A Statistical Measure of a Population's Propensity to Engage in Post-Purchase Online Word-of-Mouth

The emergence of online communities has enabled firms to monitor consumer-generated online word-of-mouth (WOM) in real-time by mining publicly available information from the Internet. A prerequisite for harnessing this new ability is the development of appropriate WOM metrics and the identification of relationships between such metrics and consumer behavior. Along these lines this paper introduces a metric of a purchasing population's propensity to rate a product online. Using data from a popular movie website we find that our metric exhibits several relationships that have been previously found to exist between aspects of a product and consumers' propensity to engage in offline WOM about it. Our study, thus, provides positive evidence for the validity of our metric as a proxy of a population's propensity to engage in post-purchase online WOM. Our results also suggest that the antecedents of offline and online WOM exhibit important similarities.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/088342306000000169 in the Statistical Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Media, Aggregators, and the Link Economy: Strategic Hyperlink Formation in Content Networks

A defining property of the World Wide Web is a content site's ability to place virtually costless hyperlinks to third-party content as a substitute or complement to its own content. Costless hyperlinking has enabled new types of players, usually referred to as content aggregators, to successfully enter content ecosystems, attracting traffic and revenue by hosting links to the content of others. This, in turn, has sparked a heated controversy between content creators and aggregators regarding the legitimacy and costs/benefits of uninhibited free linking. To our knowledge, this work is the first to model the complex interplay between content and links in settings where a set of sites compete for traffic. We develop a series of analytical models that distill how hyperlinking affects the (a) incentives of content nodes to produce quality content versus link to third-party content, (b) profits of the various stakeholders, (c) average quality of content that becomes available to consumers, and (d) impact of content aggregators. Our results provide a nuanced view of the so-called link economy, highlighting both the beneficial consequences and the drawbacks of free hyperlinks for content creators and consumers.This paper was accepted by Lorin Hitt, information systems

The Architecture of the ‘Pantheon’ in Athens. Recent Discoveries

In the decade of the 1960’s the remains of a large building were discovered, 65 m southeast of the Library of Hadrian in Athens. The temple-like construction with dimensions 87 m and 39 m was identified with the Pantheon built under Hadrian. Recent research in the Library of Hadrian discovered a number of architectural features that match the colossal size of the building. Column bases and drums, as well as fragments from the superstructure, mostly incorporated in second use in the Tetraconch building, allow for the reconstruction of the outer and interior orders and their association with the in situ remains. The raised panels in the ashlars of the masonry, together with the octastyle prostyle plan which was used only during Hadrian’s years confirm the suggested chronology. As the cella corresponds to the 8 columns of the facade, the interior width equals 32 m, making the ‘Pantheon’ of Athens the broadest known cella, appropriate for the worship of all gods. The article includes stylistic comparisons with other works of the Hadrianic repertoire and views the ‘Pantheon’ as the Athenian response to the Pantheon in Rome

The Architecture of the ‘Pantheon’ in Athens. Recent Discoveries

In the decade of the 1960’s the remains of a large building were discovered, 65 m southeast of the Library of Hadrian in Athens. The temple-like construction with dimensions 87 m and 39 m was identified with the Pantheon built under Hadrian. Recent research in the Library of Hadrian discovered a number of architectural features that match the colossal size of the building. Column bases and drums, as well as fragments from the superstructure, mostly incorporated in second use in the Tetraconch building, allow for the reconstruction of the outer and interior orders and their association with the in situ remains. The raised panels in the ashlars of the masonry, together with the octastyle prostyle plan which was used only during Hadrian’s years confirm the suggested chronology. As the cella corresponds to the 8 columns of the facade, the interior width equals 32 m, making the ‘Pantheon’ of Athens the broadest known cella, appropriate for the worship of all gods. The article includes stylistic comparisons with other works of the Hadrianic repertoire and views the ‘Pantheon’ as the Athenian response to the Pantheon in Rome

Τhe Lost Skin of the Library of Hadrian in Athens. "... κίονες φρυγίου λίθου ... ὀρόφῳ τε ἐπιχρύσῳ καὶ ἀλαβάστρῳ λίθῳ"

Η απολεσθείσα επιδερμίδα της Βιβλιοθήκης του Αδριανού στην Αθήνα. "... κίονες φρυγίου λίθου ... ὀρόφῳ τε ἐπιχρύσῳ καὶ ἀλαβάστρῳ λίθῳ"Το άρθρο παρουσιάζει σύντομη περιγραφή της αρχιτεκτονικής στη Βιβλιοθήκη του Αδριανού, ακολουθούμενη από λεπτομερή ανάλυση της κατασκευής των τοίχων, των χώρων στο ανατολικό μέρος του συγκροτήματος και των ορθομαρμαρώσεων. Η Βιβλιοθήκη του Αδριανού ήταν το μοναδικό κτήριο στην Αθήνα στο οποίο χρησιμοποιήθηκε το λαμπρό Φρύγιο μάρμαρο (γνωστό και ως Συννάδιο ή pavonazzetto). Η μελέτη 200 θραυσμάτων Φρυγίου μαρμάρου από κίονες, παραστάδες και ορθομαρμαρώσεις τοίχων επιτρέπει την επανεξέταση της αρχιτεκτονικής. Τρείς λύσεις προτείνονται σχετικά με την αρχιτεκτονική της μεγάλης αίθουσας με τις κόγχες, γνωστής συμβατικά ως το Βιβλιοστάσιο. Η ερμηνεία της χρήσης είτε ως βιβλιοστάσιο είτε ως αίθουσα αυτοκρατορικής λατρείας/  σηκός του Αδριανού κατά τον Δίωνα συνδυάζεται με τα νέα στοιχεία.The paper presents a brief description of the architecture of the Library of Hadrian in Athens, followed by a detailed analysis of the construction of the walls, the rooms in the east of the compound and the revetments. The Library of Hadrian was the only building in Athens that employed prestigious Phrygian marble (Synnadian or pavonazzetto). The study of 200 fragments of Phrygian marble from columns, pilasters and wall revetments allows for a reconsideration of the architecture. Three solutions are proposed with regards the architecture of the large, aedicular eastern hall, termed the Bibliostasio. Intrepretation of its function –whether a book keeping hall or a Κaisersaal /Dio’s sekos to Hadrian- is combined with the architectural features and the new data

Herodian's Septimius Severus: Literary Portrait and Historiography

In this article I offer a comprehensive examination of Herodian’s narrative of the emperor Septimius Severus, with a focus on his literary programme and historical methodology. First, I corroborate the view of recent scholarship as regards Herodian’s complex characterization of Septimius Severus by offering new insights into Herodian’s technique of progressively shaping the emperor’s portrait with great richness and complexity. Second, I show that Herodian goes to some trouble to rework his source material, mainly Cassius Dio’s History, in order to favour a more positive reading of Severus, which best suits his themes and interests. Third, I argue that Herodian constantly employs intratextuality in order to develop substantial structural, thematic, and verbal associations and comparisons between Severus and other historical agents and thus draw the reader to perceive his history in a dovetailed and comparative manner. Thus, I propose that Herodian’s portrait of Severus is his own innovation, and that it should be tailored to his overall narrative method of providing a cohesive, unified, and intelligible re-configuration of the fragmented and chaotic post-Marcus world. I show that Severus’ portrait has been shaped by Herodian’s universalising view of imperial history, and that it is used to provide a sense of continuation and repetition among separate reigns by establishing thematic oppositions (mainly between activity and cowardice, and between tyrannical and enlightened behaviour), which recur as a unifying factor for his work as a whole