Foreign firms often bear additional costs when conducting business abroad (Hymer, 1976), which was later referred to the liability of foreignness (LOF), described as “all additional costs a firm operating in a market overseas incurs that a local firm would not incur” (Zaheer, 1995). This paper proposes a new construct, consumers’ perceived importance of supporting domestic retailers (PISD), which expresses consumers’ willingness or desire to support domestic firms. We first examine whether PISD represents a kind of LOF; if yes, we investigate what kind, if any, firm-specific advantages of foreign firms can overcome this discrimination by consumers. We found that PISD is a kind of LOF, which has a negative effect on consumers’ choice of foreign retailers. Value-for-money factors rather than doing CSR would moderate this effect. This study adds to the literature of LOF in three ways. First, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that attempts to examine LOF within an international retailing context. Second, we provide empirical evidence regarding the effect of PISD on consumers’ actual store patronage behavior. In comparison to many previous studies that adopted firm-level data, focusing on consumers’ behavior will provide a fine-grained perspective of the functioning of the LOF, and help open the ‘black box’ of it. Third, we propose a possible way of overcoming the discrimination hazard of LOF in Chinese market. A key proposition of the institutional theory is that within a given socially constructed value or belief system, a firm will seek ‘legitimacy’ in order to gain the support of social actors (Suchman, 1995). The process of legitimation is complex especially for foreign firms as they often face the challenge of establishing and maintaining legitimacy in the host environments Kostova & Zaheer, 1999). Social actors such as consumers in the host countries tend to perceive foreign firms lack of legitimacy due to their foreign identity, which result in consumers’ bias. In relation to this, Shimp & Sharma (1987) developed the concept of consumer ethnocentrism (CE), referring to “consumers’ beliefs about the appropriateness and morality of purchasing foreign products”. This consumer bias, measured by CETSCALE, is proved to have a negative effect on consumers’ behavior towards foreign products, and thus can be regarded as a kind of discrimination hazard that foreign firms have to face. In this study, we suggest an extension of Shimp & Sharma’s (1987) idea and an empirical test of the effect of a similar construct on consumer behavior. The construct is defined as the perceived importance of supporting domestic retailers (PISD). PISD is similar to Foreign firms often bear additional costs when conducting business abroad (Hymer, 1976), which was later referred to the liability of foreignness (LOF), described as “all additional costs a firm operating in a market overseas incurs that a local firm would not incur” (Zaheer, 1995). This paper proposes a new construct, consumers’ perceived importance of supporting domestic retailers (PISD), which expresses consumers’ willingness or desire to support domestic firms. We first examine whether PISD represents a kind of LOF; if yes, we investigate what kind, if any, firm-specific advantages of foreign firms can overcome this discrimination by consumers. We found that PISD is a kind of LOF, which has a negative effect on consumers’ choice of foreign retailers. Value-for-money factors rather than doing CSR would moderate this effect. This study adds to the literature of LOF in three ways. First, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that attempts to examine LOF within an international retailing context. Second, we provide empirical evidence regarding the effect of PISD on consumers’ actual store patronage behavior. In comparison to many previous studies that adopted firm-level data, focusing on consumers’ behavior will provide a fine-grained perspective of the functioning of the LOF, and help open the ‘black box’ of it. Third, we propose a possible way of overcoming the discrimination hazard of LOF in Chinese market. A key proposition of the institutional theory is that within a given socially constructed value or belief system, a firm will seek ‘legitimacy’ in order to gain the support of social actors (Suchman, 1995). The process of legitimation is complex especially for foreign firms as they often face the challenge of establishing and maintaining legitimacy in the host environments(Kostova & Zaheer, 1999). Social actors such as consumers in the host countries tend to perceive foreign firms lack of legitimacy due to their foreign identity, which result in consumers’ bias. In relation to this, Shimp & Sharma (1987) developed the concept of consumer ethnocentrism (CE), referring to “consumers’ beliefs about the appropriateness and morality of purchasing foreign products”. This consumer bias, measured by