The Impact of Cognitive versus Affective Aspects on Consumer Usage of Financial Service Delivery Channels

This paper explores the consumer decision-making process when using service delivery channels. Among service delivery channels, the main focus of the research concerns technology-based delivery channels. Technology continues to change the delivery function of companies and to affect customers' usage decisions regarding the delivery channels available. Understanding how customers react to the technology-content of channels and decide how to use the delivery channels of the firm is a key asset for achieving profitability and differentiation. This conclusion is particularly valuable as firms address the financial impact of new technology-based channels and their success in transferring low value-added transactions to electronic channels. Despite the development of new technology-based delivery channels, there is limited knowledge about how customers react to, choose and use these channels. The paper addresses this research void by developing a model that describes customers' attitudes and usage frequency behavior in the context of banking delivery channels. A set of hypotheses concerning affective and cognitive determinants of consumers' behavior is derived from the model. These hypotheses were generated after extensive research into the fields of services marketing, psychology and innovation theories, together with insights provided by a series of in-depth interviews conducted with bank managers and customers. A questionnaire was mailed to users of the four main bank delivery channels. The findings demonstrate that consumer decision concerning usage frequency differs between delivery channels, and illustrate which factors should be stressed in order to affect this decision

Dimensionless analysis of constrained damping treatments

One of the most effective ways of controlling vibrations in plate or beam structures is by means of constrained viscoelastic damping treatments. Contrary to the unconstrained configuration, the design of constrained and integrated layer damping treatments is multifaceted because the thickness of the viscoelastic layer acts distinctly on the two main counterparts of the strain energy the volume of viscoelastic material and the shear strain field. In this work, a parametric study is performed exploring the effect that the design parameters, namely the thickness/length ratio, constraining layer thickness, material modulus, natural mode and boundary conditions have on these two counterparts and subsequently, on the treatment efficiency. This paper presents five parametric studies, namely, the thickness/length ratio, the constraining layer thickness, material properties, natural mode and boundary conditions. The results obtained evidence an interesting effect when dealing with very thin viscoelastic layers that contradicts the standard treatment efficiency vs. layer thickness relation; hence, the potential optimisation of constrained and integrated viscoelastic treatments through the use of properly designed thin multilayer configurations is justified. This work presents a dimensionless analysis and provides useful general guidelines for the efficient design of constrained and integrated damping treatments based on single or multi-layer configurations. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The Impact of Corporate Rebranding on the Firm's Market Value

Rebranding corresponds to the creation of a new name, term, symbol, design or a combination of them for an established brand with the intention of developing a differentiated position in the mind of stakeholders and competitors. Increased competition has led firms to an avenue of differentiation, and rebranding has been approached by firms in order to differentiate themselves and to promote the corporate image. Corporate rebranding, although commonly referred in the press, has received little attention from academia. This paper tends to contribute to fill this gap in the academic literature, by analysing the impact that corporate image through rebranding has on the firms' stock market value, using event study methodologies. We focus on firms listed on the Lisbon Stock Market in the period 2000 - February 2009. We do not find evidence of a positive impact of corporate rebranding on firm value, in Portuguese firms. In fact, our results suggest that these events may have a negative impact on firm value, even though our empirical evidence is weak, in supporting this conclusion

Holocene slip rate variability along the Pernicana fault system (Mt. Etna, Italy): Evidence from offset lava flows

