Product involvement, WOM and eWOM in the fast food industry : a young adult perspective in an emerging African economy

Abstract: This study investigates the relationship between product involvement, WOM, and eWOM in the fast food industry between two sub-groups of young adult consumers in South Africa. A quantitative design was followed, with primary data (n = 201) gathered from respondents using a self-administered questionnaire. The results suggest that product involvement exerts a positive and significant influence on WOM and eWOM in the case of both young adult sub-groups. There is also no difference in the perceptions of the two sub-groups of young adults concerning product involvement, WOM, and eWOM. Product involvement is found to play an important role in spreading WOM and eWOM in the fast food industry, and is proposed as an important focus area for managers

Social media content marketing : the case of Facebook in the South African telematics industry

Abstract: Social media have become interwoven with consumers’ everyday lives, altering the traditional ways in which consumers and brands interact. Despite the proliferating development of effective digital content as central to driving brand-consumer engagement, research suggests that there are uncertainties in the perceptions of companies about the value of the content they produce on the one hand, and those of its consumers on the other. This study specifically seeks to uncover this indistinctness by analysing the content that marketing professionals in this industry provide on social media platforms and consumers’ responses to that content..

Customer experience, satisfaction and brand relevance : a South African grocery retail context perspective

Abstract: Retailers often compete in the market by focusing on achieving customer satisfaction by providing good in-store shopping experiences. South African shoppers are however argued to be very brand conscious, and therefore, the relevance of a retail brand may in addition influence this experience and satisfaction relationship. This study seeks to uncover the relationship between customer experience and customer satisfaction and explores the moderating role of brand relevance on the relationship between customer experience and satisfaction. Using a quantitative approach, a total of 395 responses were collected from South African grocery retail shoppers. An SEM analysis is conducted with the variables “Sense”, “Think” and “Feel” as the predictors of customer experience, and their resulting influence on customer satisfaction tested. The variable “Think” was the only experience variable that had a significant influence on customers’ satisfaction levels, whilst “Brand relevance” demonstrated potential as a predictor of customer satisfaction, rather than a moderator between experience and satisfaction

Investigating the drivers of trust perceptions of black young adult banking customers in South Africa

Abstract: Background: Black young adults form a substantial portion of South Africa’s young adult cohort and an important market segment for retail banks. Few studies have examined the precursors of perceived trust among black young adult banking customers in South Africa. Purpose of study: This study investigates the influence of shared values, reputation, satisfaction, and customisation on black young adult customers’ trust in the South African retail banking sector. Design/Methodology/Approach: A descriptive research design was followed and data were collected from black young adult retail banking customers using an electronic survey. A total of 320 responses were analysed using standard multiple regression analysis. Results/Findings: Shared values, reputation, satisfaction, and customisation were found to be predictors of perceived customer trust, and may be important for developing a business relationship strategy to strengthen the trust perceptions of black young adult customers in South Africa. The model tested validates the proposed hypothesised relationships between shared values, reputation, satisfaction, customisation, and perceived trust among South Africa’s black young adult banking customers

The Potential Impact of Heparanase Activity and Endothelial Damage in COVID-19 Disease

SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in 2019 in Wuhan, China. It has been found to be the most pathogenic virus among coronaviruses and is associated with endothelial damage resulting in respiratory failure. Determine whether heparanase and heparan sulfate fragments, biomarkers of endothelial function, can assist in the risk stratification and clinical management of critically ill COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit. We investigated 53 critically ill patients with severe COVID-19 admitted between March and April 2020 to the University Hospital RWTH Aachen. Heparanase activity and serum levels of both heparanase and heparan sulfate were measured on day one (day of diagnosis) and day three in patients with COVID-19. The patients were classified into four groups according to the severity of ARDS. When compared to baseline data (day one), heparanase activity increased and the heparan sulfate serum levels decreased with increasing severity of ARDS. The heparanase activity significantly correlated with the lactate concentration on day one (r = 0.34, p = 0.024) and on day three (r = 0.43, p = 0.006). Heparanase activity and heparan sulfate levels correlate with COVID-19 disease severity and outcome. Both biomarkers might be helpful in predicting clinical course and outcomes in COVID-19 patients

