When Plentiful Platforms Pay Off: Assessment Orientation Moderates the Effect of Assortment Size on Choice Engagement and Product Valuation

Popular digital platforms, such as Netflix and GrubHub, purposefully aggregate offerings, according to the premise that customers value products chosen from plentiful assortments. Yet academic literature provides little clarity about when, for whom, or how larger online retail assortments affect the value of the products. To provide new insights, the current article aims to address ambiguous extant findings about the effects of larger product assortments. Specifically, this research tests whether customers with high, as opposed to low, assessment orientation value products more when they have chosen them from larger, as opposed to smaller, assortments. Four experiments affirm this idea, such that customers with a high assessment orientation value products more when they have chosen them from platforms with relatively larger assortments. Sequential mediation of the effect occurs through increased choice engagement and attitude certainty. For managers, customer segmentation along the assessment dimension offers benefits, while assessment type marketing communications can increase the likelihood of product selection, like in our field study, where we find an increase of 27%

Every Step Counts: When Physical Movement Affects Perceived Value

Physical movement is an important contextual factor during customer’s decision-making. Yet, little is known about how movement can affect customer’s response to mobile promotions, or how it can influence the search and evaluation of products in a retail setting. Across three studies, this research shows that physical movement improves the perceived value of products and promotions for customers with a predominant locomotion motivation. Such effects are mediated by engagement. One implication is that retailers may increase engagement for individuals with a predominant locomotion motivation by playing mobile adverts when cellular sensors indicate movement

Making omnichannel an augmented reality: the current and future state of the art

Purpose—This paper explores the current and future role of Augmented Reality (AR) as an enabler of omnichannel experiences across the customer journey. To advance the conceptual understanding and managerial exploitation of AR, the paper synthesises current research, illustrating how a variety of current applications merge online and offline experiences, and provides a future research agenda to help advance the state of the art in AR. Design/methodology/approach—Drawing on situated cognition theorising as a guiding framework, the paper reviews previously published research and currently deployed applications to provide a roadmap for future research efforts on AR-enabled omnichannel experiences across the customer journey. Findings—AR offers myriad opportunities to provide customers with a seamless omnichannel journey, smoothing current obstacles, through a unique combination of i) embedded, ii) embodied, and iii) extended customer experiences. These three principles constitute the overarching value drivers of AR and offer coherent, theory-driven organising principles for managers and researchers alike. Originality/value—Current research has yet to provide a relevant, conceptually robust understanding of AR-enabled customer experiences. In light of the rapid development and widespread deployment of the technology, this paper provides an urgently needed framework for guiding the development of AR in an omnichannel context

Early brainstem [18F]THK5351 uptake is linked to cortical hyper-excitability in healthy aging

BACKGROUND: Neuronal hyper-excitability characterizes the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In animals, early misfolded tau and amyloid-beta (Aβ) protein accumulation, both central to AD neuropathology, promote cortical excitability and neuronal network dysfunction. In healthy humans, misfolded tau and Aβ aggregates are first detected, respectively, in the brainstem and frontomedial and temporobasal cortices, decades prior to the onset of AD cognitive symptoms. Whether cortical excitability is related to early brainstem tau, and its associated neuroinflammation, and cortical Aβ aggregations remains unknown. METHODS: We probed frontal cortex excitability, using transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with electroencephalography, in a sample of 64 healthy late middle-aged individuals (50-69 y; 45 women). We assessed whole-brain [18F]THK5351 positron emission tomography (PET) uptake as a proxy measure of tau/neuroinflammation, and whole-brain Aβ burden with [18F]Flutemetamol or [18F]Florbetapir radiotracers. RESULTS: We find that higher [18F]THK5351 uptake in a brainstem monoaminergic compartment is associated with increased cortical excitability (r = .29, p = .02). By contrast, [18F]THK5351 PET signal in the hippocampal formation, although strongly correlated with brainstem signal in whole-brain voxel-based quantification analyses (pFWE-corrected < .001), was not significantly associated with cortical excitability (r = .14, p = .25). Importantly, no significant association was found between early Aβ cortical deposits and cortical excitability (r = -.20, p = .11). CONCLUSION: These findings reveal potential brain substrates for increased cortical excitability in preclinical AD and may constitute functional in vivo correlates of early brainstem tau accumulation and neuroinflammation in humans. TRIAL REGISTRATION: EudraCT 2016-001436-35. FUNDING: F.R.S.-FNRS Belgium, Wallonie-Bruxelles International, ULiège, Fondation Simone et Pierre Clerdent, European Regional Development Fund

