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The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the cruise sector with an initial global shutdown and ongoing patchy resumption, widespread reporting of virus transmission onboard and billions of dollars in econo...

This paper examines the perspectives of employers and employees within nano, micro, small, medium, and large firms in relation to HRM practices. The study draws upon a large sample of respondents f...

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences brand personality, trust, firm attitudes, and purchase intentions. Yet, little attention has been paid to its effects on brand attachment. This study integrated message specificity, self-identity, and attachment theories to explain how socially responsible communication can be used to influence brand attachment. We show that CSR boosted brand attachment when messages contained specific (rather than generic) information that fostered positive brand elaborations, but eroded it when specific information was interpreted negatively. This effect was present only when socially responsible engagement was personally relevant to consumers, pointing to significant variations in message effectiveness. CSR was also more effective when firms announced socially responsible support for the first time and less effective when firms already had a CSR track record, pointing to a ceiling effect.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of how change in environmental practices occurs in business networks. The study examines what types of network change processes occur in bringing about environmental change. Further, the basic change process theory types (life-cycle, teleology, dialectics and evolution) involved in the change processes are analyzed.Design/methodology/approachA multiple, embedded, network case study was undertaken in the Australian agrifood sector, focusing on the pork and dairy industries.FindingsChange was found to occur through the interaction of multiple network processes operating simultaneously and sequentially over time. Thirteen network process categories were identified, grouped further into legislative, business case and altruistic overarching motivations. Legislative change processes emphasize the need for continued government intervention through enforced legislation. Teleology and dialectics were common at the beginning of many change processes, followed by life-cycle theory types.Originality/valueThe study brings together change process conceptualizations from prior unconnected literatures into a comprehensive change process categorization framework. Examining changes in the activity dimension adds to network dynamics literature previously focusing on changes in the actor and resource dimensions. Contributions are made to processual research methods by theoretically and empirically clarifying connections between events, activities and processes. Analyzing the underlying change process theory types at the network level adds to both management and business network literature. Finally, the study answers calls to study sustainability issues at a network level.

Purpose This study aims to examine the impacts various types of resources had on customer effort in mandatory and voluntary value cocreation activities and the contribution of efforts in these different activity types to quality of life. Design/methodology/approach Data from customers across five chronic health conditions were collected through an online survey. Rasch analysis helped identify hierarchies of activities representing varying levels of effort across four activity types (mandatory (customer), mandatory (customer or organization), voluntary in-role and voluntary extra-role activities). The conceptual model that was developed to examine the relationships of interest was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings While clinical resources helped mandatory activities and personal network resources facilitated voluntary activities, psychological resources had greater impacts on customer effort across the whole range of activities. Effort in each activity type contributed to the quality of life differently, with voluntary activities having the greatest impacts on quality of life. Practical implications This study lends support to a holistic approach to health service that requires the mobilization of networks of resources to encourage customers’ engagement in a broad range of activities. Understanding the resources facilitating effort in distinct activity types provides insights to develop strategies to drive value cocreation efforts that subsequently contribute to improvements in quality of life. Originality/value Drawing on an extensive and nuanced categorization of activities, this study broadened the understanding of the networks of resources that are integrated in customer value cocreation processes and the link between value cocreation efforts and quality of life.

PurposeThis study aims to examine the relationship between personal values and small and medium enterprise (SME) innovation in Minangkabau, a Muslim ethnic group in Indonesia.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative approach was used to survey 400 small business owners. Structural models were estimated using WarpPLS.FindingsThe study established that SME owners had mixed values. This highlights the context of entrepreneurship because it provides an understanding of the links between personal values and some innovation-related constructs.Research limitations/implicationsThe study made a little comparison of personal values in other Muslim societies. It is beneficial as a reference for future studies on comparisons between the Minangkabau and other ethnic Muslim groups.Practical implicationsMinangkabau small enterprise entrepreneurs need reflection on their values and business innovation because integrating these two aspects strengthens business identity.Social implicationsThe entrepreneurs may need to balance personal and socio-cultural values to implement both business innovation and social harmony successfully.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that takes into account the innovation concept. It examines personal values related to some concepts on innovation. It can partly be explained by the high level of religiosity in the Minangkabau ethnic group.