An advanced risk analysis approach for container port safety evaluation

Risk analysis in seaports plays an increasingly important role in ensuring port operation reliability, maritime transportation safety and supply chain distribution resilience. However, the task is not straightforward given the challenges, including that port safety is affected by multiple factors related to design, installation, operation and maintenance and that traditional risk assessment methods such as quantitative risk analysis cannot sufficiently address uncertainty in failure data. This paper develops an advanced Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) approach through incorporating Fuzzy Rule-Based Bayesian Networks (FRBN) to evaluate the criticality of the hazardous events (HEs) in a container terminal. The rational use of the Degrees of Belief (DoB) in a fuzzy rule base (FRB) facilitates the implementation of the new method in Container Terminal Risk Evaluation (CTRE) in practice. Compared to conventional FMEA methods, the new approach integrates FRB and BN in a complementary manner, in which the former provides a realistic and flexible way to describe input failure information while the latter allows easy updating of risk estimation results and facilitates real-time safety evaluation and dynamic risk-based decision support in container terminals. The proposed approach can also be tailored for wider application in other engineering and management systems, especially when instant risk ranking is required by the stakeholders to measure, predict and improve their system safety and reliability performance

Ribonuclease 1 attenuates septic cardiomyopathy and cardiac apoptosis in a murine model of polymicrobial sepsis.

Septic cardiomyopathy is a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by sepsis. Ribonuclease 1 (RNase 1) belongs to a group of host-defense peptides that specifically cleave extracellular RNA (eRNA). The activity of RNase1 is inhibited by ribonuclease-inhibitor 1 (RNH1). The role of RNase 1 in septic cardiomyopathy and associated cardiac apoptosis, however, is completely unknown. Here, we showed that sepsis resulted in a significant increase in RNH1 and eRNA serum levels compared to those of healthy subjects (p < 0.05). Treatment with RNase 1 resulted in a significant decrease of apoptosis, induced by the intrinsic pathway, and TNF expression in murine cardiomyocytes exposed to either necrotic cardiomyocytes or serum of septic patients for 16 h (p < 0.05). Furthermore, treatment of septic mice with RNase 1 resulted in a reduction in cardiac apoptosis, TNF expression and septic cardiomyopathy (p < 0.05). These data demonstrate that eRNA plays a crucial role in the pathophysiology of the organ (cardiac) dysfunction in sepsis and RNase and RNH1 may be new therapeutic targets/strategies to reduce the cardiac injury and dysfunction caused by sepsis

Inhibition of Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor Activity Attenuates Haemorrhagic Shock-Induced Multiple Organ Dysfunction in Rats

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate (a) macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) levels in polytrauma patients and rats after haemorrhagic shock (HS), (b) the potential of the MIF inhibitor ISO-1 to reduce multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) in acute (short-term and long-term follow-up) HS rat models and (c) whether treatment with ISO-1 attenuates NF-κB and NLRP3 activation in HS. BACKGROUND: The MODS caused by an excessive systemic inflammatory response following trauma is associated with a high morbidity and mortality. MIF is a pleiotropic cytokine which can modulate the inflammatory response, however, its role in trauma is unknown. METHODS: The MIF levels in plasma of polytrauma patients and serum of rats with HS were measured by ELISA. Acute HS rat models were performed to determine the influence of ISO-1 on MODS. The activation of NF-κB and NLRP3 pathways were analysed by western blot in the kidney and liver. RESULTS: We demonstrated that (a) MIF levels are increased in polytrauma patients on arrival to the emergency room and in rats after HS, (b) HS caused organ injury and/or dysfunction and hypotension (post-resuscitation) in rats, while (c) treatment of HS-rats with ISO-1 attenuated the organ injury and dysfunction in acute HS models and (d) reduced the activation of NF-κB and NLRP3 pathways in the kidney and liver. CONCLUSION: Our results point to a role of MIF in the pathophysiology of trauma-induced organ injury and dysfunction and indicate that MIF inhibitors may be used as a potential therapeutic approach for MODS after trauma and/or haemorrhage