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This paper studies how Chinese consumers respond to foreign goods in the post‐WTO era. Specifically, it examines brand sensitivity as a mediator and product cues as moderator of purchase intention. Additionally, it examines consumer preferences for different products and consumption plans for the subsequent five years. The survey sample is drawn from a population of foreign product users from 34 cities in 18 provinces in China. Results provide evidence that brand sensitivity mediates the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and purchase intention; product cues moderate the effect of ethnocentrism on purchase intention. As the first study to link consumer ethnocentrism directly to brand sensitivity and purchase intention, this research provides some managerial implications. Global marketers can offset the negative effect of ethnocentrism by emphasizing brand image of its products, taking advantage of specific product cues, or by providing more comprehensive after‐sale service to reduce the perceived risk of purchasing imports. Also, price is still a hurdle that prevents Chinese consumers from mass consumption of foreign products. Global firms should not overestimate the purchasing power of Chinese consumers. This study represents a “snapshot” of Chinese consumers’ decision making at a time when their economic system is undergoing rapid change.

Using Rogers’ theory of diffusion of innovation, this paper reports the results of a study that had two objectives: the first objective was to compare the number of male and female adolescents in each of Rogers’ five categories of consumer adopters. The second, was to verify if there were differences among the five distinct categories of adopters with respect to brand sensitivity. Results show that, as with other market segments, there are more female than male adolescents in the categories “innovators” and “early adopters”, and more male than female adolescents in the categories “late majority” and “laggards”. Further, it appears that brand sensitivity is an increasing function of fashion “adoptiveness” among adolescents.

Terrorism is not a new phenomenon in human life. It existed during Biblical times when Joseph, the seventeen‐year‐old son of Jacob, was kidnapped and sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. Although terrorists have been active throughout history, it is only recently that we have seen an increase in scholarly interest in the phenomenon of terrorism. One reason for this is the fact that terrorist activities have increased dramatically since the 1960s. Everyday we read in the newspapers and hear on radio and television details of the latest terrorist outrage. Many American colleges and universities now offer a course or two on terrorism as a part of their curriculum.

The purpose of this paper was to assess how adolescents' favorite apparel brand was related to congruency between brand image and three components of self concept (actual, ideal, ideal social). Predictors of the brand‐self concept congruency relationships were also examined.

A questionnaire distributed to 300 high school students yielded usable data from 137 students. Participants' ages ranged from 14 to 18 years.

The highest level of congruency was found between adolescents' favorite apparel brand and their actual self concept followed by ideal social and ideal self concept. Adolescents who indicated that their apparel purchases were highly influenced by their peers or family members linked their favorite brand with their ideal social or ideal self concept. Materialistic adolescents also linked their favorite apparel brand to their ideal self concept.

Focusing on congruency between brand and self concept is an important strategy in marketing targeting adolescents. Family and peer group influences played an important role in congruency adolescents identified between self and apparel brands.

This research demonstrated application of self‐brand congruency theory to adolescents and to apparel products. Adolescent consumers, like adults, identify a preference for apparel brands that they can link to some aspect of self.

The purpose of this paper is to explore female fashion shoppers’ perception and response to the mall environment. Specific objectives include a conceptual model of female fashion shoppers’ experience in a mall environment incorporating fashion orientation, store personality, shopping mall perception, shopping value, and patronage intentions.

Empirical testing is done with a latent path structural equation model. Data collection was carried out in a firmly controlled mall intercept survey which produced 312 usable questionnaires.

Results show that shoppers’ fashion orientation hypothesized to be a personality trait is not an antecedent to the perception of the mall environment. Instead, fashion orientation moderates the perception of product and service quality, hedonic shoppers’ response, and patronage intentions. The perceived mall personality has a focussed impact on the perception of product and service quality. The mall’s sophistication image influences the perception of product quality. On the other hand, the mall’s enthusiasm image atmosphere affects the perception of service quality. Perceptions of product and service quality are correlated and trigger positive hedonic and utilitarian shopping benefits.

Because findings from this study cannot be generalized to other situations, the research should be replicated to a variety of mall formats and shopper segments. Furthermore, other fashion-orientation factors (fashion leadership, fashion interest, and anti-fashion attitude) should be considered. However, along with model complexities, increased sample sizes are also required. Future studies may also include male shoppers to investigate differences in fashion motivation and mall shopping experience.

It is concluded that the person-place congruency theory is confirmed and that the shoppers’ fashion orientation should be included in the set of segmentation variables. Shopping malls cannot be everything to everyone without risking diluting their image. Downtown urban malls have the opportunity to adopt a well-defined positioning in order to differentiate themselves. Large suburban malls should partition themselves to remove image ambiguities. Mall managers must primarily work on the “meaning” of the mall atmosphere rather “mood.” Fashion shoppers are task oriented. Mall managers should design malls to facilitate the shopping experience with highly functional designs, simple layout, and clear signage in support of wayfinding.

Although fashion consumers have been studied from diverse perspectives, there is limited research on the experience of fashion shoppers in a mall setting. This study partly fills this gap in the literature by investigating how female fashion shoppers respond to the shopping center environment and commit to mall patronage.

Quality assessment of textile composites needs to have sufficient knowledge about the various types of non-destructive testing techniques to detect defects as well as the effect of these defects on mechanical performance. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The major approach of this paper was to evaluate the potential of two inspection techniques named ultrasounds, vibrations for detecting textile reinforcement defects in composites and evaluate the composite performance in the presence of a damage.

Potential solutions have been identified to solve the issue of signal attenuation observed during C-scan ultrasonic testing, and the criticality of initial defects on static test was determined.

The research work presented here has been a first attempt to apply the combination of different techniques in particular polar scan for the textile composite inspection. This will become more crucial as requirements for high performance and complex shape textile composite parts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how adolescents' self‐concept and brand image congruency are related to their level of liking for an apparel brand. It also aims to examine whether this relationship varies depending on adolescents' gender and identity development.

Self‐image congruency theory was used to investigate whether adolescents' liking for an apparel brand was related to perceived congruency between aspects of self‐concept and apparel brand. Male and female adolescents (n=140) between 14 and 18 years of age participated.

Adolescent consumers liked apparel brands that they linked to their ideal social self‐concept. This connection was particularly strong for male adolescents with less established identities.

Adolescents liked an apparel brand when they reported a link between the brand and ideal social self‐concept. These adolescents may have used apparel brands to shape the views others formed of them.

Many questions concerning the basis for adolescents' apparel brand preferences have not been answered. Our research documents how male and female adolescents use branded apparel products in relation to their identity development status.