Aim/Purpose: Professional companies selling persuasive-communication services via the World Wide Web need to be exemplars of effective informing practices. Their credibility is at risk if their websites do not excel in marketing message and use of medium. Their unique brands need to be expressed through website technology and content, or they cannot compete successfully. Background: Compares marketing communication consultants’ websites with expert criteria. Methodology: Content analysis of 40 advertising agency websites. Contribution: Links an evaluation of advertising agency compliance with expert website criteria to established branding constructs. Findings: Most small advertising agencies could improve their brand reputations through better compliance with experts’ recommended website design and content criteria. Recommendations for Practitioners: A hierarchy of recommendations for practitioners is offered, addressing ease and importance. Impact on Society: Clarity and credibility of message and medium improve our ability to practice effective informing. Future Research: Explore online communications of specialized populations such as digital marketing experts.

Aim/Purpose : An important objective of any firm is escalation of its performance and the achievement of competitive advantages. Supply chain agility plays a prominent role to enhance the level of firm’s performance. Moreover, information technology (IT) plays a foundational role in supply chain management practices. Hence, this study proposes the relationship between IT integration as the competency of IT and firm’s market performance both directly and through mediating role of supply chain agility. Background: Many studies have been done to date on the impact of supply chain agility on overall firm’s performance. However, the effect of an agile supply chain on firm’s market performance per se needs to be studied. Furthermore, there is a gap in the literature about the effect of IT competency such as IT integration on firm’s market performance both directly and through mediating role of supply chain agility. Recommendation for Researchers: The first direction this study gives to researchers is to consider the different factors which have significant effect on the agility of supply chain, particularly the IT related ones. The second direction is about the study on the effect of IT competencies and supply chain agility on each category of firm’s performance separately instead of considering it as a one construct. Impact on Society : Although this is a conceptual study, it can highlight the importance of IT competency not only in our daily life, but also in our businesses and industries. Future Research: This study only proposes some relationships based on theory and literature. Future researchers can test these proposed relationships in different contexts and compare the results. Furthermore, this study proposes the relationships for large manufacturing sector in developing countries. The model could be tested for SMEs as well. In addition, the proposed theoretical model in this study might be tested in both developing as well as developed countries to compare the results which will be contributed to the body of knowledge.

This paper presents a novel deep learning technique called quantum dilated convolutional neural network-DenseNet (Q-DenseNet) for prediction of heart disease in spark framework. At first, the input data taken from the database is allowed for data partitioning using fast fuzzy C-means clustering (FFCM). The partitioned data is fed into spark framework, where pre-processed by missing data imputation and quantile normalisation. The pre-processed data is further allowed for selection of suitable features. Then, the selected features from the slave nodes are merged and fed into master node. The Q-DenseNet is used in master node for the prediction of heart disease. The performance improvement of the designed Q-DenseNet model is validated by comparing with traditional prediction models. Here, the Q-DenseNet method achieved superior performance with maximum of 92.65% specificity, 91.74% sensitivity, and 90.15% accuracy.

Prior research on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) has substantially advanced our understanding of how isolated acquirer- and deal-specific factors affect abnormal returns. However, investors are likely to perceive and evaluate M&As holistically—that is, as complex configurations (i.e., Gestalts) of characteristics, rather than as a list of independent factors. Yet, extant M&A literature has not addressed why and how configurations of factors elicit positive or negative reactions. In other words, overlooking the interdependent nature of factors known to influence acquisition success has limited our understanding of both M&As and investor judgment. Taking an inductive approach to addressing this important issue, this study relies on fuzzy set methodology. Our results provide compelling evidence that investor perceptions of M&A announcements are not only configurational in nature but also characterized by equifinality - or the presence of multiple paths to success - and asymmetric causality - that is, configurations that represent bad deals are not simply a mirror image of good deals, but differ fundamentally. By constructing a typology of "good" and "bad" deals as perceived by market participants, we develop a mid-range theory of M&A stock market performance. As such, this study offers novel theoretical and empirical insights to scholars, and implications for practitioners.

