Moral Obligation and Evaluating Group Disloyalty Among Children

Research on children’s moral obligation has shown that children ages 8 to 13 years believe it is a moral obligation to help the out-group in high need conditions (Sierksma, Thijs, Verkuyten, 2014). In these high need situations, children feel morally expected to offer help independent of group membership. Less is known about children’s’ moral obligation to the out-group in varying contexts and in situations of varying threat to the in-group (Nesdale, Maass, Durken, & Griffiths, 2005). The current study investigates moral obligation to the in-group and out-group in three contexts (disloyalty via psychological harm to the in-group, disloyalty via physical harm to the in-group, and disloyalty via violation of dress code rules to the in-group). In addition, varying levels of disloyalty were examined (e.g., high cost and low cost disloyalty). This topic of study is crucial in understanding the various intergroup contexts in which children experience moral obligations. The sample consisted of 37 children (Mage=13.27 years; SD=2.22; 68% female). Participants were randomly assigned to three contexts (e.g., physical harm, psychological harm, violation of dress code), each condition included two stories depicting low cost of disloyalty and high cost of disloyalty toward the in-group. Participants responded to two questions about the importance of helping their in-group and the out-group (e.g., “How important was it for X to try to get more water for your/the other group?” Likert-type scale: 1=really not important, 6= really important). Repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted with importance of helping (in-group vs. out- group) as the repeated measure and context as the between subject factor. Participants evaluated helping the in-group as more important than helping the out-group in both low cost and high cost situations. This was evidenced by main effects for both low cost (F(1,34)=13.47

Developing of Ethylene Glycol as a New Reducing Agent for Preparation of Pd-Ag/PSS Composite Membrane for Hydrogen Separation

In the present work, for the first time, a palladium-silver membrane has been prepared by electroless plating on the surface of a porous stainless steel disk by using ethylene glycol as a new reducing agent and polyol process. The reducing action of ethylene-glycol in the presence of PVP as a protecting surface agent produces a membrane with finely divided powder and nano-sized pores. Furthermore, the hydrogen separation ability of the membrane confirmed that the membrane with Pd77Ag23 is highly selective towards hydrogen compared to other prepared membranes. This is mainly related to the formation of dense and homogenous microstructure of the coating. Moreover, according to Graham’s law, the tests showed that hydrogen purity rises by increasing the applying temperature

An Experimental Study of the Effect of High Electric Field on Mass Transfer Enhancement

Applying corona wind as a novel technique can lead to a great level of heat and mass transfer augmentation by using a very small amount of energy. The enhancement of forced flow evaporation rate by applying electric field (corona wind) has been experimentally evaluated in this study. Corona wind produced by a fine wire electrode charged with positive high DC voltage impinges on water surface and leads to an evaporation enhancement by disturbing the saturated air layer over water surface. The study was focused on the effect of corona wind velocity, electrode spacing, and air flow velocity on the level of the evaporation enhancement. Two sets of experiments, i.e. with and without electric field, have been conducted. The data obtained from the first experiment were used as a reference for the evaluation of the evaporation enhancement in the presence of electric field. The applied voltages ranged from corona threshold voltage to spark over voltage with increments of 1 kV. The results shows that corona wind has a great enhancement effect on water evaporation rate, but its effectiveness gradually diminishes by increasing air flow velocity. The maximum enhancements are 7.3 and 3.6 times for air velocities of 0.125 and 1.75 m.s-1 respectively

The country of brand communication in the retail setting: An analysis of Italian products in China

The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of country of brand (COB) communication within the retail environment of emerging markets. Drawing from the literature on store image, we developed a framework to analyse static and dynamic elements of COB communication. By adopting an inductive approach, we analysed COB use in a sample of 20 stores of Italian fashion brands in China using the mystery shopping technique. Given the increasing growth of e-retailing in China, the in-store observation is complemented by an analysis of the use of COB within the brand's local website and e-commerce page. In order to have a multi-layered representation of the phenomenon, in-depth interviews with managers of Italian firms in fashion industry are carried out. Findings confirm that retailing represents a primary communication channel for firms operating in China; however, the results of the participant observation show that COB is a cue information utilised only by a small percentage of the sample, mainly in a textual and iconic way. Managerial implications are discussed on the extent to which COB communication in store should be managed within an effective marketing strategy in line with the country and consumer characteristics in order to enhance the brand image in a growing market like China

