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Digital technologies have already changed the way we live and work. However, there has been limited exploration and discussion about the long term effects of such technologies on our brains and, in particular, how we think. The purpose of this paper is to address the impact of digital technologies on human thinking and behaviour and the consequential effects on the commercial qualitative research industry.

The “method” underpinning this paper is a combination of qualitative observation drawn from a wide range of client companies during more than 30 years of commercial qualitative practice and organisational change management. The approach also uses an analysis of recent publications, books, academic papers and face to face interviews with psychologists, researchers, a neuroscientist, internet games developers and users, teachers, parents and academics within this field.

Neuroscientists are discovering that digital technologies, in particular the internet, are changing the way our brains function. These findings are significant for society as a whole and for the qualitative research community. This paper explores the evidence, asks what this means for the research industry and society and what, if anything, should we be doing about it?

The implications for commercial research practitioners are highlighted including, research as a state of mind, differentiating between data and knowledge, deep thinking, acknowledging emotional and intuitive learning, developing personal resources, especially mindfulness and the importance of creative discipline.

The paper highlights the importance of retaining traditional thinking skills, whilst integrating the best and most useful aspects of “cyber‐thinking”.

Military and commercial hybrids, using high speed integrated circuits with increased input/output density, require low cost, high reliability thick film circuits providing high density, multilayered interconnections with controllable electrical and mechanical characteristics. To meet these criteria it was necessary to adapt the silk screen printing process, including design, materials and reproduction processes, to cater for ‘thick film’, that is able to reproduce extremely fine lines without sacrificing the edge definition of the circuit layout. Printing screens were developed to deposit gold and silver pastes with line/space widths of 50 microns (0.002 in.) on bare ceramic and 100 microns (0.004 in.) on dielectric layers. Interconnection between layers was achieved with 150 micron (0.006 in.) dielectric via openings with corresponding via‐fill conductive connections (gold or silver). The development of the photo‐image onto the emulsion of the screen was deemed to be the most important single step in determining the final print definition of the circuit's design. The main body of this work was concentrated on this approach. The selection of the screens, emulsion system, UV exposure and development processes are also discussed. A capability circuit (CQC) was produced, consisting of five metal layers with line/spaces of 100 microns connected on each side of the ceramic by front to back lasered ‘through‐hole’ connections of 125 microns (0.005 in.) and layer interconnections through 150 micron (0.006 in.) dielectric vias. This capability circuit is classed as an Electronic Component of Assessed Quality by Capability Approval in accordance with BS 63200.

Existing research on demographic stereotypes of employees suggests that ethnicity and gender are important determinants of consumer perceptions and behaviors. Based on the Stereotype Content Model and the Role Congruity Theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of ethnicity and gender stereotypes on management-level service failures in a US context.

Adopting a 2 (ethnicity: Caucasian vs Hispanic) × 2 (gender: male vs female) between-subjects design, two studies were conducted with US consumers to test whether a double whammy effect of ethnicity and gender exists for management-level, but not line-level, service failures.

The results of this study suggest that Hispanic female managers suffer from a double whammy effect due to ethnic and gender-based stereotyping in the USA. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the serial mediation via competence perceptions and blame attributions are the underlying psychological mechanism of this effect. As predicted, occupational status functions as a boundary factor to the double whammy effect.

The findings of this paper contribute to the service management literature by examining the role of demographic characteristics in influencing US consumers’ responses to management-level service failures.

Option pricing theory enables computation of the price of an option using different variables associated with the underlying security and options contract. The purpose of this study is to assess research trends that emerged in the field of option pricing. This study reviews existing literature of the option pricing domain, both qualitatively and quantitatively, and identifies potential themes for future research.

This study adopts bibliometric analysis method to explore literature published in the option pricing domain. As part of bibliometric analysis, this study considers both descriptive and network analysis to assess publication trends. For descriptive analysis, the “bibliometrix” package proposed by Aria and Cuccurullo (2017) is used and for network analysis, VOS viewer (Van Eck and Waltman, 2017) and Gephi (Bastian et al., 2009) are used.