PurposeWhile past studies have shown that corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences brand equity, loyalty and brand attitudes, research about CSR effects on the responsible and active dimensions of brand personality remains limited. This study aims to address this gap and examine how brands with different personality strength benefit from CSR communication, providing novel insights about CSR’s branding payoffs to firms.Design/methodology/approachThree experiments were conducted. Study 1 tested if CSR communication influenced responsible and active brand personality dimensions compared to non-CSR communication. Study 2 examined how varying CSR spending allocations affect personality perceptions of weak and strong brands. Studies 1 and 2 measured responsible and active brand personalities before and after exposure to experimental manipulations, assessing immediate changes in brand personality. Study 3 replicated the results of Study 2 using fictitious brands whose initial brand personalities were manipulated as either weak or strong.FindingsCSR communication has the potential to influence brands’ responsible and active personalities compared to non-CSR communication. However, changes in brand personalities were contingent on CSR manipulations (smaller vs larger CSR spending) and initial brand strength. Brands that lacked strongly responsible and strong active personalities experienced an improvement in these perceptions after exposure to any CSR spending message. However, brands with strong responsible or strong active personalities experienced brand erosion after exposure to smaller CSR spending message or no improvement when the CSR message was aligned with the responsible and active conduct (e.g. mentioned larger CSR spending).Originality/valueThis study is the first to examine how CSR affects brand personality. By combining signalling and attitude change/congruity principle theories, it provides novel theoretical contributions to explain when CSR can improve, erode or exert no effect on the responsible and active brand personalities, providing insights for effective brand management.

Ecotourism is a fast-growing tourism sector, but the value of ecotourism trips from tourists’ perspective has seldom been studied, which led to the current study that examined outbound Chinese tour...

Unstructured summary Respiratory point-of-care tests (POCT), detecting influenza A, influenza B and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), were implemented in response to recent RSV outbreaks at a regional haemato-oncology unit in Glasgow. We provide a descriptive study of pre- and post- POCT implementation, which suggests POCT reduce the time taken to receive results and increase diagnostic rates in outpatients. It is likely that the reduction in turn-around-time afforded by POCT also lead to a faster time to antiviral treatment, prompt isolation and a reduction in the number of hospital acquired infections.

Numerous studies have claimed that ecotourism experiences promote tourist environmental learning, but little empirical evidence has been provided to substantiate the claim. This study examined ecot...

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of CSR initiative preference, customer helping orientation and customer participation on willingness to engage in CSR and to demonstrate the influence this engagement has on their commitment and loyalty to the organisation.Design/methodology/approachThis study entailed an online survey of customers from a large not-for-profit organisation (n = 210). Choice modelling is used to test a structural equation model of drivers and outcomes of willingness to engage in CSR.FindingsResults demonstrate the CSR initiative preferred by customers has a stronger impact on their willingness to engage with the CSR initiative (volunteering their time, effort, money) than either customers' helping orientation or customer participation. Furthermore, willingness to engage in CSR influences customer commitment and loyalty to support and recommend the organisation.Research limitations/implicationsThe results clearly demonstrate the significant impact that customers' preferences for and willingness to engage in CSR initiatives have on customers' relationship with not-for-profit organisations.Social implicationsThe results highlight the importance of taking into account customer preferences for CSR issues to encourage customers to engage in CSR initiatives designed to benefit society.Originality/valueTraditionally CSR literature has focused on how commercial firms' engagement in CSR creates value for the firm and society. The marketing literature has focused on how customer engagement in brand communities benefits the firm. This study extends the research by exploring customers’ willingness to engage in CSR with not-for-profit organisations. It uses Choice modelling to demonstrate the impact of customer preferences for local and aligned CSR initiatives on customer willingness to engage.

Multiple myeloma is the second most common hematological malignancy in adults, accounting for 2% of all cancer-related deaths in the UK. Current chemotherapy-based regimes are insufficient, as most patients relapse and develop therapy resistance. This review focuses on current novel antibody- and aptamer-based therapies aiming to overcome current therapy limitations, as well as their respective limitations and areas of improvement. The use of computer modeling methods, as a tool to study and improve ligand-receptor alignments for the use of novel therapy development will also be discussed, as it has become a rapid, reliable and comparatively inexpensive method of investigation.

