This research investigated how neuromarketing can improve and determine the effectiveness of action-based public health and social cause marketing communications with social amplification platforms. Action-based advertisements (Ferrier, Ward, & Palermo, 2012) aim to encourage consumers to ‘act’, ‘share’, make a ‘pledge’ or complete a ‘challenge’ for a public health or social cause. Public health messages as non-commercial advertisements attempt to change public behaviour (Vecchiato, Cherubino, Trettel, & Babiloni, 2013). Research was conducted using a 64 channel EEG wet cap with electrodes placed according to the international 10/20 system (Gountas et al., 2014; Treleaven-Hassard et al., 2010). The study applied an exploratory design which involved 4 tasks where participants viewed 7 advertisements (6 action-based, 1 control) and their logos while EEG was recorded. Preliminary LORETA results from the first five seconds of the most effective advertisement indicated approach responses due to left prefrontal and right parietal cortex activation (Davidson & Irwin, 1999; Vecchiato et al., 2013). Results suggest that consumer’s decision making about an advertisement occurs within the first five seconds of viewing an advertisement.

Introduction Social media communication has become a popular way for firms to engage with customers. Research shows that firms/brands engagement with fans or customers on social media is effective to improve brand equity (Kim & Ko, 2012), drive sales (eMarketer, 2015), and enhance both transactional and relational customer behaviour (Kumar, Bezawada, Rishika, Janakiraman, & Kannan, 2016). Given the influences of social media communication, how brands effectively engage with fans or followers on social media is an important question for marketers. Most research on this topic is from the applied psychology and consumer behaviour literature, whose theories and content are dominantly tested in laboratory setting. Very few research (e.g., Lee, Hosanagar, & Nair, 2017) applied real behaviour data of field settings to study this issue. Additionally, existent research primarily focuses on social media like Facebook and Twitter in developed counties. To our knowledge, no research examines global brands social media communications in developing country, like China. Due to the policy constraints, people in mainland China have no access to foreign social media platforms. There is a local social media platform in China, named Weibo. Weibo is a NASDAQ-listed company and has nearly 100 million active users monthly. Many brands, both global and local ones, have created Weibo accounts and keep engaging with their fans. For example, there are 1,452 luxury brands and 3,707 beverage brands or firms on Weibo (Weibo Data Centre, 2017). This paper focuses on global brands’ communication practices on Weibo. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how brand posts that global brands put on their social media page are correlated with fan engagement. By using real data form Weibo, we answer the following questions: (1) what attributes of brand posts on Weibo do affect fan engagement with global brands? (2) how do these attributes affect fans engagement behaviour (i.e. liking, sharing, and commenting) differently? Conceptual Framework We decompose the attributes of global brand social media posts into five aspects, which are proposed to affect fans engagement. The first two aspects, interactivity and vividness, are derived from computer-mediated-communication research (Frotin & Dholakia, 2005; Hoffman & Novak, 1996). The next two, informative and emotional attributes, are developed from the literature of advertising (Hong, Muderrisoglu, & Zinkhan, 1987; Geuens, Pelsmacker, & Faseur, 2011). The last one is localization-related attributes, which is from global marketing communication literature (Kanso & Nelson, 2002) to capture the special characteristics of global brand posts on a local social media platform. We argue that all these five aspects of global brand posts affect fans engagement on brand page. Fans engagement is conceptualized as fans behavioural response to brand posts, which will influence attitude and behaviour of other fans. There are three kinds of fans responses on brands social media page, i.e., liking, sharing and commenting. We do control the time and date of post issued, the text length of post, whether having celebrity in post, whether related to a remarkable event, the number of followers of brand on Weibo, and product category. Interactivity Interactivity is defined as “the degree to which two or more communication parties can act on each other, on the communication medium, and on the messages and the degree to which such influences are synchronized” (Liu & Shrum 2002, p.54). Interactivity requires two-way interaction between not only customers and companies, but customers themselves (Hoffman & Novak, 1996). Brand posts on Weibo differ in the degree of interactivity. Some posts only have text, picture, or video to deliver messages of brands, which has no possibility to interact with fans. Some posts include a link that fans can click to get more information, which enhances the interactivity of communication. Other posts have questions, which stimulate interaction with fans and followers. There are posts inviting people to indicate their like or comment on social media, which are considered as high interactivity as well. Advertising research has found the positive correlation between interactivity of ads and consumers’ attitude (Coyle & Thorson, 2001). De Vries, Gensler and Leeflang (2012) found interactivity of brand post on brand fan pages partially positively related to brand popularity (measured by number of likes and comments). Empirical research (Lee et al., 2017) using Facebook data showed that having links negatively associated with customer engagement, and having questions increased comments but reduced likings. For the inconsistent findings in the literature, we re-examine this relationship by focusing on global brands on a not well-examined Chinese social media, Weibo. Vividness Vividness refers to the format richness of the message (Daft & Lengel, 1986; Fortin & Dholakia, 2005). As for brand posts, vividness is reflected by the number of sensory dimensions and senses presented (text, colours, pictures, and videos, etc.). The degree of vividness influences what and how multiple senses are stimulated (Coyle & Thorson, 2001). For example, a picture post will activate more senses than a text post because the former has colour that stimulates sight more vividly than the later. Vividness is related to but differs from interactivity. Interactivity focuses on the characteristic of two-way interaction of the communication, while vividness stands for the multiple senses stimulated by the communication. Some advertising research found that a vivid web advertisement results in higher attention and more clicks (Lohtia, Donthu, & Hershberger, 2003). As a result, we differentiate vividness of each post and predict that more vivid post associated with higher customer engagement. A vivid post attracts more likes, shares and comments. Localization-related attributes Localization-related attributes are symbols that posts have reflecting the characteristics of local culture and people. The debate of globalization (standardization) versus localization has lasted several decades. Even though a global standardized marketing strategy saves money and gains scale economy, the localization approach (Keegan, 1969) is supported by the reality that each market has unique tastes. In the international advertising literature, some scholars found that many multinational firms “plan globally and act locally” (Blackwell, Ajami, & Stephan, 1991). “Global-local dilemma” exists when global luxury brands internationalize into the Chinese market (Liu et al., 2016). The marketing communication research found that it is not advised for global brands to use the same appeals and symbols in advertising across