This study aims to explore the motivations and effects of country of ingredient authenticity on product judgement and willingness to buy or/and recommend. Country of ingredient authenticity can be defined as set of consumers’ generic characteristics or traits of seeking/pursuing/consuming raw materials/goods and/or artisan skills that are deemed to be superior and synonymous to a specific location in the pursuits of one’s self image and social standing (Cheah, Zainol and Phau, 2017). The jewellery brands used in this study are Swarovski, Pandora and Monora. The 4X1 exploratory research design looks at four different conditions applied to the three jewellery brands. AMOS and SPSS were used to analyse the data and determine model fit. Managerial implications include the positive recognition of the ingredient authenticity of Swarovski crystals incorporated with other products/brands. Theoretical Development Country-of-origin acts as a quality indicator (Bilkey & Nes, 1982). Consumers rely on their perceptions of product quality from a specific country to evaluate other products from the same country. The home country of a brand and its image can serve as a source of competitive advantage or disadvantage (Cuervo-Cazurra & Un, 2015). In more recent times, product collaborations and ingredient branding techniques have been adopted in the marketplace. As a first for its brand, Louis Vuitton partnered with Supreme to launch a streetwear line in 2017. In 2011, Prada launched a ‘made in’ campaign to highlight the authenticity of the raw materials and artisan skills used to create the products. Country-of-ingredient-authenticity aimed at exploring how countries can capitalize on their expertise to improve product and country image perceptions. The incorporation of materials and skills from the country-of-ingredientauthenticity can be a strategic decision that allows brands to alleviate the product judgement and willingness to buy or recommend (Suter et al., 2017). This decision can prove to be advantageous for the firm (Suter et al., 2018). This study aims to uncover whether Swarovski crystals, as both a raw material and artisan skill, can affect consumers’ perception of the product judgement and willingness to buy and recommend. The study also profiled the motivations of consumers’ seeking these ingredient-authentic products. In this research, statusseeking consumption and fashion knowledge act as the underpinning background variable to the model (Flynn et al, 2000; Eastman et al 1999). Luxury consumption is driven by the need for status in conspicuous luxury consumers whereas fashion knowledge in inconspicuous luxury consumers (Jaikumar, Singh and Sarin, 2018; Koo and Im, 2017). The study aims to discover whether status-seeking consumption and fashion knowledge has a significant impact on consumers’ need for seeking authentic ingredients in jewellery. --------Insert Figure 1 and Figure 2 here -------- Research Design In order to test our hypotheses, an online Qualtrics survey was created and administered to an Indonesian sample aged between 18 to 55 years old. Four sets of surveys were created to reflect the 4 different stimulus (Table 1). The study aims to look at whether the different brands paired with different ingredient authentic materials would result in a different perception of product judgement and willingness to buy/recommend (Maxham and Netemeyer, 2003; Bower and Landreth, 2001; Wood and Darling, 1993). The researchers were also interested to uncover the motivations behind the need for ingredient authenticity in consumers’ decision making to buy jewellery. The brands chosen were Swarovski, Pandora and Monora. Swarovski serves as the control to measure consumers’ response to the actual brand with the incorporated Swarovski crystals. Pandora was used as it is a well-known jewellery brand with a potential collaboration with Swarovski and Monora is a lesserknown jewellery brand whose brand and product quality could improve with the incorporation of Swarovski crystals. Respondents chosen had to be interested in or aware of luxury branded goods as it is important to possess some knowledge to seek for authenticity in luxury branded products. 600 completed surveys were collected in a span of 2 months. AMOS 21 software was used to run SEM model and test for model fit. SPSS 22 was used to run a median split and independent sample T-test to ascertain the motivations of ingredient-authenticity behaviour between low and high status seeking and fashion knowledge consumers. --------Insert Table 1-------- Results Four models were tested on AMOS to determine the model fit and its significant interactions. Study One – Swarovski jewellery with Swarovski crystals The conceptual model has achieved a good model fit with indices of χ2(94) = 128.937, p = .01. The other indices suggest adequate fit, SRMR = .0303, GFI = .910, IFI = .988, TLI = .985, CFI = .988, RMSEA = .049, PCLOSE= .510. Study Two – Pandora jewellery with Swarovski crystals The conceptual model has achieved a good model fit with indices, of χ2(34) = 63.490, p = .002. The other indices suggest adequate fit, SRMR = .0415, GFI = .933, IFI = .980, TLI = .968, CFI = .980, RMSEA = .076, PCLOSE= .071. Study Three – Pandora jewellery with real crystals The conceptual model has achieved a good model fit with indices, of χ2(54) = 56.332, p = .388. The other indices suggest adequate fit, SRMR = .0233, GFI = .945, IFI = .999, TLI = .998, CFI = .999, RMSEA = .017, PCLOSE= .900. Study Four – Monora jewellery with Swarovski crystals The conceptual model has achieved a good model fit with indices, of χ2(109) = 182.549, p = .000. The other indices suggest adequate fit, SRMR = .0464, GFI = .893, IFI = .975, TLI = .968, CFI = .974, RMSEA = .066, PCLOSE= .06. A