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The purpose of this paper is to propose a method for hand measurement based on image and marker watershed algorithm, and combine the data to analyze the shape and characteristics of the hand.

A portable hand image capturing instrument was designed and manufactured, and the hand images and dimensions of 328 young men in Zhejiang area were obtained. The outer contour curve of the hand and the key points of finger root, fingertip, wrist and knuckle position were extracted. Then, the size of each hand part was calculated. The hand data obtained from the two-dimensional image was compared with the manual measurement data. Finally, the hands were classified according to the measurement data, and the relationship between hand control size and hand length, hand width and the relationship between hand length and height were explored.

The data comparison results show that the two measurement methods have high data consistency and are replaceable. In addition, analyzing the data obtained four major characteristic factors that affect the shape of the hand, divided the hands of young men in Zhejiang into five categories, and obtained the regression equations of basic hand size, hand length and hand width, and obtained the regression equation of hand length and height.

The method proposed in this study to obtain hand size based on the image and mark watershed algorithm has lower requirements on the external environment and testers, conforms to the development trend of applying artificial intelligence to anthropometric engineering and provides a useful reference value for data collection of gloves specification design. In addition, the results of data analysis can provide a valuable reference basis for consumer hand shape predictions, which can be used to guide the research and production of hand instruments, the design of specifications series and the purchase of hand products.

The purpose of this paper is to view the flow concentration of the flowing material in a pipeline conveyor.

Optical tomography provides a method to view the cross sectional image of flowing materials in a pipeline conveyor. Important flow information such as flow concentration profile, flow velocity and mass flow rate can be obtained without the need to invade the process vessel. The utilization of powerful computer together with expensive data acquisition system (DAQ) as the processing device in optical tomography systems has always been a norm. However, the advancements in silicon fabrication technology nowadays allow the fabrication of powerful digital signal processors (DSP) at reasonable cost. This allows the technology to be applied in optical tomography system to reduce or even eliminate the need of personal computer and the DAQ. The DSP system was customized to control the data acquisition of 16 × 16 optical sensors (arranged in orthogonal projection) and 23 × 23 optical sensors (arranged in rectilinear projections). The data collected were used to reconstruct the cross sectional image of flowing materials inside the pipeline. In the developed system, the accuracy of the image reconstruction was increased by 12.5 per cent by using new hybrid image reconstruction algorithm.

The results proved that the data acquisition and image reconstruction algorithm is capable of acquiring accurate data to reconstruct cross sectional images with only little error compared to the expected measurements.

The DSP system was customized to control the data acquisition of 16 × 16 optical sensors (arranged in orthogonal projection) and 23 × 23 optical sensors (arranged in rectilinear projections).

The purpose of this paper is to focus on emerging market companies that internationalize into advanced economies by means of acquisitions and to investigate brand management during post-acquisition integration from a multi-level perspective and to identify how a brand management strategy can be constructed. It takes into account the influences of country-of-origin image, corporate brand and brand portfolio to obtain a granular view of post-acquisition brand management.

A multiple case study approach was adopted. By using case studies and storytelling qualitative research methods, the empirical setting was related to the acquisitions undertaken by Chinese companies in Germany.

The authors identified three mechanisms for brand management in the post-acquisition integration of emerging market companies – namely, transferring, dynamically redeploying and categorizing – that underpin the interconnection and combined influence of country-of-origin image at the national level, corporate brand at the organizational level and brand portfolio at the product level.

Brand has been viewed as a strategic asset in Chinese cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Brand management is a dynamic process that involves learning and interaction between the acquirer and target. The research offers a practical guideline for both acquirers and targets in managing brand in the context of acquisitions undertaken by emerging market companies in advanced economies.

The findings provide important insights into the brand management strategies adopted in Chinese cross-border M&As in particular, and emerging market companies venturing into advanced economies in general. The interlinking of country, company and product levels introduces new ideas to the brand literature related to acquisitions, and the setting of Chinese companies acquiring German ones constitutes an important contribution to the understanding of the different ways in which companies from emerging economies may pursue branding strategies in the context of cross-border M&As.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether, in the context of a cross-border acquisition, the acquirer’s country image (CI) could moderate the relationship between the acquirer’s corporate reputation (CR) and consumers’ repurchase intentions towards the products of the post-acquisition target.

The authors examined the roles played by the acquirer’s CR and the acquirer’s CI on consumer behaviour by considering an Italian target firm with a high reputation and comparing four foreign acquiring firms with different combinations of CR (poor/good) and CI (high/low).

It was found that both CR and CI have a significant impact on Italian consumers’ intention to repurchase the products of the post-acquisition target. Furthermore, the results show a greater increase in consumers’ repurchase intentions when a good reputation of the acquirer is paired with a high CI for the acquirer, but a high CI cannot compensate for a poor CR.

The research investigates, in the context of cross-border acquisitions (CBAs), the impact of the acquirer’s CR and the acquirer’s CI on the host country consumers’ repurchase intentions after the CBA, which has not previously been thoroughly examined. It can help managers to understand the conditions under which CBAs will be favourably evaluated.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of cross-border acquisitions on brand image dimensions (functional, symbolic and global image) of the acquirer brand from a consumer’s perspective.

The authors measured Chinese consumers’ perceptions of eight fictitious cross-border acquisition scenarios and tested the hypotheses by using multiple hierarchical regression.

First, the acquisition significantly improves functional, symbolic and global image of the acquirer brand. Second, both image perceptions of the acquirer and the acquired brands before acquisition significantly impact post-image of the acquirer. The effect is greater for pre-image of the acquirer (dominance effect). Finally, brand fit, product fit and country-of-origin fit influence attitude toward the acquisition significantly.

