Plant genetic resources are fundamental materials for crop improvement to enhance productivity and an insurance against unforeseen threats to agricultural production. Continuous advancement in crop improvement depends on discovery of new sources of genetic variation, accurate identification of lines with favorable traits, and their efficient and judicious use. Core collections (~10% of the entire collection) and mini core collections (~10% of the core or ~1% of the entire collection) have been suggested as a gateway to enhance utilization of germplasm. Using passport data, characterization and evaluation data, core and/or mini core collections have been developed in chickpea, groundnut, pigeonpea, pearl millet, sorghum, finger millet and foxtail millet at ICRISAT, Patancheru, India. Evaluation of these subsets has resulted in identification of new sources of genotypic variation. The concept and process of developing mini core collections has been recognized worldwide as an “International Public Good” (IPG). Many national programs have shown immense interest in evaluating mini core collections for identification of new sources of variation for use in crop improvement programs. To date, 84 sets of mini core of chickpea, groundnut, pigeonpea, sorghum, pearl millet, foxtail millet and finger millet have been supplied to researchers in 13 countries. Feedback revealed that researchers in national programs were able to identify new sources of variation for favorable traits, such as early maturity, resistance to pests and diseases, large seed size, and high grain yield. Seeds of mini core collections could be available to researchers globally for research and training purpose.

This paper proposes a fusion controller combing an anti-windup PID controller and BELBIC (Brain Emotional Learning Based Intelligent Controller) for controlling the position and vibration of a robot system having a single flexible manipulator. A finite element model of the flexible manipulator is developed. The reliability of it is verified by comparing the natural frequencies computed using the finite-element method with the experimentally measured ones. An MSC.ADAMS computational model of the robot system is interfaced with the proposed controller in MATLAB/Simulink, for carrying out a simulation. The simulation is performed with various references inputs and endpoint masses. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed controller for control of the position and vibration of the flexible manipulator is shown through the simulation.

Using Service Dominant Logic (SDL) to place marketing research, this paper conceptualizes and empirically tests the triadic relationship of place branding, souvenir branding, and consumers‟ perceptions of souvenir brands. We propose place branding to be the dominant strategy that encompasses destination product branding and brand personalities of such brands.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that incidents like the recall of the exploding Samsung Galaxy 7 phones drive owners of other (competing) brands to experience and express feelings of joy when a rival brand fails (e.g., “the hottest phone in the streets!”). Although consumers sometimes experience brand-related schadenfreude—that is, joy out of other brand’s failure—, psychological processes driving schadenfreude are not clearly understood (Hickman & Ward, 2007; Van Dijk, Van Koningsbruggen, Ouwerkerk, & Wesseling, 2011). We propose that schadenfreude may be elicited by consumers’ tendencies to stand by their choices (Ye & Gawronski, 2016). We demonstrate that consumers show higher levels of schadenfreude if their choice is disconfirmed; for example, by a comparative product review that evaluates their chosen brand to be inferior to a rival non-chosen brand. Furthermore, this effect is moderated by the popularity of the chosen brand and mediated by feelings of self-threat. Moreover, we show that this effect is stronger for narcissists. We also find evidence that schadenfreude is a means for consumers to reaffirm their sense of self after they experience a self-threat induced by the disconfirmation of their choice.

Cause-related marketing is a pervasive, global marketing tactic, and the practice grew by 18.5 percent between 2011 to 2016 (IEG 2017). While considerable academic research has been directed to understanding this practice and its impact on consumers, one aspect has received little attention. Almost nothing is known about the impact on consumer perceptions when a firm withdraws from a partnership. Firms withdraw their support of a charity for many reasons (i.e., the charity no longer resonates with major stakeholders, the sponsorship fails to produce the projected results for the charity or the firm, or the firm faces financial constraints). We conducted three on-line experiments with samples of North American adult consumers to address this knowledge gap. We examined the impact of three types of withdrawal on consumer perceptions: withdrawal from a partnership, replacement of one non-profit partner with another partner, withdrawal from a partnership and a price decrease offered based on the savings resulting from terminating the sponsorship. Given that the extant research established that the alignment of the cause with the core business of the firm is an important factor in the success of CRM strategies, we manipulated this variable along with the various withdrawal scenarios. Our findings reveal that consumers view a divorce negatively despite actions taken by firms to offset consumers’ negative views.

