Corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities enhance firm value via strengthened stakeholder relationships. However, many firms are also involved in corporate social irresponsibility (CSI), which ...could lead stakeholders to judge CSR actions as insincere, subsequently damaging firm value. This study examines the pivotal role of CSI for CSR’s firm value effects. As an initial finding, the results indicate that CSR’s positive firm value effect is significantly attenuated by the presence of CSI. Offering a more fine-grained analysis, the authors elaborate on the effectiveness of CSR that relates to the same (SD-CSR) or other domains (OD-CSR) as CSI. All else equal, the results indicate that only OD-CSR enhances firm value. Depending upon the CSI context, however, SD-CSR destroys or benefits firm value and OD-CSR is more or less beneficial. By adding new aspects to the discussion about how to align doing good with doing well, the results speak to both theorists and practitioners.
Gratitude Versus Entitlement Wetzel, Hauke A.; Hammerschmidt, Maik; Zablah, Alex R.
Journal of marketing,
03/2014, Letnik:
78, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Customer prioritization strategies, which focus a firm’s efforts on its most important customers, are expected to improve account profitability. Anecdotal evidence suggests, however, that such ...strategies may also undermine account profitability by inducing customers to become overly demanding. Building on social exchange theory, this research evaluates these competing perspectives across two field studies and finds that prioritization is best understood as a double-edged sword. Specifically, the results reveal that prioritization efforts initiate both a gratitude-driven process, which enhances sales and profit, and an entitlement-driven process, which increases service costs and reduces profit. Importantly, the findings indicate that prioritization tactics differ in the extent to which they trigger these competing processes and thus in their ability to influence account profitability. Finally, the results also reveal that critical moderators (competitive intensity and prioritization transparency) determine the extent to which the entitlement-driven process undermines the gratitude-driven process. For managers, the findings suggest that both the tactics employed and moderating conditions determine whether prioritization has a positive, negative, or negligible effect on prioritized accounts’ profitability.
Type IV pilus (T4P) systems are complex molecular machines that polymerize major pilin proteins into thin filaments displayed on bacterial surfaces. Pilus functions require rapid extension and ...depolymerization of the pilus, powered by the assembly and retraction ATPases, respectively. A set of low abundance minor pilins influences pilus dynamics by unknown mechanisms. The Vibrio cholerae toxin-coregulated pilus (TCP) is among the simplest of the T4P systems, having a single minor pilin TcpB and lacking a retraction ATPase. Here we show that TcpB, like its homolog CofB, initiates pilus assembly. TcpB co-localizes with the pili but at extremely low levels, equivalent to one subunit per pilus. We used a micropillars assay to demonstrate that TCP are retractile despite the absence of a retraction ATPase, and that retraction relies on TcpB, as a V. cholerae tcpB Glu5Val mutant is fully piliated but does not induce micropillars movements. This mutant is impaired in TCP-mediated autoagglutination and TcpF secretion, consistent with retraction being required for these functions. We propose that TcpB initiates pilus retraction by incorporating into the growing pilus in a Glu5-dependent manner, which stalls assembly and triggers processive disassembly. These results provide a framework for understanding filament dynamics in more complex T4P systems and the closely related Type II secretion system.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Profitability considerations lead service providers to divest from customer service contracts, either by service contract demotion (cutting back services) or by service contract termination (ending ...service provision). Such initiatives have been associated with customer revenge. The pressing question for practitioners is which divestment approach has a stronger or weaker effect on customer revenge. Drawing on justice and appraisal theories, the authors suggest that the answer depends on customers’ predivestment satisfaction and on the provision of financial compensation or apology. Three experiments and a critical incident study reveal that for previously satisfied customers, service termination entails a stronger effect on customer revenge, while for previously dissatisfied customers, service demotion entails a stronger effect. The findings further demonstrate that offering financial compensation or an apology can mitigate or exacerbate the effect, highlighting the need to align these divestment handling instruments with the divestment approach chosen and customers’ predivestment satisfaction. The findings also show that the effect can be explained by customer anger. Overall, this article provides guidance on how to divest whom in order to mitigate detrimental effects.
A wearable sweat biosensing device is demonstrated that stimulates sweat and continuously measures sweat ethanol concentrations at 25 s intervals, which is then correlated with blood ethanol during a ...>3 hour testing phase. The testing involves a baseline condition (no ethanol) followed by a rapid blood and sweat rise of ethanol (oral bolus), and finally, the physiological response of the body as ethanol concentrations return to baseline (metabolized). Data sets include multiple in vivo validation trials and careful in vitro characterization of the electrochemical enzymatic ethanol sensor against likely interferents. Furthermore, the data is analyzed through known pharmacokinetic models with a strong linear Pearson correlation of 0.9474-0.9996. The continuous nature of the data also allows analysis of blood-to-sweat lag times that range between 2.3 to 11.41 min for ethanol signal onset and 19.32 to 34.44 min for the overall pharmacokinetic curve lag time. This work represents a significant advance that builds upon a continuum of previous work. However, unresolved questions include operation for 24 hours or greater and with analytes beyond those commonly explored for sweat (electrolytes and metabolites). Regardless, this work validates that sweat biosensing can provide continuous and blood-correlated data in an integrated wearable device.
