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The importance of communication skills of the salesperson (SP) on buyer satisfaction is fait accompli. However, how various facets of listening, along with the core components of SP's communication (i.e., content and diligence) contribute to the value creation process is poorly understood. The current research presents a conceptual framework to explain these effects and tests the model empirically. The authors conceptualize a framework for how critical aspects of SP's communication with customers differentially influence imagery versus transactional value creation. This process is explained with an application of the dual process theory. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is employed to examine the theorized pathways within a sample of buyers of a large manufacturing firm in the United States. Results exhibit that while various facets of listening differentially contribute to the two value types, the core aspects of SP's communication mainly affect transactional value creation. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.

Advertising is oft described as the art of capitalism. This indispensable form of communication, in all its Technicolor glory, has the power to shape culture, conscience and commerce. Therein lies ...

Purpose Customers can be territorial, which results in reactive behaviors that can hurt firm profitability. This study aims to expand the typology of customer territorial responses previously identified in the environmental psychology and marketing literature. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a mixture of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The exploratory studies elicit and test a typology of consumer territorial responses using critical incident technique and factor analysis. Two surveys use the typology. Study 1 examines intrusiveness in grocery store settings. Study 2 expands the model with specialty store shoppers to examine how rapport, employee greed, entitlement and time pressure interact with intrusion pressure and relate to customer territorial responses. Findings The results indicate a new category of territorial responses – deferential verbalizations – and show relationships between intrusion pressure and deferential actions, retaliatory verbalizations, retaliatory actions and abandonment. The relationships are affected by the moderators, including rapport, which interacts with intrusion pressure to increase the likelihood of switching. Research limitations/implications Collecting data near closing time restricted observations and consumer time to participate using self-report data. The results should be replicated with other populations and service providers. Practical implications Managers should monitor customer treatment during closing time. The results indicate consumer responses to closing time cues not only impact their shopping trip but also affect whether they will patronize the store in the future. Originality/value The study provides an expanded typology of territorial responses, identifies moderating factors that may affect responses and links employee intrusiveness and territorial responses to store patronage.

Food insecurity and poor nutrition negatively affect consumer health and well-being. Trait hope is conceptualized as a powerful thought process that can facilitate change. However, it is unclear how trait hope, the sense that one can successfully plan and put forth energy to meet goals, influences food insecurity among impoverished consumers. The authors conducted an evaluative study using in-home surveys (n = 498) in seven distressed census tracts of a midsized southeastern U.S. city to understand how financial capability and trait hope, a cognitive process, interact to influence perceived access to fresh food among Black and Hispanic consumers that disproportionately face food insecurity. Trait hope positively moderated the relationship between financial capability and perceived access, which was related to lower food insecurity. The results, which indicated important differences related to race/ethnicity, suggest that interventions that improve financial capability and increase trait hope may improve efficacy of food and nutrition assistance programs.

This paper makes a first attempt to bring the Shape from Polarization (SfP) problem to the realm of deep learning. The previous state-of-the-art methods for SfP have been purely physics-based. We see value in these principled models, and blend these physical models as priors into a neural network architecture. This proposed approach achieves results that exceed the previous state-of-the-art on a challenging dataset we introduce. This dataset consists of polarization images taken over a range of object textures, paints, and lighting conditions. We report that our proposed method achieves the lowest test error on each tested condition in our dataset, showing the value of blending data-driven and physics-driven approaches.

We demonstrate a technique for rendering textured haptic surfaces in mid-air, using an ultrasound haptic display. Our technique renders tessellated 3D `haptic' shapes with different waveform properties, creating surfaces with distinct perceptions.

Acoustic levitation enables new types of human-computer interface, where the content that users interact with is made up from small objects held in mid-air. We show that acoustically-levitated objects can form mid-air widgets that respond to interaction. Users can interact with them using in-air hand gestures. Sound and widget movement are used as feedback about the interaction.

Brexit raises endless legal questions. From a Scottish perspective, the Brexit vote is but one part of a more complex political picture, in which Scotland’s position in Europe has assumed considerable significance. The writer explains the respective positions of the Scottish and British governments within the existing UK constitutional arrangements; possible European solutions for Scotland, whether as part of the UK or as an independent country; and some of the immediate private law challenges for the UK in the event of the two-year period in Art 50 TEU expiring without any agreement

A. INTRODUCTION B. SCOTS LAW IN COMPARATIVE CONTEXT (1) Terminology (2) Scots Law de lege lata (3) Fiducia (4) Limited security rights: the comparative context (a) Introduction (b) English Law (c) German Law (d) French Law (5) Modern international instruments (6) Publicity C. THE DUTCH CONTEXT (1) The old Dutch Civil Code (1838-1991) (2) Introduction of the new Dutch Civil Code (1992) (3) Prohibition on fiduciary transfers and introduction of the undisclosed pledge (4) Assignation and intimation (5) Introduction of the undisclosed assignation (2004) (6) Summary of Dutch development