Gas hydrates are crystalline solids in which gas molecules (guests) are trapped in water cavities (hosts) that are composed of hydrogen-bonded water molecules. During the formation of gas hydrates in seawater, the equilibria and kinetics are then affected by salinity. In this study, the effects of salinity on the equilibria of CO2 and R134-a gas hydrates has been investigated by tracing the changes of operating temperature and pressure. Increasing the salinity by 1.75% led to a drop in the equilibrium temperature of about 2 oC for CO2 gas hydrate and 0.38 oC for R-134a gas hydrate at constant equilibrium pressure; in other words, there were rises in the equilibrium pressure of about 1 bar and 0.25 bar at constant equilibrium temperature, respectively. The kinetics of gas hydrate formation have also been investigated by time-resolved in-situ Raman spectroscopy; the results demonstrate that the increase of salinity delayed the formation of both CO2 and R134-a gas hydrates. Therefore, various ions in seawater can play roles of inhibitors for gas hydrate formation in terms of both equilibrium and kinetics.

The country of origin effect (COE) has been a central topic in scholarly international marketing literature for over half a century, but the concept seems to have stubbornly resisted all attempts at providing an encompassing account of how it comes to affect consumers in practice. Through an approach which treats COE as a perceptual phenomenon that is contingent on various psychological mechanisms this conceptual work revisits some three central theoretical issues of COE research and attempt to ferret out tentative means of addressing some of these long lived problems that have been identified in the literature to date.

The combination of sports and the IT industry has reached a variety of fields, especially in the area of broadcasting technology. Due to diverse preference of viewer and the rising number of channels, broadcasting companies provide differentiated contents to reach a dominant position. Therefore, each broadcasting company has their own strategy to produce contents through special technology skills to hold a top position amongst other companies. According to Eric Rothenbuhler's ‘media niche theory’, when there exists numerous media device with identical resources, the competition to survive between the devices become intense and soon draws a line between the superior and inferior devices which results in eliminating the less viewed media devices out of the race. To secure the uniqueness of the media broadcasting market like the ecosystem, the object is to verify the effectiveness of the convergence of sport broadcasting technology skills and IT technology. Therefore, the media devices and the newly developed technology for video production method were the independent variables. Additionally, the dependent variable was the media effect. Concretely, the media device technology variable set as 3DTV, video production method was set as the variable for FreePointView(FPV) and media effect was separated into arousal and presence level. Recent technology is developed three-dimensionally so that the viewers can feel as close to reality as possible and the most current

This research examines the concepts of customer brand engagement (CBE) and perceived social presence (PSP) in a corporate Facebook context, and tests whether CBE and PSP have an impact on brand trust. CBE has well-defined sub-dimensions that are about behavioral, emotional and cognitive, and motivational aspects. The sample (n=461) is from Kuwait, and asks about use of corporate Facebook pages for smart phones. All three of the CBE sub-dimensions have a significant impact on brand trust. PSP influences the CBE sub-dimensions, and it also influences brand trust directly. Brand trust does impact brand loyalty in the corporate Facebook context.

Worldwide, more than 1/3 of all e-commerce transactions in business-to-consumer industries are nowadays executed via mobile devices (Criteo, 2015). Despite its increasing importance, it can be noted that mobile commerce does not seem to “take-off” equally across diverse goods and services contexts. We observe, for instance, that mobile commerce is quite common in service industries for purchasing tickets (e.g., for flights, public transportation, and sport events), while it is less common for services such as financial products. Balasubramanian et al. (2002) addressed this issue and proposed that contexts of m-commerce differ from each other with regard to several characteristics. For example, they propose that location sensitivity (among other characteristics) differs for various m-commerce applications, and that this characteristic may impact acceptance of m-commerce across industries. It may be that acceptance of m-commerce is higher in some industries since use of location sensitive data is appreciated by customers, while it is not valued in other purchasing contexts. Against this background, we propose that examining (1) risk perception related to mobile commerce and (2) different types of mobile commerce applications are essential for gaining a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of differing relevance of m-commerce across industries. In particular, our study acknowledges the differential roles of the financial, performance, and security facets of risk. In addition, we assume that the role of value and risk dimensions differs subject to three mobile commerce application characteristics which are location sensitivity, time criticality, and extent of control. Based on a dataset of 800 respondents, results of our models demonstrate that especially security risk can act as a critical inhibitor of acceptance. The extent to which performance risk and financial risk impact perceived usefulness was found to be moderated by the three contextual characteristics. From a managerial perspective, results show which factors should deliberately be considered in the development of m-commerce applications, and in which different application contexts they matter.