This study identifies research trends, top researchers, articles, journals and contributions from institutions and countries in the option pricing domain. It identifies four clusters that show different directions and also focuses on past studies on the same subject. It explores research gaps by performing an in-depth analysis of existing literature on option pricing and suggests the way forward for research in this area.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous studies have attempted to analyze the literature published in the option pricing domain. This study fulfils this research gap by conducting a comprehensive analysis of studies in the option pricing area. This study identifies quality research work published in the domain, research trends, contribution by most relevant researchers, contributions across geographies and institutions and the connections among these aspects. This study also identifies important themes and provides directions for future research.

The purpose of this study is to assess the effect on Learner Autonomy Profile (LAP) scores and academic success of a five‐week coaching intervention for pre‐diploma university students in Malaysia.

A quasi‐experimental designed was used. Participants completed the LAP pre‐ and post‐intervention. The experimental group of 35 participated in five weekly learner autonomy coaching sessions and wrote in computer‐managed reflection logs between meetings. A 52‐member control group received no intervention. Null hypotheses expected no significant differences in post‐ over pre‐intervention LAP scores or in GPA, Math, or English grades for either group.

Two null hypotheses were not supported and one was. Significant increases in mean post‐ over pre‐intervention LAP scores of the experimental group were found in eight of 22 components and two of four constructs of the LAP. No significant differences were found in the mean post‐ over pre‐intervention LAP scores of the control group. Significant increases were found in post‐ over pre‐intervention grades of both groups. However, the experimental group achieved a greater positive difference in grades than did the experimental group.

There was no hypothesis related to the use of group coaching versus the traditional individual coaching model in this study.

Learner autonomy group coaching and reflection activities appear to enhance behavioral intentions to learn and academic success.

Enhanced behavioral intentions to learn and academic success benefits the learner and society.

This is the first study designed to test the capacity to influence learner autonomy expressed in terms of behavioral intentions through coaching and its relationship to academic success.

This paper aims to examine how a stereotype threat, which entails being aware of a negative stereotype about one’s social group (e.g. gender), affects consumers’ price perceptions.

The authors conducted four studies to examine the effect of a stereotype threat on consumers’ perceptions of a product’s price–quality relationship.

This study found that being aware of a negative stereotype about one’s social group (i.e. gender here) led consumers to use price more as a quality indicator. This study also determined that reappraisal – an alternative way of coping with stereotype threats – reduced the impact of a stereotype threat and, subsequently, decreased reliance on price to infer quality.

This research contributes to the consumer decision-making literature by examining stereotype threat effect in in-store product purchasing contexts; provides theoretical contributions to the processing of price information by exploring the role of a stereotype threat in price perceptions and revealing that impairment of consumers’ working memory resources affects price perceptions; adds to the existing stereotype threat literature by investigating the effect of a stereotype threat on systematic versus heuristic information processing; and advances the stress and coping literature by suggesting that consumers adopting a reappraisal strategy cope better with a stereotype threat than when opting for a suppression strategy.

This research provides important implications for consumers. For example, the findings suggest that consumers who would like to avoid paying more for stereotype-associated products may adopt reappraisal to cope with a stereotype threat. Reappraisal may allow consumers to use fewer cognitive resources when coping with stereotype threats, thus minimizing the possibility that they might overpay for high-priced products.

This research uniquely examines the effect of a stereotype threat on consumers’ price perceptions and the role of reappraisal in this effect.

This study explores the decision-making powers of Australian female consumers in the financial product market. More precisely, it examines how the integrative effects of rationality, emotions and personality traits influence the decision-making powers of Australian female consumers when making financial product purchase decisions.

The study employs a quantitative research approach, utilising a survey strategy. The proposed conceptual model was tested using structural equation modelling (AMOS) on a valid 357 responses from Australian female consumers.

The findings revealed that rationality, self-efficacy and impulsivity have a positive impact on the decision-making powers of Australian female consumers. Besides this, self-efficacy and anxiety had significant moderating effects on the decision-making power of Australian female consumers when buying financial products, whereas anger and impulsivity were found to have no moderating effects.

