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With reference to the global financial crisis and lessons learned, advocacy for distributing suitable financial products by financial intermediaries remain key if consumers, especially the illiterate in underdeveloped financial markets, are to be absorbed into the formal financial system. Financial intermediaries such as microfinance banks should provide suitable financial products, with full disclosure of information and customer protection relating to distribution of all financial products within the financial market to prevent financial vulnerability. The main purpose of this study is to establish the mediating role of financial product suitability in the relationship between access to microfinance products and survival of women micro-agribusinesses in rural Uganda.

SmartPLS with bootstrap based on 5,000 samples was used to test for the mediating role of financial product suitability in the relationship between access to microfinance products and survival of women micro-agribusinesses in rural Uganda.

The results revealed that financial product suitability improves access to microfinance products by 29 percentage points to promote survival of women micro-agribusinesses in rural Uganda. In reality, delivering suitable financial products that suit the economic condition of poor women micro-agribusiness borrowers, can allow them to use these products to generate income to meet timely repayment obligations and business demands.

The current study selected samples from only women micro-agribusinesses operating in rural Uganda, with a specific focus on the northern region. Thus, studies involving samples selected from other rural developing countries may be necessary in future. Additionally, while the findings are significant, the data were collected from only women microenterprises who are clients of microfinance banks. Future studies focusing on women microenterprises who are clients of other financial institutions may offer insightful comparative data.

The findings from this study offer strategies for managers of microfinance banks to invent and design financial products that suit the economic status and condition of different microcredit clients, especially the women micro-agribusinesses. This can help them to solve the problem of defaults in loan repayment and delinquency common while lending to the rural poor. In fact, microfinance banks should adopt a customized loan pricing model that can promote the operational sustainability and commercial viability of women micro-agribusinesses in the current situation of mission adrift.

The current study uses the suitability rule and economic theory to elucidate the importance of microfinance product suitability to increase microfinance inclusion of women micro-agribusinesses in rural areas in developing countries. The novelty in this paper is in combining the suitability rule and economic theory with microfinance theory to promote access to microcredit by the women micro-agribusinesses in rural Uganda under the situation of mission adrift. This is limited in the existing microfinance literature and theory, especially in developing countries like Uganda.

THE increasing pressure of national and international competition is forcing firms to rationalise even further, especially in the field of assembly. In order to perform assembly tasks with the least possible expenditure of time, assembly facilities, space requirements and personnel, it has become necessary to include these objectives in the development stage of the product. Therefore, assembly‐oriented design now provides a good opportunity for rationalisation.

Purpose: Consumer acceptance is considered the most important factor in functional food success and is given top priority in new product development. This study focussed on finding factors that influence consumer perceptions about active food and the pattern of active food consumption. This chapter aims to provide a deeper understanding of taste trading based on a consumer decision-making framework.

Research Methodology: Cross-sectional consumer data were collected by floating G-Doc containing the questionnaire which was supposed to be answered by people according to their behaviours, preferences, knowledge regarding functional foods etc. It contained questions about their income, gender, preference towards functional foods, factors affecting decision-making while purchasing functional foods etc.

Results of the Study: The findings suggest that the consumers' attitude towards functional foods was mainly influenced by the quality and suitability of the product. Purchase intent was found based on age, literacy of population, income and health benefits of active foods. Awareness of functional foods and their price significantly affected the purchase of functional foods. Most people were willing to spend more on functional foods in the future regardless of the taste and provided high quality and product suitability.

This paper aims to provide an explanation and evidence for the recent lack of retail financial product failures in Canada in the face of a (formal) regulatory failure.

The paper applies the literature on self-regulation and reputational risk management to a detailed investigation of the marketing of financial products to Canadian retail investors. Internal approval processes for many different players in the retail financial industry were analyzed in detail primarily using interviews.

The author was able to identify associations between structures and policies at financial firms and outcomes for retail investors. Knowing that prevention is more effective than mitigation, marketers of financial products would generally welcome increased state intervention in terms of more and better information disclosures.

The research contributes to our understanding of self-regulation in financial markets, specifically addressing what firm characteristics may be related to positive and negative outcomes for small investors in complex structured financial products.

Regulators may be able to imply the research findings in selectively allocating scarce resources to policing firms that may be more inclined to participate in riskier behavior. Financial firms may be able to influence the decisions relating to how regulations are designed and implemented and which products are sold to which clients to minimize reputation risk.

This is the first time, to the author's knowledge, that the reputation risk management channel has been analyzed in terms of influencing outcomes for retail (small) investors.

Evaluates the impact of the ‘made in’ label on Finnish consumers' attitudes towards the products of selected countries, and they examine the implication of these attitudes for developing appropriate strategies for the Finnish market. States consumer attitudes frequently relate to specific product attributes, but equally, they are often a response to less product‐specific dimensions such as brand name, or label of country of origin. Proposes that with increased emphasis, international business planning and operations is one of the most pervasive trends in business. Suggests that to successfully compete in the international marketplace it is important for a marketing manager to understand varying attitudes and perceptions of consumers in foreign markets his/her firm has entered. Sums ups that when entering new foreign markets, the exporter must in part screen his opportunities ton the basis of the favourability of these existing images.

Examines over the period from 1975 to 2000 the attitudes of Finnish consumers toward the products and associated marketing practices of Japan in comparison to those the United States. Concludes that, although there are significant differences between the attitudes of consumers toward the products and practices of the Japan and the U.S., the ratings of Japan and the U.S. typically improved over the period in distinctive ways. Raises some strategic implications for Japanese and U.S. firms who market their products in the European Union.

The staggered emergence of the new regulatory regime affecting the distribution of retail financial products in the UK is leading to industry players taking strategic decisions under increased uncertainty. While the debate over the final form of the regulation continues, this paper identifies five emergent themes to the proposed regulatory changes and discusses their potential impact on product distribution. The paper concludes that the proposals constitute the catalyst for a wholesale restructuring of the processes and interactions between the manufacturing and distribution tiers of the UK financial services industry, wherein e‐business developments may take on increasing significance. Whether this restructuring would deliver the consumer benefits desired by the regulator remains an open question.

