Driven by market, consumer preferences and recent climate change discussions, the usage of ‘sustainability’ standards has over the last decade gained ground worldwide. Sustainability standards are largely voluntary, non-mandatory and an increasingly important component of the green economy. While on the one hand the usage of sustainability standards helps achieve several economic and environment objectives, on the other hand they can potentially act as barriers to trade in particular for small producers. This paper examines the potential trade and commercial aspects of sustainability standards in terms of their diversity, cost of incorporation and interaction with supply chains. It considers the compatibility of sustainability standards with the existing trade architecture of the World Trade Organization, drawing on relevant case law developments. Finally, it recommends the usage of international platforms such as the UNFSS and ITC Standards map, to enable product/ service specific information sharing, conformity assessment and business networking.

It is imperious to know the reproductive parameters of the subsisting swine breed for profitable farming in Bangladesh. This study was designed to compare the reproductive parameters of sows at hilly areas between the local and crossbred at farm and backyard level. A total of 116 breedable sows were included. The data on age at puberty, litter size, birth weight, weaning weight, gestation length, interval between farrowing and number of piglets born per sow in local and crossbred sows were determined and direct questionnaire method was used for data collection. The present study revealed that age at puberty between farm and backyard system of crossbred sows was 8.88±0.153 and 9.85±0.221 months, respectively. The farrowing interval was shorter in crossbred sows which were kept in farming system rather than backyard system. The interval between farrowing and onset of estrus was shorter in crossbred sows. The gestation length was almost similar between backyard and farm condition. The number of litter size per sow per farrowing was 8.45±0.41 in crossbred and 7.17±0.250 in local pigs at backyard system. The birth weight and weaning weight were more in farm conditions than backyard system. The age at puberty in local breed was lower than the crossbred and litter size was 8.45±0.407 in crossbred which was higher than local breed 7.17±0.250 in backyard system. These results suggest that reproductive parameters of local sow need to be improved for better production and crossbred sows should be reared for obtaining desired productivity.

Isroaniso matrix precursor synthesized from commercially available petroleum pitch was stabilized in air. The influence of oxygen mass gain during stabilization on the yield of matrix precursor was studied. Additionally, the influence of pressure on the yield of the stabilized matrix precursor in a real system was studied. The fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), yield, yield rate, and yield impact were used to check the effect of stabilization and pressure on the yield of the matrix precursor and the end properties of the composite thereafter. The results showed that the yield increased with stabilization duration up to 20 h whereas it decreased for stabilization duration beyond 20 h. Further results showed that the stabilized matrix precursor for a duration of 5 h could withstand almost two-fold greater hot-pressing pressure without resulting in exudation as compared to that of a 1 h stabilized matrix precursor. The enhanced hot-pressing pressure significantly improved the yield of the matrix precursor. As a consequence, the densification and mechanical properties were increased significantly. Further, the matrix precursor stabilized for a duration of 20 h or more failed to provide proper and uniform binding of the reinforcement.

In this study, the fracture behavior of a thermoplastic-modified epoxy resin reinforced with continuous carbon fibers for two levels of fiber-matrix adhesion was performed. A carbon fiber with commercial sizing was used and also treated with a known silane, (3-glycidoxy propyl trimethoxysilane) coupling agent. Toughness was determined using the double cantilever test, together with surface analysis after failure using scanning electron microscope. The presence of polysulfone particles improved the fracture behavior of the composite, but fiber-matrix adhesion seemed to play a very important role in the performance of the composite material. There appeared to be a synergy between the matrix modifier and the fibermatrix adhesion coupling agent.

