Product-country images: The role of country image in consumers' prototype product evaluation

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.What is the relationship between a country specific image and the image of products made in that country? What is the role of country image in consumers' product valuations? While many of previous studies have examined the COO effects on consumers' overall quality perceptions of products, little work has been done on investigating the relationship between a country specific image, its product image, and consumers' purchase willingness. A prototype car product, with fictitious country of origin from Germany, Italy, Korea and Malaysia, was developed for investigating consumers' perceptions, and for defining the role of country image in consumers product evaluations. In order to generalise research findings to the global context, tests with the questionnaires are conducted from 320 undergraduate students in four countries (United Kingdom, United States, Hong Kong, and Australia). A review of the prior literature on country of origin effects, product-country images, and models of belief-attitude provided two constructs of country of origin (COO) and country of target (COT) as direction of this study. Finally, the literature review enabled the development of three main questions as basis of five hypotheses as follows; (a) Are there significant differences between consumer groups' attitudes toward a specific country and its prototype car products? (b) Are there significant differences between consumer groups' purchase willingness toward products from a specific country? (c) What is the role of country image in consumers' product evaluations? Three sets of hypotheses were tested in this study which were concerned with country image, product image, and purchase willingness as sub-constructs of COO and COT. Two statistical techniques were used to analyse the data - multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). This study contributes to the body of knowledge on country of origin in a number of specific ways: first, prototypes, rather than existing product are employed as stimuli; second, the construct of country of target (COT) was introduced and was conceptualised as a complement to that of country of origin (COO); and third, the interaction between these three elements is explored. Eventually, the finding of this research confirmed that the COT construct and its effects are potentially very important to the study of the role of country image and to business people exporting products from a particular COO

Income Inequality and Marriage

This study examines the extent to which changes in household formation exacerbated income inequality in the United States during the last two generations. Using a time-varying parameter model, the impact on how marriage decisions, changes in human capital, and fertility choices influence inequality are estimated. The estimation results show that marital sorting evolves over time and positively and increasingly affects the degree of income inequality and intergenerational human capital transmission induces path-dependent income distribution dynamics. This suggests that intrahousehold choices explain a substantial proportion of income distribution dynamics.

Characteristics of the Aragonitic Layer in Adult Oyster Shells, Crassostrea gigas: Structural Study of Myostracum including the Adductor Muscle Scar

Myostracum, which is connected from the umbo to the edge of a scar, is not a single layer composed of prismatic layers, but a hierarchically complex multilayered shape composed of minerals and an organic matrix. Through the analysis of the secondary structure, the results revealed that a β-antiparallel structure was predominant in the mineral phase interface between the myostracum (aragonite) and bottom folia (calcite). After the complete decalcification and deproteinization, the membrane obtained from the interface between the myostracum buried in upper folia, and the bottom folia was identified as chitin. The transitional zone in the interface between the adductor muscle scar and folia are verified. The myostracum disappeared at the edge of the scar of the posterior side. From this study, the entire structure of the myostracum from the adult oyster shell of Crassostrea gigas could be proposed

Electronic interferometer capacitively coupled to a quantum dot

We theoretically study electron interference in a ballistic electronic interferometer capacitively coupled to a quantum dot. The visibility of the interference is reduced when the dot has degenerate ground states with different excess charges. The degree of the reduction depends on system parameters such as the strength of the capacitive coupling, and the dependence is analyzed in the regime where the dwell time of electrons in the dot is much longer than the electron flight time through the interferometry region coupled to the dot. The result is consistent with recent experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Total Laparoscopic Hysterectomy and Laparoscopy-Assisted Vaginal Hysterectomy

This study suggests that total laparoscopic hysterectomy and laparoscopic-assisted vaginal hysterectomy are safe and feasible with laparoscopic-assisted hysterectomy preferred in patients with a mass involving the lower uterine segment or those with a large uterus