This study aims to examine the impact of religiosity on fashion knowledge, consumer-perceived value and patronage intention.

This study applied purposive sampling method. The population size used a minimum number of samples (100) in the WarpPLS analysis. The inferential statistical technique used is structural equation modeling. A tool for analyzing the structural models is the partial least square method.

Religiosity is a consumer belief in religion, which does not generate fashion knowledge so that high and low religiousness cannot increase or decrease fashion knowledge. Consumer confidence in their religion can increase consumer-perceived value of Muslim fashion products. It causes consumers to behave positively toward future behavioral intentions, that is, the patronage intention. Consumer religiosity is not the cause of patronage intention so that the high or low level of religiousness does not increase or decrease in the willingness of consumers to visit the store (or patronage intention). Fashion knowledge has a positive influence on consumer-perceived value. Consumer knowledge of fashion can increase the patronage of consumer intention toward Muslim fashion products. Fashion knowledge brings the knowledge to consumers in regard to Islamic law that regulates the prohibited and allowed actions, especially in wearing fashion. The high or low level of consumer-perceived value does not provide a cause for increase or decrease in the willingness of consumers to revisit the store (or patronage intention).

With regard to the relationship between religiosity and knowledge, it is found that there are still limited studies and differences in the sectors studied regarding the influence of religiosity and knowledge. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the religiosity variable in influencing consumer-perceived value has not been used in previous studies. Religiosity is associated with consumer-perceived value expressed as originality in this study because the researcher has not found this relationship in the previous studies. Regarding the relationship between religiosity and store patronage intention, it is found that there are still different opinions in the research results on the effect of religiosity and store patronage intention. Concerning the relationship between knowledge and consumer-perceived value, it is found that there are still different opinions in the research results on the effect of knowledge and consumer-perceived value. The authors found no use of the knowledge variable in influencing store patronage intention in previous research studies. Knowledge associated with store patronage intention is expressed as the originality trait in this study because the researcher has not found this relationship in the previous studies. As for the relationship between consumer-perceived value and store patronage intention, it is found that there are still different opinions in the research results of the study regarding the influence of consumer-perceived value and store patronage intention.

The popularity of wealth management in Taiwan has unleashed tense competition among financial advisors. Consumers are now more conscious of their financial services purchasing behavior. This paper aims to provide insights into local-specific investors’ characteristics and consumers’ financial product preferences and to introduce a different concept to identify localization-suitable products.

To understand customers’ preferred products, the paper examines consumers’ financial behavior by analyzing preference characteristics using data collected from Taiwanese investors. The study entailed a questionnaire designed for consumers using the stated preferences method and the multinomial and nested logit models to develop preference models for consumers’ financial products. A statistical test using the t-value, likelihood and ρ² to observe investor preference product reactions was also used.

The study finds that investors are sensitive to the rate of return on investments and performance changes in foreign currency, stock and mutual funds. An elasticity analysis and prediction of the market share among interactive products show that stock and mutual funds are strongly related and the rate of return on stock undoubtedly influences the market.

The stated preference method and inclusion of risk appetite improve our understanding of consumer choice and investors’ financial product preferences and characteristics. The results provide suitable localization product suggestions for financial institutions to help them understand their customers’ behaviors better. This paper’s results are also useful in the context of smart financial services such as financial robot technology.

Explains the globalization of new products with the help of a global new product development model. Attempts to provide a framework for the new product development process, bearing in mind the increasing globalization of markets. Concludes that joint functioning of engineering, marketing, market research, R&D and management is needed from the first stage of product development.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of technological cooperation with suppliers (TCS) and the firm size on propensity to develop product innovations and on propensity to radical innovations.

The study uses data from Business Strategies Survey (ESSE in Spanish). The final sample was composed by 1,952 companies representing the Spanish manufacturing industries. Some control variables were introduced: age, propensity to export and sector technological intensity level. Logistic regression analyses were adopted to analyze the data.

The results indicate that those firms that cooperate technologically with suppliers have a greater propensity for product innovation and, specifying, for radical innovations; and the larger firm size, greater the propensity to product innovations. However, radical product innovations depend of some characteristics of firms and environment.

The sample just focusses on Spanish manufacturing companies. Small firms will benefit more from the TCS.

Some characteristics of firms and environment can originate some rigidity and take a more conservative attitude. In this sense, large and small firms, as well as, the oldest firms have a more conservative attitude when they carry out radical product innovations.

The study contributes to product innovation literature and also to the debate regarding firm size and innovation. It distinguishes between radical and incremental innovations. Indeed, some characteristics of firms (such as size or age) and environment should be considered when the firms carry out the innovation process.

This paper details the history of the movement, which attempted to turn the occupation of life insurance salesman into an insurance professional. It will relate the criteria for professionalism spelled out by Solomon Huebner and attempt to spell out the ethical obligations such professionalism demands. Using some case studies, the paper will examine some common difficulties faced by insurance professionals. The paper concludes by examining the development of the insurance sales professional into the financial planner and adviser and projects some of the ethical requirements entailed by this future direction.

Product-as-a-Service (PaaS) has the potential to enable closed-loop supply chains (CLSC) and decrease environmental impact, but it is only applied on a small scale. The purpose of this paper is to explore and develop a framework of challenges and corresponding mitigations encountered by Business-to-Consumer (B2C) retailers when transitioning to PaaS.

Data collection drew on a qualitative interview study with two industry experts and four PaaS B2C retailers from different Dutch industries.

A framework was developed linking 26 challenges in eight clusters—financial, product-related, supply chain-related, consumer-related, human resources, research and development/technology, regulatory and industry-related—to 24 mitigations. The mitigations were elaborated, and theoretical insights for matching challenges with mitigations were provided.

This study expands PaaS literature to the generally under-researched retail context. It contributes to CLSC literature by applying it to a less-studied context, thereby revealing many supply chain-related challenges and mitigations encountered by B2C retailers.

The framework offers practical guidance to retail managers for overcoming or preventing challenges in PaaS, in their endeavours toward adopting environmentally sustainable practices.

The study creates awareness about environmental sustainability and the potential to reduce societal impact, in which a PaaS-enabled CLSC is one step.

