Jianying Zhou, Jose Onieva and Javier Lopez
As a value‐added service to deliver important data over the internet with guaranteed receipt for each successful delivery, certified email has been discussed for years and a…
Abstract
Purpose
As a value‐added service to deliver important data over the internet with guaranteed receipt for each successful delivery, certified email has been discussed for years and a number of research papers appeared in the literature. This paper aims to present two optimized multi‐party certified email protocols.
Design/methodology/approach
Reviews two existing email protocols and provides a modified version to overcome their security flaws and weaknesses. Extends the two‐party protocol to a multi‐party scenario.
Findings
Both of the protocols have three major features. A sender could notify multiple recipients of the same information while only those recipients who acknowledged are able to get the information. Both the sender and the recipients can end a protocol run at any time without breach of fairness. The exchange protocols are optimized, each of which has only three steps, and the trusted third party will not be involved unless an exception (e.g. a network failure or a party's misbehavior) occurs.
Originality/value
Provides a focus on a value‐added service – certified email.
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Keywords
Jianfang Qi, Yue Li, Haibin Jin, Jianying Feng and Weisong Mu
The purpose of this study is to propose a new consumer value segmentation method for low-dimensional dense market datasets to quickly detect and cluster the most profitable…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to propose a new consumer value segmentation method for low-dimensional dense market datasets to quickly detect and cluster the most profitable customers for the enterprises.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the comprehensive segmentation bases (CSB) with richer meanings were obtained by introducing the weighted recency-frequency-monetary (RFM) model into the common segmentation bases (SB). Further, a new market segmentation method, the CSB-MBK algorithm was proposed by integrating the CSB model and the mini-batch k-means (MBK) clustering algorithm.
Findings
The results show that our proposed CSB model can reflect consumers' contributions to a market, as well as improve the clustering performance. Moreover, the proposed CSB-MBK algorithm is demonstrably superior to the SB-MBK, CSB-KMA and CSB-Chameleon algorithms with respect to the Silhouette Coefficient (SC), the Calinski-Harabasz (CH) Index , the average running time and superior to the SB-MBK, RFM-MBK and WRFM-MBK algorithms in terms of the inter-market value and characteristic differentiation.
Practical implications
This paper provides a tool for decision-makers and marketers to segment a market quickly, which can help them grasp consumers' activity, loyalty, purchasing power and other characteristics in a target market timely and achieve the precision marketing.
Originality/value
This study is the first to introduce the CSB-MBK algorithm for identifying valuable customers through the comprehensive consideration of the clustering quality, consumer value and segmentation speed. Moreover, the CSB-MBK algorithm can be considered for applications in other markets.
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Jiani Jiang, Bruce A. Huhmann and Michael R. Hyman
The purpose of this paper is to investigate masculinity in Chinese social media marketing for global luxury fashion brands through two studies.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate masculinity in Chinese social media marketing for global luxury fashion brands through two studies.
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 compares physical characteristics of males in visually oriented US (Instagram) and Chinese (Weibo) social media posts promoting global luxury fashion magazine brands (e.g. Vogue, Cosmopolitan, GQ and Esquire). Study 2 examines the prevalence of and Chinese consumers’ responses (reposts, comments and likes) to different masculinities depicted in luxury fashion brand-sponsored Weibo posts.
Findings
Male portrayals for Chinese audiences feature more characteristics associated with emerging East Asian hybrid masculinities – “Little Fresh Meat” (LFM) and “Old Grilled Meat” (OGM) – than associated with global or regional hegemonic masculinity (i.e. the scholarly Wén and action-oriented Wu). Wén remains common in social media posts for luxury fashion goods, but LFM and OGM engender more consumer responses.
Practical implications
Chinese luxury fashion marketing depicts masculinity more similarly to other East Asian marketing than to Western marketing. Some luxury fashion brands are struggling for acceptance among Chinese youth. Luxury fashion marketers should incorporate hybrid rather than hegemonic masculinities to prompt more favorable responses among Chinese consumers, especially younger female target markets.
Originality/value
Growing female occupational and consumer power and shifting male employment from blue-collar to white-collar jobs have influenced media portrayals of masculinity. Social media marketing for luxury fashion brands demonstrates the prevalence and appeal of hybrid masculinities in China.
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Xiaoquan Chu, Yue Li, Dong Tian, Jianying Feng and Weisong Mu
The purpose of this paper is to propose an optimized hybrid model based on artificial intelligence methods, use the method of time series forecasting, to deal with the price…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose an optimized hybrid model based on artificial intelligence methods, use the method of time series forecasting, to deal with the price prediction issue of China’s table grape.
Design/methodology/approach
The approaches follows the framework of “decomposition and ensemble,” using ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) to optimize the conventional price forecasting methods, and, integrating the multiple linear regression and support vector machine to build a hybrid model which could be applied in solving price series predicting problems.
Findings
The proposed EEMD-ADD optimized hybrid model is validated to be considered satisfactory in a case of China’ grape price forecasting in terms of its statistical measures and prediction performance.
