Value in the territorial brand: The case of champagne

Purpose– The aim of this study is to consider how key actors in a territorial brand view the creation of value, and how it is balanced between the territorial and individual brands – using champagne as a means of exploring this.Design/methodology/approach– The project was exploratory and a qualitative process involving interviews with key actors in the region was adopted.Findings– Members of the champagne industry adopt a range of views about the nature of value, focusing on image, reputation and perceived quality, but varying between an individualist approach (which considers that value creation lies with the proprietary brands) and a more collectivist perspective, which considers it is predominantly the result of the territorial brand.Research limitations/implications– Research into the organisation of territorial brands is just beginning; while merely exploratory this research suggests that issues around value merit further consideration.Practical implications– Actors within a territorial brand need to clearly negotiate how they view value in order to maintain coherence and a common message. They may also need to pay more attention to issues around brand co-creation.Originality/value– No research in this precise field has previously been carried out and this study highlights variations in the perceptions of key actors within a territorial brand.</jats:sec

Comparison of engagement and emotional responses of older and younger adults interacting with 3D cultural heritage artefacts on personal devices

The availability of advanced software and less expensive hardware allows museums to preserve and share artefacts digitally. As a result, museums are frequently making their collections accessible online as interactive, 3D models. This could lead to the unique situation of viewing the digital artefact before the physical artefact. Experiencing artefacts digitally outside of the museum on personal devices may affect the user's ability to emotionally connect to the artefacts. This study examines how two target populations of young adults (18–21 years) and the elderly (65 years and older) responded to seeing cultural heritage artefacts in three different modalities: augmented reality on a tablet, 3D models on a laptop, and then physical artefacts. Specifically, the time spent, enjoyment, and emotional responses were analysed. Results revealed that regardless of age, the digital modalities were enjoyable and encouraged emotional responses. Seeing the physical artefacts after the digital ones did not lessen their enjoyment or emotions felt. These findings aim to provide an insight into the effectiveness of 3D artefacts viewed on personal devices and artefacts shown outside of the museum for encouraging emotional responses from older and younger people

Generation Y and sparkling wines: a cross-cultural perspective

The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the engagement of Generation Y consumers with champagne and sparkling wine across five Anglophone countries. A qualitative approach was adopted using focus groups with young consumers, including images and wine tasting as projective stimuli. There were significant trans-cultural similarities between consumption behaviour (sparkling wine is a women’s drink, and a separate category from still wine, and that they will ‘grow into’ drinking it) but also noticeable differences (responses to images and colours varied substantially, as did attitudes to price and the particular status of champagne). Research into the behaviour of Generation Y as a cohort needs to take account of cultural as much as generational context. However, as a qualitative study the findings need further quantitative validation. Marketers cannot view Generation Y as a single group; even within countries marketing strategies may need to be refined depending on where a product is being sold

Scaling solutions from interacting fluids

We examine the dynamical implications of an interaction between some of the fluid components of the universe. We consider the combination of three matter components, one of which is a perfect fluid and the other two are interacting. The interaction term generalizes the cases found in scalar field cosmologies with an exponential potential. We find that attracting scaling solutions are obtained in several regions of parameter space, that oscillating behaviour is possible, and that new curvature scaling solutions exist. We also discuss the inflationary behaviour of the solutions and present some of the constraints on the strength of the coupling, namely those arising from nucleosynthesis.Comment: RevTeX, 21 pages, 8 figure

Informing evaluation of a smartphone application for people with acquired brain injury: a stakeholder engagement study

Background Brain in Hand is a smartphone application (app) that allows users to create structured diaries with problems and solutions, attach reminders, record task completion and has a symptom monitoring system. Brain in Hand was designed to support people with psychological problems, and encourage behaviour monitoring and change. The aim of this paper is to describe the process of exploring the barriers and enablers for the uptake and use of Brain in Hand in clinical practice, identify potential adaptations of the app for use with people with acquired brain injury (ABI), and determine whether the behaviour change wheel can be used as a model for engagement. Methods We identified stakeholders: ABI survivors and carers, National Health Service and private healthcare professionals, and engaged with them via focus groups, conference presentations, small group discussions, and through questionnaires. The results were evaluated using the behaviour change wheel and descriptive statistics of questionnaire responses. Results We engaged with 20 ABI survivors, 5 carers, 25 professionals, 41 questionnaires were completed by stakeholders. Comments made during group discussions were supported by questionnaire results. Enablers included smartphone competency (capability), personalisation of app (opportunity), and identifying perceived need (motivation). Barriers included a physical and cognitive inability to use smartphone (capability), potential cost and reliability of technology (opportunity), and no desire to use technology or change from existing strategies (motivation). The stakeholders identified potential uses and changes to the app, which were not easily mapped onto the behaviour change wheel, e.g. monitoring fatigue levels, method of logging task completion, and editing the diary on their smartphone. Conclusions The study identified that both ABI survivors and therapists could see a use for Brain in Hand, but wanted users to be able to personalise it themselves to address individual user needs, e.g. monitoring activity levels. The behaviour change wheel is a useful tool when designing and evaluating engagement activities as it addresses most aspects of implementation, however additional categories may be needed to explore the specific features of assistive technology interventions, e.g. technical functions

