The applications of social media in sports marketing

n the era of big data, sports consumer's activities in social media become valuable assets to sports marketers. In this paper, the authors review extant literature regarding how to effectively use social media to promote sports as well as how to effectively analyze social media data to support business decisions. Methods: The literature review method. Results: Our findings suggest that sports marketers can use social media to achieve the following goals, such as facilitating marketing communication campaigns, adding values to sports products and services, creating a two-way communication between sports brands and consumers, supporting sports sponsorship program, and forging brand communities. As to how to effectively analyze social media data to support business decisions, extent literature suggests that sports marketers to undertake traffic and engagement analysis on their social media sites as well as to conduct sentiment analysis to probe customer's opinions. These insights can support various aspects of business decisions, such as marketing communication management, consumer's voice probing, and sales predictions. Conclusion: Social media are ubiquitous in the sports marketing and consumption practices. In the era of big data, these ＂footprints＂ can now be effectively analyzed to generate insights to support business decisions. Recommendations to both the sports marketing practices and research are also addressed

Of Morals and Scents: How Consumers’ Physical Sensation of Cleanliness Affects Their Evaluations of Green Products

In this research, the researcher examines the capability of consumers’ physical sensation of cleanliness in influencing their subsequent green product evaluation in line with the embodied cognition paradigm. According to the literature, there are two possible cognitive effects that can be elicited by consumers’ physical sensation of cleanliness: to perceive the sensory information that indicates cleaning effectiveness and to inflate their sense of moral superiority. Yet, it has not been studied whether these effects can simultaneously be elicited and can both influence consumers’ subsequent evaluations of green products. Furthermore, it has been indicated in the green marketing literature that consumers tend to express different levels of product attractiveness on the same green product due to the perspective difference (how attractive this green product is to me and how attractive I perceive this green product is to other consumers). This evaluation difference implies that consumers might set different priorities, to go for cleaning effectiveness or to go green, in the way they make different aspects of green product evaluation. There is also a need of further studies to examine this underlying mechanism. To conclude, this research is designed to contribute both consumer decision making and green marketing literature regarding (1) the co-existence of the two possible cognitive effects that consumers’ physical sensation of cleanliness can have on their subsequent product evaluations and (2) further insight with respect to the nature of consumers green product evaluations. Three experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that consumers’ physical sensation of cleanliness can simultaneously make them perceive the sensory information that indicates product effectiveness and inflate their sense of moral superiority. The perceived sensory information that indicate cleaning effectiveness had a negative and significant impact on how participants rated the attractiveness of the green product to themselves compared to its non-green counterpart. The inflated sense of moral superiority had a negative and significant impact on how they perceived the green product would be relatively attractive to other consumers compared to its non-green counterpart. With respect to the evaluation gap between how the green product was attractive to me compared to how it would be to other consumers, an interaction effect was found between the perceived sensory information that indicates cleaning effectiveness and the inflated sense of moral superiority. Specifically, the inflated sense of moral superiority positively significantly influenced this evaluation gap under the condition of low levels of the perceived sensory information that indicates cleaning effectiveness. This thesis is an attempt to advance both the green marketing and consumer decision making literature by demonstrating two possible cognitive effects that consumers’ physical sensation of cleanliness can have in their thinking process, by examining how these two effects can influence consumers’ subsequent green product evaluation and by providing further insights regarding the nature of consumers’ green product evaluations. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed and recommendations for future research are suggested

Word of Mouth, Viral Marketing and Open Data: A Large-Scale Simulation for Predicting Opinion Diffusion on Ethical Food Consumption

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.This paper presents the first results of a large-scale-Agent-Based Simulation devoted to simulate individual behaviour inside a medium sized city (600,000 inhabitants). Humans are simulated as Intelligent Individual entities characterized by several attributes created from the Open Data available by means of a multi-layer approach. The work presented is divided into two main parts: the first part aims to describe the multi-layer approach adopted with the inclusion of the social network layer devoted to capture how social networks can be correlated with human activities and how an “Individual Opinion” can changes based on social interactions. The second part is devoted to present a preliminary case study for simulating the propagation dynamics of the individual opinion in the form of an ethical value function. The basic idea is to capture the changes in the individual opinion based on the social interactions predicted by the simulation. Finally, a food choice model for predicting individual choices based on the individual opinion function is presented; the model is based on three parameters: accessibility of ethical shops, price difference with standard products, and ethical value propagation

