Acting out-Tranference and Countertransference Research Paper

Acting out-Tranference and Countertransference - Research Paper Example The notion of acting out has been imposed with various orientations and connotations. The thirty-year old precise definition, which was thought to be a rightful and analyzable form of resistance, has now been extended to make room for delinquent behaviors and pathological and impulsive actions. The expression is now used by various psychoanalysts and others to include a variety of antisocial, impulsive and unsafe actions, often without keeping in mind the context in which the action arose. It is also sometimes used in derogatory sense to indicate dissatisfaction in the actions of patients. The present puzzlement around the phenomenon basically starts from the time when Sigmund Freud translated the term. In 1901, Freud used the informal term handeln meaning ‘to act’ to describe faulty actions, which according to him had unconscious importance. However, in 1905, he used a less informal term, agieren which also meant ‘to act’, but with a more forceful connotation. Freud initiated the expression in agieren as ‘Remembering, repeating and working through’ (1914). Agieren was then translated as ‘acting out’ and it is most likely that it is the translation that had lead to uncertainty in the psychological literature. Acting out basically refers to the release through actions, rather than verbalization, of conflicted mental substance. Even though there is a difference between act and word, both types of liberations are answers to a return of the repressed; repeated in the case of actions and remembered in the case of words. Another difference sometimes drawn is between acting out and acting in, used to differentiate between actions that occur outside the psychoanalytical treatment and actions that take place within treatment. The concept of acting out is strongly related to the theory of the transference and its advancement. Even though Freud treated the transference as the source of acting out and as a hindrance to the treatment

Improving Organisational Performance Assignment

Improving Organisational Performance - Assignment Example It is an ongoing process, where a supervisor should communicate the job responsibilities to an employee, make him/her aware of the expectations from him/her by the management and ensure that mutual understanding prevails between them. Performance management regularly monitors the position of the organisation and implements any skill development tools or training modules for the employees. The principle objective of performance management is to make optimum use of the resources that the employee is capable of to deliver (Parmenter, 2011). In the paper, the different performance management systems used by two large organisations in the UK i.e. Tesco PLC and Sainsbury’s in the retail segment will be discussed. The implications and challenges faced by the two organisations while implementing the performance management system will be observed in the paper and certain proposals will provided to the organisations to overcome those challenges. One of the largest British multinational grocery and general merchandise, Tesco, has spread its operations over 14 countries, employing over 492,000 people. The group after its incorporation in 1920 has extended over different sectors and formats. It has approximately 5,380 stores throughout 14 markets in Asia, Europe and the United States (Tesco PLC, 2012). United Kingdom’s oldest retailer, Sainsbury’s was originated in London in the year 1869. At present, it is the third biggest chain of supermarkets in the UK. It opened its first store in Drury Lane which sold eggs, milk and butter products. Later, the group has transformed itself from being a retail outlet with diversity in different sectors like Finance, Entertainment, Toys and Nursery (Sainsbury’s, 2012). Business Case for Tesco Tesco has introduced performance management in their organisation to analyze and to evaluate the performances of their employees. Therefore, performances in Tesco can be measured by tracking the results of a few of the fa ctors, namely, Key Performance Indicators (KPI), productivity, quality and safety. An employee’s productivity is measured by the quantity of work performed by the amount taken to do the work. Simultaneously, the quality factor falls in place when measuring productivity. Therefore, Tesco measures performance of the employees by measuring the KPIs. To measure the KPIs, Tesco introduced a management tool called â€Å"Steering Wheel†. It consists of four quadrants–‘Customer, Operations, People and Finance’ (TESCO an ADVENT Company, 2011). These quadrants are separated into small segments which focus on measuring the KPIs of each segment which are based on the targets achieved. The performances of an employee are communicated daily by their supervisors on the basis of their daily improvements, average performance in the group and within the organisation. This helps the employee to know where he/she stands in the group and what measures he/she should take to improve the average performance in the group (TESCO an ADVENT Company, 2011). Customer Operations Earn the reliability of the customers for lifetime All kinds of products are available Value for the prices Admirable staff and fast services Pleasurable shopping for the customers Work is clearly defined and it becomes simpler for the staff

