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This chapter takes the ‘wakefulness promoting’ drug modafinil as an exemplarity case in the sociology of pharmaceutical enhancement. The chapter draws on empirical data collected through 25 interviews with prospective users of modafinil, focusing on two of the ways in which prospective users of modafinil imagined how the drug might be used in their specific social domains: the use of modafinil as a safety tool in the workplace and its use as a study aid by university students. The data presented in this chapter suggests that although a therapy-enhancement dichotomy is a useful heuristic; it could also be limiting to uphold as it may direct attention away from other ways in which uses for new technologies can be positioned, negotiated, realised and resisted by (potential) users in the context of their daily lives.

The purpose of this paper is to make a quantitative comparison between induction machine (IM) and interior permanent magnet machine (IPM) for electric vehicle applications, in terms of electromagnetic performance and material cost.

The analysis of IM is based on an analytical method, which has been validated by test. The analysis of IPM is based on finite element analysis. The popular Toyota Prius 2010 IPM is adopted directly, and the IM is designed with the same stator outer diameter and stack length as Prius 2010 IPM for a fair comparison.

The torque capability of IM is lower than IPM for low electric loading and competitive to IPM for high electric loading. The maximum torque/power-speed characteristic of IM is competitive to IPM; while the rated torque/power-speed characteristic of IM is poorer than IPM. The power factor of IM is competitive and even better than IPM for high electric loading in low-speed region. The torque ripple of IM is comparable to IPM for high electric loading and much lower than IPM for low electric loading. The overall efficiency of IM is lower than IPM, and the maximum efficiency of copper squirrel cage IM is approximately 2-3 percent lower than IPM. The material cost of IM is about half of IPM when IM and IPM are designed with the same stator outer diameter and stack length.

The electromagnetic performances and material costs of IM and IPM are quantitatively compared and discussed.

The first two decades of the 21st century saw the rise of girl power discourses in international development, which argue that when girls in the Global South are given an investment to stay in school, they will lift entire communities out of poverty. Transnational Corporations partnered with, or even founded, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) aimed at educating girls. Yet many of these corporations face criticisms that their products, employment practices, or supply chains are harmful to girls and women. In this chapter, I employ a feminist, postcolonial and poststructuralist approach, analyzing the transnational politics of corporate–NGO partnerships for girls' education. I argue that Apple Inc.’s sponsorship of the Malala Fund and Caterpillar Inc.’s partnership with Girl Up amount to transnational forms of genderwashing, aimed primarily at alleviating the concerns of publics in the Global North while doing little to address harm experienced by girls and women in the Global South.

Neuroscience, with its promise to peer into the brain and explain the sources of human behavior and human consciousness, has captured the scientific, clinical, and public imaginations. Among those in the thrall of neuroscience are a group of ethicists who are carving out a new subspecialty within the field of bioethics: neuroethics. Neuroethics has taken as its task the policing of neuroscience. By virtue of its very existence, neuroethics presents a threat to its parent field bioethics. In its struggle to maintain authority as the guardian of neuroscience, neuroethics must respond to criticisms from bioethicists who see no need for the subspecialty. We describe the social history of neuroethics and use that history to consider several issues of concern to social scientists, including the social contexts that generate ethical questions and shape the way those questions are framed and answered; strategies used by neuroethicists to secure a place in an occupational structure that includes life scientists and other ethics experts; and the impact of the field of neuroethics on both the work of neuroscience and public perceptions of the value and danger of the science of the brain.

Religion as a cultural element has the potential to drive a strong boycott campaign. Previous studies acknowledge the role of religion in consumer boycotts yet did not investigate its role in influencing the very core of consumers’ motivation to participate in religion-based boycott. The purpose of this paper is to explore the fundamental nature of religious influence in an international religion-based consumer boycott. The research model tests the role of intrinsic religious motivation as the root of Muslim consumers’ motivational factors to participate and their intention to boycott US food brand.

The study adopted the Hoffman’s’ (2013) consumer boycott model to test the hypotheses. Survey method is used to collect primary data from Muslim millennials in a northern state of Malaysia. The study tested its five hypotheses on a data set of 325 cases using structural equation modelling (partial least squares regression).