Studying PaaS and CLSC in a retail context is timely and novel.

This paper is a systemic review on enset plant’s role in Ethiopian people’s life as the source of food. This paper aims to summarize the traditional processing and preparation methods of enset-based foods and their nutritional composition.

Available scientific articles were collected and reviewed for enset plant evaluation, description, enset plant’s role in Ethiopian people’s food security, post harvesting and traditional processing of enset plants, microbiology of the fermented enset foods, different foods reported from enset, nutritional profile of the three food from enset base (kocho, bulla and amicho) and other non-food applications of enset plant.

Enset plant has a predominant role in people living in the southern part of Ethiopia. This plant is drought-tolerant and provides many non-food applications. Harvesting of the enset plant, preparing for fermentation and food preparations follow the traditional route by using the indigenous knowledge and practices. Limited studies have been reported on the microbiology of the enset fermentation, but various types of microbes have been reported. In case of nutritional composition, foods from enset are reported to contain high carbohydrate and minerals content, such as calcium, potassium and zinc, but limited protein content; they are also the best source of the essential amino acids such as lysine and leucine. Limited data are available on vitamins, anti-oxidant and fatty acids profiles of enset-based foods. The existing data indicate variations, and the reasons for variability are discussed in this paper.

Scientific reviews on enset food nutrition profile and related issues are scarce; this paper will compile information about enset plant-based foods for researchers for their future research.

The purpose of this paper is to provide sector-specific empirical evidence on the comparative evaluation of total productive maintenance (TPM) and total quality management (TQM) approaches, implemented exclusively and collectively on improving manufacturing business performance.

This paper develops a multi-sector analysis framework to comparatively assess the synergistic and standalone effect of TPM and TQM improvement approaches. A total of 231 manufacturing organizations from food and beverages, textiles and electrical and electronics sectors have been extensively surveyed. These firms were further clustered into TPM focus, TQM focus and integrated TPM×TQM on the basis of their primary manufacturing strategy. Comparative assessment of these three manufacturing approaches has been evaluated using t-test statistics.

This paper highlights that adoption of integrated TPM×TQM approach is beneficial for food and beverages and electrical and electronics sectors. However, this supposition is rejected for firms operating in the textile sector.

The findings of this research are still exploratory. Future research using countrywide and cross-country approach can be undertaken to statistically generalize the findings of the present research. In-depth case studies are needed to further validate the findings of the study empirically.

The result of this study help managers and practitioners to make manufacturing strategic decision based on the nature of their operating business sector regarding adoption of TPM and TQM practices, which will further revive their firm’s competitiveness.

Every operating sector embraces a diversity of manufacturing activities based upon their competing priorities. This paper makes an attempt to present a multi-sectoral evaluation of joint implementation and effect of manufacturing programs.

Describes, through practical recent experiences, an approach to implementing policies, standards and procedures in a large commercial enterprise. Presents an outline of a guide for those considering the long haul associated with such a major undertaking.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of a whole‐person approach to educating for sustainability (EfS), with a focus on persons' identity, motivation and higher order dispositions. To propose that approach as an alternative to the prevalent focus on specific capabilities and competencies in higher education for sustainability. The paper brings to bear psychological research on the development of critical moral consciousness, research on dispositions for learning in higher education, and field research on spiritually inspired service‐learning.

In this paper, critical analysis is undertaken on the discourses that represent two fields of study in order to explore the application of the theory of the ontogenesis of “critical moral consciousness”. The model is applied to two discrete areas to consider implications for higher education – field research on grass‐root Baha'i‐inspired service‐learning and EfS, and students involved in design education.

The findings suggest that a whole‐person approach to EfS may yield more fruitful societal and personal benefits than traditional, and predominantly, behavioural approaches.

The paper only refers to two case studies. One case study is of a faith based organisation used to represent a whole‐person approach to EfS in a social context. It could be that the findings of this case are influenced by perceptions of religious activity (for both authors and readers). The second case study is of a particulate discipline area – design. Whilst the findings represent learners in the design context, it may be that learners in different contexts have different (or similar) results.

Sustainability has now become a common orientation for learning. The paper contributes conceptual understanding of the types of dispositions higher education needs to foster, as well as congruent pedagogies, in order to nurture human motivations necessary to advance sustainability. In particular, there is a need for EfS to focus on the cultivation of critical moral consciousness and higher order dispositions as a specific orientation towards studies, work, and social interactions.

To explain the inherent risks, draw attention to SEC and FINRA guidance, and suggest ways to limit and control the sale of structured securities to retail investors.

Explains potential problems with the sale of structured securities to retail investors; recommends marketing, disclosure, training, suitability, and supervision guidelines; summarizes the results of an SEC sweep examination; draws conclusions.

Both the SEC and FINRA have stopped short of saying that retail sales of structured products is unsuitable per se, but both have demonstrated unease about this activity and clearly indicated that firms who engage in it have heightened and specific disclosure, training, suitability and supervisory obligations.

Although firms certainly can sell these products in the retail market in a responsible and compliant manner, they should do so with thought, preparation and caution, because the regulatory agencies are watching.

Practical guidance from experienced financial services and securities lawyer concentrating on investment advisers and broker-dealers.

To summarize and interpret the examination priorities for 2017 published in early January by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) and the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (“OCIE”) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).

Summarizes some of the most important priorities raised by the OCIE and FINRA in the areas of senior investors, recidivist representatives, product suitability, complex investments and sales practices, cybersecurity, branch offices and anti-money laundering.

As in recent years, there is a significant overlap in priorities between the two regulators on issues of elderly investors, recidivist representatives, product suitability, and cybersecurity, among others.

Registered investment advisers and broker-dealers should note the key issues raised in both letters so that their compliance programs can address them in their policies, procedures, and controls before their next examination.

Practical guidance from lawyers whose practices focus on securities and broker-dealer enforcement defense.

To describe the need and suggest guidelines for a formal, written manual that provides a firm, its registered representatives, and its supervisory principals a line of defense against costly repercussions from sales practice violations.