Date palm leaflets were used as a precursor to prepare dehydrated carbon (DC) via phosphoric acid treatment at 150°C. DC, acidified with H3PO4, was converted to activated carbon (AC) at 500°C under a nitrogen atmosphere. DC shows very low surface area (6.1 m2/g) while AC possesses very high surface area (829 m2/g). The removal of lisinopril (LIS) and chlorpheniramine (CP) from an aqueous solution was tested at different pH, contact time, concentration, and temperature on both carbons. The optimal initial pH for LIS removal was 4.0 and 5.0 for DC and AC, respectively. However, for CP, initial pH 9.0 showed maximum adsorption on both carbons. Adsorption kinetics showed faster removal on AC than DC with adsorption data closely following the pseudo second order kinetic model. Adsorption increases with temperature (25°C–45°C) and activation energy (Ea) is in a range of 19–25 kJ mol/L. Equilibrium studies show higher adsorption on AC than DC. Thermodynamic parameters show that drug removal is endothermic and spontaneous with physical adsorption dominating the adsorption process. Column adsorption data show good fitting to the Thomas model. Despite its very low surface area, DC shows ~70% of AC drug adsorption capacity in addition of being inexpensive and easily prepared.

최근 2차원 나노 물질을 응용하여 수처리 막의 성능을 향상시킬 수 있는가에 대한 연구가 활발하다. 그 노력의 한 가운데에 원자 두께를 가지고 있으면서 손쉽게 구할 수 있고 층으로 쌓을 수도 있는 2차원 물질인 그래핀이 자리하고 있다. 이 총설에서 우리는 그래핀으로부터 만들 수 있는 두 가지 막 구조에 관한 기초 물질 전달 현상을 최근 연구 성과를 중심으 로 다룬다. 그 물질 자체로 이미 물질 전달 차단성을 갖는 그래핀에 정확히 제어된 크기의 구멍을 뚫을 수 있다면 아마도 원 자 크기 수준으로 얇은 두께 때문에 그래핀 막은 같은 기공 크기의 어느 막보다도 빠른 궁극적 투과도를 나타낼 것이며, 이 로부터 선택도를 담보할 수 있다면 다양한 막 분리 공정에 적용할 수 있을 것이다. 그 한 예로, 나노미터 이하의 기공을 가정 한 초박막 침투성 그래핀 막에 대한 분자동역학 연구와 몇몇 초기 실험 결과들이 해수담수화 막으로서의 가능성을 보인 점은 주목할 만하다. 그래핀 물질로부터 다른 구성을 가진 막을 설계할 수 있는데, 이 막은 적당히 산화된 그래핀 마이크로 판들을 무작위로 적층함으로써 구현할 수 있다. 그래핀 판 적층 간격을 나노미터 이하로 쉽게 제어할 수 있기 때문에 이 구조 역시 수처리 및 해수담수화 막으로서의 가능성을 시사한다. 기존 막기술에 존재하지 않던 구조와 물질 전달 성질을 가짐으로써 두 종류의 그래핀 막은 앞으로 수처리 기술을 비롯한 다양한 막 기술의 응용분야에서 효과적으로 기여할 가능성이 충분하다.

이 논문은 스마트 폰, 컴퓨터, 혹은 태블릿PC와 같은 전자기기를 통해서 정보를 구글링(구글로 검색하기)하는 명확하게 현대적인 실천을 검토한다. 구글과 다른 검색엔진뿐만 아니라 온라인 데이터베이스, 사전, 컴퓨터 응용 프로그램과 같은 디지털 인터페이스를 통해 성전(sacred texts)에 접근하는 것이 가능해진 것은 10~15년 전에는 상상조자 할 수 없던 일이다. 이러한 디 지털 도구의 개발은 간접적으로 성전에 다가갈 수 있는 다수의 새로운 경로 를 만들어낸다. 이 논문은 전통적으로 일본의 쇼토쿠 태자 (574~622)가 저술한 것으로 보 는“삼경의소”(三 義疏, 세경전에대한논평)에대해검토한다.“ 삼경의소” 는 한문으로 쓰인 세 권의 불교 주석서를 통칭하는 제목이다. 이 논문은 이들 세 문헌에 대해 구글 검색에서 수집된 정보를 전통적 형식의 불교 주해와 비교하는 방법을 숙고한다. 이들 문헌에 대한 디지털과“비주석적”형식에 초 점을 맞춤으로써 나는 우리가 문헌에 관심을 기울이는 상이한 방법들이 어떻 게 문헌의 의미와 가치를 재생산하는가를 묻는 것뿐만 아니라 그들이 어떻게 연관되고, 서로에게 영향을 주는지를 질문하는 것처럼“삼경의소”에 대한 보 다 포괄적인 이해를 발전시킬 수 있기를 기대한다.

