Conflicts and online community social capital:the influence of conflict management practices

Conflicts are part and parcel of online community dynamics (De Valck 2007; Harrison and Jenkins 1996; Kozinets 2001) – from flames about publishing inappropriate content (De Zwart and Lindsay 2009) to battles to win high status positions (Campbell, Fletcher and Greenhill 2009) and stigmatization of illegitimate insiders (Tikkanen, Hietanen, Henttonen, and Rokka 2009) up to bashing and smearing campaigns (Bocij 2002). As the concept of community presumes unity, marketers may be inclined to suppress any dissonance in their online brand communities thinking that it may hurt brand image or community attractiveness. However, Fournier and Lee (2009) advise marketers to embrace the conflicts that make communities thrive. As tensions and conflict cannot be avoided this seems logical advice. Nevertheless, are all tensions and conflicts created equally? Are some not more constructive (or destructive) than others? Thus, should all tensions and conflicts really be embraced, and what can be done to channel tensions and conflicts such that they do not become destructive? These questions form the starting point of this paper.

Switching barriers in the four-stage loyalty model

Oliver (1997) suggests a four-stage loyalty model proposing that loyalty consists of belief, affect, intentions, and action. Although this model has recently been subject to empirical examination, the issue of moderator variables has been largely neglected. This article fills that void by analyzing the moderating effects of switching barriers, using a sample of 589 customers of a large do-it-yourself (DIY) retailer. The results suggest that these moderators exert an influence on the development of the different stages of the loyalty sequence. Specifically, switching costs, social benefits, and attractiveness of alternatives are found to be important moderators of the links in the four-stage loyalty model.

Governance architectures for inter-organisational R&D collaboration

Inter-organizational relationships are becoming an increasingly important source of competitive advantage and innovation. This study looks at these relationships in the context of inter-organizational R&D collaborations in the European automotive industry. Previous work led to the proposal of a competence-based portfolio framework that explains the design of the inter-organizational architecture and an indicative relationship strategy. This framework comprises four distinct types of governance architecture and relationship strategy. This paper reports on the first confirmatory transfer study, conducted at Jaguar Land Rover, in the UK. The study illustrates developmental paths and patterns in the evolution of inter-organizational relationships using empirical insights. Their configuration and dynamic evolution is contingent upon the ‘engageability’ of the partner companies’ competences based on their attractiveness, transferability and maturity. The study shows that the contingency framework is transferable and practically useful, as well as yielding further practical narrative about inter-organizational practice.

A barrier and techno-economic analysis of small-scale bCHP (biomass combined heat and power) schemes in the UK

bCHP (Biomass combined heat and power) systems are highly efficient at smaller-scales when a significant proportion of the heat produced can be effectively utilised for hot water, space heating or industrial heating purposes. However, there are many barriers to project development and this has greatly inhibited deployment in the UK. Project viability is highly subjective to changes in policy, regulation, the finance market and the low cost fossil fuel incumbent. The paper reviews the barriers to small-scale bCHP project development in the UK along with a case study of a failed 1.5MWel bCHP scheme. The paper offers possible explanations for the project's failure and suggests adaptations to improve the project resilience. Analysis of the project's: capital structuring contract length and bankability; feedstock type and price uncertainty, and plant oversizing highlight the negative impact of the existing project barriers on project development. The research paper concludes with a discussion on the effects of these barriers on the case study project and this industry more generally. A greater understanding of the techno-economic effects of some barriers for small-scale bCHP schemes is demonstrated within this paper, along with some methods for improving the attractiveness and resilience of projects of this kind. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

Factors influencing consumer evaluations of gift promotions

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to shed light on the determinants of consumers' evaluations and purchase intentions of gift promotions. Factors analysed relate to the promoted product, the gift, the relationship between the product and the gift, and consumer traits and perceptions. Design/methodology/approach: A 2 (product type: utilitarian vs hedonic) × 2 (gift type: utilitarian vs hedonic) × 2 (brand type: high equity vs medium equity) between-subjects factorial design was undertaken. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses on a sample of 247 respondents in the UK. Findings: Gift attractiveness is the most important driver of consumers' overall evaluation of gift promotions, followed by the attitude toward the promoted brand, the perceived fit between the promoted product and the gift, the hedonic nature of the gift, plus value expression and entertainment benefits perceived by consumers. Results also reveal that deal proneness is positively associated with the hedonic benefits of value expression benefit and entertainment benefit. Finally, the overall evaluation of gift promotions with both brand attitudes and deal proneness positively influences consumers' purchase intentions. Research limitations/implications: To generalise these findings, future research should use a wider sample. Practical implications: The findings of this study provide guidelines for marketers designing their gift promotional strategies. Originality/value: The increased popularity of gift promotions necessitates a better understanding of the factors influencing consumers' evaluations. This study addresses the lack of research in this area by simultaneously investigating the effect of different key factors. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Serious Games in Economics