Purpose Despite an increasing interest in online brand advocacy (OBA) and the importance of online brand conversations, OBA’s conceptualization, dimensionality and measurement are unclear, which has created confusion. This paper aims to answer calls from researchers and practitioners for a better understanding and measurement of OBA. The development and validation of a parsimonious and practical OBA scale is outlined in this paper. Design/methodology/approach A multi-methods, multi-stage approach was followed to develop a parsimonious OBA scale. From an initial pool of 96 items obtained from qualitative research and from items used in prior general brand advocacy scales, a test-retest reliability study is followed. Academic judges were consulted to verify dimensionality, followed by two separate online surveys to further purify the scale and assess criterion-related validity. Programs including SPSS, AMOS and WarpPLS were used. Findings This research extends the knowledge of OBA by developing and testing a parsimonious and practical 16-item, four-dimensional OBA scale. Unlike previous attempts to measure OBA, this study suggested OBA as a multidimensional construct with four dimensions (i.e. brand defense, brand information sharing, brand positivity and virtual positive expression). Further, this study showed that OBA is conceptually different from consumer–brand engagement and electronic word-of-mouth. Research limitations/implications Future research is encouraged to validate the OBA scale in various contexts and locations. Researchers can use the new OBA scale to examine potential brand-related antecedents and consequences of OBA. Practical implications This study provides brand and marketing practitioners with a better understanding of brand advocacy occurring online. The OBA scale offers clear markers or trademarks that will be useful in assessing any brand’s health online and to track and better manage online brand communications and performance. Originality/value This research provides the first empirical investigation of Wilk et al.’s (2018) exploratory insights into OBA. The resulting parsimonious scale has furthered OBA as a new area for academic enquiry and presented practitioners with a practical way of measuring OBA.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to suggest a typology of customer value cocreation activities and explore the psychological drivers and quality of life outcomes of such activities in a complex health care service setting. Design/methodology/approach Focus groups with people with Type 2 diabetes and in-depth interviews with diabetes educators were conducted. Findings Four types of customer value cocreation activities were found (mandatory (customer), mandatory (customer or organization), voluntary in-role and voluntary extra-role activities). In addition, health locus of control, self-efficacy, optimism, regulatory focus and expected benefits are identified as key psychological factors underlying the customers’ motivation to be active resource integrators and resulting in physical, psychological, existential and social well-being. Originality/value The study highlights the various types of customer value cocreation activities and how these affect the various quality of life dimensions.

Purpose In recent times, many universities have been pressured to become heavily involved in university branding. The purpose of this paper is to investigate students’ perceptions of different international universities (brands) in terms of important university attributes, including the country in which the university’s main campus is located and educational programs are designed (COD) and the method by which the educational services are distributed internationally (DM). Design/methodology/approach Using a conjoint simulation procedure, this paper predicts the impact that university attributes have on Malaysian and Chinese students’ preferences for international universities. Findings The results suggest that, although COD and DM are important factors, the extent to which these factors dominate student preference differs significantly across students according to nationality. Research limitations/implications The simulation suggests how international universities can improve their branding strategies, and highlights the need to understand students’ preferences when developing marketing strategies. Originality/value Past research has compared the importance of university attributes across countries from the perspective of students, but failed to assess this issue in the light of existing university brands (at an institutional or country level). Such knowledge can provide an indication of student preferences and competitive performance, which are of great interest to education marketers. The present study predicts the impact of various university attributes on Malaysian and Chinese students’ preferences for specific international universities (brands) in four different countries, and changes in preference that occur when the style of delivery or course suitability is altered.

The affordances of social media have enabled organisations and members to negotiate and co-create their identities. Despite the original conception of acculturation as a reciprocal process of cultural change, how an organisation adapts to the cultures of its members and how members react to these efforts remain under-researched. Drawing on theories of identity construction, this paper conceptualises two-way acculturation in social media and investigates the role of institutional efforts in building member relationships. We employed a mixed method consisting of a netnographic analysis of university Facebook pages and a quantitative survey with a sample of 410 students to examine how brand page identification and the institutional image (i.e., distinctiveness, prestige, and supportiveness) mediate the relationship between the social media marketing efforts and member-institution identification. The results show that, overall, content tactics (i.e., symbolic resource integration, hedonic quality, and utilitarian quality) and marketer traits (i.e., effort to foster member embeddedness and warmth) not only strengthen member engagement but also help shape an attractive identity of the institution that builds relationships. This paper advances our understanding of identity co-creation and acculturation in social media while also contributing a nuanced understanding of the effectiveness of various engagement tactics to theory and practice.

PurposeThis paper aims to offer insights into the ways two computer-aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) applications (QSR NVivo and Leximancer) can be used to analyze big, text-based, online data taken from consumer-to-consumer (C2C) social media communication.Design/methodology/approachThis study used QSR NVivo and Leximancer, to explore 200 discussion threads containing 1,796 posts from forums on an online open community and an online brand community that involved online brand advocacy (OBA). The functionality, in particular, the strengths and weaknesses of both programs are discussed. Examples of the types of analyses each program can undertake and the visual output available are also presented.FindingsThis research found that, while both programs had strengths and weaknesses when working with big, text-based, online data, they complemented each other. Each contributed a different visual and evidence-based perspective; providing a more comprehensive and insightful view of the characteristics unique to OBA.Research limitations/implicationsQualitative market researchers are offered insights into the advantages and disadvantages of using two different software packages for research projects involving big social media data. The “visual-first” analysis, obtained from both programs can help researchers make sense of such data, particularly in exploratory research.Practical implicationsThe paper provides practical recommendations for analysts considering which programs to use when exploring big, text-based, online data.Originality/valueThis paper answered a call to action for further research and demonstration of analytical programs of big, online data from social media C2C communication and makes strong suggestions about the need to examine such data in a number of ways.

Purpose This study aims to enhance the understanding of how co-created content (CCC) can facilitate relevant and meaningful customer experiences in social media brand communities (SMBCs). It investigates the characteristics of CCC and explores the effects they have on member engagement from an identity theories perspective. Design/methodology/approach A netnography of a university’s Facebook and Instagram accounts was undertaken to analyse exemplary content co-creation practice and resulting user reactions in an organic setting. Findings The analysis of CCC confirmed a strong presence of identity narratives and cues that can be categorised into university, sub-group and student role identity themes. Members’ identity-consistent reactions highlight that CCC can influence member perceptions of the distinctiveness, prestige and similarity of the identities they enact. University identity theme CCC allows members to project other member’s identity narrative, while sub-group and student-role identity theme CCC can help increase identity synergy. Research limitations/implications The paper adds to the social media marketing literature that SMBC members are important integrators of symbolic resources that influence other members’ identity constructions and further their perceived relationships with the organisation and other members. Social media enables marketers to leverage members’ diverse identities to enhance customer experiences. The study’s single context focus may be a limitation. Practical implications The paper provides a useful framework for designing social media content that facilitates meaningful engagement. Originality/value The use of identity theories to enhance the understanding of CCC and its role in SMBCs is original. The paper generates new lines of future enquiries to advance theorisation of social media marketing.

No abstract available.

Infection with the novel coronavirus SARS‐CoV‐2 virus resulting in an acute respiratory disease (COVID‐19 disease) is the cause of the current pneumonia pandemic, with a rapid rise in cases being reported in the European Union and UK (1, 2). The UK index case was identified on the 31st of January, 2020 and given the rapid spread and high mortality rate of COVID‐19, it is imperative to define the impact on patients with co‐existing medical conditions(3).

Co-operative and mutual enterprises (CMEs) are organisations in which buyers or suppliers are also the owners, shareholders and members of a community of purpose. Member heterogeneity and commitment have been reported in the literature, but the drivers of member commitment remain poorly understood. This paper proposes that members identify with their CME as patrons, investors, owners, and community members; wearing “Four Hats” (4Hs). A case study analysis of three Australian producer co-operatives examined directors and managers perceptions of factors influencing members’ commitment and delivery of a member value proposition. The 4Hs emerge as stable patterns and the cross-case analysis illustrates their strategic importance and link to member value proposition.

Managing customer engagement behavior (CEB) is a strategic priority for firms to build and sustain long-term customer-firm relationships. This research examines the different types of customer engagement behavior (i.e. augmenting CEB, co-developing CEB, influencing CEB and mobilizing CEB). The study also examines the relationship between service fairness, different forms of trust (cognitive and affective), value-in-use (ViU) and CEB. The research model was tested across two developed (USA and Australia) and two developing economies (India and China). Results suggest that CEB is a higher-order construct and its structure is consistent across the developed and developing markets. In terms of cross-cultural differences, service fairness has a stronger influence on affective trust in the developing economies as compared to developed economies. Findings indicate that to motivate customers in developed and developing markets to engage, service providers need to treat them fairly, build cognitive and affective trust and understand how they create value-in-use.

© 2018, The Author(s). The water–energy–food (WEF) nexus has become a popular, and potentially powerful, frame through which to analyse interactions and interdependencies between these three systems. Though the case for transdisciplinary research in this space has been made, the extent of stakeholder engagement in research remains limited with stakeholders most commonly incorporated in research as end-users. Yet, stakeholders interact with nexus issues in a variety of ways, consequently there is much that collaboration might offer to develop nexus research and enhance its application. This paper outlines four aspects of nexus research and considers the value and potential challenges for transdisciplinary research in each. We focus on assessing and visualising nexus systems; understanding governance and capacity building; the importance of scale; and the implications of future change. The paper then proceeds to describe a novel mixed-method study that deeply integrates stakeholder knowledge with insights from multiple disciplines. We argue that mixed-method research designs—in this case orientated around a number of cases studies—are best suited to understanding and addressing real-world nexus challenges, with their inevitable complex, non-linear system characteristics. Moreover, integrating multiple forms of knowledge in the manner described in this paper enables research to assess the potential for, and processes of, scaling-up innovations in the nexus space, to contribute insights to policy and decision making.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the design and methodology of the REC-CONNECT project and to determine whether a co-produced approach to research in this area between those with lived experience, those delivering recovery support, and those investigating recovery evidence, generated greater project impact. Design/methodology/approach A co-productive approach was taken during project planning, training delivery, data collection and community connecting activity. Workshop evaluations were collected at each training session that provided data on worker/peer volunteer wellbeing, workshop efficacy and organisational factors. Community connectors used REC-CAP for evaluating improvements in clients’ community engagement. Findings Whilst co-production as a research approach broke down barriers between theory and practice and delivered a wider community asset map, a number of hurdles emerged: buy-in of all participants; culture/competing agendas; overcoming sense of disenfranchisement of people in recovery; and resources, tools and timescales of research requirements. Research limitations/implications This is a small study in Sheffield. As such, data are limited. However, the implications spread to other vulnerable groups in other areas are evidenced, and the principles offer sustainability and partnership that go beyond time-limited projects. Social implications Co-production as an approach to research in the substance misuse field has a meaningful impact on the “end-user” of people in recovery through empowerment, better connected recovery pathways and evidence-to-practice-based support models. Originality/value The project advanced the emerging principle of reciprocal asset-based community development and designed a co-produced model to create a team of professional, volunteer and peer community connectors to engage and connect new individuals to recovery with existing community assets, and who themselves emerged as a community asset through the project.

The use of peer communication has become a primary method used by advertisers to disseminate their messages to relevant consumers on social media—with a significant return on investment. This study...

In the special issue “The Impact of the Current and Future Technologies on Relationship Marketing,” the Australasian Marketing Journal presents a series of papers covering topics to gain a better understanding of the current and future technologies that may play a role or have a robust impact on relationship marketing and contribute to theories associated with relationship marketing. The topics for the special issue include, but are not limited to, (a) the role of social media–enabled technology; (b) social media marketing on value co-creation and engagement; (c) mobile app technology and intention to purchase; (d) digital content marketing and content marketing strategies; and (e) building and maintaining customer relationships via online relationship marketing.

Australian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) owner-managers were interviewed to understand the underpinning factors of social customer relationship management (social CRM), customer engagem...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the lived experiences of the international students using their university’s social media, through a lens of customer engagement (CE) in the services marketing literature. Design/methodology/approach A case study was conducted in an Australian university. Three semi-structured focus groups with ten international students, along with a preliminary netnographic analysis of the university’s social media account, provided a rich description of the phenomenon in the real-world context. Findings The results suggest that these students are likely to engage in their university’s social media as part of their acculturation and social identity construction strategy. Their engagement was cognitive and emotional, being influenced by the instrumental value of the social media page, engagement with campus rituals and artefacts, social identity and bonds with other students and perceptions of the page administrator. Furthermore, these students’ engagement influenced their identification with the university and its student community, manifested in a sense of belonging and pride. Research limitations/implications The paper contributes to the higher education literature by offering relationship implications of social media CE. Limitations include small sample size and the single institutional context. Practical implications The paper informs student communication practice, especially the design of university-initiated social media content and policy. Originality/value Universities and faculties today use social media to engage with students outside classrooms. However, little has been known about how international student sojourners view and respond to such initiatives. The paper addresses this gap by offering insight into how they engage with their university on social media and its relationship implications.

Summary Background Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes significant respiratory tract infection in immunosuppressed patients. Aim To describe two consecutive yearly outbreaks of RSV in our haemato-oncology ward. Methods Haematology patients presenting with respiratory symptoms were screened by polymerase chain reaction for viral respiratory pathogens using a saline gargle. Findings None of our patients had undergone bone marrow transplant but all had underlying haematological malignancies. Eight patients were affected in the first outbreak (mortality rate: 37.5%) and 12 patients were affected in the second (mortality rate: 8.3%). Extensive infection control measures were implemented in both outbreaks and were successful in preventing further cross-transmission. Conclusion There was significant learning from both outbreaks and actions implemented with the aim of reducing the likelihood and impact of future outbreaks.

Purpose Both customer engagement (CE) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been linked to customer loyalty. Past studies use service dominant logic and customer value co-creation to explain this relationship. The purpose of this paper is to apply utility theory to develop and test a new theoretical model based on CSR initiative preference to understand the relationship between CE and customer loyalty to the organisation in a CSR platform. Design/methodology/approach This empirical study uses choice theory in the form of best-worst scaling, and structural equation modelling, to measure the impact of sports club members’ choice preferences for a range of CSR initiatives on their intention to engage with the initiative and subsequent loyalty to the club. Findings This study highlights the importance of engaging members in the CSR strategy they prefer as it enhances not only the extra value to the organisation via customer loyalty to the organisation, but also CE with the organisation. Furthermore, the study reveals age and gender impact on the relationship between CE in CSR initiatives and customer loyalty. Originality/value This study extends CE to CSR behaviours and provides empirical evidence for a unique theoretical framework of CE based on utility theory. It also highlights the need to take into account moderating variables such as customer demographics.

This research explores the nature of collaborative co-creation in a university-initiated social media brand community (SMBC). SMBCs provide significant opportunities to enhance student experiences ...

This study examines the antecedents and consequences of value co-creation behavior in a hospitality context. An online questionnaire with samples of hotel patrons in the United States and Australia was used to obtain data and partial least square modeling was used in the analysis. The results suggest patron fairness perception enhances trust and identification with a hotel, which encourage engagement in the value co-creation behavior. Furthermore, this behavior enhances patron well-being and respect for the hotel. The study contributes to the literature by suggesting a value co-creation behavior model in the hospitality context and empirically examining the antecedents and consequences of this behavior. The results have important implications for managers designing service encounters that can encourage hotel patrons to engage in the value co-creation behavior.

Over the past few years machine learning has seen a renewed explosion of interest, following a number of studies showing the effectiveness of neural networks in a range of tasks which had previously been considered incredibly hard. Neural networks' effectiveness in the fields of image recognition and natural language processing stems primarily from the vast amounts of data available to companies and researchers, coupled with the huge amounts of compute power available in modern accelerators such as GPUs, FPGAs and ASICs. There are a number of approaches available to developers for utilizing GPGPU technologies such as SYCL, OpenCL and CUDA, however many applications require the same low level mathematical routines. Libraries dedicated to accelerating these common routines allow developers to easily make full use of the available hardware without requiring low level knowledge of the hardware themselves, however such libraries are often provided by hardware manufacturers for specific hardware such as cuDNN for Nvidia hardware or MIOpen for AMD hardware. SYCL-DNN is a new open-source library dedicated to providing accelerated routines for neural network operations which are hardware and vendor agnostic. Built on top of the SYCL open standard and written entirely in standard C++, SYCL-DNN allows a user to easily accelerate neural network code for a wide range of hardware using a modern C++ interface. The library is tested on AMD's OpenCL for GPU, Intel's OpenCL for CPU and GPU, ARM's OpenCL for Mali GPUs as well as ComputeAorta's OpenCL for R-Car CV engine and host CPU. In this talk we will present performance figures for SYCL-DNN on this range of hardware, and discuss how high performance was achieved on such a varied set of accelerators with such different hardware features., 4 pages, 3 figures. In International Workshop on OpenCL (IWOCL '19), May 13-15, 2019, Boston

Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) can benefit from membership of a co-operative. This study aims to test previous antecedents of why SMEs join a co-operative. We interviewed members and executives of four Australian co-operatives to investigate reasons why SME owners joined them. All interviewees agreed that the co-operative had to provide economic benefits in addition to information, business support, knowledge, and networking. The SME owners’ disposition of collective action towards a common sense of purpose supported the decision to become a member of their co-operatives. Asset, temporal, location & relational specificity provided the external resources through their co-operative to challenge the environmental uncertainty the SMEs faced.

