The Impact of Event Marketing on Brand Awareness in eSport Industry

The purpose of this qualitative research is to study what is the impact of event marketing on brand awareness in the context of electronic sport industry. Based on the research questions, the theoretical framework will be developed. This research will analyze earlier theories, and also searching more fresh literature to explain the current phenomenon in the eSport industry. In the empirical part, there were total of five case companies interviewed. The context of this research is eSport, which has its own chapter. The theoretical part of the thesis focuses on event marketing and brand awareness. In this research, event marketing is analyzed from the event organizers perspective. In some occasions, event exhibitors’ perspective is also analyzed. In brand awareness, the focus is how to create a brand recognizable, recalled and from there top of mind in consumers’ minds. The results of this research revealed that many companies’ struggles on getting their brand recognizable. Some of the case companies lacks a strategy and don’t exactly know the core values of their customers. However some of the case companies were opposite. One reason behind this is that some of them has experience on the field and the companies have resources that covers them. Also the current strong brand has clearly a positive affect on their business.

Formation of the Employer Brand Image

The purpose of this study was to explore the employer brand image and its formation of a Finnish (yet international) service company in B2B sector. In the research qualitative case study method was used to explore the most preferred attributes in employer attraction, the employer brand perceptions towards the case company, and the effectors behind these brand perceptions among the prospective group of employees. The research was conducted through in-depth semistructured interviews among 23-30 undergraduate or graduate business students in Finnish universities close to their graduation. After deriving the attributes of an attractive employer, and exploring their relation to the case company, the employer brand image of the case company was determined and its attractiveness level evaluated. Moreover, the formation of the employer brand image was investigated and its sources detected. The most important factors for the target group in employer attractiveness were found to be company reputation and company culture/work atmosphere. Also career opportunities and international opportunities were seen important. The case company was found to hold a positive, attractive image on company culture and international opportunities, but failing to hold a good reputation as a fair employer. The main and most impactful source of employer brand image was former and current employees - directly or indirectly. Company’s own actions played only small part in employer brand formation as credibility is a critical factor in brand image formation and corporate communication found not to be perceived genuine. Based on the findings, suggestions for further employer branding were made.

Impact of Product-harm Crisis on Brand Equity: the Moderating Role of Corporate Social Performance

There is an increasing amount of product-harm crisis in the past few years; and the impact of a product-harm crisis becomes more and more influential due to the high increasing speed of globalization. And it is believed that the negative damages to a firm leading to a loss of the intangible assets is bigger than other costs such as the cost of the product recall. Brand equity is a very important and valuable intangible asset for a firm; and it is particularly vulnerable during the crisis. And CSP (CSP) is a hot concept associated with product-harm crisis and brand equity. The aim of this study is to understand how product-harm crisis influences by simultaneously involving CSP as a moderator in a consumer-based level. An experimental study was conducted through an online questionnaire among 198 students in Finland. The questionnaire mainly assessed the consumers’ attitudes towards CSP and brand before/after a fictional product-harm crisis. The results shows that the brand equity was negatively related to the product-harm crisis. And the extent level of crisis’s severity was positively related to the loss of the brand equity; whereas, acknowledged blame was more useful to compensate the loss of brand equity in the low-severity crisis. CSP acted as a moderator role which could compensate the loss of brand equity caused by the product-harm crisis. Managerial implications are also offered for crisis managers, brand managers, and CSR managers.

Internal Employer Brand: The factors affecting the formation of internal employer image

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors affecting the formation of employer image and attractiveness in the minds of an organization’s employees. Six employees from different backgrounds and business units within a larger organization are interviewed, and the results are compared in order to better understand the effect divergent variables have on the resulting factors. The theoretical background of the research is based on the study of the concept of employer branding, an organization’s effort in affecting the employer image it projects and attractiveness perceived by the employees and applicants. The results of the study reveal how immaterial factors, primarily related to self-actualization and social relationships, often took precedence over material ones, so long as the material factors, such as salary and work equipment, were at least on a minimum level acceptable to the employee. As such, focusing on these immaterial factors when forming an employer brand strategy is expected to yield larger benefits in form of employer attractiveness.

Academic Staging Building

A view from the main parking lot near the time of completion of the complex.

Academic South and North ( September 2002)

The Academic South and Academic North buildings are located at the west end of campus. The 80 000 square-foot facilities include the Computer Commons, several multimedia lecture halls, office space, state-of-the-art labs, a food court, and student meeting space. The complex included some of the most modern technology, including broadband Internet video conferencing that enabled real-time visual contact between professors, students, and researchers from around the world.

In distrust we trust : analysis of academic apocalypse

The paper concentrates on trust as a research topic that receives increasing attention from the side of different social disciplines. The author of this thesis attempts to identify the reasons of this phenomenon, as well as the decline in usage of the concepts conveying a congenial idea, such as, solidarity, cooperation, social cohesion, social capital or connectedness. The key hypotheses, such as paradigmatic change within the social sciences, emergence of risk society, proliferation of the postmodem condition, new infonnation and communication technologies and the crisis of democracy are considered through the works of the authors who now mainly responsible for the shaping of the discourse of trust. The concepts of Luhmann, Putnam, Sztompka, Fukuyama and Hardin are analyzed from an epistemological viewpoint in its ontological and political implications. The primary goal of the paper is to overview trust from the methodological viewpoint, illustrating the limitations of the concept as a research strategy as weII as it advantages in the epoch when the social sciences acquire a status of moral disciplines.

