Chatbots have become common in digital customer service contexts across many industries. While many companies choose to humanize their customer service chatbots (e.g., giving them names and avatars), ...little is known about how anthropomorphism influences customer responses to chatbots in service settings. Across five studies, including an analysis of a large real-world data set from an international telecommunications company and four experiments, the authors find that when customers enter a chatbot-led service interaction in an angry emotional state, chatbot anthropomorphism has a negative effect on customer satisfaction, overall firm evaluation, and subsequent purchase intentions. However, this is not the case for customers in nonangry emotional states. The authors uncover the underlying mechanism driving this negative effect (expectancy violations caused by inflated pre-encounter expectations of chatbot efficacy) and offer practical implications for managers. These findings suggest that it is important to both carefully design chatbots and consider the emotional context in which they are used, particularly in customer service interactions that involve resolving problems or handling complaints.
Over the past decade, the world has been contending with a growing set of challenges related to illicit traffic as advancements in technology, communications, and global integration facilitate the ...operation of black markets and greater organization of criminal activity. In this study, the dark web and associated dark net markets are introduced as an important context for scholars interested in international marketing. Furthermore, the scale, scope, and structure of the real-world drug trade is empirically analyzed as an example of the work possible within this dark world. The study concludes by highlighting key themes from the literature in international marketing scholarship and focuses on how they might be co-opted to contribute toward the understanding and countermarketing of illicit systems of exchange.
The Web is a constantly evolving, complex system, with important implications for both marketers and consumers. In this paper, we contend that over the next five to ten years society will see a shift ...in the nature of the Web, as consumers, firms and regulators become increasingly concerned about privacy. In particular, we predict that, as a result of this privacy-focus, various information sharing and protection practices currently found on the Dark Web will be increasingly adapted in the overall Web, and in the process, firms will lose much of their ability to fuel a modern marketing machinery that relies on abundant, rich, and timely consumer data. In this type of controlled information-sharing environment, we foresee the emersion of two distinct types of consumers: (1) those generally willing to share their information with marketers (Buffs), and (2) those who generally deny access to their personal information (Ghosts). We argue that one way marketers can navigate this new environment is by effectively designing and deploying conversational agents (CAs), often referred to as “chatbots.” In particular, we propose that CAs may be used to understand and engage both types of consumers, while providing personalization, and serving both as a form of differentiation and as an important strategic asset for the firm—one capable of eliciting self-disclosure of otherwise private consumer information.
The Abrolhos Bank is part of the so-called Eastern Brazilian Shelf and is an area of high ecological and economic importance. The bank supports the largest and richest coral reefs in the South ...Atlantic and the largest rhodolith bed in the world. The spatial and seasonal variation of phytoplankton concentration, however, and the dynamic processes controlling that variability have remained poorly known. The present study investigates the seasonal and spatial distributions of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) and water conditions by analyzing nine years (2003-2011) of level-3 Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) derived Chl-a, National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/ETA model-derived winds, NCEP model-derived heat fluxes, thermohaline and velocity results from the Hybrid Circulation Ocean Model (HYCOM) 1/12o assimilated simulation. The results show that low/high concentrations occurred in austral spring-summer (wet season)/autumn-winter (dry season), with the highest values observed in the northern portion of the Abrolhos Bank. The typical meteorological and oceanographic conditions during austral summer favor the development of strong stratification. These conditions are 1) N-NE winds that favor an upwelling-type Ekman circulation; 2) coupling between the open ocean and the continental shelf through the western boundary current, which promotes cooler subsurface water to rise onto the shelf break; and 3) positive net heat flux. In contrast, the S-SE winds during autumn are in the opposite direction of the predominant current system over the Abrolhos Bank, thus reducing their speed and inducing an inverse shear. The warmer ocean and a somewhat cool and dry atmosphere promote the evaporative cooling of the surface layer. The above processes drive mixed layer cooling and deepening that reaches its maximum in winter. The blooming of phytoplankton in the Abrolhos Bank waters appears to be regulated by changes in the mixed layer depth, with Chl-a levels that start to increase during autumn and reach their peak in June-July.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This article investigates how engaging in a merger moderates the joint impact of a firm’s achievement of dual goals of customer satisfaction and firm efficiency on a firm’s long-term financial ...performance. Many prominent firms grow through mergers. Recent examples in the services context include the merger between Toronto-Dominion Bank and Canada Trust, and the merger between Continental and United Airlines. Our results show that joint achievement of customer satisfaction and efficiency is beneficial in merger contexts, but not in nonmerger contexts. We investigate the moderating role of mergers using a longitudinal panel of 429 observations across multiple firms and industries. These results suggest that merging firms should not take a myopic perspective of only wresting efficiencies (as the finance literature suggests). Rather, merging firms should focus on simultaneously improving customer satisfaction and improving efficiency to maximize long-term firm value.
