904 research outputs found
Is a Positive Review Always Effective? Advertising Appeal Effect in the Persuasion of Online Customer Reviews
Despite the expected value of online customer reviews as an emerging advertising medium, the manner of enforcing its effectiveness on customersâ purchase behavior is still a question not well answered. To address the question, we propose a new central route cue called âadvertising appealâ to examine attitude and intention to purchase a product or service based on the reasoning of the elaboration likelihood model. We also propose that consumersâ consumption goal and attitude certainty separately moderate the advertising appeal effect on purchase intention through a degree of favorable attitude. We test these hypotheses by conducting a laboratory experiment with 50 participants. In this experiment, we manipulate two kinds of advertising appeals and consumption goals. This study demonstrates that attribute-based appeal reviews are more influential than emotion-based appeal reviews in the persuasion process, regardless of the individualsâ consumption goals. However, the advertising appeal effect on purchase intention is more pronounced for hedonic consumers than for utilitarian consumers
Modelling the Impact of Perceived Connectivity on the Intention to Use Social Media: Discovering Mediating Effects and Unobserved Heterogeneity
Early research examined the direct effect of perceived connectivity (PC) on intention to adopt information systems. In this study, we extend that research stream by examining the mediating effects of perceived enjoyment (PE) and perceived playfulness (PP) on the relationship between PC and the intention to use social media within the workplace. To test our proposed model, we collected data from 2,556 social media users from Australia, Canada, India, the UK, and the US. We applied the REBUS-PLS algorithm, a response-based method for detecting unit segments in PLS path modelling and assessing the unobserved heterogeneity in the data sample. Based on the strength of effects, the algorithm automatically detected two groups of users sharing the same intentions to use social media. A post hoc analysis of each group was done using contextual and demographic variables including geographic location, country, age, education and gender. Implications for practice and research are discussed
Collaborative Project Across Three Hong Kong Universities: A Case Study in E-Commerce Education
This paper reports on the work undertaken by three tertiary institutions in Hong Kong to provide business students with the opportunity to experience a project-based teamwork game in learning e-commerce (EC). The teaching objective of this EC project is to develop the knowledge and skills of students, such as in the use of EC site-building tools, critical thinking, communication skills, teamwork, and entrepreneurship. This study examined student attitudes toward the learning in introductory e-commerce course via a project-based teamwork game in EC using a non-traditional teaching approach. The results ofan evaluation indicate that the project-based teamwork approach performed to expectations. Based on the feedback from students from the three tertiary institutions, the project was found to facilitate the teaching and learning of EC and to be interesting, exciting, innovative, and more worthwhile than traditional textbook-based learning
Nanometer Scale Dielectric Fluctuations at the Glass Transition
Using non-contact scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques, dielectric
properties were studied on 50 nanometer length scales in poly-vinyl-acetate
(PVAc) films in the vicinity of the glass transition. Low frequency (1/f) noise
observed in the measurements, was shown to arise from thermal fluctuations of
the electric polarization. Anomalous variations observed in the noise spectrum
provide direct evidence for cooperative nano-regions with heterogeneous
kinetics. The cooperative length scale was determined. Heterogeneity was
long-lived only well below the glass transition for faster than average
processes.Comment: 4 pages, 4 embedded PS figures, RevTeX - To appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Isomorphs in model molecular liquids
Isomorphs are curves in the phase diagram along which a number of static and
dynamic quantities are invariant in reduced units. A liquid has good isomorphs
if and only if it is strongly correlating, i.e., the equilibrium
virial/potential energy fluctuations are more than 90% correlated in the NVT
ensemble. This paper generalizes isomorphs to liquids composed of rigid
molecules and study the isomorphs of two systems of small rigid molecules, the
asymmetric dumbbell model and the Lewis-Wahnstrom OTP model. In particular, for
both systems we find that the isochoric heat capacity, the excess entropy, the
reduced molecular center-of-mass self part of the intermediate scattering
function, the reduced molecular center-of-mass radial distribution function to
a good approximation are invariant along an isomorph. In agreement with theory,
we also find that an instantaneous change of temperature and density from an
equilibrated state point to another isomorphic state point leads to no
relaxation. The isomorphs of the Lewis-Wahnstrom OTP model were found to be
more approximative than those of the asymmetric dumbbell model, which is
consistent with the OTP model being less strongly correlating. For both models
we find "master isomorphs", i.e., isomorphs have identical shape in the
virial/potential energy phase diagram.Comment: 20 page
Molecular dynamics simulation of the fragile glass former ortho-terphenyl: a flexible molecule model
We present a realistic model of the fragile glass former orthoterphenyl and
