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This paper seeks to present a complete set of graphical and numerical outputs of data mining performed for microarray databases of plant data as described in earlier research by the authors. A brief description of data mining is also presented, as well as a brief background of previous research.

The paper uses applications of data mining using SAS Enterprise Miner Version 4 for plant data from the Osmotic Stress Microarray Information Database (OSMID) that is available on the web for both normalized and log(2) transformed data.

This paper illustrates that useful information about the effects of environmental stress tolerances (ESTs) on plants can be obtained by using data mining.

Use of SAS Enterprise Miner was very effective for performing data mining of microarray databases with its modules of cluster analysis, decision trees, and descriptive and visual statistics.

The data used from the OSMID database are considered to be representative of those that could be used for biotech application such as the manufacture of plant‐made‐pharmaceuticals and genetically modified foods.

This paper contributes to the discussion on the use of data mining for microarray databases and specifically for studying the effects of ESTs on plants.

In today's world, retailers must embrace technological devices to provide fluid, convenient and complete customer experiences. Therefore, combining the offline and online spaces into a single strategy becomes essential, representing a significant opportunity for retailers to improve customer experience. Therefore, this study aims to explore and compare the importance of digital elements in an omnichannel experience by companies in the luxury and non-luxury segments.

The research offers a model to explore and compare the omnichannel strategies that brands use, considering six dimensions that cover recent technological advances, thus offering a complete experience to their customers. A multiple case study was selected based on a sample of six international companies from two different price segments (luxury and non-luxury).

The data collected allowed the authors to verify the presence of some dimensions, even though some had little evidence. Nevertheless, the dimensions connectivity, innovativeness and flexibility (only in luxury segment companies) were not present. Overall, and even though they present just little evidence, the results showed that retailers for the luxury segment invest more in delivering digital experiences within omnichannel strategies than the non-luxury ones.

This study improves the existing knowledge of omnichannel retailing. By analysing and comparing the omnichannel experiences, companies can identify areas for improvement and enhance the overall customer journey. Additionally, the model allows managers to compare and re-evaluate their omnichannel strategies with other competitors to gain competitiveness in an ever-evolving market.

E-commerce has become an essential and highly competitive channel for e-retailers, who have felt the need to invest in the experience delivered to customers. Therefore, it becomes necessary to unveil the online customer experience so that brands can improve their offerings. In this study, the authors proposed a model that explores customer experience on websites, namely, what concerns the use of the latest technological developments such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality.

The study offers a model to explore and compare the online consumer experience in e-commerce websites, considering eight dimensions that cover recent technological advances. A multiple case study that evaluated companies in the footwear industry was used to assess the model's applicability. The case study methodology considered two distinct segments, the high-price and low-price segments.

The data collected by the websites' examination enabled us to confirm part of the suggested propositions. However, propositions concerning new technologies were not proved. Opportunities for improvement were identified, especially for high-price segment companies, since the results showed that these companies provide a less pleasant consumer experience than those of the opposing segment.

This study extends the scope of the online consumer experience by introducing more contemporary dimensions. Additionally, the model allows an evaluation and comparison of the knowledge delivered by several online retailers, using the Portuguese footwear industry as a reference.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming consumers' experiences and how firms identify, create, nurture and manage interactive marketing relationships. However, most marketers do not have a clear understanding of what AI is and how it may mutually benefit consumers and firms. In this paper, the authors conduct an extensive review of the marketing literature, develop an AI framework for understanding value co-creation in interactive buyer–seller marketing relationships, identify research gaps and offer a future research agenda.

The authors first conduct an extensive literature review in 16 top marketing journals on AI. Based on this review, an AI framework for understanding value co-creation in interactive buyer–seller marketing relationships was conceptualized.

The literature review led to a number of key research findings and summary areas: (1) an historical perspective, (2) definitions and boundaries of AI, (3) AI and interactive marketing, (4) relevant theories in the domain of interactive marketing and (5) synthesizing AI research based on antecedents to AI usage, interactive AI usage contexts and AI-enabled value co-creation outcomes.

This is one of the most extensive reviews of AI literature in marketing, including an evaluation of in excess or 300 conceptual and empirical research. Based on the findings, the authors offer a future research agenda, including a visual titled “What is AI in Interactive Marketing? AI design factors, AI core elements & interactive marketing AI usage contexts.”

While regular price discount (RPD) promotions remain popular, marketers have also introduced gambled price discounts (GPDs) in recent years. There is a need to understand the performance and limitation of the relatively novel GPD, because the importance of pricing and the surprise element inherent in GPD could cause the promotions to backfire when inappropriately applied. This study compared the performance of GPD and RPD via consumers' perception of their attractiveness through quality cues of product types (experience and search goods) and word-of-mouth (WOM) content (affective and cognitive).

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied on a 2 (product type: experience goods [hotel rooms] vs. search goods [printers]) × 2 (word-of-mouth type: affective vs. cognitive) × 2 (price promotion type: GPD vs. RPD) between-subjects scenario experimental design (resulting in eight conditions).

Analysis of the 600 returns revealed that RPD does well for both search and experience goods, but GPD is more attractive for the marketing of experience goods. GPD works better with cognitive than with affective WOM.

GPD is a relatively new domain in marketing research. This study contributes to GPD literature and behavioral pricing literature. The study also adds to a better understanding of the dynamics, usefulness and limitations of GPD by considering the roles played by surprise element inherent in GPD and comparing it with RPD.

