4,782 research outputs found
Return on Investment in Public Relations: A critical assessment of concepts used by practitioners from the perspectives of communication and management sciences
No full textReturn on Investment (ROI) is a term commonly and non-specifically used by public relations practitioners when discussing the value to be created from communication activities. It mimics business language, particularly from business administration and financial management, but does not figure widely in academic discourse (Watson, 2005).
Although the Institute for Public Relations [now CIPR] undertook a review of ROI practice in the United Kingdom (IPR/CDF 2004) and Likely, Rockland & Weiner (2006) proposed variations of ROI as alternatives to the discredited Advertising Value Equivalence (AVEs) measure of value creation, there has been little discussion other than Macnamara (2007) and Gregory and Watson (2008).
This paper gives an overview on the views of ROI in public relations literature and concepts used by agencies and providers of measurement services. It reports on survey research amongst practitioners in several European countries on identifying the economic value of public relations. The findings are compared with the concepts of ROI used in business and accounting literature (Weber and Schäffer, 2006; Drury, 2007).
Applied theory and parameters for the development of measurement and evaluation techniques are proposed. The paper concludes that the use of the term ROI in public relations needs a proper foundation in overriding management theory; otherwise PR theory and practice will discredit themselves
Seed source and region effects on growth rate and survival of blue spruce (Picea pungens) Christmas trees in New Jersey
No full textSeedlings from five different seed sources of blue spruce Christmas trees were planted at five sites throughout New Jersey. Two sites in northern New Jersey and one in central New Jersey had significantly higher survival rates than the two in southern New Jersey. Additionally, the two sites in northern New Jersey had significantly faster growth rates than those in southern and central New Jersey. There were no significant differences in survival rates between seed sources. In terms of growth rates, however, seedlings from seeds obtained in Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico grew significantly faster than seedlings from the other seed sources tested. This forther growth rate is predicted to shorten the time needed to reach marketability size by one to five years
An initial investigation on the use of ‘Return on Investment” in public relations practice
No full text‘Return on Investment’ (ROI) is usually defined in management literature as a measure of financial effectiveness that is concerned with the returns on capital employed in business (profit-making) activities. In public relations practitioner parlance, however, ROI appears to be used in a much looser form to indicate the results of activity. This mixed method research using an online survey instrument investigated practitioner understanding of the term, primarily in the UK. These findings resulted: 1) Two-thirds of PR practitioners use the term ROI when planning and evaluating communication activity; 2) ROIs related to communication objectives (66.7%) are more widely used than financial-related ROIs (12.8%); 3) There is a clear difference in ROI practices between consultants/freelances and in-house colleagues. Nearly three-quarters of consultants and freelances (73.1%) offer an ROI formula to clients but only 26.3% of in-house practitioners have one; and 4) On the oft-discussed question of an industry-wide ROI formula, only 35.6% supported the proposition with 64.4% opposed. However, the survey also found that practitioner concepts of ROI are very narrowly expressed, mainly in relation to media outputs
Modeling Building Block Interdependency
No full textThe Building-Block Hypothesis appeals to the notion of problem decomposition and the assembly of solutions from sub-solutions. Accordingly, there have been many varieties of GA test problems with a structure based on building-blocks. Many of these problems use deceptive fitness functions to model interdependency between the bits within a block. However, very few have any model of interdependency between building-blocks; those that do are not consistent in the type of interaction used intra-block and inter-block. This paper discusses the inadequacies of the various test problems in the literature and clarifies the concept of building-block interdependency. We formulate a principled model of hierarchical interdependency that can be applied through many levels in a consistent manner and introduce Hierarchical If-and-only-if (H-IFF) as a canonical example. We present some empirical results of GAs on H-IFF showing that if population diversity is maintained and linkage is tight then the GA is able to identify and manipulate building-blocks over many levels of assembly, as the Building-Block Hypothesis suggests
The ‘insider/outsider’ dilemma of ethnography: Working with young children and their families in cross-cultural contexts
No full textIn this article we unravel the difficulty of being researchers in the homes and classrooms of children and
their families whose origins are, for one of us, very different and, for the other, very similar to our own.