CETSCALE, is proved to have a negative effect on consumers’ behavior towards foreign products, and thus can be regarded as a kind of discrimination hazard that foreign firms have to face. In this study, we suggest an extension of Shimp & Sharma’s (1987) idea and an empirical test of the effect of a similar construct on consumer behavior. The construct is defined as the perceived importance of supporting domestic retailers (PISD). PISD is similar to the concept of “involvement”, which is defined as the individual’s perceived importance of the product or the act, just as PISD is defined in this study. The similarity of the PISD with the concept of involvement provides support for the necessity of examining the effect of PISD on consumers’ shopping behavior. The definition of PISD differs from CE in that CETSCALE has been weighted heavily toward consumers’ beliefs about buying foreign products for national people, whereas PISD is an individual-specific construct. For example, many items of the scale that measures CE (see Shimp & Sharma, 1987 for detail,) are designed as “American people should always…”; “We should purchase…” ; In contrast, PISD leans more heavily on individual desire or willingness to support domestic retailers. To put it simply, even if an individual strongly agrees that it is not right for locals to purchase foreign products or visit foreign retail stores, it may not influence his or her actual store choice behavior, when no desire or willingness to support domestic retailers exists. Therefore, PISD, indicative of a desire or willingness to support domestic retailers, is an individual-level construct that is believed to be a better predictor of those decisions. The theories of foreign direct investments (FDI) deal with the questions, why MNEs or FDI exist and why they invest abroad. One of the theories is the specific-advantage hypothesis, which argued that the existence of MNEs hinges on the nature of the specific advantage of the firm, which would compensate for the disadvantages faced by foreign firms (Dunning, 2000). In international retailing, the advantages of foreign retailers in transitional economy are usually related to retail mix such as the uniqueness of products, merchandise assortment, and competitive pricing. Furthermore, Luo, Shenkar, & Nyaw (2002) suggest that foreign firms might be able to improve their moral legitimacy by ‘doing good’ through CSR activities. In this study, we test about whether foreign retailers can overcome the LOF of PISD by retail mix advantages or doing CSR activities. Data in this study were collected by means of a self-administrated survey in Dalian city of China. The survey was conducted in four urban districts of Dalian during November 9–30, 2011. In the process of data collection, sub-district units (residential streets) in each district were identified, of which 5–10 streets were selected. From these, 3–5 communities were selected, and households were selected from each community by simple random sampling. The person responsible for most of the household shopping was asked to answer the questions. A total of 590 respondents participated in the survey, of which 90 samples were excluded due to incomplete responses, and so we were left with a final sample of 500. Respondents were between 20 and 65 years old; those between 20 and 29 accounted for 29.8% of the sample; 31.4% were between 30 and 39; respondents between 40 and 49 accounted for 17.0%; and 21.8% were over 50. Respondents earning a monthly income of 2,000–8,000 RMB (Chinese yuan), 8,000–10,000RMB, and more than 10,000RMB accounted for 62%, 15%, and 11.8% of the sample, respectively.Regarding the measures of retail mix, we included a list of store attributes based on the list provided in studies such as Lindquist (1974-75) and Pan & Zinkhan (2006). All the items were measured on a scale from 1 to 5, anchored by “not important at all” to “very important.” Factor analysis was first utilized to investigate the structure impact on foreign retailers will be weaker for consumers who attach more importance to quality and promotion. Therefore, we argue that it would be more effective for foreign retailers to emphasize value-for-money retail mix elements in order to mitigate or overcome the LOF of PISD. CSR was positively significant in both Model 1 and Model 2, implying that consumers who attach more importance to CSR are more likely to shop at foreign retail stores. However, the interaction effects between CSR and PISD were insignificant. This indicates that for consumers with higher level of PISD, the importance attached to CSR will not weaken the negative effect of PISD. These results imply that, in a general sense, foreign firms’ effort on CSR performance is rewarded by those consumers who attach more value on CSR. However, for those who have higher level of PISD, foreign firms do not seem to be able to gain their support just by doing ‘good deeds’ (CSR).