The European Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project “Teacher training to improve attractiveness and quality of management education through the simulation tool ‘Emerald Forest’” which emphases on using the computer simulation tool for increasing attractiveness of teaching and learning in economics is presented in this paper. The observation of using computer systems and especially serious games in education is provided as well. “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire” - William Butler Yeats

The effect of disfiguring features on covert and overt attention to faces

It is well documented that facial disfigurements can generate avoidance responses in observers towards the afflicted person, yet less is known about the effect of a facial disfigurement on attention to and perception of faces. In two experiments we studied overt and covert attention to laterally presented face stimuli when these contained a unilateral disfiguring feature (a simulated portwine stain), an occluding feature, or no salient feature. In Experiment 1, observers’ eye movements were tracked while they explored laterally presented faces which they had to rate for attractiveness. Overt attention, as measured by the patterns of fixations on the face, was found to be significantly affected by the presence of a facial disfigurement or an occluder. In Experiment2, we used a covert orienting task with bilaterally presented target and distractor to measure the interference effect induced by a distractor face (disfigured, occluded, or normal) on a non facetarget discrimination task. The presence of a face increased response times to the target stimulus,but this interference was not modulated by the presence of a salient feature (disfigurement or occluder). Together, these results suggest that the presence of salient features affect overt but not the covert processing of faces.

Az ipari parkok szerepe a kínai - magyar gazdasági kapcsolatok fejlesztésében (Industrial parks in the development of Hungarian – Chinese economic relations)

A kínai-magyar gazdasági kapcsolatoktól mindenki sokat várt eddig, de viszonylag kevés növekedési hatást sikerült elérnie Magyarországnak a dinamikusan felemelkedő kínai gazdaságból. A tanulmány azt vizsgálja, hogy az ipari parkok, logisztikai bázisok terén mi teheti vonzóvá Magyarországot az EU piacát megcélzó kínai vállalatok számára, illetve milyen gazdasági lehetőségek rejlenek az ipari parkok hálózatában ahhoz, hogy a kínai növekedési dinamika valamennyire érvényesüljön a magyar gazdaságban is. / === / Most of the economic and political actors in Hungary have expected high benefits from the Chinese – Hungarian economic relations, but only moderated growth impact has been imported from the dynamic emerging Chinese economy. The study surveys the potentials of industrial parks and logistic bases whether how much they can add to the attractiveness of Hungary toward the Chinese companies targeting the single market of the EU, and what range of economic opportunities is exploitable in the network of industrial parks for having the Chinese growth dynamics to prevail particularly in the Hungarian economy.

A turizmus magyar vonzerőiről (Hungarian tourist attractions)

A hazai turizmus gyakorlatával kapcsolatos vizsgálatok tapasztalatai nyomán az egri Eszterházy Károly Főiskola (EKF) turizmusmenedzsment-kurzusának oktatói célszerűnek ítélték a témára vonatkozó tananyag fejlesztését. A cikk szerzői azt remélik azonban, hogy az utóbbi munka egyes megállapításai minden, a gazdasági földrajz, a turizmus (idegenforgalom), a térségfejlesztés valamely szegmensével foglalkozó szakembernek, kiemelten: vezetőnek – s több más gazdasági ág illetékeseinek – az érdeklődésére számot tarthatnak, ezért ezekről jelen cikkben is beszámolnak. _____ In this article the authors reviewed first the different types of tourist attractions (destinations) and they analysed the common evaluation methods of their attractiveness (e.g. the possibilities and limits of the tourism statistics). Then they tried to display the existing information on the main Hungarian attractions and their attractiveness. In this study revealed that there exist no generally recognized list of the most visited attractions, and the real measures of their attractiveness are not known either. The authors emphasize that shaping a comprehensive concept on the above mentioned issue would highly contribute to the elaboration of a successful and achievable tourism strategy, thus it would be of great importance.