Although professional sports are a major interest for consumers and a soaring contributor to economic growth, very little is known about how sports brands are built over time and what makes some ...sports clubs’ market performance so much stronger than others. Based on a unique dataset of 40 German professional soccer brands tracked from 1963 through 2014, this research studies how the value drivers recruitment, winning, and publicity feed sales-based brand equity (SBBE) and attendance. One of the novel findings is that not only do strong brands benefit from higher levels of SBBE, but they are also able to leverage SBBE more effectively the longer they are on the market, which widens the gap between strong and weak brands across time. We also find that the effect of the value drivers on attendance evolves from direct to indirect via SBBE. Overall, the increasing brand leverage effect yields important implications for marketing theory and for sports brand management.
The use of whole cell killed (WCK) oral cholera vaccines is an important strategy for cholera prevention in endemic areas. To overcome current vaccine limitations, we engineered strains of V. ...cholerae to be non-toxigenic and to express the protective protein colonization factor, toxin-coregulated pilus (TCP), under scale-up conditions potentially amenable to vaccine production. Two V. cholerae clinical strains were selected and their cholera toxin genes deleted. The tcp operon was placed under control of a rhamnose-inducible promoter. Production and stability of TCP were assessed under various conditions. The strains lack detectable cholera toxin production. The addition of 0.1% rhamnose to the growth medium induced robust production of TCP and TcpA antigen. The strains produced intact TCP in larger growth volumes (1 L), and pili appeared stable during heat-killing or acid treatment of the bacterial cultures. To date, no WCK cholera vaccines have included TCP. We have constructed putative strains of V. cholerae for use in a vaccine that produce high levels of stable TCP antigen, which has not previously been achieved.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Who’s pulling the strings? Weiger, Welf H.; Wetzel, Hauke A.; Hammerschmidt, Maik
European journal of marketing,
09/2019, Letnik:
53, Številka:
9
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Purpose
Firms increasingly rely on content marketing to trigger user engagement in social media brand communities. The purpose of this paper is to examine how three generic types of ...marketer-generated content (affiliative, injunctive and utilitarian content) drive user engagement by considering distinct motivational paths and the role of users’ preference for intimate (vs broad) social networks.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct a field survey and a scenario experiment among social media users across different brands from three different product categories. They examine the impact of marketer-generated content on user engagement while considering the moderating role of network intimacy (i.e. the mutual confiding within a user’s social network in terms of small social circles) and the mediating role of user motivations (i.e. autonomous vs controlled motivation for community membership).
Findings
The findings show that affiliative content (i.e. content that highlights shared values) drives user engagement through autonomous motivation, and utilitarian content (i.e. content that highlights tangible benefits) drives user engagement through controlled motivation. Notably, injunctive content (i.e. content that demands specific user behavior) is not a promising instrument to increase user engagement in social media brand communities when not targeted correctly.
Research limitations/implications
The authors link three generic content types derived from literature on communal systems to user engagement, demonstrate the motivational underpinnings of their translation into engagement behavior and show that network intimacy can explain why the same content type can impact user engagement through two motivational paths.
Practical implications
The authors present three types of content that marketers can craft to trigger users to engage with a brand’s social media community and show when this content is most effective and why. By examining the moderating role of network intimacy, this research aims at providing targeting implications to social media marketers.
Originality/value
This research provides new insights on the effectiveness of marketer-generated content. The authors reveal two motivational paths that compete in explaining the overall effectiveness of different types of marketer-generated content to fuel user engagement. The authors further demonstrate that these relationships depend on the intimacy of a user’s circle of online friends.
In many sectors of the entertainment industry, a few employees attract the public spotlight when performing the core service. For example, in professional team sports, a team of players competes in ...games, and in TV shows, a cast of artists acts in different episodes. These employees, coined “spotlight personnel,” are an essential but expensive element of ongoing service delivery. Despite their importance and cost, very little is known about how changes in spotlight personnel affect service performance and demand. To address this gap, this article uses unique data on professional German soccer teams, tracking the quantity (number of players) and quality (average transfer price) of spotlight personnel hiring (incoming transfers) and turnover (outgoing transfers), objective service performance (winning percentage), and demand (ticket sales) across four decades, using both traditional and novel time series methods. The results show that service performance and demand are primarily affected by spotlight personnel hiring rather than by turnover. Hiring quantity decreases service performance yet increases demand, whereas hiring quality benefits both service performance and demand. The analysis further uncovers that these effects are subject to dynamic interactions and nonlinearities. Investment scenarios showcase how understanding these effects can substantially improve managerial decision making.
Murine double minute-2 (MDM2), an E3 ligase that regulates the cell cycle and inflammation, is highly expressed in podocytes. In podocyte injury, MDM2 drives podocyte loss by mitotic catastrophe, but ...the function of MDM2 in resting podocytes has not been explored. Here, we investigated the effects of podocyte MDM2 deletion in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, MDM2 knockdown by siRNA caused increased expression of p53 and podocyte death, which was completely rescued by coknockdown of p53. Apoptosis, pyroptosis, pyronecrosis, necroptosis, ferroptosis, and parthanatos were excluded as modes of occurrence for this p53-overactivation-related cell death (here referred to as podoptosis). Podoptosis was associated with cytoplasmic vacuolization, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and dysregulated autophagy (previously described as paraptosis). MDM2 knockdown caused podocyte loss and proteinuria in a zebrafish model, which was consistent with the phenotype of podocyte-specific MDM2-knockout mice that also showed the aforementioned ultrastructual podocyte abnormalities before and during progressive glomerulosclerosis. The phenotype of both animal models was entirely rescued by codeletion of p53. We conclude that MDM2 maintains homeostasis and long-term survival in podocytes by preventing podoptosis, a p53-regulated form of cell death with unspecific features previously classified as paraptosis.
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