Societal concerns associated with aviation industry’s carbon-intensive nature and impending peak oil has become more pronounced over the last decade. With a potential to address both of these issues, the use of biofuels in aviation stands as the most promising pathway towards achieving sustainable air transport system. Significant progress continues to be made in overcoming technological and economic challenges of using 2nd generation biofuels in air transport industry. However, a truly sustainable and effective market deployment of aviation biofuels requires an extensive collaboration between feedstock providers, biofuel producers, governments, airlines, and the public. Thus, we deploy a multi-level perspective (MLP) framework to analyze these interactions on a micro- (niches), meso- (regime), and macro- (landscape) level. In particular, the framework captures the significance of international nature of air transport industry and the inter-industry dependencies of biofuel supply-chain. The results of this study highlight the barriers, drivers, and strategies for advancing social acceptance and establishment of sustainable aviation biofuel market.

Energy demand is growing significantly in most countries and is expected to continue to expand—perhaps by 45% between now and 2030, and by more than 300% by the end of the century (Brown & Sovacool, 2012). Industry is generally the largest consumer of energy, currently consuming about 37% of the world’s total delivered energy, and the highest in energy-related CO2 emissions among the major sectors of energy use in an economy. Sadly enough, large amounts of energy consumed by industry are used inefficiently because of lack of awareness about proper energy management and weak energy policies and measures, among others. As a result, the industrial development across the world results in more energy use and leads to more concentration of greenhouse gases emissions. Hence, finding ways to increase energy efficiency in the industrial sector is highly important because the global climate and the region’s energy security depend on it. In this paper the efficiency trends of seven energy-intensive industries namely manufacturing, chemicals, electricity-gas and water supply, construction, mining and quarrying, machinery, and transport in 23 EU countries over the period 2000–2009 is analysed. The performance of the sectors is evaluated in terms of an input/output production framework described by capital stock, employment, total energy consumption, value added, and GHG emissions. On the methodological side, we use the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure the relative efficiency of each industrial sector. DEA is a popular nonparametric efficiency analysis technique with many applications energy efficiency assessment (Sarica & Ilhan, 2007; Mukherjee, 2008; Azadeh, Amalnic, Ghaderi, & Asadzadeh, 2007). Given the panel nature of the considered data set, the Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) is used to assess the trends in energy efficiency over time and to distinguish between the effect of efficiency change and technical change. At the second stage of our analysis, we focus on the analysis of the relationship between the energy efficiency estimates and a set of explanatory factors related to the structural characteristics of considered sectors and the countries. For most sectors MPI has been higher than 1 in most years, thus indicating an improving trend. This trend appears to be stronger in chemicals, electricity, machinery, and mining. In fact, electricity and mining have improved steadily since 2003-04. On the other hand, construction and transport exhibit fluctuations, but in most cases their MPI has been lower than 1. The observed efficiency changes reflected in the MPI could be the result of changes in technical efficiency (efficiency change) and/or in the underlying production technology (technology change). It is evident that most sectors have been driven by technology change. Overall it is apparent that improvements due to efficiency change have been modest at best (e.g., no more than 5-10%), whereas improvements due to changes in the best practices (technology factor) have been significant in most of the sectors. This study’s results not only provide a general evaluation of the investigated industries, but also facilitate various interesting efficiency comparisons, with respect to factors that have the highest explanatory power. Taking into account the results of this study, policy makers could identify the main steps that should be followed to improve each industry’s energy efficiency. Furthermore, the significance of each step can be measured, leading to more informed decisions in terms of priorities given.

Megacities in Asia such as Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore is modern and historical at the same time. Although technologically developed and highly urbanized, these megacities’ urban fabric and life-style heavily rely on human scale – the software of the urban – as its main shaping force. This interesting mixture and contrast is what gives this city its unique characteristics. It is very motivating to find out how the software – human, community & social aspects of everyday life, rather than hardware of the city – built environment itself, drive the evolution of Seoul to such high degree. Through continuous research and workshops, the software part of the city is investigated and the lowest level elements in urban fabrication - human are looked at in two distinguish methods; computational and analogue. Differences and similarities between them are questioned, by investigating the contrast between digital and physical, virtual and actual in the thinking process. The study looks at the formation of urbanism and architecture on the level of local communities, mapping the social data, and trying to approach this idea in multiple level and perspectives.

