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We have developed a two‐dimensional model for quantum‐well lasers which solves, self‐consistently, the semiconductor equations together with the complex scalar wave equation and the photon rate equation. To predict the threshold current accurately we have included the wavelength‐ and position‐dependence of the gain and the spontaneous emission. For the complex wave equation successive over relaxation (SOR) is used with two adaptive acceleration parameters for the complex wave amplitude and for the eigenvalue. Since the rate equation near threshold can be driven into divergence during iteration for a steady state solution, we have introduced a special damping technique to overcome this problem. Our model enables us to predict the characteristics of a quantum‐well laser with a minimal number of empirical constants. The output of the model includes light‐current characteristics, and the current and optical field intensity distributions. We show the results of a calculation for a graded‐index separate‐confinement heterostructure single quantum‐well (GRIN‐SCH SQW) laser.

We have implemented a two‐dimensional (2D) time‐dependent hydrodynamic model suitable for studying III‐V heterostructural semiconductor devices. This we apply in simulating a heterojunction metal‐semiconductor‐metal (MSM) photodetector subject to pico‐second optical pulses. The inclusion of the energy balance equation introduces an additional time delay in the response of the detector, which is comparable to the energy relaxation time.

The purpose of this paper is to present young people's attitudes to peace‐walls in Belfast and whether they feel that these peace‐walls should be temporary or permanent structures.

The methodology is based on questionnaire responses from 125 young people between the ages of 14 and 15 from six schools located in areas in Belfast where Catholics and Protestants live side by side yet apart. The paper is also based on their responses to photo prompts, focus group discussions and images of peace‐walls drawn by some of the young people.

The young people produced six discourses on peace‐walls in Belfast and these are outlined in the paper.

The paper endorses the necessity of incorporating young people's views of peace‐walls in Belfast as a prelude to finding ways in which to challenge taken‐for‐granted assumptions about the legacy of the conflict in Northern Ireland.

The paper is original in that it addresses the neglect of young people's views on peace‐walls in Belfast and contributes to further understanding of the importance of capturing young people's spatial strategies in divided cities.

Winning market share in a major market from a deeply‐entrenched dominant competitor is a tough challenge. Uses Nielsen data on channel‐specific market shares for Brand A and its leading competitor in a major US market to suggest one strategy a marketing manager might use to accomplish that objective. The dependent variable is relatively market share. The independent variables, based on the reference price and advertising share of voice literatures, relate current levels of price and promotional activity for Brand A and the dominant competitor to historical levels of price and promotional activity for the two competitors. A multiple regression analysis of the data indicates that the independent variables are significantly related to the relative market share dependent variable. Provides examples of the effect as well as heuristics flowing from the analysis.

Young people who are looked after by the state face challenges as they make the transition from care to adulthood, with variation in support available. In the past decade, funding has been directed towards organisations to pilot innovations to support transition, with accompanying evaluations often conducted with a single disciplinary focus, in a context of short timescales and small budgets. Recognising the value and weight of the challenge involved in evaluation of innovations that aim to support the transitions of young people leaving care, this paper aims to provide a review of evaluation approaches and suggestions regarding how these might be developed.

As part of a wider research programme to improve understanding of the innovation process for young people leaving care, the authors conducted a scoping review of grey literature (publications which are not peer reviewed) focusing on evaluation of innovations in the UK over the past 10 years. The authors critiqued the evaluation approaches in each of the 22 reports they identified with an inter-disciplinary perspective, representing social care, public health and organisation science.

The authors identified challenges and opportunities for the development of evaluation approaches in three areas. Firstly, informed by social care, the authors suggest increased priority should be granted to participatory approaches to evaluation, within which involvement of young people leaving care should be central. Secondly, drawing on public health, there is potential for developing a common outcomes’ framework, including methods of data collection, analysis and reporting, which aid comparative analysis. Thirdly, application of theoretical frameworks from organisation science regarding the process of innovation can drive transferable lessons from local innovations to aid its spread.

By adopting the unique perspective of their multiple positions, the authors’ goal is to contribute to the development of evaluation approaches. Further, the authors hope to help identify innovations that work, enhance their spread, leverage resources and influence policy to support care leavers in their transitions to adulthood.

The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) proposes two routes to persuasion – the central route (persuasion occurs via information) and the peripheral route (persuasion occurs via visual cues, attractive actors and other source characteristics). The central route is typically used for high-involvement decisions and the peripheral route is used in low involvement situations. The ELM has received extensive support when tested with adults; however, its ability to explain young children’s responses to persuasive communications has not been fully tested. Hence, the purpose of this research is to assess whether the standard tenets of the ELM apply to children’s processing of persuasive messages.