Despite the rapid growth and potential for technology-based services from a technology and productivity perspective, the biggest challenges that managers often face are gaining customer acceptance and increasing usage of these new innovative services. In the B2C field, studies of self‐service technology show that the perceived risk is an important factor influencing the usage of service technology. Whereas research has explored different risk types that emerge in consumer settings such as functional and psychological risk, research on risk perception in B2B setting still lacks a detailed examination of the different facets risk can take on in technology-based service adoption. Some studies indicate that there might be different views and perceptions of the risk involved in technology-based services between customers and providers. Our study addresses this gap and aims to develop a holistic understanding of the types of risk customers perceive when using a technology-based service. We investigate what types of risk are emergent in technology-based service encounters and whether customers and providers perceive these risks differently. We conducted 49 qualitative interviews with providers and customers in two industries in four countries. Our study emphasizes the importance of functional and financial risks as expected in a B2B context, but also sheds light on the fact that business customers have personal and psychological fears that hinder them from using technology-based services. Most importantly, we show that gaps in the perception and evaluation of risk exist between customers and providers: customers doubt the functionality of technology-based services; they emphasize privacy risk as a main hindrance and worry about their own role in a service, whereas only few providers are aware of the customers’ fears.

This study examined the impact on a firm’s product innovation success when it expands internationally into a host country with political, economic and cultural institutions different from those it is accustomed to at home. Data on 917 Chinese manufacturing firms’ international activities were analyzed to demonstrate that expansion to countries with political institutions better developed than those of a firm’s home country promotes innovation success, as does expansion to countries characterized by greater individualism than the home country. A more advanced economy in the host country strengthens these relationships. This study was designed to contribute to the extant literature in three areas. First, it was designed to enrich the theory explaining how the institutional environment affects firm performance in an emerging economy. Most previous studies have examined the relationship between the institutional environment and the probability of organizational survival or financial performance (e.g., Xu & Shenkar, 2002; Gaur & Lu, 2007), but this study instead examined the institutional environment and product innovation. Product innovation is, after all, a primary way in which many firms compete and grow (Eisenhardt & Tabrizi, 1995; Wu, 2012). Second, previous research has not clearly identified how different components of the institutional environment individually relate to product innovation success, nor have previous studies sufficiently explored their interactions. This study was designed to fill that gap by integrating the literature on new institutional economics, product innovation and the international expansion of emerging market firms. It sought to derive and test propositions explaining how political institutions and cultural norms relate to product innovation success, and to what extent the relationships depend on economic development. Then, this study extended previous research on the institutional environment to an emerging market context. Evidence clarifying the relationships between different components of the institutional environment and the innovation performance of emerging market firms would be relevant for designing effective and efficient international expansion strategies for emerging market firms. These findings therefore enrich our understanding of the impact of the institutional environment by showing its multifaceted influence on product innovation. Previous research has highlighted the important role of institutional differences between the home and foreign countries in strategic decision making and performance (e.g., Kostova & Zaheer, 1999; Xu & Shenkar, 2002). This study has extended that by clearly demonstrating the importance of differences in political institutions and individualism with respect to innovation performance. This is consistent with the idea that expanding to foreign countries with better-developed political institutions helps a firm avoid the institutional void and political hazards at home and gain access to better-functioning institutions in the host country, which can promote successful product innovation. Individualism in a host country drives a firm to experiment with new technologies and develop new products to satisfy diverse customer needs.

This paper proposes that the Marine Search & Rescue and Salvage Association of Korea (MARSA) can provide KCG a very positive return on investment; that is, MARSA will save lives and property well over the budget needed from KCG to operate MARSA. To perform this Cost-Benefit Analysis, actual performance data and other figures are taken from the USCG Auxiliary, and these figures are used to project expected possible MARSA results. In this paper, MARSA is projected to provide a 1,493 % return on investment.

Fabrication of reaction-bonded Al2O3 (RBAO) ceramics using Al-Zn-Mg alloy powder was studied in order to improve traditional RBAO ceramic processing using Al powder. The influence on reaction-bonding and microstructure, as well as on physical and mechanical properties, of the particulate characteristics of the Al2O3-Al alloy powder mixtures after milling, was revealed. Variation of the particulate characteristics of this Al2O3-Al alloy powder mixture with milling time was reported previously. To start, the Al2O3-Al alloy powder mixture was milled, reaction-bonded, post-sintered, and characterized. During reaction-bonding of the Al2O3-Al alloy powder mixture compacts, oxidation of the Al alloy took place in two stages, that is, there was solid- and liquid-state oxidation of the Al alloy. The solid-state oxidation exhibited strong dependence on the density of surface defects on the Al-alloy particles formed during milling. Higher milling efficiency resulted in less participation of the Al alloy in reaction-bonding. This was because of its consumption by chemical reactions during milling, and subsequent powder handling, and could be rather harmful in the case of over-milling. In contrast to very little dependence of oxidation of the Al alloy on its particle size after milling, the relative density, microstructure, and flexural strength were strongly dependent on particle size after milling (i.e., on milling efficiency). The relative density and 4-point flexural strength of the RBAO ceramics in this study were ~98% and ~365 MPa, respectively, after post-sintering at 1,600˚C.

