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The purpose of this paper is to develop the scale of destination image (SDI) to assess destination image affecting the consumption associated with tourism.

The scale was developed through four steps: review of literature, formulation of a preliminary scale, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and examination of predictive validity by a structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. The preliminary scale consisted of 32 items. Employing a systematic sampling method, a total of 199 research participants responded to a mail survey.

In the CFA with maximum likelihood estimation, four factors with 18 pertinent items are retained. This four‐factor model displays good fit to the data, preliminary construct validity, and high reliability. The SEM analysis reveals that the SDI is found to be positively predictive of tourism behavioral intentions.

This paper develops an original multi‐dimensional 18‐item scale measuring destination image from the perspective of tourists, which can provide academicians and practitioners with a reliable and valid analytical tool to assess destination image.

Companies in all industries are searching for new sources of competitive advantage since the competition in their marketplace is becoming increasingly intensive. The resource-based view of the firm explains the sources of sustainable competitive advantages. From a resource-based view perspective, relational based assets (i.e., the assets resulting from firm contacts in the marketplace) enable competitive advantage. The relational based assets examined in this work are brand image and corporate reputation, as components of brand equity, and customer value. This paper explores how they create value. Despite the relatively large amount of literature describing the benefits of firms in having strong brand equity and delivering customer value, no research validated the linkage of brand equity components, brand image, and corporate reputation, simultaneously in the customer value–customer loyalty chain. This work presents a model of testing these relationships in consumer goods, in a business-to-business context. The results demonstrate the differential roles of brand image and corporate reputation on perceived quality, customer value, and customer loyalty. Brand image influences the perception of quality of the products and the additional services, whereas corporate reputation actions beyond brand image, estimating the customer value and customer loyalty. The effects of corporate reputation are also validated on different samples. The results demonstrate the importance of managing brand equity facets, brand image, and corporate reputation since their differential impacts on perceived quality, customer value, and customer loyalty. The results also demonstrate that companies should not limit to invest only in brand image. Maintaining and enhancing corporate reputation can have a stronger impact on customer value and customer loyalty, and can create differential competitive advantage.

This paper aims to introduce a novel method for the analysis of open cell porous components fabricated by laser-based powder bed metal additive manufacturing (AM) for the purpose of quality control. This method uses photogrammetric analysis, the extraction of geometric information from an image through the use of algorithms. By applying this technique to porous AM components, a rapid, low-cost inspection of geometric properties such as material thickness and pore size is achieved. Such measurements take on greater importance, as the production of porous additive manufactured orthopaedic devices increases in number, causing other, slower and more expensive methods of analysis to become impractical.

Here the development of the photogrammetric method is discussed and compared to standard techniques including scanning electron microscopy, micro computed tomography scanning and the recently developed focus variation (FV) imaging. The system is also validated against test graticules and simple wire geometries of known size, prior to the more complex orthopaedic structures.

The photogrammetric method shows an ability to analyse the variability in build fidelity of AM porous structures for use in inspection purposes to compare component properties. While measured values for material thickness and pore size differed from those of other techniques, the new photogrammetric technique demonstrated a low deviation when repeating measurements, and was able to analyse components at a much faster rate and lower cost than the competing systems, with less requirement for specific expertise or training.

The advantages demonstrated by the image-based technique described indicate the system to be suitable for implementation as a means of in-line process control for quality and inspection applications, particularly for high-volume production where existing methods would be impractical.

The purpose of this paper is to present near set theory using the perceptual indiscernibility and tolerance relations, to demonstrate the practical application of near set theory to the image correspondence problem, and to compare this method with existing image similarity measures.

Image‐correspondence methodologies are present in many systems that are depended on daily. In these systems, the discovery of sets of similar objects (aka, tolerance classes) stems from human perception of the objects being classified. This view of perception of image‐correspondence springs directly from Poincaré's work on visual spaces during 1890s and Zeeman's work on tolerance spaces and visual acuity during 1960s. Thus, in solving the image‐correspondence problem, it is important to have systems that accurately model human perception. Near set theory provides a framework for measuring the similarity of digital images (and perceptual objects, in general) based on features that describe them in much the same way that humans perceive objects.

The contribution of this paper is a perception‐based classification of images using near sets.

The method presented in this paper represents a new approach to solving problems in which the goal is to match human perceptual groupings. While the results presented in the paper are based on measuring the resemblance between images, the approach can be applied to any application that can be formulated in terms of sets such that the objects in the sets can be described by feature vectors.

In this volatile and increasingly fast-revolving world, it has become crucially important to monitor, measure and manage nation image and its dynamic changes in real time. However, few studies have been conducted on a model to measure the image and/or its changes. The purpose of this paper is to find an economically affordable methodology to measure nation image and its changes online in real time.

The study took an approach to build dynamic ontology that may reflect to change nation image in real-time. With it, the authors attempted to measure nation image in real time.

Among many social media, the authors found that Wikipedia is particularly suitable for the purpose of measuring nation image. An ontology of nation image was built from the keywords collected from the pages directly related to the big three exporting countries in East Asia, i.e. Korea, Japan and China. The click views on the pages of the countries in two different language editions of Wikipedia, Vietnamese and Indonesian were counted.

