β-glucan is a safe and highly potent biological response modifier that nutritionally activates the immune response through the Macrophage, Dendritic and additional immune cells to yield various therapeutic effects. Shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes) contanining β-glucans may be beneficial for human health; they have been used in the treatment of cancer, hypertension, and high cholesterol levels. The effect of different substrates and various developmental stages (mycelium growth, primordium appearance, and fruiting-body formation) on β-glucan production in the edible mushroom L. edodes was studied. The cap of the mature mushroom showed the highest β-glucan activity, and β-glucan activity seemed to be influenced somewhat by some well-known inducers or sawdust. In this study, we utilized five strains (JMI 10022, 10036, 10077, 10079, 10080) of L. edodes regardless of origin and growth conditions. This experiment showed that the expression of β-glucan was induced by glucose bond, and increased with the growing of L. edodes. Quantitatively, reverse transcription PCR utilized pairs of primers specific for β-glucan gene expression shows that expressed genes were most commonly indentified during the process of fruiting-body formation. We suggest that the results will provide valuable information to assist L. edodes industry.

There are about 15,000 kinds of mushrooms found worldwide and 2,000 kinds of edible mushrooms. There are about 1,500 kinds of mushrooms native to Korea, among which about 300 kinds of edible mushrooms are counted. In Korea, mainly Lentinus edodes (shiitake mushroom), Tricholoma matsutake (pine mushroom), and Sarcodon aspratus (Neungi mushroom) are edible, and they are imported from China due to insufficient production. The purpose of this study was to compare the nutritional quality of Chinese and Korean frozen Tricholoma matsutake and Sarcodon aspratus. The crude fat content of frozen Tricholoma matsutake was 1.1 ~ 1.5% in Chinese and 0.5% in Korea. Korea products were lower than Chinese ones. The content of crude protein in Chinese was 16.4 ~ 20.9% and that of Korea was 21.2%. In crude ash content, there are some differences between regions. The crude protein content of frozen Sarcodon aspratus was 18.9% in Chinese and 19.4% in Korea. The crude fat content was 1.2% in Chinese and 0.9% in Korea. There was no significant difference in the contents of crude ash.

Recently, hair loss regarded as a mere means of middle-aged men due to stress and environmental pollution. The market for hair loss in Korea is about four trillion won and it is growing continuously. It is mainly made by mixing natural extracts such as medicinal plant. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 70% ethanol extracts of Phellinus linteus on the growth of fibroblasts, dermal papilla cells and lipid precursors, We want to try to make a materialization. The 70% ethanol extract of P. linteus on the cell viability of Human follicle dermal papilla cell (HFDPC), adipocyte (3T3-L1), fibroblast (CCD-986sk). The result the cell viability of HFDPC was increased according to the contents of ethanol extract of P. linteus. But the 70% ethanol extract of P. linteus showed weak inhibit activity in CCD-986sk cell growth. Also, the 70%　ethanol extract of P. linteus did not inhibit the growth of 3T3-L1 cells. As a result of this study, in-vitro hair growth activity of herbal medicines for hair material development was not shown to be toxic to HFDPC and 3T3-L1 cell. As a result, the 70% ethanol extracts of P. linteus have potential to developing hair-related product. Acknowledgement : This research was supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy(MOTIE), Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology(KIAT) through the Encouragement Program for The Industries of Economic Cooperation Region(R0005473)

Polygonum multiflorum (Polygonaceae family) is effective to cholesterol lowering effect, increased immunity effect and whitening effect. P. multiflorum root is used for medicinal herb that can be used as raw material for food. In this study, acetic acid fermentation was adding extracts of P. multiflorum root(0%, 1%, 3%, 5%) for the developing healthy beverage. In this study, we investigated the contents of free sugars, organic acids and inorganic components of P. multiflorum root. As a result of free sugars from P. multiflorum root analysis, three kind of free sugars were determined the glucose, sucrose and lactose by HPLC. Four kind of organic acids were found in lactic acid fermented P. multiflorum root. And oxalic acid, lactic acid and succinic acid were detected in organic acids. The content of lactose and lactic acid in lactic acid fermented P. multiflorum root was the highest among the free sugars and organic acids. The content of minerals were in high orders of sodium> calcium> magnesium in P. multiflorum by acetic acid fermentation. The content of inorganic components was highest in lactic acid fermented solution with 5% and proportional to the content of P. multiflorum

This study was conducted to examine the effect of corn (Zea mays L.) - soybean (Glycine max L.) silage prepared by intercropping method on the nutritive value of the silage, in vitro rumen fermentation characteristics, dry matter degradability, as well as milk yield and milk composition of dairy cows. In a couple of experiments intercropped corn-soybean silage (CSBS) was compared with corn silage (CS) and/or Italian ryegrass hay (IRG). Numerically, CSBS had higher crude protein, ether extract, and lactic acid contents compared to CS. In vitro rumen fermentation analysis demonstrated that up to a 24-h incubation period, both CS and CSBS showed higher total gas production, ammonia N concentration, and dry matter degradability compared to IRG (p<0.05). The investigation on animals was conducted in a commercial dairy farm located in Gyeongju, South Korea, employing 42 Holstein cows that were divided into 2 group treatments: CS and CSBS in a completely randomized design. Although no significant difference was observed in milk yield, animals fed on CSBS showed significantly higher milk protein (p<0.05) and milk fat content (p<0.01), compared to animals fed on CS. Taken together, our findings indicate that corn-soybean silage that is cultivated, harvested, and prepared through intercropping can improve the protein content of the silage, and can also enhance in vitro rumen fermentation, dry matter degradability, and performance of dairy cattle.

