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Five studies examine how perceived financial constraints and abundance determine when consumers will engage in solitary or social purchases. When financially constrained, consumers prefer solitary (vs. social) purchases. We also identify self-construal as a moderator of how consumers spend their discretionary income. While independent consumers prefer solitary (vs. social) purchases, interdependent consumers prefer social (vs. solitary) purchases. Interestingly, when consumers have adequate discretionary income, independent as well as interdependent consumers have similar preferences for solitary and social purchases. In addition, for interdependent consumers, communal norms mediate the preference for social purchases. Finally, for independent consumers, making the communal norm salient reverses their preference for solitary purchases, resulting in a preference for social purchases. Our findings suggest how managers can effectively promote different types of purchases under varying financial resource conditions in their global communication strategy., Author(s): Malika Malika [sup.1] , Durairaj Maheswaran [sup.1] , Shailendra Pratap Jain [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.137628.9, 0000 0004 1936 8753, Stern School of Business, New York University, , 40, [...]

Pandemics have been an unfortunate but consistent facet of human existence over centuries, threatening lives as well as livelihoods globally. Disconcertingly, their frequency persists, with four 'major' pandemics disrupting the planet in the last 65 years and more expected in the future. While many of the economic and health consequences of pandemics are well-documented, their marketing implications are less understood. Addressing this gap, we develop a broad, conceptual framework to highlight the characteristics and impacts of pandemics as they relate to marketing. We first identify four macro-level forces that characterize pandemics and highlight their marketing implications. Next, using the 7P marketing mix model as the organizing structure, we discuss these implications at a micro-level and identify a set of research questions to stimulate further inquiry, not only to generate deeper insights pertaining to pandemics' marketing implications but also to envision new developments in these areas. Finally, we identify pandemics' disproportionate impacts on and implications for some industry sectors, including healthcare, retail, education, hospitality, and tourism., Author(s): Gopal Das [sup.1] , Shailendra Pratap Jain [sup.2] , Durairaj Maheswaran [sup.3] , Rebecca J. Slotegraaf [sup.4] , Raji Srinivasan [sup.5] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.417952.c, 0000 0001 0333 3968, [...]

Given that the vast majority of brand extensions fail, it is important to understand how extension failure influences consumer judgments of the parent brand that launched the extension. In the brand extension literature, there is a paucity of research on the role of consumer characteristics in influencing response to such failures. To fill this gap, the present research examines the impact of consumers' implicit theory orientation—their perspective on whether personality traits are malleable versus fixed—on the severity of negative feedback effects following extension failure. Seven studies show that entity theorists, who believe in the fixedness of personality traits, penalize parent brands more than incremental theorists, who endorse trait malleability. This brand penalty effect arises because as compared to incremental theorists, entity theorists are motivated to view brands as a cohesive group and therefore equate extension failure with the diminishment of the overarching parent brand. This effect is more likely when brand cohesiveness is low or ambiguous, but it is less likely when brand cohesiveness is high. Furthermore, while entity theorists are more likely to reduce brand evaluations after extension failure, the two groups do not differ in parent brand evaluations after extension success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a nine-level inverter topology is proposed with the least number of switches and other components for fault tolerant (FT) operation. The proposed fault tolerant topology requires only one additional switch to execute the fault tolerant operation. The proposed topology also results in reduced total harmonic distortion (THD) as compared with other reported fault tolerant topologies for a 9-level output. A detailed analysis of the topology is presented and the fault tolerant operation is demonstrated under any single, double, triple, and quadruple switch faults using MATLAB/ Simulation and OPALRT hardware in loop (HIL) real time simulator. The proposed concept is validated for single and multiple switch faults and R-L load variation on a low scale laboratory hardware set-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the interactive effect of donors' self-construal and frame of a persuasive message (emphasizing statistical or identifiable victims affected by COVID-19) on donation intent. Three studies featuring 1,104 participants document a positive effect of the identifiable victim (vs. statistical victims) frame on donation intent, but only for interdependent respondents and not for independent ones (study 1). This conditional positive effect of the identifiable victim frame is due to interdependents' heightened holistic thinking style (studies 2 and 3). Findings have public significance for addressing COVID-related economic challenges. The paper concludes with theoretical contributions, practical implications, and ideas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The perianal fistulas are commonly observed in 4th-5th age group of patients with male predilection. This disease present with complaints of discharge (most common), pain, swelling, Pruritis & fever. Objectives: to access the diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of MRI in perianal fistulas in comparison to surgical findings. Methods. 