Keyword Competition and Determinants of Ad Position in Sponsored Search Advertising

Given the significant growth of the Internet in recent years, marketers have been striving for new techniques and strategies to prosper in the online world. Statistically, search engines have been the most dominant channels of Internet marketing in recent years. However, the mechanics of advertising in such a market place has created a challenging environment for marketers to position their ads among their competitors. This study uses a unique cross-sectional dataset of the top 500 Internet retailers in North America and hierarchical multiple regression analysis to empirically investigate the effect of keyword competition on the relationship between ad position and its determinants in the sponsored search market. To this end, the study utilizes the literature in consumer search behavior, keyword auction mechanism design, and search advertising performance as the theoretical foundation. This study is the first of its kind to examine the sponsored search market characteristics in a cross-sectional setting where the level of keyword competition is explicitly captured in terms of the number of Internet retailers competing for similar keywords. Internet retailing provides an appropriate setting for this study given the high-stake battle for market share and intense competition for keywords in the sponsored search market place. The findings of this study indicate that bid values and ad relevancy metrics as well as their interaction affect the position of ads on the search engine result pages (SERPs). These results confirm some of the findings from previous studies that examined sponsored search advertising performance at a keyword level. Furthermore, the study finds that the position of ads for web-only retailers is dependent on bid values and ad relevancy metrics, whereas, multi-channel retailers are more reliant on their bid values. This difference between web-only and multi-channel retailers is also observed in the moderating effect of keyword competition on the relationships between ad position and its key determinants. Specifically, this study finds that keyword competition has significant moderating effects only for multi-channel retailers.

Chapter 10: Antemortem Handling and Welfare

The chapter discusses the following topics: Continuous Measurement and Monitoring, Meat Quality Correlations, How Stressful is Slaughter?, Causes of Poor Welfare Audit Scores, Animal Vision, Hearing and Smell, Basic Handling Principles, Handler Movement Patterns, Design of Handling Facilities, Design and Operation of Restraint Devices, Stunning, Stunning Method and Blood-Splash, Bruising and Meat Quality.

The human rights dilemma : an east-west encounter : Germany and China in 1996 /

Conflicts over human rights in relations between East Asia and the West have increased since the end of the Cold War. Western governments express concern about human rights standards in East Asian countries. In the East, these expressions have been perceived as interference in internal affairs. Due to dramatic economic development, East Asian nations recently have gained in pride and self-confidence as global actors. Such development is observed with suspicion in the West. Concerned about the decline of global U.S. influence, some American scholars have re-invented the notion of "culture" to point at an alleged East Asian threat. Also East Asian statesmen use the cultural argument by claiming the existence of so-called 'Asian values', which they allege are the key to Eastern economic success. This thesis argues that issues of human rights in East-West relations are not only a consequence of well-intended concern by Western governments regarding the human rights and welfare of the citizens of East Asian nations, but are in fact dominated by and used as a pawn in interplay with more complicated questions of global power and economic relations between East and West. The thesis reviews the relevance of culture in East-West relations. In the West, particularly Samuel P. Huntington with his prediction of the Clash of Civilizations stands out. Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew has been very vocal on the Eastern side. Whereas the West tries to cope with its decrease of global influence, after hundreds of years under Western hegemonism, the East believes in an Asian way of development without interference form the West. Most of this dispute revolves around the issue of human rights. The West claims the universality of rights which in fact emphasizes political and civil rights. Western countries critizise poor human rights standards in East Asia. The East, in return, accuses the West of hypocritical policies that seek global dominance. East Asian governments assert that due to a different stage of development they have to stress first their rights to development in order to assure stability. In particular, China argues this way. The country's leadership, however, shows concern about human rights and has already improved its human rights record over the past years. This thesis analyses the dispute over human rights in a case study on Germany and China. Both countries have a mutual interest in trade relations which has conflicted with Germany's criticism of China's problematic human rights record. In 1996, the two countries clashed after the German parliament passed a resolution condemning China's treatment of Tibet. This caused a lot of damage to the Chinese-German relationship which in the course of the year went back to normality. In the light of these frictions a German human rights policy that focuses on unspectacular grass-roots support of China, for example in strengthening China's legal system, would be preferable. Such co-operation must be based on mutual respect.

Peer Motivational Climate and its Relationship with Positive and Negative Affect in Intramural Sports

The study of peers as an influence on sport participation has received minimal exploration. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine how peer created motivational climates (task-involved and ego-involved) impact positive and negative affective states of intramural sport participants post-participation. Three hundred and fifteen intramural sport participants (N=315) at a Canadian university completed a questionnaire after participating in their intramural sport. Hierarchical regression analyses and MANCOVAs were used to examine the effects of peer motivational climates on positive and negative affect. Results revealed that task-involved peer climates are more conducive of positive affective states post-participation whereas ego-involved climates result in lesser positive affective states and more negative affective states. Teams that promote improvement and effort instead of intra-team competition and conflict will have more positive recreational sport experiences. Future research should explore other psychological outcomes that can result from peer created motivational climates in recreational sport team settings.

Interactions of onion (Allium cepa) and yellow wax bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) in monoculture and intercropping with weeds, Chenopodium album and Amaranthus hybridus

Intercropping systems are seen as advantageous as they can provide higher crop yield and diversity along with fewer issues related to pests and weeds than monocultures. However, plant interactions in intercropped crop species and between crops and weeds in these systems are still not well understood. The main objective of this study was to investigate interactions between onion (Allium cepa) and yellow wax bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) in monocultures and intercropping with and without the presence of a weed species, either Chenopodium album or Amaranthus hybridus. Another objective of this study was to compare morphological traits of C. album from two different populations (conventional vs. organic farms). Using a factorial randomized block design, both crop species were planted either in monoculture or intercropped with or without the presence of one of the two weeds. The results showed that intercropping onion with yellow wax bean increased the growth of onion but decreased the growth of yellow wax bean when compared to monocultures. The relative yield total (RYT) value was 1.3. Individual aboveground dry weight of both weed species under intercropping was reduced about 5 times when compared to the control. The poor growth of weeds in intercropping might suggest that crop diversification can help resist weed infestations. A common garden experiment indicated that C. album plants from the conventional farm had larger leaf area and were taller than those from the organic farm. This might be associated with specific evolutionary adaptation of weeds to different farming practices. These findings contribute to the fundamental knowledge of crop-crop interactions, crop-weed competition and adaptation of weeds to various conditions. They provide insights for the management of diversified cropping systems and integrated weed management as practices in sustainable agriculture.