Introduction Retail competition in Japan has become more intense because of multiple reasons. The income and population composition are changing, and many international retailers have entered the Japanese market. It is important for Japanese retailers to differentiate from competitors and maintain a competitive advantage in the long run. To do so, Japanese retailers focus on increasing customer value by controlling their value chains. Therefore, market orientation and supply chain orientation have become very important for Japanese retailers who try to expand their market shares in the Japanese retail market. This study develops and empirically tests a model of the impact of market orientation and supply chain orientation on business performance in Japanese retailing. Theoretical Development Previous literature provides evidence on the positive impact of market orientation on business performance (e.g. Cano et al., 2004; Murray et al., 2011; Morgan, 2012; Ngo & O’Cass, 2012). There are also a few studies in the context of retailing (e.g. Griffith et al., 2006; Kajalo & Lindblom, 2015; Moore & Fairhurst, 2003; Yu et al., 2014). However, only a few studies are focusing on the relationship between supply chain orientation and marketing orientation and the impact of their interplay on business performance (e.g. Martin & Grbac, 2003; Min et al., 2007). Market orientation can be seen as the foundation for customer relationship management. The effectiveness of customer relationship management depends heavily on market intelligence. To attract new customers and retain old customers firms have to satisfy not only existing needs but also latent needs. In retailing, market orientation is very important because the organization of retailing is based on the multi-unit organization where sales staff in stores is in close contact with customers and can get direct information from the customers. Supply chain orientation (SCO) is separated into two concepts: strategic supply chain orientation and structural supply chain orientation (Patel et al., 2013). Strategic SCO is defined as the supply chain directed motivation and objectives arising from executive strategic plans and decisions. Structural SCO is defined as the behaviors and actions related to supply chain management in the implementation of its strategic plan. Therefore, strategic SCO is the antecedent of structural SCO. In retailing, many retail buyers search and negotiate with the suppliers who have the ownership of strong brands and distribution networks. In the buying process, retail buyers can get market information from suppliers. Thus, a retailer can collect market information from internal and external sources. This information is useful for the retailer to not only make marketing plan but also to revise marketing plan during its implementation process. To sum up, customer relationship management and supply chain orientation have a positive impact on marketing capabilities. Similarly, marketing capabilities have a positive impact on business performance. The theoretical framework of the study is presented in Figure 1. Data and Measurement To test the framework, we conducted a mail survey (N=243) among Japanese retailers in 2017. The scales were adapted or developed from existing literature. Market orientation (MO) was based on questions adapted from Narver and Slater (1990). Strategic SCO (STRACO) and structural SCO (STRUSCO) scales were based on Patel et al. (2013). Customer relationship management (CRM) was based on Vorhies et al. (2011), marketing capabilities (MKGCAP) was based on Morgan et al. (2003) and Vorhies and Morgan (2005). Business performance was based on Hooley et al. (2005). The measurement model was assessed using Mplus 8. The measurement model specification allows each construct to covariate with all others. The fit indexes of the measurement model were satisfactory (CFI: 0.95; TLI: 0.94; RMSEA: 0.05; SRMR: 0.05). Next, we tested the reliability and validity of measurements. The convergent and discriminate validity of the latent variables were tested by confirmatory factor analysis where all constructs are correlated (Table 1). Also, we tested the common methods variance using two methods: Harman’s single factor test and the common latent method. The results of these methods suggest that common method variance is not a problem in this study. Results and Conclusions We tested the hypotheses by applying structural equation modeling (SEM) using Mplus 8. The results are presented in Figure 1. The proposed model provides a good fit to the data (χ2= 517.1, d.f.=290, p < 0.000; CFI = 0.94; TLI = 0.94, RMSEA = 0.06, SRMR = 0.08). In addition, we assessed the mediating role of marketing capabilities by employing a bootstrapping routine (Table 2). Figure 1 presents the results of the SEM. Most hypotheses were supported, and overall the study provides evidence of the importance of market orientation and strategic SCO on business performance. The most interesting findings are related to the role of marketing capabilities and structural SCO. First, the results show that marketing capabilities serve as a mediator between business performance and customer relationship management (H7). The main aim of CRM is to establish and keep the relationship with target customers. CRM contributes to increasing the marketing capabilities by helping retailer achieve marketing objectives more effectively and efficiently (Chang et al., 2010). Second, marketing capabilities is not a mediator between business performance and structural SCO (H8). The structural SCO has a negative direct impact on business performance, while structural SCO has a positive impact on marketing capabilities which in turn has a positive impact on business performance. Japanese retailer-supplier relationships are different from that in the western economy (Chung et al., 2006). The channel members in Japan have a long-term orientation when they establish a relationship with each other. The findings of our study reflect this cultural aspect of Japanese retailing environment. Japanese retailers purchase products and services from suppliers on long-term. Economic performance is not a single decision making criteria. Instead, relationships with suppliers who do not contribute fully to economic performance continue. The result of H8 refers to this character of Japanese retailing environment.