Practical implications
This study would resolve the difficulties in grape price forecasting and provides an adaptive strategy for other agricultural economic predicting problems as well.
Originality/value
The paper fills the vacancy of concerning researches, proposes an optimized hybrid model integrating both classical econometric and artificial intelligence models to forecast price using time series method.
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Mu Weisong, Li Chengcheng, Tian Dong and Feng Jianying
The purpose of this paper is to analyze and identify Chinese consumers’ behavior and preference characters toward table grapes, especially to explore the variance of consumption…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze and identify Chinese consumers’ behavior and preference characters toward table grapes, especially to explore the variance of consumption preference in recent five years.
Design/methodology/approach
Two representative China-wide questionnaire surveys were conducted by face-to-face and online questionnaire survey, respectively, in 2009 and 2014. Comparative study was adopted to dig the changes of consumers’ preferences and habits. ANOVA was adopted to explore the statistically difference among consumers’ behavior and preferences.
Findings
The results indicate that Chinese consumers are rational-motivation-driven grape consumers, they prefer to sweet taste, seedless and medium priced grapes. Safety and quality characters (clean appearance, freshness and taste) were ranked as the most important grape attributes. As a whole, it was found that consumers are more quality-focussed and safety-conscious five years later, so some variances was showed in their purchase habits and preferences, such as the choice of purchase place, attitude to special grapes and willingness to pay to safe and genetically modified grapes.
Originality/value
This research not only indicates some stable preferences of Chinese consumers toward table grape, but also finds out some significant changes in consumers’ behavior before and after five years based on a comparative study in 2009 and 2014.
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Luyao Wang, Jianying Feng, Xiaojie Sui, Xiaoquan Chu and Weisong Mu
The purpose of this paper is to provide reference for researchers by reviewing the research advances and trend of agricultural product price forecasting methods in recent years.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide reference for researchers by reviewing the research advances and trend of agricultural product price forecasting methods in recent years.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reviews the main research methods and their application of forecasting of agricultural product prices, summarizes the application examples of common forecasting methods, and prospects the future research directions.
Findings
1) It is the trend to use hybrid models to predict agricultural products prices in the future research; 2) the application of the prediction model based on price influencing factors should be further expanded in the future research; 3) the performance of the model should be evaluated based on DS rather than just error-based metrics in the future research; 4) seasonal adjustment models can be applied to the difficult seasonal forecasting tasks in the agriculture product prices in the future research; 5) hybrid optimization algorithm can be used to improve the prediction performance of the model in the future research.
Originality/value
The methods from this paper can provide reference for researchers, and the research trends proposed at the end of this paper can provide solutions or new research directions for relevant researchers.
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Linghuan Li, Shibin Sun, Ronghua Zhuang, Bing Zhang, Zeyu Li and Jianying Yu
This study aims to develop a polymer cement-based waterproof coating with self-healing capability to efficiently and intelligently solve the building leakage caused by cracking of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to develop a polymer cement-based waterproof coating with self-healing capability to efficiently and intelligently solve the building leakage caused by cracking of waterproof materials, along with excellent durability to prolong its service life.
Design/methodology/approach
Ion chelators are introduced into the composite system based on ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer emulsion and ordinary Portland cement to prepare self-healing polymer cement-based waterproof coating. Hydration, microstructure, wettability, mechanical properties, durability, self-healing performance and self-healing products of polymer cement-based waterproof coating with ion chelator are investigated systematically. Meanwhile, the chemical composition of self-healing products in the crack was examined.
Findings
The results showed that ion chelators could motivate the hydration of C2S and C3S, as well as the formation of hydration products (C-S-H gel) of the waterproof coating to improve its compactness. Compared with the control group, the waterproof coating with ion chelator had more excellent water resistance, alkali resistance, thermal and UV aging resistance. When the dosage of ion chelator was 2%, after 28 days of curing, cracks with a width of 0.29 mm in waterproof coating could fully heal and cracks with a width of 0.50 mm could achieve a self-healing efficiency of 72%. Furthermore, the results reveal that the self-healing product in the crack was calcite crystalline CaCO3.
Originality/value
A novel ion chelator was introduced into the composite coating system to endow it with excellent self-healing ability to prolong its service life. It has huge application potential in the field of building waterproofing.
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Syeda Ikrama and Syeda Maseeha Qumer
This case study is designed to enable students to understand the reasons behind the launch of a beauty brand grounded on traditions and culture, understand the strategies adopted…
Abstract
Learning outcomes
This case study is designed to enable students to understand the reasons behind the launch of a beauty brand grounded on traditions and culture, understand the strategies adopted by Florasis to establish its presence in the C-beauty space and emerge successful, analyze the positioning of a C-beauty brand in a highly competitive beauty market, identify the issues and challenges faced by a C-beauty brand in its efforts to disrupt the C-beauty space and suggest strategies that Florasis can adopt to emerge as a market leader in the global beauty industry.
