48 research outputs found
Assessing destination brand equity: An integrated approach
Commonly, when referring to destination brand equity, four dimensions are taken into consideration: awareness, image, quality and loyalty. Building on product and corporate brand equity and the definition of destination branding, the present paper includes a marketing approach towards developing a structural model incorporating a fifth dimension; that of cultural brand assets. The proposed model, focused on cultural urban destinations, was tested from the perspective of international tourists visiting Rome. Findings indicate that the five dimensions are interrelated and important for the customers' evaluation of a cultural destination. Consistent with place and destination branding literature, the significance of specific cultural brand assets is emphasized. The study provides practitioners with a better understanding of the dimensions which may lead to favorable brand evaluations. Finally, it describes the structural relationships which are developed between assets, awareness, associations and quality, and links them with the intention to re-visit and recommend as outcomes leading to destination loyalty
Developing a structural brand equity model for cultural destinations
Purpose
– This paper aims to investigate the structural relationships between the brand equity (BE) dimensions, when the fifth dimension of cultural brand assets is incorporated. The paper seeks to establish and validate a five-dimensional BE measure for cultural urban destination, by comparing findings in two destinations.
Design/methodology/approach
– The structural model was tested from the perspective of 399 international tourists visiting Athens. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling analysis are used to test and validate an integrated BE model for cultural destinations. Findings are compared with respective ones in the case of Rome.
Findings
– Findings reveal the significance of cultural brand assets for the BE of cultural urban destinations. Further, the study provides useful insight into the theory of reasoned action by investigating the structural relationships developed between BE dimensions and their impact on loyalty.
Research limitations/implications
– The study argues that the summative valence of associations, as described in the theory of reasoned action, can be applied in the case of a cultural destination as well. Research directions, including additional place brand dimensions, additional destinations, stakeholders groups or multi-group analysis, are advised to verify and generalise the application of the five-dimensional BE model.
Practical implications
– Findings reveal those cultural brand assets which can help practitioners build up coherent and successful proprietary brand assets. Quality is a necessary pre-requisite to enhance loyalty. In the case of Athens, associations influence only indirect loyalty through their impact on quality.
Originality/value
– This study offers to the limited literature concerning structural relationships developed among all five BE dimensions and consumer decision-making models in a tourism context. Moreover, the study contributes to the under-researched dimension of cultural brand assets.</p
PRODUCT CHOICE ATTITUDE FORMATION: IT IS A MATTER OF A COLLECTIVE OR PERSONAL IDENTITY?
So far, specific social factors have been recognised as having a strong impact on the formation of consumer attitudes towards foreign products. At the same time, it has been argued that there is a need to explore other parameters that may affect the product choice attitude formation. In this context, this article explores cultural aspects that are associated with both, the collective and the personal identity of individuals by investigating whether and to what extent these aspects influence overall foreign product openness. The results allow us to argue that cultural aspects related to the collective identity have a significant impact on attitudes towards foreign products, while other aspects, related to the personal identity of individuals, seem to affect this attitude formation to a lesser extent
PRODUCT CHOICE ATTITUDE FORMATION: IT IS A MATTER OF A COLLECTIVE OR PERSONAL IDENTITY?
So far, specific social factors have been recognised as having a strong impact on the formation of consumer attitudes towards foreign products. At the same time, it has been argued that there is a need to explore other parameters that may affect the product choice attitude formation. In this context, this article explores cultural aspects that are associated with both, the collective and the personal identity of individuals by investigating whether and to what extent these aspects influence overall foreign product openness. The results allow us to argue that cultural aspects related to the collective identity have a significant impact on attitudes towards foreign products, while other aspects, related to the personal identity of individuals, seem to affect this attitude formation to a lesser extent
D-Brane Dynamics and NS5 Rings
We consider the classical motion of a probe D-brane moving in the background
geometry of a ring of NS5 branes, assuming that the latter are non-dynamical.
We analyse the solutions to the Dirac-Born-Infield (DBI) action governing the
approximate dynamics of the system. In the near horizon (throat) approximation
we find several exact solutions for the probe brane motion. These are compared
to numerical solutions obtained in more general cases. One solution of
particular interest is when the probe undergoes oscillatory motion through the
centre of the ring (and perpendicular to it). By taking the ring radius
sufficiently large, this solution should remain stable to any stringy
corrections coming from open-strings stretching between the probe and the
NS5-branes along the ring.Comment: 17 pages, Latex, 8 figures; References adde
D-brane dynamics near compactified NS5-branes
We examine the dynamics of a -brane in the background of coincident,
parallel 5-branes which have had one of their common transverse directions
compactified. We find that for small energy, bound orbits can exist at
sufficiently large distances where there will be no stringy effects. The orbits
are dependent upon the energy density, angular momentum and electric field. The
analysis breaks down at radial distances comparable with the compactification
radius and we must resort to using a modified form of the harmonic function in
this region.Comment: Latex, 20 pages, 6 figs, references adde
On the Classification of Brane Tilings
We present a computationally efficient algorithm that can be used to generate
all possible brane tilings. Brane tilings represent the largest class of
superconformal theories with known AdS duals in 3+1 and also 2+1 dimensions and
have proved useful for describing the physics of both D3 branes and also M2
branes probing Calabi-Yau singularities. This algorithm has been implemented
and is used to generate all possible brane tilings with at most 6
superpotential terms, including consistent and inconsistent brane tilings. The
collection of inconsistent tilings found in this work form the most
comprehensive study of such objects to date.Comment: 33 pages, 12 figures, 15 table
New Experimental Limits on Macroscopic Forces Below 100 Microns
Results of an experimental search for new macroscopic forces with Yukawa
range between 5 and 500 microns are presented. The experiment uses 1 kHz
mechanical oscillators as test masses with a stiff conducting shield between
them to suppress backgrounds. No signal is observed above the instrumental
thermal noise after 22 hours of integration time. These results provide the
strongest limits to date between 10 and 100 microns, improve on previous limits
by as much as three orders of magnitude, and rule out half of the remaining
parameter space for predictions of string-inspired models with low-energy
supersymmetry breaking. New forces of four times gravitational strength or
greater are excluded at the 95% confidence level for interaction ranges between
200 and 500 microns.Comment: 25 Pages, 7 Figures: Minor Correction
Cosmology of Brane Models with Radion Stabilization
We analyze the cosmology of the Randall-Sundrum model and that of compact
brane models in general in the presence of a radius stabilization mechanism. We
find that the expansion of our universe is generically in agreement with the
expected effective four dimensional description. The constraint (which is
responsible for the appearance of non-conventional cosmologies in these models)
that must be imposed on the matter densities on the two branes in the theory
without a stabilized radius is a consequence of requiring a static solution
even in the absence of stabilization. Such constraints disappear in the
presence of a stablizing potential, and the ordinary FRW
(Friedmann-Robertson-Walker) equations are reproduced, with the expansion
driven by the sum of the physical values of the energy densities on the two
branes and in the bulk. For the case of the Randall-Sundrum model we examine
the kinematics of the radion field, and find that corrections to the standard
FRW equations are small for temperatures below the weak scale. We find that the
radion field has renormalizable and unsuppressed couplings to Standard Model
particles after electroweak symmetry breaking. These couplings may have
important implications for collider searches. We comment on the possibility
that matter off the TeV brane could serve as a dark matter candidate.Comment: 35 pages, Late