77 research outputs found

    Like Us on Facebook: Social Capital, Opinion Leadership, and Social Media Word-of-Mouth for Promoting Cultural Goods

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    While the role of paid advertising in online environments has diminished, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has become increasingly valuable. This study sought to determine if consumers’ trust in their social media network, defined as social capital, or identification as an opinion leader better predicted social media eWOM related to cultural goods. The key finding was that perceived opinion leadership consistently best predicted Facebook eWOM

    Pepperdine One Semester Abroad: Group Satisfaction & Emotional Well-being

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    Students who decide to study abroad experience great transition as they adapt from one culture to the next. Interestingly, with so many students studying abroad, it is recognizable that during this change, some students thrive while others do not. Therefore, this study explores the possible factors of what might cause students to report having a positive abroad experience. Specifically, this study analyzes Pepperdine University students to collect data and examine the effects of extraversion and subjective well-being on group satisfaction levels. Although the results could not be generalized, the results concluded that subjective well-being more than extraversion predicted an individual’s group satisfaction and overall abroad experience satisfaction. Finally, the study concluded with the limitations and suggestions for future research

    Rates of Concentrate-roughage Substitution and Economic Optimums in Feeding Yearling Steers and Heifers

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    Agricultural Economic

    Moviegoing in the Netflix Age: Gratifications, Planned Behavior, and Theatrical Attendance

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    Innovations in digital technology have provided consumers with a variety of screens and portals through which they can access motion picture entertainment. This study sought to understand what factors motivate consumers to experience a film in the theater versus waiting to see the film at home, using home-viewing technology. Using the uses and gratifications framework coupled with the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior, this study employed a survey (N = 331) designed to measure gratification expectations and viewing intentions for five films that had not yet been released in theaters. The study found that while behavioral control and satisfaction with a consumer’s theatrical and home viewing environment may play roles in determining the consumer’s decision to see a movie in the theater, it is affective gratification expectations that exert the biggest influence on theatrical attendance across different types of films. In addition, subjective norms did not influence viewing intentions for any films employed in the study. The findings of this study suggest that audiences are increasingly selective about the types of films they choose to view in the theater, favoring exciting, visually enticing films

    Social Media Goes to the Movies: Fear of Missing Out, Social Capital, and Social Motivations of Cinema Attendance

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    The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of participation in social media networks on theatrical movie attendance, with particular attention paid to the fear-of-missing-out (FoMO) and social media social capital. Using an online survey (N = 472), it was determined that the direct social utility of the theatrical experience was a better predictor of theatrical attendance than social media FoMO or social capital. However, both bridging social capital and FoMO were predictors of the post-viewing social media sharing of the film experience, with bridging social capital best predicting social media sharing. Furthermore, FoMO did not moderate the relation between bridging social capital and social media sharing, suggesting these traits exert influence on social media behaviors independently. While participation in social networks did not influence theatrical movie attendance, it was an important predictor of social media conversations after viewing, with the opportunity to maintain and build bridging social capital exerting the greatest influence on social media sharing

    Budget impact analysis of robotic exoskeleton use for locomotor training following spinal cord injury in four SCI Model Systems

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    Background We know little about the budget impact of integrating robotic exoskeleton over-ground training into therapy services for locomotor training. The purpose of this study was to estimate the budget impact of adding robotic exoskeleton over-ground training to existing locomotor training strategies in the rehabilitation of people with spinal cord injury. Methods A Budget Impact Analysis (BIA) was conducted using data provided by four Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Model Systems rehabilitation hospitals. Hospitals provided estimates of therapy utilization and costs about people with spinal cord injury who participated in locomotor training in the calendar year 2017. Interventions were standard of care walking training including body-weight supported treadmill training, overground training, stationary robotic systems (i.e., treadmill-based robotic gait orthoses), and overground robotic exoskeleton training. The main outcome measures included device costs, training costs for personnel to use the device, human capital costs of locomotor training, device demand, and the number of training sessions per person with SCI. Results Robotic exoskeletons for over-ground training decreased hospital costs associated with delivering locomotor training in the base case analysis. This analysis assumed no difference in intervention effectiveness across locomotor training strategies. Providing robotic exoskeleton overground training for 10% of locomotor training sessions over the course of the year (range 226–397 sessions) results in decreased annual locomotor training costs (i.e., net savings) between 1114to1114 to 4784 per annum. The base case shows small savings that are sensitive to parameters of the BIA model which were tested in one-way sensitivity analyses, scenarios analyses, and probability sensitivity analyses. The base case scenario was more sensitive to clinical utilization parameters (e.g., how often devices sit idle and the substitution of high cost training) than device-specific parameters (e.g., robotic exoskeleton device cost or device life). Probabilistic sensitivity analysis simultaneously considered human capital cost, device cost, and locomotor device substitution. With probabilistic sensitivity analysis, the introduction of a robotic exoskeleton only remained cost saving for one facility. Conclusions Providing robotic exoskeleton for over-ground training was associated with lower costs for the locomotor training of people with SCI in the base case analyses. The analysis was sensitive to parameter assumptions

    “There was something very peculiar about Doc…”: Deciphering Queer Intimacy in Representations of Doc Holliday

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    This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in American Nineteenth-Century History on 8-12-14, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14664658.2014.971481This essay discusses representations of male intimacy in life-writing about consumptive gunfighter John Henry “Doc” Holliday (1851-1887). I argue that twentieth-century commentators rarely appreciated the historical specificity of Holliday’s friendships in a frontier culture that not only normalized but actively celebrated same-sex intimacy. Indeed, Holliday lived on the frayed edges of known nineteenth-century socio-sexual norms, and his interactions with other men were further complicated by his vicious reputation and his disability. His short life and eventful afterlife exposes the gaps in available evidence – and the flaws in our ability to interpret it. Yet something may still be gleaned from the early newspaper accounts of Holliday. Having argued that there is insufficient evidence to justify positioning him within modern categories of hetero/homosexuality, I analyze the language used in pre-1900 descriptions of first-hand encounters with Holliday to illuminate the consumptive gunfighter’s experience of intimacy, if not its meaning

    Corruption and environmental policy: What are the implications for the enlarged EU?

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    The paper discusses the prescription of EU environmental regulations for new member states. It has been argued that these countries should be allowed looser directives as a way to take into consideration their lower income levels and correspondingly different priorities. The paper estimates the determinants of environmental policies' stringency. We find that corruption levels are the most important factor in explaining the variance in environmental policies in the enlarged EU. Most notably, differences in corruption levels across countries appear to be more important than income differences. Thus, it is argued, lower environmental standards in new member states are not necessarily implied by lower income levels, but they are more likely to reflect low institutional quality. We argue that harmonization of environmental policies at the EU level can be a way to tackle this problem, and we provide a further rationale for new members states to adjust to existing EU environmental directives. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
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