Global climate change has become a major issue which affects the humanity and nature around the world. Caused primarily by human actions of unabated greenhouse gas emission and deforestation, the destructive effects of climate change have become more frequent and intense during the past decades. As climate change is a global problem, addressing its causes and consequences also requires global responses. While climate change is caused by people from various parts of the world, its impacts disproportionately affect people in coastal regions and islands around the world, and marginalized poor communities in developing countries. Everyone in the planet has a role in addressing climate change, but governments, non governmental organizations (NGOs,), and corporations have broader roles and responsibilities. Due to their mission alignments to protect the environment and conserve nature, environmental NGOs play several vital roles in the fightagainst climate change. Environmental NGOs and international NGOs are in a unique position to respond, and to facilitate the involvement of other sectors in mitigation and adaptation strategies for climate change. This article discusses some of the roles and responsibilities of NGOs in addressing climate change.

Following more than thirty-five years of ten percent per annum growth, China is now the second largest economy in the world (Worldbank.org, 2014). Although some cooling has occurred in the past few years, China’s continued growth, expanding middle and upper classes, increasing tendency to follow the rule of law (accelerated by WTO entry in 2001), and a seemingly unlimited labor pool coupled with modest wages, have motivated entry by businesses from around the world. The result? China is an intensely competitive environment, with global companies battling each other for securing supply chain partners and/or developing Chinese domestic markets. And, the competitive battle is not just between global brands. Chinese companies, including State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), are intent on modernizing operations and changing business practices to be able to earn customer loyalty in both domestic and global markets.mostly focused on practices in North America and Europe. Meanwhile, KAM is on the rise in China, with Non-Chinese (WOFEs and JVs) and Chinese suppliers developing KAM platforms. KAM is a system of customer-driven resources dedicated to achieving profitable growth by providing special personnel and/or special activities to an organization’s most important customers (Homburg, Workman, & Jensen, 2000). Through KAM, there is the expectation that vendors benefit (Stevenson, 1981), enhancing profitability through appropriate resource commitments and effective value-based pricing (Ryals, 2006) and through greater switching costs to customers (Sengupta, Krapfel, & Pusateri, 1997). KAM is considered such a valued approach for serving key accounts that Friend and Johnson (2013) call it an “imperative for facilitating a firm’s long-term viability”.Over the past decade, we have interacted with hundreds of Chinese KAM personnel from non-Chinese wholly owned foreign enterprises (WOFEs), joint ventures (JVs) between Chinese and Western partners, and Chinese suppliers, discussing their KAM activities, along with their challenges a nd uncertainties in growing key account relationships. These KAM-involved companies range from component parts manufacturers, financial services providers, and pharmaceutical companies, among many more. In this rapidly evolving landscape, key accounts are located at each step of supply chains. For instance, in consumer markets Western retailers such as Walmart and Carrefour and Chinese retailers such as Bailian (Brilliance) Group in supermarkets and Gome in appliances are among the key accounts pursued by thousands of WOFE/JV and Chinese suppliers. In another instance, while WOFE/JV car manufacturers compete with Chinese car manufacturers such as SAIC Motor Corporation Limited, Chang’an Motors, FAW Group, and Dongfeng Motors, among others, to win the hearts and minds of consumers, nearly countless Chinese and non-Chinese suppliers compete for preferred status with each of these key accounts. The result of the intense competitive landscape across so many industries in China is that KAM is a lever embraced by both Chinese and non-Chinese suppliers.There are many reasons why Western-based KAM research cannot be presumed to apply to China. Among these, China’s market development path and scale, Chinese culture, and the Chinese state capitalism system create conditions that are distinctly China. By taking into account China differences, our major contribution is to introduce a KAM research agenda for China. A China-based KAM research agenda broadens the scope of analysis to one of the most compelling markets in the world. Guided by our knowledge of KAM literature, accompanied by extensive hands-on experience in China, we make propositions regarding conditions where WOFE and JV suppliers are at a competitive advantage or disadvantage relative to Chinese suppliers. We emphasize the role of guanxi relationships and how these relationships affect suppliers and key accounts behaviors including retention of key accounts, information sharing, and demands made by key accounts. We further propose that these relationships are affected by company-to-company matches/mis-matches. Finally, to fully understand the KAM landscape in China, we also encourage an expanded view of issues to include the effects on KAM of the ever-present Chinese government.