different countries (Kanso & Nelson, 2002). In other words, the combination of global advertising theme and local communication expertise can result in enhanced effectiveness. We propose, on Weibo, people are more actively engaged to like, share, or comment global brand posts when Chinese elements, such as Chinse handwriting, Chinese festivals, and Chinese celebrity spokespeople, are present. Informative attributes Besides interactivity and vividness, which capture the format characteristics of global brand posts, content-related attributes are associated with customer engagement as well. Informative content is an important side of content attributes. One important function of brand posts is to deliver messages to customers. Research shows that on social networks people tend to have positive attitudes towards informative ads (Taylor, Lewin, & Strutton, 2011). Global brand posts with specific information should result in higher customer engagement than less informative posts. Additionally, global brand posts on social media may have different types of marketing information, such as product, price, promotion and placerelated ones respectively. The posts with varying degree of informative content may change customer engagement as well. Emotional attributes Emotional attributes are another side of the content characteristics of brand posts besides informative ones. Advertising research shows that using emotion appeal in ads is an effective way to gain people attention and generate actions (Holbrook & Batra, 1987). Emotional connections between customers and brands are considered more stable than cognitive association (Heath, Brandt, & Nairn, 2006). Some scholars find that emotional appeal on banner advertising result in positive effects on click-through rates in both B2B and B2C contexts (Lohtia et al., 2003). Empirical research (Lee et al., 2017) on Facebook shows that perceived emotion in brand posts strongly boost users’ likes and comments. Similarly, we propose that emotional attributes of global brand posts on Weibo are correlated with fans engagement. We conceptualize emotional attributes with three elements, emotional tone, emotional icon and emotional core. Emotional core reflects the type of emotions, such as humour, happiness, and love, etc. Emotional tone stands for the strength of emotion, i.e. the emotion is weak or strong. Emotional icon refers to whether the content of posts has emotional symbols, which can take form of icons or net slangs. Research Design Operationalization Dependent variables Customer engagement is operationalized as three variables, the number of likes, the number of shares, and the number of comments of each global brand post. Independent variables Vividness. Vividness is operationalized as four categories standing for different vividness degree, text only, (text and) static picture, (text, static and) animated picture, (text, picture and) video. Interactivity. Interactivity is operationalized as five 0-1 variables, having link, having question, having invitation/incentive to like, having invitation/incentive to share, having invitation/incentive to comment. Localization-related attributes. This part is operationalized as four 0-1 variables, having Chinese culture image, having Chinese culture colour, having Chinese festival, and having Chinese celebrity spokespeople (we include celebrity as a control variable). Informative attributes. This part is operationalized as seven 0-1 variables, whether a post having information of (1) brand name, (2) promotion/trial, (3) price, (4) segmentation, (5) product lunch time, (6) purchase distribution, and (7) public relation event. Emotional attributes. This part is operationalized as three variables, (1) emotional icon, a 0- 1 variable, having emotional symbols or not, (2) emotional core, a categorical variable, different type of emotions identified by surveyed respondents, and (3) emotion tone, a scalerating variable from 1 to 3, standing for none, weak and strong emotion. Control Variables. There are five control variables, (1) time of posts, including date and hour; (2) length of posts, i.e., the number of Chinese characters; (3) celebrity, whether there is a celebrity in a post; (4) event, whether a post is related to a remarkable event; (5) the number of fans of brand, and (6) product category (3 dummy variables to differentiate four categories). Data We chose 6 global brands across five product categories, specifically, beverage (Coca-cola and Starbucks), cosmetics (Olay and L’Oréal), and sports (Nike and Adidas). All these global brands created Weibo account before 2012 and have cumulated a large number of followers. We select the posts from Sept. 1, 2016 to Feb. 28, 2017, within 6 months. This time duration is long enough to get analytical data. This period covers main Chinese traditional festivals, such as Mid-Autumn Festival, National Day, and Chinse New Year, which results in more variances in localization-related variables. Data were collected through two stages. The first stage was to download raw data from Weibo’s brand pages with Internet worm program directly. Each brand has its page which contains all posts it issued and the number of people’s likes, shares, and comments for each post. The second stage is to code content and get the final dataset. Most of 0-1 variables, such as interactivity, localization-related attributes, and informative attributes were coded by two research assistants. Variables of vividness were also coded by them. Variables of emotional attributes were coded by a survey to ask 500 Weibo users. This survey-based coded method is well applied in published research (e.g., Kumar et al., 2016; Lee et al., 2017). Model The three dependent variables, the numbers of likes (y1), shares (y2), and comments (y3), are count data with a Poisson distribution. As a result, the basic model is as following: 𝑦ij = 𝛼 + 𝑒𝑥𝑝(Σ3p=1 𝛽1p 𝑣𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑑pj + Σ5q=1 𝛽2q 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟qj + Σ4r=1 𝛽lr 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙rj + Σ7s=1 𝛽4s 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑜sj + Σ3p=1 𝛽5t 𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑡tj + 𝛽6 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒j + 𝛽7 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟j + 𝛽8 𝑙𝑒𝑛j + 𝛽9 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑒j + 𝛽10 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡j + 𝛽11 #𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤j + Σ4u=1 𝛽12u 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑡uj) + 𝜀ij (1) Expected Results This research is among the first initiative to examine social media communication in China. We are still working on the data analysis so far. We intend to identify the influence of global posts on fans engagement, which are from not only the content of posts (informative and emotional attributes), but also the design of posts (vividness and interactivity), and especially the localization considerations. We expect to find that the content foci differ fans engagement. Posts of sales promotion should be more effective to enhance fans engagement than those of product demonstration. We can identify what form of posts stimulates fans participation more effectively. We will know whether a video post is more effective than a picture post. Most interestingly, we will know how the posts combined with Chinese cultural elements on social media are responded. For example, we could compare the difference between posts having foreign and local celebrity people. We will know how different customer engagement behaviour influence by the same characteristic of posts. We can identify the most influential factors to each of three customer responses (liking, sharing, and commenting). Comparing with the research using data from Facebook or other social media outlets, we can obtain implications guiding global brands to implement social media strategy across countries.

