Exploring the commercial value of social networks: enhancing consumers’ brand experience through Facebook pages

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors which impact upon the consumers’ willingness to utilise company Facebook pages and e-word-of mouth by proposing and testing a conceptual framework which is inspired by theories in marketing and information systems fields. The authors believe that only by applying both theories will provide a more complete understanding of the relationship between brand experience and Facebook. The research model attempts to illustrate the factors according to customers’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and their impact on brand experience, brand Facebook page loyalty and e-word-of-mouth (E-WOM). Design/methodology/approach – The authors adopted an online survey method for data collection. The subjects the authors used were Facebook users. The data were collected in Taiwan over spring 2011. The authors then used the structural equation model to analyse the data collected. Findings – The findings suggest that users are influenced by the technical characterises of a brand Facebook page, such as ease of use and usefulness, which might be combated by attempting to reduce customer effort when accessing Facebook pages. The authors conclude that customer effort influenced brand experience and consequently loyalty to brand Facebook pages and E-WOM. Research limitations/implications – The limitations of this study relate to the investigation of consumer perspectives in a specific geographical context and time frame. Originality/value – The study’s contributions are both theoretical and practical, as it offers new insights into brand experience attitudes in an online environment and useful insights to companies willing to market themselves on Facebook. Keywords Marketing, Facebook, Virtual community, Extrinsic motivations, Intrinsic motivations Paper type Research pape

First Experimental Demonstration of Gate-all-around III-V MOSFET by Top-down Approach

The first inversion-mode gate-all-around (GAA) III-V MOSFETs are experimentally demonstrated with a high mobility In0.53Ga0.47As channel and atomic-layer-deposited (ALD) Al2O3/WN gate stacks by a top-down approach. A well-controlled InGaAs nanowire release process and a novel ALD high-k/metal gate process has been developed to enable the fabrication of III-V GAA MOSFETs. Well-behaved on-state and off-state performance has been achieved with channel length (Lch) down to 50nm. A detailed scaling metrics study (S.S., DIBL, VT) with Lch of 50nm - 110nm and fin width (WFin) of 30nm - 50nm are carried out, showing the immunity to short channel effects with the advanced 3D structure. The GAA structure has provided a viable path towards ultimate scaling of III-V MOSFETs.Comment: IEEE IEDM 2011 pp. 769-772; Structures are valuable for low-dimensional physics stud

Uniqueness of iterative positive solutions for the singular infinite-point p-Laplacian fractional differential system via sequential technique

By sequential techniques and mixed monotone operator, the uniqueness of positive solution for singular p-Laplacian fractional differential system with infinite-point boundary conditions is obtained. Green's function is derived, and some useful properties of Green' function are obtained. Based on these new properties, the existence of unique positive solutions is established, moreover, an iterative sequence and a convergence rate are given, which are important for practical application, and an example is given to demonstrate the validity of our main results

Examining Applicability of Uncanny Valley Hypothesis: A Large-Scale Study

Despite a growing interest in applying the uncanny valley hypothesis (UVH) in IS studies, there is a paucity of knowledge on the applicability of UVH and its strength. By summarizing a set of attitudinal variables popularized in the extant IS literature on AI robots, this study examined the strength and applicability of UVH on a large, objectively chosen sample of 80 real-world robots face against these variables. We demonstrate that while robot anthropomorphism does affect users’ attitudes toward the robot, its effects do not necessarily follow a UV pattern, and it has a very limited explanatory power toward users’ attitudinal responses. In addition, robot anthropomorphism has a much stronger linear-like association with a perceived social presence than with the commonly used response variable of perceived likability. Our results offer insights into understanding the applicability and strength of the uncanny valley effect and the impacts of robot anthropomorphism on users’ perceptions