Discusses regulations concerning the suitable sales of securities to customers, the legal basis for reasonable supervision, why a brokerage firm's business model should guide it in building its manual, contents of a prototype manual, how investment objectives and risk tolerance should be considered, how performance information is disclosed so it is understandable to the customer, both justifiable reasons and dangers related to switching a customer from one fund to another, commission savings issues (including breakpoints, letters of intent, rights of accumulation, and reinstatement privileges), and home office supervision of reps and supervisory principals.

Regulators are concerned with an investment firm's culture of compliance, including its written supervisory procedures and evidence of supervisor training and compliance performance. To support principals charged with supervising registered reps and investment adviser reps, a firm should have a formal training program that starts out with a well‐thought‐out mutual fund suitability guidelines manual.

A hands‐on guide for writing an important manual by a specialized investment compliance lawyer.

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are one of the most innovative financial products listed on exchanges. As reflected by the size of the market, they have become popular among both retail and institutional investors. The original ETFs were simple and easy to understand; however, recent products, such as leveraged, inverse, and synthetic ETFs, are more complex and have additional dimensions of risk. The additional risks, complexity, and reduced transparency have resulted in heightened attention by regulators. This chapter aims to increase understanding of how ETFs function in the market and can potentially impact financial stability and market volatility.

We discuss the evolution of ETFs, growing regulatory concerns, and the various responses to these concerns.

We find that concerns related to systemic risk and excess volatility, suitability for retail investors, lack of transparency and liquidity, securities lending and counterparty exposure are being addressed by both market participants and policy makers. There has been a shift toward multiple counterparties, overcollateralization, disclosure of collateral holdings and index holdings.

The analysis contained in this chapter provides an understanding of the role of ETFs in the financial markets and the global economy that should be valuable to market participants, investors, and policy makers.

The purpose of this paper is to differentiate human responses to different light switch designs to determine the effects of these common interfaces on user perceptions and use of electric lighting in public buildings.

Empirical studies were conducted to assess and examine user perceptions with regard to design characteristics of light switches, and occupants’ use of electric lighting was examined through field observations made in a public toilet.

The results point to the possibility of identifying characteristics of light switches that attract user attention and thereby encourage energy-saving behaviour in public buildings. A light switch perceived as simple but oversized affected occupants to turn off the lights more frequently when leaving the space under study as compared to switches of normal size.

Information on user perceptions of light switches may be limited by the assessments being carried out only in controlled environments. Assessing user perceptions in field observations is thus desirable, as it will provide more information on the perceptions in actual settings.

Effective design of user interfaces could provide a means of lowering energy use from electric lighting by affecting the behaviour of users. Using user perceptions to define critical design characteristics could contribute to design improvements in the interfaces with respect to users’ viewpoints.

This paper contributes to the subject with a basic, field-based approach to formulating an understanding of how design via user perceptions may encourage energy-saving behaviour.

Sets out to establish a method of evolving a marketing mix, which relates intelligently to the marketing objectives set during the development of the marketing plan. Attempts to harness the wisdom and expertise which exists at a subject level in almost any business and uses these to derive a set of actions which are capable of bringing about a predetermined collective effort. States that many companies fail because of their inability to assess the collective effect of their actions in their markets, andit will be of considerable benefit if this study can achieve a method of evolving and evaluating the marketing mix for a company, without recourse to complex model building. Spotlights the following: data analysis; product line; distribution; price; merchandising; advertising and promotion. Concludes that it may be sensible to concentrate resources on other markets until such time as it could have genuine faith in its ability to compete successfully.

The paper's aim is to describe a recent increase in FINRA enforcement activity and to discuss how broker‐dealers and representatives may want to prepare themselves for FINRA's increasing willingness to sanction members in the wake of the recent financial crisis.

The paper analyzes FINRA's recent enforcement record, including trends over the past several years in disciplinary actions and fines. It also discusses FINRA's top enforcement issues in 2011; advertising, short selling, auction rate securities, and suitability; and recommends increased compliance efforts in light of FINRA's growing aggressiveness.

It is important that firms and representatives understand how the priorities of this self‐regulatory organization have changed since the financial crisis, fueling this recent growth in FINRA enforcement activity.

The paper offers practical guidance from experienced financial services lawyers.

The purpose of the paper is to summarize a review of all of FINRA's 2009 notices and releases to understand the areas in which FINRA has focused and to try to predict where FINRA may be going in the coming year.

The paper summarizes fines, disciplinary actions, and top enforcement issues; analyzes trends; and draws conclusions.

FINRA reported modest increases in fines and disciplinary actions compared to 2008; however, FINRA was less active than in 2005, 2006 and 2007. The types of cases that generated the most fines, in descending order, were mutual funds, suitability, variable products, licensing, and advertising. One may see more advertising, money laundering, an electronic communications cases in the near future. Given the recent financial crisis and market scandals, and resulting pressure on the regulators, it is perhaps more likely that FINRA's enforcement activity and fines will increase over the next few years, not decrease.

The paper provides expert guidance from experienced financial services lawyers.

The purpose of this paper is to remind investment company compliance professionals of common traps for unwary investors, to emphasize the importance of detecting and preventing fraud in the marketplace that may affect individual investors, and to review basic investor rights and the importance of suitability for investment company clients.

The paper explains the constant danger of investment fraud, lists the North American Securities Administrators Association's (NASAA's) top ten investor traps for 2007, reviews questions investment sales professionals should ask themselves concerning the suitability of every investment for a given client, and lists rights to which investors should be entitled before they make every investment.

The paper finds that the path to safe investing is littered with pitfalls likely to catch unwary investors. Investment fraud is on the rise. Before offering any investment, sales professionals should ask themselves several key questions. Investors can avoid becoming trapped in a fraudulent or unsuitable investment by recognizing that they have certain rights and demanding that these rights be upheld before they invest.

Compliance professionals should remember that the underlying purpose of most state and federal regulations governing investment companies is centered on investor protection and concerned with investment suitability and fraud prevention.

The paper provides useful information with regard to the pitfalls likely to catch investors who want to make successful investments.

