Periodic Versus Aggregate Donations: Leveraging Donation Frequencies to Cultivate the Regular Donor Portfolio

Charitable organizations play a key role in society but face the recurrent challenge of obtaining sufficient resources to accomplish their missions. The regular donor portfolio becomes a critical element in providing stable and long-lasting funding, and its effective management has emerged as a key research area. This study investigates the impact of the donation frequency by regular donors on their donation amount over time. Drawing from temporal reframing literature, we provide an understanding of these effects as well as the moderating role of the motivations to donate (self- vs other-oriented). The study also investigates the extent to which frequency choices are influenced by the motivations to donate and by the donation options presented during registration. Using a sample of regular donors from 2013 to 2019 and applying dynamic panel data techniques, the findings reveal that higher frequencies lead to higher donations, though this effect is strengthened by self-oriented motivations and weakened by other-oriented motivations. Our study shows that motivations to donate and donation options jointly explain donation frequencies. This study provides useful guidance for charities on how to increase regular donors’ perceived value and their contributions to help these organizations provide essential services to the most vulnerable groups in society

Surface-confined molecular coolers for cryogenics

An excellent molecule-based cryogenic magnetic refrigerant, gadolinium acetate tetrahydrate, is here used to decorate selected portions of silicon substrate. By quantitative magnetic force microscopy for variable applied magnetic field near liquid-helium temperature, we demonstrate that the molecules hold intact their magnetic properties, and therefore their cooling functionality, after their deposition. Our result represents a step forward towards the realization of a molecule-based microrefrigerating device for very low temperatures.Comment: 16 pages, 4+1 figures, S.I. available from author

Winning your customers’ minds and hearts: Disentangling the effects of lock-in and affective customer experience on retention

Abstract Building barriers to lock in customers and improving the affective customer experience are two key strategies employed by firms to enhance customer retention. Although pursuing the same goal, these strategies work differently: the former relies more on a calculative, cost–benefit approach to the exchange, while the latter promotes affective aspects of the relationship. Integrating experiential learning theory with social exchange theory, we provide a conceptual framework to understand the impact of lock-in and affective customer experience on customer retention, and the moderating role of relationship depth. Using a comprehensive data set for a sample of 13,761 customers covering all firms in one telecom market for two different services, we empirically test the framework via multinomial logit modeling. The results offer novel insights into the interplay between the two strategies. For poor affective customer experience (i.e., a score below five on a 0–10 scale), lock-in helps firms reduce customer churn (between 49.03% and 47.86%). However, the impact of lock-in decreases when affective customer experience improves and turns to be insignificant once the experience reaches the “acceptable level” (i.e., a score above seven on a 0–10 scale). Importantly, the separate and joint effects of the two strategies are stronger when there is a low relationship depth, and weaker when heavy relationships are established. The findings offer useful practical advice to manage these strategies in an efficient and optimal way

Recasting the customer experience in today's omnichannel environment

Omni-channel marketing refers to the synergetic management of the available channels and customer touchpoints to enhance the customer experience and improve performance. It has become a cornerstone of marketing strategy but putting it into practice is still one of the major challenges that firms face today. In this study, we aim to understand how firms can manage all touchpoints across all channels in an integrated manner to provide a superior customer experience and gain competitive edge. To do so, we identify a number of key issues that firms must consider before they can embrace the changes that their organizations need to recast the customer experience and obtain superior performance. These include adopting a customercentric approach, unifying all touchpoints across all channels, delivering personalized customer experiences, integrating the available channels, delight customers across channels, redefining the role of the physical store and embracing mobile marketing.El marketing omnicanal se refiere a la gestión sinérgica de los canales disponibles y de los puntos de contacto con los clientes para mejorar la experiencia del cliente y mejorar el rendimiento. Se ha convertido en una piedra angular de la estrategia de marketing, pero su puesta en práctica sigue siendo uno de los principales retos a los que se enfrentan las empresas hoy en día. En este estudio, nuestro objetivo es entender cómo las empresas pueden gestionar todos los puntos de contacto en todos los canales de una manera integrada para proporcionar una experiencia superior al cliente y aumentar la ventaja competitiva. Para ello, se identifican una serie de cuestiones clave que las empresas deben tener en cuenta antes de que puedan adoptar los cambios que sus organizaciones necesitan para redefinir la experiencia del cliente y obtener un rendimiento superior. Estos incluyen la adopción de un enfoque centrado en el cliente, la unificación de todos los puntos de contacto en todos los canales, la prestación personalizada de experiencias al cliente, la integración de los canales disponibles, el deleite a los clientes en todos los canales, la redefinición del papel de la tienda física y la apuesta por el marketing móvil

Percepciones y resultados del estudiante derivados del uso de los sistemas de mandos de respuesta en clase

Este trabajo presenta los resultados de una experiencia basada en la utilización de los sistemas de mandos de respuesta. El objetivo del estudio es mostrar la valoración global que los estudiantes realizan del empleo de estos sistemas, así como evidenciar las mejoras que, de acuerdo a sus percepciones, proporciona su uso en el proceso de aprendizaje. Para ello, se ha realizado una encuesta a 198 estudiantes de la Universidad de Zaragoza. Los resultados obtenidos ponen de manifiesto que los sistemas de mandos de respuesta son una herramienta fácil de utilizar, a la vez qué útil y divertida. Los estudiantes encuestados valoran positivamente el uso de esta herramienta, mostrándose muy satisfechos con la misma. Por último, los alumnos consideran que estos sistemas incrementan la interactividad en el aula, mejoran la comprensión y asimilación de los contenidos, y enriquecen la experiencia de aprendizaje.

Thickness-modulated tungsten-carbon superconducting nanostructures grown by focused ion beam induced deposition for vortex pinning up to high magnetic fields

We report efficient vortex pinning in thickness-modulated tungsten–carbon-based (W–C) nanostructures grown by focused ion beam induced deposition (FIBID). By using FIBID, W–C superconducting films have been created with thickness modulation properties exhibiting periodicity from 60 to 140 nm, leading to a strong pinning potential for the vortex lattice. This produces local minima in the resistivity up to high magnetic fields (2.2 T) in a broad temperature range due to commensurability effects between the pinning potential and the vortex lattice. The results show that the combination of single-step FIBID fabrication of superconducting nanostructures with built-in artificial pinning landscapes and the small intrinsic random pinning potential of this material produces strong periodic pinning potentials, maximizing the opportunities for the investigation of fundamental aspects in vortex science under changing external stimuli (e.g., temperature, magnetic field, electrical current)