The rapid growth of the Chinese tourism has stimulated competition within tourismrelated industries, such as the hospitality industry. The purpose of this study is to examine the Chinese consumer reaction to different promotional tools used by hotels in China and, thus, to provide a deeper understanding for marketers of how to use sales promotion effectively to generate appropriate consumer responses. An experimental survey was administered yielding a total sample of 319 Chinese customers, who were probed using different types of sales promotion tools. Data analysis indicates that bonus packs (e.g. a 3-night stay at a hotel for the price of 2) induced the highest consumer perceived value, brand switching, and purchase acceleration intention, whereas price discounts resulted in the highest intention to spend more. Although this study has its limitations given its reliance on a convenience sample, it offers insightful practical implications for hotel business owners in Asia regarding targeting the right customers with the right promotional tools, where it is proposed that bonus packs successfully attract new Chinese customers and price discounts support in generating more sales.

Organisations encourage shareholders to invest in the place and the place audience relies on place reputation when making investment decisions and product choices. Given the significance of the place branding and place heritage and building upon the evidence discussed, this research is one of the first attempts at collecting empirical evidence that seeks to prove that a favourable place branding and place branding heritage influence a favourable place image and favourable place reputation. This study aims to explore employees and visitors/consumers’ perceptions and practices regarding the place branding and the main factors that influence place branding suitability at a visitor/consumer/employee level. By achieving these objectives, it is expected that the investigation will add to current knowledge about the place branding and provide practical insights to managers and decision-makers. Based on the research objectives of this study, three overall research questions are: (i) What are the factors that influence place branding favourability, (ii) What are the main influences of place heritage favourability on favourable place branding?, and (iii) What are the main influences of place branding favourability on favourable place image and favourable place reputation? This research addresses the general goals: first, it explores the concept of the place branding and its dimensions. Second, it identifies the factors that are most likely to have a significance influence on the favourable place branding (antecedents of the favourable place branding). Third, it develops and empirically assesses a model concerning the relationships between favourable place branding, its antecedents and its consequences. Fourth, it examines the influence of the favourable place heritage on place branding. Finally, it investigates the impact of the favourable place branding on favourable place image and favourable place reputation (consequences of the favourable place branding). Despite the potentially significant role of the favourable place branding, little empirical research has examined how the favourable place branding exposes corporations and their members to far greater scrutiny. Creating a employee/consumer/visitor level model based on attribution theory demonstrates the issues retailers face in relation to place branding: (i) the association between the place branding concept and its elements that foster or discourage; (ii) its benefits or outcome for place; (iii) the relationships between other theoretically and empirically identified variables. In order to fill this gap in the academic literature, prior studies and the insights gained from current field research were reviewed. The model and various propositions developed thereafter, merit further study.

Research efforts to explain the buyer-seller transaction have evolved from economic utilitarian approaches to ones incorporating social and psychological approaches. Earlier research, for example, relied on transaction cost analysis to help and explain the firm’s engagement in business relationships with a focus on minimizing the direct and opportunity costs of exchange (Lambe, Wittmann, & Speckman, 2001; Rindfleisch & Heide, 1997). Transaction cost analysis, however, is limited in explaining many relationship-based exchanges, of longer terms in particular, that have become more recent business goals and strategies across industries. Such limitations motivated researchers to adopt social and psychological perspectives that could enrich explanations of the exchange relationship. Social exchange theory (hereafter, SET) is one such approach that has resulted in widespread applications in more recent marketing research (Lambe et al., 2001). In addition to economic outcomes of an exchange, SET allows marketers to model non-economic, social and psychological outcomes in understanding and predicting whether the exchange relationship will continue or not.