Introduction Growing internationalization during the past three decades has become one of the most pervasive influences in business today. This is true for both the export manager responsible for positioning a firm's products in various foreign markets and for the marketing executive responsible for managing the competitive interaction of a firm's products with foreign products in a particular domestic market. As a consequence, the impact of national boundaries on the marketplace has continued to diminish. To compete successfully in this broad arena, marketing managers must have a thorough understanding of, and empathy for, the different needs and preferences of consumers in the various markets within which a firm interacts. Consumer attitudes toward both products and the related marketing practices naturally have a major influence on purchase behavior. In addition, consumer attitudes toward products from different countries can be a major factor in determining successful marketing strategies. We will present here a longitudinal analysis of the general attitudes of consumers in a foreign country, Finland, toward the products imported from the United States, japan, and selected European countries. We will also compare these consumer attitudes toward various dimensions of the related marketing mix strategies. It should be noted that the methodology for analyzing export opportunities is applicable by any company for any foreign country.

Aims to extract Rice bran oil (RBO) from Pakistani cultivar Basmati‐385 for efficient use of local rice industrial waste, i.e. rice bran to reduce the import of edible oil and to evaluate the suitability of RBO in baked products by making cookies.

RBO was extracted from stabilized rice bran by solvent extraction. The RBO obtained was analyzed for different quality parameters and further applied into baked products such as cookies at various levels, i.e. 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 per cent, by gradually replacing normal shortening to check its suitability as a shortening and its effectiveness in extending the shelf life of product due to its natural antioxidants. Five treatments of RBO and normal shortening (NS) (T₁ = 100 per cent NS + 0 per cent RBO, T₂ = 75 per cent NS + 25 per cent RBO, T₃ = 50 per cent NS + 50 per cent RBO, T₄ = 25 per cent NS + 75 per cent RBO and T₅ = 0 per cent NS + 100 per cent RBO) were used to prepare cookies and 45 days, storage study was conducted.

Various treatments and storage have a highly significant effect on moisture, fat and NFE content of cookies. Protein content of cookies remained unaffected by changing treatments. During 45 days, storage moisture, protein, fat and NFE content decreased significantly. Physical studies revealed increase in width and spread factor of cookies, while thickness was reduced, gradually with the proportionate increase of RBO. There was significant decrease in quality score of cookies for color, taste, flavor, crispness, texture and overall acceptability. Treatment T₃ (50 per cent NS + 50 per cent RBO) got the highest score for all the sensory attributes.

The present study suggests that T₃ (50 per cent NS + 50 per cent RBO) can produce superior quality cookies to prove the effectiveness of RBO as bakery shortening.

Although Pakistan is an agricultural country, unfortunately 71 per cent of the country's edible oil requirements are met through the import of edible oil. In the present project the possibility of RBO extraction from local variety was evaluated. In this way, if fully explored, RBO can become the fourth indigenous source of edible oil.

This study attempts to enrich the digital content marketing (DCM) literature by identifying consumer-based DCM consumption motives and the preferable content dissemination platforms and formats to fulfil these motives exclusively in the context of beauty brands.

Thematic analysis has been used as the qualitative technique for the study. In-depth interviews in a semi-structured format were conducted with 30 consumers who were mandated to be active followers of at least one beauty content creator on digital/social media platforms. Utilising NVivo 11.0, transcripts were analysed.

The findings reveal seven consumer-based DCM consumption motives: authenticity, economic, exploration, functional, hedonic, suitability and purchase decision. Further, the findings also demonstrate the most preferred content dissemination platforms and formats, namely digital channels of content creators, customers' reviews and social media (Instagram and YouTube) to fulfil these motives.

The study advances the existing literature by exploring novel consumer-based DCM consumption motives postulated as “antecedents to digital content marketing”. Moreover, it also enriches practical knowledge as the efficient and effective application of the research findings can prove fruitful to beauty brands employing DCM as the primary marketing tool.

This study makes a distinctive contribution by promoting work on unexplored areas of digital content marketing. It proposes content strategies for beauty brands and digital content creators to augment the digital content creation, dissemination and evaluation process. Furthermore, it also outlines the research topics that future scholars can focus on to advance the DCM literature.

To analyze FINRA’s 2016 sanctions and cases, the issues that resulted in the most significant fines, emerging enforcement trends, and make predictions about key issues for FINRA for 2017 and beyond.

Discusses the sanctions and disciplinary actions in 2016 and prior years; details the top 2016 enforcement issues measured by total fines assessed, including anti-money laundering, variable annuities, trade reporting, books and records, and unregistered securities; explains current enforcement trends, including fines of $1 million or more, sanctions against compliance officers, and suitability cases; and analyzes three enforcement topics that will likely continue to receive heightened attention from FINRA in 2017 and beyond: restitution, cybersecurity, and senior investors.

The fines ordered by FINRA in 2016 reached an all-time high while the amount of restitution ordered and the number of disciplinary actions remained on par with prior years.

Firms and their representatives should heed the trends in both the substantial fines FINRA is ordering and the related enforcement issues in the cases FINRA has brought.

Expert analysis and guidance from experienced securities enforcement lawyers.

Internationalisation is a pervasive force in business today and the marketing manager must understand the needs of consumers in various markets. This study explores the general attitudes of Finnish consumers to products made in England, France, West Germany, Japan and the US. Following up earlier surveys of 1975 and 1980 the 1985 data show most positive responses towards products of West Germany and Japan, also highlighting ways in which product attributes and marketing practices can be improved.

Following the methodology designed for selecting the best industrial and technological diversification strategy, one of the best methods for achieving the long-term sustainability of companies, the purpose of this paper is to describe its application in the service supply chains (SSCs) sector, specifically, in freight transport in product service supply chains.

The methodology used in diversification processes comprises four stages: evaluation of the technological diversification suitability; selection of the technological diversification strategy; implementation of the diversification strategy; and evaluation of the process.

The main contributions of the paper are: the proposal of a taxonomy or functional inventory for information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the freight transport industry (FTI); the introduction of a new concept, the technological shrub, a variant of the technological tree that allows interdependencies between the functionality systems; the construction of a technological shrub for ICTs in a standard FTI firm; and the multicriteria selection, based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), of the best diversification strategy that can be incorporated by this standard firm for improving competitiveness. This selection utilises a “bottom-up” approach.