Xenotransplantation is proposed as a solution to the problem of organ shortage. However, transplantation of xenogeneic organs induces an antigen-antibody reaction in α-1,3-gal structure that are not present in humans and primates, and thus complement is also activated and organs die within minutes or hours. In this study, we used FasL gene, which is involved in the immune response of NK cell, and US11, which suppresses MHC Class I cell membrane surface expression, to inhibit cell mediated rejection in the interspecific immunity rejection, and also hDAF(CD55) was introduced to confirm the response to C3 complement. These genes were tranfeced into Korean native pig fetal fibroblasts using pCAGGS vector. And cytotoxicity of NK cell and human complement was confirmed in each cell line. The US11 inhibited the cytotoxicity of NK cell and, in addition, the simultaneous expression of US11 and Fas ligand showed excellent suppress to T-lymphocyte cytotoxicity, hDAF showed weak resistance to cytotoxicity of natural killer cell but not in CD8+ CTLs. Cytotoxicity study with human complement showed that hDAF was effective for reducing complement reaction. In this studies have demonstrated that each gene is effective in reducing immune rejection.

Al/expanded graphite was successfully synthesized through a facile method including ultrasonic and heat treatment. In the well-designed three dimensional structure, expanded graphite(EG) works as a conductive matrix to support coated Al particles. The effects of the fabrication parameters on the microstructures and thermal conductivities of these composites were investigated. As a result, it was found that composites with graphite volume fraction of 17.4-69.4% sintered at 600 oC/45 MPa exhibit in-plane thermal conductivities of 380-940 W/mK, over 90 % of the predictions by rule of mixture. According to the non-destructive analysis results, the synergistic enhancement was caused by the formation of efficient thermally conductive pathways due to the hybrid of the differently sized EG. The structure integrates the advantages of expanded graphite as a conductive support, preserving the electrode activity and integrity and improving the electrochemical performance.

The goal of this study is to get a better understanding of the relationship between online customer reviews (OCRs), product returns and sales after returns in online fashion. Furthermore, we generate deeper insights about the moderating role of mobile shopping usage, product involvement and brand equity in this context. We answer our research questions by empirically analyzing a unique data set from a European fashion e-commerce company. This study links a wide range of transaction data (2.5 billion page clicks, 46 thousand different products, 700 brands, 40 product categories, 72 million sold and 33 million returned items) with a large set of OCRs (0.9 million). Our results show that positive OCRs can lead to higher sales, lower returns, and better conversion rates. Considering higher search costs on mobile devices, we reveal a weaker impact of OCRs in the mobile than in the desktop sales channel. Furthermore, in line with involvement theory, we see a significant impact of product involvement in this context such as the influence of positive OCRs is stronger for high-involvement products than vice versa. Moreover, we find strong support for statements from brand signaling literature, that OCRs matter more for weak than for strong brands.

Over the last decades, the global luxury business has become dominated by large conglomerates. Backed by the financial power of their parent companies, formerly small and often family-owned brands have expanded their presence around the globe. They have established themselves in some of the most expensive shopping districts, acquired illustrious testimonials, and sponsored prestigious events. Almost overwhelmed by the omnipresence of luxury, consumers are said to have begun looking for the “genuine” and “unique,” favoring smaller, less homogenized and more intimate luxury brands not necessarily known to the larger public. This study thus looks beyond the well-known players in the luxury market and explores the differentiating strategies used by independent niche luxury companies. It aims to identify factors contributing to their success in a global market otherwise dominated by ever-growing luxury giants.

E-commerce is a global phenomenon that reshapes retailing and the appropriate multinational corporations. The goal of this study is to get a better understanding of the relationship between online customer reviews (OCRs), sales and sales after returns in the cross-national and cross-cultural context. We discuss our hypotheses by empirically analyzing a large and unique data set from a European fashion e-commerce company. This study links a wide range of transaction data (0.8 billion page clicks, 17 thousand different products, 499 brands, 50 product categories, 22 million sold and 11 million returned items) from six different countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland) with a large set of OCRs (0.7 million). Our results show that positive OCRs can lead to higher sales and sales after returns with considerable cross-country differences. We argue that differences in culture provide a substantial explanation for these effects by using Hofstede's cultural framework.

The objective of this paper is to: (1) examine the feasibility of using psychophysiological methods in luxury marketing; (2) compare the capability of psychophysiological methods to capture emotion beyond those measured by self-report methods; and (3) better under luxury consumers’ emotion processes. Measuring consumers’ emotion with self-report methods has remained a challenge in luxury marketing (Atwal & Williams, 2009; Kumar & Garg, 2010). In comparison to self-report measure, psychophysiological methods promise to provide a scientific, objective and sensitive measure of the neurophysiological basis of emotional processes (Karmarkar & Yoon, 2016; Li, Scott, & Walters, 2014; Wang & Minor, 2008). Yet, few studies in luxury marketing have used these methods. In this study, brain wave analysis, heart rate, skin conductance, and facial expression will therefore be used to investigate consumers’ emotional response toward luxury marketing stimuli. The findings of this study will therefore provide both researchers and managers a test of concept to apply multiple psychophysiological methods in luxury marketing. This provide potential avenues for managers to better understand and manage the unobservable psychological processes that underlie luxury consumers’ behaviour.