Theming has become a powerful strategy in hospitality industry to enhance customer engagement and to serve as a competitive advantage in a saturated market. Based on the resource-based theory (RBT) of sustained competitive advantage (SCA), this qualitative study is an exploratory attempt to investigate 10 hotels in Mainland China and Taiwan that have adopted the theming strategy. Introduction As hospitality industry is facing the increasingly intense competition and saturated markets, theming is continuously gaining importance of hotels strategy to survival and growth. In addition, strategy planning determines the future of firms and discover the method to achieve success (Yong & Oh, 2004). Holjevac (2003) predicted that at the beginning of the 21st century, hotels with themed strategy which characterized by a synthesis of esthetics, quality and functionality would become the future trend. Theming has created the differentiation in hospitality market, using the creation of experience-centric service. Pine & Gilmore (1999) once pointed out that the shaping of experience stems from simple and powerful thematic transmission. Moreover, experience marketing can bring preference to the product and service of the enterprise, which in turn leads to a positive value experience (Milman, 2013). The results of theming strategy will positively influence the satisfaction and return rate (Wu, M. Li, & T. Li, 2018). Theming strategy with the advantage of pursuing innovation and uniqueness was extensively used to firms in the competitive hospitality market, like hotels in Las Vegas and Macao. However, some scholars concerned about the sustainability for the strategy due to the high-capitalized cost and the customers sensitive taste (Wassler, Li, & Hung, 2015). Although hotels with themed strategy has flourished in Chinese market more than decade, market research has lagged behind to support the industry’s growth. Researchers still adopted a rather normative paradigm by either identifying the superficial issue focused on experiential market concept or pointing out problems without providing more sustainability related solutions (Zou & Peng, 2008; Xiao, Zhang, & Huang, 2013). Barney (2007) indicated that internal resources could lead to the competitive. Therefore, this study aims at understanding the factors that lead theming strategy to be sustainable in hotels, based on the resource-based theory of sustained competitive advantage. The article has the following structure. The first section establishes a theoretical foundation through a review of strategy literature on theming. The second section proposes a conceptualization of theming strategy’s sustained competitive advantage (SCA) consisting of firms intrinsic resources based on resource-based theory (RBT), also, describe the assessment of key sustainable factors of theming strategy through interview the superior manager of 10 hotels in Mainland China and Taiwan that have adopted the theming strategy. The final section discusses the study’s findings, implication, and suggests directions for future research. As this research is one of the first studies in the hospitality field that identifies the resources and capabilities of the hotels’ theming strategy from the inside viewpoint, the contribution of this study will, and can conceptualize and discover the key factors to sustain the competitive advantage of themed hotel managing strategy Literature review Theming strategy for hotels Theming is a complete and ubiquitous way of impressing consumers and improving brand awareness (Olson, 2004). From theme parks, casinos, department stores, aviation, restaurants to hotels, thematic construction has the dominant influence on most customer engagement (Muñoz, Wood, & Solomon, 2006). Hotel theming strategy, based on the theme of cultural material (history, city story, etc.) either from surrounding area or develop within hotel, display the core value of theme from physical resources, as buildings and facilities, to invisible resources, as atmosphere and service, which would, in the end, create a valuable and unforgettable customer stay experience(Zins, 1998). Xiao, Zhang, & Huang (2013) noted that the distinctive consumer experience at the theme hotel can impress customers, and, ultimately enhances brand recognition, customer engagement and repurchase intention. On the other hand, Wassler, Li, and Hung (2015) has indicated the pros and cons for the China themed hotels, which are the uniqueness to create competitive advantages that are difficult to imitate. On the contrary, the gaining of customers’ sense of demand can lead to the difficulties to fulfill customers’ taste and the ingrained capital with the narrow development is hard to recapitalize once invested. Importance of sustainability for theming strategy. Due to the strong specific image of the themed hotels, some cases developed as a passing fad in the hospitality field. Although prior study has indicated the importance of theme selection for themed hotels (Xiao et al., 2013), seldom literature focus on the overall implementation and application within hotels’ ins and outs, also the SCA issue of hotels management. Xiao & O'Neill (2010) pointed out that the analysis of internal resource is enable manger to realize and build sources of competitive advantage, which is emanated from the resource-based view of strategy. In Resource Based Theory (RBT), scholars thought that resources and capabilities from firms could bring lasting competitive advantage to the organization, and companies that have SCA (Wernerfelt, 1984). Organization have SCAs can reach outstanding performance by constantly creating and delivering the core value through price, trust, aesthetics and functionality to its target markets (Barney, 1991). Thus, in order to observe the SCAs for themed hotels management, this research will employ on internal resource view based on RBT to explore the SCAs from the internal aspect of themed hotels. Methodology We illustrate the key factors and analyze the importance of internal resources for the SCA of hotels’ theming strategy by means of a qualitative study in which 10 hotels applied theming strategy in Mainland China and Taiwan were surveyed using semistructured interviews. For the research question, a qualitative approach offers the advantage to allow an adequate, in depth analysis of the complex relations between internal recourses and SCA of theming strategy. These 10 hotels adapted theming strategy are chosen by non-probability snowball sampling method, below Fig.1 is the hotels list for 10 interviews in Taiwan and Mainland China. In addition, because China with a vast territory is limited to cover all area, the research focuses on Zhejiang province and Shanghai city, which have well-developed economy and rich tourist resources. All interviewees of the hotels will be the superior manager who decides the core value and leads the hotel’s future. The interview will be three part to proceed. First, in warm-up period, interviewer will frame an informal and trust environment, first step is to confirm interviewees’ background. The second part will be identify period; there will be a questionnaire, which adopted Chuang (2000), whose survey to prioritize the 5 dimension of internal resources that essential to hotel theming strategy management. Finally, we will confirm the competency, competitive advantage, and the strategy to achieve the sustainability for hotels theming strategy. We present conclusions for research and practice, as well as deriving practical recommendations for hotels’ theming strategy in Chinese market based on our findings. Preliminary findings The preliminary findings of the research will base on the key themes that emerge from in-depth interview to understand perceptions of hotel managers regarding theming. The result will be presented and discussed in three period. First, based on the questionnaire result from the interviewees, we will recognize that what the priority degree about the five dimension of internal resources is regarding perception of theming in hotel strategy. Second, 10 interviews will transcribe from voice recordings to pages of text, then the text will go through the coding technique, in which the raw and efforts data will be identified as the themes and subthemes. All the analyzed process will be carried by expert triangulation. Finally, through the experts examining on the links of themes and quotations, we will create a view of framework that would explore the relationships between theming strategy and SCA, the result will find the formula for hotels adapted theming strategy to possess competitive advantage of being sustainable. Although space limitations of the conference preclude the detailed explanation of this research work, the authors believe this study will broaden the theoretical domains used in understanding internal resources and competency of hotels’ theming strategy and practical information can be observed from the findings.

Public transportation companies often classify customers into only two classes, i.e. first and second class. This segmentation largely ignores travelers’ needs and may leave heterogeneity within classes. Using a discrete choice experiment, this work investigates if the introduction of dedicated sections based on travelers’ characteristics can provide them additional value.

Despite a growing interest of value capture in the phenomenon of open innovation (OI), empirical evidence documenting the link between new product development (NPD), OI practices, and market performance is scarce. Drawing on organizational learning, NPD, and OI literature stream, this paper conceptualizes a framework in which open product innovation (OPI) practices are disentangled into two types: pre-launch OPI (which occurs before a new product is launched) and post-launch OPI (which occurs after a new product is launched). Specific types of OPI practices – technology in-licensing (i.e., pre-launch OPI) and product upgrades (i.e., post-launch OPI) – during the NPD process are expected to influence market performance of new products independently and interactively. This paper empirically analyzes the secondary data related to product innovation and market performance of 536 mobile games that were developed and launched by 265 local and global firms in South Korea. The results support hypotheses and indicate that NPD projects that engage in technology in-licensing by both local and global firms lead to better market performance than NPD projects that do not engage in. Furthermore, the more product upgrades that NPD projects employ during product life cycle, the better market performance. Finally, the involvement of active product upgrades strengthens market performance of global NPD projects that develop new products internally. The results regarding the role of pre-launch and post-launch OPI mechanisms contribute to research on OI and NPD, and also inform managers as to what product innovation practices are recommended to improve market performance of NPD projects.

Building on insights from institutional theory and dynamic capabilities, this study investigates the relationships of cross-functional capabilities with export marketing strategy implementation and, ultimately, its influence on export performance. This study utilizes multiple-informant and time-lagged primary data from 218 exporting firms in Nigeria to contribute to an understanding of how export marketing capabilities can be implemented to drive export performance. The results suggest contrasting moderating effects of psychic distance and competitive intensity on the cross-functional capabilities to export marketing strategy implementation relationship. This research contributes to the international business and marketing literature by advancing the knowledge on marketing capabilities and strategy implementation, and highlights managerial implications for international business.

