Internal market orientation, a novel approach to improve firm performance in China

This study extends knowledge of internal market orientation (IMO) as a management tool to facilitate employer-employee relation. Employing a quantitative research in China, a conceptual model is presented and tested on 275 companies with 3 respondents from each. IMO is examined as a predictor of firm performance mediated by employee commitment and retention. The results support all the proposed hypotheses and highlight the moderating effect of internal customer-supplier relationships and interdepartmental communication. Ownership type as the third moderator indicates different influence of IMO on the posited causal chain. This study contributes in practice by providing managers and scholars with empirical support of IMO’s effectiveness in firm performance in China. It provides managers from different firms competing in China with a new angle to boost firm performance by inspecting their internal market situation as well as to improve it via understanding internal customers better

How To Persuade Non-Mobile Shoppers Into Mobile Shoppers: A Trust Enhancing Perspective

Mobile shopping is getting popular and pervasive. However, the number of mobile users is not parallel to the number of mobile shoppers, because consumers frequently concern about security while conducting mobile transactions. The current study aims to elaborate in what trust enhancing message designs can be used to persuade non-mobile shoppers into mobile shoppers. Drawing on social judgment theory and the model of persuasion, our study has the potential revealing that consumers’ negative attitudes toward ubiquitously using credit cards over the air can be improved by persuasive messages if they are added into the checkout page of a shopping website

Animosity within borders: The mediating roles of regional identification and perceived discrimination on regional media preference

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of parental and peer norms on idol worship as well as the effect of idol worship on the intention to purchase and obtain the idol’s music products legally and illegally. Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and examine the antecedents and consequence of regional animosity and their impacts on regional media preference. Design/methodology/approach – Computer-assisted telephone interviews were conducted with randomly selected adult residents in Northern (206) and Southern (201) Taiwan. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling in LISERAL and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. Findings – The findings reveal that perceived economic threat, economic hardship and dissatisfaction with government economic policy increase home region identification and perceived discrimination, which in turn lead to heightened animosity toward the opposite foreign region. This increasing animosity then affects consumer choice over home region media compared to media originated from the other region. Research limitations/implications – The findings suggest that military and political tensions alone cannot explain why consumers would harbor animosity between one region and another within the same country due to social and economic reasons. The constructs chosen in this research should be seen only as a snapshot but other variables such as a region’s natural environment and its human factors are not taken into account. Future studies would benefit from inclusion of these variables and a wider geographical scope. Practical implications – Several implications are extracted to help marketing and branding personnel better shape their marketing, communication and media strategies, as well as to help government policy makers and political parties revise existing policy to reduce the animosity. Originality/value – By investigating animosity within borders, this study provides fresh insights to help explain how economic factors contribute to increased regional animosity through the mediating effect of regional identification and perceived discrimination. The findings broaden existing understanding about the concept of animosity and its impact on consumer behavior

Optical transitions between Landau levels: AA-stacked bilayer graphene

The low-frequency optical excitations of AA-stacked bilayer graphene are investigated by the tight-binding model. Two groups of asymmetric LLs lead to two kinds of absorption peaks resulting from only intragroup excitations. Each absorption peak obeys a single selection rule similar to that of monolayer graphene. The excitation channel of each peak is changed as the field strength approaches a critical strength. This alteration of the excitation channel is strongly related to the setting of the Fermi level. The peculiar optical properties can be attributed to the characteristics of the LL wave functions of the two LL groups. A detailed comparison of optical properties between AA-stacked and AB-stacked bilayer graphenes is also offered. The compared results demonstrate that the optical properties are strongly dominated by the stacking symmetry. Furthermore, the presented results may be used to discriminate AABG from MG, which can be hardly done by STM

A Study on the Management Effectiveness and Problems of Tribal Colleges in Taiwan

The main purpose of this study is to analyze the development background and objectives of indigenous tribal colleges, and to understand the effectiveness and problems of its management in Taiwan. After SWOT analysis, the main findings are as follows: 1. Advantages: the unique culture of indigenous people is an opportunity for economic development. In addition, the protection of laws and regulations is the main advantage of tribal college. 2. Weakness: under the current economic system, the indigenous people are limited in land use, inconvenient transportation, inadequate agricultural technology, and unsmooth sales channels, which limit their economic development. 3. Threats: because the population flows to the city, the tribal people do not understand what kind of institution the tribal university is, and some of the funds have to be paid by the learners themselves, resulting in the low participation of the tribal people. Moreover, the units that handle tribal college are almost different every year, which affects the preservation of data. 4. Opportunities: the existence of tribal college also provides an opportunity for the inheritance and reconstruction of indigenous culture. Based on the above analysis, this study puts forward relevant suggestions for the management of tribal colleg

The effect of glutamine supplement on small intestinal morphology and xylose absorptive ability of weaned piglets

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the effects of glutamine (Gln) supplement on small intestinal  morphology, xylose absorptive and growth performance of weaned piglets. Forty eight piglets weaned at 28 ± 2 days of age were randomly allotted to three treatment groups. A basal corn-soybean diet was formulated to contain 20.3% protein and 3450 kcal DE/kg diet. Glutamine was supplemented to the basal diet at 0% (control), 1% (Gln 1%) and 2% (Gln 2%). Pigs were fed experimental diets for three weeks. The results  showed that the villous height of the Gln groups tended higher than the control group in duodenum and jejunum (P < 0.1). Glutamine supplementation increased plasma net xylose absorptive concentration from 0.78 to 1.20 and 0.95 to 1.23 in Gln 1% and Gln 2% group, respectively, which were better than the control group (0.86 to 0.97) in day 7 to 14 after weaning. Growth performance was not significantly affected by Gln supplement;  however, average daily gain was approximately improved from 21 to 28% by Gln supplement compared to the control group during 21 days of experimental period. In summary, the results suggested that dietary  supplementation of Gln could be beneficial in small intestinal villous morphology and xylose absorptive  capacity, and could have a slight contribution to the average daily gain of weaned piglets.Key words: Glutamine, growth performance, intestinal morphology, weaned piglets