Insect neuropeptides are involved in most physiological processes in insects, such as diuresis, ecdysis, and pheromone biosynthesis. The peptides perform these functions as ligands for G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) that trigger specific biochemical functions. Our research in this area has focused on the Pheromone Biosynthesis Activating Neuropeptide (PBAN) and its GPCR in fire ants. I will show that PBAN is involved in fire ant pheromone production and interestingly, also in important functions of all colony life stages. Since many neuropeptides play critical roles in insect development and reproduction, the peptide hormones and their receptors are viewed as promising targets for novel biologically-based control. These possibilities will be illustrated. Secondly, the use of venom alkaloids, cuticular hydrocarbons, and pheromones as useful taxonomic characters will be illustrated using Solenopsis species in the USA and in South America.

Offensive ads that reinforce stereotypes and disparage a group of people have been mainly posited as having a negative effect on purchase intentions of consumers. However, this purported negative effect on sales of offensive brands is incongruent with the growing trend of offensive advertising. In this paper, we demonstrated that offensive ads have a positive sales effect over the long term in a series of experiments. Specifically, we showed that there is a larger increase of sales of the discriminated group than the nondiscriminated group, over time. This overall positive sales effect can be explained by the sleeper effect, where the offensive context is forgotten over time. and, by selfmotivations in accordance to the Compensatory Consumption Theory. In the long term, self-esteem was found to moderate the relationship between “identity with my group” and purchase intentions. For low self-esteem individuals, less identification with the group, is related to wanting to purchase the product. While for high self-esteem individual’s higher identification means higher purchase intentions. Practically, these findings showed how offensive ads reinforce stereotypes and can be effective when targeting low self-esteem individuals. Hopefully, this will raise new ethical problems, limiting the use of such ads.

To remain competitive in the realm of the Internet, developers of new business models not only have to take into account the behavior of online consumers, but also their misbehavior. Today, companies are faced with special challenges regarding consumer misbehavior, particularly in the segment of online content providers (e.g. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, etc.), where it has become a common practice to share an account with multiple persons, while only one of them is the rightful owner. Such misbehavior may lead to negative consequences, such as direct and indirect financial performance implications, increased workload to deal with dysfunctional customer behavior, underestimated membership, and a lack of understanding the true customer base (Harris & Raynolds, 2003; Hwang et al., 2009). Therefore this study investigates account sharing as a part of customer misbehavior with a qualitative approach to identify customers’ reasons for account sharing. Thereby this investigation makes meaningful implications for companies (e.g., Netflix) and research alike.

To be successful in today’s globalized, increasingly digitalized and homogenized luxury business, small independent niche players need to show a great deal of creativity, flexibility and a good sense for the actual tastes and preferences of their globally dispersed clientele. By looking at innovative entrepreneurs and beyond the famous players in the global luxury market, this study – building upon and expanding earlier research of the authors – explores the main strategies enabling independent luxury niche companies to successfully position and effectively differentiate themselves from their larger and financially more powerful competitors. The study examines and further refines the strategy types identified in earlier research and further explores the business model configurations and the specific success factors of independent niche luxury players in a global market dominated by the ever-growing “luxury goliaths”.

The strategic stakes of differentiation are so great for companies that the adequacy between aesthetic perception of the products and functional benefits for consumers must be taken into account (Alba and Williams, 2013; Bloch, 1995; Reimann et al., 2010). In order to examine the consumer's aesthetic perception, we tested an exploratory measurement scale of aesthetic style (Lagier, 2006), which we first validated for different kinds of products. Exploratory and confirmatory analysis of this scale were conducted and obtained results which proved the stability of the scale for design products. The three dimensions of the factor analysis can be interpreted within the conceptual framework of the perception of design products. We effectively find two clearly distinct dimensions which measure: “affective intensity” and “tolerance for ambiguity”. The last dimension is composed of items which fall both in the domain of “cognitive differentiation” and “cognitive discrimination”. To segment our sample and quantify the different profiles of aesthetic style, eight groups of consumers were formed from the scores on the three dimensions. Finally, the structure of aesthetic style on consumer preference for four design objects was also tested. We seek to show that our scale can also explain the choice for some objects. A one-way ANOVA was conducted to determine whether there were significant differences in preference for each object based on intensity scores of affective intensity, cognitive discrimination/differentiation and tolerance for ambiguity. Our measurement scale of aesthetic style, in the context of this test, explained consumer preference for some design objects.