Case overview/synopsis
Set in 2021, the case study discusses about the emerging C-beauty brand Florasis innovative strategies to promote the brand. Florasis was founded in 2017 with a vision to become a century old national makeup brand of China. Florasis was successful in getting on board a story-telling experience that featured traditional Chinese culture, aesthetics and heritage. It sold cosmetic products with retro packaging, concepts derived from traditional Chinese style, promoting a sense of national pride and nostalgia. The case study highlights the innovative strategies Florasis adopted like influencer marketing through key opinion leaders and key opinion customers, celebrity endorsements, user co-creation programs, social content and network marketing, brand crossovers and collaborations, etc. In April 2021, Florasis became the No. 1 cosmetic company in China with a gross merchandise value of 218m yuan and further the total sales for second quarter of 2021 reached 830m yuan, endorsing its supremacy over other global and local beauty brands in China. However, with success came along a set of challenges. Some analysts pointed that the brand was slow in innovating its product line-up, it focused more on promotions and advertisements and the brand positioning with a single sales channel, the cost performance and quality of the products and excessive marketing campaigns targeting a niche segment. Going forward, what should Florasis do to conquer the global beauty space? Can Florasis aspire to become a digitally empowered global beauty brand? Has it got the momentum? Will its direct-to-consumer model and unprecedented marketing and promotion gimmicks, help it achieve the lead in the global beauty space?
Complexity academic level
This case study is suitable for students of the graduate and undergraduate programs in management.
Supplementary materials
Teaching notes are available for educators only.
Subject code
CSS 8: Marketing.
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Keywords
Huiru Feng, Jianying Feng, Dong Tian and Weisong Mu
Chinese consumers have increased their consumption of grape products in recent years due to recognition of the nutritional value of grapes. At the same time, consumers are paying…
Abstract
Purpose
Chinese consumers have increased their consumption of grape products in recent years due to recognition of the nutritional value of grapes. At the same time, consumers are paying more attention to food safety because of the occasional occurrence of food safety scares. Based on a survey of consumers in Zhejiang, China, this paper aims to understand and provide information on consumers' perceptions of quality and safety for grape products, purchasing behavior, and willingness to pay (WTP) for grape products.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents the results of empirical research. The survey method was a direct (face‐to‐face) interview based on a standardized questionnaire. Consumers' perceptions of the quality and safety of grape products were examined, together with consumers' demographic characteristics.
Findings
The results indicate that quality and safety, rather than price, are considered the most important factors that affect consumers' purchasing decisions for grape products. Consumer's educational level, the average price of grapes and the perception of safety are the main factors that determine consumers' WTP for grape products. As price increases, the consumer's WTP for safe and high quality grapes decreases.
Originality/value
This research provides a chance to understand consumers' demand and WTP for the quality and safety of grape products in Zhejiang, China. Further understanding was gained regarding factors affecting consumers judging grape products, which in turn may influence their purchase decisions. The results also could guide grape growers to supply products that better meet consumers' needs. It is proposed that the Chinese government pay more attention to taking measures to improve the quality and safety of grape products.
Details
Keywords
Yumeng Feng, Weisong Mu, Yue Li, Tianqi Liu and Jianying Feng
For a better understanding of the preferences and differences of young consumers in emerging wine markets, this study aims to propose a clustering method to segment the super-new…
Abstract
Purpose
For a better understanding of the preferences and differences of young consumers in emerging wine markets, this study aims to propose a clustering method to segment the super-new generation wine consumers based on their sensitivity to wine brand, origin and price and then conduct user profiles for segmented consumer groups from the perspectives of demographic attributes, eating habits and wine sensory attribute preferences.
Design/methodology/approach
We first proposed a consumer clustering perspective based on their sensitivity to wine brand, origin and price and then conducted an adaptive density peak and label propagation layer-by-layer (ADPLP) clustering algorithm to segment consumers, which improved the issues of wrong centers' selection and inaccurate classification of remaining sample points for traditional DPC (DPeak clustering algorithm). Then, we built a consumer profile system from the perspectives of demographic attributes, eating habits and wine sensory attribute preferences for segmented consumer groups.
Findings
In this study, 10 typical public datasets and 6 basic test algorithms are used to evaluate the proposed method, and the results showed that the ADPLP algorithm was optimal or suboptimal on 10 datasets with accuracy above 0.78. The average improvement in accuracy over the base DPC algorithm is 0.184. As an outcome of the wine consumer profiles, sensitive consumers prefer wines with medium prices of 100–400 CNY and more personalized brands and origins, while casual consumers are fond of popular brands, popular origins and low prices within 50 CNY. The wine sensory attributes preferred by super-new generation consumers are red, semi-dry, semi-sweet, still, fresh tasting, fruity, floral and low acid.
Practical implications
Young Chinese consumers are the main driver of wine consumption in the future. This paper provides a tool for decision-makers and marketers to identify the preferences of young consumers quickly which is meaningful and helpful for wine marketing.
Originality/value
In this study, the ADPLP algorithm was introduced for the first time. Subsequently, the user profile label system was constructed for segmented consumers to highlight their characteristics and demand partiality from three aspects: demographic characteristics, consumers' eating habits and consumers' preferences for wine attributes. Moreover, the ADPLP algorithm can be considered for user profiles on other alcoholic products.