There are limitations in the generalizations of the findings due to its reliance on a single country (China) and one industry (home appliances).

First, engaging in cross-border acquisitions significantly enhances the brand image of the acquirer brand. The global image has the largest improvement. Second, practitioners should carefully consider different levels of fit before the acquisition.

This study contributes to the extant literature by investigating brand acquisitions from the perspective of home country consumers (acquirer) and integrating multiple brand image dimensions and various levels of fit simultaneously.

Nowadays, many weak brands have acquired strong international brands to accelerate their internationalization. However, “the weakers acquire the strongers” model of M&A leads to many consumers’ loss. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships between the brand strategy after the M&A, brand authenticity and consumer purchase intention through two experiments.

Building on an extensive literature review, the authors identify four hypotheses. Hypotheses were tested on data collected across 190 Chinese consumers.

The results show that the decline of consumer purchase intention was mainly caused by the falling consumer assesses on brand authenticity; the different post-merger brand strategies have significant difference on brand authenticity and consumer purchase intention, and self-brand connection played a moderate role between brand authenticity and consumer purchase intention.

The research reveals the reasons for consumer loss after mergers and acquisitions and provides empirical insights into how post-merger brand strategies can be manifested to convey brand authenticity as well as to build consumers’ purchase intention. In addition, the findings confirm the role of self-brand connection.

This paper aims to determine the influence of travel fair selection factors on exhibitor intention to attend, in conjunction with the role of political risk within that relationship.

Following the basic premises of image repair theory, this quantitative study examines the perceptions of 205 exhibitors – both domestic and international – at Belgrade Travel Fair.

Two variables – travel fair customer acquisition and retention orientation and market orientation – were found to influence travel fair intention in a statistically significant manner, while multi-group structural equation modeling indicates a positive statistically significant correlation between travel fair customer acquisition and retention and travel fair market orientation and travel fair intention for exhibitors that place higher importance on political risk in the region.

The limitations of the research are its regional focus and its small sample size.

Travel fair organizers should consider market orientation and customer acquisition and retention orientation as important antecedents of travel fair intention. Exhibitor perception of political risk enhances image repair efforts.

The study focuses on the perception of travel fair exhibitors when attending a travel fair in a region which is continually exposed to political risk. Thus, travel fairs can act as image repair instruments for companies affected by political risk in a region, as they have the capacity to present a positive image to a specific audience.

The study enhances the existing work related to image repair theory by observing how travel fairs can be used as image repair instruments. The originality of the study lies in its provision of further understanding of the reasons for exhibitor attendance at travel fairs and, more specifically, the role of political risk in this context. The study’s findings extend the applicability of the image repair theory in the context of the behavioral nature of travel fair attendance.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach that helps in acquisition of live data as well as data stored in the internal/external memory of android mobile device considering that the data on the device are not much altered during the extraction process. Also, the emphasis is laid on testing the validity of existing forensic tools against the data obtained manually and by using this approach. Smartphones have spurred the mobile computing technology, and Android is widely used as an Operating System in these devices. These days, users store most of their personal information like emails, images, contacts etc., on Phones/Tablets as their data would be readily accessible and thus convenient for them.

Android Operating System is built on the Linux Kernel and scripts to extract data from Android Mobile Device with the use of Android Debugging Bridge have been written. The approach is more focused on the logical acquisition of data from devices rather than acquisition using physical methods.

Live data of the Facebook application running on the device can be extracted. Also, the password of the LuksManager application (used to create an encrypted volume on the device), which is stored in the internal memory, is also extracted and identified.

The study has been conducted in an academic environment, thereby limiting external validity. Another limitation is the limited edition of some of the software forensics tools that are used. The full access to these software tools are restricted by Law enforcement and Investigation policies. The research provides a different approach which could aid in criminal investigation activities on mobile devices.

The devices which have the latest versions of Android not only store messages and mails, but a lot of information about GPS, as well as information about popular applications like Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. This could practically help a lot in criminal investigation.

This study is important because very few works have been done on recent versions (Jellybean and Kitkat) of Android. The proposed approach could extract large amounts of information as compared to earlier approaches with the newer versions of Android having larger memory and new features.

The aim of the paper is to develop a conceptual model of the process by means of which the induced tourism image of a destination is created. The model focuses on the role tourism agents' relational networks play in this process and particularly on the effects of the links with external actors – i.e. tour‐operators – on the destination's induced image.

Based on Gartner's definition of image formation agents, it is assumed that there are tourism agents that use the tourism image as a pull factor to influence the buying behaviour of potential visitors. Basically, these agents are: internal actors, located within a particular tourism destination, and external agents – i.e. tour‐operators – which are not normally associated with any particular destination, but have stakes in the travel decision process of potential visitors. In parallel, it is assumed that the tourism destination is a web of relational networks where the agents are connected by means of collaborative links that facilitate the supply of a tourist product or experience to the visitors.

In this paper two potential gaps in the induced tourism destination image formation process are found, and that the position of relevant actors in the network and the structure of the network are two determinant factors of the emergence – or inhibition – of these gaps. It is also suggested that these gaps and the lack of collaborative links among internal and external actors would affect the coherence of the supplied tourist products and the satisfaction with the tourist experience.

The relevance of the paper lies in a new approach to the induced tourism image formation process focusing on the destination's relational network and, in particular, the network of relations with external agents (i.e. tour‐operators).