Cross-border tourism and the emerging nation: taxonomy of the ignored shopper

The growth in Laos’ economy has been increasingly important in terms of consumption and tourism within Thailand. Currently, however, few studies have attempted to develop a marketing strategy for regional retailers in this emerging nation. This research is concerned with developing an appropriate marketing strategy that balances supply and demand within this regional market. Given that marketing relies heavily on understanding consumer behaviour, the objectives of this study are, first, to develop a cross-border shopper taxonomy in a regional market using benefit segmentation. In order to develop this marketing strategy, the research identified consumer expectations in order to explore how to achieve a competitive advantage that matches consumer needs with the available supplies. This cross-border shopping taxonomy provides a starting point for a holistic evaluation that will assist retailers in making marketing decisions. The study then attempts to understand the current market situations and marketing in practice from the perspective of suppliers. After assessing the correspondence between demand and supply, recommendations on strategic marketing are offered to Thai retailers at the end of the investigation. This study employed both quantitative and qualitative research methods, with 337 questionnaires and seven in-depth interviews. The survey was conducted in Thailand between December 2013 and January 2014. The data were collected from three provinces in the northeast region of Thailand that share a border with Laos: Nongkhai, Mukdahan and Nakorn Phanom. These provinces have high potential in respect to both tourism and retail developments. In addition, the seven interviewees with retailers and policy planners examined the implementation of market segmentation and marketing strategies. The data from the interviews was interpreted and compared with the quantitative data in order to investigate the correspondence between supply and demand. In order to classify cross-border shoppers, the major statistical analyses used were EFA and cluster analysis based on benefits sought. Segments were profiled with travel behaviour, shopping behaviour and demographic variables. ANOVA and MANOVA were employed to test differences between groups. After that, the research explored expectations through the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) in order to identify priorities for developing a competitive advantage. The results show that cross-border shoppers in the regional markets of Thailand consist of four segments: the Enthusiastic shoppers, the Leisure-tourist shoppers, the Product-focused shoppers and the Practical shoppers. These segments relate to the benefits sought, and correlate with different demographic variables, shopping activities and consumption patterns. Moreover, they have different expectations towards place attributes which are important for designing a marketing strategy that is suitable to each segment. Unfortunately, the interviewees from the supply side provided less marketing response to the cross-border tourist marketing. The implications of the findings are, first, that benefit segmentation is associated with demographic variables, shopping activities and expenditures. In addition, the evidence suggests some misunderstandings on the part of suppliers in respect to cross-border demand. The evaluation of demand and supply contributed recommendations for the design and management of effective marketing strategies for cross-border shoppers in this emerging nation

Instantaneous Marketing: An Analysis Of Processes To Make A Connection With Customers Through New Communications Technologies

Marketers try to find ways to respond to the needs of their target customers through most modern communications technologies. As the means to communicate with customers change, marketers find it most convenient and cost effective to make direct contact with customers. This study explores the advanced media for marketers to make a two-way communication to interact in real time with their customers. Instantaneous marketing has revolutionized marketing communication. The exploitation of customer databases and the necessity to acquire more customer information have led the marketers to explore the ways to connect with customers more rapidly to bring differentiation to their products or services. Moreover, customers provide flow of information about various aspects of company’s operations back to the company. Some companies still find it hard to cope with this enormous amount information in the fastest way possible. This study explores various communication technologies which help instantaneous marketing to come up with a model to explain the phenomenon. Implications for marketers will be provided to make us understand how we can make use of this information in practice

Factors Influencing Smartphone Repurchase

This study is an early attempt to deal with the issue of the long-term performance of smartphones in the Thai market by focusing on the construct of the repeat purchase of these products. The adult users of smartphones are interviewed. The results from the multiple regression analysis reveal that brand reputation, aesthetic value or the beauty of the design, and economic value or fair price, are positively correlated with the repurchase of smartphones, whereas learning about new technologies such as smartphones is negatively correlated with smartphone repurchase

Permanent Deformation Behavior under Repeated Load of Recycled Material Stabilized with Bitumen Emulsion

Cold in-place recycling (CIR) with bitumen emulsion is a method for enhancing resistance to permanent deformation damages of flexible pavement. The objective of the study was to examine the permanent deformation behavior of a bitumen-stabilized material (BSM) subjected to repeated loads. To achieve this, the aggregate was derived from reclaimed asphalt pavement and reclaimed crushed rock in the ratio of 25:75 mixed with 2% or 3% bitumen in emulsion and 1% Portland cement (of the total aggregate weight). After that, the specimens were subjected to repeated loads following the EN13286-7 method. The results were as follows. At the compressive deviatoric stress level of 550 kPa, All of BSM specimens with 2% and 3% bitumen exhibited the plastic shakedown equilibrium pattern of permanent deformation after 1,000,000 cycles of repeated loads and their permanent strain were less than 0.6%. The results also indicated that once the permanent strain rate decreased to 0.004 microstrain/cycle or lower, the BSM became stable in the plastic shakedown state. The findings in this study may serve as guidelines for designing pavement rehabilitation with BSM to prevent permanent deformation caused by traffic loads

Structural Design for Pressure- And Temperature-Resistant Buildings

Loads from explosions differ from seismic and wind loads due to their greater severity, continuity, rapidity, and thermal extremity. That is, explosions cause massive structural damage by exposing surrounding structures to extremely high pressure and temperature. Thus, structures at risk of explosive damage must be stronger than typical buildings in withstanding both ordinary loads and the additional pressure and temperature loads caused. Explosion-resistant structures are required in the petrochemical industry, explosive armories, power stations, and gas storage facilities, among others. This study aims to examine the structural performance of a building subject to three types of loads: (1) the pressure of 300 bars, (2) the temperature of 300 °C, and (3) the pressure of 300 bars combined with the temperature of 300 °C. The research analyzes three primary reinforced structures, namely columns, beams, and slabs, in terms of the parameters resulting from each scenario to determine a set of criteria for designing the structural components of explosion-resistant building