Construal Level Theory (CLT) has been explored and researched in many different contexts. In an academic setting, the areas of CLT in time (temporal distance), physical space (spatial distance), and interpersonal/social distance are frequently revisited for the implications they may and often do have. High-level construals are associated with abstract thinking, while low-level construals are associated with more concrete thinking (Trope & Liberman, 2010). In today’s media-saturated world, it is important to understand how the branded messages the world receives affect the cognition of society as a whole. This project aims to explore what role, if any, branding and/or product placement has in the cognitive and performance abilities for various tasks. This will be tested by utilizing branded products in a task-completion challenge and measuring through both task performance and collected survey data from participants. This project will focus on the construal levels of individuals and how the use of and/or the engagement with a socially proximal branded item will affect perceived spatial distance. A study from Van Kerckhove, Geuend, & Vermeir (2014) found that construal levels impact behaviors. The results of their 2014 published study showed that individuals with a high construal (i.e. they thought more abstractly) were linked to a strong inclination to look up, whereas when individuals had lower-level construals (i.e. thinking more concretely) they were more likely to have a behavior of looking down. This ties into their paper’s title quite nicely – “the floor is nearer than the sky” – in that looking down at what is perceivable and spatially proximal is less likely to be viewed as ambiguous or abstract.

Introduction The over population of wild and feral animals is increasing as an environmental problem in many parts of the world due the pressure on native flora and ecosystems. (BBC, 2013; Hall, 2015; Kaji, Saitoh, Uno, Matsuda, & Yamamura, 2010). Examples include deer in Northern Japan and Northeast USA, the urban fox in England, possums in New Zealand and the crown of thorns starfish in the Great Barrier Reef. This phenomenon is also happening in Australia. Recent news reports of huge kangaroo populations devastating grazing land in western Queensland (Arthur, 2015) and a spike in Koalas eating away their habitat in the Cape Otway area of Victoria (Paul, 2015) have highlighted this problem. While the overpopulation of koalas is causing environmental damage to natural gum trees, to the point that they will not regenerate, it is difficult to enforce population control because these animals hold such as positive place as an Australian symbolic animal. Hence, there is some controversy whether they should be culled by environment advocates as part of an ongoing population/environmental management program. To help facilitate appropriate wildlife management in light of the controversial environmental problems, Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) play an essential role as a conduit between government and local citizens. For example, Australian Koala Foundation contributes to the conservation and management of the wild Koala through conducting strategic research for Koala management, conservation and community education in Australia (Australian Koala Foundation, 2015). However, NGOs are currently faced with challenges, such as acquisition of funds to support such work and gathering supporters for volunteer activities. This is because the competitiveness in the not-for-profit-sector has intensified due to an increase in the number of NGOs and oligopoly of donation share by high-profile NGOs (Foster & Fine, 2007; Sunder, 2015). To deal with these challenges NGO’s are resorting to more commercial types of marketing communications such as the use of celebrity endorsement or using celebrities as spokespeople. Although using celebrities as spokespeople for the NGO sector has become a common advertising strategy (De los Salmones, Dominguez, & Herrero, 2013; Wheeler, 2009), research into what kind of characteristics of spokesperson would lead effectively to change customer's attitude and behavioural intentions is limited. This celebrity/cause match is especially important for many environmental NGOs who have to deal with controversial environmental problems (e.g. wildlife management for overpopulated animals). This research examines the differences between the relevant expertise and perceived attractiveness of the celebrity spokesperson and its effect on the public’s perception of trustworthiness of the NGO. As the role of the celebrity spokesperson to encourage the public’s intentions to donate increases another issue arises: can the same strategy be used to solicit the donation of time (by volunteers)? This latter dilemma is something that is rarely experienced in the for-profit or commercial sector. This study presents a conceptual model that may help to identify answers to these questions and will extend the current research on celebrity endorsement. It should also bring out new academic insights about the process of building source credibility and a detailed evaluation of the spokesperson’s role in creating a two dimensional approach to behavioural intentions. Literature