Effects of Chronic Regulatory Focus and Product Type on Internet Purchase Decisions

This study draws on Regulatory Focus Theory (RFT; Higgins 1987) to explore factors that affect a consumer’s online purchase attitudes and intentions. According to RFT, consumers tend to be either chronically promotion- or prevention-focused. Promotion-focused consumers are concerned with positive outcomes. Conversely, prevention-focused consumers are concerned with avoiding negative outcomes. Promotion-focused consumers are more willing to take risks than prevention-focused consumers (Higgins 1997). Promotion-focused consumers also prefer hedonic shopping experiences (i.e., pleasurable), whereas prevention-focused consumers prefer utilitarian shopping experiences (i.e., task-oriented) (Arnold & Reynolds 2009). Because products that are purchased on the Internet cannot be seen or touched prior to purchase, it is argued that online purchasing is risky. Given that promotion-focused consumers are more willing to take risks, and given that online purchasing is risky, it is expected that promotion-focused consumers will be more willing to purchase products online. Furthermore, given the relationship between regulatory focus and hedonic/utilitarian shopping experiences, it is expected that promotion-focused consumers will have more positive purchase attitudes and greater intentions to purchase hedonic products (i.e., enjoyable) than utilitarian products (i.e., necessity) online. These hypotheses are tested in a 2 (chronic focus: promotion/prevention) x 2 (product type: hedonic/utilitarian) between subjects design in which chronic focus is measured and product type is manipulated. Purchase attitudes, purchase intentions, and perceived risk are the dependent variables. Data is analyzed using regression analysis and analysis of variance. The implications of results are discussed

The Impact of Customer Collaboration on Agile Product Development Success in Technology Startups Within the Pacific Northwest

While agile software development is being adopted in more organizations recently, many products using the methodology are still failing in the market due to inadequate customer collaboration despite the purported benefits. Within start-ups, where speed and early market penetration can be the death or success of a company, understanding if using agile software development including adequate customer collaboration makes a significant difference is important. A study which investigates the impact of including customer collaboration in the agile product development process could uncover whether or not a product is successful within technology focused start-up’s in the Pacific Northwest. This research could allow technology focused start-ups to learn how to emulate success and avoid pitfalls using agile software development to create better, more transformative products for the world. The research question is: how does the inclusion of customer collaboration in the agile product development process by product owners impact the overall success of the product within Pacific Northwest technology start-up companies? This concept paper includes information on the nature of the study, the significance, relationship to cognate, a literature review beginning, and a significant amount of research related to the hypothesis

Physiological Response Associated With Select Rorschach Codes

The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of Rorschach codes that have been theoretically and empirically linked to the experience of affect in the Comprehensive System (Exner, 2003) through the use of skin conductance and heart rate data. Twenty-four university undergraduates (18 females and 6 males) were administered the Rorschach while physiological data were recorded in an adjacent room. It was anticipated that responses yielding particular codes (C, C’, m, T, V, Y, minus form quality, or cognitive special scores) would evidence higher levels of affective arousal as compared to all other responses. Several within-subjects analyses failed to support this hypothesis. It was concluded that these codes might not be as useful as previously described in indicating the presence of affect, particularly from the standpoint of sequence analysis strategies

Size and Scope of Iron County Agriculture 2019

Iron County is located in the southwestern portion of the state and is bordered by Nevada on the west. Other surrounding Utah counties include Beaver, Garfield, Kane, and Washington. As of 2017, the population was estimated at 51,001. The county seat is Parowan, while the largest city is Cedar City. This fact sheet details the land ownership, growing season, crop and livestock production, and farm income of Iron County agriculture

The Rotation of M Dwarfs Observed by the Apache Point Galactic Evolution Experiment

