Journal articles on the topic 'Generalized marking constraints'

A high-resolution stratigraphic model for the uppermost Messinian deposits of the Mediterranean basin is here proposed. The model provides new constraints for calibrating the time and space distribution of palaeoenvironmental proxies of the final phase of the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC), characterized, after the main phase of massive evaporite precipitation, by the progressive and generalized establishment of brackish to freshwater aquatic environments throughout the Mediterranean basin (‘Lago Mare event’). The corresponding stratigraphic unit, bounded by the intra-Messinian unconformity (MES) at the base (~5.6 Ma) and the M/P boundary at top (5.33 Ma) is split into two sub-units by a minor unconformity marking a sharp facies change. The lower sub-unit (p-ev1) is localized in deepest and/or strongly subsiding basins and is commonly characterized by ‘regressive’ depositional trends. It records the transition from hyper- to hypohaline conditions over a short time span characterized by an acceleration of tectonic processes in many Mediterranean geodynamic contexts. The upper sub-unit (p-ev2) is more basin-wide distributed and records the generalized periodic activation of catastrophic flood-dominated fluvio-deltaic depositional systems, indicating important modifications in the drainage areas and/or in fluvial runoff. In this sub-unit four to five precessional cycles are usually recognized below the Miocene/Pliocene boundary, allowing basin-wide correlations and suggesting to place its basal age at around 5.42 Ma. While p-ev1 records the local and ephemeral development of Lago Mare environments with low-diverse, pioneer taxa, p-ev2 is marked by the diffusion of conspicuous brackish to freshwater fossil assemblages of increasing diversity and complexity upwards. The change is best approximated by the boundary between the two sub-units. No clear evidence of normal marine conditions established before the Zanclean flooding have been recognized. Converging sedimentary evolution and paleontologic record suggest that the last MSC phase was characterized by a dilution of the surface waters of a large, residual Mediterranean water body with strongly reduced ocean connections. These conditions likely resulted from a positive feedback loop between processes (increase of fluvial runoff, generalized subsidence, base-level rise, enlargement of shelf areas) promoting the establishment of progressively larger, more stable intra-basinal connections and water exchanges with the Paratethyan basins, up to the final full reopening of the Atlantic gateways.

AbstractWe have known since Trueman's classic work of 1922 that the Lower Jurassic Gryphaea of Britain exhibit phyletic size increase and heterochronic change in shape. Since Hallam's revisionary work in the 1960s, we have recognized that pronounced and generalized juvenilization of form accompanied this increasing size. This extensive literature provides invertebrate paleontology's most famous example of a biometrically documented, continuous anagenetic trend within a discrete lineage. But Gryphaea has also provoked great frustration because a key datum, required for a full solution, had been theoretically recognized but practically unavailable. We could identify the evolution of shape as paedomorphic, but could not specify the mode of heterochrony for this paedomorphic result because we could not standardize samples by common age or developmental stage.In this paper, we provide sclerochronological data on sizes and shapes at specified ages marked by annual growth bands in two Jurassic sequences of Gryphaea: the classic Lower Jurassic series showing phyletic size increase with paedomorphosis, and an independent Middle–Upper Jurassic series illustrating neither size increase nor heterochrony. We prove that size increase in the classic series occurs entirely by faster growth (larger descendant sizes at the same ages as ancestors), and not by extended age (for descendants lived no longer than ancestors). The well-marked paedomorphosis of form probably arose as a correlated consequence of growing larger by extending and maintaining rapid juvenile growth rates—thus marking the heterochronic mode as a case of neoteny. The independent upper sequence, acting as a different replicate in a natural experiment, shows neither size increase nor heterochrony but does exhibit (in contrast with the classic sequence) evolution toward greater longevity.Hallam's flow tank experiments indicated a strong adaptive advantage in shell stability for both larger size and paedomorphic form. Neotenous development provides an evolutionary pathway to the simultaneous acquisition of both favored traits—thus showing that “constraints” due to “correlations of growth” (Darwin's own phrase for the phenomenon) may be positive in promoting joint evolutionary advantages, and not only neutral (in carrying spandrels along with primary adaptations), or negative (by imposing inadaptive “baggage” upon trends in form through developmental correlation with selected traits).

Abstract Models of consumer heterogeneity play a pivotal role in marketing and economics, specifically in random coefficient or mixed logit models for aggregate or individual data and in hierarchical Bayesian models of heterogeneity. In applications, the inferential target often pertains to a population beyond the sample of consumers providing the data. For example, optimal prices inferred from the model are expected to be optimal in the population and not just optimal in the observed, finite sample. The population model, random coefficients distribution, or heterogeneity distribution is the natural and correct basis for generalizations from the observed sample to the market. However, in many if not most applications standard heterogeneity models such as the multivariate normal, or its finite mixture generalization lack economic rationality because they support regions of the parameter space that contradict basic economic arguments. For example, such population distributions support positive price coefficients or preferences against fuel-efficiency in cars. Likely as a consequence, it is common practice in applied research to rely on the collection of individual level mean estimates of consumers as a representation of population preferences that often substantially reduce the support for parameters in violation of economic expectations. To overcome the choice between relying on a mis-specified heterogeneity distribution and the collection of individual level means that fail to measure heterogeneity consistently, we develop an approach that facilitates the formulation of more economically faithful heterogeneity distributions based on prior constraints. In the common situation where the heterogeneity distribution comprises both constrained and unconstrained coefficients (e.g., brand and price coefficients), the choice of subjective prior parameters is an unresolved challenge. As a solution to this problem, we propose a marginal-conditional decomposition that avoids the conflict between wanting to be more informative about constrained parameters and only weakly informative about unconstrained parameters. We show how to efficiently sample from the implied posterior and illustrate the merits of our prior as well as the drawbacks of relying on means of individual level preferences for decision-making in two illustrative case studies.

The study aims to substantiate the based on the marketing paradigm methodological approach to business entities selection for inclusion in the integration formations and develop recommendations for such entities competitive environment analysis. The possibility of enterprise development ensuring has been proved through the integration constraints system coordinated creation and through institutional norms and rules formalization for previously non-integrated actors' interaction. The strategic alternatives composition for the business, economic, technological, and organizational development have been generalized. The derivative two-dimensional strategic matrices formation framework for choosing the integrated business structure marketing strategy has been developed

In this paper, we consider a class of variational-hemivariational inequality problems with constraints in a reflexive Banach space. This inequality problem involves two nonlinear operators and two nondifferentiable functionals. We introduce the penalty parameter and the penalty operator and change the initial problem into the penalty one, and then use the generalize

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of corporate social responsibility on customer satisfaction, loyalty and repurchase with or without cause-related marketing or cause marketing across Islamic companies. Design/methodology/approach An experimental survey of Iranian university students was conducted to investigate the customer satisfaction, loyalty and purchase intention with companies using social marketing methods such as corporate social responsibility along with cause marketing and cause-related marketing. A total of 400 usable surveys were obtained in SRBIA University of Tehran, while possessing the greatest ability to consume more hoteling services companies and mobile producers beyond Iranian students. Findings The results indicated that through an experimental research by including social marketing in products or service companies such as mobile producers and hotel services companies in Iran (as an Islamic country), there are same levels of loyalty and repurchase intentions, but different levels of customer’s satisfaction. Furthermore, the authors found out there is no significant difference regarding the effect of cause marketing and cause-related marketing on loyalty and repurchase intentions. Also, it is different on customer’s satisfaction given the company type. Research limitations/implications The sampling frame for this research was limited to students in one of Iran capital city universities. The results are not exactly generalized to all the populations for Iranian product or service consumers. Also, the sampling methods used in this research might have generated bias due to time and resources constraints. So, it is recommended for future studies to consider broader samplings more than university students and beyond only the consumers of international product or service companies. Originality/value No study has used corporate social responsibilities to explain customer satisfaction while providing cause marketing and cause-related marketing as corporate social marketing in service companies influencing the customer loyalty and repurchase intentions.