The findings support the primary role of religion influences underlying boycott motivation factors. The intrinsic religious motivation is related to all the four boycott’s motivation factors (i.e. attitudes towards boycotting the brand, subjective norms, make a difference, self-enhancement), and indirectly contributing to intentions to boycott US food brand through the constructs of self-enhancement, subjective norms and attitudes towards the boycott.

The study is a cross-sectional in nature, confined to one US food brand. The findings may be limited to Muslim millennials in the same region or similar cultural background of the country surveyed.

Businesses may want to consider working with social agencies involved in a religion-driven consumer boycott in mitigating negative influences of such boycott on brands.

The study shows the root of consumers’ motivation to participate in an international religion-based consumer boycott, i.e. intrinsic religious motivation, by illustrating the mechanisms of religious influences (i.e. intrinsic religious motivation) on consumers’ intention to participate in Islam-driven boycott.

The spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has drastically changed the entire market structure and shopping behaviors across the world. While shoppers rushed toward e-commerce platforms during the pandemic, the key debate that rose was on how this behavior will evolve post COVID-19. The purpose of this study was to explore the different categories of e-commerce platforms’ users and propose a distinctive customer typology in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.

An exploratory qualitative research design was adopted because of the novelty of the subject. In total, 43 participants were interviewed, including 27 consumers and 16 experts in the field of e-commerce.

Based on the findings, this study distinguishes between two stages of e-commerce usage during the pandemic. Furthermore, this study identifies four key typologies of e-commerce shoppers that are expected to form at the end of the coronavirus: duty-bound, e-watcher, makeshift and onli-vorous shoppers. The characteristics and businesses strategies pertaining to each of the identified groups are discussed.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first to identify the different stages, while proposing an innovative typology of e-commerce platform post COVID-19. This study also offers useful recommendations to deal with similar future crises.

The research purpose is to explore the diffusion of mobile QR-code payment (MQP) in a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) context by formulating a behavioral response model based on an integration between protection motivation theory (PMT) and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). This study also investigates the importance of physical distancing norm for behavioral intention toward MQP.

A web-based survey was designed and data were accumulated from 411 validated respondents who have used MQP or tend to utilize it in Vietnam. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS and AMOS to verify the hypotheses.

Results illustrated that behavioral intention is motivated by key antecedents of PMT (including perceived severity, perceived susceptibility and self-efficacy) and important factors of UTAUT (including performance expectancy, effort expectancy and social influence), and physical distancing norm. Moreover, perceived severity promotes performance expectancy, whereas self-efficacy boosts effort expectancy in MQP. Lastly, behavioral intention and recommendation were indicators of the diffusion of MQP under COVID-19.

MQP is just in its infant stage in Vietnam; thus, the findings provide managerial implications, which will aid service providers and firms to adopt marketing strategies that enhance consumers' acceptability and recommendation of MQP to the public.

Little is empirically considered the effects of perceived threat-related factors in PMT and physical distancing norm on behavioral intention toward MQP in a salient pandemic setting. Furthermore, the antecedents in UTAUT contribute greatly to behavioral intention. This study enlightens the diffusion of MQP based on behavioral intention and recommendation.

Due to the paucity of research examining message framing strategies and attention in anti-consumption advertisements, this study aims to determine whether there is a significant difference between the amount of attention paid towards positively and negatively framed advertisements.

A quasi-experimental study design was conducted with a sample of 56 participants using two different (negatively and positively framed) social marketing print advertisements aimed at encouraging a reduction in meat consumption. The research used eye-tracking to examine attention.

Findings indicate that the negatively framed advertisement elicited significantly higher levels of attention overall than the positively framed advertisement (p < 0.05). Additionally, participants paid significantly more attention to the headline in the negatively framed advertisement than to the headline in the positively framed advert (p < 0.05). Participants also paid significantly more attention to the tagline in the positively framed advertisement (p < 0.05).

This study provides evidence for the effectiveness of a negative social marketing framing strategy compared to a positive framing strategy – through the effects these strategies had on consumer attention. Positively and negatively framed advertisements produce different typologies of attention towards advertising elements or areas of interest. These findings provide social marketers important insights about message placement and effectiveness when considering whether to use a positively framed or negatively framed advertisement.