827 research outputs found
Towards a co-creation framework in the retail banking services industry: a cross-cultural analysis
An underlying theme in modern marketing is the notion that value is not solely created within the boundaries of the firm, it is created co-jointly with outside parties. This paper aims to study the outcomes of co-creation from a customer perspective. Specifically, it examines the effects of co-creation on customer satisfaction, loyalty and word-of-mouth (WOM) within the banking services industry. Furthermore, we consider potential differences between consumers from Spain and the UK, thus incorporating cross-cultural aspects in our research.
The research demonstrates that firms should not only respond to the differences that exist within different cultural contexts and incorporate these in co-creation initiatives; more importantly, firms should undertake co-creation activities themselves as these can result in customers who are more satisfied, loyal to the company and more likely to carry out positive WOM, which can ultimately lead to new customers
Simulation of stellar instabilities with vastly different timescales using domain decomposition
Strange mode instabilities in the envelopes of massive stars lead to shock
waves, which can oscillate on a much shorter timescale than that associated
with the primary instability. The phenomenon is studied by direct numerical
simulation using a, with respect to time, implicit Lagrangian scheme, which
allows for the variation by several orders of magnitude of the dependent
variables. The timestep for the simulation of the system is reduced appreciably
by the shock oscillations and prevents its long term study. A procedure based
on domain decomposition is proposed to surmount the difficulty of vastly
different timescales in various regions of the stellar envelope and thus to
enable the desired long term simulations. Criteria for domain decomposition are
derived and the proper treatment of the resulting inner boundaries is
discussed. Tests of the approach are presented and its viability is
demonstrated by application to a model for the star P Cygni. In this
investigation primarily the feasibility of domain decomposition for the problem
considered is studied. We intend to use the results as the basis of an
extension to two dimensional simulations.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, published in MNRA
How large are present-day heat flux variations across the surface of Mars?
©2016. American Geophysical UnionThe first in situ Martian heat flux measurement to be carried out by the InSight Discoveryâclass mission will provide an important baseline to constrain the presentâday heat budget of the planet and, in turn, the thermochemical evolution of its interior. In this study, we estimate the magnitude of surface heat flux heterogeneities in order to assess how the heat flux at the InSight landing site relates to the average heat flux of Mars. To this end, we model the thermal evolution of Mars in a 3âD spherical geometry and investigate the resulting surface spatial variations of heat flux at the present day. Our models assume a fixed crust with a variable thickness as inferred from gravity and topography data and with radiogenic heat sources as obtained from gamma ray measurements of the surface. We test several mantle parameters and show that the presentâday surface heat flux pattern is dominated by the imposed crustal structure. The largest surface heat flux peakâto peak variations lie between 17.2 and 49.9 mW mâ2, with the highest values being associated with the occurrence of prominent mantle plumes. However, strong spatial variations introduced by such plumes remain narrowly confined to a few geographical regions and are unlikely to bias the InSight heat flux measurement. We estimated that the average surface heat flux varies between 23.2 and 27.3 mW mâ2, while at the InSight location it lies between 18.8 and 24.2 mW mâ2. In most models, elastic lithosphere thickness values exceed 250 km at the north pole, while the south pole values lie well above 110 km
Evaluation of Ruminal Net Wrap Accumulation in Cows Fed Ground Hay
Objective: To determine how rapidly net wrap accumulation occurs in the rumen when hay is ground without net wrap removal
Instabilities of captured shocks in the envelopes of massive stars
The evolution of strange mode instabilities into the non linear regime has
been followed by numerical simulation for an envelope model of a massive star
having solar chemical composition, M=50M_sun, T_eff=10^4K and L=1.17*10^6
L_sun. Contrary to previously studied models, for these parameters shocks are
captured in the H-ionisation zone and perform rapid oscillations within the
latter. A linear stability analysis is performed to verify that this behaviour
is physical. The origin of an instability discovered in this way is identified
by construction of an analytical model. As a result, the stratification turns
out to be essential for instability. The difference to common stratification
instabilities, e.g., convective instabilities, is discussed.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
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