Customer commitment to luxury brands : antecedents and consequences

The intensifying competition in the luxury sector necessitates the need for managers to identify the factors underpinning customers' commitment to a luxury brand. Understanding commitment not only provides an insight into the question of how customers commit but also uncovers why customers commit to a particular brand. Using a questionnaire-based survey with customers, this research examines the antecedents and consequences of customer commitment to luxury brands. The findings indicate the differential influence of various antecedents on affective, calculative and normative commitment, and highlight the role played by these forms of commitment on consumption satisfaction and advocacy intentions. The results demonstrate the importance of affective commitment as a relationship enhancer, and identify managerial implications for customer commitment to luxury brands

Waterborne and on-land electrical surveys to suggest the geological evolution of a glacial lake in NW Italy

Geophysical surveys on and around the Candia Lake, located NE of Turin (NW Italy), in the internal depression of the Ivrea Morainic Amphitheatre (IMA) right frontal sector, are reported in this paper. The surveys were intended to obtain a geophysical characterization of the lakebed, to investigate the interconnection paths between surface water and groundwater and to be used as a first general survey for suggesting the geological processes which lead to the actual morphology. An extensive waterborne Continuous Vertical Electrical Soundings (CVES) survey consisting of 15 profiles, with a total length of about 19 km of acquisition, was carried out on the lake surface. The processing of the acquired profiles with a Laterally Constrained Inversion (LCI) approach lead to the reconstruction of the lakebed sediments distribution, down to 10 meters depth. Self Potential (SP) data recorded on the lake surface have also been analyzed. Moreover, to verify the areal distribution of the deposits, three Electrical Resistivity Tomographies (ERT) were carried out on land near the northern and southern shore of the lake. The combination of the geophysical surveys results with hydrogeological information and geological observations and interpretations allowed the characterization of the submerged deposits, the probable identification of the main areas of groundwater recharge and the preliminary reconstruction of the lake genesis

Tele-branding in TVIII: the network as brand and the programme as brand

In the era of TVIII, characterized by deregulation, multimedia conglomeration, expansion and increased competition, branding has emerged as a central industrial practice. Focusing on the case of HBO, a particularly successful brand in TVIII, this article argues that branding can be understood not simply as a feature of television networks, but also as a characteristic of television programmes. It begins by examining how the network as brand is constructed and conveyed to the consumer through the use of logos, slogans and programmes. The role of programmes in the construction of brand identity is then complicated by examining the sale of programmes abroad, where programmes can be seen to contribute to the brand identity of more than one network. The article then goes on to examine programme merchandising, an increasingly central strategy in TVIII. Through an analysis of different merchandising strategies the article argues that programmes have come to act as brands in their own right, and demonstrates that the academic study of branding not only reveals the development of new industrial practices, but also offers a way of understanding the television programme and its consumption by viewers in a period when the texts of television are increasingly extended across a range of media platforms

Personalizing Interactions with Information Systems

Personalization constitutes the mechanisms and technologies necessary to customize information access to the end-user. It can be defined as the automatic adjustment of information content, structure, and presentation tailored to the individual. In this chapter, we study personalization from the viewpoint of personalizing interaction. The survey covers mechanisms for information-finding on the web, advanced information retrieval systems, dialog-based applications, and mobile access paradigms. Specific emphasis is placed on studying how users interact with an information system and how the system can encourage and foster interaction. This helps bring out the role of the personalization system as a facilitator which reconciles the user’s mental model with the underlying information system’s organization. Three tiers of personalization systems are presented, paying careful attention to interaction considerations. These tiers show how progressive levels of sophistication in interaction can be achieved. The chapter also surveys systems support technologies and niche application domains

Scientific opinion on dietary reference values for thiamin

Following a request from the European Commission, the EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA) derived dietary reference values (DRVs) for thiamin (vitamin B1). The Panel considers that data from depletion\u2013repletion studies in adults on the amount of dietary thiamin intake associated with the erythrocyte transketolase activity coefficient (\u3b1ETK) < 1.15, generally considered to reflect an adequate thiamin status, or with the restoration of normal (baseline) erythrocyte transketolase activity, without a sharp increase in urinary thiamin excretion, can be used to estimate thiamin requirement. In the absence of new scientific evidence, the Panel endorses the average requirement (AR) of 0.072 mg/MJ (0.3 mg/1,000 kcal) for all adults proposed by the Scientific Committee for Food (SCF) in 1993 on the basis of one depletion\u2013repletion study, in which both \u3b1ETK and urinary thiamin excretion were measured. Results from other depletion\u2013repletion studies are in agreement with this value. The Panel agrees on the coefficient of variation of 20% used by the SCF to cover uncertainties related to distribution of thiamin requirements in the general population, and endorses the population reference intake (PRI) of 0.1 mg/MJ (0.4 mg/1,000 kcal) set by the SCF for all adults. The same AR and PRI as for adults, expressed in mg/MJ, are proposed for infants aged 7\u201311 months, children aged 1 to < 18 years, and during pregnancy and lactation, under the assumption that the relationship between thiamin requirement and energy requirement is the same in all population groups

Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive global health crisis. Because the crisis requires large-scale behaviour change and places significant psychological burdens on individuals, insights from the social and behavioural sciences can be used to help align human behavior with the recommendations of epidemiologists and public health experts. Here we discuss evidence from a selection of research topics relevant to pandemics, including work on navigating threats, social and cultural influences on behaviour, science communication, moral decision-making, leadership, and stress and coping. In each section, we note the nature and quality of prior research, including uncertainty and unsettled issues. We identify several insights for effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and also highlight important gaps researchers should move quickly to fill in the coming weeks and months