Most previous studies exploring the relative effectiveness of superiority and parity claims in comparative advertising were based on the regulatory focus theory. However, the findings of these studies provided limited implications for practice. The current research attempts to examine the relative effectiveness of superiority versus parity claims in comparative advertising from the perspective of construal level theory. Recent research has found that the fitness between message framing and construal level can enhance processing fluency of information. Specifically, loss-framed messages are more impactful when paired with low-level construals, whereas gain-framed messages are more effective when paired with high-level construals. Accordingly, the current study predicts that a superiority claim, which states sponsor brand is better than the competitors, is more effective in enhancing brand attitude than parity claim when the construal level is high. Conversely, a parity claim, which argues sponsor brand asserts parity with the comparison target, lead to more favorable brand attitude than superiority claims in the condition of low-level construal. This study conducted a (superiority claim vs. parity claim) × 2 (high-level construal vs. low-level construal) experimental designs to examine proposed hypotheses. The manipulation of construal level either highlighted a concrete “how” message or an abstract “why” message. The results showed that the superiority (parity) claim leads to more positive brand attitude and purchase intention than the parity (superiority) claim when customers are presented with message highlights an abstract “why” (concrete “how”) construal. Based on the findings, this study suggests that superiority claims combine with the “why”-oriented thoughts can enhance the effectiveness of the comparative advertising. In contrast, when parity claims are used, “how” -oriented, thoughts should be integrated in comparative advertising.

In terms of sustainability alone, consumers are faced with a staggering assortment of 463 different labels across 25 industry sectors, a number that is only expected to grow over time (Ecolabel Index 2016). Amid growing environmental concerns, research suggests that many consumers are unlikely to consider the consequences of their choices at the point of purchase, or if they attempt to do so, they generally do not have the information necessary to make more sustainable choices. Given the rise of ineffective green communication protocols and consumers’ concerns with environmental impacts associated with their purchases, this paper attempts to understand how the provision of sustainability labeling can influence comprehension and consumer decision-making. Utilizing the ambiguity theoretical framework (Einhorn and Hogarth 1985), we suggest that perceptions of sustainability will be influenced using an anchor comprising a plausible range based on consumers’ existing beliefs and internal points of reference (Broniarczyk and Alba 1994). That is, consumers revert to a pre-existing reference point, and the new information does not allow for much movement in perceptions. In an ambiguous situation in which consumers have limited knowledge of product sustainability, the perceived brand-based sustainability level is expected to allow consumers to establish an initial value of sustainability (Hogarth and Kunreuther 1992). Our findings suggest that providing environmental information can be a useful tool in assisting consumers in making sustainable decisions. Providing quantitative aggregated environmental impact information of products influences consumers’ perceived ambiguity, leading to evaluation of the brand. The perceived ambiguity derived from sustainability level provides an underlying mechanism in information processing. Given rising concerns about consumers ability to process sustainability information in an efficient manner, our findings suggest that one way to encourage consumers to better process the sustainability information is to mitigate perceived ambiguity. Enforcing disclosure initiatives that assess the environmental impact of products can provide benefit to firms—especially for product categories in which limited loyalty or differentiation exists. Sustainability disclosures appear to offer a mechanism that can help consumers make informed decisions. Furthermore, extrapolating the influence of disclosures on consumer evaluation and choice across the variety of product categories for which consumers routinely make purchases suggests the potential for dramatic increases in global sustainability.

