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This paper seeks to examine whether the follower extensions with superior alignable differences can overcome the pioneer extensions with regard to brands.

Three laboratory experiments were conducted to test hypotheses.

Findings suggest that the effect of superior alignable differences on consumer evaluations of followers vs pioneers is moderated by two factors – the perceived fit between the parent brand and extensions, and order of market entry. High fit followers with superior alignable differences easily overcome pioneers; however, such alignable differences do not help low fit followers to overcome pioneers. Although the low fit followers with better quality and superior alignable differences can overcome the low fit pioneer, they cannot overcome the high fit pioneer.

The limitation of the study is that it does not explore how low fit followers can overcome high fit pioneers.

Managers can better determine whether and how to introduce brand extensions as a pioneer or follower.

The originality and value lie in first examining whether follower extensions can overcome pioneer extensions.

The paper seeks to show that the strategic types of service marketers (e.g. Prospectors, Defenders or Analyzers) match the types of success measures that they use to evaluate new services.

A theory is developed to show why service marketers of different strategic types use different success measures for the evaluation of new services. Using responses from 202 financial services marketers, strategic types are shown to relate in theoretically expected ways with the importance ratings of the categorized success measures.

Notable relationships among strategic types and their success measure are identified. Prospectors, for example, attach greater importance to growth performance measures, consistent with the growth orientation of their service development programs. Defenders, on the other hand, attach more importance than Prospectors to efficiency performance measures, which relate to their programs' efficiency orientation. Analyzers, interestingly, place more emphasis on objectives‐based performance measures, including strategic fit, than Prospectors.

The sampling frame purposely contains only US financial services firms; as such, future research may build upon this single‐industry, single‐country study.

Academic success literature generally disregards the strategic types of respondents in measuring the success of service development programs. Practitioners, however, seek performance measures that are consistent with their firm's business strategy. This study provides a categorization of the most important success measures as appropriate to different strategic types.

The service success literature has often dealt with the question of “what causes success?” and has rarely confronted, head‐on, the question of “what is success?”. This paper addresses this critical research gap.

Considers the pluralistic cultures which exist within a nation and outlines the history of previous research into this field. Introduces the concept of embeddedness which means that the society within which a person lives will influence their behaviour. Discusses intracultural differences and presents some research strategies for looking at the ethnic consumer.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how policy instability is priced in interest rates. Policy instability refers to the likelihood that the current policy will be changed in the future in the absence of political power shifts.

Chinese government’s experimental policy-making approach provides an ideal set of frequent policy flip-flops which allows us to identify the effect of policy changes.

Conditional on the bureaucratic quality of policymaking, a good-quality policy reversal is related to reductions in interest rate term spread and volatility; a bad-quality policy reversal is related to increases in the spread and volatility. The bureaucratic quality is multi-dimensional and the moderating effect is stronger on interest rates when it is measured more precisely.

First, we can use the interest rate dynamics to infer the policy risk premium, which is a more objective market indicator of the bureaucratic quality of the policy change. Second, the study is among the first that documents the pricing of policy instability can be moderated by the bureaucratic quality. The results indicate that it is important for a government to be responsive and consistent in liberalizing the financial market. It will lead to reduced cost of capital and volatility for investors and firms in the economy. Third, given that the bureaucratic quality is multi-dimensional and produces stronger impact jointly, a country shall continue to improve on different aspects of the bureaucratic quality. Although the study is based on the empirical evidence from Chinese policy environment, the results can be broadly applied to any developing economies that intend to liberalize the market to spur economic growth.

The purpose of this paper is to optimize production of cellulase enzyme from agricultural waste by using Aspergillus fumigatus JCF. The study also aims at the production of bioethanol using cellulase and yeast.

Cellulase production was carried out using modified Mandel’s medium. The optimization of the cellulase production was carried out using Plackett-Burman and Response surface methodology. Bioethanol production was carried out using simultaneous saccharification and fermentation.

Maximum cellulase production at optimized conditions was found to be 2.08 IU/ml. Cellulase was used for the saccharification of three different feed stocks, i.e. sugar cane leaves, corn cob and water hyacinth. Highest amount of reducing sugar was released was 29.1 gm/l from sugarcane leaves. Sugarcane leaves produced maximum bioethanol concentration of 9.43 g/l out of the three substrates studied for bioethanol production.

The present study reveals that by using the agricultural wastes, cellulase production can be economically increased thereby bioethanol production.

This study aimed to explore the relationships between school cost, school quality, and students' achievement in private schools in the UAE. Moreover, it also aimed to determine the extent to which socio-economic factors influence student outcomes.

