Introduction Luxury is an intriguing and alluring concept. The word ‘luxury‘ is used very often in advertisement, indicating something positive, some-thing worth striving after, something worth desiring. This thesis will focus on how luxury, and particularly luxury brands, are created, represented and consumed in an online environment. The Internet has proven to be of great importance for many types of brand when it comes to communicating and providing information to consumers and potential consumers. Luxury brands, however, work on different premises than other brand categories. Thus, luxury brands on the Internet would seemingly be an oxymoron. Given the growing importance of the luxury goods industry in economic terms and the increasing scholarly interest for not only the phenomenon of luxury brands but also luxury brands online (c.f. Dall‘Olmo Riley and Lacroix, 2003), it would seem that more systematic research is warranted on how brands, and luxury brands in particular, are handled on the Internet. The consumption of luxury brands, as opposed to the consumption of physical goods, lies in the difference in ownership. A luxury brand can be ‘consumed’ without the actual owning of a physical good produced by the brand. This type of consumption is instead a sort of merging of the consumers‘ view of themselves with their image of the luxury brand. This relatively new way of viewing consumption is of central importance when viewing brands online. The virtual ownership or ‘consumption‘ of luxury brands also brings with it new forms of expressing ownership or kinship with the luxury brand, as well as with other types of consumer sharing in the affection of a brand. The problems facing luxury brands, is best summed up in the ‘luxury brand paradox‘, in which the core is a balancing act. In this balancing act, the perception of exclusivity surpasses that of actual scarcity. The perception of exclusivity has to be invoked in consumers for the luxury brand paradox to maintain equilibrium. If (or perhaps when) there was an actual scarcity to luxury goods and luxury was truly limited, the consumption of luxuries was quite different from the consumption of luxury brands today. The clicks environment The clicks environment has brought with it not only new ways for brands to communicate with consumers but also for consumers to ‘consume‘ the brands. The following aspects will be emphasized the rise of the Internet and its characteristics, the business logic that is emerging from this, consumers on the Internet and new communication patterns. New to not only luxury consumption, but also retailing and consumption is the entrance of the Internet as a means of distributing, marketing and gaining information on goods and services. The advent of the Internet brought with it a frenzy for no-name and generic brands, as well as some high-priced, status brands to not be left behind in incorporating a clicks environment, with many luxury brands jumping on the bandwagon. Many luxury brands can thus now be viewed and, to some extent, purchased online by anyone having access to a computer. Luxury brands are presenting themselves online and communicating everything from designer influences to products and prices and store listings. On the Internet, old trusted methods cannot be used to the same extent and the migration to an online environment will inevitably bring with it new problems as well as intensify some old ones: the perception of scarcity is harder to create. Maintaining the balance between maximizing profits and evoking feelings of exclusivity is one of the most important tasks for luxury brands. The creation of perception of exclusivity or social desirability in a luxury context is the basis for non-functional demand. This is a balancing act that comes into greater focus with the entrance of the Internet. This research examines the new business logic in the clicks environment from the problems that arise for luxury brands in particular. For mass-producing brands, the clicks environment does not pose the same kind of threat as it does for luxury brands. The cost of marketing could be lowered by using the means provided by the Internet and giving access to products to many new consumers, something that in the case of luxury brands can be a danger. The specific nature of luxury brands and the new business logic on the Internet generate new challenges as well as opportunities. The Internet environment brings with it the fact that luxury brands can be not only consumed but also represented and created in a widely diverse environment. This requires a specific way of viewing consumption, which will be explored in this chapter Representing, creating and consuming luxury brands online The luxury context has been changed with the entrance of the Internet, challenging luxury brand management and forcing luxury brands to act in new ways. Where the borders were previously stricter and the consumption of luxury brands was solely an act between company and consumer and luxury brand identity was communicated from company to consumer, with rather few distractions, the Internet gives rise to many other constellations. The creation of brand image is thus now intertwined and overlapping. For luxury brands to be consumed online by consumers, they have to be represented online. Although the representation can be officially either by the brand or by others, it is when ‘others‘ get involved in luxury brand representation that the preconditions change. The online representation of luxury brands is a basis for luxury brand consumption, but as will be explained later, the consumption taking place online does not have to involve purchase of actual physical goods. Brands can, to a certain degree, be ‘created‘ online as a luxury brand or status brand, all depending on the processes surrounding the brand in question. This research starts with the presumption that the luxury context is changing with the entrance of the Internet and that luxury brands are now exposed to new challenges in which the luxury brand image is more elusive than ever. The Internet has become a valuable communication tool for brands in their endeavor for a favorable and prosperous brand image. However, the belief is that as a communications and distribution channel the Internet has led to changes in the market structure as well as changes in producer and consumer roles (Peterson, et. al., 1997; Prahalad et. al., 2000). To be able to be viewed and purchased online would seem an ideal situation if not for the inherent paradoxical nature of the luxury brand. Luxury brands face several challenging problems within the online context. Online rarity The term luxury rests on certain assumed connotations, such as the ‘rarity principle‘, meaning that the rarer the good, the more desired the commodity is (Phau and Prendergast, 2000). With the Internet as a distribution channel, the ‘rarity principle‘ may be lost when the brand can be not only viewed and desired but also consumed by all. According to Dubois and Paternault (1995), the prestige of the brand may be eroded if too many people own it. The possibility of online purchase may give opportunity for the ‘masses‘ to consume these products and the company can maximise its profits and sell even larger amounts, something that would, however, be in sharp contrast with the need of luxury brands to maintain a fragile equilibrium between high exposure and awareness but a controlled level of sales (Roux and Floch, 1996 in Dall‘Olmo Riley and Lacroix, 2003). It is also feared that the possibility of purchasing luxury brand goods online could give greater opportunities for counterfeiters to sell copied merchandise as ‘original‘ merchandise. Studies have shown that price and price discounts are very important factors in online purchasing and when revisiting a website. Luxury brands online thus face problems, largely because they do not compete with low price or price discounts. Consequently, online distribution pro-vides a challenge. How do you make consumers buy the much more expensive genuine product instead of a cheap counterfeit when many of the core elements of the luxury brand are lost online? Another problem is the ever-increasing product range of luxury brands. Because many luxury brands today include all sorts of products, this makes it harder to distinguish counterfeit copies from the original. This is a problem that could devalue the brand and increase the temptation for consumers to buy cheaper ‘knock-offs‘ or counterfeits‘ online. de Chernatony (2002:186) suggests that brand strategists need a new mental model to "develop integrated brands in a digital age which goes beyond the classical and which recognizes the new roles consumers are taking". New roles for consumers are an important fact for luxury brands in that consumers are more involved in creating a buzz for certain brands, engaging in reviewing, discussing and sharing opinions online. The online environment and the challenges to luxury brands that follow show a significant change in the business logic. The new business logic on the Internet, with the consumption of brands instead of actual goods, is problematic for brands in general and for luxury brands in particular. The specific problems regarding luxury brands are seen in relation to the previously described inherently difficult luxury brand paradox. The problems arising from the very scattered Internet context for luxury brands are many, as well as interrelated. Empirical contributions There are four main groupings of websites that have been examined: (1) brand websites, (2) consumer-to-consumer sites, (3) communities and (4) Replica sites and such. (1) The first type of sites is the sites that are officially connected with one brand, multiple brands or a conglomerate. In this category ‘umbrella‘ sites are also included, which can be directly owned by a luxury conglomerate (such as eluxury.com, or sites such as prêt-a-porter.com or yoox.com that sell a wide range of upper-range and luxury brands). (2) The second type of site is the online auction site where consumers sell to consumers, or in some cases, an organized firm conducts the selling. This type of site is not associated with the luxury brand. Although somewhat separate from the community website, this type shares many of the characteristics of the community websites, including being mostly consumer driven and not directly affiliated with a luxury brand. Thus, the auction websites are grouped together with the community websites. (3) The third type of site examined is the community websites. These come in different forms, ranging from sites associated with fashion magazines in which involvement only can occur on an observer or viewer basis to communities discussing all aspects of fashion and luxury to community sites dedicated to identifying the brands celebrities are wearing. The sites that are the online version of fashion magazines can be viewed only with possibilities to receive weekly (sometimes daily) fashion updates and newsletters, include chat possibilities and bulletin boards, and in some cases have limited product sales. (4) The fourth type is the website that sells replicas or counterfeits. In this category sites that rank and review sellers of counterfeit merchandise are included. Conclusions Four themes on the sense of a luxury brand have emerged throughout this research. The themes show how the sense of a luxury brand is created in an online environment. The four themes are luxury history, authenticity, community and paradox. Luxury history refers to the stories (either real or thought up as marketing campaigns) told by luxury brands, as well as the history that is thought up of and shared by consumers of the brand. Authenticity pertains to the need for luxury brands to have authenticity and genuine products in the sense of having reputable and innovative designers to repel counterfeits. Community concerns the different types of community formed online, i.e. communities formed for a particular brand or other common interest. Paradox relates to the inherent problem for luxury brands to create desire and appeal (and hence the power to sell a particular product) while simultaneously giving the perception of uniqueness. Paradox also refers to the contradictory workings online in the creation of a sense of luxury brand. As has been revealed through the empirical data, the online environment for luxury brands is an environment for communication and interaction, an environment that is both lively and active. The online context is comprised of many different elements that are interwoven, making up the platform for luxury brands online. This is seen in not only the different people involved in the online context but in some instances also the changing roles they play and the often multiple activities that they perform. This is because the luxury environment is made up of these sometimes very different yet interlocking elements. Examining the data from different perspectives and by comparing them to previous research on brands, luxury and the Internet the conclusion is that a new and exciting arena for luxury brands and their consumers emerge, an arena that will be referred to as an online fair. The online context is a highly scattered and chaotic environment that exhibits a scope of different characteristics. These characteristics resemble those pertaining to a fair. Definitions of a fair can range from describing the display of farm animals to entertainment and amusement. The common denominator is the key-concepts of display and the people there to see the display or to be amused and entertained. The online fair embodies different actors and activities that will be described together with the special environment of the online fair. The actors that are identified in the online fair are the audiences, the exhibitors and the copycats. The activities performed by these three groups are exhibition and display, sales and trade and entertainment. Finally, the online fair environment is characterized by its globality, openness, accessibility and fuzzy boundaries. As opposed to many bricks-and-mortar fairs, the online fair requires no entrance fees. Neither does it have strict admission controls based on special invitations, as is often the case with luxury fashion shows. The online fair is instead open and accessible to all. The audience in the online fair encompasses various consumer types and how ‘active‘ a consumer or potential consumer is, is not dependent on his or her status as an ‘actual consumer‘. The online audience also serves as reinforcement for consumers with regard to postpurchase feelings. Given that the online fair is open to anyone, there will inevitably be those wishing to profit from someone else. In this context these ‘tricksters‘ would be counterfeit sellers trying to profit from the luxury brand image.

