What drives cyber shop brand equity? An empirical evaluation of online shopping system benefit with brand experience

[[abstract]]The purpose of this research is to determine whether online brand purchasing system benefit can influence the consumer's brand experience, and how brand experience can affect brand equity. The four antecedent constructs of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model - performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating condition - are selected as the technology system benefit. Five online product categories are chosen to constitute the research setting since they are the top sales performers in each online product category. Data were collected through an online survey, and 685 useful questionnaires were used for the final analysis. A structural equation model (SEM) was used to analyze the research hypothesis. The final research results demonstrate that three constructs (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence) affect the brand experience, which in turn affects the brand equity. Finally, the managerial implications of these findings and future research directions are briefly discussed.[[booktype]]紙

Impact of intangibility on perceived risk associated with online games

[[abstract]]Online computer gaming is growing at a rapid pace. However, this phenomenon is stigmatised by many negative connotations. This study investigated the influence of intangibility on perceived risks (social, time, financial, physical, performance and psychology) among online gamers. The self-completed market survey questionnaire employs the Intangibility and Perceived Risk scales. Data were gathered in Taipei city, the biggest metropolitan areain Taiwan. Both public (1018) and online (400) voluntary interviews were conducted. The collected data were analysed with a structural equation model. There is a significant positive relationship between intangibility and alldimensions of perceived risk. The findings have managerial implications and future research is suggested.[[incitationindex]]SSCI[[booktype]]電子版[[booktype]]紙

The Effects of Hunger Marketing in Scarcity products

[[abstract]]Hunger marketing is a marketing strategy where goods suppliers deliberately limit product supply to achieve excess demand. This research paper primarily investigated the varying impacts of Jordon shoes (tangible goods) and travelling to the Maldives (intangible goods) on the variables of the various dimensions of hunger marketing. This researchalso focused on the relationships between hunger marketing; knowledge exchange motivation, opportunities, and ability; involvement; epistemic value; purchase intention; WOM; and the interference caused by Jordon shoes, travelling to the Maldives, and financial status. This research adopted structural equation modelling (SEM) to construct the research framework. The researchers collaborated with a survey company to distribute the questionnaires, of which 975 were recovered. The analytical methods were employed to verify the collected data such as factor loading, t-value, AVE, Cronbach’s α being consistent with the hypotheses set by the aims of this research. The results showed could provide academic value in hunger marketing related researches.[[notice]]補正完

Consumers’ attitudes towards different product category of private labels

[[abstract]]This research attempted to investigate the consumer perceptions on product quality, price, brand leadership and brand personality towards convenience goods and shopping goods based on international private labels (IPLs) and local private labels (LPLs). Data were collected outside the entrances of the main rail station of Taipei, Taiwan. A systematic sampling was adopted and 254 questionnaires were eventually collected. The findings revealed that the consumers in Taiwan believe that international and local hypermarkets both produce better convenience goods than shopping goods that have high quality and deliver more value. This research represents one of the few pioneer works that empirically investigate the aforementioned issues.[[journaltype]]國外[[incitationindex]]SSCI[[ispeerreviewed]]Y[[booktype]]電子版[[countrycodes]]NG

The Influence of Relationship Quality between Manufacturer and Retailer on Future Collaboration—A Case Study of Customer Electronic Product Channel in Taiwan

[[abstract]]This study explores the collaboration between upstream manufacturer brands and first-line retailers in Taiwan’s 3C product market, which is influenced by several factors. Both parties are motivated by profit and thus, strive for mutual cooperation in the business environment. Whether influencing factors exist between the retailer and manufacturer is a crucial issue. This study investigates 308 customer electronics retailers in Taiwan. Focusing on relationship quality, relational trust, and retailer satisfaction with the brand, we explore the possibility of future collaboration between retailers and manufacturer brands. The study results indicate the relationship quality between retailers and manufacturers has a significant impact on the relationship of trust. Both the relationship quality between retailers and manufacturers and the relational trust between the retailers and manufacturers have significant impacts on the retailer’s satisfaction with the manufacturer. Retailer satisfaction has a direct impact on the future collaboration between retailers and manufacturers. Compared with customers with high expectations, customers with low expectations have a higher effect on the relationship between retailer satisfaction with the brand manufacturer and the future collaboration between retailers and manufacturers.[[notice]]補正完

Investigating member commitment to virtual communities using an integrated perspective

