Longer-lasting Relationships Research Articles

Impacts of human mobility on the citywide transmission dynamics of 18 respiratory viruses in pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic years

Many studies have used mobile device location data to model SARS-CoV-2 dynamics, yet relationships between mobility behavior and endemic respiratory pathogens are less understood. We studied the effects of population mobility on the transmission of 17 endemic viruses and SARS-CoV-2 in Seattle over a 4-year period, 2018-2022. Before 2020, visits to schools and daycares, within-city mixing, and visitor inflow preceded or coincided with seasonal outbreaks of endemic viruses. Pathogen circulation dropped substantially after the initiation of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders in March 2020. During this period, mobility was a positive, leading indicator of transmission of all endemic viruses and lagging and negatively correlated with SARS-CoV-2 activity. Mobility was briefly predictive of SARS-CoV-2 transmission when restrictions relaxed but associations weakened in subsequent waves. The rebound of endemic viruses was heterogeneously timed but exhibited stronger, longer-lasting relationships with mobility than SARS-CoV-2. Overall, mobility is most predictive of respiratory virus transmission during periods of dramatic behavioral change and at the beginning of epidemic waves.

A latent class analysis of adolescent dating violence: Associations with daily conflict management

BackgroundAdolescent dating violence (ADV) is a major public health concern experienced by more than half of adolescents. Previous studies have found considerable diversity in patterns of ADV and suggest that its various forms often occur concurrently and reciprocally within adolescent dating relationships. While multiple robust distal correlates of ADV have already been established, research on situational factors, such as conflict-related variables, is still sparse. ObjectiveThis study aimed to identify patterns of ADV based on the co-occurrence of different types of ADV victimization and perpetration. Multiple correlates of these ADV patterns were examined, including daily conflict-related factors (e.g., occurrence, resolution). Methods: A sample of 216 adolescents (M = 17.03 years; SD = 1.49) who were currently involved in a dating relationship completed a baseline assessment followed by 14 consecutive daily diaries. ResultsLatent class analysis revealed five classes, including Low violence (21.8 %), Emotional violence (50.9 %), Emotional and sexual violence (13 %), Psychological violence and control (7.9 %), and Multiple violence (6.5 %). Demographic, relationship, distal, and daily conflict-related indicators differentiated the classes. Findings indicated that youth in the Psychological violence and control and Multiple violence classes were involved in longer-lasting relationships and displayed higher externalized problems and emotion dysregulation, more frequent experiences of childhood traumas, and, notably, more difficulties in managing daily conflicts. ConclusionAdolescence is a crucial time to reduce the onset, persistence, and adverse consequences of ADV. By identifying situational conflict-related factors associated with ADV victimization and perpetration, this study can inform important prevention efforts.

University brand personality: a student-focused anthropomorphic storytelling perspective

ABSTRACT Increasingly, studies address higher education institutions’ brand personalities, as universities communicate specific brand personality attributes in their marketing to build stronger, longer-lasting relationships. This study uses the six dimensions in the university brand personality scale (UBPS) of Rauschnabel, Krey, Babin, and Ivens (2016) to qualitatively explore 34 marketing students’ interpretations of a single university's brand personality, through brand storytelling toward co-creating brand value and differentiation. The transcribed narratives were analysed iteratively through deductively dominant content analysis in two stages. Findings from the anthropomorphic-based stories informed a matrix describing students’ subjective interpretations of their university's brand personality. The study's contribution is three-fold. Theoretically, it distinctively integrates signalling and social identification theory in a brand personality inquiry. Methodologically, this study's unit of analysis – students’ anthropomorphically grounded brand stories – is unique. Practically, it provides university marketers with student-enlivened university brand personality understandings to drive university brand relationships and differentiation.

Achieving customer experience excellence at seven critical life cycle points

This paper uses findings from 20,000 hours of customer research to help marketers achieve deeper and longer-lasting relationships with customers. Per the research, one of the most powerful ways to build deep customer relationships is to provide competitively differentiating customer experiences that deliver value at seven critical points in the customer’s relationship with the brand. This is effective because customers view their journey as a continuum that begins with the initial sale and continues throughout their full journey, ideally encompassing repeat sales over many years. It is therefore essential to set the right tone from the very beginning, with value, empathy and personalisation continuing throughout every step in the customer journey and encompassing all departments and levels in the organisation. Another critical requirement is that only preference-driven personalisation can deliver the sustained high-value experiences expected by today’s customers.