In service experiences, customers often look to create their own magic in the service environment, through interaction with other customers, not the producer of the experience (the provider) at all. The current study examines the bar environment, where hedonically-driven service encounter experiences are constructed, not by the provider, but by the social interactions of the consumers of the environment. The study surveys 130 consumers, measuring experiential, situational and social involvement levels in relation to consumption motivation and overall experience evaluation. The research finds that, while bar consumers are likely to be highly socially involved, they still need the company of close friends to become fully involved in the bar service experience. In addition, where atmospheric theory discusses the value of extraordinary or surprising service environments, consumers in the already hedonic bar environment may indeed prefer environments which are simply comfortable and consistent with their expectations (in regard to motivations to consume and overall positive evaluations).

This paper draws on the concept of transculturality, shifting our attention beyond religion as a stable belief system toward religion as a field of transcultural practices. Our conceptualization of religion as a field of transcultural practices is empirically grounded in a hermeneutic analysis of depth interviews with 24 Southeast Asian immigrant consumers living in Auckland, New Zealand. The findings reveal two interrelated sets of transcultural practices through which religion shapes multicultural marketplaces. The first set of practices facilitates entry into multicultural marketplaces, by easing the process of border crossing and enabling social capital development. The second set of practices facilitates mutual entanglement within multicultural marketplaces, by fostering intercultural competency development, sharing of cultural consumption rituals, and enabling the flows of material resources. This paper helps to advance the growing literature on religion and marketing in two ways. First, a transcultural approach moves religion beyond a view of each religious tradition as a bounded system. Instead, religion emerges as an open and dynamic system which is deeply contextualized and whose function morphs to meet the character of the cultural context in which it is embedded. Second, in addition to the present focus on how religion produces differences in marketplace behaviors, this paper also sheds light on the transcultural properties of religion which are held in common across diverse religious traditions. Rather than becoming a dividing force in contemporary multicultural marketplaces, religious fields are also revealed to be hybridized and hybridizing fields of transcultural flows. Overall, in the context of multicultural marketplaces, religion emerges as a key site for the performance of practices which fuel transcultural dynamics.