median split and independent sample T-test were carried out on low and high status-seeking and fashion knowledge consumers and their means compared to the ingredient-authentic seeking behaviours. Status-seeking behaviour is the main driver of consumers acting on the need for authenticity of raw materials and artisan skills on all 4 stimulus. This behaviour could be attributed by consumers’ hedonic need to own jewellery that signal good quality and design. Fashion knowledge consumers seek authenticity of raw materials and artisan skills in both Pandora stimulus and looked for authenticity of artisan skills in Monora stimulus. This indicates that owning a Pandora jewellery can be attributed to being a trendy fashionista following the current trend of collecting charms. As for the lesser known brand, Monora, the incorporation of the ingredient authentic Swarovski crystal helped consumers to identify the authentic artisan skill that goes into making the jewellery. -------- Insert Table 2 and 3 here -------- Conclusion Swarovski jewellery commands high interest in consumers seeking for ingredient authentic products as authenticity of artisan skills positively influences product judgement and authenticity of raw materials positively influences willingness to recommend. There was no ingredient-authenticity effect in consumers when exposed to Pandora jewellery with Swarovski crystals. Pandora has always been associated and known for the novelty of collecting the charm trinkets. Consumers are more likely to buy Pandora for their charms rather than the fact it is embedded with a Swarovski crystal. Pandora jewellery with real crystals was perceived positively by consumers to increase product judgement and willingness to recommend and buy. Again, the collectors’ mindset plays a role in this behaviour. The strong brand effect also plays well into Pandora’s popularity in the marketplace. Monora jewellery with Swarovski crystals piqued consumers’ interest in the ingredient authentic product with authenticity of artisan skills positively influencing product judgment and authenticity of raw materials positively influencing willingness to recommend. The results support the idea that when Swarovski crystal is incorporated into a lesser known brand’s product, it increases the quality perception and word of mouth value. On all four studies, consumers’ product judgment positively influences willingness to recommend indicating consumers are more willing to spread word-of-mouth when they believe the product is of good quality. This willingness to recommend then positively leads to willingness to buy the product. Status-seeking behaviour was seen as a main factor for consumers when searching for the ingredient-authenticity of the jewellery. For Swarovski and Monora, the ingredient played a part in inducing the ingredient-authenticity behaviour whereas owning a Pandora jewellery signifies some sort of in-class group reference and trend. The Pandora results are supported when consumers who have fashion knowledge also sought the ingredient-authenticity of the Pandora product.

Over time popular media has used the idea of Italian Mafia and the related image of mobsters in TV series, movies, and cartoons. The overall image surrounding Mafia is so powerful that nowadays many people associate the name Mafia to The Godfather movie or other fictional images. In addition to this, there are also businesses that offer products and services branded with names that remind the idea of Mafia, despite, in reality, the Mafia is a violent criminal organisation involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking, murders, etc. However, marketing research has never studied consumers’ attitudes towards the use of these stereotypes in marketing and their willingness to buy products and services that use them. This research tries to fill this gap and, by adopting Forsyth’s (1980) ethical ideologies questions, it studies the links between consumers’ ethical ideologies and: 1) consumers’ attitudes towards these products and services; 2) consumers’ willingness to buy them in order to understand whether there are differences between relativists and ideologists consumers. This research is based on an online survey made up of open and closed-ended questions. Section one of the survey was made up of closed-ended questions aimed at studying ethical ideologies; section two was made up of a mix of open- and closedended questions aimed at understanding the perceptions that respondents had towards the Mafia; their degree of acceptance towards the use of the Mafia for commercial purposes; and their willingness to buy Mafia-inspired products; the last section included some demographic questions. The survey was made available via Qualtrics and respondents were recruited through Prolific. In the end 152 responses from UK participants were collected. Data analysis has not been carried out yet, but it is expected to analyse data through the Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA), a new data analysis technique that is aimed at identifying necessary, but not sufficient conditions within data. In addition to this, analysis of group differences will be carried out through ANOVA, in conjunction with regression analysis. Through this research it is expected to be able to understand whether consumers’ attitudes towards the use of Mafia stereotypes in marketing and their willingness to buy products and services that use these stereotypes differ according to whether consumers are classified as relativists or ideologists. With this study it is expected to analyse an area of consumption that so far has been neglected by research, i.e. consumers’ attitudes and willingness to buy products and services that use Mafia-related stereotypes.

