Investigating the Effects of Personalization on Brand Love: A Study of Facebook

This paper investigates how personalized advertising affects customer brand relationship in social media. In particular, this paper develops and tests a conceptual model that captures the impact of perceived personalization on customer brand relationship through an online survey where respondents are free to describe a personalized ad they see on their Facebook. Eight hypotheses are developed and tested using PLS-SEM. The results show that all hypotheses are accepted except for Hypothesis 7 (the effect of self-expressive brands on brand love). More specifically, the findings confirm that personalized advertising has an impact on consumer perceptions of a brand. Stated differently, as long as customers perceive an advertising to be personalized, their perceptions about the brands being advertised generally become more positive. Additionally, the levels of consumer brand engagement, brand self-expressiveness and consumer brand connection are enhanced by perceived personalization and brand love can be improved by consumer brand engagement and consumer brand connection. However, brand love is not affected by brand self-expressiveness. This study is developed after cooperation between IBM and Facebook with its purpose to provide a better advertising solution for marketers. The findings from this research show that this type advertising could change customer perspectives of the brands advertised and ultimately improves customer passion of and emotion about the brand (or brand love). This study also provides empirical results to strengthen the belief that social commerce companies could now apply a unique marketing tool – personalized advertising – to accomplish their marketing goals. The research sheds light into advertising literature investigating the effects of personalization in traditional media (Baek & Morimoto, 2012; Pavlou & Stewart, 2000; Tam & Ho, 2005) and into understanding the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). This research helps better understand key factors affecting brand love through a study of personalized ads in social media

Understanding a Mechanism to Enhance Perceived Quality and Brand Loyalty in Social Media: The Role of Personalizatio

A growing number of researchers have examined the effects of personalized advertising in traditional media, but little has been developed to examine the effects of a personalized ad of a brand on social media (i.e., Facebook). The primary objectives of this research are (1) to develop a comprehensive model detailing the role personalization plays in the development of consumer perception about a specific brand; (2) test the hypothesized relationships via online survey and (3) understand the effects of personalized messages as it relates to consumer purchasing behaviours related to a particular brand. The model is tested using data collected from Amazon Mturk. The findings reveal that all hypothesized relationships are supported. That means personalized ads on Facebook have drastically changed the ways customers perceive about the brand. Specifically, consumer brand engagement, brand attachment, perceived quality and brand loyalty are drastically enhanced by perceived personalization. The paper concludes with discussions highlighting managerial and research implications

Co-doping red-emitting Sr2Si5N8:Eu2+ into yellow-emitting phosphor-packaging for enhancing the optical properties of the 8500 K remote-phosphor packaging wleds

In the last decades, WLEDs attract more and more consideration in both academic and industrial purposes because of its advantages such as fast response time, environment friendliness, small size, long lifetime, and high efficiency. In this research, by doping the red-emitting Sr2Si5N8:Eu2+ phosphor particles into yellow-emitting YAG:Ce phosphor-packaging, a new recommendation for enhancing the optical properties (color uniformity, color rendering index, and lumen output) of the 8500 K remote-phosphor packaging WLEDs is presented, investigated, and demonstrated. By using Mat Lab and Light Tools software based on Mie Theory, the obtained results show that the optical properties of the 8500 K remote-phosphor packaging WLEDs significantly depended on Sr2Si5N8:Eu2+ concentration. The results have provided a potential practical recommendation for manufacturing remote-phosphor W-LEDs.Web of Science1341034102

Improving Germination Rates for Select Native Perennial Seeds of The Sonoran Desert

Anthropogenic influences, such as the removal of vegetation for road and alternative energy construction, have degraded deserts of the southwestern United States (Abella, 2010). Sensitive and endangered wildlife, such as the desert tortoise, are dependent on desert vegetation for their diet and habitat in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts (Nussear et al., 2009). Disturbed desert lands contribute to increasing dust storms, which pose as a human health hazard (Pointing and Belnap, 2014). Revegetation by outplanting nursery-grown plants has been more reliable than seeding for establishing native desert perennials, suggesting a need for further research if seeding is to be successful (Abella et al., 2012). To minimize time and expenses for restoration projects, it is important to develop seed treatment techniques that raise germination rates

Regression of murine lung tumors by the let-7 microRNA.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have recently emerged as an important new class of cellular regulators that control various cellular processes and are implicated in human diseases, including cancer. Here, we show that loss of let-7 function enhances lung tumor formation in vivo, strongly supporting the hypothesis that let-7 is a tumor suppressor. Moreover, we report that exogenous delivery of let-7 to established tumors in mouse models of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) significantly reduces the tumor burden. These results demonstrate the therapeutic potential of let-7 in NSCLC and point to miRNA replacement therapy as a promising approach in cancer treatment

Civil Society Organizations Serving Children in Vietnam: Opportunities and Constraints Working with Government Agencies

