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Past research has demonstrated a health halo for food product labels (e.g. organic), resulting in inflated perceptions of a product’s healthfulness (e.g. low fat). While past studies have focused on labeling and related health claims, the health halo of brand names has scarcely been investigated. This study aims to address this gap by investigating the health halo of brand names featuring morality- and purity-signifiers.

The current research uses two experiments to examine the health halo of morality- and purity-signifying brand names on perceptions of nutritional and contaminant attributes. Mediation analysis is performed to investigate perceived naturalness as the mechanism for the brand name effects while moderated mediation analysis examines this mechanism across product types (healthy vs unhealthy).

The findings reveal that both the morality- and purity-signifying brand names produce a health halo on nutritional and contaminant attributes, regardless of product healthiness. Further, mediation and moderated mediation analysis provide evidence for perceived naturalness as the underlying mechanism driving these effects.

This research highlights unwarranted consumer inferences made based upon food brand names and, thus has implications for consumers, public policy and marketing managers.

While much health halo research has focused on labeling, this research examines the health halo of two brand name types which symbolically convey either morality or purity. This research provides additional contributions by investigating perceived naturalness as the underlying mechanism for the effects and is one of the few studies to investigate the health halo for both healthy and unhealthy products.

Using the canvas of the author’s sojourn with the Islamic preaching group Tablighi Jamaat, this study aims to exhibit reflections on how spaces can be categorized as more sacred or less sacred according to a specific religious worldview. The paper extends the conversation on Mary Douglas’s concepts of purity and danger by sharpening the focal lens on place in Douglas’s theoretics. The paper also proffers the idea of a sojourn as a vehicle of purification.

This paper depicts findings from the author’s multi-sited ethnographic field notes carried out from a 40-day sojourn with the Islamic preaching group Tablighi Jamaat in Pakistan.

The study unveils the concept of relative sacredness or how some spaces can be considered more sacred than others. The differential sacred status of these variegated spaces, each with its own etiquettes, meaning and consumption rituals is a means for purification for sojourners.

This paper prioritizes a focus on place in Mary Douglas’s arguments on purity and impurity in a religious consumption context. The thesis argues that place is a significant concept associated with metaphorical cleanliness/sacredness, which in religious terms guides consumer action.

This paper aims to deal with the effect of natural barytes purity levels on the tribological performance of brake pads.

In this study, brake pads were developed by varying three different natural barytes without varying other ingredients. The brake pads were developed as per the standard industrial practice. The physical, mechanical and thermal properties of the developed brake pads were tested as per the industrial standards. The tribological properties were analyzed using a full-scale inertia brake dynamometer. Worn surface analysis was done using scanning electron microscope coupled with elemental mapping.

The experimental results indicate that the brake pads filled with natural barytes 95% purity had good physical, chemical and mechanical properties with stable friction and less wear rate due to reduced impurity level preventing frictional undulations.

This paper explains the effect of the purity level of natural barytes in brake pads formulation to enhance the tribological performance by altering tribofilms and preventing friction undulations.

In view of the current difficulty of separation of troxerutin, the purpose of the paper is to separate and purify semi-synthetic flavonoid compound troxerutin by macroporous adsorption resin (SZ-3).

Comparing the adsorption performance and resolution of three different polar resins and choosing a resin to optimize the process parameters such as sample volume, eluent concentration and elution temperature to obtain high-purity troxerutin. After separating and enriching by resin column chromatography, detected the sample by LC-MS analysis.

This research found that the optimal conditions of the adsorption and desorption were sample volume S = 90 mg/g resin, methanol concentration C = 25%, T = 20 °C. the content of troxerutin increased significantly from 88% to more than 96%. Then confirmed the sample was troxerutin by LC-MS. In addition, the resin could be used for at least 10 cycles in the separation and purification experiments of troxerutin.

Purification of troxerutin with new SZ-3 resin for the first time. Under the optimal conditions, the purity and recovery of troxerutin was 96.4% and 39%. In this study, the authors established a purification process of troxerutin successfully that was simple, economical, environment friendly, with high purity and high recovery rate to provide a reference program for changing the status of troxerutin separation difficulties.

This paper aims to discuss the influence of graphite with varying purity on the tribological performance of brake pads.

Three distinct brake pads were created within the scope of this experiment by varying the graphite purity without affecting the other components. The brake pads were made using a traditional manufacturing procedure, and industry standards were used to test the chemical, physical and mechanical properties of the newly produced brake pad. A full-scale inertia brake dynamometer was used to determine the material’s tribological characteristics. The worn surfaces of the brake pads were examined using a scanning electron microscope.

The test results indicate that brake pads containing 99% pure graphite (artificial grade) displayed good physical, chemical and mechanical features, such as consistent friction and a reduced rate of wear because of the lower impurity level, which eliminates frictional undulations.

This paper discusses the influence of graphite purity on the tribological performance of brake pads by modifying tribofilms and reducing friction undulations.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the environmental conditions (i.e. competitive intensity) under which a pure strategy or an ambidextrous strategy of implementing responsive market orientations (RMOs) and/or proactive market orientations (PMOs) is more advantageous for firm’s performance.