Marketing research shows that long-term customer-supplier relationships can reduce consequences of service failures in the hospitality industry. In addition to a long-term, continuous relationship, other types of long-term relationships are also conceivable as influencing factors. This raises the question of whether interactions with a company, based on customer engagement during childhood (childhood engagement) can influence the effect of a service failure. Similar to general child experience, it can be assumed that early engagement in the customer relationship can significantly affect later relationship perception. Furthermore, perceived controllability of the failure also plays a role. If the customer attributes responsibility to the company, negative reactions can arise. To examine this questions, an experimental study with 152 participants was performed. A moderating effect of perceived controllability and childhood engagement on repurchase intention as a consequence of disappointment was found. Previous customer engagement and a credible communication can thus prevent the termination of a relationship after a service failure. Contrary, early engagement does not generally prevent a company from customers’ disappointment. The article contributes to marketing research by integrating 1) the customer disappointment, 2) childhood engagement and its consequences for future interactions with the company as well as 3) the transfer of negative emotions from an employee to the company.

As blogs continue to grow in importance, they have quickly become one of the largest and most established forms of non-traditional media (Onishi and Manchanda, 2012; Stephen and Galak, 2012). Due to this popularity, brands are striving to connect to consumers through the blogosphere. One of the most popular approaches is incentivization, whereby the brand incentivizes the blogger to write a review of a given product (Uribe, Buzeta and Velásquez, 2016; Hwang and Jeong, 2016). However, incentivization may pose significant risks for bloggers, who are perceived to be independent from corporate interests and a credible source of information. We employed three experimental studies to show that intrinsic, as compared to extrinsic, incentivization acceptance motives mitigate the negative effect of positive incentivized reviews on perceived independence, credibility and ultimately, blog loyalty. In our final experiment, we find that that followers who are attached to a blog are more likely to continue to browse, revisit and recommend the blog, regardless of incentivization acceptance motives.

The study examines physiological and neuronal processes of 26 inexpert wine drinkers in order to understand how consumers judge and choose wines during product experience. We analyzed if an increase in the beta band activity can be related to reward process and individual preference for a wine. We predicted that tasting different wines influence participants' preferences and beta band activity. We also hypothesized that high beta band activity would be related to preferences for a wine. The results confirmed that 1) tasting different wines modulate individual preferences and beta band activity and 2) the higher preferences for a wine corresponded to a stronger decrease in beta band oscillations.

Introduction Celebrities are actively capitalizing on their fame and credibility by launching their own brand extensions which are heavily promoted on Instagram. This situation is especially prevalent in Malaysia among many local Malay ‘celepreneurs’. While consumers’ constant involvement with a celebrity on Instagram is believed to result in the purchase of celebrity branded products, the central question of how a causal variable such as Instagram involvement has an effect on the outcome of purchase has been less explored in contemporary studies. The role of celebrity adulation and style conformity in the context of celebrity branding-cum-entrepreneurship deserves much attention given the strong influence celebrities exert on young consumers in this digital era of accessible information. Research framework Given the admiration that young consumers have towards the celebrities they follow on Instagram, celebrity worship, in both pathological and non-pathological form, is believed to be a crucial link between their involvement with the social media and their desire to imitate their favourite celebrity’s style. Eventually this paves the way for the purchase of celebrity brand products given that getting the products is an avenue for the young consumers to attain their celebrities’ style. Therefore in this study, four variables that mediate the relationship between Instagram involvement and purchase of celebrity branded products are examined: celebrity worship as manifested across three varying levels particularly entertainment-social (lowest form of worship); intense-personal (mid-level); borderline pathological (highest level); and style conformity. Method Data was collected from 226 Malaysian women of Malay ethnicity who are active Instagram users and fall under the technology-savvy Millennial segment using a self-administered questionnaire. This segment of consumers is technology savvy and has personalities and lifestyles (Gurau, 2012). They also tend to imitate their favourite celebrity in contrast to their male counterparts (Djafarova & Rushworth, 2017). Measures for the mediating variables were derived from McCutcheon et al.’s (2002) Celebrity Worship Scale and Park and Yang’s (2010) items on celebrity style conformity. A five-point scale (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree) was utilized to capture the responses to the variables measured. Analysis and results Serial multiple mediation testing was applied on the data using variance-based structural equation modelling. The multiple mediation analysis showed that of all the three levels of celebrity worship which mediate the link between Instagram involvement and style conformity, only celebrity worship (entertainment-social) was found to be a significant mediator between Instagram involvement and style conformity (Indirect effect=0.127; t-value= 3.285, 95% Boot CI: LL=0.059, UL=0.216). In addition, the presence of a serial mediation was detected for the link between Instagram involvement-celebrity worship (entertainment-social)-style conformity-purchase of celebrity brand products (Indirect effect=0.04; t-value=2.954, 95% Boot CI: LL=0.02, UL=0.08). Conclusion The serial mediation testing in this study has demonstrated that celebrity worship and style conformity serve as the missing link between the involvement-purchase relationship. Furthermore, the multiple mediation testing has shown that only celebrity worship at the basic level functions as a mediator. The findings of this study imply that the use of Instagram is indeed a compelling marketing communication tool that fosters the purchase of celebrity brand extensions. Constant involvement in Instagram by following the celebrity, liking, reposting, commenting or hashtagging on the celebrity’s account builds a keen sense of devotion for the celebrity whereby the individual will constantly watch, read and learn about the celebrity. This then heightens the user’s desire to emulate the style of the celebrity which may well lead them to purchase the celebrity’s products in an effort to imitate the celebrity’s look and demeanour. strong desire for and high willingness to spend on branded products that match their

