635 research outputs found
Making space for experiences
Leisure and retail providers need to understand the elements of the visitor experience and the way in which they evaluate their satisfaction. This article suggests a holistic prism model of the interaction between the management and the visitor in a leisure space. This is applied to a netnographic study of visitors to a folk festival to illustrate the interconnectiveness of the different attributes causing dissatisfaction. It found that the physical and operational attributes were evaluated not through a checklist of individual features but as hindrances to the visitor's desire to make best use of the time. Visitors also evaluated the experience in the light of their own values and concerns, passing judgement on the values communicated by the management. At the heart of the experience was the enjoyment of choosing from an abundant offer and discovering something new. The main attraction is often only the pretext for enjoying the company of friends so places to meet before and chill-out afterwards are vital to the experience. The distinctiveness of the setting, the food and drink can become the sensory cues which give the event or location its uniqueness. The challenge to retail and leisure organisations is to design these elements of a memorable experience into their offerings
4098 galaxy clusters to z~0.6 in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey equatorial Stripe 82
We present a catalogue of 4098 photometrically selected galaxy clusters with
a median redshift = 0.32 in the 270 square degree 'Stripe 82' region of the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), covering the celestial equator in the Southern
Galactic Cap (-50 < RA < 59 deg, |Dec| < 1.25 deg). Owing to the multi-epoch
SDSS coverage of this region, the ugriz photometry is ~2 magnitudes deeper than
single scans within the main SDSS footprint. We exploit this to detect clusters
of galaxies using an algorithm that searches for statistically significant
overdensities of galaxies in a Voronoi tessellation of the projected sky. 32%
of the clusters have at least one member with a spectroscopic redshift from
existing public data (SDSS Data Release 7, 2SLAQ & WiggleZ), and the remainder
have a robust photometric redshift (accurate to ~5-9% at the median redshift of
the sample). The weighted average of the member galaxies' redshifts provides a
reasonably accurate estimate of the cluster redshift. The cluster catalogue is
publicly available for exploitation by the community to pursue a range of
science objectives. In addition to the cluster catalogue, we provide a linked
catalogue of 18,295 V<21 mag quasar sight-lines with impact parameters within
<3 Mpc of the cluster cores selected from the catalogue of Veron et al. (2010).
The background quasars cover 0.25 < z < 2, where MgII absorption-line systems
associated with the clusters are detectable in optical spectra.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. Catalogues
available at http://www.physics.mcgill.ca/~jimgeach/stripe8
Bayesian Exponential Random Graph Models with Nodal Random Effects
We extend the well-known and widely used Exponential Random Graph Model
(ERGM) by including nodal random effects to compensate for heterogeneity in the
nodes of a network. The Bayesian framework for ERGMs proposed by Caimo and
Friel (2011) yields the basis of our modelling algorithm. A central question in
network models is the question of model selection and following the Bayesian
paradigm we focus on estimating Bayes factors. To do so we develop an
approximate but feasible calculation of the Bayes factor which allows one to
pursue model selection. Two data examples and a small simulation study
illustrate our mixed model approach and the corresponding model selection.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, 3 table
Political branding: sense of identity or identity crisis? An investigation of the transfer potential of the brand identity prism to the UK Conservative Party
Brands are strategic assets and key to achieving a competitive advantage. Brands can be seen as a heuristic device, encapsulating a series of values that enable the consumer to make quick and efficient choices. More recently, the notion of a political brand and the rhetoric of branding have been widely adopted by many political parties as they seek to differentiate themselves, and this has led to an emerging interest in the idea of the political brand. Therefore, this paper examines the UK Conservative Party brand under David Cameron’s leadership and examines the applicability of Kapferer’s brand identity prism to political branding. This paper extends and operationalises the brand identity prism into a ‘political brand identity network’ which identifies the inter-relatedness of the components of the corporate political brand and the candidate political brand. Crucial for practitioners, this model can demonstrate how the brand is presented and communicated to the electorate and serves as a useful mechanism to identify consistency within the corporate and candidate political brands
The moderating effect of brand orientation on inter-firm market orientation and performance
While prior research has shown that market and brand orientation
are key contributors to successful business performance, research to
date has not fully explored how inter firm collaboration for these two
key orientations can enhance business performance. The purpose of
the paper is to investigate the relationship between inter-firm market
and performance; to test for the moderating role of brand orientation
in that relationship. A total of 169 completed pairs of surveys were
collected of small and medium enterprises operating internationally
in a variety of industries in Switzerland. The results show that inter-firm
market and brand orientation are two antecedents of marketing and
financial performance. The impact of inter-firm market on marketing
and financial performance is significant when the brand orientation
is favorable. This study extends previous research by examining the
moderating role of brand orientation on inter firm market orientation,
which is important, especially for firms wanting to increase their brand
reputation by entering into partnerships with other firms. Further
research is indicated, to identify the key moderators of the driving
force of inter-firm market in relation to business performance and
the reason why maintaining a strong brand presence is important in
the international marketplace
Do UK universities communicate their brands effectively through their websites?
This paper attempts to explore the effectiveness of UK universities’ websites. The area of branding in higher education has received increasing academic investigation, but little work has researched how universities demonstrate their brand promises through their websites. The quest to differentiate through branding can be challenging in the university context, however. It is argued that those institutions that have a strong distinctive image will be in a better position to face a changing future. Employing a multistage methodology, the web pages of twenty UK universities were investigated by using a combination of content and multivariable analysis. Results indicated ‘traditional values’ such as teaching and research were often well communicated in terms of online brand but ‘emotional values’ like social responsibility and the universities’ environments were less consistently communicated, despite their increased topicality. It is therefore suggested that emotional values may offer a basis for possible future online differentiation
Resistance distance, information centrality, node vulnerability and vibrations in complex networks
We discuss three seemingly unrelated quantities that have been introduced in different fields of science for complex networks. The three quantities are the resistance distance, the information centrality and the node displacement. We first prove various relations among them. Then we focus on the node displacement, showing its usefulness as an index of node vulnerability.We argue that the node displacement has a better resolution as a measure of node vulnerability than the degree and the information centrality
The chemical enrichment of the ICM from hydrodynamical simulations
The study of the metal enrichment of the intra-cluster and inter-galactic
media (ICM and IGM) represents a direct means to reconstruct the past history
of star formation, the role of feedback processes and the gas-dynamical
processes which determine the evolution of the cosmic baryons. In this paper we
review the approaches that have been followed so far to model the enrichment of
the ICM in a cosmological context. While our presentation will be focused on
the role played by hydrodynamical simulations, we will also discuss other
approaches based on semi-analytical models of galaxy formation, also critically
discussing pros and cons of the different methods. We will first review the
concept of the model of chemical evolution to be implemented in any
chemo-dynamical description. We will emphasise how the predictions of this
model critically depend on the choice of the stellar initial mass function, on
the stellar life-times and on the stellar yields. We will then overview the
comparisons presented so far between X-ray observations of the ICM enrichment
and model predictions. We will show how the most recent chemo-dynamical models
are able to capture the basic features of the observed metal content of the ICM
and its evolution. We will conclude by highlighting the open questions in this
study and the direction of improvements for cosmological chemo-dynamical models
of the next generation.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Space Science
Reviews, special issue "Clusters of galaxies: beyond the thermal view",
Editor J.S. Kaastra, Chapter 18; work done by an international team at the
International Space Science Institute (ISSI), Bern, organised by J.S.
Kaastra, A.M. Bykov, S. Schindler & J.A.M. Bleeke
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