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The purpose of this paper is to encourage administrators of device‐lending programs to leverage existing quantitative data for management purposes by integrating analysis of quantitative data into the day‐to‐day workflow.

This is a case study of NCSU Libraries' efforts to analyze and visualize transactional data to aid in the on‐going management of a device‐lending program.

Analysis and visualization of qualitative data related to technology lending revealed patterns in lending over the course of the semester, day, and week that had previously gone unrecognized. With more concrete data about trends in wait times, capacity lending, and circulation volume, staff are now able to make more informed purchasing decisions, modify systems and workflows to better meet user needs, and begin to explore new ideas for services and staffing models.

The concepts and processes described here can be replicated by other libraries that wish to leverage transactional data analysis and data visualization to aid in management of a device‐lending program.

Although much literature exists on the implementation and qualitative evaluation of device‐lending programs, this paper is the first to provide librarians with ideas for leveraging analysis of transactional data to improve management of a device‐lending program.

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the differences in consumers’ willingness to pay for different types of design attributes due to different levels of specific anticipatory emotions evoked by them. The research aims to show how firms can benefit by leveraging the findings that different types of design attributes – that is, functionality, aesthetics, and environmental sustainability – affect profit margin per unit differently. Further, the chapter claims that design is a core competency that can pay dividends in terms of profit margins for firms. It is important for firms to develop expertise in understanding and leveraging relationships between the types of design attributes, specific emotions, and consumers’ willingness to pay.

The chapter uses the product categories of cell phones and laptop computers in the three experiments to test the hypothesized relationships between design attributes (functionality, aesthetics, and environmental sustainability), specific emotions, and willingness to pay.

The research finds that different attributes of design – functionality, aesthetics, and sustainability – evoke different types of emotions and different levels of willingness to pay.

The data were primarily collected via experiments in a behavioral laboratory.

Firms can leverage different attributes of design to position and price products according to emotional requirements of the target customer segment to match their willingness to pay and maximize profit margin per unit.

The research specifically measures willingness to pay in joint presentation – independent evaluation scenarios to assess differences in how functionality, aesthetics, and sustainability impact willingness to pay.

The purpose of this manuscript is to present a novel, compact and ultra-thin “3”-shaped monopole antenna for wireless operations in the laptop computer. The thickness of the antenna is only 0.2 mm and is designed using only a pure copper strip of size 17.5 × 6 mm².

The simple structure of the proposed antenna consists of two monopole radiating strips, namely, AC and CD and an open-ended rectangular tuning stub BE of length 9mm.

This structure inspires two resonating modes at 3.45 and 5.5 GHz and achieves the measured impedance band width as 20% (3.21-3.91) GHz in lower band (F_l) and 15% (5.05-5.85) GHz in the upper band (F_u) for voltage standing wave ratio < 2. These two bands cover 5GHz wireless local area network (WLAN) and 3.3-3.6GHz (sub 6GHz) 5G bands. The measured radiation performance including, nearly omnidirectional radiation patterns, a stable gain of around 5 dBi and excellent efficiency around 90% in both operating bands have been achieved. Furthermore, a simplified equivalent circuit model has been derived and its simulation is performed. The simulated and measured results are in good agreement, which demonstrates the applicability of the antenna structure for WiMAX/WLAN operations in the prominent ultra-thin laptop computers.

The proposed antenna is designed without using any reactive elements, vias or matching circuits for excitation of WLAN and 5G bands in the laptop computers. The design also does not require any additional ground for mounting the antenna. The proposed antenna has a very low profile, is ultra-thin, cost-effective, easy to manufacture and can be easily embedded inside next generation laptop computers.

Brand origin (BO) has been suggested as an important determinant of brand evaluation and purchase intention. However, previous studies have indicated that consumers have limited knowledge and ability to recognize national origin of brands. The purpose of this paper is to assess brand origin recognition accuracy (BORA) and its relationships with brand evaluation and purchase intention in the Indonesian laptop market.

A convenient sample of 195 people in Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta participated in the survey. They were given a list of 18 laptop brands (four local and 14 foreign brands) and were asked to identify their actual national origins.

The study found that consumers are more likely to misidentify than correctly recognize a true BO. This limited ability also has contributed to the low BORA scores for both local and foreign brands. Brand evaluation was found to be positively correlated with purchase intention. However, the current study could only find partial supports for the relationship between BORA scores and brand evaluation as well as purchase intention.

Many Indonesian consumers are unaware of the laptops’ BO, whether it is foreign or local. Companies need to inform, educate, and/or remind consumers of their brand’s true origin and avoid being associated with a weaker country image. Furthermore, despite all four Indonesian laptop brand names seem to use non-Indonesian names, only one brand gains a slightly better brand evaluation from favorable misclassification. It may suggest that the effectiveness of foreign branding strategy in the Indonesian laptop market is debatable.

This is one of the few studies examining BORA in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country and the largest laptop market in Southeast Asia.

This paper aims to present a triple-band monopole antenna design of 0.2-mm thickness with an overall dimension of 21 × 8 mm² for wireless local area network (WLAN)/worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) applications in the laptop computer.

It comprises three monopole radiating elements, namely, strip AD (inverted C), strip EG (inverted J) and strip FI (inverted U) along with two rectangular open-end tuning stubs, namely, “m” and “n” of size 1.5 × 0.9 mm² and 1.8 × 0.9 mm², respectively. The proposed structure is compact, cost-effective and easy to integrate inside the laptop computers.

