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Study region: Afghanistan, Central Asia. Study focus: In this study, we evaluated the terrestrial water storage dynamics in Afghanistan and its five major river basins using the terrestrial water storage anomalies (TWSA) from three Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mascons observations from JPL, CSR, and GSFC processing centers, and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) Land Data Assimilation System – Central Asia (FLDAS-CA) simulation. New hydrological insights for the regions: Since 2008, due to intense and prolonged drought conditions and groundwater overexploitation, TWS in Afghanistan has been decreasing at an alarming rate. The average slopes of the TWSA trend in Afghanistan for the GRACE period (2003–2016) of the three products range between − 3.6 to − 4.8 mm/year. The decrease in TWS is further exacerbated during the GRACE-FO period (2019–2022), ranging between − 20.4 to − 30 mm/year. Because groundwater is heavily relied on in the country but human-induced change (i.e., groundwater extraction) is not simulated in FLDAS-CA, a significant difference could be observed between GRACE observations and FLDAS-CA results, especially following after each severe drought event (e.g., 2008, 2018) when substantial groundwater extraction occurred. The assimilation of GRACE observations into the FLDAS-CA framework will undoubtedly have a positive impact for decision-makers and local stakeholders in preparing and mitigating the impacts of drought and groundwater overexploitation in Afghanistan and Central Asia.

We examine issues associated with various operational measures and model specifications in marketing-duality research that focuses on either a balancing or a combining perspective. In Study 1, we use archival data to demonstrate various operationalizations and models that subscribe to either perspective to test the impact of the exploration::exploitation duality, which produce mixed results. We then show that the multidimensional response surface approach constitutes a superior omnibus test that coalesces the two perspectives. Study 2, a simulation-based study, affirms the severity of biases in the existing approaches and the comprehensiveness and precision of the response surface approach. The cumulative evidence shows that the existing perspectives employ transformed measures that fail to distinguish firms with different approaches to the two activities underlying a duality. Thus, they suffer from many conceptual blind spots, produce mixed statistical conclusions, and are sensitive to changes in mean values. Our findings provide guidelines for the study of marketing dualities., Author(s): Youngtak M. Kim [sup.1] , John R. Busenbark [sup.2] , Seung-Hwan Jeong [sup.3] , Son K. Lam [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.213876.9, 0000 0004 1936 738X, Terry College of [...]

Introduction. Recently, multilingualism and translanguaging have received considerable attention and are always a topic of interest and public debate in language education. However, to our knowledge, studies on pre-service EFL teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism with respect to translanguaging in the Indonesian context have not appeared in the literature. Therefore, to address this gap, this research investigated beliefs about multilingualism with respect to translanguaging, including language separation, language use/mixing, and language support, among pre-service EFL teachers in the Indonesian context. Materials and Methods. This study is quantitative in nature, adopting a survey research design. We collected data from 270 pre-service EFL teachers using an online Likert scale questionnaire that lacked any potentially sensitive questions. They were between the ages of 17 and 26, and were English teacher candidates majoring in English education at higher education institutions on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and Kalimantan. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, which included the percentages and frequency distributions of the participants’ Likert scale responses. Results. The current study’s findings corroborate previous research indicating that teachers believe multilingualism and collaborative use of languages are potential assets that can benefit their students’ language learning. Discussion and Conclusion. Language separation in EFL classrooms appears to be a point of contention for the majority of pre-service EFL teachers surveyed, with a preference for and support for multilingualism and translanguaging over language separation in EFL classrooms. They agree on the importance of using or mixing other languages in their classes. On the one hand, they believe that it is critical to avoid other language support in classrooms; on the other hand, they believe that other language support can benefit students, offering a wave of optimism about future language education. Therefore, there is a need to gradually introduce and include pedagogical translanguaging to the existing curricula. The integration of new multilingual facts and the implementation of translanguaging pedagogies are part of a larger educational renewal. There is a need to intentionally create a multilingual space (translanguaging space) in EFL classrooms to fully utilise studentsʼ multilingual capabilities creatively and critically because today many teachers struggle to reconcile the disparities between monolingual educational policies and the realities of multilingual classrooms.

