Comparisons between bare carbon (CPs) and nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles (N-CPs) synthesised using hydrothermal reaction are carried out. It was found that hydrothermal reaction of citric acid yields graphene-like sheets, while the nitrogen doping using ethylenediamine resulted in amorphous polymeric ball-like hydrocarbons devoid of any aromatic rings. Although the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy indicate the presence of carbon–carbon double bonds (C=C), and the ground states of both materials are very deep (> 7.8 eV) as measured by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. This indicates the conjugation is very short. This is supported by the fact that both materials are UV blue emitting peaking at 375 nm probably originating from C=C.

The objective of this study is to examine the effect of food scandals on trust towards the corporate brand and purchase intention in Japan. Drawing on Mayer, Davis and Schoorman’s Model of Organizational Trust (1995) this study explores the effects of perceived trustworthiness, trust, and perceived risk on a consumer’s intention to purchase. In Japan, consumers were outraged when some top hotels and department stores were found to have mislabeled foods, selling cheaper alternatives instead of the expensive foods offered on the menu and using expired products (Grace, 2007; Japan Today, 2013; Kageyama, 2007; Onishi, 2007; Spitzer, 2013). The various food scandals have led to product shunning, fear, distrust and suspicion among consumers (Garretson & Burton, 2000; Niewczas, 2014; Smith & Riethmuller, 1999; Yeung & Morris, 2001). Thus this research was conducted to identify the influence of food scandals involving well-established Japanese supermarkets on consumer trust and risk perception. The influence of culture in shaping purchase intention was also explored. Trust itself is a concept that is elusive with myriad definitions ranging from Luhmann’s (1979) sociological theory of trust that looks as trust being a function of high perceived risk and experience to Deutsch (1973) who defines it as the willingness to be dependent on others in the belief that the other party will not disappoint intentionally. Luhmann (1979) argues that in order for trust to be apparent there has to be high-perceived risk. Various studies have also focused on trust being operational when there is risk‐taking behavior (Anderson & Narus, 1990; Canning & Hammer‐Llyod, 2007; Doney & Canon, 1997; Morgan & Hunt, 1994). In the food sector, as consumers lose control over knowing about the food we eat due to the increasing complexity of the food system trust becomes an essential component. Consumers have to trust food producers ranging from farmers to food companies as well as the public authorities to ensure food safety, quality and adequate supply. Consumers display different and inconsistent reactions regarding food safety that affects the perception of quality and their willingness‐to‐pay (Berg, 2004; Brewer & Rojas, 2008).

This study explores the role of corporate involvement and brand perception in moderating the Cause Related Marketing on consumer purchase intention in the luxury product category among Japanese consumers. This research examines three core cause attributes - cause scope, cause type and cause acuteness developed by Vanhamme, Lindgree, Reast and van Popering (2012) as well as an additional component of duration – with corporate involvement and brand perception moderating the effect on purchase intention. The general public places judgment on a corporation based on how much of positive or negative impacts its business has on environment or society (Sheikh & Beise-Zee, 2011). In fact, more corporations have been developing corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, no matter how big their business sizes, big or small, are (Brinkvan, Odekerken-Schroder, & Pauwels, 2006). The general public loses its faith in corporations, especially after a financial crisis or malfeasances of big corporations and as a result, corporations are under stronger pressure to contribute to environmental or societal causes in order to reclaim lost faith from the general public (Sheikh & Beise-Zee, 2011; Berglind & Nakata, 2005). One way corporations contribute to society has been to employ marketing strategies that link product sales to the support of specific charities to create and maintain favorable brand images known as cause related marketing or CRM. CRM has been growing faster as a type of marketing that allow corporations to contribute to environment or society (Brinkvan et al., 2006). Various factors have been extensively researched on and identified as pertinent in the success of cause-related marketing campaigns such as brand-cause fit (Bigne-Alcanniz, Currase-Perez, Ruiz-Mafe and Sanz-Blas, 2011; Nan and Heo, 2007; Samu and Wymer, 2009), donation size (Dahl and Labvack, 1995; Pracejus, Olsen and Brown, 2003), types of causes (local causes are preferred to national ones) (Ellen, Mohr, and Webb, 1996; Smith and Alcorn, 1991) and product type with luxury products found to be more effective (Strahilevitz and Myers, 1995).

This research examines the alternative ways of estimating the coefficient of non-diversifiable risk, namely beta coefficient, in Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) introduced by Sharpe (1964) that is an essential element of assessing the value of diverse assets. The nonparametric methods used in this research are the robust Least Trimmed Square (LTS) and Maximum likelihood type of M-estimator (MMestimator). The Jackknife, the resampling technique, is also employed to validate the results. According to finance literature and common practices, these coecients have often been estimated using Ordinary Least Square (LS) regression method and monthly return data set. The empirical results of this research pointed out that the robust Least Trimmed Square (LTS) and Maximum likelihood type of M-estimator (MM-estimator) performed much better than Ordinary Least Square (LS) in terms of eciency for large-cap stocks trading actively in the United States markets. Interestingly, the empirical results also showed that daily return data would give more accurate estimation than monthly return data in both Ordinary Least Square (LS) and robust Least Trimmed Square (LTS) and Maximum likelihood type of Mestimator (MM-estimator) regressions.