The eastern flank of the Mount Etna stratovolcano is affected by extension and is slowly sliding eastward into the Ionian Sea. The Pernicana fault system forms the border of the northern part of this sliding area. It consists of three E-W−oriented fault sectors that are seismically active and characterized by earthquakes up to 4.7 in magnitude (M) capable of producing ground rupture and damage located mainly along the western and central sectors, and by continuous creep on the eastern sector. A new topographic study of the central sector of the Pernicana fault system shows an overall bell-shaped profile, with maximum scarp height of 35 m in the center of the sector, and two local minima that are probably due to the complex morphological relation between fault scarp and lava flows. We determined the ages of lava flows cut by the Pernicana fault system at 12 sites using cosmogenic 3He and 40Ar/39Ar techniques in order to determine the recent slip history of the fault. From the displacement-age relations, we estimate an average throw rate of ∼2.5 mm/yr over the last 15 k.y. The slip rate appears to have accelerated during the last 3.5 k.y., with displacement rates of up to ∼15 mm/yr, whereas between 3.5 and 15 ka, the throw rate averaged ∼1 mm/yr. This increase in slip rate resulted in significant changes in seismicity rates, for instance, decreasing the mean recurrence time of M ≥ 4.7 earthquakes from ∼200 to ∼20 yr. Based on empirical relationships, we attribute the variation in seismic activity on the Pernicana fault system to factors intrinsic to the system that are likely related to changes in the volcanic system. These internal factors could be fault interdependencies (such as those across the Taupo Rift, New Zealand) or they could represent interactions among magmatic, tectonic, and gravitational processes (e.g., Kīlauea volcano, Hawaii). Given their effect on earthquake recurrence intervals, these interactions need to be fully assessed in seismic hazard evaluations

Virtual is so real! Consumers' evaluation of product packaging in virtual reality

Virtual Reality (VR) is shaping all human activities, and with the advent of the metaverse, buyers are going to experience new ways of doing shopping. What would happen if consumers will be asked to assess a product's attribute, i.e., packaging, in a virtual environment, instead of being able to physically hold the product, like in a traditional purchasing process? The aim of this study is to analyze consumers' evaluation of packaged products in immersive VR, manipulating packaging structural and haptic cues, and clarify potential differences with the consumers' responses in the real life. We conducted two focus groups (Study 1), with 16 participants, a mixed design experiment (Study 2), involving 167 consumers, to analyze consumers' attitudes, and a choice-based conjoint analysis (Study 3), with 41 individuals, to study actual choice behavior. The main findings reveal that consumer behavior in VR is consistent with everyday life, except for minor variations. VR proves to be an efficient and rigorous research environment, also suitable for testing sensory cues and non-tangible attributes. Finally, the article suggests managers can effectively use VR for product and packaging development, through a more sustainable process that requires fewer resources and time compared to traditional testsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Experimental Realization of Teleporting an Unknown Pure Quantum State via Dual Classical and Einstein-Podolski-Rosen Channels

We report on a quantum optical experimental implementation of teleportation of unknown pure quantum states. This realizes all the nonlocal aspects of the original scheme proposed by Bennett et al. and is equivalent to it up to a local operation. We exhibit results for the teleportation of a linearly polarized state and of an elliptically polarized state. We show that the experimental results cannot be explained in terms of a classical channel alone.Comment: 11 pages LaTeX, 3 figures, 1 page figures captions. The figures and figures captions are not encapsulated; please print them separatel

Using simple sequence repeats in 9 brassica complex species to assess hypertrophic curd induction

Five Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) were used to assess the relationship between inflorescence characteristics and their allelic variation in 53 Brassica oleracea and Brassica wild relatives (n = 9). Curd morphometric traits, such as weight (CW), height (CH), diameter (CD1), shape (CS) inflorescence curvature angle (CA), and its curd stem diameter (CD2), were measured. The aim of the work was to analyze the relationships among the allelic patterns of the SSRs primers utilized, and their status of homo or heterozygosity registered at each locus, as well as the inflorescence morphometric traits in order to individuate genomic regions stimulating the hypertrophy of this reproductive organ. The relationships found explain the diversity among B. oleracea complex species (n = 9) for the inflorescence size and structure, allowing important time reduction during the breeding process by crossing wild species, transferring useful resistance, and organoleptic and nutraceutical traits. The five SSRs loci were BoABI1, BoAP1, BoPLD1, BoTHL1, and PBCGSSRBo39. According to the allelic variation ascertained, we evaluated the heterozygosity index (H) for each SSR above cited. The results showed a significant interaction between the H index of the BoPLD1 gene and the inflorescence characteristics, summarized by the First Principal Component (PC1) (p-value = 0.0244); we ascertained a negative correlation between the H index and inflorescence characteristics, namely CW, CH, CD1, CD2, CA. The homozygosity BoPLD1 alelles, indicated by the H index, affect the inflorescence characteristics and broccoli and cauliflower yields