Soft balancing in the Americas : Latin American opposition to U.S. intervention, 1898–1936

In the aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, scholars of international relations debated how to best characterize the rising tide of global opposition. The concept of “soft balancing” emerged as an influential, though contested, explanation of a new phenomenon in a unipolar world: states seeking to constrain the ability of the United States to deploy military force by using multinational organizations, international law, and coalition building. Soft balancing can also be observed in regional unipolar systems. Multinational archival research reveals how Argentina, Mexico, and other Latin American countries responded to expanding U.S. power and military assertiveness in the early twentieth century through coordinated diplomatic maneuvering that provides a strong example of soft balancing. Examination of this earlier case makes an empirical contribution to the emerging soft-balancing literature and suggests that soft balancing need not lead to hard balancing or open conflict

A simplified microwave-based motion detector for home cage activity monitoring in mice

Background: Locomotor activity of rodents is an important readout to assess well-being and physical health, and is pivotal for behavioral phenotyping. Measuring homecage-activity with standard and cost-effective optical methods in mice has become difficult, as modern housing conditions (e.g. individually ventilated cages, cage enrichment) do not allow constant, unobstructed, visual access. Resolving this issue either makes greater investments necessary, especially if several experiments will be run in parallel, or is at the animals' expense. The purpose of this study is to provide an easy, yet satisfying solution for the behavioral biologist at novice makers level. Results: We show the design, construction and validation of a simplified, low-cost, radar-based motion detector for home cage activity monitoring in mice. In addition we demonstrate that mice which have been selectively bred for low levels of anxiety-related behavior (LAB) have deficits in circadian photoentrainment compared to CD1 control animals. Conclusion: In this study we have demonstrated that our proposed low-cost microwave-based motion detector is well-suited for the study of circadian rhythms in mice

Effects of complete products on consumer judgments

Purpose: The aim of this study is to better understand how consumers understand and judge multi-attribute products that are perceived as either more or less complete in terms of feature coverage in a category. Complete products are used to reduce the need of developing and managing expansive and expensive line-extension portfolios. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used an experimental method and conducted two studies to test hypotheses derived from the marketing literature. Findings: The authors find more complete multi-attribute products are preferred to less complete alternatives. This preference for more complete products remains under larger competitive product assortment, but is reduced under smaller assortment. With a higher price level and larger assortment, the preference is substantial. However, under the conditions of lower price level/larger assortment, higher price level/smaller assortment, and lower price level/smaller assortment, the preference is again reduced. Research limitations/implications: More positive evaluations and higher product utility accrue from adding new features to multi-attribute products prior to purchase. Moreover, more complete information causes more positive evaluations and cognitive responses. Larger assortment strains cognitive resources, and more complete multi-attribute products are easier to understand than less complete multi-attribute products. This processing facilitation generates positive affect and leads to greater use of information that can shorten processing. Price level strongly influences processing of more complete products under larger assortment, but not under smaller assortment. Practical implications: Brand managers have a better understanding of how consumers judge more and less complete products, and under which circumstances more complete products are preferred. Originality/value: The study of perceived product completeness is novel. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Comparing blogs with print ads for corporate branding. The role of source credibility

The explosion of new media and usage represents one of the most significant trends in marketing communications today. One of the major challenges in this environment is which type of media is most effective at communicating a corporate message. Across two studies, we demonstrate that a message in a blog generates a more positive corporate-brand attitude and higher engagement than the identical one in a print ad, and that source credibility mediates this effect. A blog is perceived as having higher source credibility than a print ad

Pricing store brands across categories and retailers

As sales of store brands increase, retailers are shifting their store branding strategies by raising store brand prices, extending their store brand assortments to high-risk categories, and marketing store brands in high retail image formats. The purpose of the research is to explore the effects of these changes on consumers’ judgments of store brands. The conceptual framework is derived from pricing, prospect, and information processing theories. It is tested in two experiments. The study finds that consumers’ use of price information varies by decision-making context. In particular, price-based effects for store brands are moderated by the contextual factors of category risk and retail image. © 2003, MCB UP Limite

The Effects of Changing Attribute Composition on Judgments About Multifunctional Products

Multifunctional products have become increasingly popular as marketers seek to attain broader customer appeal at a reduced portfolio management cost. However, when they are evaluated along with single-function alternatives, multifunctional products are less effective on common features. A potential limitation of this finding is that the attributes of multifunctional products were not allowed to vary. In two studies, we find that changing the attribute composition of multifunctional products does, in fact, eliminate, and at times even reverses, their perceived disadvantage compared with single-function alternatives. We also identify a factor that causes multifunctional products to display the highest choice and greatest perceived differentiation

Effects of complete products on consumer judgments

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to seek to understand better how consumers judge multiattribute products that are perceived as either more or less complete in terms of feature coverage in a category. Complete products are used to reduce the need of developing and managing expansive and expensive line-extension portfolios. Design/methodology/approach: The research used an experimental method and conducted two studies to test hypotheses derived from the marketing literature. Findings: It is found that more complete multiattribute products are preferred to less complete alternatives. This preference for more complete products remains under larger competitive product assortment, but is reduced under smaller assortment. With a higher price level and larger assortment, the preference is substantial. However, under the conditions of lower price level/larger assortment, higher price level/smaller assortment, and lower price level/smaller assortment, the preference is again reduced. Research limitations/implications: More positive evaluations and higher product utility accrue from adding new features to multiattribute products prior to purchase. Moreover, more complete information causes more positive evaluations and cognitive responses. Larger assortment strains cognitive resources, and more complete multiattribute products are easier to understand than less complete multiattribute products. This processing facilitation generates positive affect leads to greater use of information that can shorten processing. Practical implications: Brand managers can have a better understanding of how consumers judge more and less complete products, and under which circumstances more complete products are preferred. Originality/value: The study of perceived product completeness is novel. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited