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Few academic disciplines make as frequent use of experiential learning exercises as marketing and sales. This is particularly true in selling courses, where a sales role play often serves as a culminating exercise in which students are tasked with building rapport with a buyer, uncovering buyer needs, overcoming objections, and closing a sale. However, we contend that this typical sales role play can be extended by tasking students with the need to perform independent research to speak convincingly about the concept of value. In response, we describe an innovative role play based on the purposeful choreography, which tasks students with presenting a compelling, and novel, business case to a buyer. Moreover, we highlight opportunities and challenges for sales professors who are interested in adopting this role play into their advanced selling courses.

This randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial evaluated the efficacy and safety of fermented gold kiwi (FGK) in improving gastrointestinal health. A total of 100 participants were enrolled and randomly assigned to treatment or placebo groups. Over 8 weeks, the participants consumed an FGK or placebo preparation daily. Primary outcomes included changes in gastrointestinal symptoms assessed using the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS) and the Korean version of the Nepean Dyspepsia Index (NDI-K), as well as quality of life assessed using the Functional Dyspepsia-related Quality of Life questionnaire. The FGK group showed significant improvements in GSRS and NDI-K total and subdomain scores compared with the placebo group. Moreover, the quality of life scores were significantly better in the FGK group than in the placebo group. Safety evaluations revealed no significant adverse events or clinically meaningful changes upon assessing laboratory test results. This study demonstrated that FGK is a safe and effective dietary supplement for improving gastrointestinal health in adults with gastrointestinal symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent emerging studies have demonstrated numerous critical roles of exosomes in cell-to-cell signaling. We investigated exosomes in the aqueous humor of glaucoma patients and controls and compared their characteristics with other biomarkers such as cytokines. Glaucoma patients exhibited higher exosome particle counts and smaller sizes compared to controls. Higher exosome density was correlated with more severe visual field loss. Conversely, concentrations of aqueous humor cytokines, particularly PD-L1, were primarily associated with intraocular pressure, and none of the cytokines showed a significant association with visual field damage. This may reflect the characteristics of exosomes, which are advantageous for crossing various biological barriers. Exosomes may contain more information about glaucoma functional damage occurring in the retina or optic nerve head. This highlights the potential importance of exosomes as signaling mediators distinct from other existing molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic business environments can cause unexpected disruptions that can force firms to embrace new ways of working. In such situations, salesforce change agility can be a key to success. However, scant research has examined the factors that promote the development of change agility, or the consequences thereof. We address these notable omissions by using a sample of 237 B2B salespeople to explore the effect of idiosyncratic deals on work absorption, change agility, behavioral performance, and sales performance. The findings indicate that a salesperson's idiosyncratic work arrangements (i.e. Flexibility and Development Idiosyncratic Deals) enhance work absorption, which in turn increases salesperson change agility. Moreover, we find that while development idiosyncratic deals are positively related to change agility, flexibility idiosyncratic deals do not impact change agility. Finally, our analysis also shows that change agility is positively related to behavioral performance, with subsequent downstream effects on sales performance. Collectively, these findings offer a glimpse into the importance of agile behaviors as salespeople deal with the changes impacting the sales function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

7-MEGATM is a food product made from purified Alaska pollack fish oil containing palmitoleic acid (16:1), commonly referred to as omega-7. We sought to quantitatively evaluate whether this substance inhibits skin aging. A total of 101 middle-aged females were randomly allocated to the intervention (N = 50) or placebo group (N = 51). Each participant was advised to take either 500 mg of 7-MEGATM or a placebo twice daily for 12 weeks. The primary outcomes were the degree of improvement in wrinkles and the degree of moisture filling after consumption for 12 weeks compared to baseline. The secondary outcomes were improvement in skin wrinkles; moisture changes at 4 and 8 weeks from baseline; changes in transdermal water loss, skin elasticity, the melanin index, the erythema index, and the Global Photo Damage Score. We found a significant improvement in skin wrinkles and elasticity at 12 weeks in the 7-MEGATM-consuming group compared to that in the placebo group; skin moisture, elasticity, and the melanin index were also improved. No supplement-related adverse reactions were observed and 7-MEGATM was identified as safe. 7-MEGATM was effective for human skin function in terms of wrinkles, moisture, elasticity, and melanin production and may be useful as a skin nutritional supplement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines how gold-related color in atmospherics might influence customer tipping behavior at restaurants. A series of five studies shows that the color gold (as opposed to other colors) in a service atmosphere positively influences consumer tipping. First, a field experiment (Study 1) demonstrates that customers presented with a gold-colored (vs. black-colored) service prop (i.e., bill folder) leave larger tips. Study 2 further confirms this effect of the color gold by validating the findings of Study 1 with a different service prop (i.e., tablecloth). Process evidence demonstrates the underlying mechanism of this effect, whereby a gold-colored service prop increases tipping by influencing status perceptions about the restaurant and the self (Study 3). Additional studies further confirm this by ruling out novelty of the color in this mechanism (Study 4) and by highlighting the effect of status on tipping through status priming (Study 5). The findings of this research have implications for strategic use of color in servicescape design and atmospherics in general., Author(s): Na Young Lee [sup.1] , Stephanie M. Noble [sup.2] , Dipayan Biswas [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) University of Tennessee, 0000 0001 2315 1184, grid.411461.7, , 305 Stokely Management Center, [...]