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Country of origin has profound effects on consumer behavior; yet few studies have examined an antecedent of these effects: why some countries enjoy a positive image while others suffer a negative one. Developing an institutional theory of country image, the authors argue that weak legal institutions at the country level increase firm opportunistic behavior that expropriates consumers and decrease the product quality of local brands, thus decreasing the country’s image regarding its products and brands.

This study measures country image for products and brands using the number of valuable brands (i.e. brands included in the top 500 brands from 2008 to 2016) in a particular home country. Data concerning the rule of law in each country come from the World Bank, and data on the efficiency of countries’ judicial systems comes from Djankov et al. (2007). We also collect patent data from the US Patent and Trade Office, national culture from Hofstede Insights and GDP and GDP per capita from the World Bank as control variables. Panel Poisson regression, Tobit regression and truncated regression are used in the analyses.

Supporting the institutional theory of country image, both the rule of law and efficiency of the judicial systems show positive and significant effects on country image, even when economy size (GDP), degree of economic development (GDP per capita), level of technology and skill (patents) and culture are controlled.

To improve their country’s image and the brand value of local firms, policymakers should strive to strengthen legal institutions aimed at punishing firm opportunistic behavior in their countries.

Previous research on the country-of-origin effect has not yet appreciated the role of legal institutions in developing the construct of country image.

Although multinational enterprises (MNEs) based in emerging economies arose quickly during the past decade, most of these firms lack marketing capabilities and strong brands. Emerging-economy MNEs that have tried to build their own brands have been largely unsuccessful. The purpose of this paper is to argue that corruption in the MNEs’ home countries has been detrimental to their brand values. Corruption makes it more difficult for consumers to govern their transactions with local firms, thus decreasing firms’ trustworthiness and brand values.

Data of the global top 500 most valuable brands of 2008 and 2014 and the Poisson regression model are used.

This study finds that firms based in countries with lower levels of corruption establish more valuable brands than those based in countries with higher corruption, even when GDP and GDP per capita are controlled.

Policymakers who want to help local firms increase their marketing capabilities and establish strong brands should strive to increase the trustworthiness of local firms by undertaking anti-corruption reforms aimed at protecting consumers.

Few studies have address the research question that why emerging-market MNEs lack marketing capabilities and strong brands. This study finds that institutional factors such as corruption at country level prevent them from establishing strong brands.

Using wire as feedstock has several advantages for additive manufacturing (AM) of metal components, which include high deposition rates, efficient material use and low material costs. While the feasibility of wire-feed AM has been demonstrated, the accuracy and surface finish of the produced parts is generally lower than those obtained using powder-bed/-feed AM. The purpose of this study was to develop and investigate the feasibility of a fine wire-based laser metal deposition (FW-LMD) process for producing high-precision metal components with improved resolution, dimensional accuracy and surface finish.

The proposed FW-LMD AM process uses a fine stainless steel wire with a diameter of 100 µm as the additive material and a pulsed Nd:YAG laser as the heat source. The pulsed laser beam generates a melt pool on the substrate into which the fine wire is fed, and upon moving the X–Y stage, a single-pass weld bead is created during solidification that can be laterally and vertically stacked to create a 3D metal component. Process parameters including laser power, pulse duration and stage speed were optimized for the single-pass weld bead. The effect of lateral overlap was studied to ensure low surface roughness of the first layer onto which subsequent layers can be deposited. Multi-layer deposition was also performed and the resulting cross-sectional morphology, microhardness, phase formation, grain growth and tensile strength have been investigated.

An optimized lateral overlap of about 60-70% results in an average surface roughness of 8-16 µm along all printed directions of the X–Y stage. The single-layer thickness and dimensional accuracy of the proposed FW-LMD process was about 40-80 µm and ±30 µm, respectively. A dense cross-sectional morphology was observed for the multilayer stacking without any visible voids, pores or defects present between the layers. X-ray diffraction confirmed a majority austenite phase with small ferrite phase formation that occurs at the junction of the vertically stacked beads, as confirmed by the electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analysis. Tensile tests were performed and an ultimate tensile strength of about 700-750 MPa was observed for all samples. Furthermore, multilayer printing of different shapes with improved surface finish and thin-walled and inclined metal structures with a minimum achievable resolution of about 500 µm was presented.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to report a directed energy deposition process using a fine metal wire with a diameter of 100 µm and can be a possible solution to improving surface finish and reducing the “stair-stepping” effect that is generally observed for wires with a larger diameter. The AM process proposed in this study can be an attractive alternative for 3D printing of high-precision metal components and can find application for rapid prototyping in a range of industries such as medical and automotive, among others.

