a qualitative study

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to unfold how different digital marketing tools and strategies influence recruitment effectiveness. More specifically, it focusses on understanding if, and how, information sources’ credibility, content marketing, and organisational reputation influence candidates’ decision to apply for a job in the Portuguese market. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research, aligned with a content analysis, was conducted to focus on the insights from the 21 participants interviewed, to understand their thoughts and experiences regarding the subject. Findings The results show that digital marketing tools owned by the company are seen to be more credible and more relevant for the job application decision. LinkedIn is considered to be a more credible platform for advertising job openings than Facebook. In terms of content marketing, LinkedIn has a positive influence on candidates’ decision, as well as companies’ reputation. Practical implications This study provides practical implications which are useful for both HR and marketing managers, namely, the implementation of an integrated marketing communication strategy, the reinforcement of the company’s website and LinkedIn page and a presence on universities’ platforms, and also in terms of the information that content marketing should focus on. Originality/value This research paper incorporates marketing insights into a well-known HRM subject – recruitment, and thus adds further knowledge to the literature and prepares the ground for researchers who wish to explore this subject further.publishersversionpublishe

The effectiveness of sales promotion techniques on the millennial consumers’ buying behavior

Purpose – This paper attempts to find out the major dimensions of Millennial consumers’ perception about the benefits derived from sales promotion and the influence of word-of-mouth (WOM) on purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach – A convenience sample of 564 Millennials from 24 different nationalities completed a survey on sales promotion and buying behavior. Structural Equation Modeling approach was used to test the proposed model. Findings – The findings of the study revealed the perception of monetary savings, opportunities for value-expression and WOM as key-drivers of buying intention behavior. Theoretical contributions – Millennials have an overall positive attitude towards the use of sales promotion techniques, being particularly positive towards price reduction (monetary-based promotion) and product samples (nonmonetary-based promotions). Moreover, Millennials are influenced by others’ opinions and their perception of monetary savings (as a part of utilitarian benefits) and opportunities for value-expression (as a part of hedonic benefits) provided by sales promotion elicit buying behavior of products and brands on sale. Originality/value – New light is cast on the relationship between Millennials and the effectiveness of sales promotion regarding hedonic and utilitarian benefits. Managerial implications – The perception of upgrading to high-quality products and brands seems not to induce Millennials to buy the product on offer. The findings will help companies to select the appropriate types of premium offers that greatly influence the buying behavior of Millennials. Companies should manage monetary savings benefits complemented by the management of value-expression dimension.publishersversionpublishe

The Role of Car Aesthetics on Consumers’ Decisions: An Example from Romania

Visual impact is essential when consumers are assessing car preferences. The purpose of this paper is to present a holistic model focusing on car aesthetic dimensions and its impact on consumers’ purchase decisions. Our findings are based on a questionnaire completed by 388 participants and analyzed with SPSS and AMOS. The results show not only that the aesthetic dimensions such as color, shape and sound influence the processing stimuli, but also the significant and positive relationships established between the stimuli and the purchase decision. Also, this study can guide marketers when developing an effective marketing strategy. As our research focuses on the Romanian market, testing our framework in different cultures is strongly encouraged.JEL Codes - M31; M2

Purified palmitoleic acid for the reduction of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and serum lipids: A double-blinded, randomized, placebo controlled study

BackgroundPurified palmitoleic acid (16-1; omega-7) has shown lipid-lowering and anti-inflammatory benefits in open label, epidemiologic, and animal studies.ObjectiveOur objective was to perform the first randomized controlled trial of purified palmitoleic acid supplementation in humans.MethodsAdults with dyslipidemia and evidence of mild systemic inflammation (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein [hs-CRP] between 2 and 5 mg/L) were randomly allocated to receive either 220.5 mg of cis-palmitoleic acid (n = 30) or an identical capsule with placebo (1000 mg of medium chain triglycerides, n = 30) once per day for 30 days. Participants were asked to maintain their current diet. Serum lipids and hs-CRP were drawn at baseline and study completion.ResultsAt 30 days, there were significant mean (95% confidence interval [CI]) reductions in CRP (−1.9 [−2.3 to −1.4] mg/L), triglyceride (−30.2 [−40.2 to −25.3] mg/dL), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) (−8.9 [−12.0 to −5.8] mg/dL), and a significant increase in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) (2.4 [1.5, 3.3] mg/dL) in the intervention group compared with control. These changes equated to 44%, 15%, and 8% reductions in CRP, triglyceride, and LDL respectively, and a 5% increase in HDL compared with control.ConclusionsPurified palmitoleic acid may be useful in the treatment of hypertriglyceridemia with the beneficial added effects of decreasing LDL and hs-CRP and raising HDL. Further study is needed to elucidate mechanisms and establish appropriate human doses

Tsallis' entropy maximization procedure revisited

The proper way of averaging is an important question with regards to Tsallis' Thermostatistics. Three different procedures have been thus far employed in the pertinent literature. The third one, i.e., the Tsallis-Mendes-Plastino (TMP) normalization procedure, exhibits clear advantages with respect to earlier ones. In this work, we advance a distinct (from the TMP-one) way of handling the Lagrange multipliers involved in the extremization process that leads to Tsallis' statistical operator. It is seen that the new approach considerably simplifies the pertinent analysis without losing the beautiful properties of the Tsallis-Mendes-Plastino formalism.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta

Special issue on digital marketing and eCommerce

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Progress and prospects for research of Wine Tourism in Portugal

Wine producers in Portugal have begun to see tourism as an opportunity to diversify their profit margins. With the growing importance of enology universities have established greater research into the subject and to organize the existing bibliography. Thus, this paper presents a panorama of the articles on wine tourism 2003 to 2018 with a critical analysis of characteristics and trends in the Portuguese context. The literature review covers all the completed publications in English, Portuguese and Spanish in journals indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, Scielo and Spell. A total of 36 articles were examined after eliminating duplicates, dissertations and theses. The main conclusions are that wineries tend to be organized by routes with scant literature relating to other routes and wine regions outside Portugal.publishersversionpublishe