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Microwave and thermal problems in manufacturing high‐power microwave attenuators are considered and some proposals of thick film solutions are presented. Theoretical considerations have been confronted with the results of measurements.

Quantitative and spatial-explicit flood risk information is of great importance for strengthening climate change adaptation and flood resilience. Shanghai is a coastal megacity at large estuary delta with rising flood risks. This study aims to quantify the overall economic-societal risks of storm flooding and their spatial patterns in Shanghai.

Based on multiple storm flood scenarios at different return periods, as well as fine-scale data sets including gridded GDP, gridded population and vector land-use, a probabilistic risk model incorporating geographic information system is used to assess the economic-societal risks of flooding and their spatial distributions.

Our results show that, from 1/200 to 1/5,000-year floods, the exposed assets will increase from USD 85.4bn to USD 657.6bn, and the direct economic losses will increase from USD 3.06bn to USD 52bn. The expected annual damage (EAD) of assets is around USD 84.36m. Hotpots of EAD are mainly distributed in the city center, the depressions along the upper Huangpu River in the southwest, the north coast of Hangzhou Bay, and the confluence of the Huangpu River and Yangtze River in the northeast. From 1/200 to 1/5,000-year floods, the exposed population will rise from 280 thousand to 2,420 thousand, and the estimated casualties will rise from 299 to 1,045. The expected annual casualties (EAC) are around 2.28. Hotspots of casualties are generally consistent with those of EAD.

In contrast to previous studies that focus on a single flood scenario or a particular type of flood exposure/risk in Shanghai, the findings contribute to an understanding of overall flood risks and their spatial patterns, which have significant implications for cost-benefit analysis of flood resilience strategies.

The objectives of this study were to compare the hygiene standards and food handling practices between sole-proprietor and the corporate-managed restaurants in Lebanon and to determine whether the variations between both groups are explained by and directly related to the type of management.

An in-depth observation assessment of food safety environment and practices was conducted on a convenient sample of 50 food businesses in Beirut, which are typical of foodservice outlets in Lebanon and in many countries of the Middle East. The observation assessment checklist comprised six constructs of 2–7 components for analysis. It covered all areas including documentation and record-keeping requirements, which are crucial parts of a food safety system.

There was a significant difference in the visual assessment score between sole-proprietor (77.9 ± 18.4) and corporate group (48.5 ± 12.8). Food handlers' behavior and hygiene standards were significantly associated with the type of management. However, there were still critical gaps in the food safety performance of the corporate group suggesting other underlying factors than the type of management.

Additional elements were drawn from this study for future food safety culture research. Understanding the food safety attitudes and perception of risks of the management representatives, leaders, or food business owners is vital to develop appropriate food safety interventions and foster a positive food safety culture in the foodservice industry.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study not only in Lebanon (or MENA) but also in other regions to measure the association of management type, that is, sole-proprietor management and corporate management, with the food hygiene standards and food safety practices in the foodservice establishments. This paper presents new findings that will be of value for researchers in food safety and will complement the existing literature on food safety culture in the foodservice industry.

The literature on product design/development (PD) has attempted to understand the consumer but has not provided a comprehensive framework for product marketers and designers. Thus, this paper aims to compile and link the main topics in the literature on PD to create a foundation for strategic development in this field.

This research adopted a “fit-for-purpose” methodology, a cross-referencing method and a meta-narrative approach that are appropriate for reviewing studies in a field involving complex topics and areas in which the literature is still developing.

To enhance the quality of product development, there is a need for PD strategy based on a clear understanding of many factors: the consumer; the complex interrelations among a product’s values, dimensions and personalities; PD theories; and other related variables.

This study found that PD studies should concentrate more on codifying strategies to enhance product development success. This is particularly important in view of consumers’ varied and changeable tastes in the global market and the differing insights of product marketers and designers.

This comprehensive systematic review is a unique study that contributes to future business-to-consumer and business-to-business research by compiling scattered and hidden strategies, theories and variables in the PD/development literature.

To grow, any field of research must both encourage newcomers to work within its boundaries, and help them learn to conduct excellent research within the field’s parameters. This paper aims to examine whether the existing body of neuromarketing literature can support such growth. Specifically, the authors attempt to replicate how a newcomer to the field of neuromarketing would go about orienting themselves to the field and learn how to conduct excellent neuromarketing research.

A total of 131 papers, published in the areas of “neuromarketing” and “consumer neuroscience” were downloaded and then identified as conceptual or empirical in nature. A separate database was created for each type of research paper and information was recorded. For both conceptual and empirical papers, the citation details, notably year of publication, journal, journal ranking and impact factor were recorded. Papers were then descriptively analysed with regards to number of publications over the years, content and journal quality.

It is found that interest in the field is growing, with a greater variety of topics and methods appearing year on year. However, the authors also identify some issues of concern for the field if it wishes to sustain this growth. First, the highly fragmented literature and the lack of signposting makes it very difficult for newcomers to find the relevant work and journal outlets. Second, there is a lack of high-quality, user-oriented methodological primers that a newcomer would come across. Finally, neuromarketing as it appears to a newcomer suffers from a lack of clear guidance on what defines good vs bad neuromarketing research. As a large majority of the reviewed papers have appeared in lower-ranked journals, newcomers might get a biased view on the acceptable research standards in the field.

The insights from the analysis inform a tentative agenda for future work which gives neuromarketing itself greater scientific purpose, and the potential to grow into a better-established field of study within marketing as a whole.

