Impact of Consumer Awareness on Switching Behavior in Banking

In the era of open banking, the phenomenon of bank switching will intensify. The aim of the current study is to answer the following question: is switching, or not switching banks, a result of conscious and independent decision-making? The results from primary data demonstrate that the switching group clients are more conscious than non-switching group clients. They are more likely to compare offers from different banks, visit blogs about finances, demonstrate independence in making financial decisions, and use more service providers which improves their knowledge concerning the offers. The analysis of perceptual maps shows that the switching group is differentiated by various switching costs.

Speech Sound Discrimination by Mongolian Gerbils

The present study establishes the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) as a model for investigating the perception of human speech sounds. We report data on the discrimination of logatomes (CVCs - consonant-vowel-consonant combinations with outer consonants /b/, /d/, /s/ and /t/ and central vowels /a/, /aː/, /ɛ/, /eː/, /ɪ/, /iː/, /ɔ/, /oː/, /ʊ/ and /uː/, VCVs - vowel-consonant-vowel combinations with outer vowels /a/, /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ and central consonants /b/, /d/, /f/, /g/, /k/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /p/, /s/, /t/ and /v/) by young gerbils. Four young gerbils were trained to perform an oddball target detection paradigm in which they were required to discriminate a deviant CVC or VCV in a sequence of CVC or VCV standards, respectively. The experiments were performed with an ICRA-1 noise masker with speech-like spectral properties, and logatomes of multiple speakers were presented at various signal-to-noise ratios. Response latencies were measured to generate perceptual maps employing multidimensional scaling, which visualize the gerbils' internal representations of the sounds. The dimensions of the perceptual maps were correlated to multiple phonetic features of the speech sounds for evaluating which features of vowels and consonants are most important for the discrimination. The perceptual representation of vowels and consonants in gerbils was similar to that of humans, although gerbils needed higher signal-to-noise ratios for the discrimination of speech sounds than humans. The gerbils' discrimination of vowels depended on differences in the frequencies of the first and second formant determined by tongue height and position. Consonants were discriminated based on differences in combinations of their articulatory features. The similarities in the perception of logatomes by gerbils and humans renders the gerbil a suitable model for human speech sound discrimination.

Consumer Perception of the Circular Economy Concept Applied to the Food Domain: An Exploratory Approach

Every year, agri-food industries in industrialised countries produce approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of food loss and waste. The adoption of a circular economy policy has received special attention by the agri-food industries, allowing for the creation and development of new food products made of by-products that would otherwise be wasted or used for secondary applications. The present work, of an exploratory nature, aims to assess how consumers conceptualise the circular economy in order to identify consumer recognition of the use of by-products from the food industry to upcycle food products and to evaluate attitudes towards the circular economy. To this end, a mixed-methodology was applied to 340 participants. The first part was qualitative and used free word association to evaluate consumers’ conceptualisation of the circular economy and use of by-products as foods. Data were analysed by grouping the responses into exclusive and exhaustive categories and a correspondence analysis was also performed to originate perceptual maps. Additionally, a questionnaire was designed to evaluate major concepts and attitudes correlated with the circular economy. Data were reduced by principal component analysis (PCA) and participants grouped through clustering. Results showed that consumers understand circular economy as related mainly into Sustainability, Economy, and Circularity dimensions. Participants had great difficulty identifying the by-products used as foods or as food ingredients. From the quantitative data, four groups were identified based on the associations to the six principal components originated by the PCA. However, the results highlighted a very low association with all clusters of the Food Valorisation dimension within the concept of the circular economy, and also a lack of a clear understanding of consumers’ attitudes towards food products from the circular economy. Greater promotion and dissemination by the competent entities aimed at the general public may contribute towards greater integration, participation and acceptance of the circular economy concept for the upscaling of food by-products.

Perceptual Maps to Aggregate Information from Decision Makers

Understanding different perceptions of human being when using linguistic terms is a crucial issue in human-machine interaction. In this paper, we propose the concept of perceptual maps to model human opinions in a group decision-making context. The proposed approach considers a multi-granular structure using unbalanced hesitant linguistic term sets. An illustrative case is presented in the location decisions made by multinationals enterprises of the energy sector within the European smart city context.

Mapping young Russians’ perceptions of regional variation in Russian

This paper studies the perception of regional variation in Russian among young Russian nonlinguists in Moscow, Perm, and Novosibirsk. I explore the labels used in 55 perceptual maps and categorize them in order to investigate the perceived character of regional variation among young Russians, including their explanations for regional variation. The data analysis shows that claims about regional variation are based on the informants’ assessments of variation in Russian, but also on assessments of domains that they perceive as related to regional variation: style and accent, as well as extralinguistic features such as geography and climate. Based on this analysis, I argue that the line between regional language variation and other variations can be conceived of as fuzzy.