This structure excites three WLAN (2.4/5.2/5.8 GHz) and three WiMAX (2.3/3.3/5.5 GHz) bands. The proposed antenna array elucidates that it has measured −10dB impedance bandwidth of 11.86 per cent (2.22-2.50) GHz in a lower band (f_l), 6.83 per cent (3.25-3.48) GHz in medium band (f_m) and 16.84 per cent (5.00-5.92) GHz in upper band (f_u). The measured gain and radiation efficiency are above 3.64dBi and 75 per cent, respectively, and isolation better than −20dB. The envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) is less than 0.004. The simulated and measured results are in good concurrence, which confirms the applicability of the proposed antenna array for MIMO applications in the laptop computer.

The proposed antenna is designed without using vias, reactive elements and matching circuits for excitation of WLAN/WiMAX bands in the laptop computers. The design also does not require any additional ground for mounting the antenna. Further, the antenna array, formed by using the same antenna design, does not need additional isolating elements and is designed in such a way that the system ground itself acts as an isolating element. The proposed antenna has a low profile and is ultra-thin, cost-effective and easy to manufacture and can be easily embedded inside the next-generation laptop computers.

Marketing/Consumer behaviour.

The case can be used for the postgraduate students and executives in a first-year Marketing Management class for an introductory session on understanding consumer decision in a business-to-consumer context. The case can be also used in a second-year elective course on Consumer Behaviour for the topic on consumer decision-making journey and managing customer experience through service excellence. This case would be most befitting to be used for the first introductory session of 75 minutes to give an overview on consumer behaviour.

The dismal failure of Natasha’s desktop while preparing an important presentation due for submission compels Natasha (the protagonist) to make up her mind to buy a laptop. After consulting her friends and relatives, followed with intense search from different retail stores, Natasha finally decides to buy a Sony laptop from a multi-brand retail outlet with a price discount and freebies. Finally, when Natasha settled down to work on her new laptop on her pending presentation, she confronts some problem. Unable to identify the problem, she contacted the store sales representative to resolve the problem. However, the representative’s ineffectiveness in addressing the problem and promptly delivering the service leaves Natasha in a state of uncertainty and confusion. She seemed to be in a fix and undecided, wondering whether she should immediately rush to the repair centre with her desktop to fix the problem for the time being or she should leave the laptop and wait till the problem gets resolved.

The case aims to provide interesting inputs on various phases of consumer decision-making journey and appropriate marketing strategy for each phase. The objective is to make students appreciate how poor after-sales service results in post-purchase dissonance and conflict in the consumer's mind. The case provides an opportunity for students to come up with possible solutions to resolve the post-purchase dissonance and conflict and share their views or ideas of how a seller can create a lasting impression in the mind of the buyer.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 8: Marketing

In recent years, the updating speed of products has been significantly accelerated, which not only provides diversified styles for consumers to select from but also makes consumers face selection problems sometimes. In addition, a large number of online reviews for products emerge on many e-commerce websites and influence consumers’ purchasing decisions. The purpose of this study is to propose a method for product selection considering consumer’s expectations and online reviews to support consumers’ purchasing decisions.

The product attributes are divided into two categories, i.e. demand attributes and word-of-mouth (WOM) attributes. For the demand attributes, for which the consumers can give specific quantified expectations, the value function of prospect theory is used to determine the consumer’s perceived values to the alternative products according to consumers’ expectations for these attributes and products’ specifications. For the WOM attributes, for which the consumers cannot give specific quantified expectations, the sentiment analysis method is used to identify the sentiment strengths for these attributes in the online reviews, and then the consumer’s perceived values to the alternative products are determined. On this basis, the product selection methods for single consumers and group consumers are given respectively.

Finally, taking the data of JD.com (https://www.jd.com/) as an example, the practicability and rationality of the method proposed in this paper is validated.

First, a new product selection problem considering consumer’s expectations and online reviews is extracted. Second, the product attributes are considered more comprehensively and are classified into two main categories. Third, the bounded rationality of the consumers in the decision-making process is described more reasonably. Fourth, the sentiment dictionaries for each WOM attribute are constructed and the algorithm step of identifying the sentiment strengths is designed, which can help to identify the sentiment strengths in the online reviews more accurately. Fifth, the situation that a group plans to purchase the same products and the members have inconsistent expectations for the product attributes is considered.

Wireless LANs (WLAN) offer network flexibility and end‐user mobility, making them one of the hottest technologies today. They have great impact on individuals and organizations. Now people can use wireless networks in every application where recent findings indicate that growth in WLAN market continues to be driven by the corporate and educational sectors, where the desire to increase productivity and the benefit of enhanced mobility and learning outcomes continue to fuel demand. A questionnaire was developed to survey the behavior of end‐users, especially students and faculty, in using wireless laptops in accessing information from the Internet, digital libraries and many electronic sources in their education and research. The paper presents the advantages and disadvantages of using wireless network laptops as well as barriers for not using them in Higher Education. Special new update on wireless network security will be included. Guidelines for implementing wireless laptops in higher education are discussed.

This study seeks to explore technology use in a higher education classroom with the focus on tablet computers.

Study participants consisted of 36 undergraduate students from Rutgers University's Information Technology and Informatics major. Data were collected using an online survey, a classroom observation, and a group interview.

The study findings demonstrate unexpected technology uses that can be explained by the characteristics of the student group, the Net generation, namely, their impatient multi‐tasking and opportunistic behaviour. Students used tablet computers to take notes, conduct group activities and interact with the instructor. Students’ preference for typing was found to be a barrier in their adoption of tablet computers.

The findings can help technology developers and educators better understand and optimize their use of computing technology in higher education. Limitations of this study include only one class was studied, and classroom observation probed student behaviors only at selected points in time.

The unique value of the study included: the study was not limited to tablet technology and investigated students’ use of multiple technologies; the study captured student behaviors in an actual learning environment, and the study provides empirical evidence for students’ multi‐tasking in a classroom and for their use of tablet computers for hand writing.