A benefit congruency framework of sales promotion effectiveness

Are monetary savings the only explanation for consumer response to a sales promotion ? If not, how do the different consumer benefits of a sales promotion influence its effectiveness ? To address the first question, this research builds a framework of the multiple consumer benefits of a sales promotion. Through a series of measurement studies, we find that monetary and non-monetary promotions provide consumers with different levels of three hedonic benefits (opportunities for value-expression, entertainment, and exploration), and three utilitarian benefits (savings, higher product quality, and improved shopping convenience). To address the second question, this research develops a benefit congruency framework which argues that a sales promotion's effectiveness is determined by the utilitarian or hedonic nature of the benefits it delivers, and the congruence these benefits have with the promoted product. Among other results, two choice experiments show that as predicted for high-equity brands, monetary promotions are more effective for utilitarian products than for hedonic products. We then discuss the implications the multi-benefit and the benefit congruency frameworks have for understanding consumer responses to sales promotions, for the debate about the value of everyday-low-price policies, and for designing more effective sales promotions.Sales promotions; consumer benefit; benefit congruency

Device for measuring the temperature of liquid and gaseous hydrogen Final report

Fabrication and test data cryogenic temperature transducer extremely fast in response to temperature changes - device for measuring temperature of liquid and gaseous hydroge

An electrochemical reduction process for the recovery of copper powder from a refinery effluent stream

In recent years a significant amount of research has gone into the development of a feed pretreatment process for the concentrate refined at Anglo American Platinum's Precious Metals Refiners (PMR). Such a process has the potential to significantly simplify the downstream refining process and reduce the number of unit processes required for purification. One of the considered options involves a high temperature oxidative roast process followed by a high temperature hydrochlorination process to volatilise base metal chlorides and other impurities. The resulting precious group metal (PGM) concentrate is cleaner and thus requires significantly less process steps to final product. The off-gas from hydrochlorination contains predominantly silver, copper, nickel and iron. This off-gas undergoes a quench-scrub to condense the base metal chlorides. The quench-scrub liquor undergoes a dechlorination process with sulfuric acid to precipitate AgCl(s). The filtrate from this process then undergoes an electrochemical reduction process to recover copper metal concentrate. The objectives of this study were to: i. Determine the operating conditions for an electrochemical reduction process aimed at recovering copper as a copper powder from a sulfuric acid stream containing copper, nickel and iron. ii. Develop a conceptual flowsheet for a batch electrochemical process and estimate the capital cost and operating cost

THE ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION OF AVIAN ALARM CALL SIGNALING SYSTEMS

Communication is often set up as a simple dyadic exchange between one sender and one receiver. However, in reality, signaling systems have evolved and are used with many forms and types of information bombarding multiple senders, who in turn send multiple signals of different modalities, through various environmental spaces, finally reaching multiple receivers. In order to understand both the ecology and evolution of a signaling system, we must examine all the facets of the signaling system. My dissertation focused on the alarm call signaling system in birds. Alarm calls are acoustic signals given in response to danger or predators. My first two chapters examine how information about predators alters alarm calls. In chapter one I found that chickadees make distinctions between predators of different hunting strategies and appear to encode information about predators differently if they are heard instead of seen. In my second chapter, I test these findings more robustly in a non-model bird, the Steller’s jay. I again found that predator species matters, but that how Steller’s jays respond if they saw or heard the predator depends on the predator species. In my third chapter, I tested how habitat has influenced the evolution of mobbing call acoustic structure. I found that habitat is not a major contributor to the variation in acoustic structure seen across species and that other selective pressures such as body size may be more important. In my fourth chapter I present a new framework to understand the evolution of multimodal communication across species. I identify a unique constraint, the need for overlapping sensory systems, thresholds and cognitive abilities between sender and receiver in order for different forms of interspecific communication to evolve. Taken together, these chapters attempt to understand a signaling system from both an ecological and evolutionary perspective by examining each piece of the communication scheme

