Internationalization of E-commerce: A Comparison of Online Shopping Preferences of Turkish and American University Students

While international e-commerce has been as an efficient means of global transaction, it can be improved even more if it is tailored to differences in local markets in terms of economy, infrastructure and culture.  In trying to investigate the internationalization of e-commerce, we examined the online shopping preferences in the US (which has a well-developed market in e-commerce) and Turkey (which has more of a developing market with good potentials).  This empirical study indicated significant cross-national differences in online shopping preferences, particularly on attitude towards online credit card payment and online purchase involvement. It was also concluded that the culture based factors such as website design appeal is also significantly affected by nationality. Keywords: Online shopping; e-commerce; cultural difference

The Perceived Country Of Origin Images In Turkey

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of country-of-origin image in quality perceptions of Turkish consumers. Since the research already supports the fact that country-of-origin image reflects a consumer’s general perception about the quality of products made in a particular country and the nature of people from that country, the authors aimed to search how consistent the Turkish consumers are in perceiving some products/product groups and the countries those products are associated with. The objective is to assess the matching of perceptions of some country images and the products. Both the product-country and the country-product match information can be used to assess consumers’ purchase intentions by both marketing practitioners and the state authorities in managing country images. This study examined country-of-origin in terms of the fit between countries and product categories as perceived by a sample of 500 students/professionals in both major universities and numerous business institutions in Turkey. The findings indicated that the respondents were not consistent in associating the names of the products and the names of the countries with each other

Exploring Antecedents of Private Shopping intention: The Case of Turkish Apparel Industry

The objective of this study is to develop a research model to investigate the impacts of           (i) perceived benefits/risks of online shopping, (ii) the dimensions of both electronic service quality (e-SQ) and electronic service recovery (e-recovery) on electronic commerce satisfaction and electronic loyalty in the setting of private shopping business model among Turkish online shoppers. The hedonic/enjoyment benefit is the only significantly effective benefit of online shopping where other listed benefits and the risks appear to have an insignificant impact on electronic satisfaction. The e-SQ dimension of “system availability” and the e-recovery dimension of “compensation” were not considered significantly effective on e-satisfaction by the respondents, either. In congruence with the previous research findings, e-satisfaction is a major element of e-loyalty in the growing business of private apparels shopping in Turkey. Keywords: Private Shopping, e-service quality, e-satisfaction, e-loyalty

Analyses of the mechanical, electrical and electromagnetic shielding properties of thermoplastic composites doped with conductive nanofillers

The purpose of this study is to observe effect of incorporating vapor-grown carbon nanofibers with various amounts in polyvinylidene fluoride matrix in terms of mechanical strength and electromagnetic shielding effectiveness. Thermoplastic conductive nanocomposites were prepared by heat-pressed compression molding. Vapor-grown carbon nanofibers were utilized at various weight ratios (1 wt.%, 3 wt.%, 5 wt.%, and 8 wt.%) as conductive and reinforcing materials. Polyvinylidene fluoride was used as a thermoplastic polymer matrix. Scanning electron microscopic analysis was conducted in order to characterize the morphology and structural properties of the nanocomposites and results revealed well dispersion of carbon nanofibers within the matrix for all concentrations. Mechanical characteristics were investigated according to standards. Findings proved that overall increments of 16%, 37.5%, and 56% were achieved in terms of tensile strength, elasticity modulus, and impact energy, respectively, where a total reduction of 44.8% was observed in terms of elongation for 8 wt.% vapor-grown nanofiber matrix compared to that of 0 wt.%. Electromagnetic shielding effectiveness's of the nanocomposites were determined by standard protocol using coaxial transmission line measurement technique in the frequency range of 15–3000 MHz. It was observed that resistance, sheet resistance, and resistivity of nanocomposites depicted substantial reduction with the increment in nanofiber content. Nevertheless, it was observed that nanofiber content, dispersion, and network formation within the composites were highly influent on the electromagnetic shielding effectiveness performance of the structures

Differences between pediatric extra-pulmonary and pulmonary tuberculosis: A warning sign for the future

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global health problem. The childhood tuberculosis has some unique features different which makes the diagnosis more complicated. Here we described the epidemiologic, clinical and microbiologic features of children with extra pulmonary and pulmonary TB. Methods: The data of the patients 10 years. PTB was present in 75,0% of the cases, and EXPTB was present in 25% of cases. There was no significant difference between the EXPTB and PTB by means of distribution of age groups (p=0,201). The rate of patients free of constitutional symptoms were significantly higher in EXPTB compared to PTB(p=0,000). There was no significant difference between EXPTB and PTB by means of sources detection(p=0,069). Conclusion: TB is still a major public health problem. EXPTB has an insidious and silent onset without any constitutional symptoms, and both microbiological confirmation and the source by an adult are not frequently found. Moreover, detection of the adult source is mandatory for controlling the TB disease in children