The importance of sustainability is dramatically devoted in fashion industry because the fashion cycle period has been accelerated by fast trend changes. In the past 10 years, fashion companies were trying to meet consumer demands by mass production and quick response. However, due to the low price, consumers are taking low value to products which lead to tremendous amount of clothing waste. This fashion market movement caused social, environmental and economic issues. Therefore, we need to seek for apposite solutions by researchers and practitioners. The traditional educational efforts and approach did not apply to transformative action (Frisk, Larson, 2011). In order to diffuse sustainable knowledge and promote the sustainable behavior, a proper education system has to be developed. According to our pilot study, it shows that the respondents do not have basic knowledge of sustainability or they know the sustainability but it does neither directly nor indirectly impacts to consumer purchase intention and action. A method of this study is focusing on age group 20’s to 30’s because these age groups are the main consumers for the mass production fashion goods and received sustainable education in traditional academic institutions. This study tested a method that can fill the gap between attitude and action by classifying various types of knowledge and find out which knowledge type is the most applicable for fashion industry. The purpose of this study is to provide efficient ways and types to deliver sustainable knowledge which academic institutions and companies can apply. This study presents the results of the role of knowledge in attitude and purchase decision-making in sustainable fashion. Sustainability knowledge captures a broad scope that covers environmental, social and economic perspectives, but with regards to the fashion industry, environmental concern is focused the most. The study results reflects that the proper way of educating potential and existing fashion consumer will help the academic institution and fashion companies to reallocate their sustainable strategy to all three scopes of sustainability (Miller et al., 2011). More of academic institutions and fashion companies are participating to sustainable issues; it will raise the sustainable awareness, which will leads to diffusion of sustainable knowledge and green fashion trends.

The purpose of this study is to identify operational definition and measurements of sustainability for eco-design. The measures of perceived sustainability items enable for eco-design researchers and practitioners to clarify relationships among perceptions of sustainability and other key customer equity variables, such as value equity, brand equity, and relationship equity. The multiple methods for generating scale items and the multiple stages in the scale development process results in a scale that should be useful to both eco-design researchers and practitioners. This study offers a valuable tool for measuring perceived sustainability for eco-design researchers and practitioners from the sustainable marketing perspectives.

This study is concerned with the extent to which network-oriented behaviors directly and/or indirectly affect firm performance. We posit that a firm’s interactive behaviors in relation to an embedded network structure are key mechanisms that facilitate the development of important organizational capabilities in dealing with business partners. Such network-oriented behaviors, which are aimed at affecting the position of a company in the network, are consequently important drivers of firm performance, rather than the network structure alone. We develop a conceptual model that captures network-oriented behaviors as a driving force of firm performance in relation to three other key organizational behaviors, i.e. customer-oriented, competitor-oriented and relationship-oriented behaviors. We test the hypothesized model using a data set of 354 responses collected via an on-line questionnaire from UK managers, whose organizations operate in business-to-business markets in either manufacturing or services sectors. Based on the research results all the hypothesized relationships are supported, except the moderation effect of technological turbulence on the relationship of network-oriented behaviors and relationship portfolio effectiveness. The research results indicate that a firm’s network-oriented behaviors positively impact on the development of customer-oriented and competitor-oriented behaviors. They also foster relationship coordination with its important business partners within the network. In addition, the effective management of the firm’s portfolio of relationships is found to mediate the positive impact of network-oriented behaviors on firm profitability.

The events industry continues to grow and is estimated to be worth around 30 billion dollars yearly involving more than 50 million trips worldwide. MICE (meetings, incentives, conferencing, exhibitions) offer opportunities for business networking, business development and customer loyalty, and are used for internal company purposes as well as for external commercial gain. However, capturing the value of any given MICE appears difficult and relatively little is known about how customers engage in co-creation and there are few models or frameworks. Moreover, dyadic encounter and value from a provider perspective ignore the measurement of customer value in multi-actor service encounters. The research questions posed by this study were therefore: How do multi-actor service encounters differ from dyadic ones? Do current value frameworks capture all the value created in these encounters? And how can multi-actor service providers increase customer value? To address these questions, we embarked on a qualitative study with 35 actors (attendees, organizers, speakers) from networking events, using a service-dominant logic approach to conceptualizing customer perceived value from networking events. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first empirical studies to address the joint creation of value in service encounters characterised by multiple providers (provider network approach) and multiple customers (customer group approach) at the same time and studied from the perspectives of both sides. In answering our first research question of how do multi-actor service encounters different from dyadic ones, we first identify several characteristics that define multi-actor services and compare them to traditional one-to-one services. Our second research question asked whether current value taxonomies capture all the value created in these encounters and we conceptualised the dimensions of event value (social, professional, learning, emotional and hedonic), and show how these relate to existing value taxonomies, as well as highlighting professional value which is new and novel to event encounters. Thirdly, in answering how multi-actor service providers can increase customer value, we supplement previous research on customer value from the providers’ view by adding how the design and execution of service impacts customer value. From this managerial perspective, our study brings new perspectives for event management in understanding when and where value is created and therefore when and how it should be measured. In terms of assessing interaction and engagement, we have found that few practices are in place. We suggest that observation within an event setting could be complemented by video recording.