Introduction The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between site features toward ecommerce and consumer attitude. For completion of this study, 598 online shopping experience for consumers participated in Guangzhou, Zhengzhou, Shenyang and conducted questionnaires. All data were analyzed by using the experimental method and By means of SPSS Ver 20.0 and AMOS 20.0 program to identify the relationship between site features toward ecommerce, User satisfaction, Use attitude towards the site and reuse intention in China. The results were followings: among site features toward ecommerce, Easy of use, Interaction, Information and executive ability influenced user satisfaction in China. User satisfaction have significant influence on use attitude toward the site. User satisfaction have significant influence on reuse intention. Use attitude toward the site have significant influence on reuse intention. And relation between site attributes toward online store and user satisfaction a portion moderated by e-WOM. Theoretical Frameworks With the use of the Internet and the popularization, the countries all over the world with the rapid expansion of scale, e-commerce application field of the economy in China has gradually been fully applied, more related to our life brought new development business services, the network shopping as a necessary to modern one of consumer behavior, and gradually developed into a new fashion. Under this background, the consumer online shopping, shopping website feature dimension has become an important factor that influence the online consumer behavior by academic circles in recent years. Literature, website characteristic dimension is discussed（Khaled Hsanein, 2007；Ying-Feng Kuo, 2012；Marie-Odile Richard, 2015；Jill Mosteller, 2014）, user satisfaction, use the site attitude and intention to use consumer experience for shopping website features dimension problem, enrich the theory of shopping website feature dimension system. But concluded, abroad, especially in the United States consumer market based on shopping website feature dimension effect on user satisfaction research conclusion of the path itself is not the same. For example: Featherman ＆ Pavlou(2003)；Pavlou(2003); O`Cass＆Fenech(2003)according to a study of cognitive useful online shopping intention have significant direct impact to the user the study of cognitive usability has a significant effect on shopping intention, but (Jinsoo Park ea al, 2004; Rong-An Shang, 2005)cognitive usefulness influence on shopping intention was not significant. Again, as a result of the above research mostly in foreign consumer market is given priority to, to foreign consumers research conclusion. But due to the difference of consumption culture between China and America, values differences, perceived shopping website characteristics, motivation, habit is also different, foreign research conclusions are not always suitable for the situation of the Chinese consumer market. for example, Jarvenpaa, etc.(1999) the study found that cognitive users to the website shopping risk to them from the online store shopping will have no effect. Teo&Yeong(2003) under Internet environment are studied by structural equation model of consumer purchase decision process, found that perceived risk and consumer negatively correlated to the general attitude towards online transactions. But (Zhao Chongzhi,2002) based on the domestic consumer market research found that shopping site safety cognition to the website for user functionality have a significant impact on interests and security interests. And (Cha Jin Xiang, Wang Lisheng,2006) of the study also found that consumer perception of shopping website service quality (including network security) and customer expectations of website for shopping website satisfaction have positive significant impact. The different research conclusions in different consumption market, Rachel Smith; George Deitz et al(2013) study because the result of different consumption culture. So according to the Chinese consumer market environment impact on consumer behavior under shopping website feature dimension is necessary for further research. Which shopping website feature dimension is main motivations affecting user satisfaction? Shopping site feature dimension can affect users through user satisfaction and willingness to use? Finally, some problems in the network shopping market in China, such as part of the electricity business enterprises lack of integrity led to false information, shopping website users with network information leakage weaken consumer trust and the shortage of electricity business logistics service ability, these problems have become the bottleneck of restricting network retail market sustained and rapid development. For consumers, before to make online shopping decisions, consumers need to compare goods search, information independently, price negotiation, customer feedback, and meantime consumers to comment on network level of recognition greatly affects the consumers' purchase intention (Wang Yuanhuai et al,2013). Especially for experiential service product, due to the consumers to buy before it is difficult to make an accurate evaluation the quality of the content(Litvin,2008), therefore, more comments need to refer to a large number of e-WOM in order to reduce the decision risk. So in this paper, the network comment information as regulating variable, confirm the shopping website feature dimension and the role of user satisfaction, etc., in this paper, the above problem is trying to answer. H1: Shopping site feature dimension positively related with satisfaction. H1-1: Shopping site feature dimension the ease of use and the use of satisfaction were positively correlated. H1-2: Shopping site of the interactive feature dimension was positively correlated with satisfaction. H1-3: Shopping site feature dimension informational was positively correlated with satisfaction. H1-4: Shopping site feature dimension performance was positively correlated with satisfaction.H1-5: Use the usefulness of feature dimension and shopping website satisfaction positively correlated. H2: user satisfaction positively related with the attitude of using the web. H3: user satisfaction and user intention to use present positive correlation. H4: use the website attitude positively related with user intention to use. H5 E-WOM in the website feature dimension and user satisfaction has significant intermediary role H5-1 E-WOM on the web site features in the dimension of usability and user satisfaction has significant intermediary role H5-2 The interactive E-WOM in the website feature dimension has significant intermediary role and user satisfaction H5-3 E-WOM in the website feature dimension of informational and user satisfaction has significant intermediary role H5-4 E-WOM in the website features dimensions and user satisfaction has significant intermediary role H5-5 E-WOM on the web site features dimension performance and user satisfaction has significant intermediary role Methods This research selected research object for the consumers of had online shopping experience, because these consumers to shopping website contact is more, the use of the functions of related websites have certain experience. Out 650 questionnaires, 598 valid questionnaires. Before the formal experiment, this study first preliminary experiments. Preliminary experiments in guangzhou, zhengzhou, shenyang, etc on the use of shopping website (Tmall, jingdong, Su Ningyi purchase, etc.) of the consumer as the research object, the actual 87 effective questionnaires were taken back. Preliminary experimental results show that the experimental measurement of each variable has a good reliability and validity, suitable for an official survey. Are test was started in February 17, 2015 ended on May 27, 2015, is still in the region were investigated. Market environment in our country according to the 2014 China's online shopping industry annual monitoring report Jane edition of C2C, the B2C shopping website ranking selection of shopping website: taobao, Tmall, jingdong, purchase, tencent Su Ningyi electricity online (QQ), etc., in view of the above in shopping website to buy related products, related use experience of man-made objects were investigated. Results in the overall sample run AMOS 20.0 software, to calculate the estimates of the model fitting index and the path coefficient. Analysis results show that the fitting of indicators of structural equation model is: x squared = 553.937, (df = 187, p = 0.000), GFI = 0.927, AGFI = 0.901, CFI = 0.920, IFI = 0.921, RMR = 0.067, RMSEA = 0.057. Results show that the indicators have reached the high level, the model with data fitting degree is high. As shown in (table 1) model of each path coefficient of relationship between variables in the statistical analysis of results. From which it is easy to find shopping website features ease of use, interactive, informative and usefulness has significantly effect on user satisfaction, but the ability to execute on user satisfaction without significant effect. And user satisfaction of users use shopping site attitude and intention to use also show significant effect, the final users use attitude for the user to use intentions also has a significant effect. In addition, the network comment information in the website is part feature dimension and user satisfaction. As shown in (table 2) moderated regression analysis of relationship between variables in the statistical analysis of results. First, network review information in the website feature dimension and user satisfaction has significant intermediary role. Second, the interactive network review information in the website feature dimension has not significant intermediary role and user satisfaction. Third, network review information in the website feature dimension of informational and user satisfaction has significant intermediary role. Fourth, network comment on the usefulness of information in the website features dimensions and user satisfaction has significant intermediary role. Fifth, network review information on the web site features dimension performance and user satisfaction has significant intermediary role. (see Table 1, Table 2). Discussion In this paper, the research conclusion of electricity enterprise management practice also has important reference value and enlightenment, mainly reflected in the following four aspects. First, the electricity business enterprise through the web site provides service should be reasonable combination of design and site features, meet the demand of consumers mutiple level, enhance user satisfaction. Second, the electric business enterprise should pay attention to improve consumers' perceived value and satisfaction, enhance the user use the site attitude and intention to use. Online store users satisfied with the attitude to users to use the site, the user to use intentions have made a significant positive correlation. Third, to provide online shopping electric business enterprise should touch the consumers actively, positive attitude, get the user to use choice intention and behavior. Fourth, the electricity business enterprise in the marketing practice of the business, to formulate the corresponding management system supporting effective incentives to encourage consumers to actively participate in product e-Wom, efforts to improve the quality and quantity of comments, fully excavate and make use of the effective information in the network comments, and according to these information, timely adjust enterprise product strategy, marketing strategy, service strategy, to adapt to the change of consumer demand, is expected to improve the satisfaction of consumer, to further cultivate customer loyalty, thus to obtain competitive advantage in the fierce market competition.

Luxury watch manufacturers open boutiques around the globe. A branded boutique is a promise to customers and much of the responsibility of keeping it weighs on frontline employees. However, not much is known about the “moments of truth” in monobrand boutiques. This study explores the “front reality” of sales staff and besides a theoretical and a managerial contribution provides a critical reflection of the methodological approach.

The aim of this paper is to investigate, through a content analysis, the communication strategies used by luxury fashion brands on Twitter and the related Twitter eWOM, with the purpose to identify brand associations compared to luxury dimensions considered in literature (De Barnier et al. 2012; Godey et al. 2014). Within the luxury fashion environment, where every detail is meaningful and, consequently, every single word matters, this study attempts to provide a contribution into the field of luxury advertising, by comparing semantic fields of words chosen by digital fashion marketers and by popular fashion bloggers to the dimensions that define the luxury construct in luxury literature.