Making Non-Career Jobs Attractive to Younger Workers

As most hospitality industry managers in the U.S. are already aware, there is a growing and persistent shortage of labor available for service-sector, non-career jobs, the very jobs so vital to the industry. In most cases, recruitment efforts for these jobs are targeted toward younger workers, those under age 25. The authors explore issues regarding the attractiveness of non-career jobs in the eyes of young persons and suggest that, in addition to factors related to the job itself (pay, hours, type of work), the type of procedures used by employers to make selection decisions are equally influential. Recommendations are made concerning how hospitality employers with non-career positions to fill can maximize the chances of successfully staffing their organizations.

The influence of simulated disability slides and audiotape messages on college students' attribution of personality characteristics

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes college students have toward those with physical disabilities and what personality characteristics they attribute to physical appearance. One-hundred-one introductory psychology students at FIU were randomly assigned to one of three groups: control--no disability group, a group that viewed five slides of peers with disabilities, and a group that viewed the disability slides and heard their voices. All subjects rated the individuals' perceived personality. A one-way ANOVA revealed that those in the visual and audio disability group rated those with disabilities significantly higher in friendliness, attractiveness, and assertiveness than those who rated the individuals without disabilities. Those in the visual and audio disability group rated them higher in self-esteem than those in the visual only disability group. Since voice can have such positive effects on first impression, an occupational therapist can work on improving communication skills of those with disabilities.

Matizes de cultura de massa na obra de Caio Fernando Abreu

The Brazilian writer, Caio Fernando Abreu, was strongly influenced by a period of changes in social values and perspectives. When he enters the Brazilian literary scene using a writing style free from form and content, he applies in his works all the affliction of the contemporary values. His work embodies all the spirit of a generation that, despite its anxiety for freedom, was still suffocated by the military dictatorship period. Abreu’s narrative also reveals an author with an extreme ability to shift between the erudite and the popular. In his short stories, he develops a performative language mingled by references that turns his text into a sort of Pop Art iconography. Just like Pop Art paintings, full of Coke images, cigarettes, tooth paste and food cans, Abreu’s literary discourse is painted by many symbolical references to modern consumerism, as well as to movies, music and to pop stars. This trace in the writer’s works exerts a great deal of attractiveness on the contemporary reader. In this work, we attempt to analyze this resource in Abreu’s literature under the concepts of cultural studies; thus, we aim at analyzing the various forms of the mass culture expression inside Abreu’s literature, recognizing his allusions as a stylish resource in his writings and highlighting its relevance in the study of the author work. In order to do so, we are based essentially on the reflections of theoreticians: Lipovetsky (1996) and Adorno (2011) who debate the culture and social formation in contemporaneity.

Estudo de simulação de reservatórios para o desenvolvimento de um campo do nordeste brasileiro

In the last 16 years emerged in Brazil a segment of independent producers with focus on onshore basins and shallow waters. Among the challenges of these companies is the development of fields with projects with a low net present value (NPV). The objective of this work was to study the technical-economical best option to develop an oil field in the Brazilian Northeast using reservoir simulation. Real geology, reservoir and production data was used to build the geological and simulation model. Due to not having PVT analysis, distillation method test data known as the true boiling points (TBP) were used to create a fluids model generating the PVT data. After execution of the history match, four development scenarios were simulated: the extrapolation of production without new investments, the conversion of a producing well for immiscible gas injection, the drilling of a vertical well and the drilling of a horizontal well. As a result, from the financial point of view, the gas injection is the alternative with lower added value, but it may be viable if there are environmental or regulatory restrictions to flaring or venting the produced gas into the atmosphere from this field or neighboring accumulations. The recovery factor achieved with the drilling of vertical and horizontal wells is similar, but the horizontal well is a project of production acceleration; therefore, the present incremental cumulative production with a minimum rate of company's attractiveness is higher. Depending on the crude oil Brent price and the drilling cost, this option can be technically and financially viable.

