Understanding an Organization’s Culture through its Stories

Stories shared either publicly or privately within work environments influence schemata that in turn can affect employee performance. These myriad stories may include how a problem was solved, how productivity was increased on a particular task, or in less positive instances whom is to blame for an unmet expectation. Such stories may also serve to illustrate how and why employees find meaning in their work and/or the broader organization and its mission. This presentation will begin by exploring academic research regarding how the culmination of these stories about the past, present, and future predictions can shape both positive and negative attitudes and beliefs that shape the “culture,” and therefore the desired KPIs, of an organization. Next, challenges will be explored beginning with how management sometimes lacks a holistic awareness of what stories are being told that make up the authentic culture. Instead, in an effort to foster peak performance, a counter-productive and autocratic approach is commonplace where values are disseminated regardless of input from employees, stakeholders, or outside research findings. This comes at opportunity cost as well and in other cases a direct financial cost as well. Chris Cummings, CEO and Alex Lavidge from Pass It Down, an award-winning Chattanooga-based storytelling agency offering internet-based storytelling-software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, propose that by collecting stories from employees both anonymously and through multimedia online around specific questions, time and money can be saved when compared to lengthy interviews or relying on online surveys. From there, the outcome from presenting these stories using established story arc templates includes a variety of benefits that can both theorized as well as measured for enhancing the workplace in both tangible and intangible ways. Cummings and Lavidge will present a framework for compartmentalizing subcategories of knowledge transfer for companies and organizations as well as different metrics for how the costs of storytelling might be justified. This session will end with an interactive and audience-involved discussion about the themes covered in this presentation

Kinetochore genes are coordinately up-regulated in human tumors as part of a FoxM1-related cell division program

The key player in directing proper chromosome segregation is the macromolecular kinetochore complex, which mediates DNA–microtubule interactions. Previous studies testing individual kinetochore genes documented examples of their overexpression in tumors relative to normal tissue, leading to proposals that up-regulation of specific kinetochore genes may promote tumor progression. However, kinetochore components do not function in isolation, and previous studies did not comprehensively compare the expression behavior of kinetochore components. Here we analyze the expression behavior of the full range of human kinetochore components in diverse published expression compendia, including normal tissues and tumor samples. Our results demonstrate that kinetochore genes are rarely overexpressed individually. Instead, we find that core kinetochore genes are coordinately regulated with other cell division genes under virtually all conditions. This expression pattern is strongly correlated with the expression of the forkhead transcription factor FoxM1, which binds to the majority of cell division promoters. These observations suggest that kinetochore gene up-regulation in cancer reflects a general activation of the cell division program and that altered expression of individual kinetochore genes is unlikely to play a causal role in tumorigenesis.Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of America (Scholar Award)National Institute of General Medical Sciences (U.S.) (Grant GM088313)American Cancer Society (Research Scholar Grant 121776)National Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research Fellowshi

From TV To Online To Mobile Phones: A National Study Of US College Students’ Multiplatform Video Use and Satisfaction [Slides]

Slides presented to the The Internet Turning 40: The Never- Ending Novelty of New Media Research Conference, June 17-19, 2010, Chinese University of Hong Kong

An examination of the role of service quality and perceived value in visitor attraction experience

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between service quality, perceived value, satisfaction and behavioural intentions in the UK attraction context. Data was collected in the Midlands Region of the UK from two visitor attractions utilising a mixed-mode survey approach. A total of 507 usable questionnaires were analysed using ordinary least squares (OLS) multiple regression analysis to examine the relationship between the constructs. The findings confirm the cognitive-affective-conative order between the service constructs within the context of UK visitor attractions. This study has improved the understanding of the role of value in service experiences, particularly in the attraction context, providing evidence that value exerts substantial influence on satisfaction and behavioural intention. More specifically, emotional value exerts more influence on satisfaction and behavioural intention than other forms of value. Managers need to view the visitor experience holistically rather than concentrating on one or two service constructs

Five areas to advance branding theory and practice

The paper suggests five areas to advance branding theory and practice based on the authors’ recent work in brand management. In this commentary, we aim to put forward suggestions and ideas for further research in brand management; ideas, which we believe will have an impact on the way branding is researched and practiced by both academics and practitioners alike. We will focus on the future of branding in the following areas, inspired by our own work in the field: (1) branding in higher education, (2) branding in Asia Pacific, (3) brand ambidexterity, (4) brand innovation on social media, and (5) brand likeability

B2B brands on Twitter: Engaging users with a varying combination of social media content objectives, strategies, and tactics