There is a general consensus in the literature that impulse buying is normatively wrong, but accounts for a substantial volume of the goods sold every year across the broad range of product categories, including fashion products. Research revealed that young consumers particularly contributed greatly to the increase of impulse buying. While lack of self-control has been found strongly associated with the unplanned nature of impulse buying, with an environment of abundance and consumerism, self-indulgence, rather than lack of self-control, may become a more important driver for impulse buying for modern consumers (Sharma, Sivakumaran, & Marshall, 2011). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate how self-indulgence influences young consumers’ impulse buying and the post purchase consumer regret. This study also aims to test the role of fashion consciousness in the relationship between young consumers’ self-indulgence and impulse buying for fashion products. Self-indulgence is considered a hedonistic tendency, which includes enjoying spending money on oneself, buying things for one’s own pleasure, and trying to enjoy life (Sharma, Sivakumaran, & Marshall, 2011). It was recognized as one of the two opposing cognitive forces leading to impulse behavior (Miao, 2011). While the impulse to purchase is comprised of anticipated pleasures and immediate gratification (Rook, 1987), ironically, consumer regret is one of the major emotional consequences associated with impulse buying. There are two types of consumer regret: cognitive dissonance, resulted from an immediate post-purchase comparison of what was purchased versus the other available alternatives, and consumer guilt, related specifically to the consumption decision situations. Literature suggested that individuals show interest in fashion products with the belief that fashion products will contribute to their appearance, image, and/or bring enjoyment to their life (Workman & Kidd, 2000). In that same token, an individual with high self-indulgence tendency is more likely to show interest in fashion in hopes of identifying fashion items for indulgence purpose. Moreover, this indulgence motivated fashion consciousness will more likely lead to high impulse buying for fashion products. Based on the literature, hypotheses were developed for this study as represented in the following figure. Data was collected using a survey of college students majored in textile/fashion management at a large southeast university in the USA. A total of 190 surveys were distributed and returned. The majority of the subjects were females (73.7%), white (74.7%), and held part-time work (56.7%). Existing scales were adopted to measure self-indulgence (Sharma, Sivakumaran, & Marshall, 2011) and fashion consciousness (Bruner & Hensel, 1998). Impulse buying behavior and post-purchase regret were measured by asking subjects to retroactively recall their shopping trips for fashion products during the past three months. A group of items developed by the researchers were used to measure both the impulse buying behavior and consumer regret. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was first employed to assess the psychometric properties of the constructs. Overall, the fit indices of the measurement model were acceptable (NFI=0.86, IFI=0.935, RMSEA=0.066, CMIN/DF=1.7). A Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was conducted to test the relationship proposed in the hypotheses. To test the mediating effect of fashion consciousness on the relationship between self-indulgence and impulse buying behaviors, a bootstrapping bias-corrected confidence interval procedure was conducted. Overall, the fit indices of the SEM model were acceptable (CMN/df=1.338, NFI=0.90, IFI=0.97, RMSEA=0.044). The SEM results suggested that self-indulgence had a significant influence on impulse buying for fashion products directly and indirectly via fashion consciousness. The impulse purchase behavior had a positive influence on the consumers’ feeling of guilt for the impulse purchase behavior, while no significant influence was found on cognitive dissonance. This research makes several contributions to the literature of impulse buying. First, the study suggests that consumers’ self-indulgence exerts significant direct and indirect influences on consumers’ impulse buying for fashion products. This result may provide an explanation to the phenomenon of increasing impulse buying behavior in the marketplace, even though it is widely considered as a “misbehavior”. Secondly, this study suggests a significant mediating role of fashion consciousness in the relationship between self-indulgence on consumers’ impulse buying for fashion products. The abundance of fashion products in the market and the appreciation of the social and affective function of fashion products contribute to the chain effect from self-indulgence to fashion consciousness and finally to impulse purchase for fashion products. Third, this study confirms the negative guilt feeling resulted from the impulse buying behavior.