When Vietnamese civil society organization (CSO) administrators manage their relationships with government authorities to ensure children receive social services, they operate under Vietnam’s complex political, socioeconomic, and cultural constraints in environments where the Vietnamese government employs soft power to control CSOs and their donors. This study adds to the literature on the nature of CSO in Vietnam. It details the current imbalance of power between state-sponsored organizations (SSOs) and non-SSOs and provides an updated view of how Vietnamese non-SSOs mix social, economic, and political roles as employers and advocates. Combining a qualitative exploratory and interpretative case study, I address a gap in the research by examining how CSOs have taken advantage of opportunities they encounter in their relationships with government agencies. Narratives from 15 CSO administrators focus on CSO challenges, resources, strategies, recommendations, and their management of relationships with government agencies. In interviews, administrators presented their strategies and recommendations for the specific challenges of working with the government. They noted that tangible resources (donor funds and government subsidies) and intangible resources (networks, trust, and cultural values) are tied to their associated regulations in political and cultural spheres. SSO and non-SSO cooperation, and perhaps even convergence, is possible because they share common cultural values. As a result, building trust; creating formal and informal networks; initiating pilot projects, best practices, and innovation programs; and strengthening cultural values are major solution strategies or forms of lách CSOs can use to work with government agencies. Lách [dancing in the shadow of the law] is embedded in Vietnamese culture, with both CSOs and government staff employing it to address external forces and challenges in their daily work. Lách is considered a Vietnamese version of bricolage strategy, the art and skillful technique of managing challenges or conflicts with available intangible and tangible resources to avoid confrontation with those holding power. Administrators described how they used lách as a common principle to “do whatever the laws do not prohibit” [luật không cấm thì làm], a principle akin to Levi-Strauss’s concept of “making do with whatever is at hand.” They explained that in overlapping regulations and areas where Vietnam has not implemented its Law of Associations, a set of laws related to CSOs, many possibilities for legal evasion [kẻ hở] exist. In organizational theory, this application of lách could be termed “loose coupling.” When sharing experiences, CSO administrators raised concerns about government regulations and political and management structures favorable toward SSOs but which left non-SSOs less equipped to serve children and their families. CSOs employed two forms of political and cultural influence to overcome the challenges of complex service and local authority structures, lack of legal clarity, capacity and recruitment, and relations with the Vietnamese Fatherland Front and its umbrella organizations. First, employing their political status, SSOs optimized their political privileges to access better opportunities and elevate themselves to a higher position, for instance, when they used their positions in umbrella/network organizations to assume responsibility for other CSOs. Second, SSOs have also employed lách and taught non-SSOs how to access government resources and other forms of political power to fulfill the state’s agenda to deliver services to children and families most effectively. In addition, non-SSOs have sought resources and bargaining power through political, organizational, community trust, and personal experiences to build networks with multiple stakeholders. Although SSOs retained resource privileges otherwise denied by the state to non-SSOs, non-state actors had access to stable resources from communities and donors via forms of lách. With their strong organizational capacity and community trust, non-SSOs acquired intangible resources from stakeholders, clients, communities, the media, domestic and overseas donors, and the business sector—all outside of the state but still gaining advantages. This study proposes trust, networks of reciprocity, culture, and organizational capacity are important organizational resources impacting CSO relationships with the government and other stakeholders

Pengaruh Lingkungan Kerja, Kepuasan Kerja dan Kompensasi terhadap Kinerja Karyawan pada PT. Bank Sulut Cabang Airmadidi

Keberhasilan suatu organisasi sangat dipengaruhi oleh kinerja individu karyawannya. Setiap organisasi maupun Perusahaan akan selalu berusaha untuk meningkatkan kinerja karyawan, dengan harapan apa yang menjadi tujuan Perusahaan akan tercapai. Tujuan Penelitian ini untuk mengetahui apakah lingkungan kerja, kepuasan kerja, dan kompensasi berpengaruh secara signifikan terhadap kinerja karyawan pada PT. Bank SULUT Cabang Airmadidi Kabupaten Minahasa Utara. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah pegawai PT. Bank SULUT Cabang Airmadidi. Teknik pengambilan sampel adalah sampling jenuh, yaitu mengambil seluruh sampel sebanyak 68 responden. Metode penelitian menggunakan metode analisis regresi linier berganda. Hasil penelitian dan hipotesis menunjukan bahwa lingkungan kerja, kepuasan kerja, dan kompensasi secara simultan berpengaruh secara signifikan terhadap kinerja karyawan. Secara parsial hanya lingkungan kerja yang tidak signifikan terhadap kinerja karyawan, kepuasan kerja dan kompensasi berpengaruh signifikan terhadap kinerja karyawan. Sebaiknya pimpinan PT. Bank Sulut Cabang Airmadidi dapat memperhatikan faktor lingkunga kerja, kepuasan kerja, serta pemberian kompensasi yang dapat meningkatkan kinerja karyawan sehingga dapat mencapai visi dan misi Perusahaan. Kata kunci: lingkungan kerja, kepuasan kerja, kompensasi, kinerja karyawa