The main purpose of this research is to explore the effects of usage frequency on the intention to reuse membership service while having perceived value play a role as a mediator. Usage frequency of membership services can affect consumers' fairness judgment. The more opportunities consumers have to perceive the fairness of a service, the more likely it is that they will choose to receive the identical service from the same provider in the future, since they form a positive attitude toward the service. In addition, the perceived value of the consumer can lead to the reuse of the service because it gives satisfaction to the consumer. Another objective of this research is to examine the moderating effect of regret and guilt on the relationship between perceived value and the intention to reuse membership service. Consistent with regret literature, if consumers perceive a consumption value that is smaller than the initially expected consumption value when using a membership service, they will regret the use of the service. Further, negative emotion such as regret often lead to negative attitudes and behaviors of consumers. Thus, as consumers feel regret, their willingness to use the membership service will continue to decrease. On the other hand, consumers experience guilt when they benefit from an unfair process (Krehbiel and Cropanzano, 2000). Similarly, when consumers judge that they have exceeded the usage frequency of membership service based on social norms or ethical principles of individuals, they will perceive unfairness. Consumers may try to offset their negative emotion by continuing to use identical membership services even after the end of the contract period as compensation for their guilty feelings. Thus, as consumers feel guilt, their willingness to use the membership service will continue to increase. This study proposes practical implications that a firm operating a membership service program can encourage a positive response of consumers in their service process by theoretically identifying the intrinsic process related to consumers' intention to reuse the service.

With the development of social media, nowadays, people connect to each other more frequently and timely. In this article, we want to discuss this interactive communication in Chinese social media, i.e., WeChat, Weibo and Xianhongshu, between the Chinese immigrants in France (French Chinese) and Chinese in China. The intent of this article is to explore if there is a significant difference between high-acculturated and low-acculturated French Chinese in the use of word-of-mouth (WOM) in response to the purchase of product categories high in social signaling value. The article helps firms plan their international marketing strategy in terms of how they will benefit from WOM where French Chinese consumers comprise a significant part of the target market. Additionally, this research helps firms develop effective virtual interaction tools to build a strong long-term brand relationship with ethnic groups.