The study confirms the objective: the data from a social media service, Wikipedia, may work very well as an economically affordable real-time supplement to offline nation image indices that are currently used.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a model that shows how extending a brand affects the overall brand image. The relations between the relevant variables in brand extension strategies in the UK and Spanish markets are analysed to determine if the brand extension strategies have the same effect on brand image.

An empirical study was conducted in the UK and Spain using structural equation analysis. Two pre‐tests were conducted to select the brands and the extensions.

Results show that the brand extension strategy dilutes the brand image in both markets. It is found that brand image before extension and fit has positive effects on brand image after extension. The concurrence between the models studied in the two markets suggests that UK and Spanish consumers respond similarly to brand extensions.

The study was only conducted in two countries. Researchers are encouraged to test the model in more countries.

Results suggest that a firm which has a good brand image before the extension will be less at risk when it launches a new product onto the market with the same brand name. Its best market will be those consumers who already know the brand's products and who at the same time perceive a better image of it. The firm should not forget that the closer the extended product is to its core market, the more positive will be its acceptance by consumers, which will translate into a better image evaluation.

The study analyses how extending a brand may affect the parent brand image in global brand.

Given the increasing importance of food in tourist activities and destination choice, the purpose of this paper is to reveal a comprehensive measurement scale to evaluate the image of destination food, adopting procedures recommended by previous studies.

The procedure in this study followed two steps: first, item generation including literature review and focus groups; and second, scale purification. Scale purification included exploratory factor analysis to derive an initial factor structure and reliability assessment and confirmatory factor analysis to test the theoretical factor structure and assess validity.

The scale development procedure yielded five dimensions of destination food image: “food safety and quality,” “attractiveness of food,” “health benefits of food,” “food culture,” and “unique culinary arts.”

This study contributes to the food-related tourism literature by measuring destination food image based on scale development processes using both cognitive and affective elements.

The results help practitioners understand the complex dimensions of destination food image and how destination marketing professionals can use this image to advertise a destination.

This study has value in measuring destination food image through scale development processes and integrating both cognitive evaluations and affective evaluations.

Filling a gap in extant research regarding the measurement of an export country's environmental image and investigating its importance for consumers' evaluation of an environmentally differentiated imported product.

Online surveys carried out in Denmark (Study 1), Germany and France (Study 2; N˜500 from each country). In Study 1, we develop an environmental country image instrument and investigate its nomological validity vis-à-vis other country image constructs and Danish consumers' evaluation of organic milk from Germany. In Study 2, we validate the instrument with consumers from Germany and France, evaluating organic milk from Denmark.

Consumers differentiate between a country's environmental image and its general and production-related images. The country's environmental image is important to consumers' evaluation of an environmentally differentiated product from the country. Specifically, we find that a country's environmental image strongly influences its product-specific images and, through these, the consumer's evaluation of an organic food product from the country.

Consumers' use of a country's environmental image as a cue to the credibility of environmental claims gives competitive advantages to exporters from countries with a favorable environmental image, while exporters from countries with an unfavorable environmental image need measures to compensate. Companies and countries should monitor how the environmental image of their country evolves in important markets and be ready to act when facing damages to their country's environmental image.

This article is the first to propose a measure of environmental country image and to document that consumers use the environmental image of an exporting country to assess environmental claims on imported products.

Bank customers’ perceptions of service quality and service image of Islamic banks may differ from those of conventional banks. The purpose of this paper is to examine the differing perceptions of customers of Islamic and conventional banking systems in an emerging market, which has rarely been addressed and adds to the body of knowledge on this topic. This study also re-examines the SERVQUAL model of customer banking services to measure their impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The study uses responses from a randomly drawn sample of 229 customers from conventional banks and 225 customers from Islamic banks operating in Bangladesh using a structured questionnaire. SPSS and structural equation modeling techniques were employed as statistical tools for data analysis.

Overall, the examined service quality dimensions wield varying effects on client satisfaction mediated through the perceived image of banking services. Islamic bank customers’ perceptions of the level of reliability, responsiveness, security and reputation were significantly higher than those of conventional banks.

This study enhances our understanding of how Islamic banking practices differ from those of conventional banking in terms of service quality and image-related factors. More specifically, the findings of this research explain consumers’ perceived assessment of satisfaction and loyalty in a comparative research setting.

No prior studies have addressed the impact of the individual service quality dimensions on image factors in the context of conventional and Islamic banking in an emerging market, Bangladesh.

Rather than taking the more traditional approach of measuring brand equity for accounting or strategic reasons, the approach taken here is concerned with optimizing brand equity through parsimonious manipulation of the marketing mix. To this end a macro‐model is first developed; this model is then operationalized and tested (in terms of predicted versus actual brand share) in three Korean markets. The contribution of the paper lies in the development of a methodology through which management can efficiently build brand power in their markets. The statistical methods (factor analysis and preference regression) are commonly used in commercial research and the research requirements to build such a model are quite modest – the proposed model makes a theoretical contribution but can also be used as a practical managerial tool.