The study offers understanding on the role of emotions and personality traits in financial decision-making, which can help financial institutions design sound products and services that can also ensure consumers' overall well-being.

Informed by the theoretical notions of the appraisal-tendency framework (ATF) and emotion-imbued choice model (EIC), the study makes a unique contribution by investigating the impact of rationality, emotions and personality traits on the decision-making powers of female consumers in the Australian financial product market.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate differences in how men and women small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs make decisions regarding whether to invest in technologies for their firms. Answering recent calls for a gendered perspective in entrepreneurial decision-making, this study integrates premises from social identity theory and role congruity theory to help explain innovation investment decisions among male and female SME entrepreneurs.

Using data from 121 SME entrepreneurs in the dry cleaning industry, the authors employ a conjoint experimental methodology to capture decisions SME entrepreneurs make to adopt or reject an environment-friendly dry cleaning technology. The authors examine the role gender, firm revenue, technology price, and technology complexity play in entrepreneur investment decisions.

The authors find that gender indirectly impacts innovation purchase decisions through interactions with firm revenue and key innovation characteristics. Women SME entrepreneurs were less likely to purchase the technology than their male counterparts at low (and high) firm revenue, high innovation price, and high innovation complexity—all highly risky, masculine, choice contexts.

These findings suggest that men and women's entrepreneurial investment decisions might be shaped by gender stereotypes. Future research should sample additional industries and determine the norms guiding gendered decision-making.

Beyond the decision to launch a new venture, this multi-level analysis, using the lens of social identity and role congruity theories, helps illuminate how men and women SME entrepreneurs approach innovation investment decision-making in significantly different—and gender role consistent—ways.

Acquiring “Likes” for a political party or candidate’s Facebook pages is important for political marketers. For consumers, these “Likes” are conspicuous, making their political affiliation visible to their network. This paper aims to examine the roles of the undesired social-self and visibility (conspicuous vs inconspicuous) in predicting consumers’ intention to “Like” political brands. The authors extend knowledge on the undesired social-self and transference of theory from general marketing to a political domain and provide practical advice for political marketers engaging social network sites.

The authors gather data from two surveys run with Facebook using electorates in the run up to the UK 2015 and US 2016 elections (n = 1,205) on their intention to “Like” political brands under different visibility conditions.

Data support the theorized relationship of the undesired social-self with social anxiety intention to “Like” when “Liking” is conspicuous. However, data also indicate that all users – irrespective of proximity to the undesired social-self – prefer to “Like” inconspicuously.

The research is limited by the generalizability of the specific context and the use of self-report measures.

Political marketers should reconsider promoting conspicuous consumption for that which is more inconspicuous.

The authors provide the first examination of the undesired social-self in driving behaviour under different visibility conditions. Furthermore, the authors challenge the extension of existing knowledge of the self-concept within political marketing, based on the “norm” for consumers’ to avoid disclosing political views publically.

This study examined how audience characteristics and attitudes relate to their perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness of apologies by public figures posted on YouTube.

Four hundred twenty-seven adult participants recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk completed an online survey via Qualtrics. Participants were randomly assigned to view two of four public figure apologies posted on YouTube.

Results indicated that audience fandom and perceived reputation and attractiveness of the public figure were related to perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness; and perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness were related to intentions of future support.

“Sameness” between the public figure and audience did not garner a more favorable response to the apology, and this is not consistent with earlier studies. For race similarity, the results could have been a reflection of the low number of non-White participants. However, results could indicate that “sameness” is not as simplistic as demographic sameness, such as race, sex or age.

The authors’ findings elevate the importance of gathering and benchmarking pre-crisis attitudinal research to better equip and inform communication professionals for crisis response. In addition, the study suggests that a public figure's strong reputation and fanbase provide a type of inoculation, lessening reputational damage.

The finding that perceived attractiveness relates positively to perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness is consistent with psychological research indicating attractiveness has many positive social implications – even in mediated communication.

Evidence suggests social media apologies matter. Communication professionals need to approach apology opportunities with a keen awareness that relational outcomes and intentions of future support can shift based on social media audiences' attitudes related to the public figure.