A growing number of authors state that in recent years the notion of luxury has become all too common. Many say that authenticity is the real rare good in today’s luxury marketplace. Overwhelmed by the omnipresence of luxury and its homogenization, consumers are said to start looking for the genuine and unique, favoring smaller, more intimate and independent luxury brands. This study looks beyond well-known global players in the luxury marketplace, exploring the identities of independent niche luxury companies, their differentiating characteristics and in particular the role of authenticity. Keywords: corporate identity; corporate image; authenticity; luxury brand management; niche luxury brands; independent luxury brands

The development of Indonesian textile design is mostly based on culture and tradition. The Indonesian government has cultural preservation program (Indonesian constitution, no 5, 1992), to promote Indonesian local culture in sustaining tradition by exploring the possibility of shifting the function of traditional textiles from ceremonial purposes to becoming commodity products. The shifted function into product commodity creates new market and situation among Indonesian craft-makers. This situation also happened for stitch resist dyeing technique, which is an Indonesian traditional textile technique used to manufacture traditional fabrics in three regions, namely tritik cloth in Yogyakarta, pelangi cloth in Palembang, and sasirangan cloth in Banjarmasin. Stitch resist dyeing, as a particular form of resist dyeing technique, is a textile technique that creates patterns in various shapes with small holes along the line of stitching, as a mark of any stitched resist pattern. Most of this technique are done manually, which are generally recognized as being time-consuming. This study will focus on preserving the stitch resist dyeing technique by producing elaborate description about the technique, focusing on the organisational structure and supply chain. The study will use a combination of ethnographic and soft system methodology. The methods use in this study are questionnaires, interviews, and observation. By producing rich pictures from each survey area, describing the character of the organisational workflow of stitch resist dyeing enterprises in Indonesia. Finally, this study discusses the critical points of the supply chain in the stitch resist dyeing enterprises that are related to the production capacity and quality. The unprecedented long chain of the process and the sense of ownership from the craft makers consider the main aspects in supporting the practices.

Prolonged observations of fashion students highlighted a limited understanding of garment construction quality, technical knowledge and skills, timescale boundaries, and a lack of confidence to experiment with construction techniques; it was the realisation of these issues which initiated a study to revitalise and enhance sewing skill capability through a purposely designed resource tool. While originally developed to be used by fashion design students the resource tool when fully developed would also be useful for craft dressmakers to develop and enhance their skills and expertise. In the fashion student context an extensive literature review substantiated the observed sewing skills which was also verified by further industry personnel through interviews. While the salient points from the literature review and interviews are given the main purpose of this paper is to outline the development stages of the proposed resource tool which was designed to serve as an aid to revitalise and enhance garment construction knowledge, skills and expertise. The resource samples were inspired by clothing collections held in two UK archives thus offering an opportunity to revitalise some of the more complex construction techniques that are no longer used in modern mainstream fashion. The usefulness of the resource tool is also given along with future developments to improve the system.

Through this study the influencing factors for the development of a national dress for Tanzanian people was explored. The need and desire for this development received support from several groups including the Tanzanian Government, local tailors, NGO’s (Non-Government Organisations) and Tanzanian societies. This stage of the study focused on the effectiveness of traditional Tanzanian textiles’ motifs and natural symbols in the design process employing imported recycled second-hand clothes (mitumba). Qualitative data was obtained through interviews and focus group discussions. The study explored what Tanzanians need to strengthen their national identity and the use of recycled mitumba within a national dress. The study used a co-design style workshop for the development of the national dress as a different approach to addressing the issues identified in Tanzania regarding National dress. The participants added valuable contributions providing ideas for cultural conservation through building a national identity, ideas for strengthening the concept of recycling mitumba and suggestions for the incorporation of kanga and kitenge as inspirations for the design of a national dress in order to promote national identity. The study examined the presence of mitumba from abroad, several styles of indigenous traditional dress worn by different ethnic groups in Tanzania and reasons for strengthening Tanzania’s national identity. This paper reports on the main primary research activities and finding used for the experimental textile and dress designs, and includes the plan for the next stage of the project.

Focusing on the effectiveness of a glocalization advertising strategy in China, findings suggest that the ethnicity of endorser moderates the effect of bilingual brand naming (use of both foreign and Chinese brand names) on perceptions of a brand’s luxury quality. Introduction Given a long debate between standardization and localization, many corporations, as a solution, prefer to use both (Featherstone 1990, Sklair, 1995; Friedman, 1999). The right balance of standardization and localization is viewed as the key to success of brands being implemented at a global level, especially in countries the cultural values of which completely differ from those of the brand’s country of origin. The degree of standardization or localization in advertising is determined by various advertising elements. Advertising transfers cultural meaning through signs such as language, aesthetics, endorsers, and so forth, with brands hoping that target audiences positively associate the cultural meanings with the advertised brand (Leclerc, Schmitt & Dubé, 1994; Schmitt, Pan & Tavassoli, 1994; Cheng & Schweitzer, 1996). A brand name and the ethnicity of an endorser, out of the advertising signs, have been recognized as significant cues for conveying a brand image to consumers. This suggests that, in such a place as China, a foreign brand name or a foreign endorser in advertising produces more positive advertising-related responses for a product with foreign characteristics, compared with a Chinese brand name or a Chinese endorser (Zhang & Zhang, 2010). However, when taking a combination of the two strategies or considering the extent of localization in China, little is known about the effectiveness of a glocalization strategy in global advertising in China, which is one of the most attractive international markets to global brands, in particular, luxury brands. In reality, consistent with the argument that the combination of standardization and localization is effective, a number of luxury brands (e.g., Chanel ‘香奈儿’, Dior ‘迪奥’, Bottega Veneta ‘葆蝶家’, Estée Lauder ‘雅诗兰黛’, etc.) create their Chinese brand names when entering the Chinese market while retaining their foreign brand names. This is because most foreign brand names are either too complicated or lengthy, making it difficult for Chinese consumers to remember them or pronounce them (Zheng, 2013). Therefore, the current study attempts to examine the effectiveness of bilingual brand names as a means of a glocalization strategy. Specifically, this study investigates how languages of brand name (presentation of brand name: foreign brand name only vs. Chinese brand name only vs. both of the foreign and Chinese brand names) and the ethnicity of an endorser (Western vs. Chinese) affect consumer perception of the brand’s luxuriousness and consequently influence purchase intention. Method A 3 (language of brand name: foreign brand name only vs. Chinese brand name only vs. both foreign and Chinese brand names) x 2 (ethnicity of celebrity endorser: Western vs. Chinese) between-subject experimental study was conducted to test proposed hypotheses. Six versions of a manipulated print advertisement represented the experimental conditions. For the experiment, data were collected from a sample of 150 undergraduate students in Mainland China through a snowballing sampling technique. To increase internal validity, undergraduate students were used as the sample in the current study as it is suggested that university students are relatively a homogeneous group to reduce individual differences. In addition, considering that most of consumers for luxury goods in China are under 45 years old (Atsmon & Dixit, 2009), and the younger generation (25-35 years old) has been growing into the core consumers for luxury goods in China (Bain & Company, 2014), undergraduates are the potential consumers of luxury brands as they will, in the near future, accumulate consumption power. All subjects logged onto the study’s website, where they were randomly assigned to one of the six experimental conditions. LONGINES, a Switzerland luxury watch brand, was selected as the representative of a luxury brand for subjects, as this particular brand embraces a high degree of localization, having both English and Chinese brand names and both foreign and Chinese celebrity endorsers. It also enjoys high awareness among Chinese consumers. To manipulate the language of the brand name, three variations were used: presentation of brand name in a foreign language [LONGINES], presentation of brand name in Chinese [ 浪琴], and presentation of both brand names in a print advertisement. In the history of its advertising, LONGINES has employed 15 celebrity endorsers, 4 being Chinese. To manipulate the ethnicity of the celebrity endorser, out of the 15 endorsers, Simon Baker and Kate Winslet were selected as Western endorsers while Aaron Kwok, and Lin Chi-ling were used as Chinese endorsers. To reduce confounding effects by using a real brand, brand familiarity and brand attitude were included as covariates in the study. Findings Luxurious Perception of the Brand While controlling brand familiarity (p < .05) and brand attitude (p < .001), the language of the brand name, F(2,142) = 5.254, p < .01, had a significant main effect on the perception of a brand’s luxury quality. More specifically, a follow-up post hoc test indicated that subjects who saw the ad presenting the foreign brand name in Latin showed a stronger perception of a brand’s luxury quality than did those exposed to the ads that presented the Chinese brand name or both of the foreign and Chinese brand names. However, we found no significant difference between the presentation of the Chinese brand name and the presentation of both foreign and Chinese brand names. On the other hand, the ethnicity of the endorser was not found to have a significant effect on the perception of a brand’s luxury quality (p > .05). The results further revealed a significant interaction between the language of the brand name and the ethnicity of the endorser on the perception of a brand’s luxury quality, F(2,142) = 5.647, p < .01. Specifically, Figure 1 shows that both brand names produced a weaker perception of a brand’s luxury quality than the foreign brand name only when the Western endorser is presented, however, both brand names produced an equal effect to the foreign brand name only when the Chinese endorser is presented. The language of brand name, while controlling brand familiarity (p < .05) and brand attitude (p < .001), exhibited a significant effect on purchase intention, F(2,142) = 3.472, p < .05. A follow-up post hoc test revealed that the presentation of the foreign brand name or both of the foreign and Chinese brand names in the ad generated higher purchase intention than the presentation of the Chinese brand name. However, there was no significant difference between the conditions of the foreign brand name and the both brand names. With respect to the main effect of the ethnicity of an endorser on purchase intention, the data did not exhibit a significant effect (p > .05). No significant interaction effect between the language of brand name and the ethnicity of an endorser emerged (p > .05). Mediating Role of Luxurious Perception of the Brand To confirm the moderated mediation of the perception of a brand’s luxury quality on purchase intention, the PROCESS macro model 8 was performed. The study found significant effects of the interaction on the perception of a brand’s luxury quality: βBrand name x Endorser = .54, SE = .17, p < .01. Then, when we examined the joint effects of the interaction effect and luxurious perception of the brand on purchase intention, no significant effect was found from the interaction; βBrand name x Endorser = -.02, SE = .24, p > .05, emerged on purchase intention. However, the effect of the perception of a brand’s luxury quality was still significant; βBrand name x Endorser = .33, SE = .12, p < .01. This implies that the interaction effect of the two independent variables had an indirect effect on purchase intention through the perception of a brand’s luxury quality (CI95, 1,000 bootstrapped samples [.0492, .4229]). Specifically, the perception of a brand’s luxury quality mediated the effect of the language of brand name on purchase intention only in the condition of a Western endorser (CI95: [-.3161, -.0429]), but not in the condition of a Chinese endorser (CI95: [-.0298, .1254]). Discussion The study supports the argument that a brand name is a strong cue for consumer judgment (Thakor & Lavack, 2003; De Mooij, 2010; Elena & Segev, 2012) by suggesting that when a brand uses a foreign brand name (Roman Alphabet), consumers are more likely to view the brand as luxurious; also consumers are more likely to be willing to purchase the brand than when it uses a Chinse brand name. Interestingly, bilingual brand naming has been found to be somewhat complicated. The study suggests that using both foreign and Chinese brand names is as ineffective as using a Chinese brand name only for luxurious perception of the brand. This may be because the use of a Chinese brand name along with a foreign brand name dilutes the cultural meanings (e.g., status, social distinction, etc.) that the foreign brand name on its own transfers to consumers. With respect to purchase intention, however, the use of bilingual brand naming produces an effect equal to the use of a foreign brand name only. This finding indicates that a brand name may be more associated with the perception of brand’s luxury quality than intention to purchase the brand. This further implies that the effectiveness of a glocalization strategy of the brand name by adding a Chinese brand name to an original foreign brand name should be considered with caution. In addition, the current study extends prior research on multi-cue models of country-of-origin effects by demonstrating the moderating role of the ethnicity of an endorser in the effectiveness of the language of a brand name. When a brand uses a Western celebrity endorser, the glocalization strategy of bilingual brand naming seems to be less effective; consumers have a weaker perception of a brand’s luxury quality, compared with a foreign brand name. However, bilingual brand naming is just as effective as foreign brand naming when it uses a Chinese celebrity as the endorser. Supporting previous findings about the synergistic effect of multiple foreign cues (Huang, Fan, & Zhou, 2008), this study implies while the foreign brand name still serves as a foreign cue in bilingual brand naming, the Chinese brand name attenuates the positive effect of the foreign brand name and weakens the synergistic effect from the foreign cues of the foreign brand name and the Western endorser. On the other hand, when a Chinese celebrity endorses the brand, there may not be a synergistic effect from the multiple foreign cues of the foreign brand name and the endorser. Therefore, adding a Chinese brand name to a foreign brand name may not significantly moderate the positive effect of the foreign brand name. Finally, this paper suggests that consumer perception of a product having luxury quality seems to be a strong driver in determining the purchase of a luxury brand, especially when a western celebrity endorsers the brand. Managerially, the study provides insights into the selection of an effective brand-naming strategy and an endorser for advertising when luxury brands do business in the Chinese market. Bilingual brand naming is becoming a common practice in China. Given such a trend in China, is the glocalization strategy on brand naming being deemed effective? If viewing advertising effectiveness from the perspective of enhancing luxurious brand image, the strategy of bilingual brand naming seems to work poorly in China compared with standardized foreign brand naming. It may not be that simple, though, because multiple cues are used to infer cultural meanings of luxury brands and, furthermore, the cues would interact with one another. Considering that many luxury brands use celebrities, especially Chinese celebrities in the Chinese market, foreign or bilingual brand naming is critical to the success of luxury brands, yielding equal effectiveness in luxury perception. This implies that if a brand uses a foreign brand name only, a Western endorser would be more desirable. If the brand adopts bilingual brand naming, then utilizing a Chinese endorser would seem advisable. The study further suggests that the localized strategy in brand name–the use of a Chinese brand name only–is not a good idea for luxury brands in China.

Along with the growth of disposable income and the improvement of consumers’ living condition, consumers are no longer satisfied only with the fulfillment of functional needs of products. Instead, they seek to meet higher level of demand such as emotional and symbolic needs when consuming products. One reflection of this kind of pursuit in consumer behavior is “conspicuous consumption”, which is the tendency for individuals to enhance their image and communicate status to others through overt consumption of possessions (O’Cass & McEwen, 2004). Moreover, the emergence of social networking service (SNS) has boosted the phenomenon of such overt consumption. For example, a consumer who bought a new luxury sports car uploads a photo of his/her car on Facebook to show off his/her wealth, status, uniqueness, taste, etc. In this context, if a product is scarce due to a limited supply, then consumers might use the product for conspicuous consumption (Gierl & Huettl, 2010). Thus, it can be inferred that consumers who have conspicuous consumption tendency will be attracted by new product which is scarce in its early diffusion process. Moreover, the literature has added new content to conspicuous consumption with the development of social economy and value. Consumption value goes far beyond satisfying functional needs, and consumption and possessions are regarded as the extension of the self (Belk, 1988). Hence, consumers would be eager to present and show off their “extended self” on SNS using new products. As a consequence, this research aims at exploring the relationship and internal mechanism between the new paradigm of conspicuous consumption and consumers’ new product adoption intention, mediated through perceived consumption value. Different traits of consumers and resulting value perceptions are influential on consumer adoption behavioral intention and outcomes (e.g., Kastanakis & Balabanis, 2014). Despite the fact that identifying and adequately meet the needs of target consumers is essential in new product success, current literature still lacks understanding on how consumers perceive value of new products based on their needs for conspicuous consumption in adopting new products. Moreover, even though there are some evidence in the literature showing that consumers with high needs for conspicuous consumption accept new products more quickly, there is limited guideline for managers for how and why different perspectives of conspicuous consumption tendency affect new product adoption intention through perceived value of the product. In addition, consumer behavior literature of conspicuous consumption has overemphasized the role of status seeking without fully understanding other motives and needs for it. Accordingly, we will start by examining different types of conspicuous consumption tendencies and studying how they affect different value perceptions, which lead to new product adoption intention. A large number of studies from various disciplines have defined “conspicuous consumption” differently. Earlier, Veblen (1899) proposed the term “conspicuous consumption” to describe the behavior of rich American people who spent a significant portion of their time and money on unnecessary and unproductive leisure expenditures. As indicated, in early days, “conspicuous consumption” was thought to be only occurred to the upper class of the society that wishes to display wealth or status through luxury consumption. However, Mason (1988) pointed out that conspicuous consumption is not only associated with the rich and privileged, but is a worldwide phenomenon that is easily observed at all social and economic levels. Moreover, recent research advocates that conspicuous consumption is not only about displaying wealth, but also about delivering self-images and enhancing social standing through consumption. The symbolic meaning of products is commonly used as an outward expression of consumer self-concept and connection to the society (Chaudhuri & Majumdar, 2006). The motives to show their social status, unique taste or conformity trigger overt consumption of different kinds of goods to satisfy the need of belonging, increase their popularity, as well as be highly respected, admired, or envied (Gierl & Huettle, 2010). Drawing from current literature (e.g., Chaudhuri & Majumdar, 2006; Chen, Yeh, & Wang, 2008; Gierl & Huettl, 2010; O’Cass & McEwen, 2004; Shukla, 2008), this research defines conspicuous consumption as the tendency for individuals to enhance their image and communicate status to others through overt consumption, and proposes it to be a multidimensional concept consists of three dimensions namely ostentation of a high social status (a superior position within a social hierarchy), demonstration of uniqueness (differences from people belonging to the same social group), and demonstration of conformity (similarity to people belonging to a certain social group). We aim at examining the individual differences in three different conspicuous consumption tendencies and how they are related to new product adoption intention. It is important to study new product success from the consumer’s perspective because the success of new product eventually depends on the decisions of consumers to adopt or reject the new product (Im, Bhat, & Lee, 2015). According to Hirschman (1980), innate personality of the consumer has an important influence on whether to adopt new product or not. Moreover, Venkatesh and Brown (2001) found that relevant others such as friends, family, and other important connections can influence the adoption decision. As such, those who are influenced by the people around them will choose products that can convey an image congruent with the social image they wish to project. (Sheth, Newman, & Gross, 1991). New products, depending on their characteristics and types, can be used to show social status, uniqueness, or conformity. When the new product is first launched in the market, it is often released at a high price, though it is not a necessity to most consumers. Thus, adopting the high priced but unnecessary new products or frequently upgraded products in a certain category can signal economically rich status. In addition, consumers adopt new products to demonstrate their needs for uniqueness due to the scarcity in early diffusion process. Finally, new product can also help consumers conform to a certain group they wish to belong. For example, when most of a consumer’s friends or colleagues have adopted iPhone, he/she also is willing to adopt iPhone in order to assimilate with the group member and achieve a sense of belonging. In conclusion, there might be positive relationships between consumers’ tendency to demonstrate high social status, uniqueness and conformity and new product adoption. Im et al. (2015) argued that consumers’ evaluation of or attitude toward a product and ultimate decision to adopt depends on their perceptions of the product’s value. Thus, perceived value may act as an important determinant in new product adoption. Besides, now that perceived value is derived from subjective evaluation and judgement of consumers, different consumers involved in the purchasing process can vary on the perceptions of new products (Perkins, 1993). Moreover, individuals tend to perceive what they need and want while ignoring other irrelevant stimuli around (Schiffman & Wisenblit, 2016). Since consumers with three different types of conspicuous consumption tendency have different needs and wants, they will respond differently to the value offered by products. Thus, we propose the mediating role of perceived value between conspicuous consumption and consumers’ intention of new product adoption. Another important individual level variable that impacts perception of new product is creativity-seeking personality, which refers to the tendency to seek information that is novel and meaningful (Im et al., 2015). Since novelty and meaningfulness are important features of innovation that are embedded in new products, consumers who seek for them are more likely to appreciate the new products more. Thus, we assert that creativity-seeking personality is also important in forming new product adoption behavior. Moreover, according to Im et al. (2015), novelty affects perceived hedonic value while meaningfulness influences perceived utilitarian value. This research attempts to explore the moderating role of creativity-seeking personality on the relationship between conspicuous consumption and perceived value to reveal the synergy effect of conspicuous consumption and creativity-seeking personality. Creativity-seeking personality consists of a novelty-seeking personality (a personal tendency related to the willingness to seek information that is new and different), and a meaningfulness-seeking personality (a personal tendency related to the willingness to seek information that is useful and relevant) (Hirshman, 1980; Im et al., 2015). Specifically, we propose that demonstration of uniqueness has a stronger impact on hedonic value among consumers with high level of novelty-seeking personality and demonstration of conformity has a stronger impact on utilitarian value among consumers with high level of meaningfulness-seeking personality. As such, drawing on the existing literature about conspicuous consumption, creativity-seeking personality, perceived value and purchase intention, this research proposes the mediating role of perceived value through which conspicuous consumption impact consumers’ new product adoption intention. In the meantime, this research explores the moderating role of creativity-seeking personality on the effect of conspicuous consumption on perceived value of new products. Accordingly, our research model is given as demonstrated in Figure 1. We expect the positive relationship between conspicuous consumption and new product adoption intention. Moreover, we predict perceived value mediates the impact of conspicuous consumption on new product adoption intention whereas creativity-seeking personality plays a moderating role. This research has several academic contributions and managerial implications. First, this research distinguished three types of conspicuous consumption from modern perspective including ostentation of a high social status, demonstration of uniqueness, and demonstration of conformity. By testing the impact of three types of conspicuous consumption on new product adoption intention, this study extends existing literature by identifying drivers of new product adoption. Second, it shed light on a mediating mechanism of perceived value through which conspicuous consumption conveys its effect on new product adoption. Third, it identified the moderating role of novelty-seeking personality and meaningfulness-seeking personality on the effect of conspicuous consumption on perceived value. Though we are proposing the theoretical model in Figure 1 based on prior literature in this paper, we expect to empirically validate the relationships in the model by collecting data through multiple experiments using Mechanical Turk. Before the data collection, we will go through the IRB approval for the subject pool and research design. As for managers, they can flexibly apply the consumers’ tendency of conspicuous consumption and creativity-seeking personality as market segmentation tool and implement the appropriate marketing strategy to improve new product adoption behavior for better new product performance. First, managers should be aware that conspicuous consumers are not a homogeneous group. They need to understand the heterogeneous drivers of consumers’ motives regarding conspicuous consumption and formulate appropriate marketing strategy to segment them. Second, this research provides some guidelines in new product promotion. For example, advertisement of the new products can highlight the different kinds of value when targeting consumers with different types of conspicuous consumption tendency. Third, as for sales people, they can provide novel product information to consumers who have tendency to demonstrate uniqueness and provide meaningful product information to consumers who have tendency to demonstrate conformity to increase purchase intention of consumers.

