Sustainable brand identity communications in social media influencing consumers’ intention to behave sustainably

Abstract. The world is consuming at such a rate that 1,75 Earths would be needed to endure the effects. The effects of consumption on sustainable development have long been acknowledged, as is the role of marketing discipline in encouraging consumption, showcasing a need for the discipline to change, however still consumption continues to rise. The purpose of this research is to create an empirically validated framework for the influence of sustainable brand identity communications in social media on consumers’ intention to behave sustainably. The research focuses on an SME operating in the fashion industry and poses sustainable brands with sustainability as their core value to be a solution into influencing consumers’ behavioral intention. Theories of sustainability marketing, branding and consumption, theories of sustainability communications and the theory of planned behavior were applied in creating the theoretical framework. The research is qualitative to pre-test the theoretical framework for future quantitative research. Two qualitative research methods were applied; content analysis of the case company’s Instagram feed to study what kind sustainability content is communicated, and interviews of the case company’s potential customers to study how the communications and content resonates to consumers, and lastly, if the content affects the consumers’ consumption behavior through the theory of planned behavior. The research resulted in three theoretical contributions. The research created a theoretical framework for studying the influence of sustainable brand identity communications in social media on consumers’ intention to behave sustainably and a framework for analyzing sustainable brand identity communications in social media. The research also validated the two frameworks empirically. The results demonstrated that consumers’ intention to behave sustainably may be influenced with brand identity communications in social media by influencing consumers’ attitudes and self-efficacy. Effect on consumers’ descriptive norms was not realized. Also, the research showcased that brands can communicate their sustainable identity to consumers through social media content, and that consumers can and do create a perception of the brand’s sustainability based on the brand’s social media content. Lastly, the research contributed several methods on how to create influential sustainable brand identity communications in social media, reported consumers’ perceptions of the communications, and the effects of those communications on consumers. The limitations of this study arise from the limited research on sustainability branding and communications as well as the research being unable to study actual behavior. Moreover, as the results are not statistically generalizable, the qualitative nature of the research may be considered as a limitation. Further research suggestions include adapting the research into another qualitative context and to test the framework quantitatively to validate it further

On-chip Maxwell's demon as an information-powered refrigerator

We present an experimental realization of an autonomous Maxwell's Demon, which extracts microscopic information from a System and reduces its entropy by applying feedback. It is based on two capacitively coupled single electron devices, both integrated on the same electronic circuit. This setup allows a detailed analysis of the thermodynamics of both the Demon and the System as well as their mutual information exchange. The operation of the Demon is directly observed as a temperature drop in the System. We also observe a simultaneous temperature rise in the Demon arising from the thermodynamic cost of generating the mutual information.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Utility of correlation techniques in gravity and magnetic interpretation

Internal correspondence uses Poisson's Theorem in a moving-window linear regression analysis between the anomalous first vertical derivative of gravity and total magnetic field reduced to the pole. The regression parameters provide critical information on source characteristics. The correlation coefficient indicates the strength of the relation between magnetics and gravity. Slope value gives delta j/delta sigma estimates of the anomalous source. The intercept furnishes information on anomaly interference. Cluster analysis consists of the classification of subsets of data into groups of similarity based on correlation of selected characteristics of the anomalies. Model studies are used to illustrate implementation and interpretation procedures of these methods, particularly internal correspondence. Analysis of the results of applying these methods to data from the midcontinent and a transcontinental profile shows they can be useful in identifying crustal provinces, providing information on horizontal and vertical variations of physical properties over province size zones, validating long wavelength anomalies, and isolating geomagnetic field removal problems

Utility of correlation techniques in gravity and magnetic interpretation

Two methods of quantitative combined analysis, internal correspondence and clustering, are presented. Model studies are used to illustrate implementation and interpretation procedures of these methods, particularly internal correspondence. Analysis of the results of applying these methods to data from the midcontinent and a transcontinental profile show they can be useful in identifying crustal provinces, providing information on horizontal and vertical variations of physical properties over province size zones, validating long wave-length anomalies, and isolating geomagnetic field removal problems. Thus, these techniques are useful in considering regional data acquired by satellites

Killing of Gyrodactylus salaris by heat and chemical disinfection

BACKGROUND: Gyrodactylus salaris is a monogenean, which has collapsed tens of wild Atlantic salmon populations. One of the means of preventing the spread of the parasite is the disinfection of the fishing equipment, which is used in the rivers having susceptible salmon populations. Little is known about the dosage of disinfectants against G. salaris. There are not standards for the testing of disinfectants against multicellular parasites. The present investigation developed a method to test disinfectants and examined the effectiveness of heated water and a commercially available disinfectant (Virkon S) in killing G. salaris. Individual G. salaris worms were followed under the microscope during treatment with heated water or Virkon S disinfectant blend. The logarithm of the time needed to kill the parasite was used as a dependent variable in linear regression. The upper 99.98 % prediction line for the dependent variable was used to obtain a value resembling the time needed for a 4 log reduction of the microbial pathogen, which is commonly used as a criterion for disinfectants. Also 6 log reduction was applied. RESULTS: Exposure to a relatively low temperature was found to kill the parasite. Even 5–50 min treatment (=10–100 times the 99.98 % upper prediction value) with heated water at 40 °C might be used. This would enable the utilisation of hot tap water in the disinfection of fishing gear. The present practice of 1 % Virkon S for 15 min was also found to kill the parasite. CONCLUSIONS: The follow-up of single parasites of a test population and the use of the calculated upper predictive line in the regression analysis offers a method to analyse the effects of disinfectants on parasites like G. salaris. The results of our tests give possibilities for using disinfection methods, which may be more acceptable by the fishermen than the present ones

Thermal conductance of a proximity superconductor

We study heat transport in hybrid normal metal - superconductor - normal metal (NSN) structures. We find the thermal conductance of a short superconducting wire to be strongly enhanced beyond the BCS value due to inverse proximity effect. The measurements agree with a model based on the quasiclassical theory of superconductivity in the diffusive limit. We determine a crossover temperature below which quasiparticle heat conduction dominates over the electron-phonon relaxation.Comment: 4+ pages, 3 figure