Continuous influence maximization (CIM) generalizes the original influence maximization by incorporating general marketing strategies: a marketing strategy mix is a vector x = (x1, …, xd) such that for each node v in a social network, v could be activated as a seed of diffusion with probability hv(x), where hv is a strategy activation function satisfying DR-submodularity. CIM is the task of selecting a strategy mix x with constraint ∑ixi ≤ k where k is a budget constraint, such that the total number of activated nodes after the diffusion process, called influence spread and denoted as g(x), is maximized. In this paper, we extend CIM to consider budget saving, that is, each strategy mix x has a cost c(x) where c is a convex cost function, and we want to maximize the balanced sum g(x) + λ(k − c(x)) where λ is a balance parameter, subject to the constraint of c(x) ≤ k. We denote this problem as CIM-BS. The objective function of CIM-BS is neither monotone, nor DR-submodular or concave, and thus neither the greedy algorithm nor the standard result on gradient method could be directly applied. Our key innovation is the combination of the gradient method with reverse influence sampling to design algorithms that solve CIM-BS: For the general case, we give an algorithm that achieves (½ − ε)-approximation, and for the case of independent strategy activations, we present an algorithm that achieves (1 − 1/e − ε) approximation.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the mechanism of the influence of consumer innovativeness (CI) on consumer-reasoned green consumption (GC) behavior to understand more about this behavior and help improve the practice of green marketing. Design/methodology/approach – To understand more about GC behavior and help to improve the practice of green marketing, this paper tries to explore the mechanism of CI influences on consumer-reasoned GC behavior. Findings – This study shows that CI has a significant influence on GC behavior. Its mechanism is that CI directly influences consumer attitude, subjective norm (SN) and perceived behavioral control (PBC) of GC, and then further influences GC intention and behavior. The direct influence of GC attitude on intention is not significant, but GC intention is indirectly influenced via SN by attitude. Moreover, male, young, highly educated and high-income consumers have stronger CI; the influence of CI on GC behavior is more significant in male, old, less-educated and low-income consumers. Research limitations/implications – This research focuses on consumption behaviors which are reasoned and environment condition-constrained only, and its findings cannot be generalized to impulsive consumption behaviors. The influence of CI on impulsive consumption behaviors should be further researched. Practical implications – Company managers should utilize new technology and design to make green products more innovative and fashionable to attract more customers. Social implications – Instead of environment protection propaganda and education, society and market supervisors should lay the key point of GC incentive on the draft and implementation of law and regulation. Originality/value – This research is an initial attempt to establish the relationship between CI and GC behaviors and generate a news research area in green marketing.

The study explored the mediating effect of Perceived Employability (PE) on faculty members’ protean career orientation (PCO) and Career Success (CS). The study is exploratory in nature which aimed to ascertain the mediating relationship of perceived employability between protean career orientation and career success of faculty members working in public sector institutions of higher learning. The researchers tried to test protean career theory by developing a conceptual framework. Data were gained through self-administrated questionnaires from the faculty members working in Punjab’s Public Sector Universities. For the purpose of sampling: stratified sampling technique was applied for data collection. Data were obtained from 269 respondents’ for testing the theoretical model. Measurement model was analyzed by applying Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) for testing the hypothesis. For this purposed we used SMART-PLS Licensed version 3. The researchers detected a statistically significant mediating role of perceived employability between protean career orientation and subjective career success. Due to the scarcity of financial and time constraints we have collected data from only 12 universities of Punjab, Pakistan. However, the results can be generalized as all the public sector universities are governed by same governing body; named Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC).

An important problem in the context of viral marketing in social networks is the Influence Threshold (IT) problem, which aims at finding some users (referred to as a seed set) to begin the process of disseminating their product’s information so that the benefit gained exceeds a predetermined threshold. Even though, marketing strategies exhibit different in several realistic scenarios due to market dependence or budget constraints. As a consequence, picking a seed set for a specific threshold is not enough to come up with an effective solution. To address the disadvantages of previous works with a new approach, we study the Multiple Benefit Thresholds (MBT), a generalized version of the IT problem, as a result of this phenomenon. Given a social network that is subjected to information distribution and a set of thresholds, T={T1,T2,…,Tk},Ti>0, the issue aims to seek the seed sets S1,S2,…,Sk with the lowest possible cost so that the benefit achieved from the influence process is at the very least T1,T2,…,Tk, respectively. The main challenges of this problem are a #NP-hard problem and the estimation of the objective function #P-Hard under traditional information propagation models. In addition, adapting the exist algorithms many times to different thresholds can lead to large computational costs. To address the abovementioned challenges, we introduced Efficient Sampling for Selecting Multiple Seed Sets, an efficient technique with theoretical guarantees (ESSM). At the core of our algorithm, we developed a novel algorithmic framework that (1) can use the solution to a smaller threshold to find that of larger ones and (2) can leverage existing samples with the current solution to find that of larger ones. The extensive experiments on several real social networks were conducted in order to show the effectiveness and performance of our algorithm compared with current ones. The results indicated that our algorithm outperformed other state-of-the-art ones in terms of both the total cost and running time.

The study focuses on forming an instrumental approach in the field of import substitution policy as a country development strategy implemented through identifying the main constraints of the situational (sanction-caused) and fundamental (related to the policy content) nature. The research subject is the import substitution policy in Russia, as well as the conditions created by economic sanctions. Methodologically, the study relies on the theories of international trade and public administration that allowed determining the main types of import substitution and restrictions emerging when managing this process at the government level within a large-scale system, as well as establishing feedback in the implementation of macroeconomic policies counteracting import substitution, i.e., parallel imports and zero duties. The research methods are comparative and taxonomic analysis, and generalization of statistical estimates. Empirical evidence comes from the industry-specific import substitution programmes and orders of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. The author proposes a pyramid of import substitution significance levels reflecting various scales of import substitution policy – starting from products and services, technologies, and institutions (rules) to regulatory methods and policy models, cultural imperatives, and economic doctrines. The generalized Russia’s experience shows that progress in import substitution is relative. This implies investing more efforts in the development of a national project that would link national design and implementation of sectoral programs at all levels with evidence-based substantiation of resources and priorities within the goals of import substitution.