Critically discuss with reference to the car industry e.g (Toyota), Essay

Critically discuss with reference to the car industry e.g (Toyota), the Japanese Lean production revolution - Essay Example The meiji restoration transformed the Japanese empire into an industrial world power. With new found pride in their country, and their culture, the Japanese flexed their muscles overseas. After the first Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), Japan conquered a part of China, some parts of Russia, Taiwan and Korea. These territorial conquests provided Japan with valuable raw material and cheap labor for industries back home. In turn , these occupied territories were fertile markets for Japanese products. The relentless hunger for territorial expansion found expression in Japan's annexing of Manchuria in 1931. In 1937, Japan occupied more territories in China by waging a war on that country for the second time ( Second Sino-Japanese War, 1937-45). All these aggressive expansionist plans brought Japan in direct conflict with the U.S and its allies. Japan joined the Axis powers- Germany and Italy, in 1941.The same year, Japan declared war on the U.S. The war with Japan ended after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Between 1945 and 1952, post-war Japan was administered by the U.S government .To help Japan stand on its own feet, American financial and technical aid were provided to Japanese business and industry. As part of the technical assistance , the U.S government brought in industrial and managerial experts from the U.S, to train Japanese companies on modern management and production methods. One of the most definitive techniques that influenced Japanese manufacturing, and made Japan the powerhouse that it is today , was the 'Training Within Industry', concept. Training within industry (TWI) service, was a creation of the U.S Department of War, to meet wartime needs. During war, manpower was required by the armed forces to fight the enemy. At the same time, industry which provided key material and equipment to the defense forces, faced a shortage of hands to finish production. Therefore, to optimize the productivity of U.S workforce, a program for training supervisors and workers in indus trial establishments was devised. The training was to be done by experts drawn from universities and businesses. The aim of this program was to improve productivity and quality. The basic concept of the training consisted of the following sequences: a. study and understand the process b. break up the process into its sub-components. c. Educate the supervisor and the worker on the process and its sub-components. d. Train the supervisor and the worker to work efficiently and without wastage. e. Train the worker to evaluate the end result and suggest corrective steps. f. Training the supervisor to deal with workers effectively and fairly. g. Training managements to develop newer and better training programs. The essential elements of the TWI program were similar to the principles laid down by Frederick w.Taylor (1856-1915), father of scientific management. In his book, 'The principles of scientific management (1911), Taylor proposed the following: a. replace rule of thumb work methods with methods based on scientific study of the task. b. Scientifically select , train, and develop each employee rather than passively leaving them to train themselves. c. Divide work equally between managers and workers so that

Falconry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Falconry - Essay Example Therefore, what I learnt from young age is how to take care of the birds of prey, especially the Saker Falcon, since it was the type of bird that we used often, as well as learning how to feed the bird. In addition, I learnt more about the health problems and diseases that affect birds, especially the birds of prey that has changed their natural habitat from wild birds, to become bred at home. We used to treat the bird when they would show some symptoms of sickness, and then feed and rest them until they recovered fully. The experiences I obtained from the game is that; hares and Stone-curlews mostly inhabit the arid or semi-arid areas, where camping was also convenient. The game was most enjoyable here, due to the full uninterrupted view of the falcons hunting the hares or the birds even over long distances. The game has impacted me through making me develop love for birds, such that I have learnt the care and feeding for different varieties of birds, and the methods of training and treating the

The Impact of E Commerce on Small Business Essay Example for Free

The Impact of E Commerce on Small Business Essay Impact of E-Commerce on Small Firms have factor that has influenced the processes of adoption and use of e-commerce in both small and medium enterprises and industries. Small scales firms that have adopted and have used e-commerce have taken into account not only the technological part and organisational aspects of implementation but also the strong user’s o the web sites with their own skills, attitude towards work, enthusiasm and fear of technology. Whereas on the other side of the story, the majority number of consumers have to pace with and effectively use the services offered through internet by enterprises. Thus to carry out a successful relationship and transactions between consumers and firms, they not only have to exchange money and products but also information