Drivers of Business-to-Business (B2B) Sales Success and the role of Digitalization after COVID-19 Disruptions

Purpose - The purpose of this research is to investigate the drivers of business-to-business sales success and the role of digitalization, in a selling and sales management landscape being disrupted by COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology follows a discovery-oriented grounded theory approach which consists of a two-stage qualitative study with sales professionals in Chile, and a Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). Findings - This research shows that interfunctional coordination, agility in the selling process, and business customer engagement are critical determinants of B2B sales success, while digitalization moderates these relationships. Originality/value - This research responds to a call for more research on the impact of digitalization on business relationships in different contexts and perspectives. We study the Chilean context, through a two-stage qualitative study, and a fsQCA analysis, which constitutes a novel combination in this stream of research

Fashion Events and e-WOM

The aim of this article is to gain a deeper understanding of fashion events marketing from a sponsor's perspective and its influence on customers and society. We firstly seek to investigate what are the main marketing objectives of brands when they decide to sponsor fashion events; secondly, what are the main factors to enhance customer engagement with sponsoring brands; and finally, what are the most effective pathways to generate e-WOM in this context of fashion events. In order to answer these research questions, we conducted four studies: two online focus groups, in-depth interviews, and a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Main findings show that the chief objectives of brands in sponsoring fashion events are: a) customer engagement with the sponsoring firm and, in particular, e-WOM, b) brand presence, and c) brand positioning with fashion industry values. The conditions that enhance customer engagement are a) enjoyment, b) fashion values, c) sustainability, and d) product knowledge. Fashion values are found to be a necessary condition to generate e-WOM. There are two conditions sufficient to produce e-WOM: a) the lack of enjoyment and fashion values or b) fashion values and sustainability

Tails of the Unexpected: The Interaction of an Isothermal Shell with a Cloud

A new mechanism for the formation of cometary tails behind dense clouds or globules is discussed. Numerical hydrodynamical models show that when a dense shell of swept-up matter overruns a cloud, material in the shell is focussed behind the cloud to form a tail. This mode of tail formation is completely distinct from other methods, which involve either the removal of material from the cloud, or shadowing from a strong, nearby source of ionization. This mechanism is relevant to the cometary tails seen in planetary nebulae and to the interaction of superbubble shells with dense clouds.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS letter

Characterization of Pporous materials as radon source and its radiological implications

In this work, a magnitude is proposed in order to compare the potential radiological risk due to radon exposition generated by different materials, and a method based in the ^^^Rn accumulation technique is presented for its determination.. The obtained results indicate that the proposed magnitude and their corresponding measurement methodology are useful in order to take decisions about the management of different kinds of porous materials

Characterization of terrestrial hot particles from the Palomares accident using destructive and non-destructive analytical techniques

Several radioactive particles from the Palomares area have been analyzed with the nuclearmicroprobe of the National Accelerator Centre (CNA) in Seville exploring the advantages of combining -PIXE using a 5.5 MeV4He beam with conventional -PIXE analysis using 3 MeV protons. Themeasurements performed with the -particles are more sensitive to the sample surface, while the resultscollected with protons are indicative of the average composition of the hot particle. In this way, importantinformation about the depth distribution of Pu and U in the particles has been obtained. In addition, theparticles have been analyzed by SEM (EDX) and one of them has been sacrificed for the determinationof its U and Pu isotopic composition by ICP-MS and -spectrometry, being gained in this way importantinformation about the composition of the weapons involved in the Palomares accident.Junta de Andalucía Excellence Project TU-DRAMA (Ultra-sensitive techniques for radionuclides determination in environmental materials

Performance and cost of pigs fed 50% rice bran diets with addition of phytase and/or cellulase

Animal performance and feed costs were evaluated in pigs fed during growing and finishing phases diets containing 50% rice bran (RB) without enzymes (Treatment T1); or with addition of 1,000 units of phytase (T2); or with 250,000 units of carboxy-methylcellulase (T3); or with both enzymes per kilogram of diet (T4); in addition to a conventional maize and soy-based diet (T5). Eighty-five castrated males, 70 days old and varying in initial weight from 17.5 to 31.1 kg, were subjected to five treatments in six randomized blocks. Animals receiving the conventional diet consumed more feed and gained more weight. However, their feed conversion ratio was similar to that of animals fed the 50% RB diets, with or without enzymes, and feed costs were lower with the latter than with the maize and soy diet

Enrichment of the ISM by metal-rich droplets and the abundance bias in HII regions