Although the SDL paradigm has contributed to the conceptualization of “value co-creation”, and despite the prioritization of sustainable marketing by business-to-business corporations, the academic literature has failed to study the role played by sustainability in business-to-business (BtoB) value co-creation. Here, using case studies, we examine how business-to-business companies embrace the concept of sustainability to co-create value, and we further develop the theory through a qualitative approach. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the interaction between the supplier and customer networks and how the SDL value co-creation translates into business-to-business offering. The customer network is first used by the supplier to create sustainability awareness among end users (social marketing) or to understand their behaviors, whereas the supplier network creates the fit with the customer or end-user expectations for sustainability by delivering a sustainable service targeting performance or supply chain integration (green marketing). The dichotomy between green and social marketing is of high interest for BtoB marketers as in vertical business relationships, upstream companies may implement green marketing but they cannot be certain their efforts will meet the needs of the end users as they have little to no direct contact with these users. Ross et al. (2011) define green marketing, as “companies applying sustainable thinking holistically, from production to post-purchasing service, aiming to balance the company’s need for profit with the wider need to protect the environment”. The authors also recognize that “while companies may do all they can to pursue a green marketing effort to contribute to sustainability, if consumers do not change their own behavior to become more sustainable then little will be achieved” (2011: 149). To overcome this potential hurdle they introduce the concept of “social marketing”, which can be defined as “the systematic application of marketing concepts and techniques, to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social or public good” (French and Blair-Stevens, 2006: 4). If we apply the SDL value co-creation model to this diachronic approach, splitting the production from the use of the product, and even looking at the use of the product across time (i.e., during the product life cycle), then we have to look at the network of actors involved in the different stages of this value co-creation model in a BtoB context. The SDL paradigm implicitly recognizes the value creation network (Lusch and Vargo, 2006), which can be defined as when “actors come together to co-produce value” (Norman and Ramirez, 1994). Cova and Salle (2008: 272) show that to translate the SDL into a BtoB offering, the supplier network must interact with the customer network, “thereby co-creating value with them and for them”. From there, we can suggest that a sustainable value proposition in BtoB will be the process by which companies link the supplier and the customer network while incorporating green and social marketing (Ross et al., 2011). Our findings improve and detail our understanding of this interaction between the supplier and customer networks.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the concept of brand authenticity by examining how Harley-Davidson motorcycles became popular in the Japanese market. My particular focus will be on interactions among consumers, corporations, and distributors regarding brand authenticity. Not all Harley-Davidson stores are authorized. There are unauthorized stores throughout Japan. The advertisements made by unauthorized distribution channels sometimes emphasize brand elements that are clearly not endorsed by Harley-Davidson. Some of these dealers are even critical of Harley-Davidson’s own marketing activities. All this raises the following questions: How did they manage to interact with consumers and increase sales in Japan, home of well-known motorcycle manufacturers? More specifically, what obstacles did they encounter and how did they overcome these obstacles as they sought to expand sales? To answer these questions, this study focuses on the concept of brand authenticity. In a field of research known as Consumer Research, or more specifically Consumer Culture Theory (Arnould & Thompson, 2005), there is a theoretical viewpoint that consumers have a hand in creating brands, which are understood to be social constructs. Among various concepts that exist, brand authenticity is particularly relevant to, and is thus the focus of, this study. Authenticity as used herein is related to the concept of something being genuine, real, and true (Belk & Costa, 1998). Authenticity is a socially constructed interpretation of the essence of what is observed and a set of expectations regarding how such a thing ought to look and feel (Beverland & Farrelly, 2010). These kinds of beliefs regarding brands are closely tied to the formation of identity (Thompson, Rindfleisch, & Arsel, 2006). For example, sometimes there is a conflict in the brand community between those who seek to pursue profits through an expansion of the brand’s market share and those who seek to protect the authenticity of the brand (Muñiz & Schau, 2005). Companies that provide products and services must consider this tension when building brand authenticity. This is because the excessive use of brand traditions and stories around those traditions can lead to a loss of authenticity as consumers view such actions as exploitative (Brown, Kozinets, & Sherry, 2003) This study uses qualitative research methods, specifically participant observation, semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, and documents. I performed a comparative analysis on this data based on individuals and organizations that deal with Harley-Davidson. Data compiled through continuous observation was particularly valuable. The sites surveyed were authorized dealers, non-authorized dealers, various events, and motorcycle parts shops. The following two points were found in this case study. First, many owners classify the Harley-Davidson brand in two ways: authentic and unauthentic. Certain owners are actively expressing their opinions as to which brand is authentic. Harley-Davidson Japan, which was established in 1989, has expanded the number of authorized dealers that help operate the group. Harley-Davidson motorcycles that had been sold before the manufacturer strengthened its marketing activities are commonly called “vintage,” while those that were sold thereafter are known as “current.” Some owners seek authenticity in “vintage” Harleys. These owners believe that brand authenticity belongs to products that are sold in small shops. The existence of fan clubs at the grassroots level is also important to them. “Vintage” Harleys have those. In other words, whether a motorcycle has authenticity is not necessarily determined by its physical characteristics. Given these circumstances, Harley-Davidson Japan and its authorized dealers make efforts to emphasis their continuity with the past and convey the tradition to owners by holding various events to introduce the brand’s history. “Vintage” Harleys are also on display at such events. In Japan, authenticity among owners is not necessarily a matter of perspective based on one’s identification with an outlaw versus an enthusiast perspective (cf Schouten & McAlexander, 1995). “Vintage” Harley owners are not necessarily “outlaw bikers”. Most of them regard outlaw bikers as unauthentic. The lack of modern marketing is valued among them. Second, certain unauthorized dealers selling “vintage” motorcycles differentiate themselves from competitors and build their businesses by reinterpreting and strengthening the brand classification. These dealers were critical of Harley-Davidson Japan’s marketing activities, and viewed themselves as the proper flag bearers of the Harley brand. One reason for this was that they felt that the quintessential nature of Harley-Davidson — the individuality of the dealers — was lost in the expansion of authorized dealers and the resulting homogeneity. Thus, these dealers don’t seek to become authorized, but rather to propagate the Harley image to the next generation and maintain their shops as in the past. They focus on sales and repair of models not handled by authorized dealers. Against this background, Harley-Davidson Japan and the authorized dealers set up booths at events where many distributors and owners that provide authenticity to “vintage” models participate, and expanded their contact with the diverse group of owners and potential customers. In addition, they make an effort to expand the use of authorized parts made to legal standards, and sponsor traffic safety activities in an effort to expand their customer base and rid themselves of the negative image caused by illegal modifications and noise pollution. As noted above, while there is some conflict around brand authenticity, the efforts of Harley-Davidson Japan, authorized dealers, and unauthorized dealers to differentiate from competing dealers and other motorcycle manufacturers have contributed to the expansion and maintenance of their customer base. This study showed that brand authenticity is a shared set of beliefs about the nature of things we value in the world.