This study involved 84 preschool children, ages three to six. It used a 2 (involvement) × 2 (argument strength) × 2 (source attractiveness) design to test children’s responsiveness to advertisements for a novel breakfast cereal.

The findings suggest that children are naturally inclined to be persuaded by advertising messages, regardless of their level of involvement. It is the weak arguments and weak peripheral cues that dissuade children who are highly involved with a message.

This research makes an original contribution to the existing literature by testing the extent to which the ELM applies to children’s processing of persuasive advertisements. The finding that weak peripherals dissuade children from believing an ad’s message has strong implications for advertising practitioners.

This conceptual paper provides an overview of eye-tracking technology (ETT) as a process-tracing method to study children’s consumer behavior. This paper aims to provide a literature review of the child as consumer-focused eye-tracking research, identifying theoretical and research gaps. This paper discusses the benefits, drawbacks and ethical implications of ETT and highlights opportunities and best practices for future research.

This paper details eye movement and how ETT captures it. This paper delivers a typology of different approaches to eye-tracking research and presents information about ETT equipment and metrics. This paper also summarizes previous studies using eye tracking to study children. This paper concludes with research questions and topics for future research where ETT can be used to study child consumers in contexts such as playing advergames, using social media and shopping (in-person and online).

ETT is commonly used to assess children’s behavior in a variety of contexts but has scarcely been used to study children’s consumer behavior. ETT has great potential to be used to better understand children as consumers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to review using ETT to study children’s consumer behavior.

Children are familiar with retail outlets (especially supermarkets) and the reality of shopping from an increasingly early age. In turn, retailers are actively engaging this young market, targeting them through various promotional strategies. One popular strategy adopted by grocery retailers is giveaway collectible set items. The purpose of this paper is to question the ethicality of such campaigns, within the framework of vulnerable consumers by examining children’s opinions of the campaigns and the supermarkets who run them, and the drivers of children’s involvement in the campaigns.

Qualitative focus groups were employed with 67 children aged five to ten years. Focus groups were made up of children in similar age groups to cluster responses by age and allow for comparisons. Thematic analysis was undertaken and responses were coded into themes.

Children were initially driven to collect through promotional advertising or because a third party offered them a collectible. The drivers for subsequent collecting differed between age groups, with younger children more focussed on themes around play and older children (seven and above) collecting through habit, because it was a craze amongst their peers and therefore the collections became items of social currency. Children’s perceptions of the supermarkets motivations also differed by age. Younger children thought supermarkets gave the collectibles away as “gifts” for altruistic reasons. The older children articulated a clear understanding of the economic motives of the organisation including: to attract children to their stores, to encourage pester power and to increase revenue by encouraging customers to buy more. The older children questioned the ethics of the collectible campaigns, referring to them as scams.

The findings extend the important discussion on the nature of children’s vulnerability to advertising by showing that the children’s vulnerability stretches beyond their ability to understand advertising intent. Despite older children in the present study being cognisant of retailers’ intentions they were still vulnerable to the scheme; the embeddedness of the scheme in the social lives of the children meant they lacked agency to opt out of it. Further, the finding that the scheme transcended boundaries in the children’s lives, for instance, being associated with social currency at school, highlights the potential negative impact such schemes can have on the well-being of children.

Until now, research has investigated the motivations that children have to collect, but previous studies have focussed on collections which have been determined by the children. This paper presents the opinions and perceptions of the children who are directly targeted by commercial organisations to collect and raises concerns around the ethicality of such schemes.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors influencing young children’s (aged three to five years) understanding of brand symbolism.

Multiple hierarchical regression was used to analyse the relationships between age, gender and environmental factors, including family and the media, on the development of brand symbolism in pre-school children based on 56 children and parent dyad interviews.

Results confirmed the primary influence of age, television exposure and parental communication style on three to five-year-old children’s understanding of brand symbolism. The study demonstrates that the tendency to infer symbolic user attributes and non-product-related associations with brands starts as early as two years, and increases with age throughout the pre-school years. Children exposed to more television and less critical parental consumer socialisation strategies are more likely to prefer branded products, believe that brands are better quality and that they make people happy and popular.

Identifying the factors that influence the development of symbolic brand associations in pre-school children provides an important contribution to public policy discussions on the impact of marketing to young children.

The paper extends existing research by considering, for the first time, the role of environmental factors in pre-schooler’s understanding of brand symbolism. The results provide a more informed basis for discussion about the impact of marketing messages on very young children and the environmental factors that may lead to a more critical engagement with brands.