Most major consumer goods manufacturers market multiple brands within a single product category. Companies may sell brands of different quality levels (e.g., Giorgio Armani, Armani Collezioni, and Armani Exchange). And, within each quality level, companies sell variants of a brand, which differ in functionality (Crest’s cavity protection, tartar control, and whitening toothpastes). With the ultimate goal of securing consumer purchase, companies offer an increasing number of brands, which can result in “overlap” between the brands in a firm’s portfolio. We define overlap from a consumer’s perspective as the degree to which a brand is perceived to offer the same product features as other brands owned by the same firm. The few seminal papers (Aribarg & Arora, 2008; Hui, 2004; Morgan & Rego, 2009) indicate that overlap brings with it a number of compelling advantages and disadvantages, thereby having the potential for positive or negative outcomes. Thus the question arises: When does overlap have a positive or negative effect on consumers’ brand evaluations? We argue that the actual effect of overlap on consumer evaluations depends on two strategic marketing factors: (1) the dominance of the corporate brand versus the product brand in marketing communications of a product, and (2) the type of overlap – vertical (i.e., overlap between products that vary in quality) or horizontal (i.e., overlap between products that vary in functionality). A 2 x 4 between-subjects factorial design was employed to test consumers’ responses to overlap of product extensions under different conditions. The stimulus was developed in two categories: chocolate and wine. The stimulus involved a picture of the packaging for a fictitious product extension for a real parent company (Hershey’s in the chocolate category and Yellow tail in the wine category), accompanied by a descriptor providing product information such as details of its price and features. We collected data using an online questionnaire via Amazon Mechanical Turk. A sample of 366 individual consumers provided data across both the chocolate and wine categories. Our initial results for the chocolate product category indicate that, for the vertical extension, Cocoa Black, consumers evaluated the chocolate bar for which the product brand was dominant more favourably (μ = 5.44) than that for which the corporate brand was dominant (μ = 4.95). This evaluation difference was statistically significant (t = -1.84, p < .05). For the horizontal extension, Peppermint Air Delight, there was a significant difference in evaluation for overlapping products (t = 1.74, p < .05) for which the corporate brand was dominant (μ = 4.60), compared to that for which the product brand was dominant (μ = 3.96). These preliminary results show promise in terms of providing practitioners with prescriptive guidelines for managing overlap to their benefit. The results of this study will be presented in full at the Global Marketing Conference 2016.

The search for authenticity is a subject that has become very common in different areas of social knowledge in recent years. The key point is to recognize what makes something authentic and which factors could influence this perception. Although the academia not yet been able to reach a consensus on the definition of what makes something authentic, some authors propose this concept in the marketing of goods and services (Beverland 2005, 2006; Beverland, Lindgreen & Vink, 2008; Alexander, 2009; Molleda, 2009; Kadirov, 2010). We propose to extend this concept to the place branding context. Destinations can be authentic when they offer tourists unique experiences. These could be interesting to be branded in order to increase tourism demand. Tourism is a sector that, despite of the uncertainties of the global economic scenario, continues to grow. According to the World Tourism Organization, in 2014 there was an increase of 4.3% in the number of tourists who traveled the world, compared to the previous year. This represents 46 million more people that revisited a destination or traveled to new places. In financial terms, the global move rose to US$ 1.5 trillion in 2014 (UNWTO, 2015). The economy of many countries depends on tourism, both in terms of GDP and employment. For instance, Seychelles, Cape Verde and Malta have respectively 21%, 16% and 13% of their GDPs coming from tourism. The same source also reveals the list of the most competitive countries in the world in terms of tourism. The top four countries are Spain, France, USA and England (WEF, 2015). Currently, considering the competitiveness in the tourism sector, it is increasingly critical the need for destinations which present a singular identity and positioning. Offering excellent options of accommodation, good attractions and historic buildings are no longer differentials. Thus, place branding can be a powerful tool to face the competitive tourism scenario (Gilmore & Pine II, 2007). This study aims to promote a measurement scale for place authenticity and verify the influence of this concept for the tourist’s destination selection. In modern societies, individuals search for their uniqueness. Taylor (2003) points out that one of the decisive aspects to be an authentic positioning is the definition of their own identity, that is, the set of attributes such as personality, physical characteristics and perception of themselves. The dilemma of authenticity and inauthenticity is already considered one of the key points of western society (Grayson & Martinec, 2004). Considering the universe of brands, an authentic brand is associated to the consistency between brand identity and brand personality. It is related to the elements and/or characteristics, which are unique. Previous published studies (Beverland, 2006; Barreto, 2008; Molleda, 2009; Kadirov, 2010; Napoli et al. 2014) proposed some dimensions to define the composing elements for authenticity perception; however, they were more focused on product authenticity. Some dimensions include product tradition, manufacturing process, product design, certifications and guarantees, price positioning, product originality, cultural symbolism, product quality, nostalgic perception and brand credibility, among others. These dimensions are not directly applicable to touristic destinations. Considering this literature gap, we decided to propose a new measurement scale specifically for places (touristic destinations). In the case of tourists, Gilmore and Pine II (2007) state that this kind of consumers search to live unique and authentic experiences. These authors emphasize that the choice of a place to visit can be considered personal reaffirmation, in the sense of having a certain personality or belonging to a particular group. The proposed model for this study states that place authenticity is guided by place tradition and place legitimacy and plays a mediating effect from place image to destination selection. For place image, we considered the natural characteristics of a touristic destination, the quality of services and the original manufacturing production of that place. These dimensions also came from the qualitative steps of this research. Previous studies (Selby & Morgan, 1996; Govers & Go, 2009) emphasize the positive impact of place image to increase consumer’s visiting desire. Before access destination selection, place image plays an important role for place authenticity perception, being that the core evaluation about a place. The first three hypothesis are: H1: The greater the perception about natural characteristics of a place, the greater the perception about place authenticity. H2: The greater the perception about the quality of services, the greater the perception about place authenticity. H3: The greater the perception about original manufacturing production, the greater the perception about place authenticity. Destination selection for vacation is related to consumer’s choice about the next place to go during his/her free time. Literature reveals that consumers’ perception about a place can be decisive for choosing or not a place for vacation (Gilmore & Pine II, 2007). Hypothesis 4 assumes that: H4: Place authenticity has a positive and significant impact on consumer’s destination selection. This study is organized in two main research stages. The first was dedicated to the developing a place authenticity measurement scale. We followed Netemeyer, Bearden and Sharma (2003) steps that include literature review, qualitative and quantitative steps. After the literature review we ran two qualitative studies with four in-depth interviews with tourism managers and eight in-depth interviews with consumers. Managers’ criteria selection was strategic public and private functions. Consumers’ criteria considered: age, gender and personal finance responsibility. The main objective of these steps was to collect more information about “what makes a place authentic” and “how we can define place image”. Initially 32 items were proposed, being 12 for place authenticity and 20 for place image. The first survey with 152 respondents was used to test the proposed scales. The second stage was defined by another survey with 152 valid respondents. We adapted from Napoli, Dickinson, Beverland, and Farrelly (2014) a 3-item scale for destination selection. The main objective of this last step was to retest the measurement scale with a new sample and test the proposed model using structural modeling equation. We used a 10-point agreement scale for all constructs. Qualtrics solutions to collect data were used in both surveys. The qualitative approach and the literature review were relevant to propose some items to measure place image and place authenticity. Previous studies emphasized the power of place image for tourism managers in order to increase destination desire for potential consumers (Selby & Morgan, 1996; Govers & Go, 2009). Echtner and Ritchie (1993) written one of the first manuscripts to promote a measurement scale to place image. It was a very robust proposition that included attribute-based images, holistic impressions, and functional, psychological, unique and common characteristics, considering a combination of structured and unstructured methodologies. Although it is a very complex scale. We proposed a new scale by listening to managers and potential tourists (consumers) about what defines the main aspects of place image. Considering place authenticity, the main characteristics that define this concept are related to place tradition and history, which are related to culture, socio-economic history and how people recognize the uniqueness of its tradition. Place legitimacy is related to the originality of place characteristics and what makes this place unique. In the first survey group, we had 152 valid responses, 64% women. Age range was from 26 to 37 years old. Main income rate (61%) was US$1600. Respondents should be the main responsible for the last destination choice. After a descriptive analysis, we ran an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with varimax rotation and principal components as extraction method. Results showed the adequacy of the proposed scale (KMO=0.886, Bartlett's 4807.951, p<0.000). Four items were deleted considering the communalities verification (under 0.50). Three dimensions were defined: place image, which means the natural characteristics of a place (6 items, α=0.938), the quality of services (7 items, α=0.914) like infrastructure and the original manufacturing production of that place (4 items, α=0.807). Two dimensions defined place authenticity: place tradition (7 items, α=0.938) and place legitimacy (5 items, α=0.934). In the second survey group, we had 152 valid responses, 62% women. Age range was from 26 to 37 years old. Main income rate (61%) was between US$1600 and US$2500. Respondents should be the main responsible for the last destination choice. The second stage included a new survey to confirm the measurement scales and test the proposed model. After descriptive analysis, we ran a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results demonstrated the adequacy of the measurement model with tolerable goodness of fit (CMIN 403.114, DF = 142, CMIN/DF= 2.839, IFI=0.916, CFI=0.915, TLI=0.886, NFI=0.876, NFI=0.835, RMSEA=0.110). Probably sample size influenced the goodness of fit. We refined the measurement scale holding the essential items for each scale, considering CFA analysis (appendix 1). The final measurement proposed is defined for the natural characteristics of a place (4 items, AVE=0.80, CONF=0.93), the quality of services (4 items, AVE=0.84, CONF=0.95), the original manufacturing production of that place (3 items, AVE=0.76, CONF=0.90). Place authenticity: place tradition (4 items, AVE=0.77, CONF=0.93) and place legitimacy (4 items, α= AVE=076, CONF=0.93). The proposed model was tested using the structural modeling equation. Results demonstrated to be suitable, with an acceptable goodness of fit (CMIN 310.219, DF = 97; CMIN/DF= 3.198; IFI=0.907, CFI=0.905, TLI=0.867, NFI=0.876, RFI=0.817, RMSEA=0.121). All hypotheses were confirmed. There is a positive impact from natural characteristics (β=0.371, p<0.000), quality of services (β=0.236, p<0.000) and original manufacturing production (β=0.597, p<0.000) on place authenticity (R²=92%). There is also a positive impact from place authenticity to destination selection (β=0.427, p<0.000, R²=18.2%). Three major results emphasize the literature contribution of this research. First, the two-dimension place authenticity measurement scale. Place tradition and place legitimacy are the core concepts to measure place authenticity. Second, the influence of place image on place authenticity. This is useful for tourism managers since place image can be treated by marketing campaigns. The better the place image the greater the place authenticity perception. This relation explains 92% of the place authenticity construct. Thirdly, the relevance of place authenticity on destination selection. Public and private investments for some touristic place can be reinforced by marketing efforts in order to increase positive aspects for place image and place authenticity. Therefore, promoting increase in the percentage of destination selection. People are looking for unique experiences in unique places.