Targeted marketing strategies are of significant interest in the smartapp economy. Typically, one seeks to identify individuals to strategically target in a social network so that the network is influenced at a minimal cost. In many practical settings, the effects of direct influence predominate, leading to the positive influence dominating set with partial payments (PIDS-PP) problem that we discuss in this paper. The PIDS-PP problem is NP-complete because it generalizes the dominating set problem. We discuss several mixed integer programming formulations for the PIDS-PP problem. First, we describe two compact formulations on the payment space. We then develop a stronger compact extended formulation. We show that when the underlying graph is a tree, this compact extended formulation provides integral solutions for the node selection variables. In conjunction, we describe a polynomial-time dynamic programming algorithm for the PIDS-PP problem on trees. We project the compact extended formulation onto the payment space, providing an equivalently strong formulation that has exponentially many constraints. We present a polynomial time algorithm to solve the associated separation problem. Our computational experience on a test bed of 100 real-world graph instances (with up to approximately 465,000 nodes and 835,000 edges) demonstrates the efficacy of our strongest payment space formulation. It finds solutions that are on average 0.4% from optimality and solves 80 of the 100 instances to optimality. Summary of Contribution: The study of influence propagation is important in a number of applications including marketing, epidemiology, and healthcare. Typically, in these problems, one seeks to identify individuals to strategically target in a social network so that the entire network is influenced at a minimal cost. With the ease of tracking consumers in the smartapp economy, the scope and nature of these problems have become larger. Consequently, there is considerable interest across multiple research communities in computationally solving large-scale influence maximization problems, which thus represent significant opportunities for the development of operations research–based methods and analysis in this interface. This paper introduces the positive influence dominating set with partial payments (PIDS-PP) problem, an influence maximization problem where the effects of direct influence predominate, and it is possible to make partial payments to nodes that are not targeted. The paper focuses on model development to solve large-scale PIDS-PP problems. To this end, starting from an initial base optimization model, it uses several operations research model strengthening techniques to develop two equivalent models that have strong computational performance (and can be theoretically shown to be the best model for trees). Computational experiments on a test bed of 100 real-world graph instances (with up to approximately 465,000 nodes and 835,000 edges) attest to the efficacy of the best model, which finds solutions that are on average 0.4% from optimality and solves 80 of the 100 instances to optimality.

The objective prerequisites for the transition from a strategy of confrontation to partnership relations in a competitive struggle for the consumer predetermine the need for a clear definition of such concepts as partnership relations and partner networks, since it is the partnership relations that provide market participants with more competitive advantages than they could have under condition of separate activities. The subject-matter of the study is a methodological solution to the problem of determining the effectiveness of establishing partnership relations and the formation of partner networks. After all, the effectiveness of the partner network can only be achieved if the effectiveness of the partnership relations is achieved. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to develop methodological approaches to determining the effectiveness of partner networks through the evaluation of partnership relations. In order to achieve this goal, the following research methods have been used in the paper: analysis and generalization of theoretical sources and scientific literature; abstract-logical method in the process of theoretical generalizations and formation of conclusions; prognostic and diagnostic; general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis. As a result of the research, the methodology of constructing a morphological matrix of the effectiveness of a partner network based on integrated indicators of the sustainability and reliability of partnership relations was proposed. In order to determine the components of sustainability, a methodology for calculating the integrated value of the sustainability index of the partnership relations is proposed. Herewith, five interrelated components are taken into account that are equally important for strategizing partnership relations such as economic, marketing, social, environmental sustainability, and also the sustainability of partner networks in general. The algorithm of quantitative and qualitative assessment of the reliability of partnership relations involves seven stages. In particular, the definition of requirements for the reliability of partnership relations within a certain partner network, the definition and adjustment of the indicators of the rating system of the reliability of partnership relations and their importance for the partner network, the formation of the rating of partnership relations by the values of the generalized index of reliability, rating partners within a specific partner network by the level of reliability. Therefore, the proposed expert methodical approach to the assessment of the reliability of partnership relations involves the calculation of three characteristics of reliability (partner, production and economic activities, partner network in general) and is an applied instrument set for a new solution to the scientific and applied problem in the area of formation and development of partner relations in the economy of Ukraine in order to ensure a high level of management of them in resource constraints.

Consumers often try to achieve multiple goals when purchasing products and services, where choices are sought that maximize utility and other objectives such as to minimize regret. If the performance of choice outcomes are associated with high level of uncertainty at the time of purchase, consumers worry that the alternative of interest may turn out to be not optimal and they want to avoid this when making a purchase. We propose a new regret function and explore its properties. Then we propose a generalized framework of multiple goal pursuit and apply it to a utility maximization and regret minimization problem. Pareto optimal sets are an outcome of multiple goal optimization problems where there exists multiple alternatives that are non-dominated. Our proposed framework allows us to generalize a dual-goal problem as a constrained optimization problem where either utility is maximized subject to the constraints on regret, or regret is minimized subject to the utility constraints. The proposed model fits the data better, provides improved predictions, and offers a tractable solution to a problem of utility maximization and regret minimization.

Submodular optimization, particularly under cardinality or cost constraints, has received considerable attention, stemming from its breadth of application, ranging from sensor placement to targeted marketing. However, the constraints faced in many real domains are more complex. We investigate an important and very general class of problems of maximizing a submodular function subject to general cost constraints, especially focusing on costs coming from route planning. Canoni- cal problems that motivate our framework include mobile robotic sensing, and door-to-door marketing. We propose a generalized cost-benefit (GCB) greedy al- gorithm for our problem, and prove bi-criterion approximation guarantees under significantly weaker assumptions than those in related literature. Experimental evaluation on realistic mobile sensing and door-to-door marketing problems, as well as using simulated networks, show that our algorithm achieves significantly higher utility than state-of-the-art alternatives, and has either lower or competitive running time.

Abstract From time, to money, to energy, many consumers are feeling more constrained than ever before. One potential solution to the pervasive feeling of constraint is self-gifting, which is the process of invoking a hedonic consumption experience with the a priori intention of boosting one’s emotional well-being. But despite being a potentially powerful tool for mood repair, are consumers effectively coping with constraint by engaging in self-gifting? And if not, what is stopping them? A correlational pilot and six studies examine the relationship between the feeling of constraint and self-gifting consumption. When consumers feel constrained, they are less (rather than more) interested in self-gifting, and this is driven by a belief that feeling constrained will hamper their ability to derive the emotional well-being benefits of self-gifting. Importantly, though, this belief is miscalibrated: Resource-constrained consumers can derive substantial well-being benefits from self-gifting, relative to those feeling less constrained. The effects generalize across several sources of constraint, do not occur for non-self-gifts, and cannot be explained by feelings of deservingness or justifiability. This research advances understanding of self-gifting, affective forecasting, and consumer decision-making, yields practical recommendations to marketers of self-gifting consumption, and has important consumer implications for people seeking to boost their well-being.

Coconut, a versatile crop with multifaceted uses of its products, hence it is eulogized as “Kalpavriksha” (Tree of Heaven). Coconut is one of the most important commercial crops in many tropical countries and contributes significantly to its economy. India, with the rich biodiversity of coconut, is the largest producer with 33.02 percent share or 22167 million nuts of the world's production. Even though it leads in area, production and productivity, farmers were facing many problems in production and marketing of coconut. Hence a clear understanding on problems from production to marketing with the involvement of various stakeholders (farmers, harvest contractors, commission agents, exporters, processors, wholesalers, retailers) in coconut value chain to help the policy makers for better decision making. Constraints faced by the various stakeholders in coconut production and marketing were elicited and analyzed to find out the significance and priority of the constraints using responses priority index. It was evident that in coconut production, yield decrease due to pest and disease occurrence ranked first with a response priority index value of 2.69. Interventions are required from the state department of agriculture and agricultural university on the management of pests and diseases. In marketing, high fluctuation in coconut prices ranked first with RPI score of 2.39. Daily price fluctuation resulted from an unstable market was the major problem regarding coconut marketing. It is the need of hour to set up an institutional body which would foresee the price movements and availability of coconut and bridges the gap between demand and supply and develop innovative models for upgrading the technology and market information. So, the above suggestions can be generalized to other parts of the country to reap maximum production and systematic marketing of coconut which will surely benefit to coconut growers and also to India’s economy.