Customer experience has become an important concept in explaining consumer behaviour with hedonic products in the online game industry. However, few studies have examined the differences in game experience internationally between players from different nationalities. Game producers who market their wares to a global audience need to take into account that individuals from different national backgrounds have different experiences according to nationally specific cultural and societal norms and restrictions. These experiences determine how players perceive, interact and enjoy products. The current study attempts to examine differences in game experiences between India and the US. Around 600 respondents were collected from Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk), an online data panel. Analysis of results using a series of multivariate analysis of covariate, showed that players from India and the US are different in most aspects of game experience except for their analytical experience. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed and recommendations are made with consideration to the ramifications of the investigation.

Advertising both reflects and creates social norms and cultural practices, such as concepts of beauty and gender roles. Research suggests that masculinity, like femininity, is constructed, codified and contested in advertising imagery (Schroeder & Zwick, 2004). By drawing on cultural categories to depict gendered consumer selves, advertising messages often limit and structure possibilities of masculine and feminine consumption. As marketers promote the blurring of traditional gender lines around product categories to open their products to a wider market, men increasingly consume products that are traditionally reserved for female consumption (Thompson & Hirschman, 1995). Despite the growing global men’s grooming market, research suggests that men view the consumption of cosmetics as not acceptable ‘masculine’ consumption behavior (Hall, Gough, & Seymour-Smith, 2013). According to Kolbe and Albanese (1996), masculinity is represented in advertising by images of strong and muscular ‘male icons’. In order to protect their masculine identities men reject advertising images that do not reflect these masculine traits (Elliot & Elliot, 2005). However, with advertising literature focusing on a notion of masculinity that is prevalent in Western individualistic cultures, cross-cultural research in this area is extremely limited. Given the cultural relativity of masculinity and attractiveness, images of masculinity and forms of accepted ‘masculine’ consumption behavior are likely to vary across cultures (e.g., Englis, Solomon, & Ashmore, 1994). For instance, the use of cosmetics may be regarded as acceptable ‘masculine’ behavior in South Korea, where young men spend more per-capita on cosmetics than their counterparts anywhere else in the world (Euromonitor, 2015). The aim of this research is to explore representations of masculinity in South Korean cosmetics advertising. We carry out a content analysis of print ads examining i) What types of male images do advertisers use in South Korean cosmetics advertisements?; and ii) What kind of masculinity do male images in South Korean cosmetics ads represent?

This paper aims to narrow the gap in research on the impact of universities’ digitalization on reputational assessments by students. A measurement for perception of universities digital advancement (PDA) is developed and integrated in a model to explain university reputation and students’ WoM behavior. Results highlight the importance of the PDA.

Well-developed listening skills are crucial to success in the marketing profession. Poor listening skills have been rated as the most important contributing factor to salesperson failure (Ingram et al., 1992). Listening errors can result in conflicts, missed business opportunities, alienated relationships, and a waste of time and money (Bergeron & Laroche, 2009). Recognizing the importance of effective listening, organizations such as Pfizer, Ford, IBM have introduced listening training programs for all their personnel (Shepherd et al., 1997). A number of definitions exist for “listening” (e.g., Bergeron & Laroche, 2009). From the marketing perspective, this paper adopts a well-accepted listening definition as “the cognitive process of actively sensing, interpreting, evaluating and responding to the verbal and nonverbal messages of present or potential customers” (Castleberry & Shepherd, 1993, p.36). Prior research has underscored the importance of “active listening” strategies such as active empathetic listening (Drollinger et al., 2006; Bodie, 2011); adaptive selling (Spiro & Weitz, 1990); and listening across cultures (Imhof & Janusik, 2006). However, despite its importance, neither marketing students nor professionals receive coaching or instruction for situations when listening is particularly difficult – i.e., when we are required to listen carefully to another person in the presence of hindrances to communication (distractions, inattention, poor delivery). Salespeople, students, journalists, counselors … are often faced with the task of “tough listening” - when they must listen carefully to a person that is not communicating in an interesting or engaging manner, when the environment is full of distractions, or when they as listeners are fatigued. The major hindrances to effective listening have been well documented, but extant research that addresses how people might overcome those hindrances is scant. The purpose of this paper is to explore the range of strategies that people use to improve their comprehension and empathy of others when they wish to listen carefully but find it difficult to do so. The practice of effective listening is perhaps one of the most human and fundamental components of community, commerce, and culture. Several academic disciplines such as marketing, education, communication, and psychology have closely examined the listening process in an effort to understand and improve it.