and mutual trust. E-commerce has been simply defined as a use of electronic range of networks to simplify, resolve, improve and pace up the various stages and processes of business like buying and selling and delivery of goods and services. E-commerce`s prime driver is Internet which presents an hierarchical framework. The use of websites for small scales enterprises can create a major impact and global presence when compared to other Medias. The web are defined with no geographical boundaries or national boundaries but rather by the coverage of computer networks which offers widened access to different markets for small scales and micro enterprises. Small scale industries find more competitive markets and intense pressures with their limited resources and manpower and mainly of weaker market power. Due to this SME`S had to undergo pressure to co operate more into networks to spread information, develop costs and risks. Small scale industries are amongst the last ones to benefit from the new technology and are happily excited about the widened opportunities increased through internet and E-commerce. Internet Web Spending includes capital and operation incurred expenses to build and support new systems of web based. Small enterprises sell both to businesses and consumers though a majority share is been sold to consumers than businesses. Internet offers an access to wide range of goods and services that small scale industries are interested in and help them in their competitive field. It includes tools that small firms can use to enhance and flourish their businesses, reach new customers and maximize customer relationships. The basics must haves in internet usage of SME`S should be email, specialized industry/ professional information and product information. Email is to contact the same for urther relationship and to resolve any query. Professional information should be displayed as to stand out in the competitive market and showcase the goodwill of the enterprise and product information does creates an impact of the benefits it offers compared to other products and services. The final frontier is to reach the customers through the media created by Ecommerce. They are as follows: Creating a web site – The main state is the creation of a web site. The web site creation is a tedious process as it involves of thinking process and building up a website, its content, designing, security measures, all take in a lot of engineering. Once the website is created, we are ready to do business. Banner exchange/ showcasing advertisements on other websites – Once the web site creation part is completed, the focus comes on the advertising part which makes it to publicize the website on other websites and social sites for example, google ads, facebook ads, and etc. These are useful as they have a far reaching impact on state and national as well as global level. They are so effective that they can dig out customers from any corner of the earth, given that technology is available. Management tools for web sites – After the completion of the website, the management tools take in place such as that of the server, security and antivirus measures and many more. These are essential part of the tools and parts of the web site management. Visitors counting – There is a space on the website which when visited by a person, displays his visit number and the total number of members who have visited. This informs us the number of times the web site has been visited and successful of the website creation of the business. Ecommerce solutions – The next solutions is the Ecommerce solutions that is the solutions leading to the Ecommerce and it’s far reaching impact on the business where a problem is encountered operationally. The benefits to ecommerce impact on small scales industries are as follows: Global Reach: it has helped business to reach national and international markets with quite less costs incurred to find the best and most profitable suppliers, expand business, gain new customers and co-ordinate and find the best suitable partners for business. Minimise costs: Once the website is been designed it reduces the cost of hiring an offline mode of marketing. This acts as a major advantage of e-commerce. No customary charges are applied when website designs promotes the business. Certain offline marketing costs are cut and thus it reduces the costs overall. Building customer relationship : E-commerce helps in building the customer relationship as the customer is aware of the whole process while buying the goods and services and it creates a better impression about the she’s to the customers . The SME`s benefit in a way that the customer becomes fully aware of the product and services as personalized communication helps to attract customers and built a goodwill for a enterprise. The goods and services are up to dated on the websites with quality, price and size. Long Business Hours: Creating an online marketing field benefits the SMEs as in there is no fixed working hours. The sites are 24hours seven days a week available with no extra costs and transactions can be carried out any time of the day. Therefore Ecommerce has significantly showed a major growth in past few years. It has helped SME`S in enhancing growth, expanding and creating a new business measures in a much easier and implied manner. It has changed the way customers are been dealt and growth towards economy has also been observed.

How Reading As A Young Child Encouraged Essay Example for Free

How Reading As A Young Child Encouraged Essay When I was a young boy, while my other friends were busy playing ball, riding bicycles, playing games and doing other forms of leisure, I was always listening to my mother as she read comic books to my ears. My mother would always read the interesting comic books to my attentive ears; I would sit with my mother on the sofa as she read the comic books to my ears. I grew up from listening to my mother to reading the comic books on my own. My mother always bought me several books to read every week, as soon as I finished reading one book there was always another book to be read. I developed interest in several comic books, ranging from Iron Man, Spiderman and the likes. I inculcated the habit of reading right from a very tender age. My early reading habit really helped me in life as I developed an undying love for reading and improved greatly on my writing. While growing, I developed from reading comic books to reading more voluminous books, newspaper articles, magazines, novels etc. Books were packed in the shelves of our house. My friends always called our house a library. Reading was always the only option to kill boredom. My flare for reading encouraged me to get involved in writing as I discovered that the more I read the better I wrote. I could relate what I read in several books and combine them into writing something better. My reading habit really boosted my diction and I learnt new words each day I picked up a book to read. I learnt the rules of language, my grammar was greatly improved. Over the years I garnered a lot of experience from reading both fictional and true life stories. I applied some of the knowledge acquired from reading these books to various aspects of my life. Reading lots of books gave me a hint on the ways writers wrote, the style of language used and how best to communicate to a particular audience. I am a testimony of the quote that says that â€Å"A good reader is a good writer†. The more I read, the more I improved on my reading speed and grasped new ideas on how to write. Reading frequently made me a better reader and a good writer. I developed from reading for fun to reading for the acquisition of knowledge. Books like; the Richest man in Babylon, Thinking Big, the tale of two cities and many others were already in the long list of books that I have read . My whole life was affected positively by my reading habit as I read several motivational books that have been spurring me to achieve greatness in life. Through writing I could now transfer my thoughts and imaginations into a book or piece of article. The knowledge that I have acquired over time is what has made me the better person I am today. As I now read more, write better, have better grammar and have become a better man. The saying that you are what you read and you are an expression of what you write is definitely true as I have noticed tremendous changes in my life as a result of the past books I have read. I will have to thank my mother for imbibing the culture of reading in me; if not for her I would not have been a good writer and would definitely not be what I have been fashioned out to be today.

The Effects Of Different Ugc On Users Marketing Essay

The Effects Of Different Ugc On Users Marketing Essay Since the advent of Web 2.0, social media, such as social networking sites and user-generated services, have emerged into mass use Boyd and Ellison, 2008. Academic research is starting to explore related concepts, such as social networking sites (Boyd and Ellison, 2008; Utz, 2010), user-generated content (Shao, 2009), and social media (Walker Rettberg, 2009). Basically, what characterizes user-generated content (UGC) is the fact that consumers are the ones producing, designing, publishing, or editing the content in the media (Krishnamurthy and Dou, 2008), i.e. the service is user-created. Social media in turn enable people to share and interact with each other and the content becomes more democratized (Drury, 2008). User generated content (UGC) is fast becoming one of the most valuable and influential sources of information in the on-line world, supporting millions of consumers who have come to rely on product and service reviews to support the purchase process. There is considerable interest in the value of UGC and its antecedents. Research shows that product reviews, for instance, influence consumer search and product choice, enhance sales forecast quality, affect product sales, and drive viewership (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Godes and Mayzlin, 2004; Li and Hitt, 2008). Current research on UGC has focused mainly on the motivations of consumers to produce UGC. Studies on brand-related UGC and its causality to brand perceptions is still in its infancy. It has been mentioned as part of future research to study consumers of UGC who are individuals exposed to brand-related UGC to investigate whether simply viewing rather than creating UGC may effect a change in consumer perception of brands. (Ch ristodoulides, et. al., 2012). Future research has also been suggested to distinguish between incentive- and non-incentive driven UGC and examine differences in terms of drivers and brand perceptions (Christodoulides, et. al., 2012). As consumers are increasingly performing activities previously controlled by companies, the entire marketing landscape is changing. Therefore, companies need to better understand the changing behaviour of consumers, in order to create mutual benefits from the use of social media (Heinonen, 2011). This research is an extension of current work to examine the effects of the different types of UGC on users perceptions of brands. This research is an exploratory study to address this subject by first discussing current literature on UGC and its relation to brand equity. Then, the design of the study and its results are presented and discussed. The research hopes to bring new knowledge about the positive and negative influences of UGC on brands, and highlights managerial implications for brand-related activities on online platforms containing UGC. 2 Literature Review: User Generated Content (UGC) and its growing influence in brand marketing The term social media here refers to user-created services, such as blogs, online review/rating sites, social networking sites, and online communities. The term consumer is used to describe the individual user that is active in the social media, however, not necessarily only consuming the media but also performing other activities, such as participating in, using, or producing activities.(Heinonen, 2011). Consumption means reading the content that is posted by other users; participation occurs when people comment on others creations, and production means posting ones own content on the site (Shao, 2009). In brief, information technology is empowering consumers, and their role is shifting from being passive recipients of information to becoming active generators of information (Stewart and Pavlou, 2002). Research has suggested that the classic notion of individuals as mere consumers is outdated and that consumers should also be seen as active producers of business value (Heinonen, 201 1). Marketers think that brand-related UGC is a more effective and targeted way of reaching disparate audiences than standard paid media (Lovett, 2011). The recent boom in social media provides opportunities for more targeted distribution of branded content (Lovett, 2011). Social networks are not just targeting tools but rather egalitarian and inexpensive platforms for broadcast and distribution (Lovett, 2011). Many websites such as YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and weblogs enable consumers to easily create UGC (Dwyer, 2012). With the enormous interest in social media and user-generated content on these sites, consumers are seen to be actively contributing to the marketing content. A significant amount of UGC concerns brand-related material (Burmann and Arnhold, 2008). For example, recent evidence shows that about 70 percent of brand-related searches on social-networking sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter relate to UGC (360i, 2009). This active consumer behaviour is changing the media and marketing landscape as consumers are invading companies marketing sphere (Berthon, et al.2008). Some of the online activities performed by consumers may influence the company image and brand positively whereas other consumer activities are perhaps not favourable (Heinonen, 2011). This is explained by a finding that consumers of UGC often consider it more credible than professional content (Cheong and Morrison, 2008). Hence, negative UGC can have harmful implications for building and sustaining a brands market presence. It is, therefore, important for managers to understand the impact of UGC on brands (Berthon, et. al., 2008; Christodoulides, 2009). One of the motivation for social media activity is information processing. A key activity in information processing is sharing information and experiences, and accessing shared knowledge online. Contrary to factual information that has lower trustworthiness, opinions were considered to be reliable and value adding. It was felt that UGC is a reliable way to get opinions of products. As they do not benefit anything from advertising a certain product, producers who create product reviews are seen to be more motivated to tell the truth. When the truth is unfavourable, this may negatively impact consumers perception of a brand and their subsequent decision to use it (Heinonen, 2011). Information processing is also concerned with applying knowledge from UGC for utilitarian purposes. This activity often results in monetary benefits and economic gain. Higher levels of brand awareness and associations may prompt perceptions of choice and progress cues (Hoyer and Brown, 1990). When applying su ch knowledge appropriately, UGC may inform consumers selection of brands. Thus, we hypothesise: H1: The platform type of incentive-driven UGC has an effect on the users awareness of the sponsoring brand. H2a: The platform type of incentive-driven UGC has an effect on the users related purchasing decisions of the sponsoring brand. H2b: The users general opinion on the bias-ness of incentive-driven UCC has an effect on the difference between the effects of the platform type of incentive-driven UGC in the users related purchasing decisions of the sponsoring brand H3a: The platform type of positive incentive-driven UGC has an effect on the users evaluation of the sponsoring brand. H3b: The users general opinion on the bias-ness of incentive-driven UCC has an effect on the difference between the effects of the platform type of incentive-driven UGC in the users evaluation of the sponsoring brand. 3 Research Design and Measures This study used the uses and gratifications approach as the theoretical fundament. This method is commonly used in internet studies, see for example (Sangwan, 2005), (Papacharissi and Rubin, 2000) or (Kaye and Johnson, 2002). The approach assumes people using media actively and goal orientated and according to their needs (Katz and Blumler, 1974). This implicitly means that people know their needs and can articulate them. The uses and gratifications approach is seen to be appropriate for studying the motivations of people using media (Lin, 1996). To complement the perspective given through the uses and gratifications approach, the study used concepts common in economic theory, namely the consideration of monetary rewards and signalling incentives (Lerner and Tirole 2002). This means of data gathering has been found useful in a number of studies concerning user motivation (Lakhani and Wolf, 2005; Hars and Ou, 2002; Hippel and Lakhani, 2003). The authors develop a questionnaire to capture quantitative data administered via survey of a small sample of NTU graduate students. The chosen procedure for recruitment has the disadvantage not to be statistically representative (Ruggiero, 2000). It is therefore an exploratory study. The survey questionnaire was sent out to about 100 people, of which the return rate was 68% with 68 users. The questionnaire was in the form of an online survey, which was emailed to the randomly selected participants in the form of an embedded link. The survey was open for 2 days. Of the 68 responses, all of them were useable with no incomplete responses. The brand awareness construct was measured through one item, while the users purchasing decision of the brand construct was measured through three items. Finally, the users evaluation of the brand construct was measured through eight items. In all of the items, survey participants are asked to rank their responses based upon a 5-unit Likert scale of 1 to 5 (1- Strongly Agree; 2 Agree; 3 Neutral; 4 Disagree; 5 Strongly Disagree). For each of the dependent constructs relating to the users perceptions of brands, we calculate the sum of all the results of the survey items relating to that construct respective to each platform type (namely Facebook-related UGC or product review). Then, we begin by first conducting reliability analysis for each of the construct. A paired t-test was performed to test if there is any significant difference between the effects of the platform types of incentive-driven UGC on each of the constructs to test the postulated hypotheses. For the dependent constructs of the users related purchasing decision of the sponsoring brand, and the users evaluation of the sponsoring brand, a further linear regression analysis was performed to test if the users general opinion of the biasness of incentive-driven UGC has an effect on the difference between each platform types sum of all the results of the survey items relating to each of those dependent constructs (i.e., difference =[sum of Facebook-related survey items for construct A] [sum of product reviews-related survey items for construct A] ) 4 Results In the testing of the hypothesis H1, it is found that the difference between incentive-driven UGC on Facebook and in the form of product reviews is not statistically significant (p = 0.816, ÃŽÂ ±=0.05). Therefore, H1 is rejected. However, there is a moderate correlation between the users awareness of the sponsoring brand as a result of incentive-driven UGC on Facebook and the users awareness of the sponsoring brand as a result of incentive-driven UGC in the form of product reviews, and the Pearsons coefficient of 0.543 is significant at ÃŽÂ ± =0.05 (p In the test for the next hypothesis H2a, two analogous sets of 3 items are used; one set for measuring the construct of users related purchasing decisions with respect to incentive-driven UGC on Facebook and the other for incentive-driven UGC in the form of product reviews. In the initial reliability