The revolution in information availability and the advances in novel interaction technologies have ushered in two major shifts that call into question the traditional assumptions of buyer-seller interactions. First, buyer-seller information asymmetry has greatly decreased in many interactions. Second, face-to-face communication is no longer the main format of buyer-seller interactions. In this article, the authors review empirical research on how these shifts have changed buyer-seller negotiations, an important type of buyer-seller interactions. Several insights arise from this review. First, the shifts have caused fundamental changes in buyers' and sellers' roles, power, and aspirations and information processing. Second, the shifts and these fundamental changes together cause major changes in buyer-seller interactional processes and outcomes, including (1) change in buyers' attitude and behavior, (2) change in sellers' effectiveness in interacting with buyers, and (3) change in buyer-seller interactional processes. Based on these insights, the authors develop a research agenda to guide the reexamination of existing theories and the development of new theories of buyer-seller interactions., Author(s): Michael Ahearne [sup.1] , Yashar Atefi [sup.2] , Son K. Lam [sup.3] , Mohsen Pourmasoudi [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.266436.3, 0000 0004 1569 9707, C. T. Bauer College of [...]

We report full-length draft de novo genome assemblies for 16 widely used inbred mouse strains and find extensive strain-specific haplotype variation. We identify and characterize 2,567 regions on the current mouse reference genome exhibiting the greatest sequence diversity. These regions are enriched for genes involved in pathogen defence and immunity and exhibit enrichment of transposable elements and signatures of recent retrotransposition events. Combinations of alleles and genes unique to an individual strain are commonly observed at these loci, reflecting distinct strain phenotypes. We used these genomes to improve the mouse reference genome, resulting in the completion of 10 new gene structures. Also, 62 new coding loci were added to the reference genome annotation. These genomes identified a large, previously unannotated, gene (Efcab3-like) encoding 5,874 amino acids. Mutant Efcab3-like mice display anomalies in multiple brain regions, suggesting a possible role for this gene in the regulation of brain development.

Prior research on salesperson judgment and decision making (JDM) has been fragmented. After identifying how salespeople uniquely differ from other decision makers and unpacking how various personal selling issues can benefit from research in the JDM domain, the authors provide a framework to guide future research on salesperson JDM. The framework includes a research idea generation template to facilitate the identification of theoretically and substantively important research questions about salesperson JDM., Author(s): Son K. Lam [sup.1] , Michel van der Borgh [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.213876.9, 0000 0004 1936 738X, Associate Professor of Marketing, Terry Dean's Advisory Council Distinguished Professorship, Terry [...]

Contrary to the intuition that salespeople gravitate toward big-whale sales opportunities, in reality they often avoid them. To study this phenomenon, the authors integrate contingent decision-making and conservation-of-resources theories to develop and test a framework of salespeople's decision making when prospecting. Study 1 reveals that the performance impact of salesperson initial judgment of opportunity magnitude follows an inverted U-shape, indicating that salespeople's avoidance of large opportunities results from rational benefit–cost analyses due to their conservation of resources. Interestingly, salespeople use a calibration decision-making strategy (i.e., calculating expected benefits by accounting for conversion uncertainty) at the portfolio rather than prospect level, in solution- but not product-selling contexts. Ignoring this calibration effect can lead to under- or overestimation of conversion rates of up to 100%. Study 2 shows that salespeople's past performance success and experience bias this calibration. Simulations reveal that when high performers or inexperienced salespeople believe their portfolio magnitude is large and conversion uncertainty low, they are less concerned about resource conservation and improve their quota attainment by 50%. Study 3 confirms the theoretical mechanism. These findings shed new light on salespeople's decision making and suggest ways for sales professionals to improve effectiveness when prospecting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As organizational buying systems grow more complex and sophisticated, suppliers increasingly rely on buyer advocacy: an individual buyer's efforts to influence his/her colleagues such that the supplier's standing is improved. Drawing from cognitive response theory, the authors hypothesize an inverted U-shaped relationship between a buyer's advocacy for a supplier and the customer's purchases from that supplier. They theorize that this effect is moderated by the advocate's industry experience and customer-supplier relationship characteristics. An analysis of multisource data from a B2B service provider (Study 1) supports the predicted inverted U-shaped relationship, while a unique dataset from a large industrial supplier (Study 2) provides broad support for the hypothesized moderators. Finally, a randomized experiment (Study 3) replicates key findings and corroborates the theorized cognitive response mechanisms. Findings contribute to the limited literature on buyer advocacy within the organizational buying domain and offer practical implications for suppliers and buyers., Author(s): Justin M. Lawrence [sup.1] , Andrew T. Crecelius [sup.2] , Lisa K. Scheer [sup.3] , Son K. Lam [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0001 0721 7331, grid.65519.3e, Spears School [...]

