Consumer perceptions of co-branding alliances: Organizational dissimilarity signals and brand fit

This study explores how consumers evaluate co-branding alliances between dissimilar partner firms. Customers are well aware that different firms are behind a co-branded product and observe the partner firms’ characteristics. Drawing on signaling theory, we assert that consumers use organizational characteristics as signals in their assessment of brand fit and for their purchasing decisions. Some organizational signals are beyond the control of the co-branding partners or at least they cannot alter them on short notice. We use a quasi-experimental design and test how co-branding partner dissimilarity affects brand fit perception. The results show that co-branding partner dissimilarity in terms of firm size, industry scope, and country-of-origin image negatively affects brand fit perception. Firm age dissimilarity does not exert significant influence. Because brand fit generally fosters a benevolent consumer attitude towards a co-branding alliance, the findings suggest that high partner dissimilarity may reduce overall co-branding alliance performance

Politizando o conceito de redes organizacionais: uma reflexão teórica da governança como jogo de poder

Este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar uma reflexão teórica sobre a dimensão política das redes organizacionais. Para tanto, procurou fazer uma análise desse formato organizacional, privilegiando a dimensão política das relações interorganizacionais a partir de alguns conceitos formulados pelo sociólogo Pierre Bourdieu. As evidências teóricas revelaram que esse recorte analítico poderá oferecer leituras alternativas às reflexões que despolitizam o conceito de redes organizacionais, colocando no epicentro das argumentações a lógica da cooperação e da confiança como forças motrizes e suficientes para explicar o funcionamento das relações entre as organizações. Ao considerar as redes organizacionais como um campo social, este ensaio amplia a noção de governança, levando em consideração não só os aspectos estruturais e objetivos, mas também a dimensão subjetiva que permeia as relações entre os agentes

Neurobiol Aging

GRN mutations are frequent causes of familial frontotemporal degeneration. Although there is no clear consensual threshold, plasma progranulin levels represent an efficient biomarker for predicting GRN mutations when decreased. We evaluated plasma levels to determine whether it could also predict age at onset, clinical phenotype, or disease progression in 160 GRN carriers. Importantly, progranulin levels were influenced by gender, with lower levels in male than in female patients in our study. Although we found no correlation with age at onset or with clinical phenotype, we confirmed that decreased level predicts GRN mutations, even in presymptomatic carriers more than four decades before disease onset. We also provided first evidence for the stability of levels throughout longitudinal trajectory in carriers, over a 4-year time span. Finally, we confirmed that progranulin levels constitute a reliable, cost-effective marker, suitable as a screening tool in patients with familial frontotemporal degeneration, and more broadly in patients without family history or with atypical presentations who are less likely to be referred for molecular diagnosis

Pathologies neurologiques en milieu tropical et rural : expérience malgache d’un centre de santé primaire de la région de Boeny

International audienceThere is, to our knowledge, no study reporting the demand for health care related to neurological diseases in rural tropical areas of developing countries. Neurology is nonetheless more or less closely related to the priority health issues in these countries. Over a 6-week period, 626 patients were seen at the primary health center in the town of Madirovalo, Madagascar. Neurological disorders accounted for 11.1% of the consultations. The neurological disorders most frequently leading to consultations were headaches (42.7%), with primary headaches accounting for 16%; next came leprosy neuropathy (14.7%), with a worrisome total of 8 new cases; other peripheral neuropathies (13.3%), and epilepsy (12%). The relatively low share of the latter seems likely related to families' frequent use of traditional healers rather than Western medicine. Neurological diseases appears to represent a significant part of the health-care demand of people living in rural tropical areas of developing countries, and specific support in this specialization is essential.La pathologie neurologique représente une part significative de la demande en santé des populations en milieu tropical rural des pays en développement, où un appui spécifique de la discipline neurologique semble indispensabl

The role of microbiological processes in the cycling of Fe in Antarctic sea-ice during Spring

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe

CO2 transfer at the ice-sea and air-ice interfaces: a step towards the end of a long-lived dogma?

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe