This study explores the use of social media in higher education with a particular focus on the role of cultural and socioeconomic differences. The dataset, built on surveyed respondents from China, Poland, Spain, Turkey and United States, was analysed using quantitative techniques that allowed us to test various hypotheses. Findings show that the use of social media for educational purposes is determined by socio-demographic variables (gender, age, education level) that returned different social media users' profiles across countries. Overall, the results indicate that social media is a useful tool of communication between teachers and students but that national cultural differences must be taken into account in the design of subjects and teaching materials used by teachers in the digital environment. From another point of view, the results related with the cultural differences and the socioeconomic determinants may give insight to the marketers in the promotion of education related products such as books, language schools, degree and certificate programs in social media.

No abstract

Recent data show that middle class consumers have an omnivorous pattern of consumption or tastes, contrary to Bourdieu's predictions of a snob pattern of consumption.To explore the implications of Bourdieu's framework for omnivorousness further, we make use of the anthropological view of consumption to analyse Spaniards' musical tastes and consumption. Results showed a variety of omnivorous patterns of musical consumption associated with upscale consumers: a higher position on the social ladder was linked to more omnivorous tastes and greater use of technologies that free the consumer from fixed periodicities in music consumption. We found that different types (economic, social and cultural) and levels of capital do configure subjects' structural constraints and hence, their tastes in musical genres and the technological media used to consume them. Consequently, the combination of all three types of capital helps to explain the omnivorous consumption (elitist but inclusive as well) of upscale consumers.

Regional cultural policy, Stardom and popularity, Multilevel analysis, Recorded music consumption, C13, D12, M38, Z11,

The authors analyze the understudied relationship between social class and Internet-in-practice in the Spanish social space in order to develop a social theory of Internet use based on the concepts of scale of consumption, technological, social, and information linkage needs of individuals, and Bourdieu’s suggested homology between the social and consumption spaces. The authors test their theory with interdependence methods of analysis, which are suitable methodological instrument for relating Internet uses to social structure through the concepts of scale and linkage needs. The authors’ theory suggests that, since Internet uses are socially structured, the first-level digital divide may be reduced but will not disappear, and Internet uses will continue to differ (second-level digital divide). The theory not only explains Spaniards’ Internet use and more recent empirical findings but also proposes answers to critical contemporary social questions regarding the use of digital technologies and the digital inequality debate.

Departing from the understanding of food tourism in urban environments, this research analyses the brand engagement of bakeries during the COVID-19 lockdown period, and the first stages of the de-escalation process. A mixed-methods study is designed to analyze the case of six selected bakeries in Catalonia (Spain). Drawing on data obtained from semi-structured interviews (N = 6) and a visual content analysis of the businesses’ social media promotion in Instagram (N = 638), results show the performance of bakeries during pandemic times, where a change in production and consumption behaviors is observed and takeaway and delivery helped them to survive. In particular, their social media promotion in Instagram also revealed how bakeries have managed this difficult situation and kept a close relationship with customers, standing up as a symbol of resilience against the odds and contributing to preserve customers’ awareness on food and health, and the city’s identity, through digital branding strategies that communicate messages around bread and pastry foods (the product), the shop and the workshop (the place), and both the employees and the customers (the people).

In this paper we evaluate the inefficiency generated by an inadequate structure of the fixed inputs and by the difficulty to adjust them in the short-run in a sample of Romanian firms in the chemical industry over the period 1996-1997. We use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and apply this methodology in an innovative setting using a cost analysis instead of the technical efficiency approach. The results show inefficiency in most of the cases due to a low degree of capacity utilisation.

This research identifies three segments of book readers with latent class analysis (LCA): active book readers (who read every day or almost every day); frequent (read only 1-2 times a week); and occasional (read books sometime a month or quarter), and supplies evidence on book reading habits and preferences of Spanish readers. Socioeconomic covariates and cultural indicators complete the profile of the segments. A better understanding of book readers' behavior and literary preferences, as well as book contribution to readers' wellbeing could be of interest for cultural policy makers and book publishers.