Learning-orientation and trustworthiness are two important components of corporate image in Asian societies. This paper examines consumers’ perceived learning-orientation and trustworthiness of retailers in Hong Kong with a survey of 909 respondents. The results of a structural equation model show that learning orientation and trustworthiness are two distinctive attributes of a positive corporate image. Advertising creativity correlates positively with building a learning-oriented corporate image, while advertising believability correlates positively with building a trustworthy corporate image. The two perceived corporate images in turn positively associate with brand awareness and purchase intention respectively. Corporates which are perceived as learning-oriented recorded higher awareness, while consumers reported that they are more likely to patronize in companies which they found trustworthy. In summary, this research demonstrates the influence of advertising and promotion strategies (i.e. creativity vs. believability) on the perception of corporate’s image, and subsequently, on brand persuasiveness (i.e. brand awareness and purchase intention).This research has both theoretical contributions and managerial implications. It contributes to the existing corporate image literature by establishing the antecedents and consequences of building a learning-oriented and trustworthy corporate image. The research also provides practical implications to marketers. Specifically, the findings suggest that if a company aims to enhance consumers’ awareness about its branding, more attention should be put on developing creative advertising so as to build a learning-oriented corporate image. Alternatively, if a company aims to increase consumers’ purchase intention, more effort should be put on developing advertising with high believability so as to build a trustworthy corporate image.

Online advertisers use multiple channels to reach consumers on the Internet. However, little is known on the interplay between online advertising channels. To fill this gap, this study provides a comprehensive overview of interaction effects in online advertising for individual consumers, including not only site visits, but also exposures that do not directly lead to a click. Based on a large cookie-based individual-level data set the authors analyze interaction effects within and between channel groups on purchase behavior. By classifying online marketing channels along the dimensions of initiation locus and previous brand awareness, they find significant interactions between contacts within and across channel types. While clicks following contacts in customer-initiated channels that require brand awareness overall have a negative effect on purchase propensity, previous clicks in firm-initiated channels positively interact with clicks in customer-initiated channels. The results can help managers to coordinate marketing strategies, optimize campaigns, and develop individualized marketing and targeting approaches.

Prior research has investigated the consumer effects of cash and card payments in service settings, but the growing trend of innovative payment with a mobile device hasn’t been considered in the literature so fare. This article represents one of the first studies that considers the adoption of mobile as a new payment method and investigate how the ‘checkout’ phase affect the shoppers’ overall price image of retail stores (OSPI). Results from our studies show that the ‘checkout’ phase is the ‘moment of truth’ for shoppers judging OSPI. We investigate the effects of cash, card, and mobile payments and show that the less transparent a payment method, the lower OSPI judgments of shoppers. In particular, favorable comparisons of basket prices to shoppers’ mental budgets trigger lower store price perceptions. Subsequently, these results have major implications for retailers aiming to lower their OSPI in customers’ minds.