The emergence of a new marketing channel affects the economy by expanding the consumer's choice of products, altering the competitiveness of retail markets and having an influence on manufacturers' profitability. The electronic commerce channel through the Internet constitutes a typical marketing channel with these features. In this paper, we construct a vertical product differentiation model comprising an upstream manufacturer and two downstream retailers. Our model is closely related to that in Chiang, Chhajed and Hess (2003). We incorporate cost asymmetry across the retailers into the model, a new feature which is not in their model. In this model, the manufacturer not only produces a physical product it sells to the downstream retailers, but also has an option of "versioning" to open a new direct channel for an alternate digital product. We find that, when the marginal cost of the physical product is in some range given other cost parameters, the direct digital channel reduces the quantity of the physical product sold by the inefficient retailer even if it increases total quantity of the physical product. We also find that, when it is higher than the above-mentioned range, the direct digital channel increases the quantity of the physical product sold by the efficient retailer even if it reduces its total quantity. Cost asymmetry across the retailers plays a role in these results. Taking the above results into account, we discuss managerial implications for a manufacturer supplying the physical and digital products.

Emerging market exporters can no longer merely rely on cost/price advantages as bases for competition. They need to keep up with environmental changes and to initiate the exploitation of market opportunities in order to accelerate foreign market expansion and financial growth. Some of these exporters have begun developing strategies to manage these environmental uncertainties of foreign markets. The adoption of such strategies are consistent with the premise underlying the environment-strategy-performance (ESP) framework, which explains how environmental changes influence strategic choices. The aim of this study was to advance our knowledge of emerging market exporters’ strategic actions by examining the extent to which these exporters utilize information and communication technology (ICTU) and behave proactively under conditions of export market dynamism, which refers to the exporters’ perceived customer-related changes in foreign markets. Literature suggests that ICTU and exporter proactiveness are essential strategic postures for exporters to enhance their performance; nonetheless, an empirical investigation that simultaneously examines both of these factors is still lacking. Our conceptual model was based on the ESP framework, integrating concepts from dynamic capabilities and information processing theory. Four corresponding hypothesized relationships were tested among a diverse sample of 259 exporters in Thailand. Existing scales were adopted to measure Export market performance (EMP), Export financial performance (EFP) and Export market dynamism (EMD) and new scales were developed for ICT utilization (ICTU) and proactive export market development (PEMD). Firm size and exporting experience were included as control variables. With the presence of common method variance (CMV), CMV-adjusted correlations were used in the analyses. Scale validation and hypotheses testing were conducted using factor analyses and structural equation modeling. The results partially substantiate the ESP paradigm, as EMD had a positive relationship with PEMD, but not with ICTU. Also, consistent with dynamic capabilities theory, our findings indicate that PEMD enhanced both EMP and EFP. The pooled data results did not provide full support of the information processing theory, as we only discovered significant EMD-ICTU-PEMD-EMP relationships amongst firms with more exporting experience. Firms with less exporting experience may not be as prepared as those with more experience in processing new information and adjusting their strategies accordingly in a timely manner. These findings have meaningful practical implications for export managers.

Specifics of emerging markets raise some questions on the applicability of wellestablished marketing concepts and scales, widely used in the developed markets, in the context of emerging markets. Over the past twenty years emerging markets have remained one of the main focus of marketing research. The interest of the researchers to the emerging markets is not accidental, it is caused by the peculiarities of the developing markets. Specific features of the emerging markets challenge the use of approaches designed for developed markets in emerging markets. Existing research describes peculiarities of emerging markets and shows the evidence of inability to use the theories designed in the developed markets in emerging markets (Burgess, Steenkamp, 2006; Sheth, 2011). The external environment and the increasing competition force companies to rethink their marketing activities and seek new sources of competitive advantages, and one of the primary tasks for the company is the development of customer orientation (Jacob, 2006; Ellis, 2006; Frambach, Fiss, Ingenbleek, 2016). Customer orientation (CO), as one of the key concepts of contemporary marketing, requires rethinking in the context of emerging markets (Sheth, 2011; Roersen, Kraaijenbrink, Groen, 2013; Smirnova, Rebiazina, Frosen, 2018). The purpose of this paper is to develop a tool for a complex evaluation of the company’s CO adapted to the specifics of the Russian emerging market. The empirical study includes mixed qualitative-quantitative design: at the first stage a quantitative survey with representatives of 239 companies operating in the Russian market, and at the second - 62 in-depth interviews were conducted to test the CO scale’s applicability to the Russian market.