This study explores the effect of ad variation effectiveness as a function of cultural differences, drawing from visual attention and encoding variability theory. Findings on HK and UK participants suggest that varying ad features may be most effective by changing those features that correspond to the intended consumer’s cognitive styles. Introduction Previous research suggests that showing varied ads can enhance brand recall, and result in more positive attitudes towards the brand (Unnava & Burnkrant, 1991). Following the encoding variability theory (Lee & Lee, 2016; Yaveroglu & Donthu, 2008), variations in encoded information improve recall because these variations provide additional memory representations for the target information, hence leading to more retrieval cues for the information to be recalled (Anderson & Bower, 1973). Transposed to an advertising context, each element of an ad (e.g., graphics, layout, backgrounds, products, brand logo, etc.) can serve as a retrieval cue for information recall. For instance, if a target product is embedded in two different backgrounds (e.g., a beer in a social event vs beach background), these two different contexts can serve as two different retrieval cues for the target product, compared to only one possible retrieval cue provided in same ad repetition. Since encoding variability theory relies on contextual changes and multiple memory paths to explain the ad variation effect, it may be affected by cultural difference (specifically, selective attention), which can act as a moderator of ad variation effectiveness. Western and East-Asian people have been found to have different visual attentional biases (e.g., Nisbett & Masuda, 2003), with Westerners being more attentive on focal objects (analytic perception) and Easterners focusing more on the whole picture (holistic perception). As such, the selective attention they paid towards the ad may enable them more susceptible to specific changes of an ad, thus increasing the available memory pathway towards brand information, i.e., brand recall. Brand attitudes are suggested to be formed through learning (e.g., Van Osselaer & Alba, 2000), i.e., consumers learn and process the information conveyed in an ad, which eventually affects their attitude towards a brand. This study therefore also tested the role of visual attention in moderating the effect of ad variation on brand attitude, since Eastern and Western customers learn differently due to their visual attentional styles. To examine the possible moderation of ad-variation effectiveness by visual attention in a cross-cultural context, this study exposed HK (Eastern) and UK (Western) participants with two different varied-ad executions, foreground-varied ads (ads that vary in focal object) and background-varied ads (ads that change in background features). Identical-ad execution was also included as a baseline. We hypothesized that, due to the difference in attentional bias in Eastern participants (holistic) and Western participants (analytic), different types of ad variations might results in different extents of effectiveness of the ad variation. Method A 2 (Culture: UK vs. HK) x3 (Ad type: identical vs. background-varied vs. foregroundvaried) between-subject factorial design experiment was used in this study. We used a fictitious Beer brand - Helga Brugge - for this study. In the identical-ad condition, the same target ad was repeated three times. We designed a target beer and two beer pints as foreground features and background features included a camping scene (in identical-ad condition), and a football stadium, camping scene and a social event scene (in background-varied condition). In foreground-varied condition, while keeping the background image constant (camping background), the foreground features differed, i.e., a bottle beer, a canned beer, and a bottle beer with two beer pins. See Figure 1 for the target ad stimuli. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the three ad type conditions and watched the 20 advertisement slides (3 target ads with 17 filler ads), each of which was presented singularly for 3 seconds. Filler ads were chosen from real ads that were not used anymore at the time of the study. They included various product categories other than beer such as toy, beverage, and cosmetics. After being exposed to the advertisement, participants were asked to answer a series of questions measuring a number of variables in the following order: ad recall and brand recall (Lee & Lee, 2016), brand attitude (MacKenzie, Lutz & Belch, 1986) and demographic information. Data was collecting online using Qualtrics. Both Chinese and English versions of instructions were back translated (Miracle and Bang, 2002). Results After excluding incomplete datasets and participants whose nationality was not British or Hong Kong, the final sample comprised 117 UK (78 female) and 108 HK (63 female) participants. Cross-cultural Cognitive Differences in Perception To confirm the underlying assumption that HK participants tend to have holistic visual perception and UK participants tend to have analytical visual perception, participants’ responses were coded to identify the type of foreground information (e.g., beers, pints, foams) and background information (e.g., sunset, camping). The coding processes were independently performed by two coders; Cohen’s κ analyses showed a moderate agreement (Sim & Wright, 2005) between the two coders' judgments on both foreground information (κ = .781, p < .001, 95% CI, .716 to .846) and background information (κ = .775, p < .001, 95% CI, .706 to .843). Two 2(Culture: UK vs. HK) x 3(Ad type: identical, background-varied and foregroundvaried) analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted. Results support our assumption: UK participants elicited more comments on foreground information (M= 1.56, SD= 1.20) than HK participants did (M= 1.05, SD= 1.03; F(1, 219)= 11.80, p= .001, =.051), and HK participants elicited more comments on background information (M= 1.69, SD= 1.19) than UK participants did (M= 1.09, SD= 1.03; F(1, 219)=16.22, p<.001, =.069). There was no statistically significant main effect on ad type or any statistically significant interaction effect. Brand Recall For UK participants, we hypothesized that their selective attention towards focal objects would enable them more susceptible to changes in the foreground-varied ad conditions, but not in the background-varied ad conditions. Chi-squared analyses revealed that UK participants’ brand recall scores in foreground-varied condition (M=89.2%) was significantly higher than those in both background-varied (M=53.7%): X^2 (1, N=78) = 11.80, p<.001, ϕ =.39, and identical conditions (M=43.6%): X^2 (1, N=76) = 17.5, p<.001, ϕ =.48. There was no difference in brand recall between identical and background-varied conditions. Conversely, we hypothesized that both background- and foreground-varied ads would be equally effective for HK participants due to their holistic attention towards both foreground and background objects. Multiple chi-squared tests revealed that, HK participants’ brand recall scores in both foreground-varied condition (M=59.5.%) and background-varied condition (M=58.3%) were significantly higher than that in the identical condition (M=34.3.%; foreground-varied vs. identical,X^2 (1, N=72) = 4.57, p=.032, ϕ =.25; background-varied vs. identical, X^2 (1, N=71) = 4.13, p= .042, ϕ =.24). The difference between the two varied ad conditions was not significant. Brand Attitudes We hypothesized that HK and UK participants’ brand attitudes also differ to different extents in the three conditions, following a similar pattern found in measuring brand recall. Consistent with this, independent-sample t-tests on UK participants revealed that the mean scores for brand attitude in both foreground-varied ads condition (M= 4.64) was higher than that in both identical ads condition (M= 3.71; t=-4.09, p<.001, d=0.94) and background-varied ads condition (M=3.98; t=3.49, p=.001, d=0.80). No significant difference was found between the identical-ad condition and background-varied condition. For HK participants, results of t-tests revealed that the mean scores for brand attitude in both foreground-varied condition (M= 4.18) and background-varied condition (M=4.33) were both significantly higher than that in identical ads condition (M= 3.53; foreground vs identical: t=-3.19, p=.002, d=0.51; background vs identical: t=4.87, p<.001, d=0.80). No significant difference was found between the two varied ads conditions. Discussion This research provides supporting evidence that visual attentional biases initiated by cultural differences can moderate the effectiveness of ad variation. Specifically, for UK participants, ad variation appeared to be effective only in foreground-varied ads. Conversely, both foreground-varied and background-varied ads were effective for HK participants. These findings have both theoretical and managerial implications. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first cross-cultural research in the domain of ad variation. It addresses a gap in the ad variation literature, by identifying the moderating effect that cultural differences can have on the ad variation effect. This opens up new research directions including considering other forms of cultural variations (e.g., language) and cognitive differences (e.g., reasoning styles) to better understand individual differences in the domain of ad-variation. This study also offers insights for international marketers looking at tailoring their advertising strategies for different target audiences to maximize ad- and cost-effectiveness. Besides varying features that correspond to the intended consumer’s cognitive styles, marketers could also consider priming consumers’ cognitive styles when determining advertising strategies, as previous research has shown that consumers’ cognitive styles are relatively malleabile (Lin & Han, 2009). For example, when executing foreground-varied ads, inserting them into an article that could induce an analytic cognition (e.g., bibliography programs about a successful life story of a person) would be an effective strategy. This study has two main limitations. First, it only included data from nationals of the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. Non-cognitive cultural differences such as language and geographical mobility can affect cognitive styles (e.g., Rhode & Voyer, 2015). Future research should replicate and expand findings by looking at more countries (e.g., US, South Korea), with increased level of control on relevant non-cognitive crosscultural factors. Second, this study only looked at one hedonic product category: beer. Future research can replicate and expand findings, by looking at different product categories (e.g., utilitarian products, such as toothbrushes).