During the past 40 years a huge number of studies investigated destination positioning and images from the tourists’ perspective, but by far fewer studies have been conducted from the destination managers’ perspective. In addition, few articles benchmark image positions between multiple destinations and their projections on marketing material. In order to generalize the results to larger geo-scopes, it is important to include a substantial number of destinations for analysis and take the influences of geography into consideration. The current study focuses on exploring positions of intended (planned) destination images. The primary aim is to compare the intended tourism image that is originally developed by destination managers of the sub-provincial districts in China and identify patterns of similarity and uniqueness behind. The research findings are expected to: (1) inform local destination managers in China about the current status of their destination tourism image positions compared with other destinations; and (2) give suggestions to the tourism administrations of both sub-provincial level and higher levels on how to better understand and coordinate the districts under their authorities and how to develop effective image positioning and projection strategies. In China, substitutability among tourism destinations like cities is growing, which is more obvious among those having same regional contexts, source markets and similar tourism products (Han & Tao, 2005). One remedy against this tendency is the development of strong image positions that are distinctive from other competing destinations. However, Chinese destination managers are facing several problems regarding positioning and marketing their destination images. First, the existing image positions of many destinations are unclear (Chen, 2008). Han and Tao (2005) point out that tourism images of many city destinations − in particular the mid-sized and small cities − are still on the organic stage and lack of systematic planning. What is more important is that many destination managers have not recognized the importance of image positioning and the benefits of induced image (Chen, 2008; Han & Tao, 2005). Second, some destinations have unrealistic image positions because they neglected market research opportunities and carried out positioning in a blind way (Chen, 2008). For instance, many destination managers think that destination image is the same as creative initiatives or slogans rather than the rational result from a systematic positioning process (Han & Tao, 2005). In China, DMOs are government departments traditionally. In other words, China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) is the DMO for whole China; Provincial Tourism Administrations (PTAs) manage provincial-level destinations and Municipal or County Tourism Administrations (RTAs) are the DMOs for sub-provincial districts (Feng, Morrison & Ismail, 2003; Li & Wang, 2010). In this study, when talking about China, “DMO” is exchangeable with “tourism administration”; and “destination manager” refers to the “senior officer working in the tourism administration”. District, province and region are three spatial levels frequently and consistently used in this study. In terms of the size, region is the largest whereas district is the smallest. A region contains one or several provinces. A province has several districts under its authority. In this research, the unit of analysis is sub-provincial districts that belong to provinces. The provinces are sorted into different geographical regions that are characterized by different categories of endowed tourism resources. This study adopts the most recent scheme developed by Song (1994). He classifies the tourism destinations in China into 10 TRG Regions and 77 sub-TRG Regions. TRG Regions consist of complete provinces. While the sub-TRG Regions focusing on market appeal may contain districts across provinces. Table 1 summarizes the features of the 10 TRG Regions and their included provinces; the regions names are the abbreviations of their included provinces. This research investigates intended image positions from the destination managers’ perspectives for sub-provincial districts in China. There are 27 provinces1 and 365 sub-provincial districts (SP Districts) in China. The 365 SP Districts are classified into 9 groups according to the scheme of tourism resources geographical regions (TRG Regions) reviewed before. Due to the different administration systems, the 10th region including Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau is excluded from this research. 122 out of 365 SP Districts are selected. The sampling method combines multistage sampling, stratified sampling and simple random sampling. For only 83 districts (68%) relevant documents could be retrieved online. 48 documents represent the “Tourism Development Master Plans” and 35 documents the “12th Twelve-Five Year Tourism Development Plans”. Six districts did not mention any type of intended image positions in their development plans. The content about intended destination image position(s) – i.e. the most essential image position(s) for a district as a whole destination to differentiate itself from others – are identified from the tourism plans. The extracted content about image positions often appears in the formats of short sentences or phrases that contain more than one concept. Thus, the original extracted content is processed to identify all included image concepts that are distinct from each other. The content analysis yielded a spread of 164 different image items with only 189 occurrences for a total of 77 districts. So, on average, there are not more than about 2.5 image positions that can be identified in the tourism master plans or development plans of the sub-provincial districts. 20% of these plans use only one image concept; 38% two items, 26% three different items, 12% four and only 5% are using five items. To make this list more comprehensible the items were aggregated in two steps to 48 image factors. In almost each tourism master or development plan which discusses positioning of the district through promoting destination images cognitive or functional terms are used. About one third of these documents uses affective or psychological features. Yet, two thirds of the intended district images are completely lacking any affective element that could help identifying appealing spots on the touristic map among the functionally loaded clutter. Reviewing the coverage of intended image items through the conceptual lenses proposed by Tapachai and Waryszak (2000) it becomes evident that only functional, emotional and epistemic aspects can be found as targeted image elements. Travellers, though, are also using social and conditional criteria when it comes to destination choice (Zins, 2010; Zins & Prompitak, 2010). Despite the relatively scarce usage of intended image positions for each Chinese sub-provincial district it is worthwhile to condense the image profiles of these 77 districts further. The 2-way profile data of 48 image factors for 77 sub-provincial districts were subject to a non-hierarchical cluster procedure to identify similarities among the districts. Considering both, the homogeneity gain of additional clusters and the relative simplicity of interpretation (expressed by the wSSI) a solution with ten different groups of districts was accepted. A sketch of the main characteristics is depicted in Table 2. The largest image profile group pools 24 different districts (31%) from 7 different TRG regions. The other larger groups (number 10, 4, 5 and 2 in descending order of similarity to number 7) do not exhibit one single lead region which means that the TRG regions share a multitude of targeted image positions. The larger TRG regions with quite a number of districts (BTHS, GFH, SJZAJ and YGG; together 49 out of 77 districts) show some gravity into the profiles 7, 4 and 5 (cf. Table 2). However, the frequency is not large enough to claim that a particular region is uniquely represented by one of the identified condensed image profiles. The majority of districts within one TRG region shows targeted image positions that are more common with districts of other TRG regions. Overall, the geographic spread of relatively similar district images is larger across provinces than across regions, which appears plausible. Destination managers may perceive threats from their neighbouring districts that share similar context images and source markets. This drives them to develop differentiated positions in order to prevent direct competition. Officially, higher-level DMOs like provincial tourism administrations have to coordinate the tourism planning of the lower-level districts (Tourism Law 2013; GSTP, 2003).