This study relies on Gustafson’s (2001) self-environment-others framework to investigate Asian millennials’ cosmopolitan discourse in the context of Taiwan night market. In the eyes of Asian millennial cosmopolitans, the local Taiwan night market experience not only represents local consumption pattern, but also reflects the global appropriation of local consumption meaning. Introduction Asian millennials are those who were born in the early 1980s until 2000s. They are the “lucky” generation to grow up in the economic resurrection in Asia. They possess distinguished characteristics from the previous generations (Chu & Welsh, 2015). Therefore, they emerge to become the influential change agents. Their cultural consumption behaviour and preference has significant influence on local cultural experience design. Cosmopolitanism in consumer culture refers to an identity discourse in respond to globalization. Cosmopolitan identity inspires ones to seek personal enrichment through consumption of cultural diversity (Thompson & Tambyah, 1999). The concept of cosmopolitanism can be traced back to two parallel perspectives: Greek Stoicism (Appiah, 2010) and Chinese Confucianism (Chun, 2012). The western cosmopolitanism conceptualizes cosmopolitans as the citizen of cosmos. Showing loyalty toward the worldly community and against the community where ones had been born is the major conduct that these cosmos citizens are oriented toward to (Delanty & He, 2008). In contrast, the eastern cosmopolitanism originates from the concept of Tianxia (天下) (Chun, 2012), which is based on the natural geography, the concept of political control from the central power to all the remote areas, and the concept of ethical conduct within the regime of the common area. Recent research on cosmopolitanism recognizes the possible variations of cosmopolitanism in different cultural context (Chun, 2012), and perpetuates the need to investigate cosmopolitanism as socio-cultural specific forms(Delanty & He, 2008). Enlighted by this notion, this study investigates an alternative form of cosmopolitan discourse specific to the rising Asian millennials, and its implications in local night market culture experience design. Night market as the venue for cultural experience study Night market is a common marketplace in Asia. Over 1,000 years (since Sung Dynasty A.D. 960 – 1279) night market has already existed in China. Night market has dispersed to other Asian countries along with the regional migration of Chinese ethnic group (Pottie-Sherman & Hiebert, 2013). Despite its Chinese origin, night market has evolved to a cosmopolitan consumption space providing local cultural experiences. It was found that there are seven dimensions of cultural experiences (Yu, 2004): night time (Zerubavel, 1985), shi (市/market), xiaochi (小吃/ small food), vending/vendor, temporality, renao (熱鬧/ lively and crowded condition), and renqingwei (人情味 / human touch). Night market provides local experience for global visitors (Chen, Lee, Chang, Hou, & Lin, 2008). Therefore, this study chooses night market as the consumption venue for investigation. Methodology This study relies on Gustafson’s (2001) tri-polar model of self-environment-others to guide the post-structuralist reading of field observation scripts. Self is the agent to interpret the meaning of the place; environment refers to the socio-cultural aspects of the physical place; others refer to the dynamic social aspects in the place. The informants were all Indonesians. The two authors went with two Indonesian MBA graduates to Huayuan Night Market in the first trip. The first author went with six Indonesian MBA students to Dadong Night Market in a second trip. The two night markets visited in this study were Huayuan Night Market (花園夜市) on November 3rd 2016, and Dadong Night Market (大東夜市) on November 22nd 2016. Both of the night markets were located in Tainan, Taiwan. Result In this session, we synthesized the qualitative data, and integrated the result with existing literatures to discuss the characteristics of Asian millennial cosmopolitans. 1. A cosmopolitan identity rooted on confucianism’s tianxia (天下) The notion of tianxia has already emerged starting in Xia Dynasty (Chun, 2012). Tianxia is rooted from Confucius (551 – 479 B.C) from the traditional literature of liyundatong (禮運大同). Since then, the concept has been embedded in the historical development of Chinese geographic expansion experiences, and in the fusion of the invading alien culture in China. The cosmopolitan ideology of tianxia can be found in the night market. Night market is a place that open for all. The visitors were diverse. Not only the local people (the Taiwanese) but also foreign people can enjoy the lively atmosphere of the night market. Those who had money and status also can come to enjoy the night market, not only limited for those in the “low social class”. Even though night market perceived as the marginal place, but in the night market all people are the same. Everyone can enjoy. 2. A transient cosmopolitan identity based on mass media, global brand consumption, and tourism international travel The Asian consumer cosmopolitanism mostly spawned from the popular culture disseminated from mass media, global brand consumption, or tourist traveling. People relying on mass media and global brand consumption as venues for exchange of identities, ideas, images, religion, language, music, lifestyle, sport, etc (Huang, 2006). The usage of English as the second language, household living standard, years of schooling, and economics of internalization are the greatest aspect of high level of cosmopolitanism in Asia (Brown & Baogang, 2012). In addition, because of the increasing tourists traveling around the world, the cosmopolitan lifestyle characterizes the Asia millennials as moving out of their locals temporarily. Tourism and international travel are related to lifestyle cosmopolitanism and critical cosmopolitanism. Those characteristics differ from those cosmopolitans of the diaspora moving permanently out of their home countries. Similar to European counterparts with several identities simultaneously (Ong, 1999), however, the Asian millennials’ identities are more transient and fluid. Night market provides a temporary consumption space for the locals to indulge in authentic lower social class experience, and for the foreign visitors to sample local experience. 3. An imagined cosmopolitan identity Because of the low social class, who are the major visitors at night market, have lower disposable income, the visitors of night market choose to consume counterfeits as long as they can be seen as “wealthy class”, which often associated with a cosmopolitan image (Huat, 2004). Counterfeits provide them imagined experience to participate in material consumption beyond their affordable income. The Asian millennials also are capable of relied on the images of lower social class from mass media to appropriate their night market experience, which results in an imagined cosmopolitan experience. The night market is an evidence of a space depicting the imagined cosmopolitan consumption experience. 4. Double marginality The primary marginality comes form night market itself. Night market is perceived as the marginal place since the patronages are mostly from the lower social class in the society (Yu, 1995). Night market is regarded as a place selling the counterfeits and low quality items, which are accessible to those who cannot afford to buy the originals. The secondary marginality comes from the cosmopolitan identity. Cosmopolitans orient their mind to a broader identity like the nation or the world. The cosmopolitans are rootless who do not belong to any one community, and hence, marginal (Merton, 1957). In addition, the Asian cosmopolitans are perceived as marginal in the global cosmopolitan context since they are peripheral to the core of the global or western dominated cosmopolitans. 5. A sense of one community identity The other way to see the Asia cosmopolitanism is based in the civilizational crossfertilization. This civilizational is the result of cross-cultural fertilization as against to separate and autonomous civilizations. The hybrid cultural form of Asia provides fertile ground to develop cosmopolitanism. The Asian millennials emphasize the “we” cosmopolitans as an opposed to “I” cosmopolitans. The Asian millennials went in a group either with friends from the same ethnic background, or with their local Taiwanese friends. Asia profess collectivism, which is tending to strong community orientation (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). The Asian cosmopolitans believe that they are in the same state or level of development state or in the same time zone other part of Asian, and later they made the imagined community. They also believe there is a cultural relationship in the various Asian countries (Funabashi, 1992), that is the Confucianism (Delanty & He, 2008). Evidence from night market study showed the strong sense of belonging as a group. When some members from the group were in trouble, someone would offer to be a “savior” to help. 6. Cautious cosmopolitans Although similar to the European counterparts of having a penchant to consume the authentic product or service, looking for variety and the exotic simulation, and relying heavily on the social media, the Asian millennial cosmopolitans tend to show a follower characteristic when exploring new experience. Also, they are mostly like a passive participants or mere observers in the foreign experience. conclusions and implications to cultural experience design This study relies on the framework of self-environment-others (Gustafson, 2001) to investigate Asian millennials’ cosmopolitanism in Taiwan local night market context. This research finds that in addition to the same characteristics of their western counterparts, Asian millennial cosmopolitans exhibit five unique characteristics. Although the local Taiwan night market is expected to render authentic local consumption, it is experienced as an imagined global practice. Or, alternatively, the imagined global culture consumption is experienced as authentic local. While the Aisan millennials eager to experience the local night market cultural authenticity, they also constantly refer to their similar home night market culture meaning framework. For the Asian millennials, the Taiwanese local experience is framed in both an imagined global meaning context, and an authentic other locals, i.e. the idiosyncratic home culture meaning frameworks of the cosmopolitans’. However, the Asian millennial cosmopolitans are capable of appropriating the gaps in these cultural meaning discourses. The appropriation process is where local, and global cultural meaning has the opportunity to be redefined, and reorganized. The implications from this study can be applied to local cultural experience design. The results also provides valuable perspectives for culture institutions, such as night market managing organizations, in their communication strategy to these Asian millennial cosmopolitans.