This work aims to explore how authenticity of a newly independent country is being restored in the face of legacy left by invaders. To surface crucial elements of geopolitical authenticity, I turn to Estonia as a country representative of many nations that went through the tumultuous changes of the last century. The end of the twentieth century left a powerful mark on the geopolitical scenery of the planet. Countries’ borders were changed or restored, and new formal maps were redrawn. Only the break up of the former Soviet Union has resulted in 15 independent countries, with Estonia being one of them. The joy of freedom came up with economic, political, and cultural challenges including the challenge of restoring authenticity of a country.

This paper employed the conceptions of “extended self” (Belk, 1988) and expressivism (Taylor, 1989) to demonstrate how local fashion designers in post-colonial Hong Kong express their life experience and cultural identity through their designs. Through conducting long interviews (McCracken, 1988) with five local designers in Hong Kong our findings show that design collections have become an “extended self” for these individuals. The material representation that created by the individual become an inseparable self for the owner. The commercialization of these “extended selves” extends our current conception of self identity in marketing literature.

The Philippines has been known as the Milan of Asia (Ang & Teo, 1995). This is partly due to the efforts of the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry to highlight the Filipino exporters’ creativity in design in its trade fairs, including the Manila FAME Trade Fair. Filipino firms show their creativity and craftsmanship in various products such as furniture and furnishings, gifts and holiday decorations, garments and fashion accessories for export markets at the Manila FAME. As part of the national promotion efforts, Manila FAME has become a national pride because it advertises the Philippines as a design and lifestyle destination (Ang & Teo, 1995). Filipino exporters join the Manila FAME to promote this image as well as to promote their firms to various importers who attend this trade fair. To find out whether they join to promote the country’s image or to promote their firms, 130 Filipino exporters were interviewed using person-assisted questionnaires last October 17-20, 2013 in Manila, Philippines. The study also aimed to identify factors that encouraged Filipino firms to join the Manila FAME. Using factor analysis, results showed that the factors that encouraged Filipino firms to join the Manila FAME were as follows: Sales and Buyers (F1), Information-Gathering (F2), Locating Distribution Channels (F3), Company Image-Building (F4) and Country Promotion (F5). Except for Country Promotion (F5), the four factors validate Hansen’s model for measuring trade performance (Hansen, 2004). Discriminant analysis was performed to find out if there are differences among these factors. The results showed that Sales and Buyers (F1) had the strongest influence on achieving the exporters’ trade fair objective while Country Image-Building (F5) had the weakest link. This implies that firms prioritize Sales and Buyers (F1) rather than Country Image-Building (F5). Is it love of money or love for country? Although both factors would encourage firms to join the Manila FAME, love for money would exert the strongest influence over love for country. The results validate the profit-maximization theory that states that firms behave to maximize profits (Sautet, 2000).