Three dimensional self-assembled graphene hydrogels were easily fabricated by electron beam irradiation (EBI) using an aqueous solution of wool/poly(vinyl alcohol) and graphene oxide (GO). After exposure to various levels of EBI radiation, the highly porous, self-assembled, wool-based graphene hydrogels were characterized using scanning electron microscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy; to determine the gel fraction, degree of swelling, gel strength, kinetics-of-swelling analyses and removal of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) from the aqueous solution. X-ray diffraction results confirmed that EBI played a significantly important role in reducing GO to graphene. The adsorption equilibrium of Cr(VI) was reached within 80 min and the adsorption capacity was dramatically increased as the acidity of the initial solution was decreased from pH 5 to 2. Changes in ionic strength did not exert much effect on the adsorption behavior.

Transcription activator like effector nucleases (TALENs) are artificial restriction enzymes generated by fusing a TALE DNA binding domain to a DNA cleavage domain which remove and introduce specific genes to produce transgenic animals. To investigate the efficient laboratory techniques for the injection of TALEN mRNA, pEGFP-N1 commercial plasmid were microinjected into porcine parthenogenetic and in vitro fertilization (IVF). In Experiment 1, to investigate injection time, compared 4 different time durations (2 hr, 4 hrs, 6 hrs & 8 hrs) after post activation of parthenogenetic embryos and after 6 hrs of co-incubation with sperms in IVF embryos. There were significant difference (P<0.05) in development to the blastocysts (4.4, 8.9, 3.9, 0.6%), GFP expression in blastocysts (1.3, 5.7, 2.3, 0.0%) which injected after post activation of 4 hrs compared with other 3 groups. IVF embryos after 2 hrs and 4 hrs injected were expressed GFP significantly higher than rest of two groups (P<0.05). In Experiment 2, compared development of 2 different concentrations (20 ng/μl and 50 ng/μl) of EGFP injection. There were significant difference (P<0.05) between two treatments which has higher cleavage (58.8 vs 41.9%), blastocysts development rate (13.0 vs 11.1%) and GFP expressed blastocysts (5.7 vs 0.0%) in 20 ng/μl than the 50 ng/μl in parthenogenetic embryos. In IVF embryos, only 20 ng/μl injected embryos were expressed GFP (4.2%) after 7 days of incubation and 77.3 vs 64.7% of cleavage, 26.4 vs 23.5% development to blastocysts. In Experiment 3, three different volumes (5, 10 and 20 pl) were microinjected into porcine embryos to determine the most appropriate volume. Out of 3 groups, significantly higher development rates of cleavage (68.3, 58.0, 29.3%), blastocysts (11.7, 12.7, 0.5%) and GFP expressed blastocysts (2.9, 7.8, 0.0%) were shown in the 10 pl group (P<0.05). In conclusion, these results imply that 20 ng/μl concentration, 10 pl of volume and injection at 4 hrs after post activation for parthenogenetic and 2∼4 hrs after IVF, 20 ng/μl concentration and 10 pl volume for IVF embryos were more effective microinjection conditions.

The milling and particulate characteristics of Al alloy-Al2O3 powder mixtures for a reaction-bonded Al2O3 (RBAO) process were studied. A commercially available prealloyed Al powder with Zn, Mg, Cu and Cr alloying elements (7475 series) was mixed with a calcined sinter-active Al2O3 powder and then milled in centrifugal milling equipment for ~48 hrs. The Al alloy-Al2O3 powder mixtures after milling were characterized and evaluated in various ways to reveal their particulate characteristics during milling. The milling efficiency of the Al alloy increased with a longer milling time. Comminution of the Al alloy particles started with its elongation, showing a high aspect ratio. With a longer milling time, the elongated Al alloy particle changed in terms of its shape and size, becoming equiaxially fine particles. Regardless of the milling efficiency of the Al alloy particles, all of the Al alloy particles repeatedly experienced strong plastic deformation during milling, giving rise to higher density of surface defects, such as microcracks, and leading to higher residual microstress within the Al alloy particles. The chemical reactions, oxidation behavior and hydration behavior of the Al alloy particles and the hydrolysis characteristics of their reaction with the environment were also observed during the milling process and during the subsequent powder handling steps.