AbstractIn the wake of the significant impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on industries and societies worldwide, the world has transitioned into a new normal marked by increased susceptibility to disruptive, volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (DVUCA) events. In this new normal, panic buying has proliferated into a pervasive global consumer behavior, rendering far‐reaching implications on economies and societies worldwide and thus necessitating thorough investigation. Existing literature on panic buying is constrained by two noteworthy limitations: firstly, the scarcity of studies that delineate the commercial impact of panic buying, and secondly, the dearth of longitudinal data in panic buying research. Addressing these gaps, this study employs longitudinal multi‐sourced monthly and seasonally adjusted secondary data comprising retail revenue of supermarkets and grocery stores and related COVID‐19 indicators in Australia to establish a case of panic buying and examine its commercial impact. Using 10 generalized least squares and two‐stage least squares regressions, we observe a positive, statistically significant relationship between the intensity of external crises and retail revenue, even when accounting for control and instrumental variables. Specifically, the increasing number of COVID‐19 new cases was found to produce a positive and significant effect on supermarket and grocery store revenue, with each new case contributing AU $0.02 million. Therefore, the present study contributes alternative evidence from the field that not only reaffirms the effect of externalities such as COVID‐19 in stimulating panic buying among consumers, but also highlights, for the first time, the commercial value of panic buying. The marketing implications of these findings in the new normal are also discussed.

Purpose Omnichannel implementation in retail requires business transformation and faces several operational barriers. This research discusses how omnichannel has been implemented, in a managerial perspective, and how integration of operations has overcome the identified transformative barriers. Design/methodology/approach The authors followed a multi-case study approach, with observation and interviews with managers of four big retail companies in Portugal. Findings The results suggest that retail companies have overcome the barriers to implement omnichannel models through the integration of information technology (IT), the accomplishment of organisational changes and the optimisation of customer feedback, achieving positive business indicators, namely increased sales. Research limitations/implications The conclusions of the paper provide valuable information to help companies to design the process of channel's integration in order to overcome the transformative constraints of omnichannel. However, those conclusions emerge from Portuguese case studies of retail companies, and a generalised discussion should consider the contextual diversity of consumer expectations, cultural user experiences in retail and the maturity of digital transformation and omnichannel implementation stage in each country. Originality/value Previous studies had characterised the items of omnichannel retail, fulfilment processes, the benefits of channels' integration in customer experience, satisfaction and loyalty and had identified barriers for its implementation. Considering the existence of different stages of omnichannel implementation, this paper explores how retail companies increment omnichannel operations, overcome transformative barriers and achieve the omnichannel benefits, through the whole involvement of the organisation system, the customer approach and the business model, besides the technology integration.

Purpose This paper aims to examine the effect of increases in alliance portfolio cultural diversity (IAPCD) on a firm’s performance and how portfolio configuration characteristics moderate this effect, aiming to enable managers to make better partner choice and portfolio configuration decisions to improve performance. Design/methodology/approach The sample includes 2,326 focal firms from 93 countries that formed 7,616 alliances between the years 1992 and 2006. This study uses generalized method of moments estimation to examine the effects of portfolio changes on next year’s firm sales performance. Findings Results reveal an inverted-U relationship between IAPCD and firm performance. Data limitations led to examining moderating effects only on the upslope portion of the inverted-U, indicating that an increasing percentage of joint ventures in a firm’s alliance portfolio strengthens IAPCD’s contribution to performance. Further, increased numbers of marketing alliances or research and development alliances and increased percentage of horizontal alliances in an alliance portfolio have a negative moderating effect. Research limitations/implications The sample mostly covers large companies. The data indicate that nearly all firms are on the upslope of an inverted-U IAPCD–to–performance relationship, allowing testing of moderating effects pre-inflection point only. Practical implications Firms can leverage the additions of culturally diverse partners toward improved performance through astute configuration decisions in alliance portfolio composition. Originality/value This paper uses the knowledge-based view to contribute to the alliance portfolio literature. This study asserts that capacity constraints affect firms’ ability to realize performance gains when taking on culturally diverse partners, an effect moderated by portfolio configurations. This paper tests hypothesis with longitudinal data.

With the use of logistics-oriented design, the industrial enterprise is considered as an integral typical production and sales system, for which it is possible to create a statistical database, which allows to analyze the transformation of flows in similar systems, and the designer can draw conclusions about the empirical laws of this transformation get a formalized operator. The industrial enterprise is considered as a production and marketing system, which consists of three basic functional subsystems – logistics, production and sales. Logistic-oriented design of such a system implies optimal organization and effective management of material flows, which helps to solve problems of systems analysis and synthesis within this approach, taking into account the requirements of an integrated approach to the organization of flows, as well as its consideration from source to final points of consumption. The methodological basis for ensuring high system-wide efficiency of formation of technical systems is formed. The ultimate goal of logistics-oriented design is to obtain a fully formalized view of the production and marketing system as part of the logic of flows and operators of their transformations, which tracked the impact of changes in any factor on system-wide economic efficiency. In generalized form, the production and marketing system is presented as follows: ensuring the necessary profitability of the system, ensuring organizational and economic stability of the system, optimizing the level of service to consumers of the system. Logistics-oriented design has key stages. The research begins with the formation of the simplest model, then the system is designed based on the analysis of motion and transformation in the system of flows. Based on this, a formalized model of the system is built and a system of constraints for the values of flow parameters and operators is formed. Based on them, the impact of changes in individual parameters on the final results of the system as a whole is estimated by modeling scenarios of the situation in the external environment. The last stage implements the feedback function to assess the feasibility of building a system based on the developed project.

PurposeImpulse purchases are a phenomenon of interest in recent years that provides a high revenue stream for companies compared to planned purchases. Airports are a unique shopping environment. Travellers usually need to arrive at the airport early and can only utilise limited time to shop at duty-free stores, which makes the shopping experience time-constrained and has the potential to make impulse purchases. The main purpose of this research is to create a model to examine whether “time pressure” and “hedonic shopping motivation” lead to impulse shopping through the formation of “positive emotion” in the context of airport duty-free shops.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire-based survey was conducted in this study. The data collection for this study targeted individuals who had previously used airline services for international travel and visited duty-free shops at international airports. A total of 502 valid subjects participated in this survey.FindingsThe findings indicated that time pressure and consumers’ hedonic motivations have a positive impact on emotions. Positive emotions have a positive impact on the occurrence of impulse purchases. Music and light can moderate the impact of hedonic motivation on emotion but cannot reduce the influence of time pressure on emotion. Social factor significantly moderates the positive association between hedonic shopping motivation and emotion.Originality/valueThe research collected data from various international airports and social media, enabling the findings to be generalised.