Will information from astroturf organizations affect people’s trust toward overall nonprofit organizations and willingness to engage in prosocial behaviors? Astroturf organizations are defined as “fake grassroots organizations animated by a clever public relations campaign and a huge budget” (Hoggan and Littlemore 2009). In other words, an astroturf organization hides its true identity by using rhetorical language to convince the public. It can be inferred that large corporations sponsor astroturf organizations to employ deceptive and fraudulent tactics as propaganda. Prior research on astroturf organizations for climate change shows that people exposed to information from astroturf organizations denying global warming tend to become more uncertain about climate issues (e.g., causes of global warming or the existence of global warming) than people exposed to information from grassroots organizations (Cho et al. 2011). We propose that information from astroturf organizations may affect not only relevant issues or organizations, but also nonprofit organizations in general, which can then lower people's willingness to engage in prosocial behaviors (e.g., donations and volunteering). Darke and Ritchie (2007) found that deceptive advertisements engender distrust and undermine the trustworthiness of subsequent advertising. The process of defensive stereotyping can explain how initial deception activates general skepticism regarding advertising. Based on such an explanation, we suggest that exposure to astroturf organizations can make consumers more logically defensive and can decrease their trust toward messages from other nonprofit organizations. Therefore, we hypothesize that people who read messages from astroturf organizations will be more distrustful toward nonprofit organizations and will display lower willingness to engage in prosocial behaviors than people who read messages from grassroots organizations. To test this hypothesis, we conducted an experiment. We used a one-factor design with two levels of organization types (astroturf vs. grassroots). Participants (N = 72) were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions. Participants were told that they would read a message captured from a website of an organization (astroturf vs. grassroots) working on global warming. After viewing the advertisement, participants completed a questionnaire measuring their trust toward nonprofit organizations in general and willingness to engage in prosocial behaviors. We assessed whether viewing the advertisement from the astroturf organization had an impact on participants' trust toward nonprofit organizations and their willingness to engage in prosocial behaviors. An analysis of variance (ANOVA), with trust toward nonprofit organizations as the dependent variable and the type of organization as the independent variable, yielded a significant effect (F = 4.38, p < .05). The results showed that participants who viewed the advertisement from the astroturf organization were more likely to be distrustful of nonprofit organizations than those who viewed the advertisement from the grassroots organization (Mastroturf = 4.14, SD = 1.48 vs. Mgrassroots = 4.80, SD = 1.16). Thus, astroturf organizations may not only confuse people about a specific issue that the respective astroturf organizations aimed to attack, but they can also significantly weaken people's trust toward nonprofit organizations in general, which suggests severe detriment for the entire society. In addition, exposure to the message from an astroturf organization appeared to have an impact on people's willingness to engage in prosocial behaviors (F = 4.77, p < .05). To be specific, people who viewed the advertisement from the astroturf organization indicated that they were less likely to engage in prosocial behaviors, compared to those who viewed the advertisement from the grassroots organization (Mastroturf = 3.11, SD = .63 vs. Mgrassroots = 3.48, SD = .77). Taken as a whole, this research suggests that messages from astroturf organizations can frequently engender people’s distrust toward nonprofit organizations and can lower their willingness to engage in prosocial behaviors. Our results extend prior research demonstrating that information from astroturf organizations affects people’s trust and certainty levels regarding one specific issue (Cho et al. 2011) and suggest that the effects of exposure to astroturf messages are not limited to a specific issue. Rather, the effects can be far-reaching and diverse, since such messages can evoke skepticism toward benign intentions and programs of nonprofit organizations. Given that the insidious use of astroturf organizations is growing in popularity, this research provides meaningful insights into the influence of fake grassroots organizations and can forewarn the public of their undesirable effects on the community.