According to industry reports, a CEO’s strong social presence has a tremendous impact on the company’s reputation and their own image. However, despite being considered as digital influencers, most C-suite leaders fail to establish their own personal brand online. This under-development leads to the following questions: What are CEOs currently doing with their social media and why are CEOs (not) using social media? Interviewing 16 Dutch CEOs, this study explores the impact of the leadership style (transactional or transformational) and leaders' perception of narcissism in online impression management on CEOs’ social media activities. By investigating these relationships, the research further clarifies CEOs’ leadership communication strategies on social media and establishes the drivers and barriers for social media engagement to pave the ways for interested social CEOs. The results suggest that leadership styles may detect the content strategies and motivations of social media usage. The activity level, however, is determined by the perceptions of self-image and degree of a narcissistic impression on using social media. With this finding, we propose CEO social media activities can be typified into four categories: thought leader, storyteller, professional networker and selective performer. Transformational leaders tend to emphasize on being accessible and transparent to their audience. When they are positive about being narcissistic on social media, they are more likely to be a storyteller where they strive for charismatic and authentic content building. Conversely, a more reserved transformational leader would be a selective performer where they only publicize their stories in front of a selected group of audience, mostly through internal platforms. On the other hand, transactional leaders tend to focus on professionalism and efficiency in using social media. The ones who see the benefits of social media and are confident in sharing their own ideas tend to be thought leaders among their professional networks. On the contrary, the reserved transactional leaders rather using social media to connect with their professional network to obtain information than broadcasting their own voices. The study provides insights in how CEOs formulate their leadership communication online; further research should continue exploring the impact of various strategies on corporate performance and stakeholder engagement.

The market for environmentally friendly or ‘green’ products has increased substantially over the last ten years (Willer and Kilcher, 2010). Both brand manufacturers and retailers are increasingly, and successfully, incorporating environmental and social issues in their brands (Aouina Mejri and Bhatli, 2014; Chkanikova and Lehner, in press; Gleim et al., 2013). Given the increasing importance of ‘green’ branding, the current study examines the role of key drivers (i.e., brand equity, store image and product familiarity) in the consumption of green brands. Moreover, since previous studies found that positive evaluations of a specific brand led to more positive buying behavior for the green product concept in general (Bartels and Hoogendam, 2011), in the current study we also assess the impact of these key drivers on green consumption in general. Finally, by explicitly distinguishing between store brands and national brands, we try to determine whether these relationships differ between these two types of brands in a green context. To test these effects, we used a panel study among consumers in Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.S.. For each country, we used one national brand and one or two store brands. Respondents randomly received one of these brands to evaluate. This process resulted in 404 respondents for store brands and 302 respondents for national brands. Results show that store image and brand equity have a direct effect on the consumption of green store brands and green national brands. In addition, we found that for both store and national brands, the relationship between brand equity and green brand consumption is partially mediated by the perceived image of the store where that brand is sold. Furthermore, for national brands, a positive store image also leads to an increase in green consumption behavior in general, which is not the case for store brands. Finally, for national brands, there is a clear relationship between product familiarity and brand consumption, whereas this is not the case for store brands.

The paper focuses on the social commerce paradigm, underlining how social media are able to assist e-retailers in their effort of creating a total omni-channel e-customer experience. The empirical research represents a new prospect on the topic, because nowadays social commerce is not completely understood and realized from a managerial perspective.

This study about hotel bookings in Spain analyzes the influence of three low price signals and the type of distribution channel on perceived value and behavioral intentions: Positive influences on perceived value and buying intention were found for price beating guarantee and for always low price signals but the distribution channel was only found to have an effect on behavioral intentions. Finally, it has been detected that gender plays a moderating role on both perceived value and buying intention.