review Celebrity endorsement is a common advertising technique used by many organisations to build an association between a well-known and well-liked personality and the company’s brand in order to increase consumer’s awareness and liking for the brand (Spry, Pappu, & Bettina Cornwell, 2011). By utilizing the endorsement of a celebrity spokesperson, the product/service, band and/or company is able to leverage the positive attributes and characteristics of the spokesperson to the advantage of that product, band and/or company image (Erdogan, 1999; Ohanian, 1990). Recently, this strategy of utilizing celebrities as credible spokespeople has been adopted by many socially purposed organisations and NGOs (De los Salmones, et al., 2013; Samman, Auliffe, & MacLachlan, 2009; Wheeler, 2009). In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the spokesperson, source credibility is used as a key measure. The source credibility is defined as ‘a communicator's positive characteristics that affect the receiver's acceptance of a message’ (Ohanian, 1990, p. 41). The concept of source credibility has been established through the development of two important models: source credibility model and source attractiveness model. The source credibility model, proposed by Hovland, Janis, and Kelley (1953), suggests that the effectiveness of a message depends on perceived level of expertise and trustworthiness in an endorser (Erdogan, 1999). Hovland, et al. (1953) analyze the factors which lead to the perceived credibility of the spokesperson and defined that two essential items of source credibility namely, expertise and trustworthiness. Moreover, the source attractiveness model, takes a social psychological perspective (McGuire, 1985) and is defined as another important factor that is likely to affect customers’ perception of the brand. The source attractiveness model explains that the effectiveness of a message depends on source's 'familiarity', 'likability', 'similarity', and 'attractiveness' to the respondent (Erdogan, 1999). This model brings about the idea that attractiveness is also a factor determining source credibility. Ohanian (1990) combines these two models and defines the construct of endorser source credibility as consisting of three sub-dimension items (i.e. expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness). By adopting the source credibility model, researchers have studied the effects of spokesperson on customer's attitudes and behavioural intentions in various research settings and conditions (Amos, Holmes, & Strutton, 2008; Erdogan, 1999; Lafferty & Goldsmith, 1999; Ohanian, 1991). However, a comprehensive review of the literature reveals that some gaps still exist in the work that has been undertaken in this field. Firstly, rather than source credibility consisting of three independent variables (expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness) Busch and Wilson (1976) and Johnson and Grayson (2005) suggest that for trust building within service marketing and sales research, the constructs of expertise and attractiveness are regarded as antecedent factors of trustworthiness. This approach has not been used in research into celebrity endorsement. Secondly, although most studies have dealt with concept of behavioural intentions as a unidimensional concept, this unidimensional way could make the actual effects of spokesperson unclear because different behavioural intentions may hold different meanings, for different potential sponsors resulting in different forms of donation. In service quality research Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman (1996) confirm that different types of service quality may influence differently any one of five different behavioural intentions (i.e. loyalty, switch, pay more, external response, and internal response). Thus, different types of celebrity endorser (expert or attractive) could also influence different types of behavioural intentions. For example the attributes of celebrity endorser may have an influence on whether someone would be more inclined to donate money, to donate time (volunteer for the organisation), and/or spread positive word of mouth. Conceptual framework & hypotheses development Although this study investigates the effects of the various combinations of endorser's characteristics on customer’s attitudes and behavioural intentions, research shows that different endorser’s characteristics do affect different customer attitudes and behaviour (Eisend & Langner, 2010; Lord & Putrevu, 2009). Lord and Putrevu (2009) find that attractiveness drives customer's behavioural intentions when customer's motivation is transformational (i.e. affective), whereas expertise and trustworthiness are influential when their motivation is informational (i.e. cognitive). Eisend and Langner (2010) reveal that attractiveness is a determinant of positive customer attitudes in the immediate condition (i.e. ad effects after just 60 seconds), whereas expertise is effective in the delayed condition (i.e. ad effects after one or three days). They also found that a high-expertise and high-attractiveness endorser is particularly effective towards customer attitudes in both conditions. Thus, considering the different effects on