The objective of this study was to know the in vitro effects of supplemental anthelmintic plant extracts on the inhibition of protozoa for reducing methane production in the rumen. A fistulated Holstein cow was used as a donor of rumen fluid. The plant extracts (Lonicera japonica, Zanthoxylum piperitum, Pyrethrum, Torreya nucifera, Ruta graveolens) known to have anthelmintic effect were added to the in vitro fermentation bottles containing the rumen fluid and medium. The rumen protozoal population was depressed by the addition of Pyrethrum, Torreya nucifera and Ruta graveolens. The methane production was also significantly (p<0.05)reduced by addition of Pyrethrum (2.20 ml/g DM), Torreya nucifera (2.36 ml/g DM) and Ruta graveolens (2.20 ml/g DM). The microbial growth in the treatments of Ruta graveolens or anthoxylum piperitum was the greatest after 12 h and 24 h incubations, respectively. The results of this study indicated that anthelmintic plant extracts appeared to reduce methane production by inhibition of ruminal protozoa related with the methanogens living endosymbiotic in protozoal cells.

Riptortus pedestris is an important soybean pest in Korea and Japan. Aggregation pheromone traps were evaluated in 12 soybean fields in Andong using three treatments of trap installation, i.e., installation for whole cultivation period, installation up to September, and no installation. The number of R. pedestris (in all life stages) were not significantly different among the treatments until October, but its abundance significantly increased at mid October in the fields where traps were installed. Trap catch of R. pedestris was relatively higher in August while bug population was low in the fields. However, in fall, R. pedestris populations become abundant in the fields while trap catch was low. There was no significant difference in parasitism as well as seed and pod damage among the treatments. In conclusion, aggregation pheromone trap should’nt be used as control measure, but can be used as a monitoring tool of R. pedestris population up to August in soybean field.

Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) and F. intonsa (Trybom) have been shown asymmetrical occurrence pattern in pepper and strawberry fields. To explain this phenomenon, interactive influence of temperatures (20, 25, and 30ºC) and relative humidities [Low (50-55%), Medium (70-75%), and High (90-95%)] were assessed on pupal and adult stage of the two thrips species. In pupal stage, mortality of both species decreased as the humidity increased without significant difference between the species. Also, pupal duration of the two thrips decreased as RH increased from low to high in all the temperatures tested, but significantly shorter duration was found in F. intonsa. In adult stage, F. intonsa survived better than F. occidentalis only in high humidity at both 20 and 25ºC. Frankliniella intonsa survived 2.5 and 2.4 times longer as RH increased from low to high at 20 and 25ºC, respectively, whereas F. occidentalis survived 1.8 and 1.6 times longer, respectively. In conclusion, both pupae and adults of F. intonsa performed better at higher RH condition compared to F. occidentalis. Thus, difference in relative susceptibility to changing environmental condition can be one of the underlying mechanisms for the differential occurrence pattern in the fields.