Using the framework of social support, we aim to examine factors influencing social Word-of-Mouth (WOM) adoption. The proposed research model will be tested among customers who are active in the existing active social media platforms and have had experience in engaging with the activities of luxury brand communications. Introduction Today the most promising communication environment for reaching and interacting with stakeholders is the social media ecosystem (Hanna, Rohm and Crittenden, 2011). The social media has grown so rapidly in the past years that now impact the business processes and models (Henning-Thurau, Hofacker and Bloching, 2103). Many Brands begin to take advantage of the fluidity between social media and WOM for creating brand experiences that merge real and digital conversations, cutting through in incredibly powerful ways. However, the recent research (Godey, Manthiou, Pederzopli, Rokka, Aiello, Donvito and Sigh, 2016) suggest that luxury brands performing well in social media engagement. However, they are often lagged behind in WOM performance. Despite growing interest in examining the influence of social media marketing on consumer’s responses through brand equity creation (Godey et al., 2016; Jim and Ko, 2012), studies about social media in luxury brand communications remain to be scarce. An investigation of customer’s motivation behind participation in social media is timely and relevant which can help luxury brands unleash its potential. Moreover, development of an effective social WOM adoption model can help to provide a better picture of consumer interactions in online luxury brands communities, thus strengthen customerfirm relationship in longer term. Specifically, this research intends to answer the following two questions: 1) What are the major determinants of social WOM adoption in luxury brands communications? 2) Whether social support affects a. perceived source credibility; b. perceived information quality; c. user experience? Literature review Social media interactivity The concepts of social exchange (Blau, 1964) and the norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960) have long been used by Marketing researchers to describe the motivational basis behind customer behaviours and the formation of positive relational attitudes (e.g., Wulf; Gaby; Iacobucci, Dawn, 2001; Rafiq; Fulford and Lu 2013). More recently these concepts have been used to explain why customers enjoy interacting with each other in social media (Liang, Ho, Li and Turban 2012; Godey et al., 2016). Social media interactivity is social interaction of people in social networking sites by Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook, Instagram (Hajli, 2016). For instance, Facebook has more than two billion monthly active users which is a great example of a platform. In fact, people love to interact with each other. When they favourite and like each other’s posts that would reinforce the closeness. Online social support Recent research has found that social interaction can bring social value to their users and that the social media is a powerful vehicle for an individual to build close relationships with others and to enhance the individual’s well-being (Liang et al., 2012; Eastin and LaRose, 2005; Obst and Stafurik, 2010; Shaw and Grant, 2002; Xie, 2008). Social support has been found to be a major social value that social media users can obtain from an online interactions (Eastin and LaRose, 2005; Obst and Stafurik, 2010; Huang, Nambisan and Uzuner, 2010). Social support is a multidimensional construct which refers to an individual’s experience of being cared for, being responded to, and being helped by people in that individuals’ social network (Cobb, 1976). Schaefer, Liang et al.(2012) claim that , online social support consists both tangible (e.g. instrumental and appraisal support) and intangible elements (e.g. informational and emotional support). Given the specific context, this study mainly focuses on the latter. Informational support refers to providing messages, in the form of recommendations, advice, or knowledge that could be helpful for solving problems. By contrast, emotional support refers to providing messages that involve emotional concerns such as caring, understanding or empathy. These two types of messages are the major support mechanisms for social interactions (Hajli, 2016). Antecedents of social WOM adoption Information adoption can be defined as the process of engaging purposefully in consuming information (Cheng and Thadani, 2012). Informational support provided through social interaction of individuals in social media can be in the form of ratings, review, recommendations or referrals. Therefore, when consumers search for information provided by other users to make a better decision for their purchasing, they are adopting information. From a marketer’s perspective, this process also helps to build long-term advocacy. This research argues that social media provides more opportunities to the individual to adopt WOM. The existing literature has identified several antecedents of social WOM adoption and most of these studies focused on travelling websites (Filieri; Alguezaui and McLeay,2015; Hajli, 2016). Beldad, De Jong, Steehouder (2010) have categorized the major antecedents of social WOM adoption in the literature into three categories namely customer-based antecedents (e.g. user’s experience during the social interactions); website based antecedents (e.g. perceived information quality) and company based antecedents(e.g. perceived source of credibility). Source of credibility is considered as fundamental predictors of consumers’ acceptance of a message in traditional WOM adoption (McGinnies and Ward, 1980). To facilitate the evaluation of credibility of a source, more and more social platforms require contributors to create a web profile upon their registration. Customers need to provide personal information (e.g. profile picture, personal preference). Furthermore, many social media website utilise reviewer reputation systems to enable customers to assess the credibility of reviewers. Zhang and Watt (2008) argue that the higher source credibility of message perceived in online social media, the higher level of information adoption would be. Moreover, the quality of information in online reviews is perceived as a very important cue for consumers to assess the website (Filierri, et al., 2015). Krishnan; Biswas and Netemeyer (2006) point out that concrete information provided by the website such as detailed features of the product/service is likely to be perceived as more credible than those from abstract information like peripheral description of the product/service. Finally, in marketing literature user experience is strongly related with trust (Yoon, 2002). In an online context customers’ negative experience is likely to affect their trust about the company. As a consequence, they are likely to engage in negative WOM. Research shows that user experience has a strong impact on the social WOM adoption (Liang et al., 2012). Method Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) will be employed for examining the research objectives of this research. The questionnaire for this study will be created through a professional online-based survey tool. As this research focuses on the factors influencing social WOM adoption in relation with luxury brands communications, the proposed research model will be tested among customers who is active in the existing active social media platforms and has had experience in engaging with the activities of luxury brand communications such as posting review or comment other’s post). Result and conclusion This research has adopted the electronic WOM theory and the social media support theory along with a social media perspective to investigate how customer’s interaction in social media affects their behaviour in relation to luxury brands consumption. The results show that social WOM facilitates the evaluation by customers about the luxury products using social media. Moreover, WOM has emerged with broad accessibility and the capability to be evaluated and measured easily by other consumers. This study gives practical implications on how to use social media to develop online communities for luxury brands. In conclusion, when going online, luxury brand should consider the importance of converting the online brand strategy into an interactive and engaging experience for their users and online communities.