analysis, Cronbachs alpha for each of the Facebook and product reviews-related set of items was 0.802 and 0.891 respectively. The mean of the users related purchasing decisions as a result of incentive-driven Facebook-related UGC is 8.82, which suggests an almost neutral opinion on the average for each of the three survey items (3 = neutral). Similarly, the mean of the users related purchasing decisions as a result of incentive-driven Facebook-related UGC is 9.05, which suggests a neutral opinion on the average for each of the 3 survey items (3 = neutral). The mean of the users related purchasing decisions as a result of incentive-driven Facebook-related UGC was not significantly different from that of the users related purchasing decisions as a result of incentive-driven UGC in the form of product reviews (p =0.539, ÃŽÂ ±= 0.05). Thus, H2a is rejected. However, there is fairly moderate correlation between the two variables, and the Pearsons coefficient of 0.338 is significant (p =0.005, ÃŽÂ ±= 0.05). In the testing of the hypothesis H2b, the R2 value is 0.158, and there is a statistically significant negative linear relationship (standardised coefficient ÃŽÂ ² = -0.398) between the users opinion of the bias-ness of incentive-driven UGC and the difference in the platform types effect on the users related purchasing decisions (p = 0.001, ÃŽÂ ± = 0.05). In other words, the more the user agrees that the incentive-driven UGC are biased, the greater the positive effect that product reviews will on the users purchasing decisions than the same by Facebook-related UGC. Thus, hypothesis H2b is accepted. In the test of the hypothesis H3a, two analogous sets of 8 items are used. One set is for measuring the construct of users evaluation of brands with respect to positive incentive driven UGC on Facebook, and the other for incentive-driven UGC in the form of product reviews. Cronbachs alpha for each of the Facebook and product reviews-related set of items was 0.891 and 0.926 respectively in the reliability analysis. The mean rating of the users evaluation of the sponsoring brand as a result of Facebook-related UGC or product reviews are 22.35 and 22.94 respectively, both of which denote that the average opinion is between that of agree and neutral for each of the 8 survey items in each set. The mean of the users evaluation of brands as a result of positive incentive-driven UGC on Facebook was not significantly different from the same as a result of positive incentive-driven UGC in the form of product reviews ( p = 0.510, ÃŽÂ ± = 0.05). Thus, H3a is rejected. However, there is moderate correlation between the two variables, and the Pearsons coefficient of 0.385 is significant (p = 0.001, ÃŽÂ ± = 0.05). In the testing of the hypothesis H3b, the R2 value is 0.231, and there is a statistically significant negative linear relationship (standardised coefficient ÃŽÂ ² = -0.480) between the users opinion of the bias-ness of incentive-driven UGC and the difference in the platform types effect on the users related purchasing decisions (p 5 Analysis and Discussion In summary, there is no significant difference between the platform type of online incentive-driven UGC (whether Facebook-related UGC or UGC in the form of online product reviews) in their effects on all of i) the awareness of the sponsoring brand; ii) the users related purchasing decisions of the sponsoring brand, and; iii) the users evaluation of the sponsoring brand. However, there is a significant difference between the platform type of online incentive-driven UGC on the constructs of purchasing decisions and evaluation of the brand when the users general opinion of the bias-ness of incentive-driven UGC is taken into consideration. 5.1 When users general opinion of the biasness of incentive-driven UGC is not considered The results seem to suggest that there is no difference between the efficacy of both incentive-driven Facebook-related UGC and incentive-driven customer product reviews in furthering brand awareness. This may also hint of an overall fairly even amount of exposure that users currently have of both Facebook and websites/blogs. The lack of difference between the efficacy of both Facebook-related UGC and product reviews also seems to extend to the users related purchasing decisions of the sponsoring brand. This also seems to support the view that in fact that the users related purchasing decisions (whether their own or when advising a friend or relatives purchasing decision) had less to do with any type of UGC then the factors that they are directly exposed to when they are in a store or at the point of purchase (Edelman, 2010). Those information such as product placement, stock availability, packaging, pricing and sales interactions, are more crucial in influencing the users related purchasing decisions. Despite that, a user may still put off the purchase if they realise that the actual product is different from what is represented in other promotional materials online or offline (Edelman, 2010). The results also suggest that neither type of incentive-driven UGC, whether on Facebook or in product reviews, has a greater effect than the other in boosting the users opinion of the brand. It seems to reflect that the users acquisition of information in their evaluation of the product is multi-faceted, and does not rest solely on a single platform. 