Previous studies showed that poor weather conditions lead to increased online browsing behavior, which again enhances the likelihood for consumers to see an online advertisement (Ghose & Todri, 2016; Weißmüller et al., 2017). The authors assume that these changes in media consumption behavior effect not only one but many advertising channel simultaneously. Therefore, the authors investigate in this study how weather influences the effectiveness of several advertising channels at the same time. Specifically, they use field data over two years from an online streaming provider to capture advertising-spending, and -reach, as well as subscriptions. Furthermore, weather data from different weather stations across Germany are matched with customer data. The authors analyze five different advertising channels: television, email, affiliate, online display and search engine. By applying a count regression, preliminary empirical evidence suggests that weather-induced changes in media consumption leverages advertising effectiveness.

With the tremendous development of social media in recent years, luxury brands have welcomed social media with open arms as a means to engage with their customers. How luxury brands can make good use of social media marketing strategy is a top priority for both academicians and partitions but has not been well investigated. Many significant research gaps are present in this area warranting further explorations. For example, there is little research on the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement on social media (except for Chung and Cho’ (2017) study), even less for luxury brands. In addition, previous research on social media marketing mainly focuses on western-based platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Given the mentioned research gaps, this study builds on social media marketing and celebrity endorsement literature and aims to investigate the key factors influencing the effectiveness of celebrity-based social media marketing efforts for luxury brands. In particular, China market and Sina Weibo are selected as our research setting. We propose the message characteristics, celebrity characteristics, celebrity-brand relationship and brand characteristics have impact on customer engagement in celebrity-based social media marketing activities. We combined two data sources to generate the key variables. First, we derived posts on the brand pages of 12 luxury brands (e.g., Cartier, Tiffany, BVLGARI and PIAGET) that were published on Sina Weibo from September 2016 to March 2017 on the middle of December 2017. Then celebrity-related posts were all picked out. The final sample includes more than five hundred celebrity-related brand posts. For each post, it contains three kinds of engagement measures (i.e., the number of Likes, Retweets and Comments) observed on Sina Weibo. They are dependent variables in our model. We built up regression models to test the hypotheses. To generate those variables that cannot be derived directly from the posts, a set of independent coders was recruited to quantify those variables. The exploratory results show that posts related to celebrities (e.g., brand ambassador/spokesman) take a significant part of posts on Sina Weibo brand pages.