Deregulation of electricity market has brought new business opportunities for electricity suppliers. As of 2011, there are around 60 electricity retailers in the Danish market competing against each other (Yang, 2013). Thus, Danish households have the opportunities to choose different electricity services, green electricity services vs. the conventional brown electricity (generated from fossil fuels) service. However, statistics have indicated that the movement of electricity market deregulation has produced little effect on Danish consumers in terms of switching among suppliers or renegotiating an existing service contract (Yang, 2014). Unfortunately, evidences from the actual market show that the penetration of green electricity remains very low (Yang, 2013). This is bad, because Denmark’s long-term energy goal is to become a fossil fuel independent nation by 2050. The study divided a sample 1022 respondents into two nearly equal sized sub-samples chosen from an Internet Panel administrated by a commercial marketing research firm. One subsample received a positive frame version of the questionnaire regarding subscribing to a green electricity contract, and the other subsample received a negative frame version of the questionnaire. The selected sample reflects the Danish population structure in terms of the major socio-economic variables such as gender and age. Contingent valuation (CV) method was used to value the households’ willingness to subscribe a green electricity service contract (Alberini & Kahn, 2006). As expected, consumers displayed stronger intention to buy green electricity when the situation was framed in a positive maner (i.e., most Danish households have already bought it), as compared to the situation was framed in a negative manaer. The theoretical explaning can be formulated in terms of the theory of social norms. The framing effect also signals the public good side of green electricity in that there seems to be a free rider problem. The relatively low intention to buy green electricity in the negative frame manner (i.e., a few Danish household has bought green electricity) indicates that the free-rider incentive is particularly powerful in large group, where an indivudal may percived that her or his behavior will have only little influence on the collective outcome (Olsen, 1970). The results confimrs the finding from (Ek & Söderholm, 2008).

This is an initial work on a research project which will ultimately test a battery of hypotheses relating to the drivers of consumers’ willingness to buy of Vitamin C OTC. This initial work outlines the product category, the market, and presents the initial theoretical framework to be investigated. Dietary Supplement constitutes a very significant business market in Thailand. Consumers in Thailand consume dietary supplements on a daily, continual basis to supplement their daily dietary intake. More importantly, they consume them as a preventive measure to off-set an environment of ever growing pollution, pressure to perform and stress. The market for dietary supplements is growing, and firms operating in this market are interested to understand the factors and variables related to consumers’ willingness to buy on these dietary supplements. Consumers can also benefit from research insights as the consumption of dietary supplement is not without criticism (e.g. Braun et al., 2009; Timbo et al., 2006). Food supplements or Dietary supplements (EU1) is the official designated term for this product category in the United Stated of America (U.S. FDA 1994). Thailand (ACCSQ-TMHS, 2006), are classified as food products containing micronutrients and its intention is to supplement the normal diet (Greger, 2001). According to Kearney (2010), consumers have increasing levels of focus on the importance of health, which the increased focus on health coincides with an increased availability of health information, which in turn is fueled by the underlying demands of an aging population and an increase in lifestyle diseases. In the EU, the use of supplements is widely practiced in the general population. Statistics reveal that 47% of German women and 41% of German men regularly take supplements consisting of vitamins, and minerals (Reinnert, Rohrmann, Beckers & Linseisen, 2007). The sales ratio in the Thai market between general nutrients and vitamins is approximately 55 to 45 percent. According to the latest IMS Health Thailand report as of end September 2013 (see Table), it is noted that in Thailand alone, the domestic consumption of general nutrients and vitamins as food supplements has increased by more than four folds from 2004 to 2013 (Thai Baht 1.27 billion in 2004 to 5.46 billion in 2013). The majority of this increase occurred from 2011 to 2013. Most of these products are imported from the US. Other major producers and exporters of these products are Ireland, France, Switzerland, Japan, Netherlands, Germany and Australia; whereas Japan, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam are major exporters of raw materials into Thailand for further refinement (Arunanondchai 2007). In Thailand, exercise used to be the main way to achieve a healthy life. There is, however, a growing belief that healthy food and food supplement consumption is important to be healthy. The present project studies the use of Vitamin C as an example of a dietary supplement, which is widely consumed in Thailand. Vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid or Ascorbate) is the generic descriptor for compounds having antiscorbutic activity. Most animals can synthesize Vitamin C from D-glucose but humans and other primates, together with guinea pigs, fruit bats, some Passeriformes birds, some fish and some insects, are exceptions. Vitamin C is a reducing agent (antioxidant) and it is