TRUST IN CROSS-CULTURAL B2B FINANCIAL SERVICE RELATIONSHIPS: THE ROLE OF SHARED VALUES

This is the accepted version of the following article: Houjeir, R. & Brennan, R. J, 'Trust in cross-cultural b2b financial service relationships: The role of shared values', Journal of Financial Services Marketing, June 2016, Vol 21(2): 90-102 The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/fsm.2016.4Trust in business-to-business supplier–customer relationships in financial services is an area of considerable research interest. The bulk of prior empirical research in this field has concentrated on trust in business relationships within a Western cultural context. However, shared values are acknowledged to be an important antecedent to trust. The premise of this study is that in circumstances where there are substantial cultural differences between parties to a supplier–customer relationship, these differences will be reflected in shared values, which will in turn be reflected in differences in the nature of trust. A qualitative study was conducted among business bankers and their corporate clients in the context of the United Arab Emirates. In all 170 respondents were interviewed; of these, 160 were paired respondents, that is, where a client and banker from the same business relationship were interviewed (yielding 80 interview dyads). Substantial differences with respect to trust were found between relationships that involved only Emiratis, those that involved Emiratis and non-Emiratis, and those that involved only non-Emiratis. For Emiratis mutual trust is substantially based on family and clan ties and exhibits strongly affective characteristics. For non-Emiratis trust is largely based on business considerations, and exhibits strongly cognitive characteristics.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Does country of origin affect brand associations? The case of Italian brands in China

none3noFindings related to how country of origin affects consumers’ product evaluations are still not consistent. Previous studies are mainly based on experiments and the results related to consumer judgements come from the elaboration of scores given to semantic scale items. Considering that brand image consists of a network of associations, the aim of this research is to evaluate how country of origin affects this entire network. An experiment was conducted involving 301 Chinese subjects to test the hypothesis that country stereotypes can be transferred to brands.noneFrancesca Checchinato, Marta Disegna, Tiziano VescoviChecchinato, Francesca; Disegna, Marta; Vescovi, Tizian

In search of tools for the use of Country-Image (CI) in the brand

Existing country image (CI) literature tends to focus on consumer behaviour. In contrast, this paper approaches CI from the point of view of the firm. In doing so, it seeks to identify the means by which international companies associate a brand with a specific country of origin in order to build brand values. In particular, it looks at the use of CI cues in brand strategies. The paper is based on exploratory research comprising a case study of two contrasting companies from the cosmetics industry, Natura, a domestic company, and the French-owned L’Occitane, both of which draw on images of Brazil to build their brands. Specific elements of CI used in branding are identified, and the extent to which the use of these differs depending on the origin of the owning company is explored. The cases suggest that CI can be exploited in different contexts. Through analysis of the elements used by both companies to build strong brands associated with the Brazilian CI—Natura Cosméticos and L’Occitane au Brésil—six tools are identified that can be combined by firms to deliver brand values, derived from any country, through the use of CI

A Study on Global Orientation in New Product Development among Small and Medium-Sized Firms

While many small and middle-sized enterprises are entering into emerging markets to satisfy diverse consumer needs, limited attention has been given to global orientation in new product development among these small and middle-sized enterprises in emerging markets. In order to find the antecedents and consequences of this managerial value, we have developed and tested a model of global orientation in new product development among small and middle-sized enterprises. Specifically, we hypothesize that customer orientation and long-term focus have a positive influence on the global orientation among small and middle-sized enterprises, which in turn has a positive effect on performance. Data collected from 482 firms supports the model. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.This Research is Supported by Sanhak Foundation Research Grant in 2011

Subject - specific - frequency - band for motor imagery EEG signal recognition based on common spatial spectral pattern

Over the last decade, processing of biomedical signals using machine learning algorithms has gained widespread attention. Amongst these, one of the most important signals is electroencephalography (EEG) signal that is used to monitor the brain activities. Brain-computer-interface (BCI) has also become a hot topic of research where EEG signals are usually acquired using non-invasive sensors. In this work, we propose a scheme based on common spatial spectral pattern (CSSP) and optimization of temporal filters for improved motor imagery (MI) EEG signal recognition. CSSP is proposed as it improves the spatial resolution while the temporal filter is optimized for each subject as the frequency band which contains most significant information varies amongst different subjects. The proposed scheme is evaluated using two publicly available datasets: BCI competition III dataset IVa and BCI competition IV dataset 1. The proposed scheme obtained promising results and outperformed other state-of-the-art methods. The findings of this work will be beneficial for developing improved BCI systems