The willingness to actively contribute to more sustainability bares important challenges for managers who must take strategic decisions. The literature about corporate social responsibility has developed in many directions, with often a divide in focus, between society (Acquier & Aggeri, 2015) or corporate sustainability and responsibility (Bansal & Song, 2017). The paper sits at the intersection of these fields by focusing on the question of ethical dilemmas. The objective is to approach the question of ethics in context, through the trade-offs that managers are facing when taking strategic decisions to build sustainable business models, to discuss the contours of the ethical competences at work. The paper focuses on a specific context, the one of successful pure players of sustainability in the luxury fashion industry. It means first that we leave aside the question of organizational change to analyze the core dilemmas that even new actors that start from scratch must face. These pure players could also be named “social entrepreneurs” (Elkington & Hartigan, 2008) or “elegant disrupters” (Bendell & Thomas, 2013). Second, by focusing on luxury fashion we locate our analysis in an industry where the nature of the activity is both a source of salient controversies and of exemplary practices (Kapferer, 2010; Godart & Seong, 2014), two aspects that have the potential to make visible some dilemmas. We focus on a small number of cases of organizations that we selected per criteria of similarities and differences, to allow for an inductive in-depth comparative case study (Yin, 2009). The four organizations are: a producer of yak products, a fur recycling company, a fur auction house and a digital platform for emerging designers. The cases are similar in that each organization is a successful promoter of sustainable practices. The four cases however differ in that each puts at the core of the business model different types of sustainability issues and is based at a different level of the value chain (sourcing, fabrication, intermediation and market access). Also, the four organizations differ in the degree to which they aim to disrupt existing practices in the luxury fashion industry. Data were collected through a series of interviews and complementary press articles, websites and reports. Data analysis proceeds in two steps. We start by narrating each case through the voice of the organization, to describe and understand the rationale behind each business model. We then further our interpretation of the cases through a comparative analysis by systematically recording the tensions or contradictions. Each firm organizes the activity around key engaging choices that promote sustainability but do not lift some inbuilt dilemmas–labelled as: sustainability vs. luxury fashion, sustainability vs. sustainability, and sustainability today vs. tomorrow. The paper highlights how innovative players can openly discuss some dilemmas, approaching sustainability as a story they care about but also as a debate. Yet, the paper also points to the fact that some dilemmas may remain harder to reflect upon, especially the ones that can counter in the long-run the objectives that were at the base of the business. Some questions as the one of growth, in time and scale, might push far the reflexive ability but it is also where ethical competences might be the most needed.