60 patients of 22 to 72 year age group with clinically suspected and confirmed by MRI were selected for the study. Most common clinical presentation in this study were discharge (93%) followed by pain (70.0%). Most common fistula type was intersphincteric in 40(66.7%) followed by transsphincteric which were 14(23.3%). Associated abscess cavity seen in 15 cases (25%). On MR Fistulography, horseshoeing seen in 2 (3.3%) cases which was also confirmed preoperatively. Intersphincteric fistula was the most common type of the perianal fistulas followed by transsphincteric type with Grade 1 followed by Grade 2. Low fistulas prevalence was much more than high fistulas. Simple non branching fistulas were more common as compare to branching fistulas. Conclusion. Magnetic resonance fistulography is a reliable imaging, most sensitive and specific modality, for assessment of perianal anatomy, fistulous tracts and their associated ramification and abscesses, and became an ideal imaging modality for assessment of perianal fistulas, which showed accurate correlation with surgical findings and aided in surgery planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In females of the South Asia region, vitamin D deficiency has been highly prevalent. This can be due to non-access to sunlight, sunblock, home-stay, and poor dietary intake, Insufficient intake of vitamin D and calcium can lead to bone loss, especially in postmenopausal females. Aim: The present study aimed to comparatively assess the bone mineral density and vitamin D levels in premenopausal and postmenopausal females of India. Methods: The study assessed 200 premenopausal females constituting the controls and 200 postmenopausal females constituting the test group. In all 400 subjects, vitamin D levels were assessed to note vitamin D deficiency. This was followed by scanning (DEXA scan) for bone mineral density. The data gathered was statistically assessed to get results. Results: Moderate deficiency of Vitamin D was higher in a post-menopause group with 43% (n=86) females and had a lower incidence in the pre-menopausal control group with 15% (n=30) females with moderate deficiency of vitamin D. For the severe deficiency, it had a high incidence in post-menopausal females with 36% (n=72) females and a low incidence of severe vitamin D deficiency was seen in the pre-menopausal control group with 2% (n=4) females. In premenopausal females, low bone mineral density was seen in 34% (n=68) of study subjects and was very low in 1% (n=2) females. In the study group of post-menopausal females, the bone mineral density was low in 62% (n=124) of the study subjects and was very low in 24% (n=48) of the study subjects. For BMD and 25 OHD levels, the difference in the two groups was statistically significant with p<0.001. Conclusion: The present study shows the effect of menopause on bone mineral density and vitamin D levels. There is a significant difference in bone mineral density and levels of vitamin D in postmenopausal females and females of reproductive age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) has penetrated the marketing landscape and is having a profound impact on businesses' communication strategies. With AI coming under the spotlight, we know surprisingly little about its impact on consumers' patronage likelihood. This research attempts to address this void by investigating the "just-walk-out" retail technology in cohort with in-store communication. Across three studies, conducted online and in the field, the authors demonstrate that, compared to self-service checkouts, AI-enabled checkouts lead to significantly higher consumers' patronage likelihood. Furthermore, sensory stimulation stemming from in-store communication (environmental cues including assortment, advertising, and technology) underlies this impact. Importantly, the extent to which consumers perceive AI technology to be threatening is revealed as a boundary condition to these effects. These findings advance our understanding of how AI-enabled checkouts and in-store communication influence consumers' patronage likelihood and the boundary condition that moderates their impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to determine the value of environmental entities has generated substantial research regarding optimal methods for obtaining valuations from survey respondents. The literature suggests the importance of providing clear, complete descriptions of the entity being valued prior to respondents indicating their valuations. The target entity's attributes are often presented in isolation or in greater detail compared with other entities. Two experiments were conducted to explore whether selective exposure to and assessment of an environmental entity can bias survey respondents' judgments. This article adds to the environmental valuation literature by demonstrating a new process that leads to value overestimates. Specifically, the article shows that (a) when an environmental entity is the focus of assessment in a survey, positively biased evaluations often result; (b) positivity bias in evaluation translates to real monetary allocation decisions; and (c) selective information processing contributes to these effects.