Refractory materials are now used in all major industries that demand high-temperature resistance, including petrochemicals, steel, cement and aviation. Businesses must decrease operating costs, enhance product technology, sell well and manage corporate risks in decision-making, notably supplier selection, to be more competitive. The study aims to determine the key criteria and factors of supplier selection and to evaluate the importance of the key factor of the supplier selection criteria for the refractory materials manufacturers in Taiwan.

Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is used to rank these factors for the decision maker. The AHP method is suitable for verifying refractory supplier selection criteria and providing references. The weighted loss scores for each supplier are then determined using the relative importance as the weights. Supplier selection criteria are ranked using their aggregate weighted loss scores. The provider with the lowest loss score should be chosen.

Product quality is the most significant of the five criteria: product quality, production technology, logistics capacity, service capability and supplier background. Professionalism is the most significant aspect of product quality, whereas equipment and capacity are vital in manufacturing techniques. The studies also show that the delivery rate is essential for logistics and service capabilities.

This research has important implications for refractory suppliers in promptly fine-tuning the production and service to enhance customer satisfaction, which is key to business sustainability.

The application of an AHP technique to a real-world industrial issue is what makes this research unique. This research addressed one of the most critical topics in supply chain operations by offering better judgement for supplier selection via the use of suitable quantitative methodologies.

When the mobile manipulator is traveling on an unconstructed terrain, the external disturbance is generated. The load on the end of the mobile manipulator will be affected strictly by the disturbance. The purpose of this paper is to reject the disturbance and keep the end effector in a stable pose all the time, a control method is proposed for the onboard manipulator.

In this paper, the kinematics and dynamics models of the end pose stability control system for the tracked robot are built. Through the guidance of this model information, the control framework based on active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) is designed, which keeps the attitude of the end of the manipulator stable in the pitch, roll and yaw direction. Meanwhile, the control algorithm is operated with cloud computing because the research object, the rescue robot, aims to be lightweight and execute work with remote manipulation.

The challenging simulation experiments demonstrate that the methodology can achieve valid stability control performance in the challenging terrain road in terms of robustness and real-time.

This research facilitates the stable posture control of the end-effector of the mobile manipulator and maintains it in a suitable stable operating environment. The entire system can normally work even in dynamic disturbance scenarios and uncertain nonlinear modeling. Furthermore, an example is given to guide the parameter tuning of ADRC by using model information and estimate the unknown internal modeling uncertainty, which is difficult to be modeled or identified.

Research on the service recovery paradox (SRP) effect has indicated that after recovery from failures in customer service, customers will commonly rate their satisfaction higher than prior to the service failure. However, thus far there has been little research on the cause of this phenomenon. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of “guilt” emotions in the context of consumer service.

Three experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses. Data were collected from 532 undergraduate, graduate students and the general people.

The results of the experiments demonstrate that if customers are compensated for service failures by receiving better than anticipated service, they will commonly experience feelings of “guilt.” In an attempt to alleviate this guilt, customers will project their feelings in evaluating a company, and will rate their customer satisfaction more highly. In doing so, the customer feels relief in reciprocating the kindness of the firm; in this way, the firm wins over the customer’s heart.

This is one of the first studies to discuss the effect of guilt in the SRP effect. This research shows that relying on the emotion of “guilt” for receiving exceptional service helps companies to overcome service failures and successfully rebuild their relationships with customers.

This study aims to analyze and explain the characteristics and findings in previous studies of switching behavior and identifies the developments within this topic in order to improve its current understanding.

The authors construct a literature database of studies published in prominent business and management journals from 1996 to 2013 and conduct an analysis using the variables in the data fields. Furthermore, we execute meta-analysis to combine the research goals of tracing the history of customer switching behavior studies.