the results of extensive molecular dynamics simulations in which we
investigated its basic static and dynamic properties. In this model the
internal molecular interactions between the three rigid phenyl rings are
described by a set of force constants, including harmonic and anharmonic terms;
the interactions among different molecules are described by Lennard-Jones
site-site potentials. Self-diffusion properties are discussed in detail
together with the temperature and momentum dependencies of the
self-intermediate scattering function. The simulation data are compared with
existing experimental results and with the main predictions of the Mode
Coupling Theory.Comment: 20 pages and 28 postscript figure
On micro-structural effects in dielectric mixtures
The paper presents numerical simulations performed on dielectric properties
of two-dimensional binary composites on eleven regular space filling
tessellations. First, significant contributions of different parameters, which
play an important role in the electrical properties of the composite, are
introduced both for designing and analyzing material mixtures. Later, influence
of structural differences and intrinsic electrical properties of constituents
on the composite's over all electrical properties are investigated. The
structural differences are resolved by the spectral density representation
approach. The numerical technique, without any {\em a-priori} assumptions, for
extracting the spectral density function is also presented.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figure and 7 tables. It is submitted to IEEE Transactions
on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulatio
Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy on Glass-Forming Propylene Carbonate
Dielectric spectroscopy covering more than 18 decades of frequency has been
performed on propylene carbonate in its liquid and supercooled-liquid state.
Using quasi-optic submillimeter and far-infrared spectroscopy the dielectric
response was investigated up to frequencies well into the microscopic regime.
We discuss the alpha-process whose characteristic timescale is observed over 14
decades of frequency and the excess wing showing up at frequencies some three
decades above the peak frequency. Special attention is given to the
high-frequency response of the dielectric loss in the crossover regime between
alpha-peak and boson-peak. Similar to our previous results in other glass
forming materials we find evidence for additional processes in the crossover
regime. However, significant differences concerning the spectral form at high
frequencies are found. We compare our results to the susceptibilities obtained
from light scattering and to the predictions of various models of the glass
transition.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Physical Origin of the Boson Peak Deduced from a Two-Order-Parameter Model of Liquid
We propose that the boson peak originates from the (quasi-) localized
vibrational modes associated with long-lived locally favored structures, which
are intrinsic to a liquid state and are randomly distributed in a sea of
normal-liquid structures. This tells us that the number density of locally
favored structures is an important physical factor determining the intensity of
the boson peak. In our two-order-parameter model of the liquid-glass
transition, the locally favored structures act as impurities disturbing
crystallization and thus lead to vitrification. This naturally explains the
dependence of the intensity of the boson peak on temperature, pressure, and
fragility, and also the close correlation between the boson peak and the first
sharp diffraction peak (or prepeak).Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, An error in the reference (Ref. 7) was correcte
Evidence of coexistence of change of caged dynamics at Tg and the dynamic transition at Td in solvated proteins
Mossbauer spectroscopy and neutron scattering measurements on proteins
embedded in solvents including water and aqueous mixtures have emphasized the
observation of the distinctive temperature dependence of the atomic mean square
displacements, , commonly referred to as the dynamic transition at some
temperature Td. At low temperatures, increases slowly, but it assume
stronger temperature dependence after crossing Td, which depends on the
time/frequency resolution of the spectrometer. Various authors have made
connection of the dynamics of solvated proteins including the dynamic
transition to that of glass-forming substances. Notwithstanding, no connection
is made to the similar change of temperature dependence of obtained by
quasielastic neutron scattering when crossing the glass transition temperature
Tg, generally observed in inorganic, organic and polymeric glass-formers.
Evidences are presented to show that such change of the temperature dependence
of from neutron scattering at Tg is present in hydrated or solvated
proteins, as well as in the solvents used unsurprisingly since the latter is
just another organic glass-formers. The obtained by neutron scattering at
not so low temperatures has contributions from the dissipation of molecules
while caged by the anharmonic intermolecular potential at times before
dissolution of cages by the onset of the Johari-Goldstein beta-relaxation. The
universal change of at Tg of glass-formers had been rationalized by
sensitivity to change in volume and entropy of the beta-relaxation, which is
passed onto the dissipation of the caged molecules and its contribution to
. The same rationalization applies to hydrated and solvated proteins for
the observed change of at Tg.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures, 1 Tabl
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