Introduction For a long time, firms have been improving product function, performance, price-performance ratio (hereinafter uniformly referred to as functional aspects of product design), and product appearance. Nevertheless, the current market situation is that many products in the same category are similar in quality, price and appearance. Product homogeneity leads to excess supply, and this situation is objectively long-standing. For consumers, positive emotions often play a key role in their purchase decisions. Yet, when most products seem to be similar, it is difficult to evoke more positive emotions of consumers to increase their willingness to pay. This paper shows that besides product appearance and functional aspects of product design, the connotations of product aesthetics should also be focused. In other words, aesthetic aspects of product design should include both product appearance and connotations. Connotations, as deep meaning inside product aesthetics, can evoke either consumers’ memories of the past or imagination of new creative ideas, or both (e.g., Starry night umbrella by MoMA Design Store, Sakura Masking Tape by Bande). Although the contents of memory recall or imagination might differ across consumers, positive emotions evoked in that process will increase willingness to pay. A new conceptual model is proposed in this paper, which shows that functional aspects, product appearance, and the connotations of product aesthetics could cause different psychological activities, and positive emotions evoked in those processes can enhance willingness to pay. When most products tend to be similar, the connotations of product aesthetics could be a promising area for firms today to make their products distinctive and increase their market share. Product Design and Consumer Emotions (1) Elements of Product Design Product design is considered as the set of properties of a product, including both functional and aesthetic aspects (e.g., Homburg, Schwemmle, & Kuehnl, 2015; Jindal, Sarangee, Echambadi, & Lee, 2016; Luchs & Swan, 2011). Functional aspects of product design consist of function, performance, and price-performance ratio. Aesthetic aspects mainly refer to product appearance, consisting of visual elements such as color, shape, and material. (2) Relationship between Product Design and Consumer Emotions Previous research shows that functional aspects of product design could evoke positive emotions like satisfaction, and aesthetic aspects could please our senses and make us feel delight (e.g., Bloch 1995; Chitturi, Raghunathan, & Mahajan, 2008). Furthermore, Norman (2004) points out that emotional factors can be the key to the success of product design. If a product could evoke consumers’ positive emotions, those emotions would arouse willingness to pay. If not, consumers might not have the desire to buy it. The Connotations of Product Aesthetics Evoking Positive Emotions of Consumers As Barnard (2005) suggests, as the deep level of meaning, connotations refer to one’s feelings or thoughts caused by a design. This paper proposes that the connotations in product aesthetics could either remind consumers of their past experiences or trigger their imagination to think about new creative ideas, or both. Emotional resonance could be achieved and finally facilitate purchase behaviors. In our daily lives, there are many products that have not only beautiful appearances but also the connotations of product aesthetics. For instance, Starry Night Umbrella by MoMA Design Store (Figure 1). MoMA Design Store released an umbrella patterned with stars, the moon and the sky that swirl, which reminds consumers of the masterpiece The Starry Night (1889) by Vincent Van Gogh. When encountering this umbrella, consumers who love the works of Van Gogh will have positive emotions and a strong desire to buy it. Cherry Blossom Masking Tape by Bande (Figure 2). Bande, a Japanese masking tape brand, launched a masking tape with sakura (cherry blossom in Japanese) petals design. Its real-like floral design can remind consumers of spring or their own stories with cherry blossom and trigger their imagination to come up with lots of creative ideas such as using it to decorate their diaries, laptops, furniture, and so on. Besides the original function of tapes, the connotations inside product aesthetics could encourage consumers to think creatively and feel happy. A Conceptual Model of Product Design, Positive Emotions, and Market Share This paper proposes a conceptual model (Figure 3), showing that different aspects of product design can evoke consumer emotions and those positive emotions have a positive effect on willingness to pay. First, functional aspects of product design are very important. Consumers compare function, performance, and price-performance ratio among many products, which is considered as a process of rational thinking. Products with high qualities and affordable prices can make consumers feel satisfied. Positive emotions (E1) evoked by functional aspects can enhance the willingness to pay and bring firms market share (S1). Then, on the bases of functional aspects, firms use different colors, shapes, and materials to make product appearance attractive. Sophisticated appearances of products can please the senses of consumers and evoke positive emotions (E2). That could increase their desires to buy and bring more market share (S2) for firms. Nevertheless, these two parts are what most firms can do today. To make products distinctive, firms should add connotations into aesthetic aspects of product design, which can trigger consumers’ memory recall of their past experiences or their imagination of new creative ideas, or both. Although the contents of recall and imagination are different across consumer, the arousal of positive emotions (E3) will enhance willingness to pay and finally bring new market share (S3). Thus, two equations derived are as follows: Positive Emotions = E1+E2+E3 Market share =S1+S2+S3 If firms take all these aspects of product design into consideration, their products will evoke consumers’ positive emotions adequately to increase willingness to pay, and help firms occupy more market share from fierce market competition. General Discussions On the market today, lots of products have beautiful appearances and seem to be similar in functional aspects of product design. To make products distinctive, this paper considers that firms should also attach importance to the connotations of product aesthetics. The connotations will remind consumers of their past experiences or let them imagine new creative ideas, or both. Positive emotions evoked during that process increase willingness to pay. That is a promising area for firms today to gain more consumers and new market share. Since the connotations of product aesthetics could be influenced by factors such as age and culture, it is important for marketers to investigate and analyze consumers’ understandings of aesthetics from different ages and cultures, then feed it back to designers to help them design successful products in the future.