Support from the private sector, for example by firms, has been solicited to ease tourist attraction financial constraints and to help their restoration and maintenance out of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities (United Nations, 2010; Europanostra, 2013). When engaging in these partnerships, firms may display different level of altruistic motivation. For example, the Italian fashion company Tod’s demonstrated high altruism by agreeing to restore the Colosseum without any economic or financial return. American Express, however, sought promotional rights when the firm agreed to contribute to the restoration of the Statue of Liberty. Finally, the ticketing agency Eventim renamed the Hammersmith Apollo (now Eventim Apollo) in London following their involvement in the restoration, thus pursuing more strategic, rather than altruistic goals. Non-altruistic goals and the fear that the involvement of a company may generate scepticism in visitors, as they could perceive the authentic image of a tourist attraction to be jeopardized. Managers of tourist attractions are faced with a dilemma: should they seek financial support from third parties (e.g. firms), or would this compromise the appeal of the site, leading to a drop in the number of visitors? In order to address this problem, we conducted two experiments to examine how firms' involvement in restorations affects tourist attractions. We found that firms' altruistic motivations (that denotes the support of a cause without demanding anything in return) are positively associated with tourists' intentions to visit the attraction (Study 1). Moreover, we found that this relationship is mediated by visitors’ perceived authenticity, in other words the belief that the real aspect of the site has not been irreversibly altered. We confirm the robustness of our findings in Study 2, additionally showing how this effect is stronger in the case of heritage sites compared to non-heritage sites. To the best of our knowledge, our results are among the first to show how a lack of altruism in CSR activities can negatively affect the target of the campaign (in this particular case a tourist attraction). Results also suggest managers of tourist attractions with high heritage value to assess the altruistic motives of the firm carefully before engaging in a financial partnership.

