subsequently performed for identified genetic loci. As a secondary aim, we estimated the mean rate of decline in FEV1 by smoking pattern, irrespective of genotypes, across these 14 studies using meta-analysis. RESULTS: The overall meta-analysis produced suggestive evidence for association at the novel IL16/STARD5/TMC3 locus on chromosome 15 (P  =  5.71 × 10(-7)). In addition, meta-analysis using the five cohorts with ≥3 FEV1 measurements per participant identified the novel ME3 locus on chromosome 11 (P  =  2.18 × 10(-8)) at genome-wide significance. Neither locus was associated with FEV1 decline in two additional cohort studies. We confirmed gene expression of IL16, STARD5, and ME3 in multiple lung tissues. Publicly available microarray data confirmed differential expression of all three genes in lung samples from COPD patients compared with controls. Irrespective of genotypes, the combined estimate for FEV1 decline was 26.9, 29.2 and 35.7 mL/year in never, former, and persistent smokers, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In this large-scale GWAS, we identified two novel genetic loci in association with the rate of change in FEV1 that harbor candidate genes with biologically plausible functional links to lung function

Fifteen new risk loci for coronary artery disease highlight arterial-wall-specific mechanisms

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Although 58 genomic regions have been associated with CAD thus far, most of the heritability is unexplained, indicating that additional susceptibility loci await identification. An efficient discovery strategy may be larger-scale evaluation of promising associations suggested by genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Hence, we genotyped 56,309 participants using a targeted gene array derived from earlier GWAS results and performed meta-analysis of results with 194,427 participants previously genotyped, totaling 88,192 CAD cases and 162,544 controls. We identified 25 new SNP-CAD associations (P < 5 × 10(-8), in fixed-effects meta-analysis) from 15 genomic regions, including SNPs in or near genes involved in cellular adhesion, leukocyte migration and atherosclerosis (PECAM1, rs1867624), coagulation and inflammation (PROCR, rs867186 (p.Ser219Gly)) and vascular smooth muscle cell differentiation (LMOD1, rs2820315). Correlation of these regions with cell-type-specific gene expression and plasma protein levels sheds light on potential disease mechanisms