The current study focused on acquisition of If-conditionals by L2 learners of English with two different native tongues, Spanish and Korean, and with two different proficiency levels, high and low. An experiment with two subparts, each focusing on production and comprehension respectively, was performed in order to explore which factor among input frequencies, grammatical complexities and L1 influence best explains the acquisition of If-conditionals by L2 learners. The results from both production and comprehension data suggest that If-conditionals with lower hypotheticality are acquired before than those with higher hypotheticality by L2learners, just as they are by children learning their L1, and hierarchies of input frequencies best explain the acquisition order of If-conditionals. At this point, it is not possible to distinguish between influences of input frequencies and typological universals, as they coincide. One thing for sure is that both L1 and L2 acquisitions seem to be influenced by them, suggesting the universality of language acquisition. Influence of instruction, on the other hand, was also found, especially in the production data of the higher-level L2 learners. Even though there were no differences in the acquisition order of If-conditionals between the two groups of learners with different L1 backgrounds, the influence of L1 was also found in the analysis of non-target forms produced by learner participants.

A 10-year-old, castrated male, English cocker spaniel dog was presented for evaluation of a mass in the left forelimb. Physical examination revealed a solitary subcutaneous mass measuring 2.7 × 2.1 × 1 cm in size. Radiographs and ultrasonography showed a well-circumscribed, focally mineralized, non-invasive to muscle layer mass without signs of further bone invasion and periosteal reaction. Cytologic evaluation of the mass through fine needle aspiration revealed a mesenchymal cell type malignant tumor without distant metastasis. An excisional biopsy was performed for definitive diagnosis and the mass was diagnosed as cutaneous hemangiopericytoma. This case report presents disagreement between fine needle aspiration and histopathology during diagnostic procedures of cutaneous hemangiopericytoma in a dog.

With escalating economic growth during the last three decades, flower industry of China, especially cut flower is sharply developed. In this paper a brief review of the cut flower current situation of globe and current status of flower industry of China especially of cut flower in the world is presented. The acreage, yield, potential of cut flower in China along with distribution of major cut flower products and constraint of cut flower also was indicated in this paper was also presented.

A drug delivery system (DDS) was prepared with a temperature and pH-responsive hydrogel. Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/poly(acrylic acid) (PAAc)/poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm)/multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanocomposites were prepared by radical polymerization for the temperature and pH-responsive hydrogels. MWCNTs were employed to improve both the thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of the PVA/PAAc/PNIPAAm/MWCNT nanocomposite hydrogels. Various amounts of MWCNTs (0, 0.5, 1 and 3 wt%) were added to the nanocomposite hydrogels. PVA/PAAc/PNIPAAm/MWCNT nanocomposite hydrogels were characterized with a scanning electron microscope. The mechanical properties were measured with a universal testing machine. Swelling and releasing properties of nanocomposite hydrogels were investigated at various temperatures and pHs. Temperature and pH-responsive release behavior was found to be dependent on the content of MWCNTs in nanocomposite hydrogels.

A chemical process involves polymerization within microspheres, whereas a physical process involves the dispersion of polymer in a nonsolvent. Nano-sized monodisperse microspheres are usually prepared by chemical processes such as water-based emulsions, seed suspension polymerization, nonaqueous dispersion polymerization, and precipitation polymerizations. Polymerization was performed in a four-necked, separate-type flask equipped with a stirrer, a condenser, a nitrogen inlet, and a rubber stopper for adding the initiator with a syringe. Nitrogen was bubbled through the mixture of reagents for 1 hr. before elevating the temperature. Functional silane (3-mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane (MPTMS) was used for the modification of silica nanoparticles and the self-assembled monolayers obtained were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), laser scattering system (LSS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), elemental analysis (EA), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). In addition, polymer microspheres were polymerized by radical polymerization of γ-mercaptopropyl modified silica nanoparticles (MPSN) and acrylamide monomer via precipitation polymerization; then, their characteristics were investigated. From the elemental analysis results, it can be concluded that the conversion rate of acrylamide monomer was 93% and that polyacrylamide grafted to MPSN nanospheres via the radical precipitation polymerization with AAm in ethanol solvent. The microspheres were successfully polymerized by the 'graft from' method.

 ,  , The Indian wax scale, Ceroplastes ceriferus (Fabricius) is redescribed so that it can be distinguished from Ceroplastes pseudoceriferus Green, which it most nearly resembles and has been confused with in Korea. A dichotomous key, photographs, and DNA barcode information are also presented for identifying three Ceroplastes species from Korea.