4,582 research outputs found
How costumersâ way of life influence the value co-creation
Purpose: This article is a contribution to the understanding of how value arises in wellestablished markets, and under which circumstances actors integrate resources from different service ecosystems to generate value. To understand this phenomenon, it is fundamental to consider which practices are performed by customers to co-create value and how they do so. Design/Methodology/Approach: Using a qualitative approach, the study provides fresh empirical insight into well-established market processes of value creation. After a literature review an ethnographic approach was chosen in order to understand how co-creation processes occur in the empirical setting of an international restaurant chain. Several observations, conversations and semi-structured interviews were undertaken concerning the analysis of the topic under study. Findings: The results show that even in a well-established market, a provider must consider individual customersâ distinct needs, present in their daily practices, to be able to assist them in the value creation process. It is argued that the practice styles are the building blocks for prevailing ways of life that actors assume, according to the context in which they are, to integrate resources. Practical implications: The study includes implications for service providers of a wellfounded market for facilitating value co-creation along with customers and fulfils the need to better understand this phenomenon. Originality/Value: Recent studies call for empirical evidence on co-creation processes in mature markets, accordingly, this study brings an additional understanding on how actors, depending on the context, adopt different ways of life that require unique resources, which activate to achieve what they want, in order to establish room for co-creation.peer-reviewe
Phase transition and critical end point driven by an external magnetic field in asymmetric quark matter
The location of the critical end point (CEP) in the QCD phase diagram is
determined under different scenarios. The effect of strangeness, isospin/charge
asymmetry and an external magnetic field is investigated. The discussion is
performed within the 2+1 flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with Polyakov loop.
It is shown that isospin asymmetry shifts the CEP to larger baryonic chemical
potentials and smaller temperatures. At large asymmetries the CEP disappears.
However, a strong enough magnetic field drives the system into a first order
phase transition.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; PRD versio
The QCD critical end point driven by an external magnetic field in asymmetric quark matter
The effect of the isospin/charge asymmetry and an external magnetic field in
the location of the critical end point (CEP) in the QCD phase diagram is
investigated. By using the 2+1 flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with Polyakov
loop (PNJL), it is shown that the isospin asymmetry shifts the CEP to larger
baryonic chemical potentials and smaller temperatures, and in the presence of a
large enough isospin asymmetry the CEP disappears. Nevertheless, a sufficiently
high external magnetic field can drive the system into a first order phase
transition again.Comment: Contribution to the "20th Particles and Nuclei International
Conference" (PANIC 14), Hamburg, Germany, 25-29 August 201
Magnetization profile for impurities in graphene nanoribbons
The magnetic properties of graphene-related materials and in particular the
spin-polarised edge states predicted for pristine graphene nanoribbons (GNRs)
with certain edge geometries have received much attention recently due to a
range of possible technological applications. However, the magnetic properties
of pristine GNRs are not predicted to be particularly robust in the presence of
edge disorder. In this work, we examine the magnetic properties of GNRs doped
with transition-metal atoms using a combination of mean-field Hubbard and
Density Functional Theory techniques. The effect of impurity location on the
magnetic moment of such dopants in GNRs is investigated for the two principal
GNR edge geometries - armchair and zigzag. Moment profiles are calculated
across the width of the ribbon for both substitutional and adsorbed impurities
and regular features are observed for zigzag-edged GNRs in particular. Unlike
the case of edge-state induced magnetisation, the moments of magnetic
impurities embedded in GNRs are found to be particularly stable in the presence
of edge disorder. Our results suggest that the magnetic properties of
transition-metal doped GNRs are far more robust than those with moments arising
intrinsically due to edge geometry.Comment: submitte
Building on teachable moments: issues for teacher education
This work is supported by national funds through FCT â Fundação para a CiĂȘncia e Tecnologia, under the projects Professional Practices of Teachers of Mathematics (Grant PTDC/CPE-CED/098931/2008) and PEst-C/MAT/UI0144/2011, and by FEDER funds through COMPETESeveral authors have given attention to the notion of didactical knowledge, which is not consensual (Ponte, in press). We consider didactical knowledge as being related to aspects of teachersâ practices, âessentially oriented towards actionâ (Ponte, 1999, p. 61), and involving four dimensions: knowledge of the curriculum, knowledge of mathematics, knowledge of students and their learning processes, and knowledge instructional processes in the classroom (Ponte & Oliveira, 2002). The didactical knowledge has a dynamic character because the experiences teachers encounter in their practice constantly shape it (Ponte & Santos, 1998).FC
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