Mediating Role of Micro Country Image on Purchase Intention by Product Category and by Country

The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of micro country image on the relationship between macro country image and Saudi consumers’ purchase intention of two product categories (symbolic vs. functional). Saudi consumers were chosen in this study given the country’s significant growth potential in the Middle East. Four countries (US, Italy, Korea and Malaysia) were chosen to examine the country effect

Chasing Lions: Co-Designing Human-Drone Interaction in Sub-Saharan Africa

Drones are an exciting technology that is quickly being adopted in the global consumer market. Africa has become a center of deployment with the first drone airport established in Rwanda and drones currently being used for applications such as medical deliveries, agriculture, and wildlife monitoring. Despite this increasing presence of drones, there is a lack of research on stakeholders' perspectives from this region. We ran a human-drone interaction user study (N=15) with experts from several sub-Saharan countries using a co-design methodology. Participants described novel applications and identified important design aspects for the integration of drones in this context. Our results highlight the potential of drones to address real world problems, the need for them to be culturally situated, and the importance of considering the social aspects of their interaction with humans. This research highlights the need for diverse perspectives in the human-drone interaction design process.Comment: To be published in the ACM conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '20

The role of prototypical brand image on shaping country image and product quality evaluation: A cross-cultural examination

This study paid attention to the role of a corporate brand that most represents the country, referred to as prototypical brand, in shaping country image. Since the role of the prototypical brand (e.g., Samsung) in creating positive image will be critical in newly industrialized countries (NIEs), this study examines the context of Korea. Built on prototype, schema, and cue theories, this study proposes a research model that examines the impact of prototypical brand image on shaping the overall country image (i.e., macro country image) and product-specific country image (i.e., micro country image), which influences consumers' evaluation of product quality of Korean cosmetics and empirically tests the model with the U.S. and Chinese consumers. This study tests the model in two cultures to see if the proposed model is robust across two cultures: high collectivism and individualism cultures.</p

Asymmetrical Roles of Macro and Micro Country Images on Saudi Consumers' Purchase Intention

Country image is a multidimensional construct and can be viewed from macro and micro country image. Macro country image is consumers' total beliefs of a country while micro country image is beliefs toward the products from a country. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of macro and micro country images of four countries (US, Italy, Korea, and Malaysia) on Saudi consumers' purchase intentions of two product categories (cell phones and handbags). Saudi consumers were chosen given the country's significant growth potential in the Middle East. Analyses of 496 completed survey data revealed differing roles of macro and micro country image on consumers' purchase intention by product category and by country. In case of symbolic goods such as apparel and handbags, both macro and micro country images should be managed for consumers' purchase intention while micro country image was found to be more critical in functional goods.</p

Application of error classification model using indices based on dose distribution for characteristics evaluation of multileaf collimator position errors

Abstract This study aims to evaluate the specific characteristics of various multileaf collimator (MLC) position errors that are correlated with the indices using dose distribution. The dose distribution was investigated using the gamma, structural similarity, and dosiomics indices. Cases from the American Association of Physicists in Medicine Task Group 119 were planned, and systematic and random MLC position errors were simulated. The indices were obtained from distribution maps and statistically significant indices were selected. The final model was determined when all values of the area under the curve, accuracy, precision, sensitivity, and specificity were higher than 0.8 (p  0.9. Furthermore, the results of the DVH were related to dosiomics analysis in that it reflects the characteristics of the MLC position error. It was also shown that dosiomics analysis could provide important information on localized dose-distribution differences in addition to DVH information

Mediating Role of Micro Country Image on Purchase Intention by Product Category and by Country

The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of micro country image on the relationship between macro country image and Saudi consumers’ purchase intention of two product categories (symbolic vs. functional). Saudi consumers were chosen in this study given the country’s significant growth potential in the Middle East. Four countries (US, Italy, Korea and Malaysia) were chosen to examine the country effect.</p