We present the results of a spectroscopic analysis of rotational velocities in 714 M dwarf stars observed by the SDSS III Apache Point Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) survey. We use a template fitting technique to estimate $v\sin{i}$ while simultaneously estimating $\log{g}$, $[\text{M}/\text{H}]$, and $T_{\text{eff}}$. We conservatively estimate that our detection limit is 8 km s$^{-1}$. We compare our results to M dwarf rotation studies in the literature based on both spectroscopic and photometric measurements. Like other authors, we find an increase in the fraction of rapid rotators with decreasing stellar temperature, exemplified by a sharp increase in rotation near the M$4$ transition to fully convective stellar interiors, which is consistent with the hypothesis that fully convective stars are unable to shed angular momentum as efficiently as those with radiative cores. We compare a sample of targets observed both by APOGEE and the MEarth transiting planet survey and find no cases were the measured $v\sin{i}$ and rotation period are physically inconsistent, requiring $\sin{i}>1$. We compare our spectroscopic results to the fraction of rotators inferred from photometric surveys and find that while the results are broadly consistent, the photometric surveys exhibit a smaller fraction of rotators beyond the M$4$ transition by a factor of $\sim 2$. We discuss possible reasons for this discrepancy. Given our detection limit, our results are consistent with a bi-modal distribution in rotation that is seen in photometric surveys.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication by A

Time of Day Preferences and Daily Temporal Consistency for Predicting the Sustained Use of a Commercial Meditation App: Longitudinal Observational Study

Background: The intensive data typically collected by mobile health (mHealth) apps allows factors associated with persistent use to be investigated, which is an important objective given users’ well-known struggles with sustaining healthy behavior. Objective: Data from a commercial meditation app (n=14,879; 899,071 total app uses) were analyzed to assess the validity of commonly given habit formation advice to meditate at the same time every day, preferably in the morning. Methods: First, the change in probability of meditating in 4 nonoverlapping time windows (morning, midday, evening, and late night) on a given day over the first 180 days after creating a meditation app account was calculated via generalized additive mixed models. Second, users’ time of day preferences were calculated as the percentage of all meditation sessions that occurred within each of the 4 time windows. Additionally, the temporal consistency of daily meditation behavior was calculated as the entropy of the timing of app usage sessions. Linear regression was used to examine the effect of time of day preference and temporal consistency on two outcomes: (1) short-term engagement, defined as the number of meditation sessions completed within the sixth and seventh month of a user’s account, and (2) long-term use, defined as the days until a user’s last observed meditation session. Results: Large reductions in the probability of meditation at any time of day were seen over the first 180 days after creating an account, but this effect was smallest for morning meditation sessions (63.4% reduction vs reductions ranging from 67.8% to 74.5% for other times). A greater proportion of meditation in the morning was also significantly associated with better short-term engagement (regression coefficient B=2.76, P\u3c.001) and long-term use (B=50.6, P\u3c.001). The opposite was true for late-night meditation sessions (short-term: B=–2.06, P\u3c.001; long-term: B=–51.7, P=.001). Significant relationships were not found for midday sessions (any outcome) or for evening sessions when examining long-term use. Additionally, temporal consistency in the performance of morning meditation sessions was associated with better short-term engagement (B=–1.64, P\u3c.001) but worse long-term use (B=55.8, P\u3c.001). Similar-sized temporal consistency effects were found for all other time windows. Conclusions: Meditating in the morning was associated with higher rates of maintaining a meditation practice with the app. This is consistent with findings from other studies that have hypothesized that the strength of existing morning routines and circadian rhythms may make the morning an ideal time to build new habits. In the long term, less temporal consistency in meditation sessions was associated with more persistent app use, suggesting there are benefits from maintaining flexibility in behavior performance. These findings improve our understanding of how to promote enduring healthy lifestyles and can inform the design of mHealth strategies for maintaining behavior changes

Final Design Report of the Automated Beverage Dispenser

At public events and festivals, a beer vendor\u27s primary problem is that they are unable to serve customers quickly enough to meet the excess of demand. With so many people requesting service and so few serving, waiting in long lines has become commonplace at festivals and events. These long lines slow down business, which deters additional customer sales, resulting in a loss of profit for the vendor. This report discusses a solution to this problem. It is an automated beverage dispenser. It takes orders from a user and then pours out the specified drinks without human assistance. The removal of a person from the actual task of pouring a beer allows the vendor to take money and check identification of the customer while the machine pours their order. Having these actions performed in parallel optimizes the overall process of serving customers quickly. The machine is intended to increase the total output of a single vendor, resulting in increased profits and happier customers