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.

Corporations, governments, and non-profits across the world have implemented proenvironmental campaigns to promote sustainable practices. To better understand crosscultural differences in environmental persuasion, we draw on research on self-conscious emotion (Tangney & Dearing, 2002), construal level theory (Trope & Liberman, 2010), and cultural psychology (Ratner, 2000). The current research examines how the emotions of guilt and shame cause people from Eastern and Western cultures to differently perceive green advertising messages that are framed concretely or abstractly. Two hundred fifty-five undergraduate students were randomly assigned to a 2 (emotion priming: guilt vs. shame) x 2 (construal message frame: abstract vs. concrete message) x 2 (nationality: Americans vs. Koreans) between-subjects design. The results indicate that message concreteness effect is present among guilt-primed Americans and shame-primed Koreans (culturally relevant), but absent among shame-primed Americans and guilt-primed Koreans (culturally irrelevant). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed for developing global green advertising message strategies.

It is not easy to detect East Asia’s presence in the field of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), despite its large economy. In addition to having less active foreign direct investment (FDI) relative to GDP and fewer investment treaties, East Asian economies and societies seem to possess certain characteristics that have contributed collectively to the dearth of ISDS cases in East Asia. Examples are the short history of international arbitration, the avoidance of litigation, the high proportion of state-owned enterprises in outward FDI from China, and the concentration of FDI in industries in which investor-state disputes are less likely to occur. This trend, however, is likely to change gradually with the ongoing socioeconomic changes in the region, including the increase in both outward and inward FDI, the increasing number of investment treaties, the growing familiarity with international (investment) arbitration among legal experts, the diversification of FDI, and the decreasing fear of administrative litigation.

Abstract1)This study aims to understand why public information systems in agricultural fields have shown lower performances than other industrialized fields and industries and how these problems would be fixed and overcame. To accomplish this research purpose, this study would overview the previous studies on developing agricultural information systems in public sectors and would find out meaningful and considerable factors. This study would accept the methodologies of literature review and systems thinking approaches to understand the relationships among the found factors and to suggest the conceptual research model. Agricultural information system should take care to reduce implement and maintenance costs to reduce the negative relationships between costs and expected service value and between expected service value to perceived service value. Also, it should be understood that impersonal response would reduce the eager to use the services, so the government sectors should consider positively to adopt the concept of CRM even though the government sectors traditionally have ignored its necessity. The failure of public information systems/services may be caused not only by lack of the contents but also by the failure of the persistent post management.

