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The purpose of this paper is to explore garment consumption decision processes of female consumers when they have the option to sew or purchase their clothing.

This research study presents a segment of the findings from a larger qualitative grounded theory study on women who choose to sew clothing for themselves (Martindale, 2017). This research analyzed the interview data pertaining to the unique sew or purchase decision-making process in which these consumers undertake as well as the related control over ready-to-wear consumption that sewing provides them.

The ability to sew resulted in a unique consumer decision-making process in regard to the clothing purchases due to the control it provided them over their ready-to-wear consumption. The women developed factors that they used to make the decision to sew or purchase. Over all the ability to sew provided them the option to sew or purchase clothing, allowing the women more control over their clothing selection specifically in regard to the garments body fit.

This study was limited to English-speaking women living in the North America. The qualitative data collected are specific to this sample which cannot be generalized to all female home sewers. Research involving a larger population of women from a larger geographic area is needed.

The newly developed sew or purchase model provides an understanding of the control that having the option to sew or purchase provides female consumers. The findings offer apparel industry professionals a new perspective on ready-to-wear consumer dissatisfaction. The investment that is made when a garment is sewn instead of purchased has the potential to increase wardrobe sustainability as the consumer experiences more attachment to the clothing they have made. The model serves a starting point for further exploration into other craft-related consumer decision behaviors.

Purchasing decisions of this nature have yet to be considered in published research. Exploring these women’s decisions who operate outside of typical consumer culture and developing a model for this consumer behavior explains a phenomenon not yet addressed by existing consumer consumption research.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a “good fit” for garments for customer satisfaction, comfort, and functionality as well as a manufacturer's success and reputation.

This paper reviews and evaluates garments on a live fit model and makes recommendations for the acceptance or modification of the garment for production. As more manufacturing, product development, and designing responsibilities continue to take place globally, alternatives to the traditional fit analysis are under consideration.

Fit analysis using live and three‐dimensional scan models as an alternative to the traditional fit analysis are under consideration.

This paper evaluates garments on a live fit model and makes recommendations for the acceptance or modification of the garment for production.

To evaluate current apparel industry Misses grading practices in providing good fit and propose grading practices to improve fit.

Participants representing Misses sizes 6‐20 based on ASTM D 5585 were selected. The fit of garments from traditionally graded patterns was assessed. Garments were fit‐to‐shape on participants. Traditionally graded patterns were compared to fit‐to‐shape patterns using quantitative and qualitative visual analysis.

Current apparel industry grading practices do not provide good fit for consumers. The greatest variation between the traditionally graded patterns and the fit‐to‐shape patterns occurred between sizes 14 and 16. For size 16 and up, neck and armscye circumferences were too large and bust dart intakes were too small.

This study was limited to a sheath dress in Misses sizes 6‐20. Future research should assess the fit of garments from traditionally graded patterns for other size ranges.

Multiple fit modes are needed in a range of more than five sizes. The fit model should be at the middle of a sizing group that does not range more than two sizes up or down.

There are few studies on apparel grading that test fit of actual garments on the body. The analysis documents the real growth of the body across the size range and suggests that changes in body measurements and shape determine the fit of a garment. These findings impact future research in apparel and the practices of apparel manufacturers.

The purpose of this article is to help acquaint librarians with some of the major resources available regarding Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAS/FAE).

Smart card-based E-payment systems are receiving increasing attention as the number of implementations is witnessed on the rise globally. Understanding of user adoption behavior of E-payment systems that employ smart card technology becomes a research area that is of particular value and interest to both IS researchers and professionals. However, research interest focuses mostly on why a smart card-based E-payment system results in a failure or how the system could have grown into a success. This signals the fact that researchers have not had much opportunity to critically review a smart card-based E-payment system that has gained wide support and overcome the hurdle of critical mass adoption. The Octopus in Hong Kong has provided a rare opportunity for investigating smart card-based E-payment system because of its unprecedented success. This research seeks to thoroughly analyze the Octopus from technology adoption behavior perspectives.