The paper deals with the long-term sustainability of companies by means of technological diversification strategies. Based on the taxonomy constructed for ICTs in the SSC sector and the identification of key technologies for a particular firm, a technological shrub is constructed and a multicriteria procedure is developed in order to select the best diversification strategy.

The Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) Consultation Paper 121 suggesting depolarisation in the retail financial services sector has generated a great deal of debate. The motivation for the reforms, primarily to improve the position of the consumer, cannot be disputed. Nevertheless, in attempting such a wide‐sweeping change, it is clear that the reforms could bring difficulties as well as improvements. This paper argues that, to the extent that the current polarisation regime is detrimental for the consumer, this can be addressed without dismantling the basic framework of the current advice system. It acknowledges that there is a need for greater consumer education in this area, and that more needs to be done to address the needs of lower‐income consumers. Nevertheless, it is argued that the advantages anticipated as a result of the more radical reforms in the Consultation Paper are likely to be accompanied by problems that could negate the overall benefit accruing to consumers.

This study aims to propose and demonstrate a practical application of a new three-part holistic sensory evaluation (HSE) method for textiles and apparel based on the senses of sight, touch, hearing and smell. HSE method development was carefully documented, described and successfully applied to evaluate sensory characteristics and consumer perceptions and acceptance of bacterial cellulose (BC), a novel sustainable material for apparel.

In Part One of the HSE method, research participants described the material in their own words based on the senses of sight, touch, hearing and smell. In Part Two, they rated the intensities and their linking for 25 predetermined attributes describing BC. Part Three measured participants’ overall liking of BC and its perceived suitability for apparel and accessories.

Application of the HSE method resulted in an in-depth understanding of BC material. Areas for material improvements and positive characteristics were identified, providing direction for further development. Consumers found BC suitable for accessories and outer-layer garments but not for apparel.

Sensory evaluation of textiles and apparel has traditionally focused on the senses of touch and sight. The new HSE method allows evaluating the full range of sensory characteristics of materials/products and holistically assessing consumer perceptions. The method is especially useful for novel materials and wearable technology. BC has gained increased interests as a novel sustainable material, yet consumer studies have been lacking. This study reports a comprehensive evaluation of BC material from consumer perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a practitioner's guide to mortgage regulation.

The paper explores the mortgage code and the road to statutory regulation.

It was found that the future of mortgage regulation rests partly with those policy makers who decide that change is needed and partly with those who work in the industry. Good firms who strive to run better businesses and deliver improving service to their customers have little to fear from rising regulatory standards as they will always be at least one step ahead of the regulator. What is required is a weather‐eye on the changing market and economic conditions, a strong, unifying voice to campaign on behalf of the industry and a clear commitment to work for the good of the customer. That way, whilst some times will be good, and others will be less so, there will still be business to be done.

The paper offers practitioners a guide to mortgage regulation, advising on what firms need to do, key issues for mortgage intermediaries and the need to manage the sector's reputation.

To explain FINRA’s priorities for 2018, as reflected in its Annual Regulatory and Examination Priorities Letter.

Evaluates the overall tone of FINRA’s letter as self-reflective, describes most of FINRA’s priorities for 2018 as unchanged from previous years, and highlights new areas of focus for FINRA.

FINRA plans a number of organizational improvements over the next year which could facilitate positive dialogue between firms and FINRA examiners, helping to reduce the burden on broker-dealers and possibly avoid low-level enforcement action. FINRA expressed a desire to better leverage its model as a self-regulatory organization to achieve its mission. Most of FINRA’s priorities for 2018 are old standbys, including fraud, high-risk firms and brokers, cybersecurity and AML programs, product suitability vetting, and best execution surveillance. FINRA’s new areas of focus for 2018 include business continuity plans, technology governance, cryptoassets, options violations, new report cards, and new rules.

Despite FINRA leadership’s commitment to self-analysis and enhanced communication, FINRA continues to be highly committed to examining and addressing through enforcement action potential failures to comply with its rules. Firms facing FINRA or SEC examinations should brush up on FINRA’s old standby priorities and fine-tune their practices to ensure compliance with industry trends.

Practical guidance from experienced securities and financial services lawyers that summarizes FINRA’s stated approach for 2018.

Marketers cannot neglect the X Generation, yet targeting this group has proven difficult, since “Xers” reject any segmentation and marketing techniques that attempt to generalize their characteristics. The targeting is made more difficult due to their advertising‐literate subculture. In this paper, the fashion purchasing behaviour is examined and the results of a survey conducted in Hong Kong are reported. Fashion marketing strategies are suggested for marketers to promote their merchandise to this group of consumers successfully.

Although Australian franchising sector regulation promotes system disclosure and provides for mandatory conflict mediation, there is some concern that inequities exist within the conflict management process. From 2006 to 2008 no less than four government inquiries into franchising took place in Australia in an attempt to resolve problems occurring in the sector. A major issue was that of the perceived imbalance of power in the franchisor‐franchisee relationship, which often results in conflict between the two parties. The purpose of this paper is to extend the conflict literature in dyadic exchange relationships through investigating the causes of conflict from the franchisor and franchisee perspectives.

Exploratory research is undertaken to identify the major causes of franchising conflict. Face‐to‐face interviews are conducted with 24 franchising experts, such as lawyers and mediators, to draw upon their considerable experience in the sector.

The key findings suggest that a lack of due diligence is associated with the formation of unrealistic expectations which increases the potential for future relational conflict. Although franchising experience impacts upon operational approaches and conflict, the role played by third parties and market conditions both appear to exacerbate dissatisfaction in franchise systems.

This research is exploratory and therefore the findings are tentative. The preliminary conceptual models will be tested in a large quantitative survey of key franchising stakeholders in the near future.

With the Australian franchising sector presently under intense scrutiny by regulators this research is timely and important. It is expected that the findings will provide government and industry representatives with a more balanced understanding of the causes of franchising conflict so that preventative action may be taken.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the role that halal certification organisations (HCOs) play in the UK in assuring quality in halal cosmetics.

The study evaluates whether halal certification assures the quality of halal cosmetic products. This research evaluated the quality assurance systems of major UK HCOs, using a hypothetical product as a test vehicle. The investigation considered whether these organisations differ in their definition of “halal” and “halal cosmetics” and also considered how effectively their certification signals quality assurance.