PurposeA rise in productivity is associated with higher profits, competitiveness and the sustainability of an industry and a nation. Recent studies highlight inadequate labour supervision and training facilities as the main causes of productivity-related challenges among construction enterprises. This study aims to evaluate the construction supervisors' capabilities in applying the required elements of work practices for enhancing the performance and productivity of construction operations using a case study.Design/methodology/approachA new construction supervisory training programme was developed through comprehensive sequential processes, and 64 construction supervisors underwent training . Marking guides with different levels of descriptions/standards were developed through consultations with experts and literature reviews, and the supervisors' capabilities were assessed under 64 competency elements of 12 competency units.FindingsThe findings show a clear cross-section of all the required competencies of construction supervisors with various levels of standards/descriptions, leading to a new generalised guideline that helps to comprehend what degrees of skills can be taken into account in supervision attributes. Statistical tests and expert reviews were used to ensure the generalisability of the research applications and the reliability of the results.Research limitations/implicationsDespite the study findings being limited to the Sri Lankan construction industry, its applicability could create considerable impacts on the current/future practices of the construction sector in developing countries as well as other developing industries.Practical implicationsThe study adds new characteristics and values to construction supervision practices that can be remarkable in encouraging construction supervision to drive the sustainability of construction practices. The study findings are significant in decision-making/planning procedures related to technical comprehension, industry training, scientific documentation, adherence to workforce employment constraints and job outputs. This paper describes the further extensive implications and future scopes of the study elaborately.Originality/valueThis study addresses the knowledge gap in the industry related to the development of protocols and application methodologies necessary to track their performance. The study opens a new window that inflows knowledge attributes to the industry sector along with the necessary comparison of the relevant competency elements to predict/comprehend what levels of capabilities can be theoretically considered and practically applied in supervision characteristics.