YesThe objective of this research is to increase understanding about B2B company-led user engagement on social media content. Building on hierarchy-of-effects (HoE) theory, we explore how the world’s leading B2B companies use content objectives (why), strategies (how), and tactics (what) on Twitter. We first integrate B2B advertising and social media research on companies’ content objectives, strategies, and tactics. Then, using qualitative analyses, we examine the existence of objectives, strategies, and tactics in the most engaging tweets (N=365) of the worlds’ ten leading B2B brands, covering five industries, in 2017. Finally, we quantitatively examine how the use of diverse objectives and strategies differs between the most engaging tweets (N=318) and least engaging tweets (N=229) of the companies in 2018. The companies use objectives, strategies and tactics that relate to creating awareness, knowledge and trust, interest, and liking in the majority of their most and least engaging tweets, and express preference, conviction and purchase aspects much less. Differences exist in general, industry-wise, and company-wise. The study is a rare attempt to integrate the extant B2B advertising and social media research, and compare the most and least engaging B2B social media content

Revisiting the theory of business-to-business advertising

Creating effective business-to-business (B2B) communications is an increasingly complex challenge for marketing managers. It requires a theoretical understanding of a number of puzzling, interacting components of an advertising stimulus. However, few academicians have pursued the goal of integrating and modeling how the B2B advertising process should be conceptualized. Gilliland and Johnston (1997) provided the first comprehensive model of the process, but B2B advertising has changed dramatically since this paper and demands an update to capture the new dimensions of the phenomenon. Using a systematic literature review to summarize recent trends, this paper incorporates the key changes in B2B advertising over the last 20 years. In particular, the authors explore a revised model of B2B effects, including (1) social media, (2) creativity and emotional appeals, (3) national culture, (4) brand equity and credibility, (5) ad experience social context, and (6) competing messages

Advertising, earnings prediction and market value: An analysis of persistent UK advertisers

YesThis paper examines whether major media advertising expenditures help in predicting future earnings. We consider the role of media advertising in firms’ marketing efforts and posit that persistent advertisers are more likely to benefit from advertising activities in creating long‐lived intangible assets. Employing a sample of persistent UK advertisers over the period 1997–2013, we find that advertising expenditures are significantly positively associated with firms’ future earnings and market value. We also report size and sector‐based differences in the association between advertising and firms’ future earnings. Our additional analysis provides support for the arguments that despite the recent rise in digital advertising budgets, traditional advertising media are still effective in positively influencing firms’ performance. Overall, the results of this study are consistent with the view that advertising expenditures produce intangible assets, at least for firms in certain sectors. These findings have implications for marketers in providing evidence of the value generated by firms’ advertising budgets, for investors in validating the relevance of advertising information in influencing future earnings, and for accounting regulators in relation to the provision of useful insights for any future deliberations on financial reporting policies for advertising expenditures

Mechanisms for the propagation and recognition of human centromeres

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology, 2016.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references.Each time a cell divides, the genome must be segregated equally between the two new daughter cells. To accomplish this, a specific region of each chromosome, termed the centromere, recruits the macromolecular kinetochore structure to mediate attachments to spindle microtubules. In vertebrates, each chromosome must establish a single site of microtubule attachment. The failure to maintain this site or the generation of multiple distinct microtubule attachment sites on a single chromosome can have profoundly deleterious effects on cell and organismal viability. My graduate work has used cell biological analyses in tissue culture cells and biochemical reconstitutions to define the molecular mechanisms by which human cells maintain one and only one site of microtubule attachment on each chromosome. First, I defined the regulatory paradigms that ensure the faithful propagation of the centromere. I identified Polo-like kinase 1 as a key player in controlling the deposition of the epigenetic mark that specifies the centromere, the CENP-A nucleosome. I defined the molecular basis for this control, as well as an additional level of control downstream of the cyclin-dependent kinases. By identifying and dissecting the molecular features of this two-step regulatory paradigm, I developed a strategy to bypass the control of CENP-A deposition, which resulted in severe mitotic defects. In my second project, I defined the architecture and properties of the sixteen-protein assembly that connects CENP-A to the other proteins of the kinetochore. I analyzed the genetic relationships between these proteins in human cells through a combination of inducible knockouts and inducible protein degradation. I then reconstituted the sixteen proteins in vitro as five sub-complexes and defined their interactions biochemically. These analyses revealed an intricate meshwork of direct interactions between the proteins at the centromere-kinetochore interface, which is critical for ensuring assembly of the kinetochore at the correct site on the chromosome. Together, these findings provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms of centromere propagation and kinetochore assembly.by Kara Lavidge McKinley.Ph. D