This article extends the understanding of what impels buyers to contact particular sellers in online business-to-business (B2B) marketplaces, which are typically characterized by sparse social structures and concomitant limitations in observing social cues. Integrating an institutional perspective with signaling theory, our core argument is that offline seller characteristics that are visible online—in particular, geographic location and legal status—convey credible signals of seller behavior because they provide buyers with information on sellers' local institutional quality and the institutionally-induced obligations and controls acting on sellers. Using unique data from a large Italian online B2B marketplace between the fourth quarter of 1999 and July 2001, we find that both sellers' local institutional quality and their legal statuses affect a buyer's likelihood of contacting a seller. Moreover, consistent with the idea that a buyer's own local institutional quality generates a relevant reference point against which sellers are evaluated, we find that a buyer is progressively more likely to contact sellers the higher their local institutional quality relative to the buyer. Jointly, our findings imply that in online B2B marketplaces, signals conveyed by sellers' geographic locations and legal statuses may be substantive sources of competitive heterogeneity and market segmentation.

This article examines the conditions under which organizations publicly respond to unfavorable consumer evaluations that challenge their market identity. Because organizations' market identities are certified by expert evaluations, consumers' devaluations that challenge these expert evaluations represent an identity threat. However, organizations do not always react to consumers' devaluations because of the risks associated to public responses. Hence, we first predict that organizations are more likely to respond to severe devaluations than to weaker ones; second, we propose that organizations, when faced with severe devaluations, are more likely to craft responses that justify their actions and behaviors. We further contend that, for any market identity under consideration, an organization's reputation amplifies these relationships. Analyses of a dataset of London hoteliers' responses to online reviews posted on TripAdvisor during the period 2002-2012 lend substantial support to our hypotheses.

In this study, we examine the question: What do executives gain from serving on boards? We propose that board service will benefit non-CEO level executives in the executive labor market by acting as a certification mechanism and also by providing access to unique knowledge, skills, and connections. We argue that non-CEO executives who gain directorships will be more likely to be promoted to CEO both inside and outside their home firm, will be more likely to be promoted internally, and will receive higher pay from their home firms. To test our ideas, we employ propensity score matching to construct a longitudinal sample of 2,104 top executives of large, publicly traded companies in the United States over the period 1996 to 2012. Results provide consistent support for our theory.

Studies suggest that category-spanning organizations receive lower evaluation and perform worse than organizations focused on a single category. We propose that (1) these effects are contingent on clients' theory of value and that as clients expect more sophisticated services, they tend to value category spanners more positively and (2) the evaluation of producers mediates the relationship between category spanning and performance. We test our hypotheses using original data on corporate legal services in three markets (London, New York City, and Paris) over the decade 2000-2010. We find that (1) category spanners receive a better evaluation, and more so when their categorical combination is more inclusive and (2) evaluation mediates significantly the relationship between category spanning and performance. This study enriches our understanding of how audiences apprehend a whole market category system and why organizations span categories.

Many firms seek to manage their legal and regulatory environments by influencing policymakers. Typically, researchers have focused on how firms use nonmarket actions, including lobbying, campaign contributions, and related activities, to gain policy influence. We argue that firms may also seek to change the effects of policies through market actions. Market actions may lead to both formal policy change (i.e., transformations of codified rules) and interpretive policy change (i.e., transformations of the effects of rules without changes in their codified form). We identify two pathways by which firms' market actions may produce interpretive policy change: implementation and innovation. Implementation-driven change occurs when firms' interpretations of incomplete laws alter and clarify the meaning of those laws. Innovation-driven change occurs when firms engage in novel activities that are difficult to interpret within existing regulatory frameworks, and thus alter the effects of those regulations. We then theorize how firms' market actions may complement traditional, nonmarket political mobilization in an analysis of sequences of formal and interpretive policy change.

Resource dependence theorists argue that boards of directors with political capital can benefit focal firms by reducing uncertainty and providing preferential resources. Here, we develop theory regarding the downside of board political capital. As the principal-principal agency problem characterizes many parts of the world, we argue that board political capital can exacerbate this problem by enabling large blockholders to undertake more appropriation of firm wealth. Further, we explore how this enabling effect is moderated by ownership-, industry-, and environment-level contingencies. We find empirical support for our arguments using 32,174 directors in 1,046 Chinese listed firms over the period 2008 - 2011. Our study sheds light on new ways in which resource dependence and agency theories can be integrated to advance the extant research on board governance and corporate political strategy.

Understanding the free and open-source software (FOSS) movement has, since its beginning, implied crossing many disciplinary boundaries. This article describes FOSS’s history, explaining its undeniable success throughout the 1990s, and why the

Many online are raising questions about a recent spate of public violence, as officials continue to censor discussion.