5.2 When users general opinion of the biasness of incentive-driven UGC is considered Of the 68 participants, 45.6% of them agree (36.8%) or strongly agree (8.8%) that online incentive-driven UGC are generally more biased than balanced, while a substantial 30.9 % of them are neutral on this. 41.2% of the surveyed participants also agreed or strongly agreed that extremely biased online UGC has a greater impact on their impression of the brand than moderately biased online UGC, while a significant 35.3% of the group remained neutral. The results suggest that when the user feels more strongly about the biasness of incentive-driven UGC, he has a tendency to trust the product information encapsulated within product reviews more than those reflected on Facebook contributed by other users. This might be possibly due to the more detailed textual information that the typical product review has than the average Facebook post, which tend to be more sporadic in nature. The results also support the findings in a study by McKinsey, that most consumers in the study are observed to have headed directly to Amazon.com, a major online shopping website hosted in multiple countries. There is a wealth of customer reviews on related products on the website, where customers can obtain more detailed product information and conduct their own product comparisons (Edelman, 2010). It is thus not surprising that Amazon.com is found to be one of the top influencers in brand equity, as it is where customers are influenced in both their evaluation of the product and purchasing decisions (Edelman, 2010). 5.3 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research There are several limitations in this study. One limitation of this study is the small sample group size. Although the Cronbachs alpha in the reliability analysis was more than 0.7 for the data used in testing the hypothesis, a larger number of survey participants would allow for a more representative sample. In addition, the current study only focuses on two main platforms, namely Facebook and product reviews in blogs and websites for the studying of incentive-driven UGC. The inclusion of other platforms, such as the micro-blogging platform Twitter, and LinkedIn, a business networking platform that is gaining prominence for use in marketing companies and brands, might also have possibly shed more light on their respective effects on brand perceptions. Further, there is no specific brand that is used as a case study for this research. Sentiments may be highly mixed when responding to the survey questions as the participants are likely to have in mind different brands as their subjects for analysis. Hence, possible future work as an extension of this study could include a longitudinal study that is focused on representative brands across several product categories to analyse the efficacies of UGC on different product categories. It is also found that differences in culture and language can affect the users actions and behaviours when writing reviews, and in turn, such differences influences the disparity in product ratings creating their own online UGC related to products and brands, which in turn can influence others user perceptions of the brands in concern (Decker Trusov, 2010). Therefore, it would be useful to also study if differences in culture and language of UGC also have an effect on the users perception of brands. 6 Managerial implications The results of the current study have several implications for the marketing manager. Firstly, the lack of a difference in efficacy between Facebook-related UGC and product reviews and an average opinion that is almost neutral that either platform has influenced the user in his awareness of the sponsoring brand, showed that neither platform should be neglected by the manager in the online marketing plan when promoting a product or brand, nor should the manager put an over-emphasis of the marketing budget on these two platforms versus other online marketing mediums. Secondly, the manager may also consider allowing customer reviews on the companys own retail website for its products, if there is one. Such a feature will allow the growth of a virtual community of customers, and will also increase the time that a user spends on the website, thus boosting product sales (Mudambi Schuff, 2010). The social functions available on the retail website provide added value to the customer, and will exert a positive effect on brand equity through a more enhanced customer experience (Kumar Benbasat, 2006). 7 Conclusion