Various studies related to therapeutic horseback riding have been reported to be positive for the therapeutic effect of patients with cerebral palsy; however, most of the previous studies focused on to muscle development with training period related to the physical effects of therapeutic horseback riding. To identify the causes and phenomena of muscular activation of the body through actual therapeutic horseback riding exercise and to promote the excellence of physical effects of therapeutic horseback riding. This study was a nonrandomized prospective positive-controlled trial design. Twelve teenaged males with cerebral palsy were selected who had experienced riding exercise for 8-12 months. This study measured 8 muscle activities of the pectoralis major muscle (PM), biceps brachii (BB), rectus abdominis muscle (RA), latissimus dorsi muscle (LD), spinal erector muscle (SE), rectus femoris muscle (RF), anterior tibial muscle (AT), and external gastrocnemius muscle (EG) by using electromyography (EMG). Muscle activity was significantly higher in horse riding position than sitting on the common chair in all muscles (PM, BB, RA, LD, SE, RF, AT, and EG). The activity of the body muscles according to the difference of horse walking method (walk: WA; sitting trot: ST; and riding trot: RT) of therapeutic horse riding showed the highest muscle activity in the PM muscle at ST, and the highest activity at BB, RA, LD, SE, and AT muscles at ST and RT, and showed the highest muscle activity in RF and EG muscle at RT. The results of this study suggest that intervention for the treatment of cerebral palsy patients can use therapeutic riding exercise as a rehabilitation method.

도시교통과 환경문제가 날로 악화됨에 따라 중국 대도시를 중심으로 자동차 관련 제한정 책이 실시되고 있다. 자동차 구매와 운행에 대한 제한을 주요 내용으로 하는 정책으로 현재 베이징(北京)을 비롯한 전국 대도시를 중심으로 실시되고 있다. 그밖에 아직 실시하고 있지 않은 다수 도시들이 자동차구매제한정책의 실시를 계획하거나 고려하고 있다. 대기오염의 주범으로 꼽히는 아황산가스와 매연의 배출량 증가는 중국의 자동차 보급 확산과 관련이 깊다. 중국 대도시의 자동차구매제한정책의 실시 배경과 추세, 실효성 등에 대한 연구는 당면한 환경오염문제뿐만 아니라 자동차산업시장 관련 기업에 대해서도 상당히 중요한 의의를 가질 것으로 판단된다. 본 연구의 목표는 갈수록 심각해지고 있는 중국의 대기오염 상황에 맞춰 중국 정부가 해결 방안의 하나로 내놓은 자동차구매제한 정책의 실효성을 분석하는데 있다. 이를 위해 최근 몇 년간 중국에서 발생한 대기오염의 피해 상황을 검토하고 자동차구매제한 정책 관련 중국 정부의 대응 방안에 관해 살펴보고자 한다.

마을 만들기는 주민이 자발적으로 문제를 해결해 나가는 과정을 통해, 공감대가 형성되어 나간다는 점에서 주민자치가 실현되는 공간이고 주민 공론의 장이자 생활의 질 개선과 공공성과 공동체의식의 회복과 확장을 위한 사회학적 상상력이 요구되는 공동체 사업이다. 한국사회는 급 발전 산업화와 새로운 자유주의 세계화에 따라 1인 가구 증가와 핵가족화, 공동주택의 거주와 잦은 이주에 따라 개인주의가 팽배해지고 개인의 관계도 소월해지고 그로 인해 마을주민들 간의 상호교류 및 소통이 끊어지고 차단된 고독한 시대를 살아가고 있으며, 모두의 관심사와 유대감을 상실하여 전통적 마을공동체가 붕괴하고 있다. 이러한 시대흐름 속에서 마을공동체 만들기에 대한 성찰적 활용이 다양한 시민단체와 광역 및 기초 자치단체에서 주민과 정부가 협력하여 마을공동체 만들기가 적극적으로 진행되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 마을공동체 만들기에 대한 관련 문헌을 분석하고 실제사례를 정리한 후 이에 따른 효과를 주민만족도와 시민의식을 선정하고 지속적 가능한 주민참여 마을 만들기에 대한 문제점과 개선방안을 모색하는 것이 본 연구의 주된 목적이다.

Recently, measuring instruments for SHM of structures had being developed. In general, the wireless transmission of sensor signals, compared to its wired counterpart, is preferable due to its absence of triboelectric noise and elimination of the requirement for cumbersome cable. However, the research on the tall buildings with relatively small vibration levels is insufficient. Therefore, in this paper, we used the wireless MEMS sensor and iPad to compare and analyze the vibration measurements of three tall buildings and two towers.