Landing in the Midwest after a lifetime in Los Angeles, I was shocked to learn how “famous” that great city really is. It used to seem perfectly reasonable that the freeways on CHiPs looked just like the ones I rode to school. When I was five, I remember being secretly bummed that my mom never took us to the disco-classical mural from Xanadu, which I was convinced had to be hidden somewhere in Venice Beach. In high school, it never seemed strange that the Peach Pit on Beverly Hills 90210 was the same as the Rose City Diner. From the L.A. River to the Griffith Park Observatory, from the Hollywood Sign to Venice Beach, the places I had been in, through, and around were inscribed with meanings in ways that I could never fully grasp. Even marginalized localities like Inglewood, Compton, and East L.A., which especially during the 1980s and early 1990s were being ravaged by urban warfare, got to be the stars of movies, songs, and many music videos. And on April 29, 1992, the corner of Florence and Normandie “blew up” into a full blown riot, sparked by the acquittal of the four white officers who beat black motorist, Rodney King. I could watch the city burn on T.V. or from the hill behind my house. All my life, I lived with a foot in each L.A., the one that’s outside my living room and the one that’s inside my living room, oblivious to the fact that I lived in a famous city. It was only after I moved away from L.A. that I realized my homesickness could often be softened by a click of the remote. I could look for a familiar stretch of road, a bit of the skyline, or a clean but otherwise familiar segment of sidewalk, and it didn’t even matter who, what, where, or why was taking place in the story on screen. It was as though fragments of my life had been archived for me in media space. Some memories were real and some just recollections of other representations – like seeing the observatory in Bowfinger and wondering if I was remembering Rebel Without a Cause or a second grade field trip. But when I arrived here, the question that greeted me most often at parties was, “Why are you in Bowling Green!?!” And the second was, “Did you meet any famous people?” And so I tell them about how I went to driver’s education class with Mayim Byalik, the star of Blossom. Or that I met Annette Funicello one New Year’s Eve at my Uncle Phil’s house. Aside from the occasional queer chuckle about my brush with Blossom, this record is unimpressive. People are hoping for something a little bit more like, “I spent the night in jail with Poison,” “I was an extra on Baywatch,” or “I was at the Viper Room the night River Phoenix passed away.” In spite of my lackluster record of interactions with the rich and the famous, I would still get introduced as being “from California.” I had become the recipient of a second-rate, secondhand fame, noted for being from a place where, if I were more ambitious, I could have really rubbed shoulders with famous people. To young people, many of whom were itching to travel to a place like LA or New York, I was a special kind of failure. But if you aren’t famous, if you are a loser like me, life in L.A. isn’t about the a-list at all. It is about living in a city that captures the imagination, even as you walk down the street. So earning notoriety in a city that speaks in spectacle is an exercise in creativity. It seems like everybody, even the most down-to-earth people, are invested in developing a character, an image, a persona that can bubble up and be noticed in spite of the overwhelming glow of Hollywood. Even at my suburban high school, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, I knew upper-middleclass boys who got nose jobs and manicures. I knew girls who would go trolling for rich men to buy them pretty things that their parents couldn’t afford. There were kids whose parents helped them cheat their way into college. There were wannabe junkies who drove their moms’ minivans into the ghetto to score. I saw people panic, pout, and scream over cars and allowances and shoes. I know that consumer culture is growing stronger just about everywhere, but back home it happened a lot sooner and a lot stronger. Because of our proximity to Hollywood, the crest of the cultural tidal wave looks much higher and its force is much stronger. And I guess I was just too fat to be in California, so I left. However, every once in a while, somebody does manage to make a scene in L.A. A little loser, or whatever you want to call one of the peasants who tend to the vast fiefdoms of L.A.’s elites, rises from banality to achieve celebrity, even if it is a minor celebrity, in the City of Angels. One such figure is the notorious Daniel Ramos, who in 1991 became a central figure in the city’s struggle over its own image. Daniel Ramos was not a star, a politician, or a leader of industry – but before he even appeared in the news, he had trafficked illegally in making a name for himself. A teenager from the projects, Ramos was more widely known as “Chaka,” a graffiti writer credited with over 10,000 tags from San Diego to San Francisco. I had seen Chaka’s tags just about everywhere, and had determined that he might be superhuman. His name, taken after a hairy little missing link from the popular fantasy show, The Land of the Lost, made me smirk as it conjured up images of a sub-humanoid with broken dialect creeping out from the darkness with cans of paint, marking the walls with his sign, calling out to the rest of us half-humans stranded in the land of the lost. Meanwhile, L.A.’s rich and famous whizzed by, casting resentful glances at Chaka’s do-it-yourself media blitz. I knew that Chaka was “bad,” but my imagination loved him. And when he allegedly left his mark in the courthouse elevator on the day of his release from a five-month stretch in prison (Costello), I couldn’t help but feel glad to know that Chaka was still alive, that legends don’t die (his name even made it, through the hand of Dave Grohl, into Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit Video” in 1991). For me, and I imagine for many others, it was the beginning of a political awakening. I wondered what was so bad about graffiti, even though I had been taught all my life that it was wrong. More than ten years later, as I sit by the railroad tracks in my small, Midwestern town, eagerly waiting for messages from California painted on the sides of boxcars, I find myself asking a related question – what is good about advertising? I’m not the first to make the welcomed association between graffiti and advertising. In an interview with the vastly capable scholar, Joe Austin, New York graffiti legend IZ THE WIZ explained it thusly: OK, now you’re on a poorer economic level and what do you have? Years ago, and even today, a boxer makes a name for himself in the boxing ring. So when this art form starts developing, why would it be any different? It’s all in the name. When you’re poor, that’s all you got. (40) Austin elaborates on this insight, explaining: The proliferation of posters, advertisements, and signs bearing the images and names of products and proprietors in twentieth-century cities is one obvious place to begin. These are the directly visible extensions of individual/corporate identities into the new shared urban public spaces of the streets, a quantitatively and qualitatively new site in human history where hundreds of thousands of often spectacularly displayed names abound, each catching the eyes of potential consumers and imprinting itself on their memories. (39) So, on one level, the story of Chaka is the story of a poor man who went toe to toe with big media, in a town run by big media, and held his own. It is the story of someone who has managed to say in no insignificant way, “I am here.” Or has Ramos himself yelled as he was being shackled by police, “I am the famous ‘Chaka’” (Walker A4). In spite of everything else, Ramos had a name that was widely recognized, respected by some, reviled by others. Nancy Macdonald, in her important study the culture of writing, shifts the focus away from the more solidly class-based argument employed by Austin in his study of the origins of New York graffiti art to one which lends itself more readily to understanding the culture of writing in the 1990s, after hip hop had become more accessible to middleclass enthusiasts. Macdonald explains, “Writers use the respect and recognition of their peers to validate their masculine identities” (124). While I am reluctant to downplay the class struggle that certainly seems to have implicitly informed Chaka’s quest for recognition, his outlaw appeal lends itself such an interpretation. In a city like Los Angeles, where middle class agency and upward mobility for the service class are not simply functions of wealth, but also of scrupulously maintained images, feelings of powerlessness associated with the lack of a compelling image are to be expected. It is the engine that drives the exuberant extravagance of consumer culture, lifestyle choices, and ultimately biopolitics. In a society where culture and capital are the dual poles which determine one’s social standing, the pursuit of notoriety is not simply a measure of masculinity – hijacking images is a way to assert one’s agency in spite of the diminished value of unskilled labor and the collective fear of underclass masculinities. In her book Wallbangin’: Graffiti and Gangs in L.A., Susan A. Philips provides discussion of Chaka’s contribution to L.A. graffiti. Notably, Chaka was seen by those in the graffiti community as an everyman, who was responsible for two significant cultural achievements: he “open[ed] up the style of the New York-based tags and creat[ed] the phenomenon of the individual tagger” (Phillips 320). He also, as Phillips notes, “wrote tags that you could read…in blockish gang-type lettering” (320). Unlike his New York graffiti-writing peers, which are best known for their beautiful “wildstyle,” Chaka did not typically traffic in multicolor murals and displays of painterly virtuosity. His chief accomplishment was his cunning pervasiveness and daring criminality. As such, his body of work should be seen as incompatible with High Art attempts to bring collectible graffiti into gallery spaces through the 1980s and ‘90s. Chaka’s medium, in a sense, has less to do with paint, than it has to do with the city and its rules. For the majority of the public, Chaka was seen as an individual face for the graffiti pandemic that was strategically linked in the public mind with specter of gang violence. However, to those familiar with the writing scene in L.A., Chaka is more than a lone individual: THE OG’Z OF THE LEGION OF DOOM WERE THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR BRINGING THE EARLY LOS ANGELES GRAFFITI SCENE TO IT’S KNEES! AND GAVE US MOST OF THE LEGENDS WE KNOW TODAY! I REMEMBER I TIME WHEN EVERY LOS ANGELES INTERSTATE HEAVEN ROCKED BY EITHER LEST-CAB-STANS-SUB OR THE CHAKA!!! (god i miss those days!) remember the CAB undercover story on the news where he did those loks on dope throwies on the 110 pasadena? I think it was chuck henry channel 7 ??? does anyone still have that on vhs? i had it on vhs along with the CHAKA PUBLIC SERVICE ANOUNCEMENT (that was great!). (Poncho1DEcrew) Instead of being an individual tagger, Chaka is recognized as a member of a crew (LOD), who managed to get up in legendary ways. In reclaiming freeway overpasses (the “Heavens”), walls, trains, road signs, and just about everything else for his crew, vicariously for the many other people who respect his name, and also for himself, Chaka is more than simply selfish, as is often suggested by his detractors. In the heavens is the right place to begin. High up in the sky, over the freeways, for all to see, the writing in the heavens is visible, mysterious, and ultimately risky. The problem of climbing along the girders underneath the bridges, escaping detection, but leaving something bold points to what distinguishes writing from an ad-campaign. Sure, some of what the tagger does is about simply being a recognized image all over the place. But the other part is about finding the place, working within environmental constraints, battling against time, stretching one’s limits, and doing it with style. While the image may be everywhere, the act of writing itself is a singularity, shrouded by secrecy, and defined by the moment of its doing. The aftereffect is a puzzle. And in the case of Chaka, the question is, “How the hell did this guy get up over 10,000 times?” While I can’t see how he did it and I don’t know where, exactly, he got all that paint, I do know one thing: Chaka went everywhere. He mapped the city out as a series of landmarks, he put his name to the space, and he claimed Los Angeles for people other than the ones who claim to own the rights to beam their generalized and monolithic messages into our living rooms. Instead of archiving the city in the banalities of mass media, he has created an archive of an alternative L.A., filled with singularities, and famous in the way that only one’s hometown can be. Instead of being a celebrity, renowned by virtue of a moderately unique character, his ability to generate money, and an elite image, Chaka represents an alternative fame. As a modern day “everyman” and folk hero, he brings a message that the city belongs to all people. Far from the naïve and mean-spirited equations between graffiti writing and canine scent-marking as a primitive drive to mark territorial boundaries with undesirable substances (writers:paint::dogs:piss), Chaka’s all-city message is not so much a practice of creating exclusionary spaces as it is an assertion of one’s identity in a particular space. A postmodern pilgrim, Chaka has marked his progress through the city leaving a perceptible record of his everyday experience, and opening up that possibility for others. This is not to say that it is necessary for all people to paint in order to break loose from the semiotic order of the city, it is only to say that is hopeful to realize that this order is not fixed and that is not even necessarily our own. Reflecting back on my own experience as one who has grown up very much in love in the produced spaces of the scripted and archived fame of Los Angeles, the realization that such an overwhelming place is open even to my own inscriptions is an important one. This realization, which has been many years in the making, was set into place by the curious fame of Chaka. For a writer and scholar disturbed by the “death of the author,” it comes as a relief to see writing resurrected in the anti-authoritarian practice of a teenage boy from the projects. References Austin, Joe. Taking the Train: How Graffiti Art Became an Urban Crisis in New York City. New York: Columbia UP, 2001. Costello, D. “Writing Was on the Wall.” Courier-Mail 9 May 1991. Macdonald, Nancy. The Graffiti Subculture: Youth, Masculinity and Identity in London and New York. Hampshire: Palgrave, 2001. Phillips, Susan A. Wallbangin’: Graffiti and Gangs in L.A. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1999. Poncho1DEcrew. 50mm Los Angeles Forum. 18 June 2004. 11 July 2004 http://www.50mmlosangeles.com/>. Walker, Jill. “Letter from the Streets; Handwriting on the Wall: 10,000 Chakas.” Washington Post 4 May 1991: A4. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Heckman, Davin. "Being in the Shadow of Hollywood: Celebrity, Banality, and the Infamous Chaka." M/C Journal 7.5 (2004). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0411/12-heckman.php>. APA Style Heckman, D. (Nov. 2004) "Being in the Shadow of Hollywood: Celebrity, Banality, and the Infamous Chaka," M/C Journal, 7(5). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0411/12-heckman.php>.