본 연구는 전남 광양시 백운산의 조릿대 개화지에서 외적 환경인자가 개화원인으로 작용하는가를 조사했다. 이를 토대로 조릿대의 개화원인, 개화양식 및 생활사 전략을 고찰했다. 조릿대 개화지와 비개화지 사이의 토양･물리적 조건･광량 차이는 없었다. 2014~17년 사이에 조릿대가 개화했던 한국과 일본 개화지의 강수량･기온은 평년치(과거 30년)와 다른 특이점을 찾을 수 없었다. 또한 대면적으로 조릿대가 꽃을 피운 후에 대부분 죽었으나 일부 조릿대 간이 다시 발생하기도 하고 일부는 죽지 않았다. 즉, 조릿대는 외적 환경인자와 상관없이 일제히 개화했으며, 대부분의 조릿대 간은 죽지만 일부는 살아남았다. 이는 조릿대 개화원인은 외적 환경인자 영향보다 생물시계에 따라 주기적으로 발현하는 특정 유전자(일명, 유전자 시계)로 촉발된다고 본다. 한편, 멀리 떨어져 있는 조릿대 개체와 동조해 꽃을 대규모로 피우며, 소규모 단독으로 여러 번 개화하기도 한다. 이것은 평생 한 번 개화하는 조릿대의 유성번식 실패 리스크를 분산하기 위한 일종의 보험시스템이라고 판단된다. 열대성 대나무･조릿대류가 온대로 분포를 넓히면서 환경 의 불확실성 증가에 따른 유성번식의 최적화를 위해 장주기 단개화성이 강화된 것으로 추정된다.

1996년에 창설된 타이페이 비엔날레(TB)의 기획 메커니즘은 타이완 출신 큐레이터들의 공동 기획 체제(1996)로부터 일본 출신의 단일 큐레이터 체제(1998), 그리고 해외 큐레이터와 국내 큐레이터가 협업하는 이원 큐레이터 체제(2000-2010)를 거쳐서 다시 단일 큐레이터 체제(2012-2016)으로 회귀하기까지 다양한 과정을 겪었다. 특히 최근 단계에서는 서구 출신의 큐레이터들이 주도권을 장악해 왔다. 본 논문에서는 타이페이 비엔날레의 창립 당시 목표와 후대의 전개 양상 사이의 괴리 현상을 분석한다. 연구자는 이 행사가 타이완의 복합적인 지역 담론과 쟁점들을 제대로 반영하지 못하고 단순히 동시대 국제 비엔날레의 추세를 수용하는데 머 물러 왔으며, 그 배경에 타이페이 비엔날레의 기획 메커니즘 뒤에 작용하고 있는 ‘자기 식민 지화’의 경향이 존재한다고 주장한다.

한국의 이주민의 증가와 현저한 다문화 현상이 나타나는 것을 통하여 현 교육 시스템에 다문화교육을 통합해 보려는 것은 한국사회에서도 도전적 인 부분이다. 이러한 상황에서 저자는 한국의 신학교육이 빠르게 변화하는 목회현장과 선교 상황에서 다문화주의에 대한 학습을 시작할 필요가 있다고 생각한다. 이를 위해 ‘양적 연구’를 시행하였으며 3일 동안 진행되었던 프로그램인 ‘다문화목회’와 한 시간 동안 시행되었던 강의인, ‘다문화 선교’ 전과 후에 설문조사를 통하여 신학생들(38명의 장로회 신학대학원생과 50명의 한신대학교 학부생 및 대학원생)의 이해를 조사하였고 여기서 모아진 자료를 가지고 SPSS (사회과학을 위한 통계적 패키지) 프로그램을 사용하여 분류하고 조사하여 몇 가지 효과적인 결과를 도출하였다. 이는 다문화 교육이 가능한 한 빨리 신학생들에게 필요하다는 사실을 말해준다.