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands has so far two significant COPs in Asia: COP5 in Kushiro, Japan in 1993 and COP10 in Changwon, South Korea, in 2008. The Convention itself is an intergovernmental mechanism. 　 However, the mission of the Convention – conservation of wetlands and wetland resources – can only be achieved by participation of local municipalities and people. Besides, the Ramsar Convention has another unique aspect compared with other biodiversity-related treaties/conventions: it is created by NGOs and still located within an international NGO, namely IUCN. Therefore, it is crucial for wetland conservation to promote partnerships between the central government and local government as well as among people, NGOs and private sectors. Experiences of the Ramsar Kushiro Conference tell us that two factors are important to make real local participation possible: 1) CEPA; and 2) sense of meaningfulness. If you don’t know the purpose of the Convention and the COP, you are hardly interested in its preparation. So somebody should prepare some handy promotional kits for people to understand the purpose of conservation. We compiled various materials, requested experts/scientists to deliver lectures for teachers, taxi drivers, restaurants owners and waiters, hotel receptionists and kids. If possible, it is desirable to have a series of articles on local and national newspapers. You did attend the Conference, but once it’s over you tend to forget everything? If you feel you did contribute to something meaningful, you would like to continue doing something for it. In case of Kushiro City, it established the Kushiro International Wetland Center in early 1995. KIWC functions as a network of various wetland centers in the Kushiro region. JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) and KIWC have organized many international training courses not only for wetland managers but also for other conservation-related personnel. JICA has signed an MoU with the Ramsar Secretariat, and KIWC will host the EAAFP (East Asia - Australasian Flyway Partnership) meeting early next year. These efforts have been carried out for twenty years and will continue for future generations.

A supercritical carbon dioxide (SCC) process of dispersion of multi-walled carbon nano-tubes (MWCNTs) into epoxy resin has been developed to achieve MWCNT/epoxy com-posites (CECs) with improved mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties. The synthesis of CECs has been executed at a MWCNT (phr) concentration ranging from 0.1 to 0.3 into epoxy resin (0.1 mol) at 1800 psi, 90°C, and 1500 rpm over 1 h followed by curing of the MWCNT/epoxy formulations with triethylene tetramine (15 phr). The effect of SCC treat-ment on the qualitative dispersion of MWCNTs at various concentrations into the epoxy has been investigated through spectra analyses and microscopy. The developed SCC assisted process provides a good dispersion of MWCNTs into the epoxy up to a MWCNT concentra-tion of 0.2. The effects of SCC assisted dispersion at various concentrations of MWCNTs on modificationof mechanical, thermal, dynamic mechanical thermal, and tribological proper-ties and the electrical conductivity of CECs have been investigated.

Recently, the mineral resource protection policies and regulations in production countries of natural resources including rare metals are becoming more stringent. Such environment makes which market has malfunction. In other word, those are not perfect or pure market. Therefore because each market of natural resources have special or unique characters, it is difficult to forecast their market prices. In this study, we constructed several models to estimate prices of natural resources using ARIMA and their business indices. And for examples, Indium and Coal were introduced.

Fe-TiC composite was fabricated from Fe and TiC powders by high-energy milling and subsequent spark- plasma sintering. The microstructure, particle size and phase of Fe-TiC composite powders were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction to evaluate the effect of milling conditions on the size and distribution of TiC particles in Fe matrix. TiC particle size decreased with milling time. The average TiC particle size of 38 nm was obtained after 60 minutes of milling at 1000 rpm. Prepared Fe-TiC powder mixture was densified by spark- plasma sintering. Sintered Fe-TiC compacts showed a relative density of 91.7~96.2%. The average TiC particle size of 150 nm was observed from the FE-SEM image. The microstructure, densification behavior, Vickers hardness, and frac- ture toughness of Fe-TiC sintered compact were investigated.

Withthe increasing trend of global trades and protection of agro-ecosystem in importing and exporting countries against quarantine pest, quarantine and pre-shipment(QPS) fumigation in perishable commodities is now more important to maintain postharvest quality until delivering to end user not just eradiation of quarantine pest. However, there are limited use of MB fumigation on export fruits and vegetables due to phytotoxic damages of fumigated one. VapormateTM, alternative to methyl bromide(MB), a gas formulation of ethyl formate(EF) with carbon dioxide, is commercially in use for imported fruits fumigation such as bananas and lemon. Herein, based on previous preliminary studies, scale-up and commercial scale fumigation of ethyl formate is presented for promising export paprika and tomato. Efficacy of ethyl formate was described in terms of concentration × time (CT) products to Myzus persicae for paprika and Bemisia tabaci for tomato.