Customer Engagement in Online Communities: A New Conceptual Framework Integrating Motives, Incentives and Motivation

Only a match between user’s motives and incentives enables an engaging online community. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the literature on user motivation in online communities into a conceptual framework. The framework categorizes motivational factors along motives and potential incentives and integrates the three major motives need for power, need for achievement and need for affiliation as well as the perspective of outcome- and action-related motivation. Psychological models, which explain motivation as an interrelation between different personal motives and situational incentives, demonstrate that effective incentives have to address matching motives. This paper adds to the existing literature by proposing a conceptual framework, which transfers theory of motivation psychology to the context of engagement in online communities and helps to apply successful incentives

Assessing cycling skills in Switzerland

This paper sets out to identify skills required by cyclists to navigate safely through an urban environment in Switzerland. We set out to identify situations that might result in accidents and require specific competences. Three study studies were conducted First, workshops with experts were conducted to identify required cyclists' skills. Second, accident statistics were analysed to determine in which type of situations accidents occur. Finally, a survey was conducted among Swiss cyclists to assess which skills were present and which skills were lacking. The remainder of this extended abstract describes the three studies in some detail and continues with an outlook for the final paper. [from Introduction

Assimilation of Mobile Marketing in Organisations

This paper explores the assimilation of mobile marketing (MM) in companies. By combining the technology-organization-environment framework and domestication theory, first a structural equation model is build and empirically tested with an online survey. The results show that mobile culture has a significant impact on MM goal achievement. A subsequent cluster analysis shows that there are three segments of companies applying MM: sophisticated, mediocre and unready MM adopters

Delineation of the healthy rabbit heart by immunohistochemistry - A technical note

Heart failure poses a big health problem and may result from obesity, smoking, alcohol and/or growing age. Studying pathological heart tissue demands accurate histological and immunohistochemical stainings in animal models, including chromogenic and fluorescent approaches. Moreover, a reliable set of healthy heart stainings and labeling are required, in order to provide a reference for the pathological situation. Heart and brain tissue of a healthy rabbit were collected, and different histological key steps were compared, such as paraffin embedding after formalin fixation versus cryopreservation; an antigen retrieval (AR) step in processing paraffin sections versus the same procedure without AR; or a chromogenic with a fluorescent detection system, respectively. Using serial sections, we stained the same morphological structure with classic approaches (HE, Masson Goldner Trichrome (GT) and Elastica van Gieson (EL)) and with different markers, including collagen I, collagen III, fibronectin, α-SMA, protease-activated receptor-2 (PAR-2) which is an inflammation-related marker, and ki67 for proliferating cells. Differences between conditions were quantitatively assessed by measuring the color intensity. Generally, cryosections exhibited a more prominent signal intensity in immunohistochemically labeled sections than in paraffin sections, but the strong staining was slurry, which sometimes impeded proper identification of morphological structures, particularly at higher magnifications. In addition, the advantage of an AR step was observed when compared to the condition without AR, where signal intensities were significantly lower. Different stainings of the heart arteries and the myocardium revealed a clear distribution of extracellular matrix components, with prominent collagen III in the artery wall, but an absence of collagen III in the myocardium. Moreover, paraffin-embedded sections provided more distinct structures compared to cryosections after collagen III, ki67, fibronectin, and α-SMA labeling. As for the Purkinje cells that were depicted in the heart and the cerebellum (Purkinje neurons), we found GT staining most suitable to depict them in the heart, while HE as well as EL staining was ideal to depict Purkinje neurons in the cerebellum. In sum, we provide useful reference images with different stainings for researchers using the rabbit heart or brain model. Such images can help to decide which of the immunohistochemical protocols are valuable to reach a specific aim. Recommendations are given for the best visualization of the target structures and specific (immunohistochemical) staining

Hedonism versus accuracy: the influence of motivation and affect on the evaluation of multiple gains and losses