customer’s attitudes by different endorser’s characteristics our research objective is to examine which type of spokesperson is more effective in influencing a customer's attitudes and behavioural intentions for NGOs dealing with controversial environmental problems. In addition to solving the research objective, the research will also fill the research gaps indicated through the literature review. Our model (See Figure 1) shows that both the expertise and attractiveness of a celebrity spokesperson will lead to consumers’ perception of the trustworthiness of that spokesperson. Considering the insights from the perspective of trust building processes in the services marketing and sales literature, the celebrity’s expertise and/or attractiveness as antecedent factors of trustworthiness should also have an effect on organisation credibility through trustworthiness as a mediator. Moreover, we propose that the effects of a spokesperson’s expertise and/or attractiveness will influence differently the organisational credibility depending on the level of issue controversy they deal with. For example, Wheeler (2009) found that a celebrity endorser that showed a logical connection with the organisation increased organisational credibility and behavioural intentions. Therefore it is expected that for an environmental NGO that has to deal with controversial issues (such as reducing numbers of animals in habitats under stress from overgrazing) an expert spokesperson may well be a better fit and gain more trust and therefore more credibility for the organisation than an attractive one. However, where the issue the spokesperson is dealing with is not controversial this pattern may well reverse with an attractive celebrity being the more effective spokesperson. From this point of view, the level of issue controversy that the NGO deals with is hypothesized as a moderator between both expertise and attractiveness and trustworthiness. The customer’s perception of both the trustworthiness/credibility of the celebrity chosen as spokesperson and the credibility of the organisation will influence their (the customer’s) attitudes toward the organisation. In the model we follow Amos, et al. (2008) and Erdogan (1999) in asserting that positive organisational credibility will positively influence attitudes toward the firm. From the view that a unidimensional behavioural intention could make actual outcomes unclear, three behavioural intentions (i.e. donation of time, donation of money, word of mouth) options are proposed. This distinction is especially important when considering that many NGOs unlike for-profit organisations have a need to both increase financial resources and human resources. The NGO/celebrity endorser conceptual model is presented in figure 1. Conclusion & future research direction The conceptual model developed in this study research has implications for both academics and managers. Firstly, as an academic contribution, the idea that expertise and attractiveness contributes to trustworthiness, which is reported in trust building in service marketing, should raise new considerations about source credibility building process in celebrity endorsement research. Moreover, the moderating influence of the degree of controversy will play an important part in that relationship, especially for NGOs having to deal with controversial issues such as culling wildlife to protect the environment. The approach that multiple types of behavioural intentions are important outcomes may also enable a more detailed evaluation of the effects of celebrity spokespeople. The interactions between spokesperson characteristics (e.g. expertise, attractiveness) and the three behavioural intentions should be further investigated within the celebrity endorser field of research. Secondly, since the literature which evaluates the effect of celebrity endorsement for NGOs in the context of controversial social issues has been still under-researched, the outcomes of this research will be valuable for most NGO managers struggling with same issues. Moreover, by applying multiple behavioural intentions, more detailed insights how to increase each behavioural intention (i.e. donation of money, donation of time, positive word of mouth) through assigning different spokesperson with different characteristics (i.e. attractiveness and expertise) may enable NGOs to more flexible in assigning a suitable spokesperson. The characteristics of the spokesperson may need to change depending on the resource acquisition requirements the NGO has at that time. Hence, this research will provide meaningful insights from the both academic and managerial perspectives. As a future research direction, in order to validate this conceptual model it is suggested that a between subjects experiment be conducted. The experiment could consist of a scenario whereby a spokesperson is trying to gain public support for the activities of an environmental NGO. Here one could manipulate the expertise (high vs low) and the attractiveness (high vs low) of the spokesperson and the message (controversial vs non-controversial) to establish if differences in the spokesperson characteristics would have an effect on the different behavioural intentions of the respondents.