This is an initial work on a research project which will ultimately test a battery of hypotheses relating to the drivers of consumers’ willingness to buy of Vitamin C OTC. This initial work outlines the product category, the market, and presents the initial theoretical framework to be investigated. Dietary Supplement constitutes a very significant business market in Thailand. Consumers in Thailand consume dietary supplements on a daily, continual basis to supplement their daily dietary intake. More importantly, they consume them as a preventive measure to off-set an environment of ever growing pollution, pressure to perform and stress. The market for dietary supplements is growing, and firms operating in this market are interested to understand the factors and variables related to consumers’ willingness to buy on these dietary supplements. Consumers can also benefit from research insights as the consumption of dietary supplement is not without criticism (e.g. Braun et al., 2009; Timbo et al., 2006). Food supplements or Dietary supplements (EU1) is the official designated term for this product category in the United Stated of America (U.S. FDA 1994). Thailand (ACCSQ-TMHS, 2006), are classified as food products containing micronutrients and its intention is to supplement the normal diet (Greger, 2001). According to Kearney (2010), consumers have increasing levels of focus on the importance of health, which the increased focus on health coincides with an increased availability of health information, which in turn is fueled by the underlying demands of an aging population and an increase in lifestyle diseases. In the EU, the use of supplements is widely practiced in the general population. Statistics reveal that 47% of German women and 41% of German men regularly take supplements consisting of vitamins, and minerals (Reinnert, Rohrmann, Beckers & Linseisen, 2007). The sales ratio in the Thai market between general nutrients and vitamins is approximately 55 to 45 percent. According to the latest IMS Health Thailand report as of end September 2013 (see Table), it is noted that in Thailand alone, the domestic consumption of general nutrients and vitamins as food supplements has increased by more than four folds from 2004 to 2013 (Thai Baht 1.27 billion in 2004 to 5.46 billion in 2013). The majority of this increase occurred from 2011 to 2013. Most of these products are imported from the US. Other major producers and exporters of these products are Ireland, France, Switzerland, Japan, Netherlands, Germany and Australia; whereas Japan, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam are major exporters of raw materials into Thailand for further refinement (Arunanondchai 2007). In Thailand, exercise used to be the main way to achieve a healthy life. There is, however, a growing belief that healthy food and food supplement consumption is important to be healthy. The present project studies the use of Vitamin C as an example of a dietary supplement, which is widely consumed in Thailand. Vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid or Ascorbate) is the generic descriptor for compounds having antiscorbutic activity. Most animals can synthesize Vitamin C from D-glucose but humans and other primates, together with guinea pigs, fruit bats, some Passeriformes birds, some fish and some insects, are exceptions. Vitamin C is a reducing agent (antioxidant) and it is likely that all of its biochemical and molecular functions relate to this property. In humans, Vitamin C acts as an electron donor for eight enzymes, of which three are involved in collagen hydroxylation (including aspects of norepinephrine, peptide hormone and tyrosine metabolism) and two are involved in carnitine biosynthesis (Dunn et al (1984), Eipper et al (1993, 1992), Kaufmann (1974), Kirirkko & Myllyla (1985), Levine et. al, (1991), Procop & Kiviikko (1995), Peterkovsky (1991), Rebouche (1991)). Vitamin C is sold through various distribution channels, including the over-the-counter (OTC) market in Thailand with limited restriction from the Thai FDA. OTC drugs are medicines that may be sold directly to a consumer without a prescription from a healthcare professional, as compared to prescription drugs, which may be sold only to consumers possessing a valid prescription. The term OTC may be somewhat counterintuitive, since, in many countries, these drugs are often located on the shelves of stores like any other packaged product. In contrast, prescription drugs are almost always passed over a counter from the pharmacist to the customer. Some drugs may be legally classified as over-the-counter (i.e., no prescription is required), but may only be dispensed by a pharmacist after an assessment of the patient's needs and/or the provision of patient education. In