Satisfaction switching costs and attractiveness of alternatives are the most commonly used predictor variables to explain switching intentions. Switching costs subjective norms and interpersonal relationships moderate the relationship between switching intentions and its antecedents. Customer switching behavior in mobile telecommunication services has received a lot of attention.

This study assists researchers by examining the type and topic of these studies and the research tools and findings reported in theory. The authors ultimately identify the developmental trend in the literature on switching behavior and propose a direction for future studies.

This study clarifies the characteristics and findings of previous studies on switching intention from a literature review and improves the current understanding.

The purpose of this paper is to facilitate the use of public communication in the development of healthy food plans for consumers. This research aims to investigate whether the influence of “fit” to individuals’ goal pursuit strategies on the effectiveness of advertisement frames can intensify persuasion to consume healthy (virtue) foods or restrain the consumption of unhealthy (vice) foods in health promotion.

Two experiments were conducted to investigate how goal-framed messages for different food types affect consumer decision making by moderating regulatory focus.

The results demonstrate that the compatibility between the mere exposure to virtue (vice) food in a negative (positive) frame drives the effectiveness of a given goal framing. However, when additional regulatory focus is added, the fit in the vice/promotion and virtue/prevention condition causes the effect of framing to disappear. Moreover, the unfit in the virtue/promotion and vice/prevention condition suppresses the virtue (vice) preference in the positive (negative) frame.

These findings suggest that under different valence framing, advertising messages provide different amounts of persuasion in virtue/vice conditions and the moderation effect of regulatory fit on framing to influence virtue/vice food preference.

Public policy executives and marketers can increase the likelihood that consumers will make healthy food choices by fitting goals to strengthen persuasion. The unfitted goal orientation between food and regulatory focus enhances the framing effect leading to food preference changes.

The framing effect disappears when additional regulatory fit the food type, but is enhanced when additional regulatory focus does not fit the food type. By bringing fit into the frame and the virtue/vice food type, this research extends the notion of regulatory fit into three pairs of given goal orientations on the persuasiveness of message framing to health-related communication. It provides a substantial explanation underlying persuasion to promote a greater understanding of virtue/vice food preferences.

The study aims to examine the customers' revisit intention toward the green restaurants after service failure based upon service failure attributions. The study further intends to investigate the moderating effect of green self-identity on customers' post-service failure behavioral intentions.

A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 327 participants who had experienced service failure while dining in green restaurants. The study draws upon the prevailing literature to examine the relationship among the constructs using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The findings of the study have confirmed that service failure has an adverse effect on customers' revisit intention toward the green restaurants. However, customers with green self-identity appear less anxious about service failure as findings indicate customers revisit green restaurant even after service failure.

The study provides a clear indication to the managers of the green restaurants that a better understanding of service failure attributions may facilitate in preventing service failure in a prompt and reasonable manner. It will not only contribute to building the brand reputation, but also ensure that customers stay with the brand for a longer duration.

The study is unique in a way that it is the first of its type to establish a relationship between service failure attributions and customer satisfaction in the emerging South Asian market, such as India in the context of green restaurants. Besides, this is the only study to use green self-identity as a moderator between the relationships of customer satisfaction and revisit intention.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to clarify what specific behaviors are involved in consumers' partial switching in mobile application (app) usage, and, second, to explore the common and differential motivations of these behaviors.

This paper specified two behaviors in consumers' partial switching in mobile app usage, trialing and combining behaviors, and conceptualized them as different types of variety seeking behaviors. A theoretical model contrasting intrinsic motivations and extrinsic motivations on the two behaviors was developed and tested with a sample of 561 mobile app users in China.

The findings showed that both trialing and combining behaviors could be motivated by intrinsic individual-related and extrinsic technology-related factors. Besides, intrinsic individual-related factors were more effective in motivating trialing behavior, whereas extrinsic technology-related factors were more effective in motivating combining behavior. All these findings are applicable and consistent in both hedonic and utilitarian apps.

This study extends and advances the literature on information technology switching by investigating consumer use behaviors from a new perspective of partial switching and multiple competing apps usage. This study also contributes to variety seeking literature by extending the understanding of variety seeking to the context of mobile app usage. Finally, by investigating the associations and distinctions of trialing and combining behavior, this study not only helps to fully understand the partial switching but also enriches the understanding of different types of variety seeking behaviors.