The perceived value of multiple gains and losses may be influenced by a perceiver's goals or affective state. In this research, insights from prospect theory were combined with the heuristic-systematic model to shed light on the information-processing strategies that underlie motivated and affect-related preference formation in the context of valuating multiple gains and losses. Specifically, findings from two experiments examine the influence of motivation and affect on preferences for segregated versus integrated gains and losses. In the first experiment—consistent with hypotheses—accuracy motivation was found to induce systematic processing for gains. The mixed results in the loss condition are explained with the influence of negative affect. Overall, the evidence supports the notion that people's value functions might be more flexible than predicted by prospect theory, depending on people's current goals. The second experiment substantiates these findings, identifying the influence of negative versus positive affect on the valuation of gains and losses. The results suggest that mood-management determines information processing and preferences depending on the congruence of the valence of affect (e.g. negative such as sadness) and the valence event (e.g. a positive event such as a gain). From a managerial perspective these studies add to practical knowledge on price communication, bundling, surcharges, or sequences of payments. When setting prices, salaries or other compensation schemes managers should consider whether their target group tends to be more accuracy or more feeling motivate

Characterization of a Pan-Immunoglobulin Assay Quantifying Antibodies Directed against the Receptor Binding Domain of the SARS-CoV-2 S1-Subunit of the Spike Protein: A Population-Based Study.

Pan-immunoglobulin assays can simultaneously detect IgG, IgM and IgA directed against the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the S1 subunit of the spike protein (S) of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 S1-RBD Ig). In this work, we aim to evaluate a quantitative SARS-CoV-2 S1-RBD Ig electrochemiluminescence immunoassay (ECLIA) regarding analytical, diagnostic, operational and clinical characteristics. Our work takes the form of a population-based study in the principality of Liechtenstein, including 125 cases with clinically well-described and laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and 1159 individuals without evidence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). SARS-CoV-2 cases were tested for antibodies in sera taken with a median of 48 days (interquartile range, IQR, 43-52) and 139 days (IQR, 129-144) after symptom onset. Sera were also tested with other assays targeting antibodies against non-RBD-S1 and -S1/S2 epitopes. Sensitivity was 97.6% (95% confidence interval, CI, 93.2-99.1), whereas specificity was 99.8% (95% CI, 99.4-99.9). Antibody levels linearly decreased from hospitalized patients to symptomatic outpatients and SARS-CoV-2 infection without symptoms (p < 0.001). Among cases with SARS-CoV-2 infection, smokers had lower antibody levels than non-smokers (p = 0.04), and patients with fever had higher antibody levels than patients without fever (p = 0.001). Pan-SARS-CoV-2 S1-RBD Ig in SARS-CoV-2 infection cases significantly increased from first to second follow-up (p < 0.001). A substantial proportion of individuals without evidence of past SARS-CoV-2 infection displayed non-S1-RBD antibody reactivities (248/1159, i.e., 21.4%, 95% CI, 19.1-23.4). In conclusion, a quantitative SARS-CoV-2 S1-RBD Ig assay offers favorable and sustained assay characteristics allowing the determination of quantitative associations between clinical characteristics (e.g., disease severity, smoking or fever) and antibody levels. The assay could also help to identify individuals with antibodies of non-S1-RBD specificity with potential clinical cross-reactivity to SARS-CoV-2

Long-term exposure to elemental constituents of particulate matter and cardiovascular mortality in 19 European cohorts: Results from the ESCAPE and TRANSPHORM projects

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Assessing cycling skills in Switzerland

This paper sets out to identify skills required by cyclists to navigate safely through an urban environment in Switzerland. We set out to identify situations that might result in accidents and require specific competences. Three study studies were conducted First, workshops with experts were conducted to identify required cyclists' skills. Second, accident statistics were analysed to determine in which type of situations accidents occur. Finally, a survey was conducted among Swiss cyclists to assess which skills were present and which skills were lacking. The remainder of this extended abstract describes the three studies in some detail and continues with an outlook for the final paper. [from Introduction