Introduction Business event are much important to economies of many destinations all over the world (Jago, Mair, Deery, & Bergin-Seers, 2008). As the term, “business events” is referred to be the MICE industry, encompassing with Meeting, Incentive, Conference/Convention, and Exhibition. The MICE industry underpins tourist visitation for many destinations. Such destinations have transferred into making substantial investments to provide the meeting/exhibition facilities and hotel needed for business events. Announced in the 5th of MICE and Luxury Travel Conference, India will generate 6.5 million outbound incentive tourists by 2030. Especially in these years, the number of MICE outbound tourists has been more than 1.5 million and the number of Luxury travel tourists has been up to 3.6 million (India Infoline Housing Finance Limited [IIFL], 2017). Research for one of the business events that remains in minority is incentives. Incentive travel, also known as IT, is defined as one of worldwide management tools which uses special travel experiences or recognizes participants who exceed the expectation on performance (Society of Incentive Travel Executives [SITE], 2013). According to the Incentive Federation, the number of U.S. business using non-cash rewards has raised dramatically from just 26% in 1996 to 84% of all U.S. businesses in 2016 (Incentive Federation, 2017). Incentive travel is becoming a field in which not only attractions and venues matter, but also the organization of parallel training activities and conferences around an incentive activity is possible (Celuch, 2014). The United States remains a primary destination for 82% of U.S. planners choosing U.S. in 2017 (Incentive Federation, 2017). Another popular incentive destination, Australia is also viewed as one of ideal destinations for incentive travel. Tourism Australia in 2008 indicated that 34% of incentive travelers is from China, 12% is from New Zealand, and 10% is from Japan. Taiwan has received over 10 million travelers from abroad in 2016. However, tourists from India traveling to Taiwan are only 33,000 passengers. According to report in 2016, International Congress & Conference Association [ICCA] announced that Taipei City has held 83 international conference and become top 10 destinations in Asia for The Best Stop to Meet Asia. However, is Taiwan a good incentive travel destination for India? Despite a limited amount of information on expenditure and the number of incentive programs, numerous gaps remain in our understanding of this sector of business events and cross-culture marketing, including how incentive travel organizers in India select their travel destination? And how this process may differ in source markets? This exploratory study aims to examine these site selection factors in the incentive travel context and identify any similarities and differences in how incentive travel is conceptualized, planned, and organized in India. Literature review Incentive Travel The incentive market has seldom been studied in great depth as an individual segmentation. Lewis (1983) carried out a concept that incentive travel represents a sizable market segment for hotel companies in many destination areas. Sheldon (1995) highlighted that travel was regarded as a motivating reward or incentive among America’s Fortune 100 companies, and that travel incentives were mostly used by companies in the service sector. Shinew and Backman (1995) identified the “trophy value” of travel incentives, and proposed that incentive travel allows long-lasting positive engagement in staffs’ job performance. Xiang and Formica (2007) used cognitive mapping to understand how incentive travel managers view the business environment, concluding with fast-pacing of incentive travel market, and global structural changes presenting challenges to incentive planners. Budget and cost, uniqueness of the destination, and availability of suitable facilities were thought to be factors influencing the choice of destination for incentive travel (Mair, 2005); however, this has not yet been demonstrated in empirical research. Convention Site Selection According to Crouch and Ritchie (1997) “the choice of destination can make or break the convention”. The first research by Fortin and Ritchie (1977) was considered the process undertaken by meeting planners when deciding on which location to choose for annual meeting or convention. The nine factors identified by Crouch and Ritchie (1997) are accessibility, local support, extra-conference opportunities, accommodation, meeting facilities, information, site environment and other criteria. Despite knowledge of the convention site selection process, very little research has considered how different types of meetings choose their destinations. In one of the few studies to consider the site selection process of incentive planners, Del Chiappa (2012) suggests a certain degree of “destination inaccessibility” could make incentive location being more extraordinary and exclusive. Mair, Jin, and Yoo (2016) indicated that incentive travel planners across three market- China, Australia, and America, shares similar perceptions on what characterizes incentive trips but differ slightly in the planning and operational phase pertinent to varying company characteristics and requirements. However, little is known about the cultural differences in incentive programs from one nation to the next. Methodology This research is an exploratory qualitative research, using in-depth interviews with incentive travel organizers, public relations professionals, company and staff who has participated in incentive travel to Taiwan and other Asian countries. Eight in-depth interviews (between 30 and 60 minutes) were carried out in India. The data collecting method is snowball sampling and 11 interviewees were invited by incentive organizers’ recommendations, while a list of qualified tour operators/specialists authorized by national tourism bureaus and organization (e.g., Ministry of Tourism Government of India or Travel Agents Association of India Active Member) are consulted as a sample frame, shown as table 1. Further, all interviewees were senior managers in their companies. For in-depth interviews, researcher has traveled to Mumbai, New Delhi and Jamshedpur in India between 12th and 26th Jan, 2018. Interviewees were asked to give some background on their incentive business. They were also asked to give information on how their incentive programs were structured and how they cooperate both with their incentive clients and with local suppliers of their incentive trips. Finally, they were asked in open-ended questions about their views on site selection, with eight site selection factors identified by Crouch and Ritchie (1997) and the outline designed by Mair, et al (2016). Findings This study explored site selection of incentive travel from the perspective of incentive planners, company, and participants. The finding suggests that the most popular incentive travel destination for Indian is Thailand with low expense and luxury hospitality. Most important part for choosing a destination is considering about food and beverage since there are a lot of vegetarian and chef should be familiar with Indian cuisine, for instance, foods in Singapore is more likely to be accepted by Indian. Both the operators and staffs from the company indicate that Indian travelers would like to have Indian cuisine and Bollywood show during the incentive trips, instead of local and cultural performance from the destination. Conference and accommodation facilities in China is well-prepared for MICE but expense is too high. Accessibility to Taiwan or to any countries won’t be a problem for incentive travel planners; nevertheless, there is still few direct flight from India to Taiwan which will influence the budget on overseas transportation. In addition, unfamiliarity with destination image of Taiwan reduces intention of visiting. However, since a new destination will be a motivator for encouraging employees to work hard, novelty destination for incentive trip is still important. One incentive travel planners suggest that enhancing the destination image by story-telling would help attracting Indian’s interests. Perceived risk will be reduces depending on local support (DMC). Incentive planners in India illustrate although decision maker is the representatives from companies, however, planners would give several packages of different countries, depending on budgets, basing on destination information from public relations professionals. It is obvious that public relations professionals and travel agencies are critical characters for site selection in India. F&B and budget are major considerations differing from other markets- China, Australia, and America. Conclusions This article interviewed incentive operators, public relations professionals, and company purchase incentive travel, and examined how incentive travel is conceptualized, planned, and organized in India. The study suggests government and bureau relating to MICE should get well prepared for cross-cultural incentive traveler, according to Indian culture. In addition, destination imagine promotion would be another effort for planners to select a site for incentive program. Since incentive planners in India are not familiar with Taiwan, local support/ DMC could look for public relations professionals from India as a connection, and put more focus on India as a potential market. Further study should explore the site selection in different countries, and marketing strategies. A limitation of this research that should be acknowledged is the small sample size. However, the initial conclusions from this research suggest that, while the site selection factors identified in other markets provide a useful place to start, incentive travel organizers do not rely on same factors. The findings from this project will provide a basis for future research in the area of incentive, and useful information for incentive planners/organizers in Taiwan and worldwide.

The findings of this study indicate that firms with rumors about their new product introductions generate superior stock returns over the rumor-to-news period, even when controlling against competitor benchmark in addition to the risk-free benchmark. Furthermore, it is found that the rumors generate a positive stock market impact for the rumored firm and negative impact for competitors. These findings imply that the financial market incorporates the rumors related to new product introductions to the valuation of the firms in the industry. Based on the findings, rumors appear to have an effective function towards the market valuation of the firm. Furthermore, findings regarding intentional rumors support the notion that they can act as a part of audience- focused and result-driven communication program that can enhance future cash flows of the firm (resulting the improvement in firm valuation) that follows the definition of IMC by Kliatcho (2005). The findings therefore exhort that when communicating new product introductions, rumor management should be included in the IMC toolkit. This is a consideration previously neglected in the IMC literature.

