HOW CUSTOMER PARTICIPATION CAN DRIVE REPURCHASE INTENT

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of customer participation in the service delivery process by designing and testing an empirical model with the customers’ point of view in mind. Data are collected in the context of professional financial insurance services. The proposed model is analyzed with partial least squares (PLS) path modeling in SmartPLS 2.0 software. The results of the study show that customer participation produces positive effects on customer satisfaction and affective commitment through the customer relational value. Affective commitment is a strong predictor of repurchase intent, but no relationship between customer satisfaction and repurchase intent was found. This study suggests that customer participation can be a win-win situation for customers and the service firm. Customers who create relational value with their service providers effectively enjoy their services more and are more likely to build and maintain long-term relationships with their service firm. Our findings highlight the roles of the customer and indicate the heuristic value of viewing customer satisfaction and affective commitment as consequences of customer participation. This can enhance the understanding of how encounters should be designed in order to support employees and improve the co-creation of value

Promoting Competitive Advantage: The Role of IT Integration, Trust and Innovativeness

Due to the recent movements related to the focus of core competence and as a result of a tendency toward global profit squeezing, the innovativeness of the supply chain play a key role in influencing a firm’s competitive advantage. Enterprises keep good relationships with their suppliers and customers in the hope that the supply chain system can operate effectively. This means that firms have been encouraged to connect key suppliers and customers in order to establish strong supply chains and thus to enhance the competitive advantages related to their supply chain systems. Electronic OEMs in Taiwan currently are facing fierce challenges related to high elasticity, fast speed, and small amounts and various modes of production. Therefore, enterprises need to enhance quick response through effective IT integration and mechanisms intended connect supply chain members in order to increase innovativeness and competitive advantage. The model and hypothesized relationship are empirically tested using the structural equation modeling approach, supported by SmartPLS2.0 software. The results of this study showed that IT integration and trust of supply chain members all positively influence innovativeness, and further have positive effects on competitive advantage. Implications for researchers and practitioners, and suggestions for future research are also addressed in this study

Genetic Variation of Wood Density in Luanta Fir Tested in Central Taiwan

Forty-nine wind-pollinated families representing 8 provenances of Luanta fir (Cunninghamia konishii) were sampled from the species' range in Taiwan. The study plantation was established in central Taiwan with 49 ten-tree linear plots in each of 5 blocks in the randomized complete block design. In July 1998 at plantation age 25, a 0.45-cm caliber increment core sample was extracted at breast height in the east cardinal direction from the best tree per plot; altogether 245 cores (1 core/family/plot X 49 families X 5 blocks) were sampled. From each core, only the 6 outermost growth rings (near the bark) were used to determine extracted specific gravity according to the maximum moisture content method. Genetic variations among provenances and among families within provenances were tested following a general linear model. There was no apparent geographic variation pattern, and the main source of specific gravity variation was attributable to differences among families within provenance. Overall specific gravity was 0.36 and the narrow-sense family heritability was 0.46. Wood specific gravity is strongly controlled by additive genetic variance, suggesting that this trait would respond to selection breeding. The importance of family selection was emphasized in the improvement of this wood property in Taiwan

Antioxidation activity and total phenolic contents of various Toona sinensis extracts

Products Processing Division, LRI, COA, Tainan, Taiwan. Accepted 1 August, 2012 The purpose of this study was to analyze the antioxidation activities and total phenolic contents of Toona sinensis. An extractive method of the antioxidant activities of local T. sinensis leaf extracts and various antioxidation models were analyzed. The effects of various solvent concentrations to extract the T. sinensis leaf on the antioxidation activity were compared. The results showed that the T. sinensis leaf extracts of various solvent concentrations had good antioxidant activities. The chelating abilities of ferrous ion in the T. sinensis leaf extracts obtained from various solvent concentrations were above 80%. It is concluded that T. sinensis leaf extracts could be used as biopreservatives of food products. The total antioxidant activities, chelating abilities of ferrous ions and reducing capacities of the T. sinensis leaf extracts might provide a substitute for a natural antioxidant.Keywords: Antioxidative activity, bio-preservatives, extracts, Toona sinensi

Protective effect of transgenic expression of porcine heat shock protein 70 on hypothalamic ischemic and oxidative damage in a mouse model of heatstroke

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Transgenic mice have been used to examine the role of heat shock protein (HSP)72 in experimental heatstroke. Transgenic mice that were heterozygous for a porcine HSP70β gene ([+] HSP72) and transgene-negative littermate controls ([-] HSP72), under pentobarbital sodium anesthesia, were subjected to heat stress to induce heatstroke. It was found that the overexpression of HSP72 in multiple organs improved survival during heatstroke by reducing hypotension and cerebral ischemia and damage in mice. Herein we attempted to further assess the effect of heat exposure on thermoregulatory function, hypothalamic integration, and survival in unrestrained, unanesthetized [+]HSP72 and compare with those of [-]HSP72. In this research with the transgenic mice, we first conducted several biochemical, physiologic and histological determinations and then investigated the beneficial effects of HSP72 overexpression on the identified hypothalamic deficits, thermoregulatory dysfunction, and mortality during heatstroke.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We report here that when [-]HSP72 mice underwent heat stress (ambient temperature 42.4°C for 1 h), the fraction survival and core temperature at 4 h after heat stress were found to be 0 of 12 and 34.2°C ± 0.4°C, respectively. Mice that survived to day 4 after heat stress were considered as survivors. In [+]HSP72 mice, when exposed to the same heat treatment, both fraction survival and core temperature values were significantly increased to new values of 12/12 and 37.4°C ± 0.3°C, respectively. Compared to [-]HSP mice, [+]HSP72 mice displayed lower hypothalamic values of cellular ischemia (e.g., glutamate and lactate-to-pyruvate ratio) and damage (e.g., glycerol) markers, pro-oxidant enzymes (e.g., lipid peroxidation and glutathione oxidation), pro-inflammatory cytokines (e.g., interleukin-1beta and tumor necrosis factor-alpha), and neuronal damage score evaluated 4 h after heat stress. In contrast, [+]HSP72 mice had higher hypothalamic values of antioxidant defences (e.g., glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase), ATP, and HSP72 expression.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study indicates that HSP72 overexpression appears to be critical to the development of thermotolerance and protection from heat-induced hypothalamic ischemic and oxidative damage.</p