The impact of frontline robots (FLRs) on customer orientation perceptions remains unclear. This is remarkable because customers may associate FLRs with standardization and cost-cutting, such that they may not fit firms that aim to be customer oriented.

In four experiments, data are collected from customers interacting with frontline employees (FLEs) and FLRs in different settings.

FLEs are perceived as more customer-oriented than FLRs due to higher competence and warmth evaluations. A relational interaction style attenuates the difference in perceived competence between FLRs and FLEs. These agents are also perceived as more similar in competence and warmth when FLRs participate in the customer journey's information and negotiation stages. Switching from FLE to FLR in the journey harms FLR evaluations.

The authors recommend firms to place FLRs only in the negotiation stage or in both the information and negotiation stages of the customer journey. Still then customers should not transition from employees to robots (vice versa does no harm). Firms should ensure that FLRs utilize a relational style when interacting with customers for optimal effects.

The authors bridge the FLR and sales/marketing literature by drawing on social cognition theory. The authors also identify the product categories for which customers are willing to negotiate with an FLR. Broadly speaking, this study’s findings underline that customers perceive robots as having agency (i.e. the mental capacity for acting with intentionality) and, just as humans, can be customer-oriented.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between theory and history, or more specifically the role and use of theory in the field of history of education. It will explore the following questions: What is theory, and what is it for? How do historians and, in particular, historians of education construe and use theory? And how do they respond to openly theoretical work? The author poses these questions in light of ongoing discussions in the field of history of education regarding the role, relevance, and utility of theory in historical research, analysis, and narratives.

The explicit use of theory in historical research is not altogether new, tracing an intellectual genealogy since the mid-1800s when disciplinary boundaries among academic fields were not so rigidly defined, developed and regulated. The paper analyzes three books that are geographically located in North America (USA), Australia, Europe (Great Britain) and Asia (India), thereby offering a transnational view of the use of theory in history of education. It also examines how historians of education respond to explicitly theoretical work by analyzing, as a case study, a 2011 special issue in History of Education Quarterly.

First, the paper delineates theory as a multidimensional concept and practice with varying and competing meanings and interpretations. Second, it examines three book-length historical studies of education that employ theoretical frameworks drawing from cultural, feminist poststructuralist and postcolonial approaches. The author’s analysis of these manuscripts reveals that historians of education who explicitly engage with theory pursue their research in reflexive, disruptive and generative modes. Lastly, it utilizes a recent scholarly exchange as a case study of how some historians of education respond to theoretically informed work. It highlights three lenses – reading with insistence, for resistance, and beyond – to understand the responses to the author’s paper on Foucault and poststructuralism.

Setting theory to work has a fundamentally transformative role to play in our thinking, writing and teaching as scholars, educators and students and in the productive re-imagining of history of education.

The present study aims to understand small retailers' current use of various low-cost technologies and the factors responsible for small retailers' adoption. Furthermore, these factors of adoption were mapped back to beliefs within the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), and an attempt was made to understand if some of the beliefs dominated over the others and their implications.

The study takes a qualitative approach comprising in-depth semi-structured interviews and direct observation. The qualitative data were analysed through a thematic analysis to identify technology adoption factors.

Amongst the various technologies (mobile apps), payment and procurement apps were the most widely used. The authors identified eight factors influencing technology adoption: the top being customer demand for payment apps and convenience and cost-saving for procurement apps. The study also highlights the role of the dominant beliefs in technology adoption, which managers could use to improve adoption rates.

The current study is a cross-sectional study and the sample was predominantly of grocery retailers, limiting the generalisability of the results.

Small retailers face stiff competition from organised retail and e-commerce platforms which threatens small retailers' existence. Small retailers' survival is vital as many people depend on the small retail sector for livelihood. Increased use of technology seems the only way for them to stay competitive and increase profitability. The study's outcome could help increase technology adoption amongst small retailers and increase small retailers' competitiveness.

Despite the widespread presence of small retailers in emerging economies, few studies have examined technology adoption amongst them. This study is also the first to use the TPB theory in the small retailer technology adoption context.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the themes that emerged from retail supply chain (RSC) literature during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that inform future mitigation and recovery strategies.

This study analyses contributions in the RSC literature using four databases: Emerald, Elsevier (Science Direct), Wiley and Taylor & Francis. The systematic review approach resulted in identifying 74 articles covering 2020 to 2022.

Four themes emerged from the RSC literature on COVID-19. The first theme highlighted the factors that exacerbated the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the RSC. The second theme focussed on the types of disruptions that occurred in the RSC during the pandemic. The third theme demonstrated the recovery strategies used to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on the RSC. The fourth theme identified proposed mitigation strategies for the RSC post-COVID-19 outbreak.

The study provides a deeper understanding of how RSC managers could successfully reduce the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic by dealing with interruptions. Based on the reviewed studies and the four themes that evolved from RSC literature on COVID-19 throughout 2020–2022, 11 key RSC strategies and lessons have been recommended to decision-makers in the retail industry.

This is the first study to identify the themes that emerged from RSC literature during the COVID-19 pandemic to inform future mitigation and recovery strategies. The resulting themes add to the existing body of knowledge and establish the need for further research into other sectors that might be affected by future pandemics.