A Preliminary Investigation of High-speed Impact: the Penetration of Small Spheres into Thick Copper Targets

Small metal spheres of various densities were fired at high speed into thick targets of copper and lead. In general, it was found that all of the penetrations could be correlated quite well for engineering purposes by a function relating the depth of penetration to the impact momentum per unit volume

The Influence of Alcohol Warning Labels on Consumers’ Choices of Wine and Beer

This study aims to analyse the influence of alternative formats of health warnings on French and Italian Millennial consumers’ choices of beer and wine. Two Discrete Choice Experiments were built for wine and beer and two Latent Class choice models were applied in order to verify the existence of different consumer profiles. Results show that young consumers’ choices for wine and beer are influenced by framing, design and visibility of warnings. In both countries, the acceptance of warnings is higher for beer than for wine and in both cases consumers show higher utility for a logo on the front label: on the neck with a neutral message in the case of beer; on the front, without a message for wine. Latent Class choice models highlight the existence of different consumers’ groups with different levels of warning influencing their choices. In order to apply policies conducting to health benefits, our results suggest the need to focus on young individuals to communicate the risks of alcohol abuse through targeted messages and, more generally, to make them aware of the potential negative effects of excessive consumption of both wine and beer

Exploring the relationship between media coverage and participation in entrepreneurship : initial global evidence and research implications

Using a set of variables measured in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study, our empirical investigation explored the influence of mass media through national culture on national entrepreneurial participation rates in 37 countries over 4 years (2000 to 2003). We found that stories about successful entrepreneurs, conveyed in mass media, were not significantly associated with the rate of nascent (opportunity searching) or the rate of actual (business activities commenced up to 3 months old) start-up activity, but that there was a significant positive association between the volume of entrepreneurship media stories and a nation&rsquo;s volume of people running a young business (that is in GEM terminology, a business aged greater than 3 but less than 42 months old). More particularly, such stories had strong positive association with opportunity oriented operators of young businesses. Together, these findings are compatible with what in the mass communications theory literature may be called the &lsquo;reinforcement model&rsquo;. This argues that mass media are only capable of reinforcing their audience&rsquo;s existing values and choice propensities but are not capable of shaping or changing those values and choices. In the area covered by this paper, policy-makers are committing public resources to media campaigns of doubtful utility in the absence of an evidence base. A main implication drawn from this study is the need for further and more sophisticated investigation into the relationship between media coverage of entrepreneurship, national culture and the rates and nature of people&rsquo;s participation in the various stages of the entrepreneurial process.<br /

Identification of Equid herpesvirus 2 in tissue-engineered equine tendon

Background: Incidental findings of virus-like particles were identified following electron microscopy of tissue-engineered tendon constructs (TETC) derived from equine tenocytes. We set out to determine the nature of these particles, as there are few studies which identify virus in tendons per se, and their presence could have implications for tissue-engineering using allogenic grafts. Methods: Virus particles were identified in electron microscopy of TETCs. Virion morphology was used to initially hypothesise the virus identity.  Next generation sequencing was implemented to identify the virus. A pan herpesvirus PCR was used to validate the RNASeq findings using an independent platform. Histological analysis and biochemical analysis was undertaken on the TETCs. Results: Morphological features suggested the virus to be either a retrovirus or herpesvirus. Subsequent next generation sequencing mapped reads to Equid herpesvirus 2 (EHV2). Histological examination and biochemical testing for collagen content revealed no significant differences between virally affected TETCs and non-affected TETCs. An independent set of equine superficial digital flexor tendon tissue (n=10) examined using designed primers for specific EHV2 contigs identified at sequencing were negative. These data suggest that EHV is resident in some equine tendon. Conclusions: EHV2 was demonstrated in equine tenocytes for the first time; likely from in vivo infection. The presence of EHV2 could have implications to both tissue-engineering and tendinopathy

Can international health programmes be sustained after the end of international funding? The case of eye care interventions in Ghana

There is general agreement amongst major international policy makers that sustainability is a key component of health interventions in developing countries. However, there is little evidence on the factors enabling or constraining sustainability. Diffusion of innovation theory can help explain how the continuation of activities is related to the attributes of innovations. Innovations are characterised by five attributes: (i) relative advantage; (ii) compatibility; (iii) complexity; (iv) triability; and (v) observability. An eye care programme was selected as a case study. The programme was implemented in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana and had been funded over a ten-year period by an international organisation