A quantitative survey research design was employed by distributing a survey to students' parents in private schools (n = 400) who were selected randomly. The data were analyzed using SPSS software. Therefore, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, linear regression, and multiple regression analysis were used to provide a comprehensive understanding of the relationships between the variables.

A significant positive association was found between school costs and school quality. Furthermore, parents reported that their children's outcomes were significantly associated with the costs that they paid to schools. Additionally, school quality had a significant impact on students' achievement and explained approximately 38% of the variation in students' achievement. The results also demonstrated a significant association between school cost, parents' income, and students' outcomes.

This study explores the relationships between school cost, school quality, and students' achievements. Additionally, it examines the influence of socioeconomic factors on the relationships between the study variables. The context of this study is the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This study is a comparative organizational analysis of the four subsectors of the Indian information technology (IT) industry, namely, IT service (ITS), business process outsourcing (BPO), software products services (SPS) and engineering and R&D (ER&D). The purpose of this paper is to empirically identify the cross-sectorial attributes, organizational characteristics and the talent best suited to it.

Data were collected using a qualitative research design with semi-structured interviews of 17 industry experts.

Findings suggest there are differences in the internal organization of each subsector and this influences the talent attracted toward it. ITS and BPO are perceived as customer driven sectors where technology is an enabler to facilitate smooth functioning of customer operations. Conversely, technology is the core factor that drives SPS and ER&D. Similar observations and differences in the design, environment, individual motives and competencies are identified. The study also identified the inter-relationships between organizational characteristics, task and social structures in the IT industry using Perrow’s organizational theory.

The findings identify contextual dimensions and shared patterns that exist between the subsectors. At the same time, it distinguishes each subsector in terms of observable and objective characteristics. Significantly, the study highlights the inter-relationships between technology, task, raw material, goal and social interactions. However, the authors stop short of framing hypotheses to test the relationships identified here.

This cross-sectorial study delineates between the four subsectors and provides a foundation for pursuing future investigations in the right direction. This attempt to systematically analyze and compare all the subsectors of the IT industry simultaneously is a distinctive approach. The sectorial diversity suggests a need for talent management practices that will fit the unique characteristics of each subsector.

Promoting unity in multicultural society among Malaysians should start from school education since young age. Art through its own variety of approaches could show possibilities in addressing diversity in a community that consists of multiple ranges of racial and cultural backgrounds such as Malaysian community. Arts education is essential for each child because arts cover the entire learning domain – cognitive, psychomotor and affective. Using the advantages of arts in a child’s learning process and its possibilities to create harmony among communities from different races.

The participants were interviewed using a qualitative approach, which consisted of two main questions: What is your perception on this module through participating in this programme? How the module of this programme has influenced you as a Malaysian?

The proposed module was implemented, and the findings showed that through arts education, the unity and harmony among children in multicultural society could be flourished and strengthened.

It shows that the proposed arts education module could be used among students from different schooling systems and different races to cultivate unity and harmony among them. At the same time, strengthening the unity among children in multicultural society could bring harmony and peace in future.

This paper is a novel approach that uses arts education as a tool in achieving national agenda to strengthen the unity and harmony among primary school children in Malaysia who are from different races and schooling system.

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the degree of involvement with shopping for clothing affects the frequency with which GenY consumers seek the opinions of others when making clothing purchases for themselves; the non‐personal sources that influence the frequency of clothing purchase; and certain shopping behaviors.

Written questionnaires were completed by students at a university in the southwestern region of the USA.

Most of the participants were determined to be high involvement shoppers who sought opinions of female friends and co‐workers, used most of the non‐personal idea sources, shopped more often, spent more money, and were more comfortable shopping for clothing.

While the participants are representative of the GenY characteristics and a valid sample for this project, the use of a convenience sample may limit the generalizability of the results.

Generation Y consumers who are more involved with shopping for clothing tend to consult a variety of resources prior to purchase, particularly other females and marketing delivered via various media. Retailers and clothing manufacturers should take advantage of visual merchandising opportunities and social networking avenues as well as traditional advertising and promotion outlets.

The research further refines the involvement construct with a group of consumers who are very involved with shopping for clothing. The opinions of other females, magazines, catalogs, television advertisements and programs, music videos, internet advertisements, and celebrities are important in the product selection process.

Investigates the purchase behavior, attitudes, and beliefs of Hispanic consumers toward direct marketing advertising. As both direct marketing advertising (DMA) and the size of the Hispanic market have grown remarkably, it is surprising how little published research exists documenting DMA’s evaluation by this large and growing ethnic market. Also seeks to understand the differences, if any, between assimilated and less assimilated Hispanics. Implications for advertisers are discussed.