The study indicated that there is a failure to adopt holistic halal terminology which implies that within the UK halal cosmetics industry, manufacturers may not be working within agreed standards for halal product integrity.

This study focussed on UK certification for halal cosmetics by three HCOs and disregarded other forms of halal businesses. The literature review is based solely on literature available in the English language. The study lacks generalisability, as only one hypothetical product was tested; therefore, it was not possible to reach an understanding of all the costs involved in UK HCO certification.

This study undertook a comprehensive literature review on halal certification to produce a comparison of halal sanctioning laws, certification processes and the level of supply chain verification by UK HCOs.

This study adds value to the knowledge on UK halal certification.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of recent guidance from the FSA and industry, and recent case law regarding product providers and distributors

Explains current status of the guidance; provides overview of the guidance and its two component parts directed at “product providers” and “distributors”; discusses international dimensions; explains compliance implications; describes parallel trade association principles published in a July 2007 paper entitled Retail Structured Products: Principles for Managing the Provider‐Distributor Relationship; and summarizes three recent English judicial decisions relevant to the responsibilities and duties of providers and distributors.

The responsibilities of providers and distributors regarding retail structured products are being defined by an interaction of regulatory, common law, and soft law provisions. Just as the FSA's exercise of its regulatory powers is increasingly based less on detailed rules and more on general principles, so the judges' decision making is based less on doctrinal detail and more on a pragmatic assessment of the relevant facts as a whole.

Regarding retail products, the best approach for providers and distributors is to focus not only on detailed rules and contractual provisions but also on the factual detail of the arrangements, and whether the outcomes are fair to investors and meet their reasonable expectations as created by the firm.

Expert analysis provided by leading lawyers specialized in financial institutions.

Important differentiating attributes in the procedures used, the characteristic mineral composition of the binders, and the implications these have on the final long term stability and physico-mechanical performance of the concretes produced are identified and discussed, with the intent to improve transparency and clarity in the field of geopolymer concrete technologies.

This state-of-the-art review covers the area of geopolymer concrete, a class of sustainable construction materials that use a variety of alternative powders in lieu of cement for composing concrete, most being a combination of industrial by-products and natural resources rich in specific required minerals. It explores extensively the available essential materials for geopolymer concrete and provides a deeper understanding of its underlying chemical mechanisms.

This is a state-of-the-art review introducing the essential characteristics of alternative powders used in geopolymer binders and the effectiveness these have on material performance.

With the increase of need for alternative cementitious materials, identifying and understanding the critical material components and the effect they may have on the performance of the resulting mixes in fresh as well as hardened state become a critical requirement to for short- and long-term quality control (e.g. flash setting, efflorescence, etc.).

The topic explored is significant in the field of sustainable concrete technologies where there are several parallel but distinct material technologies being developed, such as geopolymer concrete and alkali-activated concrete. Behavioral aspects and results are not directly transferable between the two fields of cementitious materials development, and these differences are explored and detailed in the present study.

To mark the launch of new Decothane Clearglaze, a clear polyurethane weatherproof and anti carbonation coating, Preston‐based specialist coatings manufacturers Liquid Plastics Ltd have published an attractive full colour brochure highlighting the product's suitability for the protection of a wide range of substrates, including masonry and glass.

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) Consultation Paper on Proposals to Enhance Protection for the Investing Public, issued on September 23, 2009, and some of the key issues that financial services providers operating in or dealing with the Hong Kong market will need to consider.

The paper explains the purpose of the Consultation Paper and summarizes its proposals in three subject categories: retail products offered to the public in Hong Kong, intermediares’ conduct, and post‐sale arrangements and cooling‐off periods.

The paper finds that the SFC's overall intention is to enhance Hong Kong's existing regulatory regime for the sale of retail investment products.

The Consultation Paper addresses a significant number of wide ranging proposals that could have a material effect on those issuing and distributing retail investment products to the Hong Kong public, whether from inside or outside Hong Kong.

The paper provides practical guidance from experienced securities and financial institution lawyers.

The study attempted to gauge the relative effectiveness of celebrity and product image match-up in comparison to non-celebrity attractive endorsers for two distinct high involvement situations. Also, due to the expected demographic diversity among target consumers, the study aimed at assessing the impact of respondent's age and gender on the effectiveness of image match-up.

Building on the three-order hierarchy model, two experiments were conducted (utilising celebrity and non-celebrity endorsers) for two high involvement hierarchies, i.e. standard learning and dissonance/attribution. Through fictitious print advertisement, the experiments assessed the effectiveness of the match-up in terms of consumer attitudes towards advertisement and brand and intentions to purchase.

The match-up consistently and significantly outperformed non-celebrity attractive endorser in case of standard learning hierarchy. The same conclusion was not established for dissonance/attribution hierarchy due to the lack of significant results. The findings also suggest that the match-up subdues the impact of consumer's gender and age on consumer attitudes only in case of standard learning hierarchy.

The study provides interesting theoretical implication by challenging a widely held postulation about the applicability of celebrity and product match-up under high involvement.

The research provides the practitioners with a better understanding of important issues, mainly, whether to use a celebrity endorser and selecting the right celebrity, especially if high involvement is expected.

Previous research concerning celebrity endorsements has largely considered consumer involvement as unitary, i.e. either high or low. However, the multifaceted aspect of consumer involvement is well established in the field of consumer psychology. The present research, therefore, is a pioneering attempt as it studies the effectiveness of match-up for two distinct high involvement situations. Moreover, unlike the majority of previous studies that have focused on the performance of “celebrity match” versus “celebrity mismatch”, the impact of match-up was studied in comparison to a non-celebrity attractive endorser.

This study aims to investigate how the social identity theory and emotional attachment theory influence the willingness of consumers to buy foreign cosmetic products. Specifically, this study examines the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism, foreign product judgment and willingness to buy foreign products. Furthermore, the interaction effect of consumer affinity and patriotism are tested in the model.

An online survey of 208 millennial Muslim women consumers was used to collect the data. The structural equation modeling test was used to assess the six hypotheses. Moreover, the two-step estimation approach was used to test the interaction moderation of consumer affinity and patriotism.