Introduction The goal of the current research is to conduct a comparative analysis of marketing models of Russian and global companies localized in Russia. Our research experience confirms an existence of a significant difference in the implementation of market orientation and in marketing activities of global companies compared to the local ones. The focus of the present research lies in the development and support mechanisms of customer oriented organizational culture as well as the role of marketing in decision making processes on all managerial levels. Literature review The attitude of top management to marketing changes consistently both in the developed and emerging markets (Webster, 1992; Webster, Malter, & Ganesan, 2005; Yuldasheva & Pisareva, 2015). Modern marketing is increasingly a part of the managerial and decision making system. It is being integrated into the system of company management through a diffusion of marketing competencies (Webster et al, 2005) becoming a locus of integration and coordination of inter-functional processes in a service dominating business model (Vargo & Lush, 2004). Literature review makes it possible to highlight several most important directions of research that formed the basis for our comparative analysis of marketing models. Customer oriented culture (COC) The literature review allows differentiating between three approaches to the definition of customer orientation (CO): ⦁ CO as an element of market orientation (Narver & Slater, 1990; Kohli & Jaworski, 1990) and in some cases its synonym; ⦁ CO as behavioral aspect of sales or frontline personal (Saxe & Weitz, 1982). In this case an operational level of CO implementation is considered; ⦁ CO as an advanced level of organizational culture development that has been shaped under enhancing of marketing influence on the decision making processes in the companies on all managerial levels (Deshpande & Webster, 1989). Thus, CO can be considered as an organizational culture creating new values for the personnel and transforming all business processes in terms of customer centricity to achieve higher customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty. The research of COC should be conducted from the perspective of CO settings (values) and from the perspective of CO implementation. Marketing competencies and capabilities Dissemination of COC influences on the development of marketing capabilities and competencies in the organizational learning process which involves all departments and all managerial levels. In this context marketing capabilities can be understood as integrative processes whereby the collective knowledge, skills, and resources of a firm are applied to the market-related needs of the business (Day, 1994; Vorhies, 1998). As a result of repetitive actions, more or less sustainable patterns of behavior arise (Grant, 1991). These patterns determine the type of the customer oriented business models in which the marketing models is one of the sub elements reflecting the role and the status of marketing in decision making process. The previous research results (Webster, 1992; Webster et al, 2005; Wiersema, 2013) showed the evolutionary changes of marketing in corporations on three levels of management – corporate, business and operational (functional) (Hofer & Schendel, 1978). Taking into account these three strategy levels, Webster (1992) suggests to consider marketing as culture (on the corporate level), as strategy (on the strategic business unit level) and as tactics (on the functional level). In this research, we compare the changes in marketing models on the different managerial levels in Russian and global companies under the pressure of emerging COC. Theoretical model and research design We understand the marketing models as consisting of COC and a set of marketing competencies and capabilities on the different managerial levels. COC creates the values and the behavioral norms in the company which are transformed in the customer oriented business processes setting. COC has to bring not just CO values but CO business processes supported by the control and motivation system. In this context, COC establishment and implementation should be considered. COC establishment is based on the understanding of CO importance by top management. COC implementation leads to the dissemination of CO values and transforming them into CO behavior of personnel. That is why the measuring scales of market orientation (MARCOR: Kohli & Jaworski, 1993) and CO (MORTN: Deshpande & Farley, 1998; SOCO: Saxe & Weitz, 1982) include the statements about the regular using or the effective performance of CO business processes. To investigate the corporate marketing competence dispersion, we also use the concept of intangible marketing assets (Webster et al, 2005) (fig.1). Research goal and proposition The goal of this research is description and comparative analysis of marketing models of companies localized in Russia, which are shaped differntly under the influence of COC development. We suppose that dissemination of COC in the company changes the role and status of marketing in the managerial system as well as the level of its influence on decision making processes. Two groups of companies are compared: ⦁ large Russian companies possessing brands well-known in Russia; ⦁ global companies (their units) localized in Russia and possessing globally known brands. As this research is an exploratory one, a preliminary proposition was formulated: the process of marketing model changing in Russian and global companies proceeds in a different way. The typical level of COC development and marketing influence on decision making processes on all managerial levels in large Russian companies is lower than in the global companies localized in Russia. Sample This research is making use of the database of 40 semi-structured interviews with company managers (Trefilova, 2017; Yuldasheva & Pisareva, 2015). Out of these, 5 interviews with large Russian companies and 8 interviews with daughter companies of global corporations were selected. To increase the size of the sample of Russian companies, 5 interviews with managers were organized additionally. Thus, the total sample consisted of 18 interviews (10 Russian and 8 global companies) The interview guide consisted of six open questions. Data analysis and research results The primary analysis of interviews was conducted applying the techniques of content analysis and meanings compaction (Ilyin, 2006). The primary content analysis showed a significant differentiation between the respondents’ answers to all questions, especially inside the sub-set of Russian companies. The further analysis of the qualitative research data was carried out according to the grounded theory methodology applying the procedures of data conceptualization, concept categorization, identifying the category attributes and ways to measure them (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). The results of the comparative analysis of the marketing models of Russian and global companies allowed formulating several conclusions. The managers of Russian and global companies show different understanding of COC. The global companies promote service proposition and sustainable consumption models while Russian companies continue to sell products and try to keep quality and price on the competitive level. We labeled this phenomenon as “the fight between product and service dominant logic”. The gap between the declared CO values and their implementation in business processes in Russian companies is higher than in global ones. We connect it with lower quality of management in Russian companies as well as low level of market competition encountered by large companies. Global companies are aimed at supporting long-term brand value to a much higher extent than Russian companies. All business processes on the business and functional levels are subordinated to providing long-term brand value. Global companies are characterized by a stronger COC, which is supported not only by the service standards but also by the customer-centric motivation of the whole staff. Moreover, internal and HR branding carried out by the HR department are well developed in the global companies. It reveals a much more developed personnel management function than in the Russian companies. Up to now, it is believed in the Russian companies that customer centricity can be ensured just by the work of marketing and sales personnel. The research confirmed also the results received by Webster et al (2005) and Wiersema (2013) on the dispersion of marketing competencies on the business and corporate levels, on the growing importance of marketing performance measurement and on the growth of the marketing’s strategic role, especially for companies involved in innovations. As for the dominating marketing strategy, most informants use both attraction and retention strategies simultaneously. An interesting finding turned out to be that many informants differentiate between the models of product marketing and relationship marketing. The latter is understood as the interaction and value co-creation using a digital platform. Our research showed that on the functional level (marketing department level) the dominating share of companies develop competencies and capabilities in the sphere of marketing communication and customer involvement. Such marketing competencies as product management (including price management), customer relationship management or key account management have been transferred to the inter-functional (business) level. Channel management is carried out by the sales departments. The major finding is the confirmation of marketing knowledge equity formation in the most advanced companies (Yuldasheva, Pisareva & Khalikov, 2016). Marketing knowledge equity mostly consists of market and customer needs knowledge, ability to forecast market changes and customer reactions. Conclusion Thus, the proposition about the different ways of marketing model changing and a lower level of COC and lower influence of marketing in the decision making processes on all levels of the large Russian companies compared to the global companies is confirmed. However, a trend is apparent to enhance the strategic influence of marketing on the decision making processes in the large Russian companies. It requires the continuation of a longitudinal research. In whole, the comparative analysis of the Russian and global companies marketing models showed that in spite of the existence of some peculiarities mainly connected with the backwardness of Russian companies compared to foreign ones (particularly, there is a lower customer centricity and lower management quality), the Russian marketing replicates the development of the Western marketing, copying its models and practices.

China is the world’s largest social network market in the world. The importance of tapping this massive market with rapid growth rate can’t be overstated. It has been widely acknowledged that culture is a significant variable in consumer attitudes and consumer behavior. Given that culture may influence individual’s interaction and consumption through social media, it is imperative to examine cultures’ influence in social media usage where much of the information is usually user generated. Traditionally, demographics like age, gender, education etc., are also considered as the key socioeconomic factors determining consumers’ media selection and buying decisions. To fill the research gap, this study is designed 1) to investigate the relationship between cultural dimensions and social media usages in China by introducing mediating factors of attitudes toward social media; 2) to investigate the role of individual characteristics (e.g., gender and living location) play on social networks usage in China. Pretest among small groups was first conducted for the purpose of scale validity evaluation. Later, a translation and back-translation method was employed to achieve the translation equivalence. A random stratified sample was obtained from an online panel in China in January 2018. A computer-assisted web interviews was conducted with adults age above 18. Total 600 usable samples were obtained in China in January 2018. The findings of this study evidenced the important role culture plays in defining the social context within which individuals behave. The result showed a strong positive relationship between power distance and negative attitude toward social media. This study also found a negative relationship between masculinity and using social media for direct purchase. The finding supports the fact that social networking, which has a strong focus on relationship building, is a relatively feminine value. Thus, the members of social networking, which espouses feminine values, demonstrate a more social orientation and expectation of shared values. Marketers need to ensure that they make their social media outlets user friendly and their spaces encourage communication and connectedness for their users.