목적 : 본 연구의 목적은 수행-기초 실행기능 그룹 프로그램이 학령전기 뇌성마비 아동들의 실행기능을 증진시키는지 알아보는 것이다. 연구방법 : 만 6세 학령전기 뇌성마비 아동 17명이 본 연구에 참가하였다. 사전-사후검사 통제집단 설계 (pretest-posttest control group design)를 사용하였고 수행 실행기능을 포함하는 만들기 활동과 기초 실행기능을 포함하는 게임 활동으로 구성된 그룹 중재 프로그램을 고안하여 치료군 아동에게 제공하였다. 치료 전･후 아동의 수행 실행기능은 운동처리기술평가(Assessment of Motor and Process Skills; AMPS)로 측정하였고 기초 실행기능은 해-달 과제, 8개 상자 과제, 아동 색 선로 과제 2(Children's Color Trails Test 2; CCTT-2)를 사용하여 측정하였다. 대기 명단의 대조군 아동들에게는 사전 사후 실행기능 평가만을 시행하였다. 결과 : 치료군은 AMPS 처리 기술, 해-달 과제, 8개 상자 과제, 아동 색 선로검사에서 사전검사 점수보다 높은 사후검사 점수를 보였다. 대조군은 AMPS 처리와 CCTT-2에서만 사전검사 점수보다 높은 사후검사 점수를 보였다. 치료군은 대조군보다 모든 실행기능 측정치에서 더 큰 향상을 나타냈다. 결론 : 본 연구는 수행-기초 실행기능 그룹 프로그램을 소개하였고, 이 중재 방법이 학령전기 뇌성마비 아동의 실행기능 향상에 효과가 있음을 보여주었다.

In accordance with the stipulations of the STCW Convention, simulation training has been enforced in order to develop practical skills so as to prevent accidents by predetermining the risks in special marine environments. Simulation training is a useful way to acquire navigation abilities, and can continuously measure the ability of a trainee by applying an appropriate evaluation. However, the result of training is evaluated by the instructor's subjective judgment without quantitative criteria. Therefore, this study aims to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of simulation training. For this purpose, evaluation items were derived by analyzing legal standards, earlier studies, and the current status of MET institutions. The simulations were then performed three times in the same scenarios and analyzed the results. As a result, it has been shown that the objectively analyzed ability to keep the route and to make safe passage with other vessel, as well as subjectively evaluated ability by the apprentice officer has been improved as training progressed. Through the evaluation of simulation training results, it can be derived that simulation education needs supplementation, and can be provided as a basic form of data to quantify the evaluation results of the simulation training in the future.

Roller Compacted Concrete Pavement (RCCP) is a pavement placed and compacted using an asphalt paver and a compaction roller by applying a small amount of concrete mixture and shows excellent structural performance as a result of hydration reaction of cement and interlocking of aggregates by roller compaction. It also provides economic advantages over conventional concrete pavements by reducing unit cement content and construction period, simplifying construction process, and decreasing traffic closure time (Wayne, 2006). However, given that it tends to show lower IRI levels than common concrete pavements since its low unit water content and binder weight ratios make uniform quality control difficult and roller compaction after paving makes the surface irregular and rough, with rough profile at the bottom of the pavement being reflected on the surface, RCCP is used mainly in port and industrial roads for low speed (60km/h or less) traffic (Dale Harringtion, 2010; Gregory, 2009). In order to apply RCCP to high-speed roadways, diamond grinding (DG) or asphalt overlay that is highly effective in improving roughness is needed (Fares Abdo, 2014; Gregory, 2009). Applying DG over RCCP leads to excellent skid resistance and noise reduction effects as a great percentage of aggregates makes the pavement surface rough, enhancing durability of concrete and the life of DG functionality. In addition, RCCP can be used as a high performance base layer of composite pavements, as it can reduce reflecting cracking at joints and cracked sections thanks to early strength development and low drying shrinkage of concrete. In this study, we assessed longitudinal roughness improvement effects by roughness-affecting factor by applying DG methods and asphalt overlays to three RCCP sites with a variety of sub-structural conditions and analyzed the effects on roughness of existing RCC pavements depending on surfacing method (DG, APOverlay).

The Golden Gate Bridge, known as one of the most beautiful bridges in the world, serves 110,000 vehicles per day, connecting San Francisco to inland as a segment of Highway 101 in California. The average peak hour volume over 6,500 vehicles per hour exceeds the traffic capacity of three lanes on each direction. Due to unique function of the bridge as a gateway of San Francisco, the peak directions in the morning and afternoon were explicitly distinguished. Recurrent traffic delay on the peak direction deteriorated level of service during the commute periods and caused user’s inconvenience and traffic accidents. The workers previously used to move plastic delineators to change lane configuration (4-2, 3-3, and 2-4) in several times a day. Neither did it provide prevention nor physical protection from the head-on collision on the bridge section. In January 2015, the Golden Gate Bridge was completely closed for two days to install the moveable median barrier (MMB) system, Road Zipper®, for more effective and safer variable lane management than the previous operation. One-meter section with 30.48 cm wide of highly reinforced concrete barriers are linked to form a continuous barrier wall and the machine lifts and passes the barriers through a conveyor system at a seeds up to 16 km/h. The MMB enables to quickly reverse lane configuration without traffic closure, providing more lanes to the peak direction as well as eliminating head-on collision on the bridge deck by presence of a physical structure. The traffic monitoring study result shows the significant improvement of average speed during peak hours and the regional traffic accident records shows improvement of safety after implementing the MMB on the Golden Gate Bridge. According to the traffic accident records, 13 injuries occurred in five accidents of vehicle collision in two-directions from 2007 to 2014 but no two-way accident has been reported since the operation of the Road Zipper® began. Furthermore, the MMB would be effectively implemented on construction work zones, managed lanes, variable lane management and other traffic operation to improve traffic safety and maximize utilization of roadway facilities.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the mechanism of the physical environment of North Korea’s Kaesong Industrial District in terms of landscape management. It also assesses how such a mechanism has been created and the effectiveness of the results. As a research method, we compared the architectural design and landscape management guidelines of fifteen companies in the initial complex of Kaesong Industrial District. The results follow. First, advanced spatial planning, such as landscape management, has contributed greatly to preparing the physical environment of Kaesong Industrial District to be a future-oriented economic special zone. Second, the landscape management methods that do not apply to the manufacturing complex were first transplanted to the North Korean Kaesong Industrial District ten years before they were adopted in South Korea. Third, officials of the two Koreas have generally recognized the necessity and effectiveness of landscape management. Fourth, the necessity of landscape management methods further developed at Kaesong Industrial District, as well as the means of implementation, will continue to be a positive precedent for future inter-Korean economic cooperation projects. However, some problems were found in the process of formulating and executing the landscape management plan. First, despite the fact that it is a national project in which the central government of directly intervenes, it is an impromptu progress without preparation of each special field, including landscape plan. Second, although Kaesong Industrial District is an inter-Korean economic cooperation project, North and South Korea have never been cooperative in specialty areas such as landscape management.