many countries, a number of OTC drugs are available in establishments without a pharmacy, such as general stores, supermarkets, gas stations, etc. Regulations detailing the establishments where drugs may be sold, who is authorized to dispense them, and whether a prescription is required vary considerably from country to country. To simplify, any medicine that can be sold over the counter for symptomatic relief of minor or self-limiting ailments without the prescription of a registered medical practitioner is an OTC Medicine. OTC Medicines differ from Prescription Medicines in terms of Margin of Safety, Advertising and Distribution. The project will address a combination of both intrinsic and extrinsic driving factors in pharmaceutical products, including vitamins that can potentially lead to a better and clearer understanding on how consumers perceive the product quality, get influenced by expert opinion, and manage perceived risk when deciding whether or not to buy. Three potential drivers will be investigated in this project for their impact on willingness to buy: Country of Origin image, brand image, and expert opinion. Further, the framework suggests that the relationship between these three drivers and consumers’ willingness to buy is mediated by their perceived risk. Basing on the requirement of developing a theoretical framework to answering these questions, it is foreseen that both practical and implicative results derived from the OTC pharmaceutical market can complete the answer from an experienced consumers’ perspective, therefore this study is adopting the questionnaire set methodology to survey among Vitamin C consumer who are experienced with this dietary supplement. Aligning the survey in respect to prior authority research, the measurement items in this survey were adapted from pre-existing scales of operationalization. A questionnaire will be constructed to assess 5 main constructs. They are: 1) Product Country Image 2) Brand Image 3) Expert Opinion 4) Perceived Risk 5) Willingness to buy. These 5 constructs constitute the main proposed conceptual model. All constructs in this questionnaire use a seven-point Likert scale. The research will draw on existing definitions and measures adapted from the consumer behavior and marketing literatures. The theoretical framework and related hypotheses will be tested using primary survey data by using a statistical analysis software package for interpretation and conclusion of findings. Questions for Product Country Image were operationalized and adapted from Roth and Romeo (1992), consisting of four items. Questions such as “How would you rate innovativeness of Cosmeceuticals products from Country of Origin” were specially designed to capture consumers’ perception of products based on their imaginative association of a product to a country. Brand Image, comprising of five items, is borrowed from Robert (2004) and Cho (2011) which are semantically designed to capture meaningfulness of brand perception to the end user. An example of a question is: “The brand adds value to my life”. Four items are asked in the Expert Opinion segment in order to analyze the pedagogical impact of experts’ persuasiveness, operationalized from Aquevegue (2006), such as “The opinion of the experts about the product is (very good to very bad)”. Perceived risk, being measured by 5 statements such as “You want to enjoy better health” in the degree of respondents’ view is heavily adapted and modified from Chang (2007). This segment is directly engineered to identify and understand expectations associated with products from a consumers’ viewpoint resulting in final purchase action. Such expectations can be understood as benefits or the avoidance of threats that are realized through consumption. Applying the hierarchy of needs model (Maslow 1954) could help to reveal and orchestrate consumers’ purchase motivations resulting in valuable marketing insights. Finally, the construct of Willingness to buy, consisting of five items such as “The likelihood of purchasing Cosmeceuticals is (very low to very high)”, is adapted from Dodds and Monroe (1991). Overall, we expect the results of this project to illuminate our understanding of how perceived risk influences consumer decisions in the dietary supplements market. Specifically the results should shed light on the effect of three key drivers of perceived risk, as well as of a key outcome of perceived risk.

Based on research on human personality perception, we propose that endorsers in advertisements transfer metaphoric meaning of their body postures to customers’ brand perceptions and discuss them as a neglected antecedent of brand personality. Our findings suggest that the body posture of endorsers generally enforces brand personality perceptions.