In the last decade, the cell phone’s transformation from a tool for mobile telephony into a multi-modal, computational “smart” media device has engendered a new kind of emplacement, and the ubiquity of technological mediation into the everyday settings of urban life. With it, a new kind of media literacy has become necessary for participation in the networked social publics (Ito; Jenkins et al.). Increasingly, the way we experience our physical environments, make sense of immediate events, and form impressions is through the lens of the camera and through the ear of the microphone, framed by the mediating possibilities of smartphones. Adopting these practices as a kind of new media “grammar” (Burn 29)—a multi-modal language for public and interpersonal communication—offers new perspectives for thinking about the way in which mobile computing technologies allow us to explore our environments and produce new types of cultural knowledge. Living in the Social Multiverse Many of us are concerned about new cultural practices that communication technologies bring about. In her now classic TED talk “Connected but alone?” Sherry Turkle talks about the world of instant communication as having the illusion of control through which we micromanage our immersion in mobile media and split virtual-physical presence. According to Turkle, what we fear is, on the one hand, being caught unprepared in a spontaneous event and, on the other hand, missing out or not documenting or recording events—a phenomenon that Abha Dawesar calls living in the “digital now.” There is, at the same time, a growing number of ways in which mobile computing devices connect us to new dimensions of everyday life and everyday experience: geo-locative services and augmented reality, convergent media and instantaneous participation in the social web. These technological capabilities arguably shift the nature of presence and set the stage for mobile users to communicate the flow of their everyday life through digital storytelling and media production. According to a Digital Insights survey on social media trends (Bennett), more than 500 million tweets are sent per day and 5 Vines tweeted every second; 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute; more than 20 billion photos have been shared on Instagram to date; and close to 7 million people actively produce and publish content using social blogging platforms. There are more than 1 billion smartphones in the US alone, and most social media platforms are primarily accessed using mobile devices. The question is: how do we understand the enormity of these statistics as a coherent new media phenomenon and as a predominant form of media production and cultural participation? More importantly, how do mobile technologies re-mediate the way we see, hear, and perceive our surrounding evironment as part of the cultural circuit of capturing, sharing, and communicating with and through media artefacts? Such questions have furnished communication theory even before McLuhan’s famous tagline “the medium is the message”. Much of the discourse around communication technology and the senses has been marked by distinctions between “orality” and “literacy” understood as forms of collective consciousness engendered by technological shifts. Leveraging Jonathan Sterne’s critique of this “audio-visual litany”, an exploration of convergent multi-modal technologies allows us to focus instead on practices and techniques of use, considered as both perceptual and cultural constructs that reflect and inform social life. Here in particular, a focus on sound—or aurality—can help provide a fresh new entry point into studying technology and culture. The phenomenon of everyday photography is already well conceptualised as a cultural expression and a practice connected with identity construction and interpersonal communication (Pink, Visual). Much more rarely do we study the act of capturing information using mobile media devices as a multi-sensory practice that entails perceptual techniques as well as aesthetic considerations, and as something that in turn informs our unmediated sensory experience. Daisuke and Ito argue that—in contrast to hobbyist high-quality photographers—users of camera phones redefine the materiality of urban surroundings as “picture-worthy” (or not) and elevate the “mundane into a photographic object.” Indeed, whereas traditionally recordings and photographs hold institutional legitimacy as reliable archival references, the proliferation of portable smart technologies has transformed user-generated content into the gold standard for authentically representing the everyday. Given that visual approaches to studying these phenomena are well underway, this project takes a sound studies perspective, focusing on mediated aural practices in order to explore the way people make sense of their everyday acoustic environments using mobile media. Curation, in this sense, is a metaphor for everyday media production, illuminated by the practice of listening with mobile technology. Everyday Listening with Technology: A Case Study The present conceptualisation of curation emerged out of a participant-driven qualitative case study focused on using mobile media to make sense of urban everyday life. The study comprised 10 participants using iPod Touches (a device equivalent to an iPhone, without the phone part) to produce daily “aural postcards” of their everyday soundscapes and sonic experiences, over the course of two to four weeks. This work was further informed by, and updates, sonic ethnography approaches nascent in the World Soundscape Project, and the field of soundscape studies more broadly. Participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire about their media and technology use, in order to establish their participation in new media culture and correlate that to the documentary styles used in their aural postcards. With regard to capturing sonic material, participants were given open-ended instructions as to content and location, and encouraged to use the full capabilities of the device—that is, to record audio, video, and images, and to use any applications on the device. Specifically, I drew their attention to a recording app (Recorder) and a decibel measurement app (dB), which combines a photo with a static readout of ambient sound levels. One way most participants described the experience of capturing sound in a collection of recordings for a period of time was as making a “digital scrapbook” or a “media diary.” Even though they had recorded individual (often unrelated) soundscapes, almost everyone felt that the final product came together as a stand-alone collection—a kind of gallery of personalised everyday experiences that participants, if anything, wished to further organise, annotate, and flesh out. Examples of aural postcard formats used by participants: decibel photographs of everyday environments and a comparison audio recording of rain on a car roof with and without wipers (in the middle). Working with 139 aural postcards comprising more than 250 audio files and 150 photos and videos, the first step in the analysis was to articulate approaches to media documentation in terms of format, modality, and duration as deliberate choices in conversation with dominant media forms that participants regularly consume and are familiar with. Ambient sonic recordings (audio-only) comprised a large chunk of the data, and within this category there were two approaches: the sonic highlight, a short vignette of a given soundscape with minimal or no introduction or voice-over; and the process recording, featuring the entire duration of an unfolding soundscape or event. Live commentaries, similar to the conventions set forth by radio documentaries, represented voice-over entries at the location of the sound event, sometimes stationary and often in motion as the event unfolded. Voice memos described verbal reflections, pre- or post- sound event, with no discernable ambience—that is, participants intended them to serve as reflective devices rather than as part of the event. Finally, a number of participants also used the sound level meter app, which allowed them to generate visual records of the sonic levels of a given environment or location in the form of sound level photographs. Recording as a Way of Listening In their community soundwalking practice, Förnstrom and Taylor refer to recording sound in everyday settings as taking world experience, mediating it through one’s body and one’s memories and translating it into approximate experience. The media artefacts generated by participants as part of this study constitute precisely such ‘approximations’ of everyday life accessed through aural experience and mediated by the technological capabilities of the iPod. Thinking of aural postcards along this technological axis, the act of documenting everyday soundscapes involves participants acting as media producers, ‘framing’ urban everyday life through a mobile documentary rubric. In the process of curating these documentaries, they have to make decisions about the significance and stylistic framing of each entry and the message they wish to communicate. In order to bring the scope of these curatorial decisions into dialogue with established media forms, in this work’s analysis I combine Bill Nichols’s classification of documentary modes in cinema with Karin Bijsterveld’s concept of soundscape ‘staging’ to characterise the various approaches participants took to the multi-modal curation of their everyday (sonic) experience. In her recent book on the staging of urban soundscapes in both creative and documentary/archival media, Bijsterveld describes the representation of sound as particular ‘dramatisations’ that construct different kinds of meanings about urban space and engender different kinds of listening positions. Nichols’s articulation of cinematic documentary modes helps detail ways in which the author’s intentionality is reflected in the styling, design, and presentation of filmic narratives. Michel Chion’s discussion of cinematic listening modes further contextualises the cultural construction of listening that is a central part of both design and experience of media artefacts. The conceptual lens is especially relevant to understanding mobile curation of mediated