Many consumer-focused corporate social responsibility (CSR) studies suggest a positive link between the responsibility demonstrated by a company and consumers’ intention to favor the company in their purchases. Yet an analogous causal effect between corporate social and financial performances is not evident. This chapter conceptualizes how social desirability and cynicism contribute to the discrepancy between consumers’ attitudes and their actual purchase behavior, and analyzes why consumer choices indicated in surveys do not consistently convert into actions.

We develop a conceptual framework based on hybrid choice modeling to estimate the impact of two new variables, Corporate Social Desirability and Corporate Social Cynicism, on CSR research. The model presented synthesizes research findings from the fields of CSR and psychology with a discrete choice methodology that allows inclusion of psychological aspects as latent variables.

The goal of the framework is to bridge the gap between choices stated by consumers in CSR surveys and their actual choices by quantifying and extracting the effects of biases that otherwise threaten the validity of such survey results. As the next step, the practical value of the model must be evaluated through empirical research combining a CSR choice study with social desirability and cynicism measurement.

The framework proposes a novel way of controlling CSR surveys for potential biases created by social desirability and cynicism and enables quantification of this impact, with potential application to other fields where psychological aspects may distort research results. Future empirical evidence based on the framework may also offer new insights into the mechanisms by which the two biases distort findings.

The personalities of leaders have been shown to impact the culture of their organizations and are also expected to have a more distal impact on the firm’s financial performance. However, the authors also expect that leader gender is an important intervening variable such that exhibiting various personality dimensions may result in unique cultural and performance-based outcomes for women and men leaders. Thus, the authors seek to examine first the impact of leader personality on organizational performance, as driven through organizational culture as a mediating mechanism. In doing so, the authors propose the expected impact of specific personality dimensions on certain types of organizational cultures, and those cultures’ subsequent impact on the organization’s performance. The authors then extend to consider the moderating effects of leader gender on the relationship between leader personality and organization. To support their propositions, the authors draw from upper echelons and implicit leadership theories. The authors encourage researchers to consider the proposition within a sample of the largest publicly traded US companies (i.e., Fortune 500) at an important era in history such that for the first time, 10% of these companies are led by women. In doing so, the authors hope to understand the leadership dynamics at the highest echelons of corporate governance and provide actionable insights for companies aiming to optimize their leadership composition and drive sustainable performance.

The purpose of this paper is to re-evaluate the sustainable attitude-behavior gap by reconsidering the cognitive-rational aspects of consumer purchase behavior. We aim to show how companies can benefit from focusing on hedonic aspects of consumption in their marketing of sustainable products. We claim that consumer culture research needs to examine the link between hedonic, aesthetic, and cognitive-rational aspects of sustainable consumption.

We use the electric vehicle marketing strategy in the United States as an example of an approach to bridge the attitude-behavior gap. More specifically, we focus on the car manufacturer Tesla as an example of marketing a sustainable product.

We find that Tesla’s marketing strategy focuses on aesthetics and hedonics-ludic performance. Similarly to other luxury cars, Tesla markets itself with a full compliment of consumer benefits. Compared to economical electric vehicles, sustainability is not the primary focus of Tesla’s marketing communication strategy.

Sustainable consumption theory benefits from examining the interlinking of hedonic, aesthetic and cognitive-rational aspects product purchasing and use. Future research in the development of sustainable consumption theory in additional complex product categories is needed.

Greater regard for consumer experience in sustainable consumption offers the potential for additional strategies to bridge the attitude-behavior gap and marketing of sustainable goods.

We move beyond the attitude-behavior gap by not only focusing on expressed attitudes of sustainability, but also focusing on the hedonic aspects at play in sustainable consumption.

The increasing importance of health food sales and the growing number of consumers purchasing health foods necessitates that marketers develop enhanced understanding of health food consumers. The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical extension to the health belief model (HBM) that integrates personal stress and environmental cues (visible health problems) with its constructs.

Data were collected through a quantitative face-to-face survey of 384 health food consumers in Taiwan, and structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data.

The results show that the perceived benefits and barriers of health foods are critical antecedents of continued-consumption intention. Personal stress and visible health problems substantially influence consumers’ perceived susceptibility to and severity of health problems, and perceived susceptibility consequently leads to consumer continued consumption. However, the results indicate an irrelevant relationship between perceived severity of health problems and continued-consumption intentions.

Based on the HBM, the authors integrated perceived stress and visible health problems into the health food consumer research. The findings can improve the understanding of managers in the health food market regarding the role that stress and visibility play in consumer decisions.

This paper studies the moderating effect of industry structure on strategy-performance relationships in international markets.

We have carried out a survey among a sample of German, Norwegian and Singaporean small and medium sized firms, and test – using structural equation modelling (EQS) – four hypotheses founded in industrial organisation,

We find that industry structure indeed matters. The general picture is that cautious internationalisation strategies are more effective in fragmented industries than in concentrated industries. Also, with somewhat more nuance, global marketing strategies – such as standardisation and integration – seem by and large to be more effective in concentrated industries than in fragmented industries.

The operationalisation of industry structure in an international context is challenging and we have deviated from the traditional Herfindahl–Hirschman Index. This may be a limitation but we also consider it a strength, given the weaknesses of this index in an international setting. The study is cross-sectional and should ideally follow each firm over time, again a challenging endeavour.

Despite a considerable amount of studies on strategy – performance relationships in international markets, there is no general agreement on the topic. We argue that a contingency approach needs to be taken, and that industry structure is one important factor not yet analysed.