Prospects for Energy Demand Management in Russian Regions

In order to improve the energy efficiency in industrialised countries, energy demand management technologies are being introduced. In Russia, energy consumption is characterised by high natural gas usage. A decrease in demand volatility leads to the reduction of energy costs for industrial consumers. These factors indicate the feasibility of electricity and natural gas demand management. Simultaneously, Russian regions significantly differ in terms of the prospects for introducing integrated demand management. To examine the problem, we used statistical analysis, mathematical modelling and a method for constructing perceptual maps. Parameters of electricity and natural gas demand management in Russian regions were examined. As a result, we developed a methodology to assess the possibility of implementing energy demand management in various entities. This method is based on a system of indicators considering absolute and relative density of regions’ electricity and natural gas demand, industrial energy consumption, and natural gas used to generate electricity. The analysis of the relevant indicators allowed us to construct energy demand volatility maps and a matrix indicating the effectiveness of proposed management tools. The research findings can be used when developing targeted programmes for energy demand management at the regional and federal levels.

Interreg Atlantic Area AGEO Project – Explaining natural hazards and the role of citizen observatories through storytelling

<p>The Platform for Atlantic Geohazard Risk Management (AGEO) is a project co-financed under the Interreg Programme for the Atlantic Area that aims to launch five Citizens’ Observatory pilots on geohazards according to regional priorities:</p><ul><li>Citizens’ observatory on rockfalls and rockfall-triggers in the <strong>Canary Islands, Spain</strong></li> <li>Citizens’ observatory on rockfalls and rockfall-triggers in <strong>Giants' Causeway and Carrick-a-rede, Northern Ireland</strong></li> <li>Multihazard Citizens Observatory in <strong>Lisbon, Portugal</strong></li> <li>Citizens’ observatory of slope instability monitoring in <strong>Madeira island, Portugal</strong></li> <li>Citizens’ observatory of vulnerability to coastal Risks in <strong>Brittany, france</strong></li> </ul><p>These pilots will demonstrate how citizens’ involvement in geohazard risks prevention can strengthen regional and national risk management systems. The consortium is led by the Instituto Superior Técnico (Portugal) andcounts with several other partners from Portugal, Spain, France, Ireland and the United Kingdom.</p><p>Experiences gained during the implementation of the Citizens’ Observatory pilots will be used to formulate recommendations for the creation of future observatories in response to the widest range of hazards (both natural and human-induced) faced in the Atlantic region. Engaging citizens in Citizens Observatories requires the development of outreach strategies seeking to understand expectations and develop attitudes, behaviours and competencies relevant for the aims and activities of the observatories.</p><p>The AGEO Consortium identified and targeted relevant stakeholders using Mendelow’s (1991) power-interest matrix, and developed perceptual maps of stakeholders, adapted for each of the five Citizens’ Observatory pilots. This approach was the basis for the development of tailored value propositions formulated to raise awareness on geohazards  and mobilize citizens participation.</p><p>AGEO is also using storytelling to inspire the general public to action and emotionally implicate non-specialised audiences. This approach is being used to educate children at school age and to reach their parents (in the pilot regions).</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Mendelow, A. L., 1991. Environmental Scanning: The Impact of the Stakeholder Concept. Proceedings from the Second International Conference on Information Systems 407-418. Cambridge, MA.https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis1981/20/</p>

Hopfer-etal-HopsPerception-preprint

Hops, the flowers of the Humulus lupus plant, is almost exclusively used in beer production, where they add important flavor qualities, such as bitter taste and a variety of aromas, to the finished product. Depending on concentration, variety, and time of addition, different beer styles are created, appealing to a broad range of consumer needs. Consumers of different beer styles both state and reveal a strong preference for their respective preferred style, presumably due to the unique aromas and flavors experienced with different styles. Here we use several rapid profiling methods – free sorting (FS) in combination with check-all-that-apply (CATA) – to perceptually characterize nine samples of hops (7 varieties; 2 blind duplicates) with naïve participants who had been segmented by their typical beer consumption habits (craft versus light beer consumers). The ‘light’ group (n=30) exclusively consumed light, American lager beer styles while the ‘craft’ group (n=32) exclusively consumed what they considered ‘craft’ or ‘micro-brew’ beers. All participants were asked to first sort the hop samples into groups based solely on perceptual similarity; they were then asked to endorse a list of 24 common hops aroma descriptors in a CATA task. Sorting data were used to generate perceptual maps via DISTATIS. Inspection of the perceptual maps indicate participants successfully differentiated between hop samples, and no differences in the number of groups formed between the two consumer groups were found; however, the two cohorts grouped hops samples differently, and resulting maps showed little agreement. Further, light-style beer drinkers checked significantly fewer attributes in the CATA task to describe their hops groups and were also less discriminating between the hops samples relative to the craft-style beer consumers. These data suggest free sorting can be used to profile hops, and observed differences between types of beer drinkers are both perceptual and linguistic in nature.