Exploring perceptions of advertising ethics: an informant-derived approach

Whilst considerable research exists on determining consumer responses to pre-determined statements within numerous ad ethics contexts, our understanding of consumer thoughts regarding ad ethics in general remains lacking. The purpose of our study therefore is to provide a first illustration of an emic and informant-based derivation of perceived ad ethics. The authors use multi-dimensional scaling as an approach enabling the emic, or locally derived deconstruction of perceived ad ethics. Given recent calls to develop our understanding of ad ethics in different cultural contexts, and in particular within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, we use Lebanon—the most ethically charged advertising environment within MENA—as an illustrative context for our study. Results confirm the multi-faceted and pluralistic nature of ad ethics as comprising a number of dimensional themes already salient in the existing literature but in addition, we also find evidence for a bipolar relationship between individual themes. The specific pattern of inductively derived relationships is culturally bound. Implications of the findings are discussed, followed by limitations of the study and recommendations for further research

E-commerce ethics and its impact on buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty: an empirical study of small and medium Egyptian businesses

The theoretical understanding of e-commerce has received much attention over the years; however, relatively little focus has been directed towards e-commerce ethics, especially the SMEs B2B e-commerce aspect. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a framework that explains the impact of SMEs B2B e-commerce ethics on buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty. Using SEM to analyse the data collected from a sample of SME e-commerce firms in Egypt, the results indicate that buyers’ perceptions of supplier ethics construct is composed of six dimensions (security, non-deception, fulfilment/reliability, service recovery, shared value, and communication) and strongly predictive of online buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty. Furthermore, our results also show that reliability/fulfilment and non-deception are the most effective relationship-building dimensions. In addition, relationship quality has a positive effect on buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty. The results offer important implications for B2B e-commerce and are likely to stimulate further research in the area of relationship marketing

A Meta-Analysis of the Motion Function through the Therapy of Spinal Cord Injury with Intravenous Transplantation of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Rats

BACKGROUND: To compare the efficacy of the therapy of spinal cord injury with intravenous transplantation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) by Meta-analysis. METHODS: Studies of the BBB scores after intravenous transplantation of BMSCs were searched out from Pubmed, SCI, Cochrane Library, Chinese journal full-text database, China Biology Medicinedisc and Wanfang data-base and analyzed by Review Manager 5.2.5. RESULTS: Nine randomized controlled animal trials were selected with 235 rats enrolled. The studies are divided to different subgroups by different models of SCI and different time to transplantion. The results of Meta-analysis in different subgroups both indicated that the rats of experimental group (BMSCs group) got better BBB scores than control group at 1, 3 and over 5 weeks after intravenous transplantation of BMSCs with significant differences. The heterogeneity between impacted injury model and oppressed injury model subgroups decreased with the passage of time (I(2) = 75.8%, 39.7%, 0%). No heterogeneity was found between 3 d and 7 d subgroups. CONCLUSION: The intravenous transplantation of BMSCs is an efficient way to cure spinal cord injury, which can improve the motor function of rats. The therapeutic window is wide