Chinese nationals already make up one quarter of global luxury consumption and therefore represent the biggest group of luxury consumers worldwide (Bain & Co, 2012). It seems that there exists a considerable imbalance between the Chinese consumption and production of luxury. Many Western luxury consumers can hardly name a single Chinese luxury brand. However, although it is not on the radar of many experts and most consumers yet, the luxury business community in China is already emerging in big steps. China became an important manufacturing hub for semi-finished luxury products, which already helped building-up industry-specific know-how. The country is also best representing the entrepreneurial spirit in the luxury segment; there is a variety of Western and Chinese market players setting up China-specific luxury brands. New Chinese luxury brands include, for instance, Longio (watches), Mary Ching (shoes), NE Tiger (wedding dresses), Qeelin (jewelry) and Shang Xia (apparel, interior decoration; Heine and Phan, 2013). For the last decades, consumers and marketers strongly believed in the basic principle: Western stuff is hot – and Chinese stuff is not (O'Cass and Siahtiri, 2013). So are Chinese consumers actually ready for Chinese luxury brands? The objective of this paper is to analyze the challenges and strategies of Chinese luxury start-ups – with reference to the attitudes and preferences of Chinese luxury consumers. As Chinese luxury consumers and brands are still underexplored objects of investigation, which cannot be understood adequately by mere quantitative research, we employ an explorative approach with reference to the Grounded Theory. Based on a selection of (potential) Chinese luxury brands, we derive criteria that help answering the question: What are actually Chinese Luxury Brands? The “Chineseness” of a luxury brand depends, for instance, on the location of its headquarters (Mainland, Hongkong or even Taiwan) and the nationality of key people involved including the founders, designers, artisans and the CEO. Based on an analysis of potential Chinese luxury brands, we identified nine major types of players in the Chinese luxury market and their strategies to create Chinese luxury brands. Major Chinese luxury players include, for instance, Western luxury corporations, Chinese designers and Chinese (state-controlled) corporations. It already became quite common for Western luxury corporations to set-up their own more or less “Chinese” luxury brand. For instance, Hermès created Shang Xia and Estée Lauder Osiao (cosmetics). Other options for Western luxury brands include taking over Chinese luxury ventures (such as Shanghai Tang by Richemont) or acquiring Chinese premium brands or traditional Chinese handicraft brands in order to upgrade them into luxury brands. This is done, for instance, by LVMH group, who acquired a majority share in the time-honored winemaker Changyu. Many well-known Western luxury brands such Chanel or Dior were set up by designers. Accordingly, there exist already some successful Chinese fashion designer brands such as NE Tiger (since 1992 by Zhifeng Zhang), Maryma (by Mary Ma since 1999), Rose Studio (by Guo Pei since 1997), and Xander Zhou (since 2007), who may develop into (international) luxury brands. Similar to entrepreneurs, some big Chinese (state-controlled) corporations corporations aim expanding into the luxury segment because they expect attractive business opportunities, but may also aim to improve their corporate and/or brand image. Examples include Shanghai Vive by Jahwa group and SheJi-Sorgere by China Garments group. The combination of market players and their desire and strategies in creating country-specific luxury brands is truly unique to China. For instance, big luxury houses such LVMH never perceived another market such as Germany or the US as that specific and above all relevant enough to set up a specific luxury brand especially for that market. In the subsequent section, the paper shifts its focus to the Chinese luxury consumers. At the very core of this discussion lie the mobile and multi-faceted (and sometimes ambiguous) associations of China with luxury perception (Rovai 2014). These relate to both consumer behavior (the Chinese market for luxury) and production (the reputation of Chinese producers of luxury goods and services). Based on a content-analysis of current literature and press, we categorize and discuss the factors that may impact the attitudes of Chinese consumers towards Chinese luxury brands with reference to the major luxury consumer segments in China. These factors include, for instance, the increased sophistication of consumers, the international exposure of Chinese consumers, the rejection of “potlatch behaviour”, the empowerment of women in Chinese society, the emergence of a creative class in China, the slow fashion movement, the reversal of intergenerational influences, and the “sinofication” trend – the New Cultural Revolution led by the “young emperors” (or “Sugar Generation”), the generation born after 1978 (Wang and He, 2014). Subsequently, we are analyzing the attitudes and preferences of Chinese luxury consumers with a small-scale qualitative survey. We concentrate on the “young emperors” generation and especially on the segments of white collar workers and the second generation rich. We conducted several in-depth interviews about their luxury preferences and then, following an empathic research approach, we went shopping together with the respondents to develop a better and real-life understanding of these luxury consumer segments. The results are content-analyzed and presented with reference to case studies of Chinese luxury brands. On the one hand, the sophistication and sinofication trends of the Chinese creative class may threaten the big Western luxury brands, but on the other hand, they create a basis for the development of Chinese luxury start-ups and increases the chances of Western luxury SME’s and connoisseur brands in China. Based on our analysis of the Chinese luxury consumer behavior, the paper concludes with some recommendations for the development of luxury brands in China.

