Missing paternal demographics: A novel indicator for identifying high risk population of adverse pregnancy outcomes

BACKGROUND: One of every 6 United Status birth certificates contains no information on fathers. There might be important differences in the pregnancy outcomes between mothers with versus those without partner information. The object of this study was to assess whether and to what extent outcomes in pregnant women who did not have partner information differ from those who had. METHODS: We carried out a population-based retrospective cohort study based on the registry data in the United States for the period of 1995–1997, which was a matched multiple birth file (only twins were included in the current analysis). We divided the study subjects into three groups according to the availability of partner information: available, partly missing, and totally missing. We compared the distribution of maternal characteristics, maternal morbidity, labor and delivery complications, obstetric interventions, preterm birth, fetal growth restriction, low birth weight, congenital anomalies, fetal death, neonatal death, post-neonatal death, and neonatal morbidity among three study groups. RESULTS: There were 304466 twins included in our study. Mothers whose partner's information was partly missing and (especially) totally missing tended to be younger, of black race, unmarried, with less education, smoking cigarette during pregnancy, and with inadequate prenatal care. The rates of preterm birth, fetal growth restriction, low birth weight, Apgar score <7, fetal mortality, neonatal mortality, and post-neonatal mortality were significantly increased in mothers whose partner's information was partly or (especially) totally missing. CONCLUSIONS: Mothers whose partner's information was partly and (especially) totally missing are at higher risk of adverse pregnant outcomes, and clinicians and public health workers should be alerted to this important social factor

Exploring a Group Service Experience - An Approach to Capture the Dynamics and Implications of the Co-Creation Process

This conceptual paper explores the dynamics and implications of group behaviour for the joint consumption of a service. It conceptualises an approach to balance, influence and manage the creation of a service experience during its different phases of group dynamics. Particular attention will be paid to the connection between the service creation and the changing relationships between the group and the service provider due to the influence of group dynamics. The paper commences with a brief literature review on group dynamics research and highlights the provider's particular challenges in a group experience, then looks into group characteristics and explains the group dynamics and the co-creation process in a joint service experience. It concludes with management implications and a brief summary

The Concept of Intergenerational Service-Learning in MBA Marketing Courses

In teaching and learning, instructors are often faced with finding ‘real world’ applications to enrich their teaching to facilitate a more practice-related learning experience. Particularly students having five or more years of experience, upon enrolling in an MBA program, appear to find it hard to connect with theories, models and abstract thinking in their coursework. This paper outlines an approach of “intergenerational teaching and learning” in an MBA Marketing course at a University in New Zealand. The instructor facilitated a service-learning scenario in which MBA Alumni were project sponsors for current MBA students. Approximately 40 MBA students executed these client-sponsored projects in groups of four to five individuals. This paper describes the teaching and learning concept, discusses potential learning experiences and suggests potential improvements for the next iteration

Empirical Evidence of Service Quality in Group Encounters

In this paper we empirically test a service quality model designed for a customer group experience. Drawing on a sample of 235 customers who have experienced a group service encounter we show how a customer’s individual effort as well as the contribution of the other group members (“other customers”), can influence perceived service quality

The Google online marketing challenge: A transnational comparison of classroom learning with real clients, real money, and real advertising campaigns

In 2008, a collaborative partnership between Google and academia launched the Google Online Marketing Challenge (hereinafter Google Challenge), perhaps the world’s largest in-class competition for higher education students. In just two years, almost 20,000 students from 58 countries participated in the Google Challenge. The Challenge gives undergraduate and graduate students hands-on experience with the world’s fastest growing advertising mechanism, search engine advertising. Funded by Google, students develop an advertising campaign for a small to medium sized enterprise and manage the campaign over three consecutive weeks using the Google AdWords platform. This article explores the Challenge as an innovative pedagogical tool for marketing educators. Based on the experiences of three instructors in Australia, Canada and the United States, this case study discusses the opportunities and challenges of integrating this dynamic problem-based learning approach into the classroom

Culinary destination consumer-based brand equity: exploring the influence of tourist gaze in relation to FoodPorn on social media

The present paper investigates the impact of FoodPorn, or food photographs, on user-generated content (UGC) and its role in influencing the perceptions of ‘food trippers’ toward local culinary precincts in a metropolitan area in Australia. Adopting a mix-methods approach, 20 semi-structured interviews with food trippers revealed four antecedents of why they gaze upon FoodPorn on UGC, including usefulness, ease of use, affective gratifications and source credibility. Findings from interviews informed a large-scale online survey investigating residents’ perceptions of three local culinary precincts. Data (n = 593) were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). Results from SEM revealed that the effectiveness of UGC in relation to FoodPorn and culinary precinct attractiveness largely depends on the benefits food trippers perceive when gazing upon the food imagery. This research advances our understanding of how gazing upon FoodPorn enhances culinary destination consumer-based brand equity. This study developed an extension of a model that measures culinary precinct destination attractiveness, and the role of FoodPorn in influencing perceptions held by Brisbane consumers of culinary precincts. Findings provide important recommendations for destination marketing organisations (DMOs) both in Australia and worldwide

Defining Biometrics With Privacy and Benefits: A Research Agenda for Academics and Public Policy Makers

This conceptual paper defines and gives examples of biometrics, explains how biometric tracking is currently used (e.g., to predict IQ), and presents innovative future uses of biometric tracking (e.g., to customize the price of products in real time). Specifically, this paper outlines a novel biometric pricing technology (BPT) which uses facial tracking to set the price of products using a new participatory dynamic pricing (vs. static pricing) system. Based on the privacy paradox, this paper addresses the acceptance, concerns, and usage of a new emerging technology by consumers and its potential applications. To explore this, we develop a typology of perceived benefits and perceived privacy to predict consumer reactions to biometric technology. In addition, we present a research agenda to guide future research on biometric pricing technology. This research agenda offers new insights on how biometric tracking and specifically biometric price setting could be explored from multiple angles, including the consumer experience, technology acceptance, online profiling, governance, public policy, regulation, ethical and future usage-based perspectives