[[abstract]]Purpose – Although the number of virtual communities has increased dramatically over the past few years, attracting and maintaining members remains the biggest challenge to establishing virtual social networks. This study seeks to integrate the roles of individual factors (issue involvement), social factors (social interaction), and system factors (system interactivity), and to explore how these factors contribute to member commitment in virtual communities. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 402 undergraduate students, who are all current members of virtual communities, participated in this study. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings – The findings reveal that member commitment to communities was influenced more by their issue involvement compared to their perceived social interaction or perceived system interactivity. Originality/value – This research contributes to online community literature by integrating critical antecedent factors in the field of community commitment behavior. The findings indicate that issue involvement is more important than social interaction and system interactivity for influencing member commitment to communities. Additionally, the findings suggest that online community administrators should consider community positioning and topic selecting programs when attempting to influence users to commit to communities.[[notice]]補正完畢[[incitationindex]]SSCI[[booktype]]紙

Isokinetic eccentric exercise can induce skeletal muscle injury within the physiologic excursion of muscle-tendon unit: a rabbit model

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Intensive eccentric exercise can cause muscle damage. We simulated an animal model of isokinetic eccentric exercise by repetitively stretching stimulated triceps surae muscle-tendon units to determine if such exercise affects the mechanical properties of the unit within its physiologic excursion. METHODS: Biomechanical parameters of the muscle-tendon unit were monitored during isokinetic eccentric loading in 12 rabbits. In each animal, one limb (control group) was stretched until failure. The other limb (study group) was first subjected to isokinetic and eccentric cyclic loading at the rate of 10.0 cm/min to 112% (group I) or 120% (group II) of its initial length for 1 hour and then stretched to failure. Load-deformation curves and biomechanical parameters were compared between the study and control groups. RESULTS: When the muscle-tendon unit received eccentric cyclic loading to 112%, changes in all biomechanical parameters – except for the slope of the load-deformation curve – were not significant. In contrast, most parameters, including the slope of the load-deformation curve, peak load, deformation at peak load, total energy absorption, and energy absorption before peak load, significantly decreased after isokinetic eccentric cyclic loading to 120%. CONCLUSION: We found a threshold for eccentrically induced injury of the rabbit triceps surae muscle at between 12% and 20% strain, which is within the physiologic excursion of the muscle-tendon units. Our study provided evidence that eccentric exercise may induce changes in the biomechanical properties of skeletal muscles, even within the physiologic range of the excursion of the muscle-tendon unit

The tale of TILs in breast cancer: A report from The International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group

The advent of immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in modern oncology has significantly improved survival in several cancer settings. A subgroup of women with breast cancer (BC) has immunogenic infiltration of lymphocytes with expression of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1). These patients may potentially benefit from ICI targeting the programmed death 1 (PD-1)/PD-L1 signaling axis. The use of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) as predictive and prognostic biomarkers has been under intense examination. Emerging data suggest that TILs are associated with response to both cytotoxic treatments and immunotherapy, particularly for patients with triple-negative BC. In this review from The International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group, we discuss (a) the biological understanding of TILs, (b) their analytical and clinical validity and efforts toward the clinical utility in BC, and (c) the current status of PD-L1 and TIL testing across different continents, including experiences from low-to-middle-income countries, incorporating also the view of a patient advocate. This information will help set the stage for future approaches to optimize the understanding and clinical utilization of TIL analysis in patients with BC

The tale of TILs in breast cancer : a report from The International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group

The advent of immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in modern oncology has significantly improved survival in several cancer settings. A subgroup of women with breast cancer (BC) has immunogenic infiltration of lymphocytes with expression of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1). These patients may potentially benefit from ICI targeting the programmed death 1 (PD-1)/PD-L1 signaling axis. The use of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) as predictive and prognostic biomarkers has been under intense examination. Emerging data suggest that TILs are associated with response to both cytotoxic treatments and immunotherapy, particularly for patients with triple-negative BC. In this review from The International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group, we discuss (a) the biological understanding of TILs, (b) their analytical and clinical validity and efforts toward the clinical utility in BC, and (c) the current status of PD-L1 and TIL testing across different continents, including experiences from low-to-middle-income countries, incorporating also the view of a patient advocate. This information will help set the stage for future approaches to optimize the understanding and clinical utilization of TIL analysis in patients with BC

Application of a risk-management framework for integration of stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in clinical trials

Stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) are a potential predictive biomarker for immunotherapy response in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). To incorporate sTILs into clinical trials and diagnostics, reliable assessment is essential. In this review, we propose a new concept, namely the implementation of a risk-management framework that enables the use of sTILs as a stratification factor in clinical trials. We present the design of a biomarker risk-mitigation workflow that can be applied to any biomarker incorporation in clinical trials. We demonstrate the implementation of this concept using sTILs as an integral biomarker in a single-center phase II immunotherapy trial for metastatic TNBC (TONIC trial, NCT02499367), using this workflow to mitigate risks of suboptimal inclusion of sTILs in this specific trial. In this review, we demonstrate that a web-based scoring platform can mitigate potential risk factors when including sTILs in clinical trials, and we argue that this framework can be applied for any future biomarker-driven clinical trial setting