목적: 시기능훈련 전 실시한 양안시기능평가 결과값이 시기능훈련 효과에 미치는 영향을 알아보고자 하였다. 방법: 부등시 및 시기능훈련을 받은 경험이 없는 20대 성인 남녀 57명을 대상으로 60분씩 총 6번의 시기 능훈련을 진행한 뒤 양안시기능의 변화를 알아보았다. 양앙시기능평가 항목은 시력검사, 폭주근점, 사위도, 융합여력, Gradient AC/A비, 융합용이성, 상대조절력, 조절래그, 조절근점, 조절용이성 검사를 포함하였다. 결과: 훈련 전 원, 근거리 음성융합여력이 작을수록 훈련 후 원, 근거리 음성융합여력이 증가하는 음의 상관관계를 보였다(p<0.05). 원거리 융합여력이 작을수록 훈련 후 원거리 융합여력이 증가하는 음의 상관관 계를 보였다(p<0.05). 훈련 전 근거리 음성융합여력이 작을수록 훈련 후 근거리 음성융합여력이 증가하는 음의 상관관계를 보였으며(p<0.05), 훈련 전 근거리 양성융합여력이 작을수록 훈련 후 근거리 양성융합여력의 변화량이 증가하는 음의 상관관계를 보였다(p<0.05). 또한 근거리 총 융합여력이 작을수록 훈련 후 근거 리 총 융합여력이 증가하는 음의 상관관계를 보였다(p<0.05). 결론: 본 연구를 통해 시기능훈련 후 양안시기능의 변화를 확인하였고, 훈련 전 실시한 양안시기능검사 항목 중 근거리 외사위도가 높을수록 시기능훈련을 통한 변화량이 증가하는 것을 확인하였으며, 융합여력이 작을수록 시기능훈련 효과가 높아지는 것을 확인하였다. 이에 본 연구결과는 양안시기능평가 결과값에 따른 시기능훈련 효과의 기초자료가 될 것으로 사료된다.

본 연구의 목적은 청소년을 대상으로 학습동기 향상 코칭프로그램을 개발하고 그 효과를 검증하는데 있다. 이를 위해 도미향(2014) CPA 코칭 모델과 코칭대화모델을 적용하여 학년이 올라갈수록 학습동기가 낮아진다는 선행연구에 근거하여 학습전환기에 있는 중학생을 대상으로 프로그램을 구성하였으며 S시에 위치한 S중학교의 1·2·3 학년 중 13명을 실험집단, 13명을 통제집단으로 선정하여 학습동기 향상 코칭프로그램을 주2회 60분씩 총 12회기로 2017년 8월 22일부터 2017년 10월 19일까지 실시하였다. 효과를 검증하기 위해 학습동기 검사를 실험집단· 통제집단 모두 사전·사후로 실시하였고, 마지막 단계에서는 프로그램을 진행하는 동안 자신에게 변화된 점과 느낀 점 등을 간단한 소감문으로 받았다. 본 연구에서 개발된 프로그램은 학습에 대한 긍정적 인지와 정서 경험을 통한 성취동기, 통제소재, 자기효능감 및 자기조절 학습전략에 대한 이해와 실천을 통해 학습 및 생활 전반에 대한 동기각성, 긍정적 사고, 유능감, 내적 통제성이 강화되었다. 또한 목표 설정, 진로 탐색, 학습 환경 관리와 학습 기술 향상을 통해 청소년의 학습동기를 향상시키는데 유의미한 효과가 있었다.

The aim of the study was to set up assessment indicators for early elimination of horses that are not trainable or low efficient for training by comparing difference of behavioral response and heart rate on stimulation of desensitization training in horses. The animals used in this study were 8 untrained cross-bred horses (Thoroughbred and Jeju-horse) in Jeju island. Changes of heart rates and behavioral response of each horses were compared before and after desensitization training using a plastic bag on its tip. The result showed that the horses with their severe behavioral response were also high in heart rate during early stage of desensitization training, and the increased heart rates were recovered back to the base level according to the process of the training. The horses that quickly recovered in heart rate also showed same tendency in behavioral response. The horses that their recovery in heart rate and behavioral response in early stage of the desensitization training were late, showed insufficient results of the additional desensitization training. We conclude that assessment of heart rate and behavioral response in the early stage of desensitization training could be used as indicators to predict the effectiveness of desensitization or other kinds of training in horses.