In a region fraught with tensions and conflicts, the South China Sea Arbitral Award Case (Case) concerned maritime conflicts between the Philippines and China, an inter-State, non-consensual, ex-parte arbitration under Annex VII of the UN Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS). The Case went against China. The Annex VII Tribunal decision of first and last instance, was final and without appeal. However, to the authors, the Case drew attention to the inherently unfair provisions of an exparte hearing under Annex VII that violates the principle of natural justice and casts uncertainty on the role and future of mandatory conciliation under the UNCLOS. These omissions are addressed here. Noting these omissions and limitations, to restore regional goodwill, ameliorate conflicts and tensions, and promote dispute settlement, a solution in mandatory conciliation is proposed -“A Partnership in Comity and Conciliation for the South China Sea”- with its provenance rooted in international law.

This study examines the relationship between the internal communication and nine dimensions of Internal Marketing and their interconnection to shape the conditions for the job satisfaction. The paper utilizes the mixed method. Data were collected from six Public Universities in Greece and in Cyprus. Findings are presented and results are discussed.

The success of Marvel movies attracts more companies to place their brands in this series of movies, apparel brand like Under Armour or car manufacturer like BMW has largely used the movie as medium of product placement to increase brand equity. To understand how the product placement in the movie affect consumer attitude and purchase intention is in needed. Neer (2004) states that product placement is a type of marketing by creating impression for consumers unconsciously through incorporation into the plot of TV programs, movies and other media. The conceptual model was built based on the Russell’s (2002) tripartite typology of product placement and social comparison theory. We presume brand-self congruity, placement explicitness, plot connection, and attitude toward the plot and role are positively related to brand attitude and purchase intention. The research employed experiment with a 2 (placement explicitness: prominent/subtle) x 2 (plot connection: main character/supporting role) between subject design. The research theme is under the Under Armour because the brand used product placement as the company’s major marketing communication process of move placement. The research result shows that the more the product placement is identifiable in the movies, with frequent usage or appearance in main plot, the better the placement effect is; the preference of consumers on movies, including plot and role attitude, explicitly influences placement effect. If the real self or ideal self of consumers are consistent with brand image, a higher brand attitude and purchase intention will occur. To best of our knowledge, our paper is first one using self-congruity and attitude toward the plot to investigate the outcome of product placement in the movies. The research concludes with implications for promotion strategy to advance brand image and purchase intention by increasing the effectiveness of product placement. Future research suggestions relevant to the product placement issues, marketing communication and brand management are also provided.

The Prep Com recommended in July that the UNGA initiate a negotiating conference on areas beyond national jurisdiction. It is widely expected to make such a decision. Then, the long haul negotiation will begin. The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea does not regulate marine genetic resources in areas beyond the national jurisdiction of States (BBNJ). Part XIII of the Convention could accommodate BBNJ research, but not its governance. The triangulation of three factors-the interim absence of an international framework for governance of BBNJ research, an indirect reference to this issue in the on-going BBNJ deliberations on access and benefit sharing and an interim laissez-faire attitude in BBNJ exploration and exploitation-leads to a need for transparency in governance of BBNJ research activities. To address this lacuna, a United Nations Register on BBNJ Research Activities is recommended, encouraging scientists from all regions including Asia to engage in BBNJ research.

The relationships among corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, corporate identity, and Hedonic and Utilitarian Dimensions of Consumer Attitude were evaluated for the luxury corporation Hermes. Discretionary CSR practices and moral/ethical CSR practices emerged as significant predictors of the corporate social values dimension of identity. Relational CSR practices, however, contributed mainly to the expertise dimension of corporate identity. Also, familiarity with CSR practices of a corporation had a significant effect on corporate identity, which in turn affected both dimensions of consumer attitude. Both corporate expertise and corporate social values were significant predictors of consumer attitude. The results are interpreted within a dual process model of corporate identity.

The main goals of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) project are to 1) detect ultra-low-frequency gravitational waves, 2) improve the solar system planetary ephemeris and 3) provide a long-term, stable time standard. In this paper, we highlight the main results from the project so far and discuss our expectations for the future.

The limited available empirical evidence indicates that consumer ethnocentrism does not have a uniform effect on consumer buying (e.g., Klein, Ettenson & Morris 1998; Suh & Kwon 2002). The paper comes to address this gap by investigating the inconsistency of ethnocentric behaviours and the factors underlying such inconsistencies. More specifically, brand, product category and country of origin (COO) effects are examined for their impact on behavioural consumer ethnocentric bias. Contrary to the main stream of research in this area, which concentrates on general attitudes towards the products or buying intentions (e.g., Balabanis & Diamantopoulos 2004; Poon et al. 2010; Sharma etal. 1995; Shimp & Sharma 1987; Verlegh 2007; Wang & Chen 2004) this paper focuses on behavioural outcomes of consumer ethnocentrism. In addition, it adopts a more focused approach and examines the impact of consumer ethnocentrism on the purchase of specific brands, rather than the impact of consumer ethnocentrism on general product categorisations or simple foreigndomestic product dichotomies. Hypotheses are developed to explain observed differences in the behavioural effects of consumer ethnocentrism. The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 468 US consumers involving purchases in 10 product categories, 432 brands and 22 countries of origin. Results confirm that product category is an important determinant of the behavioural effects of consumer ethnocentrism. Consumer ethnocentrism was found to have an impact on the purchases of the most expensive product categories rather than the frequently purchase convenient items. There is also some limited evidence regarding the moderating role of globalness of brands on the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and purchase behaviour. The cultural proximity of the country of origin of foreign brands was found to have no effect on the purchasing behaviour of ethnocentric consumers.

This paper will describe a powder and processing method that facilitates single press-single sintered densities approaching 7.5 g/cm³. At this sintered density, mechanical properties of the powder metal (P/M) component are significantly improved over current P/M technologies and begin to approach the performance of wrought steels. High performance gears have the added requirement of rolling contact fatigue durability that is dependent upon localized density and thermal processing. Combining high density processing of engineered P/M materials with selective surface densification enables powder metal components to achieve rolling contact fatigue durability and mechanical property performance that satisfy the performance requirements of many high strength automotive transmission gears. Data will be presented that document P/M part performance in comparison to conventional wrought steel grades.

Machining of sinter-hardened PM steels provides a challenge for part makers. To facilitate machining of these materials, a new additive (MA) has been developed to increase tool life during the machining process. Hard turning tests were performed to evaluate the effect of this new additive. Sintered compacts with the MA additive were compared to compacts without a machining aid and to compacts that contained the MnS additive. This paper discusses the improvement in machinability with this new additive in sinter-hardenable PM steels.

This study explores whether the implementation of sustainability disclosure can trigger or stimulate the change in the roles of management accountants in adopting organizations in Vietnam as business partners. To do so, it explores the roles of management accountants in integrated reporting (IR) adopting organizations and sustainability reporting (SR) adopting organizations based on the use of the pragmatic constructivism (PC) theoretical framework. In addition, qualitative semi-structured interviews were used to provide an in-depth investigation of management accountants’ work in both IR and SR adopting organizations. The empirical findings suggest that the adoption of the IR framework has triggered changes in management accountant roles toward the new business partner roles to support the decision-making process within their organizations. On the other hand, management accountants from SR adopting organizations still work as traditional “bean-counter” roles. Our paper concludes by indicating several propositions based on our empirical findings that can be tested by future researchers from the domain by collecting relevant data. Our study can be seen as a response to the recent call for a more in-depth examination of the practice of sustainability disclosure from the practitioners’ perspectives in adopting organizations.