We first situate our work within theories of early socialization and literacy teaching which underpin our
understanding of how young children in cross-cultural contexts learn. We then turn to the question of
working with the families and teachers of these children which poses dilemmas not explained by the theories
presented. We illustrate these through a series of vignettes typifying both the ‘Outsider’ and the ‘Insider’ role.
The stories highlight paradigmatic moments of complexity, clashes or collusion which we unpick in terms of
their generalizability for others working in the field. Finally, we extend theories of dialogue in our search for
a methodology for collaborative work in future cross-cultural ethnographic studies
Strategic benchmarking: how to rate your company s performance against the Worl s best/ Watson
No full textxiii, 269 hal.; 23,5 cm
Affidavit of [S.] Kiyoichi Nishimoto re: [Compliance with Alien Land Act], August 9, 1927
No full textConfirms men referenced in letter from George H. Hand are Nishimoto's employees. Letter is titled: Letter from [George] H. Hand, [Chief Engineer], [Rancho San Pedro] to Mr. [S. Kiyoichi] Nishimoto, July 13, 1927. Includes Notary Seal for and signature for C. A. Gregory
Strategic benchmarking: how to rate your company s performance against the Worl s best/ Watson
No full textxiii, 269 hal.; 23,5 cm
Like night and day: Reversals of thermal gradients across ghost crab burrows and their implications for thermal ecology
No full textGhost crabs, Ocypode cordimanus, inhabit relatively hostile environments subject to thermal fluctuations, including both diurnal and seasonal cycles. For many ectotherms, including ghost crabs, a major challenge is to remain cool during hot daytime temperatures. This can be achieved by adopting a fossorial lifestyle, taking advantage of thermal refuge afforded by burrows of sufficient depth. Another consideration, often overlooked, is the potential advantage associated with ready access to a thermal energy source (a “charging station”) when surface temperatures are cooler. Being able to rapidly elevate body temperature during cool periods would enhance the crab's ability to maintain rate processes and carry out essential activities. We have measured ghost crab burrow temperature profiles at two times of the day with contrasting sun exposure (06:00 and 14:00), demonstrating how effective burrow depth (up to a maximum of 40 cm) provides thermal regulation below the surface of the sand (e.g., at dawn (06:00) and early afternoon (14:00) at a depth of 5 cm, temperatures (±SD) of 16.32 ± 0.96 °C and 25.04 ± 1.47 °C were recorded, respectively. Corresponding temperatures at a depth of 30 cm were 19.17 ± 0.59 °C and 19.78 ± 1.60 °C, respectively). This demonstrates that while temperature conditions at the surface vary dramatically from night to day, ghost crab burrows can maintain relatively constant temperatures at the burrow base throughout the diurnal cycle, at least during winter. As a consequence, the burrow heat signatures undergo a corresponding thermal gradient reversal between night and day, as revealed by infra-red photography. Complementing these field observations, we also determined heating and cooling times/constants for O. cordimanus in the laboratory (τ = 17.54 and 16.59 JK-1, respectively), and analysed chemical composition of their carapace (external (with β Chitin evident) and internal (predominance of α Chitin)), which is the primary thermal interface with the environment. We find that ghost crabs both gain and lose heat relatively rapidly, which likely affects the range and duration of surface activities under different thermal conditions, and renders the thermal characteristics of their burrows vital for their persistence on beaches. Finally, we speculate that the distinctly contrasting thermal signatures of ghost crab burrows in comparison to the surrounding sand could in principle be used by crabs as spatial markers for navigation and to identify holes on return from nightly excursions, being identified either by direct thermal sensing or odours rising from the burrow base as a consequence of the thermal flux
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