The origins of modern Consumerism can be traced back to the eighteenth century, whereby the concept ofconsumer societies began to flourish in the European block (Stearns, 2001).These were the economies that formed the hub of commercial activities, having had an access to the global products. Furthermore, post Second World War culminated into the ‗economy of abundance‘ as has been rightly suggested by Galbraith in his book ‗The affluent society‘, (1958). This affluence was the result of industrialization and technological revolution in United States and other developed countries that led to the mass production of goods and henceforth increased individuals‘standard of living. 21st century witnessed mushrooming growth in branded goods and consumer‘s aspiration to endlessly spend on luxury goods items. Since then there has been a continuous temptation on consumers end to spend extravagantly and acquire prestigious goods to appear more urbane, chic and sophisticated. Consumers choice of luxury brands is also considered as social indicators that also serve as an artifact for the reflection of their status, eminence and position in Society (Power and Hauge, 2008) Consumers incessant desire to spend on high end luxury brands such as Channel, Burberry, Gucci and Rolex have compelled researchers to understand the prime motivators and determinant factors that instigate consumer behavior towards branded goods. This paper seeks to understand the factors that influence consumer‘s selection of luxury brands in Pakistan and specifically those attributes on the basis of which different product categories are selected. The subsequent text reflects on the literature review related to consumer behavior towards conspicuous goods consumption with specific reference to luxury goods market in Asia and Pakistan.

This paper considers the standardisation-localisation debate and analyses qualitative data from 22 luxury fashion retailers to reveal the decision-making process for marketing strategies that support entry into China, in terms of balancing the ‘global-local dilemma’ in an emerging marketplace alongside the need to maintain exclusivity of brand image across markets.

Openplus have proposed a socially sustainable architecture and programme for Mapo oil reserve tank and its parking lot space. Mapo oil reserve tanks have been abandoned for more than 10 years but they are surrounded by beautiful nature and located in the state-of-the-art city, Mapo of Seoul. Instead of filling the space with programme and construction, Openplus proposed an art MADANG (open space) and art TANKs that will be filled and developed by local artists by leaving the site half empty. Instead, transformed topography and laid-out “service pole” was proposed as infrastructure to enable various size and shape of artist studios at Madang, and “service ring” was proposed as supporting space to enable tank to contain flexible programme in Tanks. Mapo Art Madang, Mapo Art Tank will be built by user themselves amd will build its unique character over time.

Chang Ucchin Museum of Art (CMA) is established by the financial support of the National Government in tribute to the memory of work and spirit of Ucchin Chang who is one of the most distinguished artists in the period of the modern Korean art history. CMA aims at exhibit, research his work and data that contributes to the following young generations for advancement of Korean modern art. Chang Ucchin Musem of Art admires the spirit of Ucchin Chang that pursuits an ideal inner world. CMA studies Korean Contemporary Art through the special exhibition by the next generation artist whose work is related to the spirit of Ucchin Chang. In addtion, CMA sets the goal for becoming a civic art museum to breathe with public and the community closely through various exhibitions, educational programs and art studio that nurtures the next generation artist. The architecture of Chang Ucchin Museum of Art is regarded as another art work that starts from the fundamental concept of house rooms where the spirit is born and grown, the space where the rooms gathers altogether like in a Korean traditional house – Hanok and – that embraces the surroundings around it. In Chang’s paintings, in general, the most appearing and very familiar objects on can-vas, such as child, bird, animal, tree and sun&moon are indeed, always with us and all harmonizes together like a natural and rural landscape living in our mind without any disturb. The art works, people, nature around the Art Museum are also the ‘neighbor’ and they create in terms of a new ‘space-relationship’ in Chang Ucchin Art Museum. The architecture designed by Chae-Pereira (Songhee Chae, Laurent Pereira) after he got inspired from imagination of Chang’s painting and won KimSwooGeun Architect Prize of 2014 (most renowned Architect Price in Korea)with it recently.