Consumer perception of food-to-go products

This paper is focused on the perception of Czech consumers of food-to-go products. The popularity and consumption of these products are growing around the Europe except the Czech Republic. The data in this article were collected through focus groups (n=32), eye-tracking and in-depth interviews (n=54). Focus groups and in-depth interviews identified that food-to-go category is purchased only occasional and in case of necessity. The main reason is culture and preferences of Czech consumers. The eye-tracking data showed differences in consumer's attention by observing different layouts from point of purchase. The research was realized during November 2016 in the Eye-tracking Laboratory at the Mendel University in Brno.O

Construire la confiance des subordonnés : le rôle du contexte dans l’efficacité du leadership

This research identifies the levers of trust development, depending on the context. An initial exploratory study reveals two strategies for developing trust, exchange of resources and work group membership. The supervisor’s positional power conditions the effectiveness of these two strategies in developing trust. On a sample of former graduates from French engineering schools, the results show that a supervisor with strong positional power must favor the exchange of resources as the key strategy of trust building. Conversely, a manager with low power must promote membership in the group to build trustCette recherche identifie les leviers managériaux de production de confiance en fonction du contexte. Une première étude exploratoire révèle deux stratégies de développement de la confiance, l’échange de ressources et l’appartenance à un collectif de travail. Le pouvoir formel du supérieur conditionne l’efficacité de ces deux stratégies de construction de la confiance. Sur un échantillon d’anciens diplômés de grandes écoles d’ingénieurs françaises, les résultats montrent qu’un supérieur disposant d’un fort pouvoir formel doit privilégier l’échange de ressources comme stratégie principale de construction de la confiance. A l’inverse, un manager disposant d’un faible pouvoir doit favoriser l’appartenance au groupe pour construire la confiance

Le temps comme intrant des attitudes à l’égard de lasécurité routière : le cas québécois

Le modèle de G. Becker (Theory of the Allocationof Time, 1965) sert de base théorique à l’analyse des arbitrageséconomiques de l’usager de la route face aux véhicules et son environnement routier.Les auteurs introduisent les notions de perception du temps futur et de tempsprésent, ainsi que celles de discontinuité du temps. Ces notions sont issues desrecherches effectuées en psychologie et sociologie. Le modèle développé, bien quefidèle à la pensée de G. Becker s’enrichit des variables d’« horizon psychologique »de l’individu et du degré d’indépendance du futur et du présent. Un échantillonreprésentatif de la population du Québec de 683 personnes de plus de 18 ans a étéeffectué. Le questionnaire de 70 questions, testées et validées, à été élaboré. Les hypothèses « attrait pour la vitesse », « entretien de l'auto », « sécuritéactive » sont vérifiées : conformément aux hypothèses, la valeur de ces variablescroît avec la valeur du temps présent dans le premier cas et avec celle du tempsfutur dans les 2 suivants.Becker's model (Theory of Allocation ofTime, 1965) is the theoritical basis for the analysis of economicarbitrations or road users when dealing with questions of time. The authorsintroduce notions of perceptions of future and present time (PT and FT), continuityof time, which notions are derived from studies in psychology and socio-psychology.The model, as it is developed, although faithful of Becker's thoughts, is enrichedwith variables such as "psychological horizon" and the independance of PT and FT. Arepresentative sample of the Québec population of more than 18 years is obtained bymail surveys. The questionnaire contains 70 Likbert-type questions, which weretested and validated. The hypotheses an "Inclination for Speed", "Car Care", "ActiveSecurity" are verified: as expected by the model built, these dependent measuresvary with the value of PT with first case, and with the value of FT in the twosubsequent cases

Stereotype Threat Susceptibility for African-American Students from Various Rearing Environments

Understanding the variation in performance amongst African-American students on academic aptitude tests has been a hard-pressed task for a while. Despite stereotype threat becoming more documented in relation to academic aptitude tests as an explanation for such variation across racial lines (Steele and Aronson 1995), the source of racial differences in intellectual ability has not been agreed upon in the literature, and there has been some evidence that environments can affect intellectual ability (Kaplan 2015, Sesardic 2010). This study tests for differentiated effects of negative stereotypes dependent upon the environment in which African-American subjects grew up, including SES and racial composition as predicted by (Johnson Richeson Finkel, 2011). These results will help to better understand the mechanism(s) by which the threat caused by stereotypes affect the performance of African-American students on intellectual ability tests