In nowadays consumption-based society, products (e.g. food and electronic products) are often thrown away before they are sufficiently used. The aversive consequence of such a lifestyle is becoming more alarming. There is an urgent need for a change in people’s consumption style. How can we make people correct their existing wasteful consumption behaviors and act responsibly? In fact, feelings very often can influence people’s behavior and judgments (Schwarz, 1990), even though the feelings are aroused by irrelevant sources - incidental emotion (Garg, Inman, & Mittal, 2005; Lerner & Keltner, 2000; Schwarz & Clore, 1983). Feelings of guilt and shame are known as moral emotions which are the guidance to ethical behaviors (Tangney, 1991, 2003). Although there is a significant overlapping between these two emotions, they also differ in several important aspects. One critical difference lies in the way the transgressor makes attributions (Niedenthal, Tangney, & Gavanski 1994). A transgressor who attributes the wrongdoing to a specific behavior (i.e. “I’ve done something bad”) is more likely to experience guilt while a transgressor who makes attribution to the global self (i.e. “I’m a terrible person”) is more likely to experience shame (Tracy & Robins, 2004). Given these fundamental differences, we speculate that a guilt-laden consumer is more likely to correct his or her wrongdoing (i.e. wastage) by taking reparative actions to minimize waste but a shame-laden consumer may possibly give up doing so. Findings from an experimental study (N=90) largely support this prediction. Undergraduate students who were made to feel shame were less likely to participate in a recycling campaign organized by the university than the students in the control condition. They reported a lower intention to use recycling facilities provided. On the other hand, participants who were made to feel guilt reported a marginally higher intention to participate in the campaign than the control participants. These preliminary findings suggest that emotional experience derived from other life domains might determine responsible consumption behaviors. Shame, which is commonly regarded as a moral emotion, may not necessarily make people more responsible consumers. The mechanism that underlies this effect may warrant further investigation.

This paper develops a conceptual model of international social media marketing strategy that describes how culture shapes consumers’ use of social media around the world. Drawing from cultural psychology, marketing, and computer information systems, we use Kietzmann et al.’s (2011) functional building blocks of social media to organize social media functions, then explicate how various dimensions of culture affect the way such social media functions are used across cultures. By delineating these complex relationships, our model and the propositions that stem from it offer directions for future research and advance understanding of cross-cultural differences with implications for businesses that provide social media or capitalize on social media for global reach in the international marketplace.

The dual processes of cognition and affect impact consumers’ choice of sharing economy-based experiential tourism. Prior knowledge of sharing economy technologies and favourable attitude toward sharing economy impact consumers’ intention to adopt a peer-to-peer experiential tourist service. Data from 150 respondents and OLS and OLogit analyses supported the hypothesis.

This study was carried out to estimate the effect of selected inoculants on chemical compositions and fermentation characteristics of rye silage. Rye was harvested at dough stage and divided into 5 treatments, following: No additives (CON); L. plantarum R48-27 (LP27); L. buchneri R4-26 (LB26); Mixture of LP27 and LB26 at 1:1 ratio (MIX); and L. buchneri (LB). The rye forage was ensiled into 10 L bucket silo for 100 days. The contents of NDF and ADF were lowest (P<0.05) in LB26. The pH in LB26, MIX, and LB were lower (P<0.05) than CON and LP27. Lactate content in LB was higher (P<0.05) than the others, while acetate content in LB26 and LB were higher (P<0.05) than that in CON and LP27. Lactate to acetate ratio was highest (P<0.05) in LB, but lowest in LB26. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) count in LB was higher (P<0.05) than that in CON, while yeast count in CON was lower than in all silages applied inoculants. In conclusion, silages inoculated with LB26 could improve potentially the aerobic stability caused by increases of acetate and propionate concentrations.