Trade in donkey skin for the production of E-Jiao, a Traditional Chinese Medicine, has been linked to the international wildlife trade, including the timber trade. We investigated timber species ...available in the donkey skin trade networks in business-to-business e-commerce websites in terms of species origins, supply, and demand. Using 340 product categories offered by 385 traders located in 55 countries we conducted a network analysis centred on trade in donkey skins. We identified over 60 tree species of 54 genera and 22 families, most of the species of conservation concern were native to Africa, including four hongmu species, which are high-value tree species identified by the National Rosewood Standard in China. We found 24 tree species of global conservation concern included in the donkey skin product network; these are designated by CITES in Appendices and/or by the IUCN as threatened or near-threatened. The presence of both donkey skins and timber species of conservation concern indicates a need for heightened surveillance and transparent reporting of the donkey skin trade. Furthermore, this points to a fresh avenue for monitoring the trade of timber, particularly for those species that are linked to the donkey skin product network.
Although the value gained from partnership formation (through alliances) or through the firm's position in a network has received significant research attention, little is known about the risks that ...can accompany this increasing reliance on partners. The authors investigate the change in firm idiosyncratic and systematic risks after the announcement of marketing alliances and analyze whether the density of the firm's network of alliance partners moderates the risk exposure, demonstrated through investors' expectations of a firm's risk or the equity risk of a firm. The results indicate that marketing alliances reduce firm risk, so long as the alliance is a novel connection between the partnering firms. Furthermore, at high levels, the interconnectedness of partners or density of a firm's network can cause idiosyncratic risk to increase, and the density of a partner's network can also result in increases in systematic risk of a firm after alliance formation.
Unsustainable global wildlife trade impacts biodiversity and threatens national and global security, but many aspects of this trade remain opaque. Our study is a novel investigation of the alleged ...links between the trade in wildlife products and in donkey skins. The global donkey skin trade is a newly prevalent and lucrative business, largely driven by Chinese demand for E‐Jiao, a traditional medicine derived from donkey skins. Records of donkey skins being seized alongside other wildlife products lead us to hypothesize that there is a link between these two trades. We identified all donkey skin dealers on seven business‐to‐business e‐commerce websites and obtained 14,949 data points. These were used in a network analysis to demonstrate the structure of the network and reveal the connection between the products, including wild animal and plant products offered alongside donkey skins. We identified at least 13 groups of CITES‐listed species in the densely connected donkey skin product network, demonstrated an association between the online trade in wildlife products and donkey skins, and discuss the implications of this overlap—including the potential to shed light on potential novel trade pathways in legal and illegal domestic animal and wildlife trade.
The global donkey skin trade is a newly prevalent and lucrative business, largely driven by Chinese demand for E‐Jiao, a traditional medicine derived from donkey skins. Our study is a novel investigation of the alleged links between the trade of wildlife and donkey skins. We identified at least 13 groups of CITES‐listed species in the densely connected donkey skin product network.
This paper reports on the synthesis of Tm3+/Yb3+ co-doped SiO2-Ta2O5 nanocomposites prepared by a sol-gel route. XRD analysis revealed initial crystallization of the L-Ta2O5 structure dispersed in ...the silica host, which depended on lanthanide concentration. Vibrational spectroscopy showed low OH groups content, SiO2-Ta2O5 nanocomposite formation, and controlled phase separation characterized by the presence of Ta2O5 nanoparticles. Emission in the near infrared was evident and also depended on lanthanide concentration and excitation wavelength. Direct excitation on the host promoted NIR luminescence; higher intensity emerged at 980 nm, attributed to Yb3+ ions. Excitation of the Tm3+ excited levels elicited energy transfer between Tm3+ and Yb3+ ions. Excitation of the Tm3+ levels (visible range) and the host (UV) promoted emission in the S telecom band for all the samples. Excitation at 980 nm gave rise to upconversion emissions at 476 nm (blue) and 793 nm (NIR). At higher lanthanide concentration, the presence of a dominant cross-relaxation process reduced the blue emission with respect to the NIR emission. The color coordinates were similar to the coordinates of standard blue. All these luminescent properties make the synthesized materials potential candidates for photonic applications like energy converting devices, solar concentrators, and blue emitters.
Fluorescent nanostructures based on carbon, or carbon dots, are attracting much attention and interest because of their diverse properties which can be applied in several fields of knowledge, such as ...optics, biomedicine, environmental research, among others. Such properties are in part, derived from its intrinsic luminescence from tunable functional groups. In this work, we produced carbon nanodots (CND) using agro-industrial residues, such as Lolium perenne and malt bagasse. The methods used were conventional hydrothermal syntheses and microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that carbon dots synthesized from this ryegrass type are reported. The synthesis methods were one step (no catalyst, base, or acid were added for passivation), and the functional groups responsible for the luminescence and high solubility in water were identified by infrared spectroscopy, being mainly C=O, C–OH, C–N, and N–H. According to our theoretical studies, the C=O group introduced a new energy level for electronic transitions that can affect the emission properties. Fluorescence images of osteoblasts using CNDs were acquired and their chelating property towards Pb2+ and Cr6+ detection was tested.
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