likely that all of its biochemical and molecular functions relate to this property. In humans, Vitamin C acts as an electron donor for eight enzymes, of which three are involved in collagen hydroxylation (including aspects of norepinephrine, peptide hormone and tyrosine metabolism) and two are involved in carnitine biosynthesis (Dunn et al (1984), Eipper et al (1993, 1992), Kaufmann (1974), Kirirkko & Myllyla (1985), Levine et. al, (1991), Procop & Kiviikko (1995), Peterkovsky (1991), Rebouche (1991)). Vitamin C is sold through various distribution channels, including the over-the-counter (OTC) market in Thailand with limited restriction from the Thai FDA. OTC drugs are medicines that may be sold directly to a consumer without a prescription from a healthcare professional, as compared to prescription drugs, which may be sold only to consumers possessing a valid prescription. The term OTC may be somewhat counterintuitive, since, in many countries, these drugs are often located on the shelves of stores like any other packaged product. In contrast, prescription drugs are almost always passed over a counter from the pharmacist to the customer. Some drugs may be legally classified as over-the-counter (i.e., no prescription is required), but may only be dispensed by a pharmacist after an assessment of the patient's needs and/or the provision of patient education. In many countries, a number of OTC drugs are available in establishments without a pharmacy, such as general stores, supermarkets, gas stations, etc. Regulations detailing the establishments where drugs may be sold, who is authorized to dispense them, and whether a prescription is required vary considerably from country to country. To simplify, any medicine that can be sold over the counter for symptomatic relief of minor or self-limiting ailments without the prescription of a registered medical practitioner is an OTC Medicine. OTC Medicines differ from Prescription Medicines in terms of Margin of Safety, Advertising and Distribution. The project will address a combination of both intrinsic and extrinsic driving factors in pharmaceutical products, including vitamins that can potentially lead to a better and clearer understanding on how consumers perceive the product quality, get influenced by expert opinion, and manage perceived risk when deciding whether or not to buy. Three potential drivers will be investigated in this project for their impact on willingness to buy: Country of Origin image, brand image, and expert opinion. Further, the framework suggests that the relationship between these three drivers and consumers’ willingness to buy is mediated by their perceived risk. Basing on the requirement of developing a theoretical framework to answering these questions, it is foreseen that both practical and implicative results derived from the OTC pharmaceutical market can complete the answer from an experienced consumers’ perspective, therefore this study is adopting the questionnaire set methodology to survey among Vitamin C consumer who are experienced with this dietary supplement. Aligning the survey in respect to prior authority research, the measurement items in this survey were adapted from pre-existing scales of operationalization. A questionnaire will be constructed to assess 5 main constructs. They are: 1) Product Country Image 2) Brand Image 3) Expert Opinion 4) Perceived Risk 5) Willingness to buy. These 5 constructs constitute the main proposed conceptual model. All constructs in this questionnaire use a seven-point Likert scale. The research will draw on existing definitions and measures adapted from the consumer behavior and marketing literatures. The theoretical framework and related hypotheses will be tested using primary survey data by using a statistical analysis software package for interpretation and conclusion of findings. Questions for Product Country Image were operationalized and adapted from Roth and Romeo (1992), consisting of four items. Questions such as “How would you rate innovativeness of Cosmeceuticals products from Country of Origin” were specially designed to capture consumers’ perception of products based on their imaginative association of a product to a country. Brand Image, comprising of five items, is borrowed from Robert (2004) and Cho (2011) which are semantically designed to capture meaningfulness of brand perception to the end user. An example of a question is: “The brand adds value to my life”. Four items are asked in the Expert Opinion segment in order to analyze the pedagogical impact of experts’ persuasiveness, operationalized from Aquevegue (2006), such as “The opinion of the experts about the product is (very good to very bad)”. Perceived risk, being measured by 5 statements such as “You want to enjoy better health” in the degree of respondents’ view is heavily adapted and modified from Chang (2007). This segment is directly engineered to identify and understand expectations associated with products from a consumers’ viewpoint resulting in final purchase action. Such expectations can be understood as benefits or the avoidance of threats that are realized through consumption. Applying the hierarchy of needs model (Maslow 1954) could help to reveal and orchestrate consumers’ purchase motivations resulting in valuable marketing insights. Finally, the construct of Willingness to buy, consisting of five items such as “The likelihood of purchasing Cosmeceuticals is (very low to very high)”, is adapted from Dodds and Monroe (1991). Overall, we expect the results of this project to illuminate our understanding of how perceived risk influences consumer decisions in the dietary supplements market. Specifically the results should shed light on the effect of three key drivers of perceived risk, as well as of a key outcome of perceived risk.