Introduction The concept of forgiveness has been in the centre of research within the psychology domain for a number of years (e.g., Burnette, McCullough, Van Tongeren, & Davis, 2012; Fehr, Gelfand, & Nag, 2010; Mauger, Perry, Freeman, & Grove, 1992). It is surprising, however, that despite the relevance of forgiveness in marketing, the concept has failed to attract much attention and research in this area remains scarce. Few studies have looked into the importance of forgiveness in the context of marketing transgressions (Aaker, Fournier, & Brasel, 2004; Chung & Beverland, 2006; Mattila, 2001; Tax, Brown, & Chandrashekaran, 1998) and have largely focused on the services sector (e.g., Gudlaugsson & Eysteinsson, 2013; Zourrig, Chebat, & Toffoli, 2009). This study takes a broader perspective and addresses forgiveness at the brand level. Looking into consumer brand forgiveness is critical in that consumers often tend to evaluate and build relationships at the brand level rather than the firm level (Fournier, 1998). This research adopts a multi-method, multi-stage approach to conceptualise and operationalise brand forgiveness. Literature Review Forgiveness in the psychology literature has been defined as ‘the willful giving up of resentment in the face of another’s (or others’) considerable injustice and responding with beneficence to the offender even though that offender has no right to the forgiver’s moral goodness’ (Baskin & Enright, 2004, p. 80). Most of the literature on interpersonal forgiveness supports a multi-dimensional structure, consisting of affective, cognitive and behavioural components (e.g., McCullough, Worthington Jr, & Rachal, 1997). Interestingly, forgiveness in psychology has been seen as a relationship-constructive mechanism, similar to accommodation (Rusbult, Verette, Whitney, Slovik, & Lipkus, 1991) and willingness to sacrifice (Van Lange et al., 1997). It can also be understood as a psychological factor that is associated with restored relational closeness following an interpersonal transgression, in that it leads to the inhibition of avoidant behaviors and the facilitation of conciliatory behaviors (McCullough et al., 1997), as well as cooperation (Komorita, Hilty, & Parks, 1991) following interpersonal offenses. Despite the fact that most of the literature examines forgiveness following a specific offense, the concept has also a dispositional character, which very few studies addressed (e.g., Berry, Worthington, Parrott, O’Connor, & Wade, 2001).Forgiveness in the marketing domain has mostly been investigated in the context of services failures (e.g., Tsarenko & Tojib, 2011; Zourrig et al., 2009). Most of the research in this area relates to the concept of consumer forgiveness, which is defined as ‘consumers’ willingness to give up retaliation, alienation, and other destructive behaviours, and to respond in constructive ways after an organisational violation of trust and the related recovery efforts’ (Xie & Peng, 2009, p. 578). This definition highlights the behavioural component of forgiveness and fails to capture the cognitive and emotional aspects encapsulated in the concept (McCullough et al., 1997). In addition, the focus on ‘organizational violation’ is highly problematic as consumers often tend to evaluate and build relationships at the brand level rather than the firm level (Fournier, 1994). Transgressions addressed in the existing literature include moderately fit brand extensions (Fedorikhin, Park, & Thomson, 2008), negative PR (Xie & Peng, 2009) and delayed product launches (Herm, 2013). When conceptualising consumer forgiveness, Chung and Beverland (2006) suggested that the process of forgiveness provides a foundation for relationship restoration, which ultimately results in rebuilding trust (Chung & Beverland, 2006; Schoorman, Mayer, & Davis, 2007). Methodology Consistent with Churchill’s paradigm (1979) for scale development, qualitative data was first collected using 16 in-depth interviews with British consumers to better understand the concept of brand forgiveness and to identify pertinent dimensions. The interviews lasted on average 40 minutes. Based on the literature and the interviews an initial pool of items tapping consumer brand forgiveness was created. A questionnaire was subsequently developed that included the aforementioned item pool as well as demographic and nomological network variables. Data was collected in the UK using an online consumer panel. 603 fully completed questionnaires were returned. In line with scaling procedures (Chrurchill 1979) we divided the sample into two sub-samples: calibration (n=302) and validation (n=301). Results and Discussion The qualitative data supported the three-dimensional structure of consumer-brand forgiveness, which is consistent with the conceptualisation of interpersonal forgiveness (McCullough et al., 1997). For example issues regarding disappointment for the brand’s wrongdoing, impact on evaluations as well as intentions to switch to another brand emerged from the interviews. In line with our findings and extant research in this area, we define consumer brand forgiveness as the consumer’s cognitive, affective and behavioural response to a brand’s (perceived) wrongdoing. The quantitative data was used to confirm the dimensionality of the construct and develop a scale that measures consumer brand forgiveness. CFA was performed on the calibration sample and through an iterative process an acceptable fit was obtained; χ2 (24)= 70.495; GFI= .95; CFI= .98, TLI= .97, RMSEA= .08. Internal consistency and composite reliabilities were also within acceptable levels; α= .79, CR= .83 (cognitive), α= .85, CR= .86 (affective) and α= .96, CR= .96 (behavioural).CFA was then performed on the validation sample and acceptable fit was once again obtained; χ2 (24)= 70.800; GFI= .95; CFI= .98, TLI= .96, RMSEA= .08. All internal consistency and composite reliabilities were above .70; α= .82, CR= .82 (cognitive), α= .82, CR= .82 (affective) and α= .94, CR= .94 (behavioural). Convergent and discriminant validities were established using Fornell and Larcker’s criteria (1981). Table 1 provides a summary of the CFA results. The next step involved criterion-related validity tests, where two variables were drawn from relevant literature from both the psychology and the marketing literature, including brand love and relationship satisfaction. Regression analysis shows that brand forgiveness results in brand love (β= .32, p< .01) as well as relationship satisfaction (β= .69, p< .01). This confirms existing literature that forgiveness can lead to positive emotions (Takaku, 2001) and satisfaction with the relationship (McCullough et al., 1998). Conclusion and Implications for Theory and Practice Despite extensive research on interpersonal forgiveness, there is very little scholarly enquiry into forgiveness in the marketing domain. This is an important area for marketers to understand since forgiveness is likely to result into stronger relationships whilst the lack of it is may have detrimental effects on customer retention and advocacy. This study contributes in this area by providing an enriched conceptualisation of consumer brand forgiveness in the context of a brand’s wrongdoing and by developing a psychometrically sound scale that measures the levels of consumers’ brand forgiveness. Following a multi-stage methodology, our results establish a three-dimensional structure of consumer brand forgiveness, encompassing cognitive, affective and behavioural elements. The study also provides some initial insights into the consequences of forgiveness. Positive outcomes, such as brand love and relationship satisfaction are important outcomes of brand forgiveness. Following from these results, some important managerial implications could be identified. For example, managers could benefit significantly from reinforcing forgiveness, as this could lead to stronger ties with the brand and increased levels of satisfaction. A brand’s wrongdoing that subsequently results in affective, cognitive and behavioural forgiveness on the part of the consumer will benefit the brand. Managers should therefore not only focus their recovery strategies on behavioural forgiveness but also target strategies to ensure affective and cognitive forgiveness. Managers who are successful in building strong relationships with their customers might be more able to promote consumer brand forgiveness and therefore enjoy the positive benefits of the process. Therefore, CRM programs could be very useful in strengthening the relationships with customers and therefore have a greater likelihood of forgiveness should a wrongdoing occurs.

This paper aims to illuminate the relationship between economic recessions and advertising messages. A content analysis of 1720 television commercials indicated that during the severe economic recession in Greece, advertisers communicated more rational appeals and placed emphasis on creative devices that enhance understanding, learning and recall of message content.

Luxury brands embed meanings in advertising and encourage brand/category ritualistic behavior (Johar, Holbrook, & Stern, 2001; Otnes & Scott 1996). The ritualization of a luxury brands, such as champagne, is important because rituals encourage transformation and status attainment (Driver, 1991; Otnes & Scott, 1996). Yet, do all luxury consumers interpret the rituals communicated in advertising similarly? We consider Collins (2004) Interaction Ritual Theory (IRT) to examine how advertised rituals transform consumption practices of luxury products. We used a hermeneutic phenomenological research method (Langdridge, 2007), collecting data (interviews and photos) from 18 informants (Atkinson & Flint, 2001) using a two-tier collection strategy (see Ziller, 1990). After informants provided images of champagne (see Collier & Collier, 1986; Heisley & Levy, 1991), semi-structure interviews were conducted. The questions related to topics such as champagne sharing, ritual influence, image descriptions, and personal consumption. The data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach (Glaser, 1978), inductively coded based on IRT’s conditions. A thematic analysis of the images was also conducted (Fereday & Muir-Cochrane, 2006) as was an iterative analysis of the transcripts. The researchers separately and then together analyzed the images and transcripts to determine similarities, understandings, and interpretations of emergent themes. Consistent with taste regimes literature (Arsel & Bean, 2013), we find champagne consumption is also practiced and ritualized according to two types of regimes. Within an open regime, informants experience champagne as a medium for engaging with limited individuals, with the product as the kernel of the experience. The open regime is a negotiated (beyond what is advertised) ritual that can be explored and extended. Alternatively, a closed regime represents a more stagnant system of social interaction, emerging as a product of the situation, often a celebration (as typically advertised). Those practicing a closed regime banalize the ritual, have hegemonic discourses related to product, and have more difficulty naming brands. Consumer’s luxury brand expectations, including rituals, are often interpreted through advertising and brand-created communications. Understanding how consumers integrate brand messages into rituals with the products and brands as well as the brand role in rituals is important. While it can be hard for brands to know their target customers’ ritual regime, brands may choose varied communications approaches to reach both consumer types. Either way, consumer expectations of open regimes are likely built through advertising, while closed regimes are built through special events and intensive distribution strategies.