If you have read any of the NRA’s magazines, watch American Rifleman, or have seen some shows on The Outdoor Channel or The History Channel, you have seen Mark Keefe for years.

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One major way to reduce your travel costs is to look for ways to save on your car rental expenses. That’s what money expert Clark Howard has done time and time again. Clark says he’s recently put into practice a new strategy to get car rental deals when he travels — and the deals have […]

The post Clark’s Updated Way To Shop for Car Rental Deals appeared first on Clark Howard.

Money expert Clark Howard extolls the virtues of 529 plans every chance he gets. You put money into those plans and invest it, where it grows tax-free. And then you get to spend it tax-free to pay for your child’s education. The law just got even more friendly toward parents choosing to make use of […]

The post Does Clark Recommend a Separate 529 Account for Each Child? appeared first on Clark Howard.

Wondering how to travel cheap? Money expert Clark Howard has a lot of experience and advice to share when it comes to answering this question!

The post Follow Clark Howard’s #1 Rule To Travel Cheap appeared first on Clark Howard.

Travel expert Clark Howard holds deep convictions when it comes to travel. Shop the deal first and then figure out what you want to do at the destination. Be flexible on travel dates. Take early flights if you can. Never check a bag. You also won’t find Clark with designer luggage that costs hundreds of […]

The post What Luggage Does Clark Howard Recommend? appeared first on Clark Howard.

Mother of two found dead in Karachi with signs of assault. Detained suspect says he had recently divorced the victim.

Oil futures rose slightly due to potential US Gulf Coast hurricane and Libyan supply disruptions after recent losses

Agriculture committee says free trade mechanisms needed to boost competitiveness, curb inflation

Local gold prices rise by Rs.1,300 rupees per tola, reaching Rs.261,700.

Mehwish’s sequin skirt was perfectly complemented by a matching silk button-down that whispered "class"

Decision to deepen levels of parks following monsoon has created a breeding ground for diseases

Imran Khan had earlier defended Gandapur, calling on PTI to expel the 'weak cowards' who had apologised for the K-P CM

Meghan Markle would have to take a great leap of faith if she wants to heal her rift with the Royal Family.

The Duchess of Sussex is told the key to Royal amendments is to make up with Kate Middleton with special apology.

Royal expert Richard Eden speaks on Palace...

Meghan Markle is reportedly irritated by Kate Middleton and Prince William’s efforts to get Prince Harry back.

The Duchess of Sussex, who lives with the duke in California, is apprehensive any reconciliation efforts from the Royals could break her...

Meghan Markle is reportedly trying to win Christmas with special packages for her Hollywood fraternity.

The Duchess of Sussex, who has largely been at the back end this year, is promoting her lifestyle brand titled, ‘American Riviera Orchard’ with gift bags.

An...

This ASQ TV episode covers the basics of benchmarking, reviews the recommended six phases of a benchmarking process, and explains one vital ingredient in benchmarking: metrics.

More than 4,400 athletes from 168 Paralympic delegations partied despite persistent rain

Meghan Markle to put an end to cold war with Royal family: ‘Needs to swallow pride’

Meghan Markle has realized that in order to build a reputation in the US, she needs to rebuild relationships with the members of the Royal family.

According to Closer Magazine, the...

Meghan Markle sparked another controversy after she wore a poppy that slightly differed from that of Prince Harry's in a recent video addressing children's digital safety.

A journalist has pointed out that the Duchess of Sussex’s poppy lacked leaves on the stalk, resembling...

Prince William marks the start of something new with Kate Middleton

Prince William’s shift into a new era of his life has just been brought to light.

A conversation surrounding this happened on The Sun’s Royal Exclusive, with reporter Bronte Coy and broadcaster Sarah...

Meghan Markle gives major giveaway by exposing true feelings about Harry appearance

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s body language, as well as major ‘giveaway’ from his wife gets exposed.

Royal expert Darren Stanton made these comments during his interview on...

Prince Harry sparks frenzy because of his ‘terrorizing' plans for Christmas

Prince Harry’s terrifying effect on Christmas in 2024, for the Windsors has just become a point of conversation.

So much so that one expert has even stepped forward to offer his thoughts on the...