초국가적 조직범죄와 마약밀매는 라틴 아메리카에서 가장 주요한 폭력의 원인 이다. 중앙아메리카의 역할은 남아메리카와 멕시코의 역할과 다른데, 중앙아메리 카는 미국으로의 마약 운송을 위한 가교 역할을 한다. 중앙아메리카를 통한 많 은 양의 마약 운송에도 불구하고, 니카라과는 다른 나라들에 비해 상대적으로 낮은 폭력과 낮은 조직범죄집단의 활동이 있는 나라다. 이 연구는 한국의 국가 안보 정책과 마약 거래에 관한 세계적 관심에 대해서 새로운 의견과 전망을 제 시하는 것을 그 목적으로 하였다. 이 연구에서는 중앙아메리카의 다른 국가들과 니카라과 역할 사이의 차이점을 조사하여 조직범죄를 관리하는 특별한 방법을 조사했다. 또한 마약 밀매에 대한 니카라과의 대응이 국제관계, 거버넌스 및 환 경 보호에 미치는 영향이 포함되어 탐색되었다. 마지막으로 연구자들은 정책적 함의와 연구의 한계점에 대해서 논의하였으며, 그리고 이 주제와 관련해서 보다 신뢰할 수 있는 데이터를 수집하기 위한 향후 연구에 대해서 제언하였다.

This study aims to gain insights into consumers’ motivations when purchasing imitation of luxury cosmetics goods by applying the functional theory of attitude. Consumers’ desire for imitation luxury cosmetics hinges on their motivations underlying their consumption of luxury cosmetics. In addition, consumers’ perceived risk of purchasing imitation cosmetics and their brand loyalty towards the original luxury products will restrain their purchase intention of imitation cosmetics. Finally, the study examines the effect of products conspicuousness (private/public visible goods) and the effect of imitation types (feature/theme) on consumers’ preferences on concerning imitation consumption. The findings will provide insights for policy makers, brand managers and academics, and better understand imitation in the luxury cosmetics industry.

우리나라에서의 금융교육은 교육의 주체에 따라서 크게 학교 금융교육과 학교 밖 금융교육으로 나뉜다. 학교 밖 금융교육의 역할을 무시할 수 없지만 학교 금융교육 이 중심이 되어야 한다는 데에는 재고의 여지가 없다. 이 연구에서는 가장 먼저 금 융 역량의 의미와 중요성을 언급한 후, 학교 금융교육이 중요한 근거를 구체적으로 제시한다. 그리고 학교 금융교육의 질적 향상과 효과 제고를 위한 제언을 제시한다. 학교 금융교육이 중요한 이유는 학생 자신이 이미 중요한 금융 소비자이며, 사회에 진출하기 전에 금융 역량을 지니고 있어야 하기 때문이다. 또한 금융 역량의 격차 문제를 해결하기 위해서 보편성과 형평성을 확보할 수 있는 학교 금융교육이 바람 직하며 단계적이며 체계적인 금융교육을 가능하게 해주는 곳도 학교이기 때문이다. 학교 금융교육을 통해 표준화된 교육을 제공할 수 있으며 시장 실패 문제를 해결하 고 사회적 최적 수준으로 교육 서비스를 제공할 수 있다는 점도 학교 금융교육이 중요한 이유이다. 학교 금융교육의 효과를 제고하기 위해서 과도한 욕심을 부려 너 무 많은 내용을 학생에게 가르치지 말아야 하며, 지식 외에 바람직한 태도, 가치, 기능, 습관, 행동을 함양할 수 있도록 금융교육 내용을 마련해야 한다. 과목 사이의 체계성과 연계성을 확보할 필요가 있으며, 마지막으로 수학, 국어 등과의 융합을 통 한 금융교육을 실행하는 방안에 대해서도 심도 있게 연구할 필요가 있다.

The interaction between GATT/WTO and legal regimes to combat climate change has experienced four important stages. First, both were created independently as two selfcontained legal regimes. Second, these regimes may potentially conflict with each other because climate change measures may violate the GATT/WTO rules. Third, if policies and measures are tailored well, the GATT/WTO and climate change legal regimes could be implemented simultaneously. Last, a shift to low carbon economy presses for close cooperation and mutual supportiveness between these two legal regimes. However, the multinational nature of these two legal regimes often delay or hamper global consensus on agenda for cooperation. This article argues that trade agreements as a regional approach have merits and advantages of pursuing harmonization and cooperation under the GATT/ WTO framework. Regional trade agreements can provide opportunities for a group of countries with concrete commitments and rules to cope with climate change beyond the possibility of the multilateral arena.