The New Product Development (NPD) in the textile industry is peculiar, as it follows constraints that are particular to the fashion business. A qualitative study comprising 45 interviews were conducted in a South American textile industry and results showcase that fashion forecast, pressure for newness, and cost reduction are relevant matters. Introduction The textile industry follows a particular cycle for New Product Development (NPD) as it answers the demand from the fashion industry. Fashion supply chain is fragmented, as the production process is fragmented with companies playing different roles in the production cycle. There are companies that uses the raw material to produce yarns that will be transformed into fabrics, which then it is transformed into clothes, through process that may be a single sewing to complex process that demands intermediate process such as industrial washes. These clothes are sold to consumers through various selling channels, such as stores, retailers, e-commerce, and even door-to-door. Usually one company plays only one of these roles in the supply chain, what makes the production plan to be fragmented amongst several different companies in the supply chain (Şen, 2008). After globalization, this supply chain became even more complex as each chain may be located in different parts of the world, due to production costs and optimization. This scenario results in a supply chain that demands several planning skills, that works, sometimes, with extensive production cycles. (Thomassey, 2014). But, as Christopher, Lowson, & Peck (2004) noted, the supply chain in the fashion business must be agile to respond to changes in demand from consumers, which often occurs, and it can be also very complex as clothing is a way for consumers to either differentiate or fit in society, and the rules to be in or out of society patterns changes fast (Cholachatpinyo, Fletcher, Padgett, & Crocker, 2002a, 2002b). Due to this complexity and richness of information, the production cycle in fashion business has been extensively studied in the literature (Alexander & Contreras, 2016; Aung & Sha, 2016; Oxborrow & Brindley, 2014) but authors often use a wide perspective to grasp an overview of the supply chain they are studying, using market data and information, or gathering general information from companies that are present in the fashion supply chain. Authors focused their analysis in the supply chain itself, and we could not find studies that focused on the perspective of the product development task in the challenging context of fashion business. There are some characteristics from the fashion business that differentiate New Product Development (NPD) from a classical Business to Business (B2B) scenario. In a brief description of the fashion business production system, we see that it starts with the production of raw materials that varies from natural fibers (e.g. cotton, silk, linen) or artificial fibers (e.g. polyester, nylon, elastane) that are then spinning into threads that may contain one or more different fibers. These threads are then transformed into fabrics through several different weaving techniques, and then it may go through some finishing treatments (e.g. dying, washing), and then it goes to garment manufacturing where garment makers produce clothes for their own brands or for third-parties brands. These clothes are then sold to consumers through various channels (e.g. retail stores, electronic stores). If we analyze this brief description we can see that fashion may influence in all parts of the production cycle, including the demand for raw materials: if denim products are in vogue, then there is a growing demand for cotton products, if sportswear is in vogue, then the demand improves for artificial fibers, and so on. One other thing that should be noted is that usually each part of the production cycle is performed by a different company: the most common scenario we see in the textile industry includes companies that produce only threads, and sell these threads to textile companies that produce fabrics to sell to garment makers that produces clothes to sell to brands to sell them to consumers. There are some companies that integrates two or more parts of the production cycles but they are the exception, not the rule. This fragmented production process combined with the fashion influence result in long production cycles: a designer’s idea may take from three to eighteen months to be available to consumers, depending on the production channels assessed by the designer. These characteristics showcase how NPD in the fashion business may be complex and therefore it should be investigated further in the literature, and this is the objective of this study. In order to do that, we researched the specific literature in NPD that is vastly discussed in literature as it is responsible for creating, managing and releasing products that are both appealing to customers and profitable to the company. (Brown & Eisenhardt, 1995). Understanding what makes an NP succeed in the market has been on the marketing agenda for a long time, including the fashion business (Alexander & Contreras, 2016; Clarke, 2012; Thompson & Haytko, 1997). One interesting point of view is to understand the predecessors of NP success in the market. Henard & Szymanski (2001) conducted a meta-analysis of 60 studies focused on the antecedents of NP success and proposed a list of 24 predictors of NP performance, which they grouped into four categories: (i) product characteristics, (ii) firm strategy characteristics, (iii) firm process characteristics and (iv) marketplace characteristics. We selected the most relevant predecessors discussed by Henard & Szymanski (2001) and Song & Xie (2000) to use as a basis for a script for interviews with NPD professionals. Methodology We conducted in-depth interviews with 45 professionals from different areas that participate in, or are impacted by, NPD process in a South American textile industry. From now on we will call this company “Southex”. These interviews offered a deep understanding of the perspective of NPD professionals, both insiders (professional that work in the NPD team) or outsiders (professional from departments that work as an internal supplier or client for the NPD team). Southex is one of the biggest textile producers in the world, with producing units in Latin America, commercial offices in Europe, Asia, and America. Sales are over U$ 1 bi/year, and the company employed more than 8,000 people in 2012, when this study was performed. Their main market is Latin America where fashion seasons are in opposition to the ones in the North part of the globe, home of the fashion trendsetters for global macro trends (Europe, USA, and Japan). This leads to a one-year postponement of fashion trends, so when something is released as a fashion trend for summer in Europe, it will be considered a trend for summer one year later in Latin America. Southex NPD team had 12 exclusively dedicated professionals as of 2012. Southex launches products in the market with the concept of collections, when the company releases a group of NPs in the market. Every year, the company releases two collections in the market. It usually takes up to six months for NPD team to complete and launch a new collection. Research into fashion trends, commercial needs and technological improvements available in the market are the main sources the company uses to develop NP. Prior to launching a product in the market, the NPD team needs to test its production process in order to guarantee that the product can be produced on a large scale at competitive costs. Every collection is launched as a sample of fabrics that will be produced 4-6 months in the future. If a collection is released in January, the products that Southex is launching will start to be produced in June. So their clients, mainly garment makers and fashion brands, need to coordinate their production chain to start receiving these fabrics after June. Considering the production cycle in these garment makers, it is estimated that the clothing produced with the fabric launched by Southex in January will be delivered to retail stores (and then available to the consumer) in November, almost one year after Southex has launched the fabric in the market. In order to gather a deep perspective of all matters related to NPD we interview 45 professionals, totaling over 1,600 hours of recorded interviews. 12 insiders, comprising 100% of the team available at that moment, and 33 outsiders from departments such as Marketing, Sales, and Technical Support. Their positions ranged from analysts to directors.. All interviews followed a predefined script of topics. Interviews were transcribed and sent to the corresponding professional for validation, during which they could ask for adjustments. 12 professionals asked for changes in the transcription and we used the changed and approved text, together with the 33 unchanged texts in this analysis. Results and Discussion All texts were then codified according to content, which involved identifying similar topics and applying codes to facilitate analysis of the interviews. Using the predecessors of NP success has facilitated our understanding of the matters related to NPD at Southex. By formatting the presentation of information gathered in the interviews with the predecessors we were able to see the main issues found in NPD. In total, there were 421 mentions codified. After analyzing the codification of the interviews, we can see that Cross function is the main topic addressed by respondents. This is due to the relationship that the flow of NPD activities in the company. As we can see, there were several issues related to the relationship of NP team with the outsiders and that communication amongst insiders and outsiders needs to be improved. There are some context-specific content that appeared as relevant in the analysis of these interviews: insiders are worried with the pressure they feel to forecast fashion preference for products. They say that fashion industry is constantly demanding new technologies, new products, and this has been creating a pressure to accelerate product development they think it is not healthy to the system. Also there is a general worry (insiders and outsiders) with the pressure for price reduction in basic products. Some products are considered basic and are included for several collections (interviewees mentioned that some products are included in more than 15 successive collections) and for these products instead of demanding for innovation, there is a demand for price reduction which leads outsiders to perform tests to substitute materials or changes in the production to reduce costs without prior knowledge from NPD team, which causes several problems in the organization. It is important to point out that even though we used only one company in this study, it was a complete and deep perspective, as we were able to collect high quality data with all 45 professionals that are directly or indirectly related to NPD in the company. Also, as Southex works as a thread and fabric producer, it showed us an insider perspective about the textile supply chain in the fashion business. Even though the exploratory study presented the reality of a firm in an extensive and very detailed way, it may not reflect the full complexity of other organizations in the market; thus, caution is advised if applied in a market that differs deeply from the scenario presented in this study. However, it is also important to remember that this is a qualitative approach where generalization is not expected, and the attention for details is important.

The stability of the steady Rossby-Haurwitz wave (R-H wave) in the nondivergent barotropic model (NBM) on the sphere was investigated with the normal mode method. The linearized NBM equation with respect to the R-H wave was formulated into the eigenvalue-eigenvector problem consisting of the huge sparse matrix by expanding the variables with the spherical harmonic functions. It was shown that the definite threshold R-H wave amplitude for instability could be obtained by the normal mode method. It was revealed that some unstable modes were stationary, which tend to amplify without the time change of the spatial structure. The maximum growth rate of the most unstable mode turned out to be in almost linear proportion to the R-H wave amplitude. As a whole, the growth rate of the unstable mode was found to increase with the zonal- and total-wavenumber. The most unstable mode turned out to consist of more-than-one zonal wavenumber, and in some cases, the mode exhibited a discontinuity over the local domain of weak or vanishing flow. The normal mode method developed here could be readily extended to the basic state comprised of multiple zonalwavenumber components as far as the same total wavenumber is given.