Online brand communities: when consumers are negatively engaged

The goal of the current research is to explore the influence of negative engagement on committing participants in hate online brand communities. To reach this aim, three brands are used to assess this phenomenon (Starbucks, Apple, and McDonald’s), and three related hate online brand communities of such brands are involved. An online questionnaire is developed based on previously validated scales and fulfilled by 300 online members of mentioned communities. Findings reveal the importance of Brand influence, Helping, and Self-expression dimensions on participants to be committed to hating brand communities.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Anthelmintic efficacy of heather extracts against ovine gastro-intestinal nematodes

The use of anthelmintics in organic farming is regulated; however its limited use is permitted due to GI nematodes threatening the health and welfare of animals worldwide. There is a requirement for a reduction of contentious inputs in organic farming, such as anthelmintics, and the H2020 project RELACS focuses on developing alternatives for sustainable parasite control. One of such alternatives is the use of bioactive plants; this study focuses on the perennial shrub heather (Ericaceae family) as it is a plant rich in condensed tannins, which have been shown to have anthelmintic properties, and the plant is highly abundant across Europe. The objective was to compare the anthelmintic efficacy of heather acetone extracts from five European countries, across two seasons, against two of the most common GIN species in small ruminants: Teladorsagia circumcincta and Trichostrongylus colubriformis. A total of 11 heather samples were analysed to determine their polyphenol content, including type and amount of CTs, and tested in vitro with the aim of quantifying their impact on egg hatching and larval motility. Results showed the heather extracts reduced egg hatching in a dose dependent manner (P<0.001) and reduced larval motility at the highest concentration of 200µg/ml (P<0.05). The anthelmintic efficacy of the heather varied by season, country of origin and the species of heather tested on both egg hatching and larval motility, with variation also seen on the susceptibility of the two GIN species egg hatching rate. These variations in extract activity were not always consistent between the two in vitro tests indicating that the active compounds may target different parasite life stages. Results demonstrate heather does show anthelmintic ability when tested in vitro, so has promise as a sustainable parasite control method and should be investigated further

Augmenting the Eye of the Beholder: Exploring the Strategic Potential of Augmented Reality to Enhance Online Service Experiences

Driven by the proliferation of augmented reality (AR) technologies, many firms are pursuing a strategy of service augmentation to enhance customers’ online service experiences. Drawing on situated cognition theory, the authors show that AR - based service augmentation enhances customer value perceptions by simultaneously providing simulated physical control and environmental embedding. The resulting authentic situated experience, manifested in a feeling of spatial presence, funct ions as a mediator and also predicts customer decision comfort. Furthermore, the effect of spatial presence on utilitarian value perceptions is greater for customers who are disposed toward verbal rather than visual information processing, and the positive effect on decision comfort is attenuated by customers’ privacy concerns

Seeing eye to eye: social augmented reality and shared decision making in the marketplace

Firms increasingly seek to improve the online shopping experience by enabling customers to exchange product recommendations through social augmented reality (AR). We utilize socially situated cognition theory and conduct a series of five studies to explore how social AR supports shared decision making in recommender–decision maker dyads. We demonstrate that optimal configurations of social AR, that is, a static (vs. dynamic) point-of-view sharing format matched with an image-enhanced (vs. text-only) communicative act, increase recommenders’ comfort with providing advice and decision makers’ likelihood of using the advice in their choice. For both, these effects are due to a sense of social empowerment, which also stimulates recommenders’ desire for a product and positive behavioral intentions. However, recommenders’ communication motives impose boundary conditions. When recommenders have strong impression management concerns, this weakens the effect of social empowerment on recommendation comfort. Furthermore, the stronger a recommender’s persuasion goal, the less likely the decision maker is to use the recommendation in their choice

In vivo genome editing using Staphylococcus aureus Cas9

The RNA-guided endonuclease Cas9 has emerged as a versatile genome-editing platform. However, the size of the commonly used Cas9 from Streptococcus pyogenes (SpCas9) limits its utility for basic research and therapeutic applications that employ the highly versatile adeno-associated virus (AAV) delivery vehicle. Here, we characterize six smaller Cas9 orthologs and show that Cas9 from Staphylococcus aureus (SaCas9) can edit the genome with efficiencies similar to those of SpCas9, while being >1kb shorter. We packaged SaCas9 and its sgRNA expression cassette into a single AAV vector and targeted the cholesterol regulatory gene Pcsk9 in the mouse liver. Within one week of injection, we observed >40% gene modification, accompanied by significant reductions in serum Pcsk9 and total cholesterol levels. We further demonstrate the power of using BLESS to assess the genome-wide targeting specificity of SaCas9 and SpCas9, and show that SaCas9 can mediate genome editing in vivo with high specificity