46 2016 Global Marketing Conference at Hong Kong Proceedings: 46-47 (July 2016) http://dx.doi.org/10.15444/GMC2016.01.04.01 WHY DO CONSUMERS BUY PREMIUM PRIVATE LABELS? – SOME QUAL-ITATIVE INSIGHTS Olivier Reimann, University of Vienna, Austria1) Udo Wagner, University of Vienna, Austria2) ABSTRACT Private labels (PL) have developed remarkably well during the last two decades. In many Western European countries they achieved market shares of around 30 percent and more. A phenomenon that recently gained momentum in academia and practice are premium PL (PPL). That are PL positioned as “better and cheaper” or “higher in price and superior in quality” compared to the leading NB. However, with regard to the perceived quality gaps consumers attributed economy and standard PLs vis-à-vis national brands (NB) in the past, it appears contradictory that PPL could become “one of the hottest trends in retail-ing”. To the best of the authors’ knowledge no study published up to now has addressed the following research question: Why do consumers prefer PPL over NB or other PL tiers. The present work tries to provide some insights into this research gap. We conducted two empirical research projects which aim at shedding some light on po-tential drivers of PPL product choice. Both projects are field studies with two leading grocery retail chains in a Central European country as research objects. In this country, the grocery retail market is characterized by a relatively high PL market share (29 percent in 2013) and a high concentration of retailer power: in 2014 the top three retailers cov-ered 85 percent of the overall market. Project I conducted focus group interviews. Partici-pants discussed about economy PL, standard PL and PPL products. Participants debated whether / under which circumstances they would choose one of these PL tiers or a NB. Research project II consisted of semi-structured interviews conducted with consumers in stores. The study revealed major determinants of PPL product choice: (1) quality and price, (2) packaging, (3) origin, and uniqueness, and (4) co-branding. We also gained some insights into the role of psychographics and demographics, brand management and communica-tion as well as on store loyalty. Disadvantageous for retailers, the reasons for PPL prod-uct choice are mainly not PPL brand related. PPL shoppers search for intrinsic or extrin-sic cues and would buy any other brand that offers a similar product. However, the find-ings for co-branding PPL showed that suggestions to apply traditional branding strategies in order to increase (premium) PL success should gain more attention from academia and retailers.

This research examines how consumer ethnocentrism and global social bonding affect consumer appreciation for foreign products in the home country. Our research findings show that consumer ethnocentrism lowers diversity appreciation; global social bonding enhances diversity appreciation; and global social bonding moderates the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and diversity appreciation.

Introduction An individual’s Persuasion Knowledge is his or her knowledge of the persuasive nature of messages (Freisted and Wright 1994). Most adults are assumed to have this knowledge that enables them to be sceptical of persuasive messages, and to incorporate this information in their decision-making about promoted products. Children are viewed as vulnerable to persuasive messages (Nelson 2016) because they have not developed the appropriate knowledge base to be sceptical of messages (Mallinckrodt and Mizerski 2007) and thus unable to discount the claims made by marketers. This lack of ability to be sceptical is argued to lead to “…the vulnerability of young audiences to the negative effects of advertising” (Nelson 2016, p. 169) like obesity, materialism, poor quality of life and higher rates of mortality. Because of the wide acceptance that young children are particularly vulnerable to persuasive messages, advertising targeting children has been banned in several countries and proposed for others (Mizerski et al. 2016; Wang 2016). Many studies about Persuasion Knowledge or Advertising Knowledge (communication research) have been published over the 40 plus years since Ward (1972) first discussed the concept. However, few studies have tested whether Persuasion Knowledge is an antecedent to children’s sceptical responses to persuasive messages. The 11 studies that have tested the link (see Mizerski et al. (2016) for a review) used a wide variety of single item or reflective measures (measures that reflect the construct). They provide inconsistent findings except that the child’s age is positively associated with acquiring knowledge about persuasive messages like advertising or playing advergames. For example, while most researchers assumed or argued a positive link between young children’s persuasion knowledge and their scepticism, Buijzen (2007) and Christenson (1982) failed to find this link. Robertson and Rossiter (1974) reported children’s understanding of persuasive intent (commercials persuade one to buy things) was positively related with young children’s scepticism, but assistive intent (commercials tell one about things) was negatively related. The inconsistent findings of children’s responses to commercial messages may be due to more than the lack of consistent measures. The use of reflective rather than formative measure of young children’s persuasion knowledge may be another reason for inconsistent findings. “Young” children are those under eight years old (Mizerski 1) shashaatperth@gmail.com et al. 2016), but a lack of sufficient persuasion knowledge has been found with children over 16 years old (Carter et al. 2011). Most recent studies have adopted the Freisted and Wright (1994) Persuasion Knowledge Model that is based on the information processing of an adult buyer. Adults tend to have obtained Persuasion Knowledge so their knowledge may be captured with measures that reflect the construct. Young children are in the process of obtaining Persuasion Knowledge. The ability to understand the source of the message and the persuasive intent of the source are often cited as antecedents to having Persuasion Knowledge. These constructs form over time and cause persuasion knowledge (Nelson 2016). Therefore, it should be a formative measure. Measuring social class is a classical formative measure because causal elements like where you live and your profession can’t be accurately calculated for children. Social class forms over time. The use of a reflective measure when a formative measure should be used leads to several problems (Diamantopoulos and Siguaw 2006; Diamantopoulos and Winklhofer 2001), particularly an increase in Type II errors-“false negatives” (MacKenzie, Podsakoff and Jarvis 2005). For example, this means ruling out a causal element of persuasion knowledge when it is causal. This paper will compare existing single item or multi-item reflective measures used with young children, with a formative measure of the Persuasive Knowledge construct. The best way to validate a construct is to test it with external variables empirically and theoretically linked to the construct, including both antecedents and consequences (Diamantopoulos and Winklhofer 2001). Three variables, theoretically and/or empirically linked with young children’s Persuasion Knowledge, are tested in a baseline model to assess the external validity of the construct. These variables are age (Ward 1972), responses toward persuasive marketing messages (such as scepticism) and affect toward the persuasive messages (Mizerski et al. 2016; Wang 2016). Therefore, it is expected that the goodness-of-fit measures for the model using the formative measure of young children’s Persuasion Knowledge will provide a better fit to the data than the reflective measures. To further test the formative nature of young children’s Persuasion Knowledge, two additional models are tested. Researchers are responsible to set the weights of indicators of a formative construct, so a formative model with expert knowledge weights is developed (Figure 1). The indicators or elements of a formative construct should be able to reveal different facets so another model with different facets is developed. Consistent findings of the two models and the proposed baseline model will further support the formative nature of this construct. Apart from content validity and external validity, we also test the measures of the construct with another data set (Mallinckrodt and Mizerski 2007) to test the models’ generalisability. The Mallinckrodt and Mizerski study used children from a different cultural background (Australian vs. Chinese young children), but have similar ages and measures of Persuasion Knowledge and external variables. Further confirmation of the structure of the measurement model is provided if the same relationships are found with the second data set. Methodology Sample The population to be sampled are young Chinese children. China was selected because it has the largest population of young children, is the largest market for toys and a children’s toy is the stimulus product in the experimental study. The sample frame is day care schools in a Northern Chinese city of approximately eight million people. Procedure This is an experiment-based study with a control group. After individual exposure to a toy TV advertisement for a “magic ruler” that can be made into many different shapes with a Dinosaur shape shown in the ad, participants were each asked to answer questions. Cartoon pictures of the question options accompanied by verbal statements were used to reduce the possibility of misunderstanding young children’s responses on Persuasion Knowledge related questions. To reduce any effects of young children choosing the first option they see, pictures or options were shown in a random order. Children were told that there is no right or wrong answer, and they could withdraw at any point. Measures Persuasion knowledge was measured three ways; including a single-item measure, a summated-items measure, and a formative measure. Through an analysis and coding of 20 studies that tested the effect of young children’s persuasion knowledge (Mizerski et al. 2016), six items were found to measure the Persuasion Knowledge construct. The single-item measure used is the children’s understanding of the advertisers’ intention to make them ask their parents to buy (parent-buying intent). This was treated as the most important aspect of persuasion knowledge by several researchers (Carter et al. 2011; Mallinckrodt and Mizerski 2007). A summated-items measure included six items, frequently used in prior scholarly work. The formative measurement model was built using the same six items but by changing the direction of influence, with the causal flow from measures to the construct. Other variables include the children’s scepticism, their belief of false claims made in the ad and affect toward the toy TV advertisement (see Figure). After a CFA analysis with five questions, the scepticism factor score was derived as a standardised measure that followed a normal distribution. Scepticism ranged from -0.59 to 1.35, with an average of 0.07 and SD of 0.68. Belief of false claims (named as “false beliefs”) shown in the TV advertisement indicated that most children did not believe the two false claims included in the ad (84% and 69% respectively). Affect towards the toy TV ad was measured using one question: “Do you like this video?” to which most children (88%) indicated yes. Results, Discussion And Implication Fifty-four different patterns or combinations of the six persuasion knowledge items were found. This pattern show substantial heterogeneity in children’s Persuasion Knowledge, and further illustrates that young children are accumulating or forming their Persuasion Knowledge (Friestad and Wright 1994). In addition, these items have low correlations to one another that are typical of a formative measure. These findings of variability of knowledge levels and weak association between them indicate the potential multiple-dimension, formative nature of the construct of persuasion knowledge for young children. This may apply specifically to young children who are at the stage of increasing their learning abilities and developing or forming their knowledge. No relationship was found in the structural models using the reflective single-item measure and summated-items measure of persuasion knowledge, and the models showed a poor fit. However, relationships were found in the structural model that applied the formative measure of persuasion knowledge, with good model fit (see Table 1). Because a formative measure is supported, we tested the formative nature of Persuasion Knowledge on a previous study’s data (Mallinckrodt and Mizerski 2007). A formative model using that study’s data showed the same relationships between Persuasion Knowledge and its external variables. This consistency supports a formative measure of young children’s persuasion knowledge. Any review of future or past research should note the possible impact of using reflective measures of young children’s Persuasive Knowledge. To generalise the findings more research needs to be done for different product categories and age groups. More product categories, such as food and movies, and age groups could be taken into consideration. While few studies have tested the association of young children’s Persuasion Knowledge to scepticism toward the message, even fewer have tested the link of scepticism to young children’s responses to the advertised product (e.g. like, prefer, choose). Most of these studies do not find a link. If having Persuasion Knowledge doesn’t influence a young child’s desire for the brand, why teach it (e.g. Nelson 2016) or ban advertising because the children don’t have Persuasion Knowledge? Perhaps using a formative measure the link will be found.