Tourism and the precautionary principle : a survey of academic and government stakeholders

The purpose of this exploratory investigation was to provide a more precise understanding and basis from which to assess the potential role of the precautionary principle in tourism. The precautionary principle, analogous to the ideal of sustainable development, is a future-focused planning and regulatory mechanism that emphasizes pro-action and recognizes the limitations of contemporary scientific methods. A total of 100 respondents (80 tourism academics, 20 regional government tourism officials) from Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand completed the webbased survey between May and June 2003. Respondents reported their understanding of the precautionary principle, rated stakeholder involvement and education strategies, assessed potential barriers in implementation, and appraised steps of a proposed fi-amework for implementation. Due to low sub sample numbers, measures of central tendency were primarily used to compare groups, while inferential statistics were applied when warranted. Results indicated that most respondents (79%) felt the principle could be a guiding principle for tourism, while local and regional government entities were reported to have the most power in the implementation process. Findings suggested close links between the precautionary principle and sustainability, as concern for future generations was the most critical element of the principle for tourism. Overall, tourism academics were more supportive of the precautionary principle in tourism than were regional government tourism officials. Only minor variation was found in responses among regional groups across all variables. This study established basic ground for understanding the precautionary principle in tourism and has been effective in formulating more precise questions for future research.

An investigation of adolescent constructs of stress and academic achievement /

The present study was a phenomenological investigation of adolescent constructs of stress and academic achievement. The study utilised a modified version of George Kelly's Repertory Grid Technique to provide direct insight into adolescent stress and academic achievement. The premise of the study was that only students who exhibited extreme cases of stress and academic achievement levels would be examined. The investigation identified and examined the adolescents who exhibited these extremes and explored the underlying constructs that defined these differences. It was expected that if adolescents were able to identify the stressors in their lives, how these stressors affect their lives, and how these stressors affect their academic performance, then suggestions could be made to help students to better cope with stress and to improve their academic achievement level. Further, based on the results of the study, the pedagogical implications for classroom research are provided. Phenomenological inquiries, using modified, and less complex versions of the repertory grid, can be conducted pre-, mid-, and postacademic terms, to determine and to monitor the stressors and the academic performance of the students in a classroom. Specific assessments for individual students will help teachers to better exercise their knowledge and understanding of the realm of teaching and learning strategies (e.g., Gardiner's Multiple Intelligences) that exist.

Predictors of academic achievement and social competence in adolescence : facilitation, inhibition and general cognitive processing /

The relevance of attentional measures to cognitive and social adaptive behaviour was examined in an adolescent sample. Unlike previous research, the influence of both inhibitory and facilitory aspects of attention were studied. In addition, contributions made by these attentional processes were compared with traditional psychometric measures of cognitive functioning. Data were gathered from 36 grade 10 and 1 1 high school students (20 male and 16 female students) with a variety of learning and attentional difficulties. Data collection was conducted in the course of two testing sessions. In the first session, students completed questionnaires regarding their medical history, and everyday behaviours (the Brock Adaptive Functioning Questionnaire), along with non-verbal problem solving tasks and motor speed tasks. In the second session, students performed working memory measures and computer-administered tasks assessing inhibitory and facilitory aspects of attention. Grades and teacher-rated measures of cognitive and social impulsivity were also gathered. Results indicate that attentional control has both cognitive and social/emotional implications. Performance on negative priming and facilitation trials from the Flanker task predicted grades in core courses, social functioning measures, and cognitive and social impulsivity ratings. However, beneficial effects for academic and social functioning associated with inhibition were less prevalent in those demonstrating a greater ability to respond to facilitory cues. There was also some evidence that high levels of facilitation were less beneficial to academic performance, and female students were more likely to exceed optimal levels of facilitory processing. Furthermore, lower negative priming was ''S'K 'i\':y-: -'*' - r " j«v ; ''*.' iij^y Inhibition, Facilitation and Social Competence 3 associated with classroom-rated distraction and hyperactivity, but the relationship between inhibition and social aspects of impulsivity was stronger for adolescents with learning or reading problems, and the relationship between inhibition and cognitive impulsivity was stronger for male students. In most cases, attentional measures were predictive of performance outcomes independent of traditional psychometric measures of cognitive functioning. >,, These findings provide support for neuropsychological models linking inhibition to control of interference and arousal, and emphasize the fundamental role of attention in everyday adolescent activities. The findings also warrant further investigation into the ways which inhibitory and facilitory attentional processes interact, and the contextdependent nature of attentional control.associated with classroom-rated distraction and hyperactivity, but the relationship between inhibition and social aspects of impulsivity was stronger for adolescents with learning or reading problems, and the relationship between inhibition and cognitive impulsivity was stronger for male students. In most cases, attentional measures were predictive of performance outcomes independent of traditional psychometric measures of cognitive functioning. >,, These findings provide support for neuropsychological models linking inhibition to control of interference and arousal, and emphasize the fundamental role of attention in everyday adolescent activities. The findings also warrant further investigation into the ways which inhibitory and facilitory attentional processes interact, and the contextdependent nature of attentional control.

Gendered inequality in academia : exploring women's experiences during the pre-tenure stages of their academic career

This research uses the work of Pierre Bourdieu as a starting point for an examination of women's experiences during the pre-tenure stages of their academic career. This thesis is based on six semi-structured interviews with six tenured academic women in the Faculty of Social Sciences at a medium sized Ontario University. I explore the ranges of experiences that the women report encountering during their pre-tenure years, as well as demonstrate how these experiences are gendered. Through my analysis, I find that women's experiences in academia are shaped by a culture that legitimates their existence in the academic field insofar as they embody the dispositions that reinforce the gendered structure of the academic institution. I argue that being measured according to a prototypical male standard creates difficulties for academic women during their pre-tenure years.