Based on the reciprocity theory, a dynamic reciprocal behavior model is verified by sampling the US and French group tourists in Tibet. Result shows that the US group tourists have only negative reciprocity, and French ones have both positive and negative reciprocity, indicating that tourists are more willing to sacrifice their interests to revenge hostile persons.

As social media platforms (e.g., Facebook) and related online communication channels (e.g., review websites and community forums) grow in quantity and commercial orientation, marketing practitioners and scholars alike have recognised the importance of understanding and influencing online consumer communication processes. Specifically, it is suggested that online opinion leaders (‘Epinion leaders’) can be utilised as a target group to manage negative e-word-of-mouth (‘e-WOM’) and e-complaints. This study identifies and targets Epinion leaders and explores three central personality characteristics – altruism, self-confidence and the need for uniqueness – as a means of understanding Epinion leaders’ motivations to communication and tailoring corporate communication campaigns. The study focusses herby on the rapidly growing and increasingly influential 50-years+ e-commerce segment (i.e., ‘silver surfers’). Based on an online survey of 1,700 e-consumers aged 50 years and older, the proposed structural equation model verifies the positive influence of Epinion leadership on the propensity to spread negative e-WOM and e-complaints while demonstrating the applicability of personality characteristics as means of influencing consumers’ online communication strategies. The findings demonstrate that addressing consumers’ self-confidence can be an essential way of reducing negative e-WOM and encouraging e-complaints, which show opposing effects on customer satisfaction. For practitioners, this study emphasises the usefulness of negative Epinion leaders as a target group and recommends fostering consumers’ self-confidence in order to prevent negative online opinion-cascades and increase overall satisfaction.

As well as all other branches of trade, so retail trade itself undergoes various changes and trends with regard to the development of information and communication technologies which affect not only traders themselves but also their customers. It is the retail store environment itself which is one of the decisive aspects of purchase because more than 70% of consumer decisions take place directly at the point of sale. It is the last place which can reverse the purchasing decision. A final customers´ decision is influenced not only by price, quality but also by in-store communication and visual aspects of each store. That is the reason for continuous gathering of feedback on the effectiveness and efficiency of these means of communication in real environment. Besides traditional research techniques there are situations which require the involvement of relatively new research methods. Thanks to the innovative interdisciplinary approach with the use of neuromarketing, it is possible to create effective marketing strategies and thus stimulate the customer attention and emotions. By these emotions, it is possible to achieve better motivation toward purchase and an increase in the number of sales and subsequent raise in income. The paper deals with a complex, interdisciplinary examination of the in-store communication impact on customer visual attention, emotions and related spatial behaviour of customers in grocery stores. Research integrates measurements of mobile eye camera (Eye tracker), mobile electroencephalograph (EEG), face reading technology (FA) and internal position system in real conditions of retail store. The purpose of this research is to recognise the attention, emotional response and spatial customer preferences by means of selected in-store communication tools. At the end of the paper we explain how the neuromarketing methods can be used for better understanding of consumer behaviour at the point of sale.

In today’s global marketplace, few consumers would bat an eye at a Central European retailer selling products manufactured in the US from raw materials purchased in Asia and Africa. Recently, Finnish connoisseurs of local craft beer were shocked to discover that even their local microbreweries were getting in on the act, albeit somewhat involuntarily. Strict regulations that govern the sale of alcoholic beverages in Finland essentially prevent the smallest breweries from distributing their products in the local market. Ironically, the only way for these small businesses to reach their local customers is through internationalization – setting up an online store across the border and serving the Finnish market from abroad. Drawing on the context of alcohol policy in Finland as an illustrative example, this study demonstrates how global markets can offer small businesses a way to counter unfavorable or discriminative local public policy. The study also illustrates the potential impact that businesses can have on policy by drawing public attention to its shortcomings, and offers implications for practitioners by highlighting the importance of thorough evaluation of policies for possible inconsistencies and outlining possible indicators that such inconsistencies may be present.