Since the first success of animal cloning, somatic cell nuclear transfer presented various ideas in many research areas such as regenerative medicine. However, SCNT embryos has poor survival rate. Therefore, numerous researches carried out to enhance the developmental capability of porcine nuclear transfer embryos. Cytochalasin B, demecolcine, latrunculin A, cycloheximide and 6-dimethylaminopurine are efficient chemicals treated in post-activation procedure to increase the efficiency of SCNT. This review study is aim to investigate the effects of these chemicals applied to post-activation in porcine SCNT. Cytochalasin B, demecolcine, latrunculin A are cytoskeletal manuplators inhibit extrusion of pseudo-polar body. Cytochalasin B and demecolcine showed considerably higher blastocyst formation proportion (26-28%) compared to when they are not treated (16%). And when latrunculin A was treated for postactivation, blastocyst formation proportion was increased in SCNT embryos exposed to LA (38%) than those in control (14%). On the other hand, cycloheximide and 6-dimethylaminopurine are protein synthesis and kinase inhibitors. And they help to maintain Ca2+ fluctuation in oocytes. Cleavage and blastocyst rates of NT embryos were increased when they were exposed to CHX (16.9% and 5.4% with no CHX).And 6-DMAP also showed higher blastocyst formation (21.5% compared to 15.7%, control). Although all these chemicals have different mechanisms, they showed developmental competence enhancement in NT embryos. However, there are only few studies comparing each chemical’s post-activation effect. Therefore, further research and study should be conducted to find optimal chemical for improving the efficiency of SCNT.

This study is performed to evaluate the effect of insulin in the porcine parthenogenetic embryo development. In porcine embryo culture, insulin is helpful factor in the process of embryo development. To identify this, insulin is used in pig embryos development. Therefore, this study was performed to investigate the effect of insulin on early embryonic development in pigs. For that, insulin positive or negative (0, 10 ug/mL) was supplemented in the porcine IVM media and then compared two groups divided by the cytoplasm of the black groups and white ring groups based on the distribution of lipid material of the cell cytoplasm in microscope. In maturation rates of porcine oocytes, significant higher black group rates were shown in the insulin positive groups compared with other groups (56.0±2.1 vs 46.2±0.3). In the embryo culture, black groups were showed the significant higher cleavage rates (82.1±0.8, 78.3±0.1 vs 63.2±0.3, 63.4±0.0), and blastocyst formation rates (15.5±3.6, 16.6±0.4 vs 11.7±1.3, 7.4±0.2) regardless of whether the addition of insulin. Also, black groups were showed higher cell number of blastocyst (33.2±2.5, 35.5±2.6 vs 31.2±2.1, 31.3±2.2). In conclusion, supplement of insulin producing black group in vitro maturation, it was effective in vitro maturation and embryonic development of pig embryos.

Efficient and sustainable sea transport is a key aspect to ensure cost competitive ship operation. The constant need to increase economic feasibility, energy efficiency and safety while complying with emission regulations motivates further developments and improvements in voyage optimization and weather routing systems. These systems optimize a voyage based on meteorological and oceanographic information taking into account ship characteristics and routing information. The quality of the provided route not only depends on the quality of this data, but also on the modeling of the optimization problem and the algorithm chosen to solve it. Due to the wide range of mathematical approaches and consequently challenges in decision making, this paper aims to give a comprehensive and comparative overview of the existing state-of-the-art methods by a thorough literature review and elaboration of different modeling approaches, optimization algorithms, and their application in weather routing systems. The research shows that approaches range from modeling the weather routing problem as a constrained graph problem, a constrained nonlinear optimization problem or as combination of both. Based on the formulation of the ship weather routing optimization problem different methods are used to solve it ranging from Dijkstra’s algorithm, dynamic programing and optimal control methods to isochrone methods or iterative approaches for solving nonlinear optimization problems. However, it can be concluded that the determination whether an approach is suitable, produces sufficient results and may be recommended, strongly depends on the specific requirements concerning optimization objectives, control variables and constraints as well as the implementation.

This paper presents how Digital Knowledge Ecosystem such as “Govi Nena” (translates as agriculture intelligence) can be used to provide a more effective and practical solution to eliminate the inefficiencies in agricultural markets and achieve higher productivity and price stability. In order to establish the framework to analyze the system, this paper uses a set of hypothetical scenarios faced by value chain actors based on a review of the literature, established knowledge and recent developing country experiences. The scenario analysis reveals that “Govi Nena” enables farmers to make effective production decisions, deepens the level of value chain integration, and enhances the level of welfare for the society as a whole.