Development of a Size-Based Multiple Erosion Technique to Estimate the Aggregate Gradation in an Asphalt Mixture

Image processing (IP) techniques have recently been applied in the field of asphalt materials to help identify aggregate particles and measure their geometrical information based on sectional images of the material. This study examined IP techniques to improve the accuracy of analyzing the size distribution of aggregates in an asphalt mixture, and proposed two new methods: seven-layer overlaying (SLO) and size-based multiple erosion (SBME) to solve the problem of identifying connected aggregate particles that often occurs in typical IP applications. The proposed methods were tested for their effectiveness with a typical IP method using a referenced sectional image of asphalt mixture. Both the proposed methods successfully improved the accuracy of detection (number and size distribution) of aggregate particles, but the SBME approach was superior over the SLO method.Image processing (IP) techniques have recently been applied in the field of asphalt materials to help identify aggregate particles and measure their geometrical information based on sectional images of the material. This study examined IP techniques to improve the accuracy of analyzing the size distribution of aggregates in an asphalt mixture, and proposed two new methods: seven-layer overlaying (SLO) and size-based multiple erosion (SBME) to solve the problem of identifying connected aggregate particles that often occurs in typical IP applications. The proposed methods were tested for their effectiveness with a typical IP method using a referenced sectional image of asphalt mixture. Both the proposed methods successfully improved the accuracy of detection (number and size distribution) of aggregate particles, but the SBME approach was superior over the SLO method

Influences of Moisture Content on Resilient Modulus of Unbound Crushed Limestone

The design method of pavement structure is evolving to the new Mechanistic-Empirical (M-E) approach. A major benefit of M-E approach is being able to identify the distress patterns and the progress rate of a given pavement structure. This is possible by the knowledge of mechanistic characteristics of pavement materials responding to the repeated loads and environmental changes. Resilient modulus of the unbound granular material is the fundamental parameter needed in the mechanistic analysis of pavement structure. The resilient modulus behavior responding to moisture changes is the key contribution to the structural strength of conventional pavement in Thailand.  This study investigated the resilient modulus of the road base materials for the M-E approach. In this research, a set of laboratory tests were conducted on unbound crushed limestone. Two gradations of the limestone were selected to determine the resilient modulus using the repeated-load tri-axial test according to AASHTO T307. Test results revealed that water content played a significant influence to the resilient modulus value. The resilient modulus characteristic of limestone UGM observed from these tests can be employed in Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design

Influences of Particle Size and Content on Deformation Resistance of Crumb Rubber Modified Asphalt using Dry Process Mix

Crumb Rubber Modified (CRM) is one of techniques for improving asphalt mixture performance. There are two alternatives for applying crumb rubber (CR) to Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA), “Wet” and “Dry”. In the wet process, CR is added into hot asphalt cement in a factory, then CR-asphalt cement infusion is transported to a HMA plant for blending with hot aggregates. In the Dry process, CR is blended with hot aggregates and asphalt cement directly in a HMA plant. Although the dry process is considered less efficient due to lower infusion with asphalt cement, it offers some advantages that CR content can be independently controlled and higher amount of CR can be added into the HMA. This study focuses on dry process that uses CR modification by replacing some aggregate particles in mixture. HMA is blended with CR in 3 different sizes: 1.18 - 2.36 mm, 0.6 - 1.18 mm and smaller than 0.6 mm. The x-sized CR is added to the mixture in substitution of the same x-sized aggregate particles at the amount of 1% and 2% by the whole aggregate volume in the mixture. The mixtures’ performance in deformation resistance is represented by Wheel Tracking Slope (WTS). The results of Wheel Tracking tests on the specimens are enlightening. The mixture with CR particles smaller than 0.6mm shows excellent performance on deformation resistance, indicated by significantly lower WTS than others. Secondly, mixtures with higher amounts of CR have better performance than those with lower amounts. The mixture with 2% CR with smaller than 0.6 mm provides optimal performance at 2.1 times better than conventional HMA

Cross-border tourism and the regional economy: a typology of the ignored shopper

While previous studies have acknowledged the importance of cross border travellers to regional economic development, the significance of visitors from less developed and emerging nations, has received only limited academic attention. Through the application of market segmentation techniques to Laotian tourists, this paper identifies complex patterns of purchase behaviour that includes functional and utilitarian motives as well as more hedonistic practices. Such findings suggest that the economic impact of cross border travellers is not confined to the tourism and hospitality industries and that differences in consumption behaviour affords opportunities for a range of local businesses and service providers

Comparison of Properties of Fresh and Hardened Concrete Containing Finely Ground Glass Powder, Fly Ash, or Silica Fume

Waste glass has potential for use in building materials, for example, as an aggregate replacement, a filler in concrete, or a cement replacement. Finely ground glass powder (particle size of less than 38 µm) can be used as a pozzolan material in concrete because of its high reactive silica content. This paper studied the properties of concrete containing finely ground glass powder (approximate particle size, 12 - 15 µm) of admixture Type D following ASTM C494. The fresh concrete's compressive strength, ability to resist chloride penetration, and free drying shrinkage were evaluated. The experiment showed that using 10% or 20% glass powder reduced the workability of fresh concrete and accelerated its setting time. However, concrete containing 10% finely ground glass powder exhibited greater compressive strength and improved resistance to the penetration of chloride ions than normal concrete and concrete containing fly ash at the same replacement level. Concrete with 10% glass powder also had lower shrinkage than normal concrete and concrete containing fly ash but higher shrinkage than concrete with 10% silica fume