Manipulatív marketing: fogyasztói észlelések és reakciók

A marketing koncepciónak kezdetektől fogva a vevőorientáció az egyik kulcsfogalma. Tulajdonképpen annak a szemléletváltásnak köszönheti felemelkedését és más menedzsmentdiszciplínától való elhatárolását is, amellyel a vevői igényeket helyezte a vállalati gondolkodás középpontjába. Későbbiekben azonban a kutatók rájöttek arra, hogy maguk az igények az üzleti gyakorlat során nagymértékben kontrollálhatók, és az eladói oldal azóta is él ezekkel a lehetőségekkel. A kutatás arra volt kíváncsi, hogy a vállalatok manipulációs gyakorlata hogyan csapódik le a fogyasztókban, melyek azok a manipulációs eszközök, amelyeket észlelnek, és azokra milyen válaszreakciókat adnak. Azonosíthatók-e tipikus gondolkodási sémák, magatartási mintázatok, amelyek jól jellemzik egyes vevők viszonyát a vállalati manipulációval. A tanulmány feltáró interjúkra épít, amely segít megérteni a fogyasztókban végbe menő komplex mechanizmusokat. Az eredmények azt sugallják, hogy kétfajta folyamat játszódik le a vevői oldalon Egyrészt a fogyasztók idővel rutinszerű magatartásmintákat vesznek fel, amely során a manipulációs eszközök érvényesülése nem tudatos, és a vállalatoknak kedvező reakciókat vált ki. Másrészt, a fogyasztói társadalom is egyfajta érési folyamaton megy át, aminek hatására megtanulják a vállalatok gondolkodásmódját, és – bár a kognitív korlátok miatt azokat nem tudják teljes mértékben lekövetni – igyekeznek önvédő heurisztikákat beépíteni a követett magatartásukba. A kutatás alapján hipotetikusan öt vevőtípust azonosítottunk, akiket egymástól eltérő reakciók jellemeznek. Customer orientation has been the key concept of marketing since the beginning. As a matter of fact, the emergence of marketing and the conceptual distinction between marketing and the related management disciplines can be attributed to this new approach, which put customer needs in the focus of company attention. Later, researchers revealed that the needs themselves can be controlled to a greater extent and sellers have been taking advantage of it since then. The main focus of the research concentrated on the effects of manipulation practices of companies on consumers, which manipulation tools are recognised and how consumers react to them. Furthermore the research also investigated whether typical cognitive, emotional and behavioural patterns, which reflect the relationship between consumers and the manipulation practices of companies, can be identified. The study relies on explorative interviews, which help understand the complex mechanisms of consumer attitudes. The results indicates that the opposite process occur on the consumer side. On the one hand, consumers tend to follow behavioural routines after a while, which help manipulation tools work in an unconscious way that triggers reactions for the favour of companies. On the other hand, the generations of consumers are getting more and more mature and learning the companies’ mentality and, despite having cognitive limitations to identify all the tricks and deceptive attempts, they try to develop and follow defensive heuristics. Based on the data explored we identified five customer types and we described their diverse reactions to manipulation.

Social network structure as a critical success condition for open source software project communities

In recent years, a surprising new phenomenon has emerged in which globally-distributed online communities collaborate to create useful and sophisticated computer software. These open source software groups are comprised of generally unaffiliated individuals and organizations who work in a seemingly chaotic fashion and who participate on a voluntary basis without direct financial incentive. ^ The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between the social network structure of these intriguing groups and their level of output and activity, where social network structure is defined as (1) closure or connectedness within the group, (2) bridging ties which extend outside of the group, and (3) leader centrality within the group. Based on well-tested theories of social capital and centrality in teams, propositions were formulated which suggest that social network structures associated with successful open source software project communities will exhibit high levels of bridging and moderate levels of closure and leader centrality. ^ The research setting was the SourceForge hosting organization and a study population of 143 project communities was identified. Independent variables included measures of closure and leader centrality defined over conversational ties, along with measures of bridging defined over membership ties. Dependent variables included source code commits and software releases for community output, and software downloads and project site page views for community activity. A cross-sectional study design was used and archival data were extracted and aggregated for the two-year period following the first release of project software. The resulting compiled variables were analyzed using multiple linear and quadratic regressions, controlling for group size and conversational volume. ^ Contrary to theory-based expectations, the surprising results showed that successful project groups exhibited low levels of closure and that the levels of bridging and leader centrality were not important factors of success. These findings suggest that the creation and use of open source software may represent a fundamentally new socio-technical development process which disrupts the team paradigm and which triggers the need for building new theories of collaborative development. These new theories could point towards the broader application of open source methods for the creation of knowledge-based products other than software. ^