sonic experience as a kind of mobile digital storytelling. Working across all postcards, settings, and formats, the following four themes capture some of the dominant stylistic dimensions of mobile media documentation. The exploratory approach describes a methodology for representing everyday life as a flow, predominantly through ambient recordings of unfolding processes that participants referred to in the final discussion as a ‘turn it on and forget it’ approach to recording. As a stylistic method, the exploratory approach aligns most closely with Nichols’s poetic and observational documentary modes, combining a ‘window to the world’ aesthetic with minimal narration, striving to convey the ‘inner truth’ of phenomenal experience. In terms of listening modes reflected in this approach, exploratory aural postcards most strongly engage causal listening, to use Chion’s framework of cinematic listening modes. By and large, the exploratory approach describes incidental documentaries of routine events: soundscapes that are featured as a result of greater attentiveness and investment in the sonic aspects of everyday life. The entries created using this approach reflect a process of discovering (seeing and hearing) the ordinary as extra-ordinary; re-experiencing sometimes mundane and routine places and activities with a fresh perspective; and actively exploring hidden characteristics, nuances of meaning, and significance. For instance, in the following example, one participant explores a new neighborhood while on a work errand:The narrative approach to creating aural postcards stages sound as a springboard for recollecting memories and storytelling through reflecting on associations with other soundscapes, environments, and interactions. Rather than highlighting place, routine, or sound itself, this methodology constructs sound as a window into the identity and inner life of the recordist, mobilising most strongly a semantic listening mode through association and narrative around sound’s meaning in context (Chion 28). This approach combines a subjective narrative development with a participatory aesthetic that draws the listener into the unfolding story. This approach is also performative, in that it stages sound as a deeply subjective experience and approaches the narrative from a personally significant perspective. Most often this type of sound staging was curated using voice memo narratives about a particular sonic experience in conjunction with an ambient sonic highlight, or as a live commentary. Recollections typically emerged from incidental encounters, or in the midst of other observations about sound. In the following example a participant reminisces about the sound of wind, which, interestingly, she did not record: Today I have been listening to the wind. It’s really rainy and windy outside today and it was reminding me how much I like the sound of wind. And you know when I was growing up on the wide prairies, we sure had a lot of wind and sometimes I kind of miss the sound of it… (Participant 1) The aesthetic approach describes instances where the creation of aural postcards was motivated by a reduced listening position (Chion 29)—driven primarily by the qualities and features of the soundscape itself. This curatorial practice for staging mediated aural experience combines a largely subjective approach to documenting with an absence of traditional narrative development and an affective and evocative aesthetic. Where the exploratory documentary approach seeks to represent place, routine, environment, and context through sonic characteristics, the aesthetic approach features sound first and foremost, aiming to represent and comment on sound qualities and characteristics in a more ‘authentic’ manner. The media formats most often used in conjunction with this approach were the incidental ambient sonic highlight and the live commentary. In the following example we have the sound of coffee being made as an important domestic ritual where important auditory qualities are foregrounded: That’s the sound of a stovetop percolator which I’ve been using for many years and I pretty much know exactly how long it takes to make a pot of coffee by the sound that it makes. As soon as it starts gurgling I know I have about a minute before it burns. It’s like the coffee calls and I come. (Participant 6) The analytical approach characterises entries that stage mediated aural experience as a way of systematically and inductively investigating everyday phenomena. It is a conceptual and analytical experimental methodology employed to move towards confirming or disproving a ‘hypothesis’ or forming a theory about sonic relations developed in the course of the study. As such, this approach most strongly aligns with Chion’s semantic listening mode, with the addition of the interactive element of analytical inquiry. In this context, sound is treated as a variable to be measured, compared, researched, and theorised about in an explicit attempt to form conclusions about social relationships, personal significance, place, or function. This analytical methodology combines an explicit and critical focus to the process of documenting itself (whether it be measuring decibels or systematically attending to sonic qualities) with a distinctive analytical synthesis that presents as ‘formal discovery’ or even ‘truth.’ In using this approach, participants most often mobilised the format of short sonic highlights and follow-up voice memos. While these aural postcards typically contained sound level photographs (decibel measurement values), in some cases the inquiry and subsequent conclusions were made inductively through sustained observation of a series of soundscapes. The following example is by a participant who exclusively recorded and compared various domestic spaces in terms of sound levels, comparing and contrasting them using voice memos. This is a sound level photograph of his home computer system: So I decided to record sitting next to my computer today just because my computer is loud, so I wanted to see exactly how loud it really was. But I kept the door closed just to be sort of fair, see how quiet it could possibly get. I think it peaked at 75 decibels, and that’s like, I looked up a decibel scale, and apparently a lawn mower is like 90 decibels. (Participant 2) Mediated Curation as a New Media Cultural Practice? One aspect of adopting the metaphor of ‘curation’ towards everyday media production is that it shifts the critical discourse on aesthetic expression from the realm of specialised expertise to general practice (“Everyone’s a photographer”). The act of curation is filtered through the aesthetic and technological capabilities of the smartphone, a device that has become co-constitutive of our routine sensorial encounters with the world. Revisiting McLuhan-inspired discourses on communication technologies stages the iPhone not as a device that itself shifts consciousness but as an agent in a media ecology co-constructed by the forces of use and design—a “crystallization of cultural practices” (Sterne). As such, mobile technology is continuously re-crystalised as design ‘constraints’ meet both normative and transgressive user approaches to interacting with everyday life. The concept of ‘social curation’ already exists in commercial discourse for social web marketing (O’Connell; Allton). High-traffic, wide-integration web services such as Digg and Pinterest, as well as older portals such as Reddit, all work on the principles of arranging user-generated, web-aggregated, and re-purposed content around custom themes. From a business perspective, the notion of ‘social curation’ captures, unsurprisingly, only the surface level of consumer behaviour rather than the kinds of values and meaning that this process holds for people. In the more traditional sense, art curation involves aesthetic, pragmatic, epistemological, and communication choices about the subject of (re)presentation, including considerations such as manner of display, intended audience, and affective and phenomenal impact. In his 2012 book tracing the discourse and culture of curating, Paul O’Neill proposes that over the last few decades the role of the curator has shifted from one of arts administrator to important agent in the production of cultural experiences, an influential cultural figure in her own right, independent of artistic content (88). Such discursive shifts in the formulation of ‘curatorship’ can easily be transposed from a specialised to a generalised context of cultural production, in which everyone with the technological means to capture, share, and frame the material and sensory content of everyday life is a curator of sorts. Each of us is an agent with a unique aesthetic and epistemological perspective, regardless of the content we curate. The entire communicative exchange is necessarily located within a nexus of new media practices as an activity that simultaneously frames a cultural construction of sensory experience and serves as a cultural production of the self. To return to the question of listening and a sound studies perspective into mediated cultural practices, technology has not single-handedly changed the way we listen and attend to everyday experience, but it has certainly influenced the range and manner in which we make sense of the sensory ‘everyday’. Unlike acoustic listening, mobile digital technologies prompt us to frame sonic experience in a multi-modal and multi-medial fashion—through the microphone, through the camera, and through the interactive, analytical capabilities of the device itself. Each decision for sensory capture as a curatorial act is both epistemological and aesthetic; it implies value of personal significance and an intention to communicate meaning. The occurrences that are captured constitute impressions, highlights, significant moments, emotions, reflections, experiments, and creative efforts—very different knowledge artefacts from those produced through textual means. Framing phenomenal experience—in this case, listening—in this way is, I argue, a core characteristic of a more general type of new media literacy and sensibility: that of multi-modal documenting of sensory materialities, or the curation of everyday life. 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