Realidade ou ficção? A influência da autopercepção como parceiro romântico e da autoestima na escolha e preferência de parceiros românticos

In general, men and women look for characteristics that can indicate improvement of their reproductive success in their romantic partners. However, partner choice is not only based on what the individual want in a partner, but he/she also takes into consideration how they perceive themselves in a determined environment, in a way that self-perception can change according to the context where the individual is inserted in. Besides the environment, self-esteem can be a factor that modifies romantic partner preferences and the way that people choose these partners for being able to influence how people evaluate themselves. Most of the studies that originate today’s universal standards in the study of romantic partner were conducted with undergraduate students, which may limit the coverage of the conclusions for contemplating people of the same educational level and probably also socioeconomic status (SES). The present research, held in Brazil, where the social inequality rate is high, and part in Canada, country with low social inequality, had as goal verifying romantic partners preferences and choices and self-evaluation as romantic partners in different educational level and SES. Men, mainly of low SES, tend to prioritize social status when looking for a romantic partner while the universal pattern is the preference for physical attractiveness, and women of low SES seem to be aware of this preference when expressing that social status is important for their self-perception. In addition, the results corroborate the influence of the context, selfesteem, and SES in the self-perception as a romantic partner, though the latter two appear to modulate how the is the influence of the context on participants’ perception. Moreover, this research also indicated that the preferences appear to represent the choices for the most important characteristics for each sex, being the other characteristics probably modulated by the quantity of available participants in the environment.

O PIBID - Programa Institucional de Bolsas de Iniciação à Docência e a crise das Licenciaturas: o caso de um Curso de Pedagogia a Distância

Tendo em vista a atual crise das licenciaturas, especialmente em termos da pouca atratividade que a formação para a docência vem apresentando em nosso contexto educacional e, considerando, ainda, as críticas sobre a fragilidade da formação inicial de professores ocorrer na modalidade a distância (no caso, o curso de Pedagogia), o PIBID - Programa Institucional de Bolsas de Iniciação à Docência surge como uma política de incentivo e valorização do magistério com o propósito de contribuir para uma formação mais sólida e articulada em termos da relação teoria-prática, especialmente pela proximidade que favorece aos alunos bolsistas, com o cotidiano escolar – este é o foco desta investigação que teve por objetivos: refletir sobre o histórico da formação docente em interface com a desvalorização do magistério que, consequentemente, levou à crise das licenciaturas e, a partir disso, analisar a proposição do PIBID como uma política pública para o enfrentamento desta crise; analisar as representações de bolsistas do PIBID, de um curso de Pedagogia a distância, sobre a experiência que estão tendo, e se ela contribui, no caso dos licenciandos, para o fortalecimento da escolha pela carreira docente; verificar as contribuições do programa para a formação dos licenciandos, dos supervisores (professores das escolas públicas parceiras) e do coordenador de área e se este oportuniza uma complementação na preparação para o exercício da docência. A pesquisa realizou uma revisão da literatura sobre a crise das licenciaturas e o contexto do aparecimento do PIBID, bem como sobre a formação de professores ocorrer na modalidade a distância, tendo como referencial teórico autores como Libâneo (1998), Gatti e Barreto (2009), Bahia e Duran (2011), Scheibe (2006), Sommer (2010), FCC (2009), Tardif (2005). Realizou, também, uma pesquisa de campo que teve como sujeitos sete bolsistas do PIBID de um curso de Pedagogia a distância (de uma instituição de ensino superior, particular, de São Paulo), sendo: quatro licenciandas, duas supervisoras e uma coordenadora de área do subprojeto. Foram aplicados dois instrumentos para a coleta de dados: um questionário para o delineamento do perfil dos sujeitos e a realização de entrevistas de aprofundamento. As reflexões realizadas a partir da revisão da literatura e das análises dos dados coletados junto aos sujeitos indicam que: em relação à proposição da formação inicial de professores a distância, esta denota maiores críticas, diferentemente da formação continuada de professores a distância, que apresenta uma maior aceitabilidade; em relação ao PIBID, os estudos vêm apontando a positividade das diversas experiências que vêm se desenvolvendo no território nacional e que denotam um trabalho articulado entre teoria e prática, bem como no resgate da identidade docente, com uma ênfase na valorização, inserção e permanência dos licenciandos nos seus cursos; as representações dos sujeitos investigados sobre a experiência que estão tendo com o PIBID apontam para: o reconhecimento de que o Programa garante, efetivamente, a reflexão e vivência entre a teoria e prática; a contribuição para a aquisição de maior segurança na relação com os alunos das escolas parceiras e também no desenvolvimento das atividades práticas; a certeza e/ou convicção de que realmente querem ser professoras.