Corporate negative publicity – the role of cause related marketing

This paper examines the effects of cause-related marketing (CrM) strategies on consumers' moral judgement and purchase behaviour in the context of experiencing substantial corporate negative publicity. Data for the study were collected from 343 respondents through mall intercept technique from two large shopping malls of Australia. Quasi-experimental design technique was adopted for the study, where the participants chose one particular cause out of two (ongoing conventional cause vs sudden disaster due to garment factory collapse in Bangladesh). The findings revealed that 56% of the respondents supported the sudden cause and are willing to pay (WTP) more for the betterment of the garment workers' living condition. The findings further indicated that CrM variables such as cause–brand fit, cause familiarity and cause importance influence consumers' moral judgement towards the CrM campaigns, which eventually influence them to pay additional money for the product. The multi-group moderation and mediation tests offer interesting theoretical and managerial insights

Virus genomes reveal factors that spread and sustained the Ebola epidemic

The 2013-2016 West African epidemic caused by the Ebola virus was of unprecedented magnitude, duration and impact. Here we reconstruct the dispersal, proliferation and decline of Ebola virus throughout the region by analysing 1,610 Ebola virus genomes, which represent over 5% of the known cases. We test the association of geography, climate and demography with viral movement among administrative regions, inferring a classic 'gravity' model, with intense dispersal between larger and closer populations. Despite attenuation of international dispersal after border closures, cross-border transmission had already sown the seeds for an international epidemic, rendering these measures ineffective at curbing the epidemic. We address why the epidemic did not spread into neighbouring countries, showing that these countries were susceptible to substantial outbreaks but at lower risk of introductions. Finally, we reveal that this large epidemic was a heterogeneous and spatially dissociated collection of transmission clusters of varying size, duration and connectivity. These insights will help to inform interventions in future epidemics