We critically examine a scenario for the enrichment of the interstellar medium (ISM) in which supernova ejecta follow a long (10^8 yr) journey before falling back onto the galactic disk in the form of metal-rich ``droplets'', These droplets do not become fully mixed with the interstellar medium until they become photoionized in HII regions. We investigate the hypothesis that the photoionization of these highly metallic droplets can explain the observed ``abundance discrepancy factors'' (ADFs), which are found when comparing abundances derived from recombination lines and from collisionally excited lines, both in Galactic and extragalactic HII regions. We derive bounds of 10^{13}--10^{15} cm on the droplet sizes inside HII regions in order that (1) they should not have already been detected by direct imaging of nearby nebulae, and (2) they should not be too swiftly destroyed by diffusion in the ionized gas. From photoionization modelling we find that, if this inhomogeneous enrichment scenario holds, then the recombination lines strongly overestimate the metallicities of the fully mixed HII regions. The abundances derived from collisionally excited lines also suffer some bias, although to a much lesser extent. In the absence of any recipe for correcting these biases, we recommend the discarding of all objects showing large ADFs from studies of galactic chemical evolution. These biases must also be kept in mind when comparing the galactic abundance gradients for elements derived from recombination lines with those derived from collisionally excited lines. Finally, we propose a set of observations that could be undertaken to test our scenario and improve our understanding of element mixing in the ISM.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, accepted in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Unveiling the nature of the "Green Pea" galaxies

We review recent results on the oxygen and nitrogen chemical abundances in extremely compact, low-mass starburst galaxies at redshifts between 0.1-0.3 recently named to as "Green Pea" galaxies. These galaxies are genuine metal-poor galaxies ($\sim$ one fifth solar) with N/O ratios unusually high for galaxies of the same metallicity. In combination with their known general properties, i.e., size, stellar mass and star-formation rate, these findings suggest that these objects could be experiencing a short and extreme phase in their evolution. The possible action of both recent and massive inflow of gas, as well as stellar feedback mechanisms are discussed here as main drivers of the starburst activity and their oxygen and nitrogen abundances.Comment: To appear in JENAM Symposium "Dwarf Galaxies: Keys to Galaxy Formation and Evolution", P. Papaderos, G. Hensler, S. Recchi (eds.). Lisbon, September 2010, Springer Verlag, in pres

Properties of the ionized gas in HH202. I: Results from integral field spectroscopy with PMAS

We present results from integral field spectroscopy with the Potsdam multi-Aperture Spectrograph of the head of the Herbig-Haro object HH 202 with a spatial sampling of 1"x1". We have obtained maps of different emission lines, physical conditions --such as electron temperature and density-- and ionic abundances from recombination and collisionally excited lines. We present the first map of the Balmer temperature and of the temperature fluctuation parameter, t^2. We have calculated the t^2 in the plane of the sky, which is substantially smaller than that determined along the line of sight. We have mapped the abundance discrepancy factor of O^{2+}, ADF(O^{2+}), finding its maximum value at the HH 202-S position. We have explored the relations between the ADF(O^{2+}) and the electron density, the Balmer and [O III] temperatures, the ionization degree as well as the t^2 parameter. We do not find clear correlations between these properties and the results seem to support that the ADF and t^2 are independent phenomena. We have found a weak negative correlation between the O^{2+} abundance determined from recombination lines and the temperature, which is the expected behaviour in an ionized nebula, hence it seems that there is not evidence for the presence of super-metal rich droplets in H II regions.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

The ionized gas in the central region of NGC 5253: 2D mapping of the physical and chemical properties

ABRIDGED: NGC5253 was previously studied by our group with the aim to elucidate in detail the starburst interaction processes. Some open issues regarding the 2D structure of the main properties of the ionized gas remain to be addressed. Using IFS data obtained with FLAMES, we derived 2D maps for different tracers of electron density (n_e), electron temperature (T_e) and ionization degree. The maps for n_e as traced by several line ratios are compatible with a 3D stratified view of the nebula with the highest n_e in the innermost layers and a decrease of n_e outwards. To our knowledge, this is the first time that a T_e map based on [SII] lines for an extragalactic object is presented. The joint interpretation of our two T_e maps is consistent with a T_e structure in 3D with higher temperatures close to the main ionizing source surrounded by a colder and more diffuse component. The highest ionization degree is found at the peak of emission for the gas with relatively high ionization in the main GHIIR and lower ionization degree delineating the more extended diffuse component. Abundances for O, Ne and Ar are constant over the mapped area within <0.1 dex. The mean 12+log(O/H) is 8.26 while the relative abundances of log(N/O), log(Ne/O) and log(Ar/O) were \sim-1.32, -0.65 and -2.33, respectively. There are two locations with enhanced N/O. The first (log(N/O)\sim-0.95) is associated to two super star clusters. The second (log(N/O)\sim-1.17), reported here for the first time, is associated to two moderately massive (2-4x10^4 M_sun) and relatively old (\sim10 Myr) clusters. A comparison of the N/O map with those produced by strong line methods supports the use of N2O2 over N2S2 in the search for chemical inhomogeneities within a galaxy. The results on the localized nitrogen enhancement were used to compile and discuss the factors that affect the complex relationship between Wolf-Rayet stars and N/O excess.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in A&