Strategies for small businesses selling online

Numerous books and articles have been written advising businesses how to set up a successful ecommerce website and much of this advice is relevant to small businesses. The research reported here examines this advice to generate a list of tactics and then attempts to group the tactics into strategies which describe how small businesses are using, or want to use, the Internet. Results suggest that SMEs are very customer oriented, even when dealing online. Small businesses have traditionally always been customer focused, many know their customers individually, and it is interesting to see that use of the Internet has not eroded this as some had feared. This may be due to the caution many SMEs showed by being slow to adopt the Internet or it may be the cause of this caution. The results also suggest that small businesses find it important to use the Internet to apply traditional business tenets. The things that can only be accomplished on the Internet such as personalisation are not seen as important or are seen as unimportant. It may be that small businesses do not realise the Internet’s potential in these areas or if they do realise it, they do not see them as being useful

Hawaii movement illustrates the importance of video evidence and gender violence in police reform

Nicholas Chagnon, Meda Chesney-Lind, and David T. Johnson argue that Hawaii, one of the most diverse states in the country, lacks the racial tensions characterizing many cities in continental United States, and thus concerns over gender violence provide an alternative discourse for catalyzing police reform. Video recordings of incidents of police violence, they argue, have worked to elicit public outrage and push for change in the state

How User Personality and Social Value Orientation Influence Avatar Mediated Friendship

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of user personality and vlaues on the number of connections users make, the number of requests for connections that users give out, and the number of connections invitations users receive. Design/methodology/approach – This is a field study of 179 participants interacting in a novel virtual world. The world’s server logs are used to capture sociometrics about the users and their interaction. Findings – Findings suggest that personality and values influence the number of friends users make and the number of friendship requests users give out, but not the number of friendship invitations users receive. Only one personality trait – conscientiousness – exhibits homophily. Originality/value – Personality and social value orientation have rarely been studied together in information systems (IS) research, despite research showing the two have an impact on IS relevant constructs. The use of server logs for data capture is novel. Avatar friendship is an under-researched concept in IS

Determinants of Friendship in Social Networking Virtual Worlds

This paper examines the determinants of friendship between two users in a virtual world who are unaware of each other's real identities. Drawing on theories of homophily, heterophily and propinquity, three virtual world behaviours are analysed: avatar appearance, avatar location, and avatar communication. Data are collected on 179 participants interacting in a novel virtual world. The main results show that: (1) avatars did not tend to form friendships with avatars that are similar in appearance to themselves but did tend to form friendships with avatars that are dressed differently from themselves; (2) in terms of location, the closer an avatar stands to other avatars, the more likely the avatar is to receive a friend invitation; and (3) the fewer words an avatar uses in communication, the more likely the avatar is to receive a friend invitation. This paper contributes to theories of virtual world interaction and to using virtual worlds as a data collection platform

Chemistry of otoliths from juvenile menhaden Brevoortia patronus: Evaluating strontium, strontium:calcium and strontium isotope ratios as environmental indicators

Laboratory studies were conducted to establish the utility of otolith chemistry for tracing gulf menhaden Brevoortia patronus environmental histories. Menhaden larvae were hatched from eggs and reared to juveniles under constant conditions at 3 temperatures (18, 22, 26°C) and 3 salinities (20, 26, 33.4). Whole otoliths from experimental fish along with their rearing waters were analyzed by ICPMS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) and TIMS (thermal ionization mass spectrometry) to determine the effects of temperature and salinity on Sr concentration, Sr/Ca and 87Sr/86Sr. A comparison of elemental composition by otolith type revealed significantly lower Sr concentrations and lower Sr/Ca ratios in the asteriscus versus the sagitta and lapillus. X-ray diffraction analyses for each otolith type determined that menhaden sagittae and lapilli are aragonite while their asterisci are vaterite. This suggests the type of calcium carbonate matrix deposited can affect the concentrations of trace elements incorporated into otoliths. In laboratory reared menhaden no significant relationships between Sr concentration or Sr/Ca ratios and temperature, salinity or menhaden growth rate were detected (ANOVA, p = 0.05). We found no indication that 87Sr/86Sr ratios of menhaden otoliths were affected by water temperature. 87Sr/86Sr did reflect the salinity of the rearing water; however, the relationship between Sr isotope ratios and salinity limits the utility of Sr isotope ratios as a precise indicator of salinity to low salinity environments (< 20) or over wide ranges of salinity. A comparison between Sr isotope ratios of menhaden otoliths and menhaden vertebrae, along with an analysis of a vertebra from a reproductive adult bay anchovy Anchoa mitchilli, showed there was no significant difference between otolith and vertebra 87Sr/86Sr ratios, indicating that other bony structures might be suitable for strontium isotope analyses in small individual fish

Subjective and objective outcome in congenital clubfoot; a comparative study of 204 children

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Outcome following management of congenital talipes equinovarus (clubfoot) can be assessed in a number of ways. Bjonness stated simply that <it>"the patient is the final judge of whether he has a good foot</it>"; a purely subjective assessment. Others have employed objective measures. Combining subjective evaluation with a more objective assessment of movement and position of the foot, is likely to give a more comprehensive picture of the final result of clubfoot. The purpose of this study was to compare subjective and objective outcome following management of clubfoot, and evaluate sex differences in outcome.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We used a patient-administered subjective assessment of outcome following treatment of clubfoot and compared it with objective anthropometry and range of movement of the ankle to assess and compare subjective and objective outcome in clubfoot. Statistical analysis was performed using Pearson correlation coefficients. Significance was tested using Student's t-test test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Objective outcome can be assessed using length of the foot, calf circumference and range of movement at the ankle. These are easy to measure, reproducible, and correlate well with subjective outcome. Objective outcome is comparable for boys and girls. However, subjectively, female patients and their parents are less happy with the results of management of clubfoot.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There is a correlation between the anthropometric measures and the subjective outcome and an objective grading can be designed using foot length, calf muscle bulk and range of movement at the ankle.</p