A Study of Consumer Repurchase Behaviors of Smartphones Using Artificial Neural Network

This study analyzed consumer intention to repurchase a smartphone, using an analysis of previous research and suggesting this as a research model. To this end, factors influencing “intention to repurchase” the smartphone were derived as social influence, consumer satisfaction, emotional loyalty, and habit. In addition, statistical analysis was conducted to investigate consumer repurchase intentions and the causal relationships. It is also possible to investigate whether consumer habits are linked to repurchases by analyzing their psychological inclinations; therefore, in this study, 390 people who repurchased a smartphone over the past two years were surveyed, and data were collected. This study analyzed the causal relationships among the factors using SPSS 24.0. Moreover, the causal relationship analysis was enhanced using the artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm. With multiple regression analysis and the ANN algorithm, consumer satisfaction (0.71), emotional loyalty (0.108), and social influence (0.062) were determined to affect the intention to repurchase. This means that the ANN algorithm can be used over multiple regression analysis and improve the results of the analysis. In addition, this study also provided practitioners with a way to improve their understanding of consumer behavior intention to repurchase smartphones.

Factors Influencing Social Media Users’ Continued Intent to Donate

Social media donation is an emerging sustainable business model. Donation in the context of social media can often bring benefits to content creators and social media platforms, as well as realizing their sustainable development. Based on attachment theory, customer loyalty theory, and interaction ritual chains theory, this paper studies how feedback interaction and participatory interaction affect users’ continued intent to donate. The role of users’ emotion and price consciousness are mainly considered. Data were collected through questionnaires, and the sample covered 466 WeChat users. Structural equation modeling and linear regression were used to test the hypothesis. It was found that emotional attachment and emotional loyalty had significant positive effects on users’ continued intent to donate, and participatory interaction had significant positive effects on emotional attachment and emotional loyalty, while feedback interaction had a significant positive effect on emotional attachment. Price consciousness did not directly affect continued intent to donate, but as a moderator, it weakened the positive relationship between emotional attachment and continued intent to donate.

The Split Identity in Brain Friel’s Play PHILADELPHIA, HERE I COME! )

Colonized people suffer due to cultural struggle and identity loss. Brian Friel (1929–2015) dealt with the consequences of British colonisation of Ireland. This paper explores the fragmented identity in Friel’s Philadelphia, Here I Come!. It depicts the contradicting feelings of a young man who decides to leave his country. Still, he is unable to overcome his emotional loyalty to his past. Friel divides the protagonist into two characters played by two actors on the stage. The memories in the play form an integral part of identity being live images that satisfy inner needs. The characters’ inner conflicts and personal dilemma reflect general social problems.

Volunteer Retention in Prosocial Venturing: The Role of Emotional Connectivity

This study develops an understanding of the role of emotional connectivity for volunteer retention in prosocial business venturing. By embedding it in organizational ambivalence theory, our analysis of four volunteer-dependent community ventures reveals two mechanisms through which entrepreneurs strengthen volunteers’ emotional connectivity. We first identify emotion-focused practices that form volunteers’ emotional attachment to the venture, and then demonstrate how duality-focused practices, in the form of managing inherent organizational duality, complement emotion-focused practices to foster volunteers’ emotional loyalty to the venture. Theorizing from our findings, we introduce a model of managing volunteers’ emotional connectivity, and conclude by discussing its implications for prosocial venture research on volunteerism and affective commitment.

Professional values and career choice of nursing students

Background and aim: Professional values are abstract and general behavioral principles that provide basic standards to judge aims and actions, and these principles are formed by strong emotional loyalty of members of the profession. Research was conducted to compare the career choice and professional values of nursing students at two universities in the upper Midwest of the United States and in the middle of Turkey. Materials and Methods: A descriptive and comparative design was used. The participants of the study were comprised nursing students from a university in the upper Midwest of United States and a university in the middle of Turkey. The sample consisted of 728 students in all grades. Data were collected by a questionnaire, The Nurses Professional Values Scale–Revised and Vocational Choices in Entering Nursing Scale. Number, percentage distribution, mean, standard deviation, t test, and one-way variance analysis were used in the analysis of data. Ethical considerations: Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Commission. Informed consent was received from the students. Results: The students’ mean age for American students was 24.3 ± 5.6 years, while the mean age for Turkish students was 19.8 ± 1.7 years. Mean score of American students on The Vocational Congruency (a subgroup of the Vocational Choices in Entering Nursing Scale) was 38.5 ± 5.9 and Turkish students was 29.6 ± 8.9 (p < 0.05). Mean score of American students on The Nurses Professional Values Scale–Revised was 109.2 ± 12.3 and that of Turkish students was 101.6 ± 17.0. Conclusion: This study concluded that the majority of nursing students had high professional values, and when students’ scores were compared, American students had higher professional values, and in career choice, they considered primarily fitness of the profession to themselves and their goals, while Turkish students primarily thought of their living conditions.

Brand Engagement and Brand Loyalty

Marketers value and seek brand loyalty. Consequently, they have developed a variety of strategies to encourage both behavioral (repeat purchase) and attitudinal (emotional) loyalty among customers. A recent concept has emerged related to the latter goal: brand engagement. Although marketers give a variety of definitions for brand engagement, the essential concept is an emotional attachment to a brand as though the customer has an emotional relationship with it perhaps because the brand acts as an important reflection of self-identity or is an important symbol of something meaningful to the consumer. Consumers manifest different types of engagement (with advertising, media, web sites, a company, as well as specific brands). Engagement is also conceptualized at different levels of abstraction: engagement with the marketplace, engagement with a product category, engagement with a specific brand, and brand engagement in self-concept, which refers to differences in how much consumer use brands in general to represent themselves to others. This chapter discusses these issues in some detail and presents theoretical, managerial, and theoretical implications of this concept.