Drawing upon the market orientation (MO) and strategy literatures, the authors test the study’s model empirically using a sample of 308 US-based firms operating in industrial markets. All measurement items are taken from the widely used maturity scale which has been confirmed in the literature.

The empirical results suggest that when the competitive intensity is high, pursuing a purity strategy of RMO while decreasing PMO is the best course of action. On the other hand, balancing between RMO and PMO (implementing a strategy of ambidexterity) can increase firm’s performance in a low competitive intensity environment.

This study aims to contribute to the existing MO literature in several ways: first, this study advances the MO literature by emphasizing the moderating role of competitive intensity on the effects of different MO strategies (purity or ambidextrous MO strategy); second, this study focuses on the firms operating in industrial markets and informs managers on how to adopt RMO and PMO under different level of competitive intensity; third, this study is the extended research of the prior study published in this journal (Wang et al., 2013), which examined the environmental antecedents of adopting RMO and PMO.

First, firms operating in industrial markets should increase RMO, while at the same time decrease PMO, in a highly competitive intensity environment. Second, companies should pursue both RMO and PMO at the same time in a low competitive intensity environment. Balancing between RMO and PMO can improve firms’ performance in a low competitive intensity environment.

This study contributes to the industrial business and marketing literature by sharpening the theoretical understanding of the impact of RMOs and PMOs on firm’s performance. It also offers practical insights to managers of industrial firms on when to adopt RMOs and/or PMOs under different levels of competitive intensity.

This paper aims to present an analysis of the various dimensions of naturalness that shape the consumption practices of parents with young children.

The study builds on semi-structured interviews with 17 mothers and fathers focusing on parental decision-making in everyday consumption from pregnancy to the first years of the child’s life.

Naturalness is a tool allowing parents to navigate in a world of risks and part of an everyday consumption practice that constructs and maintains children as vulnerable and parents as responsible. Parents perceive naturalness as something with three dimensions: familiarity, purity and culture. These three dimensions lead to different parental practices around consumption.

The analysis contributes to the authors’ understanding of parenting, childhood, risk, safety and consumption by showing how and why parents of young children construct naturalness as a three-dimensional ideal in their consumption practices.

Significant changes in British recreational drug use were seen throughout 2009, with the emergence and rapid growth in the availability and use of substituted cathinones or ‘M‐Cats’ (most notably mephedrone and methylone), a group of psychoactive drugs not currently controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (HM Government, 1971), with similar effects to ecstasy, cocaine and amphetamines. The reasons for the appearance and appeal of this group of so‐called ‘legal highs’ are explored here in relation to availability, purity, legality and convenience. The authors argue that a reduction in the availability (and thus purity) of illegal drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine and resultant disillusionment among users was a key motivation for displacement to substituted cathinones, conveniently and legally purchased online. Finally, we explore policy considerations around the likely criminalisation of substituted cathinones and the challenge of providing rapid yet considered harm reduction responses to emergent drug trends in the face of a minimal scientific evidence base and eager press demonisation.

The purpose of this paper is to deal with the tribological study on the brake pads developed using various purity-based graphitized graphite.

This paper deals with developing copper-free brake pads by using graphite as a key lubricant produced using a graphitization process with purity percentages (85, 90 and 95%). The brake pads were developed using traditional manufacturing processes and evaluated for their physical, chemical, thermal and mechanical properties as per industrial standards. Fade and recovery characteristics were analyzed using a full-scale inertia brake dynamometer as per JASO-C-406. The scanning electron microscope was used to analyze the worn surfaces of the brake pads.

The testing findings reveal that the brake pads with 95% graphitized graphite showed better shear strength with good adhesion levels and lesser density, hardness, acetone extract value, loss on ignition and higher porosity. Effectiveness studies of brake pads with graphite (95% graphitized) showed better results at higher pressure speed conditions than others because of better plateau formation and adequate lubrication.

This paper discusses graphitized graphite of different purity influences brake pad's tribological performance by modifying tribo-films and reducing friction undulations.

Due to rapid urbanization, rice consumption in Togo has also rapidly increased. Most consumers prefer imported rice over domestically produced rice due to the higher quality of the imported rice. The purpose of this paper is to show that it is possible to upgrade the quality of Togo’s domestically produced rice by providing technical and management support in the form of contract farming.

Cross-sectional data were collected using a multi-stage sampling technique. An endogenous switching regression model was used for data analysis.

The results show that by participating in contract farming, paddy rice quality was upgraded from Grade IV (poor quality) to Grade I (premium quality). The factors influencing this upgrade in the quality of paddy rice grown through contract farming are: the number of extension visits to the farmer, the mode of threshing used by the farmer, and the agro-ecological zone of the farmer.

The data for this study are limited to one country, Togo and this may have implications for generalizing the results for other countries.

This study is original research that contributes to an improved understanding of the impacts of contract farming on the quality of agricultural products produced in developing and emerging economies.