We examined whether hybrid consumers exist in the commodity food market by comparing food products in general, fresh pork and precooked pork patties using an online questionnaire (N=200). The same consumers changed their selection criteria depending on the type of commodity food product they were considering, reflecting hybrid consumer attitudes.

As the usage of smartphones increased rapidly due to the popularization of smart phones, it appears that the average daily usage time of Korean people was 3 hours and 39 minutes, and it was analyzed that the twenties uses 4 hours 41 minutes longer than the average (Jung, 2015). It, also, was found that users mainly use smartphones for receiving information retrieval, social network sites (SNS) activities, listening to music, watching games, and watching videos. In consequence, various contents suitable for smartphones are increasing rapidly. In particular, the number of users who are engaged in SNS activities through smartphones is rapidly increasing and its influence is gradually getting bigger. (Park & Lee, 2012). SNS activities provide content that gives entertainment in a short time and at the same time make consumption regardless of time and space like in subways or cafes, and also stimulate users through visual elements. The content that can be enjoyed in 10 to 15 minutes like snacks, which are easily eaten regardless of time and space, is called 'snack culture'. (Ko, 2015) According to Cheil Worldwide, 2000 media outlets for men and women aged between 13 and 59 living in major cities across the country, the phenomenon of easily consuming short videos, web cartoons, and web novels appeared noticeably. As a result of investigating the main purposes of smartphones, the use of relatively short contents such as SNS has increased (Bae, 2015). SNS provides users with simple contents similar to snacks, and users tend to use SNS as a leisure activity by using these services in 'leisure time' which is the time of their spare time. In this way, as the number of SNS steadily increased, SNS activity has also naturally increased. Consequently, as the SNS market has rocketed among various activities, the e-commerce using it is become popular. This type of consumption activity is called leisure spending (Cho & Do, 2010). Thus, it is necessary to analyze whether consumers view SNS activities as part of their leisure life. Although there are a lot of active consumption activities happening in consequence of using SNS after the spread of smartphones, there is very little research done on the relationship between SNS activity and the leisure life. This study, therefore, intends to conduct in-depth interviews on twenty women in their twenties and thirties who are actively engaged in consumption activities in the SNS market, on the issue of whether they acknowledge SNS activities and consumption behavior in the SNS market as recreational activities. The purposes of this study are as follows: first, to find out the meaning to SNS activities as a leisure activity to female consumers of the twenties and the thirties; second, to explore the approaching process and motivation of leisure life extending to leisure spending; third, to examine the relation between experience of commitment and leisure satisfaction through previous research and in-depth interview In addition, this study is the cornerstone of research on SNS market which is becoming an issue as one new consumption trend and which recognizes consumption activity that happens in the market as leisure consumption in reference to leisure. It is considered to be utilized variously when establishing marketing strategy of fashion companies, which will use image consumption based SNS later.

While market orientation is long evident to be a key contributor to firm performance (Narver & Slater, 1990; Jaworski & Kohli, 1993), firms now increasingly find that proactive market orientation (Narver, Slater & Maclachlan, 2004) may be more appropriate for the rapidly changing market. Not only can it contribute to new product development success, it is proposed that it can enhance the ability to market which is labeled marketing exploration (Kyriakopoulos & Moorman, 2004). In this study, we posited proactive market orientation together with the original market orientation named here responsive market orientation as essential to developing a firm’s marketing exploration capability. As marketing competences reside in the everyday routines and practice related to the marketing function, marketing exploration enables one to update the ability to perform various marketing tasks which is essential capability of the firm to get ahead of the competition. Entrepreneurial orientation is also introduced as a mediating factor between the above relationships with the argument that such posture is related to a firm’s propensity to innovate, take risk and be proactive (Lumpkin & Dess, 1996) which is related to a proactive market orientation. A survey was carried out in China and results show that proactive market orientation is positively related to marketing exploration while responsive market orientation has positive impact on marketing exploration only through entrepreneurial orientation. Marketing exploration in turn positively impact firm performance. Results of this study contribute theoretically in revitalizing the market orientation literature which has been research for almost three decades. While leading customers with a proactive market orientation is getting more salient in this rapidly changing market environment, the original market orientation cannot be ignored. Both orientations are essential to enhance firms’ ability to renew their marketing skills and routines. This is definitely more important than just coming up with new products/services as it enables firms to update its marketing knowledge and skills so is crucial to long term performance.

This study empirically examines the effects of two distinct types of privacy-related concerns (organizational threats and social threats) on different aspects of information disclosure (amount, honesty and conscious control) on social network sites, especially by highlighting the role of trusting beliefs (integrity & honesty, predictability, benevolence, competence), across three markets in which social network usage is substantial (i.e. US, Europe, and East Asia). The study contributes to the literature focused on the paradoxical dichotomy between privacy attitudes and behaviors. In a quantitative modeling framework, we develop a structural model based on our previous conceptual model. We use data collected through snowball convenience sampling technique from a large sample (n=624), Web-based consumer survey from Europe, US and East Asia to measure these constructs, and we fit a series of structural equation models that test related prior theory. Findings suggest that the “Social Sharing” paradox may result from a failure to disentangle between social and organizational concerns, since the authors find no effect of privacy concerns about organizational threats on overall disclosure (amount and honesty of information) but find high conscious control of information disclosed for higher concerns towards social threats. Trusting beliefs differently influence information disclosure in the three main geographical areas and were found to moderate the effect of social concerns on the amount of information disclosed and conscious control. Further the cross-country analysis results suggest that cultural values may affect how concerns about privacy and trusting beliefs, impact self-disclosure. For practice, our research suggests actionable strategies to aid online marketers in matching information requests with the needs and concerns of consumers by providing greater control and customization and enhancing firm trust.

The purpose is to identify the impacts of internal and external integrations in an automotive supply chain in Thailand. Data are collected from automotive firms in Thailand and are analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The result indicates that both internal and external integrations are significant factors affecting market flexibility.

Export Market Orientation (EMO)- one of the most important strategic orientations of exporting firms- has received much attention in the last two decades within organization and academia alike. EMO has become an emerging issue that benefits the integration of market orientation, internationalization, and export performance literature into coherence. After the introduction of this concept in international business (IB) literature, we observed a surge of research focusing on EMO incorporating scale development for measurement as well as empirical studies that investigate the antecedents to and consequences of EMO along with moderation and mediation. This review systematically examines EMO research, analyzing 31 articles published in 19 leading journals available between 1999 and 2017. What we can conclude from the review is that EMO research is still in its infancy. We attempted to identify some research gaps and suggest some future avenues of research.