Alternative space futures: The next quarter-century

Space developments do not exist in a vacuum! The shape of future space activities will depend on a combination of social, economic and political forces, creating the determinants for different patterns of space utilization. Forecasts of alternative space futures can therefore be explored by integrating different scenarios of world development and space trends. Here, alternative world trends are related to the underlying dynamics of space development, in terms of the economic, military and scientific utilization of space. The importance of space as a political issue is thus emphasized, in that the outcomes of policy choices to be made both now and in the future will help shape the social and economic contexts in which space technology will be used in the decades ahead.     

Celebrity endorsement in the world of luxury fashion – when controversy can be beneficial

ABSTRACT

Can a negatively publicised celebrity endorser ever lead to favourable brand attitudes toward a luxury fashion product (i.e. a perfume)? An online experiment was conducted with a sample of 260 target-relevant female consumers where two factors were manipulated: the brand’s positioning objective (image reinforcement versus revitalisation) and the type of celebrity endorser (naturally versus incidentally controversial). Consumer attitudes towards the luxury fashion brand were generally more positive when the type of celebrity endorser was consistent with the brand’s positioning strategy, that is, when a naturally controversial celebrity endorses a brand with a reinforcement strategy and when an incidentally controversial celebrity endorses a brand with a revitalisation strategy. Furthermore, this effect was mediated by consumers’ appreciation of the celebrity-positioning match-up (i.e. the consistency between the celebrity’s persona and the brand’s strategy) but not by their perceptions of appropriateness (i.e. the traditional match-up hypothesis). Several implications suggested by these findings are developed.     

Malleability of taste perception: biasing effects of rating scale format on taste recognition,product evaluation,and willingness to pay

Product-related cues, such as brand or price, can influence consumers’ taste perception. Going beyond this observation, we examine the extent to which a stimulus-extrinsic factor, such as the format of the measurement tool on which consumers describe attributes of a taste sample, influences concurrent taste perception, and in turn, later taste recognition, overall product evaluation, and willingness to pay (WTP). The results of two experiments show that rating scale format (i) influences consumers’ concurrent impression of a taste sample, (ii) systematically biases later identification of the sample in a taste recognition test, and (iii) affects overall product evaluation and WTP. However, scale format (iv) does not influence ratings and downstream judgments when consumers are highly knowledgeable in the product domain. These findings demonstrate that the experience of taste is fleeting and not well represented in memory, and that like other subjective experiences, taste needs to be reconstructed based on accessible cues.     

The decline of adult smallpox in eighteenth-century London

Smallpox was probably the single most lethal disease in eighteenth-century Britain, but was a minor cause of death by the mid-nineteenth century. Although vaccination was crucial to the decline of smallpox, especially in urban areas, from the beginning of the nineteenth century, it remains disputed the extent to which smallpox mortality declined before vaccination. Analysis of age-specific changes in smallpox burials within the large west London parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields revealed a precipitous reduction in adult smallpox risk from the 1770s, and this pattern was duplicated in the east London parish of St Dunstan's. Most adult smallpox victims were rural migrants, and such a drop in their susceptibility is consistent with a sudden increase in exposure to smallpox in rural areas. We investigated whether this was due to the spread of inoculation, or an increase in smallpox transmission, using changes in the age patterns of child smallpox burials. Smallpox mortality rose among infants, and smallpox burials became concentrated at the youngest ages, suggesting a sudden increase in infectiousness of the smallpox virus. Such a change intensified the process of smallpox endemicization in the English population, but also made cities substantially safer for young adult migrants.     

Ads for Mature Consumers: The Importance of Addressing the Changing Self-View Between the Age Groups 50+ and 60+

This paper investigates how to address mature consumers in advertisements in an appropriate, appreciating, and effective way. A 2 × 2–experiment with 125 consumers suggests that the more the advertisement model reflects the self-concept of the respondent on the dimensions of activity and modesty, the more positive is the attitude toward the ad. The study reveals differences between different age groups within the over-50s, which reflect a shift of values from modesty to activity. Although all mature consumers tend to prefer advertisement models that represent the concept of activity, this effect is stronger for the group 50+ than for the group 60+.     

Long-range planning in the public sector

This article discusses suitable frameworks for long-range planning in the public sector. Specific attention is devoted to defence planning, because of the impact planning methodology in defence has had on other government sectors. Operations research, programme budgeting, and scenario techniques are cases in point. A number of different planning approaches are outlined, but the difficulty of transferring planning systems between different fields of application is emphasised. Even if programme budgeting is thought of as a long-range planning system, additional components and approaches, such as various types of futures studies, may be needed.     

Synchronization under uncertainty

A decision-maker needs to schedule several activities that take uncertain time to complete and are only valuable together. Some activities are bound to be finished earlier than others, therefore resuting in waiting costs. We show how to schedule activities optimally, how to give independent agents performing them incentives that implement the efficient schedule, and how to form teams in the presence of uncertainty. The present paper offers insights into important economic decisions such as planning large projects and coordinating product development activities.     

Neuer Diplomstudiengang Medienmanagement nimmt zum Sommersemester 2002 den Lehrbetrieb an der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz auf

Ohne Zusammenfassung