The H I chronicles of LITTLE THINGS blue compact dwarf galaxies

Star formation occurs when the gas (mostly atomic hydrogen; H I) in a galaxy becomes disturbed, forming regions of high density gas, which then collapses to form stars. In dwarf galaxies it is still uncertain which processes contribute to star formation and how much they contribute to star formation. Blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxies are low mass, low shear, gas rich galaxies that have high star formation rates when compared to other dwarf galaxies. What triggers the dense burst of star formation in BCDs but not other dwarfs is not well understood. It is often suggested that BCDs may have their starburst triggered by gravitational interactions with other galaxies, dwarf-dwarf galaxy mergers, or consumption of intergalactic gas. However, there are BCDs that appear isolated with respect to other galaxies, making an external disturbance unlikely.^ Here, I study six apparently isolated BCDs from the LITTLE THINGS sample in an attempt to understand what has triggered their burst of star formation. LITTLE THINGS is an H I survey of 41 dwarf galaxies. Each galaxy has high angular and velocity resolution H I data from the Very Large Array (VLA) telescope and ancillary stellar data. I use these data to study the detailed morphology and kinematics of each galaxy, looking for signatures of starburst triggers. In addition to the VLA data, I have collected Green Bank Telescope data for the six BCDs. These high sensitivity, low resolution data are used to search the surrounding area of each galaxy for extended emission and possible nearby companion galaxies.^ The VLA data show evidence that each BCD has likely experienced some form of external disturbance despite their apparent isolation. These external disturbances potentially seen in the sample include: ongoing/advanced dwarf-dwarf mergers, an interaction with an unknown external object, and external gas consumption. The GBT data result in no nearby, separate H I companions at the sensitivity of the data. These data therefore suggest that even though these BCDs appear isolated, they have not been evolving in isolation. It is possible that these external disturbances may have triggered the starbursts that defines them as BCDs.^

Social Network Structure as a Critical Success Condition for Open Source Software Project Communities

In recent years, a surprising new phenomenon has emerged in which globally-distributed online communities collaborate to create useful and sophisticated computer software. These open source software groups are comprised of generally unaffiliated individuals and organizations who work in a seemingly chaotic fashion and who participate on a voluntary basis without direct financial incentive. The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between the social network structure of these intriguing groups and their level of output and activity, where social network structure is defined as 1) closure or connectedness within the group, 2) bridging ties which extend outside of the group, and 3) leader centrality within the group. Based on well-tested theories of social capital and centrality in teams, propositions were formulated which suggest that social network structures associated with successful open source software project communities will exhibit high levels of bridging and moderate levels of closure and leader centrality. The research setting was the SourceForge hosting organization and a study population of 143 project communities was identified. Independent variables included measures of closure and leader centrality defined over conversational ties, along with measures of bridging defined over membership ties. Dependent variables included source code commits and software releases for community output, and software downloads and project site page views for community activity. A cross-sectional study design was used and archival data were extracted and aggregated for the two-year period following the first release of project software. The resulting compiled variables were analyzed using multiple linear and quadratic regressions, controlling for group size and conversational volume. Contrary to theory-based expectations, the surprising results showed that successful project groups exhibited low levels of closure and that the levels of bridging and leader centrality were not important factors of success. These findings suggest that the creation and use of open source software may represent a fundamentally new socio-technical development process which disrupts the team paradigm and which triggers the need for building new theories of collaborative development. These new theories could point towards the broader application of open source methods for the creation of knowledge-based products other than software.

Imaginários da morte: poética das imagens em cemitérios brasileiros

The thesis presented is committed to a poetic reading that results in the creation of meaning and images of the death from the various cultural practices and symbolic representations exposed in urban cemeteries in some Brazilian cities, aiming to give visibility to new understandings about the imaginary of the in the contemporary scene. Death, therefore, will be seen as a imagining condition of anthroposwhen starts itself from the prerogative of the human consciousness of death (MORIN, 1970), in other words, this awareness that man has he will die and that triggers reflections about their existence allows the emergence of a number of practices such as: mourning, funeral rituals and the creation of several impregnated representations of human emotions emerged from the death facing the man and present, in a more evident form in cemeterial spaces. For this, it focuses on the conflictuous dimension that man establishes with death, because the cultural practices and symbolic representations observed in the research field are the result of this conflict and allow the expansion of the senses about this issue, to the extent that these are coated with a fantastic aura, mystical, secret, spooky, fearful, religious, building a complex imagination. The general plan of this study is to discuss and create, from a phenomenology of imagination and materials / dynamics imagination, as well as along the lines treated by Gaston Bachelard, images of death, from a field experience in cemeteries in Brazil. For this, it is assumed, to observe the cultural practices and symbolic representations in these spaces, a posture able to make the experience into the search field a moment of symbolic exchanges and creation. Thus, it was used observation, conversations with visitors and employees of the cemeteries and the capture of photographic records. The data produced as a fragment of a conversation, a tearful outburst about the loss of a relative, a melancholic epitaph, a flower on the grave or a cry captured by photography were seen as detonators of meanings and a poetic of the imagination.