To Give or Not to Give: The Roles of Narcissistic Grandiosity and Vulnerability in Gift- Giving

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.The present study identifies how narcissistic grandiosity, vulnerability, and their interplay collectively affect gift-giving behaviors, which is understudied in the extant literature. The results showed that these two dimensions yield to different impacts in gift-giving; adequate levels of both narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability are essential to promote gift-giving behaviors

Routinely transradial arterial approach for extra-cranial carotid stenting

BackgroundThe purpose of this study is to report a single center experience with its safety and feasibility of transradial arterial (TRA) approach in extra-cranial carotid artery (ECCA) stenting.Methods and results74 patients were consecutively enrolled in this study. A retrograde-engagement technique, involving looping 6-F Kimny guiding catheter, was utilized for ECCA angiographic study. For ECCA stenting, the 6-F Kimny guiding catheter was replaced with a 7-F Kimny guiding catheter and the procedure was performed as the follows. First, a 0.035-in. Teflon wire was carefully advanced into the common CA. Second, a PercuSurge GuardWire was inserted into the external CA, followed by distal balloon inflation for an anchoring support. Third, the 6-F guiding catheter was removed, followed by exchanging a 7-F kimny guiding catheter which was advanced along the 0.035-in. Teflon wire and the PercuSurge GuardWire to proximal part of common CA. Distal protection device was then utilized to protect from distal embolization during the procedure. One procedure failed due to external CA did not provide an anchoring support. Thus, the procedure was successful in 74 (98.7%) patients. No vascular or bleeding complication was observed. Minor stroke occurred in 3 (4.0%) patients during the procedure. All of them were completely recovery within 1week.ConclusionsThe TRA approach for ECCA stenting is safe and feasible. This access may offer a last resort for patients with unsuited to femoral arterial access and endarterectomy

On the Miura map between the dispersionless KP and dispersionless modified KP hierarchies

We investigate the Miura map between the dispersionless KP and dispersionless modified KP hierarchies. We show that the Miura map is canonical with respect to their bi-Hamiltonian structures. Moreover, inspired by the works of Takasaki and Takebe, the twistor construction of solution structure for the dispersionless modified KP hierarchy is given.Comment: 19 pages, Latex, no figure

Evaluation of Antioxidant and Free Radical Scavenging Capacities of Polyphenolics from Pods of Caesalpinia pulcherrima

Thirteen polyphenolics were isolated from fresh pods of Caesalpinia pulcherrima using various methods of column chromatography. The structures of these polyphenolics were elucidated as gallic acid (1), methyl gallate (2), 6-O-galloyl-d-glucoside (3), methyl 6-O-galloyl-β-d-glucoside (4), methyl 3,6-di-O-galloyl-α-d-glucopyranoside (5), gentisic acid 5-O-α-d-(6′-O-galloyl)glucopyranoside (6), guaiacylglycerol 4-O-β-d-(6′-O-galloyl)glucopyranoside (7), 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenol 1-O-β-d-(6′-O-galloyl) glucopyranoside (8), (+)-gallocatechin (9), (+)-catechin (10), (+)-gallocatechin 3-O-gallate (11), myricetin 3-rhamnoside (12), and ampelopsin (13). All isolated compounds were tested for their antioxidant activities in the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), hydroxyl, and peroxynitrite radicals scavenging assays. Among those compounds, 11, 12, and 2 exhibited the best DPPH-, hydroxyl-, and peroxynitrite radical-scavenging activities, respectively. Compound 7 is a new compound, and possesses better scavenging activities towards DPPH but has equivalent hydroxyl radical scavenging activity when compared to BHT. The paper is the first report on free radical scavenging properties of components of the fresh pods of Caesalpinia pulcherrima. The results obtained from the current study indicate that the free radical scavenging property of fresh pods of Caesalpinia pulcherrima may be one of the mechanisms by which this herbal medicine is effective in several free radical mediated diseases