Drawing from the interactional psychology of personality and multitasking paradigm, we examine the contingencies of salesperson orientation ambidexterity in the 'exploration' of new customers (i.e., hunting) and the 'exploitation' of existing customers (i.e., farming) to achieve sales growth and make time allocation decisions. The results from a field study and an experiment indicate that the impact of salesperson orientation ambidexterity is contingent on a salesperson's customer base characteristics. First, a salesperson's orientation ambidexterity in both hunting and farming leads to significantly higher (lower) sales growth when his or her existing customer base is large (small). Second, high levels of customer base newness in a salesperson's customer portfolio weaken the relationship between hunting time allocation at time t - 1 and hunting time allocation at time t, suggesting that salespeople are not subject to a success trap in hunting. However, salespeople are subject to a success trap in farming. These findings shed new light on how a salesperson's customer portfolio influences salesperson behaviors and performance, with implications for how to better manage ambidextrous behaviors in customer engagement., Author(s): Son K. Lam [sup.1] , Thomas E. DeCarlo [sup.2] , Ashish Sharma [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0004 1936 738X, grid.213876.9, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, , [...]

The authors examine the upstream impact of a firm's customer-centric organizational structure on its supplier, including both positive effects of greater revenue and negative effects of demanding services that raise the supplier's costs. These countervailing effects on supplier profit are moderated by characteristics of the firm's buying center and the firm-supplier relationship, in accordance with the value capture literature. Study 1 examines the proposed firm-level financial effects of the dual processes, using surveys of industrial firms matched with secondary data from their supplier. Study 2 assesses the supplier-level net impact of the dual processes, using publicly available data to shed light on the upstream financial impact of firms' customer-centric structures across a broad sample of Fortune 500 suppliers. Findings highlight the need for a supplier to proactively assess the structure of each buyer-firm, as a supplier can take steps to mitigate cost effects and enhance revenue effects., Author(s): Andrew T. Crecelius [sup.1] , Justin M. Lawrence [sup.2] , Ju-Yeon Lee [sup.3] , Son K. Lam [sup.4] , Lisa K. Scheer [sup.5] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000000106344187, grid.265892.2, Collat [...]

Abstract This case study investigated the effects of formation reservoir properties, aquifer influx, and production scheme on ultimate recovery and production behaviors of a gas-condensate sandstone reservoir Sand20 offshore Vietnam. Optimum production strategy was then formulated to maximize the hydrocarbon recovery while reducing the water treatment cost. The approach focused on the construction of benchmarked radial numerical models to describe the water coning and breakthrough phenomenon and to better understand the impacts of aquifer on deliverability and ultimate recovery of a gas-condensate reservoir. In this study, all factors that have potential impacts on gas and oil ultimate recoveries such as gas production rate, completion length, aquifer size, reservoir horizontal permeability, and permeability anisotropy were investigated. The numerical results showed that for permeability greater than 100 mD, withdrawal rates do not have significant impacts on reservoir gas recovery, while the oil recovery decreases with increasing withdrawal rates. To maximize the ultimate oil recovery, minimize total water production, delay water breakthrough time, and prolong field production life, the wells are recommended to produce at a reasonable low gas flow rate. On the other hand, a minimum gas production rate is required to recover all the reserves to meet the field’s production strategy. Aquifer size was found to have no impact on water breakthrough time for this gas-condensate reservoir, but it can have big impact on the recovery factor and the total water production. This study also suggested that perforation interval should be sufficiently long to maximize recovery. Finally, it was found that water–gas ratio does not increase rapidly until approximately 90% of perforation interval is flooded with water.

When should business-to-business firms encourage their salespeople to advocate for the customer in pricing negotiations? This research extends dual agency theory to the sales domain to address this question. In Study 1, the authors examine discount negotiations with secondary data from a major U.S. distributor. They find that the customer and seller both experience the most favorable outcomes when the salesperson advocates strongly for both parties; advocacy for either party alone is counterproductive. Study 2 confirms these results using matched survey, pricing, and profit data and demonstrates a key boundary condition: broad customer--seller ties enable the synergy between customer advocacy and seller advocacy by enhancing the firms' abilities to monitor the salesperson. In Study 3, experiments with business-to-business buyers replicate key findings and provide evidence for theorized mechanisms. This research emphasizes the interdependence between the salesperson's dual roles and demonstrates how the salesperson can serve as an effective agent of both the customer and seller, thereby mitigating challenges associated with role conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]