The design of electricity markets determines the technologies, services and modes of operation that can access value, consequently shaping current and future electricity landscapes. This paper highlights that the efficacy of Great Britain’s electricity market design in facilitating net zero is inadequate and must be reconfigured. The rules of the current electricity market design are remnants of an electricity sector dominated by large-scale, centralised, fossil fuel technologies. Therefore, routes to market for the provision of necessary services to support net zero, not least flexibility, are largely inaccessible for distributed energy resources and, despite their benefits to the system, are thus undervalued. Based upon a review and consolidation of 30 proposed electricity market designs from liberalised electricity sectors, this paper proposes a new electricity market design for Great Britain. This design is presented alongside a new institutional framework to aid in the efficient operation of the market. Specifically, this paper proposes a new local balancing and coordinating market located at each grid supply point (the transmission and distribution interface). This is realised through the implementation of a distributed locational marginal pricing structure which is governed by the evolution of the current distributed network operator, known as the distributed service provider (DSP). The DSP also operates a local balancing and ancillary market for their geographical area. The wholesale market is reconfigured to coordinate with these new local markets and to harmonise the actors across the distribution and transmission network.

The increased availability of social media big data has created a unique challenge for marketing decision-makers; turning this data into useful information. One of the significant areas of opportunity in digital marketing is influencer marketing, but identifying these influencers from big data sets is a continual challenge. This research illustrates how one type of influencer, the market maven, can be identified using big data. Using a mixed-method combination of both self-report survey data and publicly accessible big data, we gathered 556,150 tweets from 370 active Twitter users. We then proposed and tested a range of social-media-based metrics to identify market mavens. Findings show that market mavens (when compared to non-mavens) have more followers, post more often, have less readable posts, use more uppercase letters, use less distinct words, and use hashtags more often. These metrics are openly available from public Twitter accounts and could integrate into a broad-scale decision support system for marketing and information systems managers. These findings have the potential to improve influencer identification effectiveness and efficiency, and thus improve influencer marketing.

Resource based theory (RBT), also known as the resource-based view, emphasizes resources as essential for building organizational competitive advantage. However, which competencies are essential for enhancing customer value remains unclear. Blueprinting and benchmarking are applied in this paper to demonstrate the process of identifying resources that are specific to co-creating customer value. This has important implications for the management of key marketing resources. Based on the case study results, application of the proposed methods suggests a new avenue for extending RBT application to the area of service management and in the development of service offerings.

We are confident this Special Issue will generate scholarly discussion and debate, as well as act as a catalyst in advancing marketing-based engagement research. We thank each of the contributing authors, and in this commentary, synthesise our key reflections regarding the current state of engagement research, and identify key areas for further research in this area, which emanate from this Special Issue.

Purpose – A key issue faced by co-operative enterprises is how to raise external equity capital without compromising member control. The purpose of this study is to examine the potential of a special type of financial instrument called a Cooperative Capital Unit (CCU) introduced into the Australian legislation to facilitate external investment while maintaining member control. Design/methodology/approach – A Delphi panel and six focus groups were used to provide an understanding of the challenges associated with cooperative governance and financing and to aid the development of a conceptual framework for the implementation of CCUs. Findings – The findings from these Delphi panel and six focus groups were used to develop a proposed framework that the authors believe will be useful in structuring equity-like instruments depending on the purposes they might serve. In particular, the authors propose a new form of cooperative ownership and equity structure that could: better align member and investor interests; provide a mechanism to strengthen one role over the other depending on the needs of the cooperative; and provide investors with a better sense of security while retaining member control. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the cooperative ownership and equity structure proposed in this study are novel and not currently found in theory or practice. The insights provided by this study should, therefore, be of interest to a wide range of stakeholders, including cooperatives; professional advisors to these businesses; government regulators; investors; and researchers.