Meghan Markle planning silent sacrifice for Prince Harry's cold war this Christmas

Insights into what Meghan Markle has planned for the Uk this Christmas have just been brought to light.

Information about this plan has been brought to light by an inside source that is close to...

wethepeople Autumn Session 2015 - Zuppermarkt - Trier

3rd / 4th of october nearly the whole kunstform BMX Shop team went to the wethepeople autumn Session at the "Zuppermarkt" Skatehall in Trier! Our buddy Nitsche did a little edit about the trip and it was a lot of fun to hang out with all the buddies! Looking forward to come back next near! Much respect to Axle Reichertz for runnin the Zuppermarket and for the good accommodation!

Riders of the Videos are:

Kevin Nikulski
Robin Kachfi
Miguel Smajlji
John Krämer
Miguel Franzem
Sebastian Pospischil
Moritz Kuhn
Daniel Tünte
Daniel Fuhrmann
Dima Prykhodko


Musik: Danny Seth - I Arise Because
Video: Sebi Nitsche


Cheers Daniel!

BMX Autumn Session - Shawn & Robin - Mellowpark Berlin

Robin Kachfi & Shawn Hammer spend some time at Mellowpark in Berlin and made this edit for us! Nice autumn mood and chilled vibes out there!

Kamera: Robin Kachfi, Meo Kunze & Markus Lange
Music: Danny Brown - 25 bucks instrumental

Robin Kachfi - Skatepark Mannheim - BMX Edit 2016

Robin Kachfi is on fire right now. His progress is just awesome! His new Video was taken in his local Skatepark in Mannheim (Germany) and he says about it following words:

"I finished finally my video for kunstformbmxshop & my Crew at my local skatepark in mannheim germany. Thanks to everybody for the additional filming! This is dedicated to a legend of our time! Ride in peace Dave Mirra"

Channel sub: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/robinkachfi

Follow him on:
Instagram - http://instagram.com/robinkachfibmx

Also follow his mazzakacrew crew!
Channel sub: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/mazzakacrew
Instagram: http://instagram.com/mazzakacrew

BMX Best Trick Contest 2017 - Skatepark Mannheim

On saturday, 29th April 2017, the season openinng contest took place at the skatepark Schönau in Mannheim. In addition to a skate contest, there was also a BMX best trick contest in addition with a few warm up BMX games. Over 20 riders were at the start and the mood was super good! Thanks to all who've participated. Props also to Titus, Wolftrap Brand, SAM - skater aus Mannheim and of course the city of Mannheim! All the best your kunstform BMX Shop Team

BMX BEST TRICK CONTEST:
1. Robin Kachfi
2. Marco Günther
3. Georg Senger
4. Jan Mihaly
5. Leon Schader
6. Tobias Eul
7. David Kerscher
8. Mirko Wiedemann
9. Alex Gravemaker
10. Thorin Huschak
11. Jason Hörner
12. Leo Tietz
13. Fritz Fimpel
14. Lotta Grüber
15. Yoshi Kobayashi
16. Nik Drugcevic
17. Richard Christ
18. Sebastian Held
19. Arthur Krenkel
20. Leandro Bühn
21. Luca Meissner

filmed & edited: Robin Kachfi

Subscribe our youtube channel: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/kunstformbmxshop

BMX Street & Skatepark Session - Robin, Miguel & Felix

Miguel Smajlji and Felix Prangenberg have visited Robin Kachfi for a few days in Mannheim, Germany to continue their BMX video projects. What else they have done you can check here. All the best your kunstform BMX Shop Team

Video: Robin Kachfi

Music: JI Beats - Honey Berry

Subscribe our youtube channel: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/kunstformbmxshop

Markus Schwital Is by far the best example that size doesn't matter at the BMX! Markus has been riding BMX Flatland for 11 years and his favorite spot is at the "Haus der Geschichte" in Stuttgart or when the sea is calling also in Barcelona

BMX Since: 2006
BMX Disziplin: BMX Flatland
Hometown: Mühlhofen
Residence: Stuttgart
Sponsors: kunstform BMX Shop / Maruel Clothing
Homespots: Haus der Geschichte in Stuttgart
Favorite Spots: Haus der Geschichte, BCN parc del forum
Favorite thing beside BMX: Party, Netflix, beer n fun!
Instagram: markusschwital
Youtube: markus schwital