Partner Market Opportunities and Relationship Stability

Although partner market opportunities are generally considered to be important for relationship stability, they have never been measured accurately. In order to be able to test the anticipated effects of partner market opportunities, this study conceptualises them as individual opportunities for contact and interaction in concrete social contexts, like the neighbourhood, the workplace, leisure activities, etc. Using data from the German Marriage Market Survey, we first examine the impact of individual partner market opportunities on the risk of separation. Second, we examine to what extend the most frequently studied determinants of divorce and separation depend on partner market opportunities. Our results show that the number of opposite sex contacts increases the probability of separation. Sharing the same contacts with one’s partner decreases the risk of separation. Our results indicate further that reducing opposite sex contacts in the course of the relationship is partly responsible for the higher stability of longer-lasting relationships. Having a migration background is associated with fewer opposite sex contacts. This means that having a migration background would be more destabilising if these individuals did not have less opposite sex contacts than individuals without a migration background. In contrast, joint home ownership, church attendance, higher education and residing in western Germany would generally be more stabilising if these factors were not connected with more opposite sex contacts.

THE FEEDING OF THE NINE BILLION — A CASE FOR TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN AGRICULTURE

This paper studies technology creation and transfer of 95 Russian research and technology organisations (RTOs) into producer organisations in agriculture and mining. Previous findings suggested that in agriculture, the barriers for technology adaption are particularly high due to technological conservatism and the atomic structure of the industry. Although RTOs in agriculture publish more and register more patents, they struggle to translate their success into transfer activities. While technology transfer in mining goes well hand in hand with applied research, RTOs in agriculture either build on new technologies or generate revenues through ready-to-use services. The explanation for this rather short-term oriented demand for services of Russia's RTOs lies in the financial situation of client organisations. The vast majority complain about their dire lack of financial means to pay for new technologies. Consequently, agricultural producers do not generate enough revenues to pursue future opportunities, with far reaching consequences. The situation could get better if the RTOs and the client would agree to longer-lasting relationships.

What are the issues affecting grandparents in Britain today?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the role that grandparents play in family life in Britain today with a particular focus on demographic change and the grandparental caring contribution for both children and older adults. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing upon a wide range of sources the author sets out the context, recent demographic and economic trends and presents a way forward. Findings – The research presented in this paper suggests that grandparents are playing an increasingly important role in family life and their caring contribution makes a material difference to maternal employment rates in particular. It also suggests that those who step in to the parenting role face particular challenges which need to be addressed. Research limitations/implications – Further research into the significance of the grandparent/grandchild relationship is needed, together with the caring contribution of those who provide intensive support to families in times of crisis both in terms of the impact that has on the grandparents but also the difference it makes to parents and children. Practical implications – One key practical implication is the need for a formal childcare infrastructure in the UK which does not assume that grandparents will always be there to provide childcare for working parents on the scale they do today. Social implications – Grandparents are living longer so more of them will have longer-lasting relationships with their grandchildren. But mothers are also ageing and so gradually over time the age at which we become grandparents will also be pushed back. This may in turn mean that grandparents in 20 years time may be less involved in childcare in any case. Originality/value – This piece does not present new research but rather provides an overview of existing evidence.

Performance and Turnover in a Stochastic Partnership

This paper characterizes the social-welfare maximizing equilibrium of a stochastic partnership matching market, in which players paired to play a stochastic game may quit to be costlessly and anonymously re-matched. Patterns of performance and turnover in this equilibrium are consistent with the well-known survivor-ship bias and, if partners form meaningful first impressions, with the honeymoon effect. By contrast, maximizing social welfare in standard repeated games with re-matching typically requires that players receive low payoffs at the start of each relationship. Welfare and turnover comparative statics are also provided: higher partnership-states are associated with higher joint payoffs and, in the special case of an exogenous stochastic process, with both higher joint stage-game and joint continuation payoffs as well as longer-lasting relationships.

Medical Reimbursements and Patient Selection by Physicians: A Capital-Theoretic Approach

In this paper we use a simple model of patient selection to examine how expected declines in reimbursement rates (including scheduled cuts in Medicare reimbursements) affect decisions made by physicians. Accepting a new patient generates revenue for the physician both immediately and over time, but constrains the physician’s flexibility in accepting new patients in the future. The effects of the constraint depend, in part, on the turnover in patient capital. Findings imply that physicians who have longer-lasting relationships with their patients face higher costs than physicians who have only short-term relationships. For example, primary-care physicians are more likely to close their practices to new Medicare and Medicaid patients in response to expected reimbursement cuts in the future than are providers in consultative specialties.

Learning to trust in indefinitely repeated games

Although it is well known that trust and trustworthiness (i.e., the fulfillment of trust) are important behaviors for the fulfillment of incomplete contracts, less is known about how the economic environment influences them. In this paper we design an experiment to examine how exogenously determined (stochastic) past relationship lengths affect trust and trustworthiness in new relationships. We find that shorter-lasting relationships have an immediate negative impact on both behaviors in the relationships that immediately follow, while longer-lasting relationships have the opposite effect. The effect of stochastic end-points declines for trustworthiness but not for trust as subjects gain experience, indicating that trust is able to rebound when longer-lasting relationships follow shorter-lasting ones.