Cultural impacts on adoption behavior are one of the key areas that this research posits to investigate. Since the present research is conducted in Hong Kong where a majority of population is Chinese ethnicity and yet is westernized in a number of aspects, assuming that users in Hong Kong are characterized by eastern or western culture is less useful. Explicit cultural characteristics at individual level are tapped into here instead of applying generalization of cultural beliefs to users to more accurately reflect cultural bias. In this vein, the technology acceptance model (TAM) is adapted, extended, and tested for its applicability cross-culturally in Hong Kong on the Octopus. Four cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede are included in this study, namely uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism, and Confucian Dynamism (long-term orientation), to explore their influence on usage behavior through the mediation of perceived usefulness.

TAM is also integrated with the innovation diffusion theory (IDT) to borrow two constructs in relation to innovative characteristics, namely relative advantage and compatibility, in order to enhance the explanatory power of the proposed research model. Besides, the normative accountability of the research model is strengthened by embracing two social influences, namely subjective norm and image. As the last antecedent to perceived usefulness, prior experience serves to bring in the time variation factor to allow level of prior experience to exert both direct and moderating effects on perceived usefulness.

The resulting research model is analyzed by partial least squares (PLS)-based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. The research findings reveal that all cultural dimensions demonstrate direct effect on perceived usefulness though the influence of uncertainty avoidance is found marginally significant. Other constructs on innovative characteristics and social influences are validated to be significant as hypothesized. Prior experience does indeed significantly moderate the two influences that perceived usefulness receives from relative advantage and compatibility, respectively. The research model has demonstrated convincing explanatory power and so may be employed for further studies in other contexts. In particular, cultural effects play a key role in contributing to the uniqueness of the model, enabling it to be an effective tool to help critically understand increasingly internationalized IS system development and implementation efforts. This research also suggests several practical implications in view of the findings that could better inform managerial decisions for designing, implementing, or promoting smart card-based E-payment system.

Following enactment of the federal Endangered Species Act in 1973, a variety of organizations proceeded to establish lists of endangered, threatened, or rare species of wildlife that they believed fell within their purview. State lists, as opposed to regional or national lists, are of particular importance because they form a rigorous record of the status of species in small, well‐defined geographic areas. State lists also indicate the development status of legal management efforts in the various states and are, therefore, predictors of how rigorously species variety will be maintained. Online searches of environment, legal, and government indexes (Enviroline, NTIS, Agricola, and others) demonstrated that there is no organized way to identify official state lists and that, in fact, few official lists are cited within the voluminous environment literature.

This chapter provides an introduction to how the inquiry-based learning (IBL) approach is being used by colleges and universities around the world to improve faculty and institutional development and to strengthen the interconnections between teaching, learning, and research. This chapter provides a synthesis and analysis of all the chapters in the volume, which present a range of perspectives, case studies, and empirical research on how IBL is being used across a range of courses across a range of institutions to enhance faculty and institutional development. This chapter argues that the IBL approach has great potential to enhance and transform teaching and learning. Given the growing demands placed on education to meet a diverse range of complex political, economic, and social problems and personal needs, this chapter argues that education should be a place where lifelong and lifewide learning is cultivated and where self-directed learning is nurtured. To that end, this chapter argues that IBL helps cultivate a learning environment that is more meaningful, responsive, integrated, and purposeful.

The purpose of this paper is to examine preservice teachers’ perceptions of their learning and teaching experiences in a mentor's classroom during a year-long field-based placement in a high-need urban school. In addition, the authors sought to examine how the experiences contributed to their professional growth and development as future teachers.

This qualitative study used constant comparative analysis (Strauss and Corbin, 1998) to examine preservice teachers’ responses to an open-ended questionnaire, program survey, and also in focus groups about their mentoring experiences.

The findings provide insight into participants’ mentors’ influence during a year-long placement and into characteristics of effective mentoring that contributed to their growth. Major findings of preservice teachers’ mentoring experiences in a high-need urban setting reflected two dominant themes: experiencing a pedagogical fulcrum and navigating the tributaries of professionalism.

The study is limited by the small number of participants from one large public university and included only secondary preservice teachers enrolled in one residency program designed to prepare mathematics, science, and special education teachers. Caution should be taken against generalizing the findings, regarding preservice teachers’ learning and teaching experiences in a mentor's classroom, to resident teachers in other areas due to the small sample size and interpretation of the findings.

The findings provide a different perspective about the mentoring process to that provided by previous studies because preservice teachers learned and taught in the mentor's classroom during one academic school year without being evaluated by the mentor. The findings illuminate preservice teachers’ professional growth fostered by their experiences and highlight characteristics of the mentor's influence that contributed to their development.