The results indicate that consumer ethnocentrism has a positive and significant relationship with foreign product judgment. Foreign product judgment was also found to have a positive and significant relationship with willingness to buy. In addition, this study concludes that affinity was found to moderate the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and foreign product judgment and strengthen the positive and significant effect of foreign product judgment on the willingness to buy. Finally, patriotism did not moderate the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and foreign product judgment. However, patriotism moderated the relationship between foreign product judgment and willingness to buy.

This study only focused on one category (i.e. low involvement product), and the authors recommend future studies to examine a high involvement product. Other individual orientation constructs, such as xenocentrism, need to be examined in future studies. Moreover, only intentional measures were investigated. Thus, further research could correlate intentional measures with product ownership. Finally, future research could examine how consumers behave differently across nations. Thus, the present model would require cross-cultural research.

Marketers focusing on global branding and international marketing can benefit from the findings of this paper by understanding the antecedents of consumers’ willingness to buy in the foreign cosmetic products setting. Additionally, foreign cosmetic marketers could focus on consumer affinity to strengthen the communication with and arouse the affinity of Muslim millennials women consumers in Indonesia. Finally, marketers can incorporate messages and signals of patriotism in their marketing communications to increase Muslim millennial women consumers’ love and pride.

The growing obsession with beauty among women has led to the immense growth of the cosmetics industry. This phenomenon has spawned an abundance of cosmetic products on the market. The advancement of information technology has further increased competition for cosmetic products as more products can be quickly brought to market. Muslim millennials consumers must be aware and careful about raw materials, impacts on long-term health, impacts on the national economy, environmental impacts and halal certification when using various kinds of cosmetics.

This study contributes to the literature on international marketing research by incorporating the interactive effect of consumer affinity and patriotism in the acceptance of foreign cosmetic products.

The purpose of this paper addresses the issue of inconsistent findings regarding the impact of consumers' need for touch (NFT) on webrooming behavior. It investigates the moderator of maximization by drawing on maximizing mindset theory.

Three studies were carried out to test the hypothesized relationships. The first study investigated the impact of autotelic NFT on webrooming intention. The second study examined the impact of instrumental NFT on webrooming intention. The third study tested all hypotheses by the structural equation modeling approach.

The results confirm moderation by consumers' maximizing mindset. The moderated mediation analyses show that the interaction effect of autotelic NFT and maximization influences webrooming intention indirectly via anticipated sensory pleasure. Likewise, the interaction effect of instrumental NFT and maximization influences webrooming intention indirectly via product fit uncertainty.

The study draws on maximizing mindset theory to show that consumers' autotelic NFT and instrumental NFT drive their webrooming intentions depending on the activation of their maximizing mindset. The nonsignificant relationship between autotelic NFT and webrooming intention in the context of satisficers explains the conflicting findings reported in the literature. Consumers' affective and cognitive responses were also studied to uncover the underlying mechanisms of their webrooming intention. This research contributes to the literature by enhancing the understanding of webrooming behavior.

Because the growth in the elderly population is a worldwide phenomenon, it is essential for businesses to develop an understanding of the older consumer market. Older consumers are especially important to companies operating in the pharmaceutical industry, since they spend more on medical supplies and drugs than any other age group. The aim of this paper is to examine older consumers' preferences for sources of information and methods of purchasing prescription drugs and cosmetics, as well as the reasons they choose specific drug stores and specific brands of drugs and health aids.

This study employs a large national sample and various statistical procedures. Responses given to selected attitudinal and behavioral measures were tabulated and cross-tabulated by selected demographic and other characteristics. Grouping of older Americans into four segments based on aging characteristics and life events circumstances was achieved by means of cluster analysis.

The research presented in this paper shows major differences in the way older consumers respond to various marketing offerings. The responses of older Americans do not only differ from those of their younger counterparts; they also vary widely by psychographic characteristics that are based on aging, life-changing events and circumstances older consumers have experienced. The results provide the bases for recommended strategies to most effectively appeal to older consumers in general, as well as to members of specific segments.

The study helps marketers of pharmaceutical products improve their efforts when marketing to older consumers.

Unlike previous studies that examine choices of pharmaceutical and cosmetic products by older consumers as a homogeneous group, the present study treats these consumers as a heterogeneous market and examines their motives for their choices.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the opportunities for tobacco farmers in Malawi from diversifying to cannabis, and the potential benefits for reducing deforestation by producing a cannabis based alternative fuel. It further argues that there are tensions between the conflicting objectives of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

Field interviews were conducted with cannabis farmers, traders and sellers in different parts of Malawi.

The findings of this study show that there are opportunities for cannabis farmers but they have been blocked by legal impediments. Now that legislative reform have made cannabis cultivation possible, farmers need support in developing products.

Any attempt to provide a precise assessment of the cannabis market in Malawi is constrained by the criminalised status of the product. The suitability of cannabis briquettes as an fuel has yet to be trialled in Malawi.

There is an urgent need to revise the drug control conventions to address environmental degradation and deforestation.

The linkage between tobacco farming, deforestation and desertification in Malawi has not been made. This is the first time that hemp has been suggested as an alternative crop for farmers and as a solution to deforestation.

The main aim of this study is to identify the factors that can affect regional differences in the procurement of local food in public catering. Understanding how some regions procure more local food products than others could help promote the use of local food in public catering. Regions with a lower share of local food can learn from regions that have a higher local food share.

The studied phenomenon is complex; therefore, we used several approaches to identify the share of local food procurement and the reasons behind the regional differences. The study gathered survey data and used fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), a computable general equilibrium model and several data sources.

The share of local food within the total food procurement varies markedly between regions. The highest local food shares can be linked to a combination of three factors: sufficient and suitable supply, adequate organisational conditions and a political atmosphere that encourages the use of local food. In addition to limited political incentives, poor supply or inadequate organisational conditions effectively characterise why some regions use very few local food products. Hence, a move towards using more local food in public catering requires political decision makers, food producers and procurement personnel to demonstrate a common will and take cohesive action.

By examining regional variation, the results of this study offer a new perspective on the use of local food in public catering.