Social Enterprise and Social Innovation: A Look Beyond Corporate Social Responsibility

After providing a preliminary conceptual framework for social entrepreneurship, social enterprise, and social innovation in light of the prevailing economic literature, this chapter aims to investigate the links and differences between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social innovation (CSI). In particular, it is examined how and why the paradigm of social innovation represents a business opportunity by overcoming CSR’s traditional logic of “giving,” thereby allowing social value creation to go hand in hand with economic value creation. The theme is discussed first at a general level for each type of enterprise and subsequently with particular reference to the global firm, with regard to which considerations are developed as to the most suitable approach to CSI in light of the worldwide spread of values and principles for conducting business, and of the global importance of social and environmental problems. In terms of method, the chapter is developed conceptually on the basis of the prevailing international literature and of secondary data

The Holistic Vision of Brand Management

Over the past several decades, brand management has gone through an evolution from the traditional customer-oriented and firm-focused paradigm toward a wider vision concerning the target and the users of the brand and the process of creation of the brand value. In particular, the brand management literature has endorsed the stakeholder theory and service-dominant logic principles with reference to the process of determining the brand meanings and the brand value. The aim of this chapter is going over the evolutionary process of the brand management during the latest years in order to get to a holistic vision, considering the brand as a conceptual construction originated by the interaction between the firm and multiple stakeholders and the brand value as the result of a dynamic and social process of co-creation of the brand meanings and functions. Therefore, this chapter is conceptual in nature, and it aims to investigate the state of art of brand management providing conceptual examinations about the way the brand meanings and value originate, with a particular reference to the present economic and competitive contests dominated by the Web-based technologies and by the related interaction processes within a broad stakeholders’ ecosystem

Cellular and molecular mechanisms in the long-term action of antidepressants.

The hypotheses on the pathophysiology of depression /mood disorders and on antidepressant mechanisms have greatly changed in recent years. The classical monoamine hypothesis was revealed to be simplistic, in that it could not explain the temporal delay in the therapeutic action of antidepressants. Converging lines of evidence have shown that adaptive changes in the several mechanisms of neuroplasticity are likely to be the cellular and molecular correlates of therapeutic effect. In this article, several mechanisms of neuroplasticity are analyzed in relation to the mechanism of antidepressants, ranging from changes in gene expression (including neurotrophic mechanisms), to synaptic transmission and plasticity, and neurogenesis. We propose that the current version of the hypothesis of antidepressant mechanism simply be called the “hypothesis of neuroplasticity. ” In the final section, we also briefly review the main current novel strategies in the pharmacology of depression and the new putative targets for antidepressants, with particular emphasis on nonmonoaminergic mechanisms

Maximum order complexity of the sum of digits function in Zeckendorf base and polynomial subsequences

Automatic sequences are not suitable sequences for cryptographic applications since both their subword complexity and their expansion complexity are small, and their correlation measure of order 2 is large. These sequences are highly predictable despite having a large maximum order complexity. However, recent results show that polynomial subsequences of automatic sequences, such as the Thue--Morse sequence, are better candidates for pseudorandom sequences. A natural generalization of automatic sequences are morphic sequences, given by a fixed point of a prolongeable morphism that is not necessarily uniform. In this paper we prove a lower bound for the maximum order complexity of the sum of digits function in Zeckendorf base which is an example of a morphic sequence. We also prove that the polynomial subsequences of this sequence keep large maximum order complexity, such as the Thue--Morse sequence.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures, 4 table

A multi-stage model for dielectric barrier discharge in atmospheric pressure air

In this paper, a multi-stage numerical methodology for the description of the Dielectric Barrier Discharge physics in air is discussed. The behavior of the heavy species is computed using drift-diffusion equations. Electrons are taken into account by solving a non-linear formulation of electrostatics. The physical effects of the steamer discharges are modelled by means of a simplified 0D approach. The model also includes a semi-implicit 0D model for the assessment of the elementary chemical processes occurring in air. The developed methodology is employed for the simulation of a volumetric Dielectric Barrier Discharge reactor. The obtained species number density and surface charge deposition rates and are shown and discussed

¿ Qué hay más allá del Valle Inquietante ?

Durante muchos años, la hipótesis del Valle Inquietante propuesta por Mori, no sólo ha sido estudiada, respetada y hasta temida por diseñadores y desarrolladores robóticos, sino que sus efectos han sido de interés científico en los ámbitos de la Psicológia, la Ciencia Cognitiva, la Inteligencia Artificial, la Creación de videojuegos y la Animación. Aquellos que siguen la línea de Mori prefieren mantenerse lo suficientemente alejados del valle para garantizar el éxito de sus creaciones. Sin embargo un grupo de investigadores más osados, dispuestos no solo a entrar en el Valle sino también a descubrir una salida, han conseguido a través de los resultados de sus experimentos, poner en tela de duda la hipótesis planteada por el profesor japonés, dando paso al planteamiento de nuevas teorías

Joining the Anti-Brand Communities on the Internet: Who and Why

This paper aimed to empirically deepen our understanding of the growing phenomenon of negative consumer-brand relationships in the Internet, striving to investigate “who and why” consumers join anti-brand communities against the top ten global brands. In particular, this study aims to investigate whether the consumers’ profile affects whether they develop negative feelings or not, and the main reasons for their negative feelings. Methodologically, this study is based on the quantitative methodology of the survey and on the statistical verification of several research hypotheses formulated on the impact of the main consumer characteristics (gender, age, country of origin, education, empathy) on their behavior towards the hated brands. Regarding “who”, our findings show that gender, age and country of origin are the main consumer characteristics affecting both their negative feelings towards brands and their willingness to join an anti-brand community. Regarding “why”, low quality of products/services and a lack of corporate social responsibility are the main reasons for hating brands. Finally, this study contributes to knowledge of negative consumer-brand relationships in the Internet domain and provides advanced insights into consumer behavior with reference to the top global brands. It also encourages further research on the interconnections among the central questions of this paper, i.e., who and why individuals join anti-brand communities, and represents a starting point for further studies aimed at expanding the consumer characteristics investigated in this paper, including personality traits. This study also pioneers the profile of anti-brand community participants in the Internet, which is so pertinent in the rise of marketing 5.0

Optimal integrability in B^q_p classes

Equations for the best integrability exponent, for monotonic functions in one-dimensional Gehring and Muckenhoupt classes, are unified in more general Reverse Holder Inequality classes. Furthermore, the result is extended by removing the monotonicity assumptions