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This study examines the impact of situational and stable animosities on quality evaluation and purchase intention while also testing the moderating effects of within- and cross-country cultural distance. It focuses on the case of the US THAAD missile defense system deployment in South Korea (hereafter, Korea) and investigates how the resulting Chinese consumers' animosity affects their quality evaluation of, and purchase intention toward, Korean cosmetics.

This study utilizes a quantitative approach based on a survey and structural equation modeling. The sample comprises 376 Chinese consumers from 19 Chinese regions.

The results indicate that both stable and situational animosities are negatively associated with purchase intention toward Korean cosmetics. However, their effects on quality evaluation are different. While stable animosity is negatively related to product quality evaluation, situational animosity has no such negative association. Finally, the cultural distance between Chinese regions and Korea strengthens the negative relationship between stable and situational animosities and purchase intention.

The study contributes by better unraveling the effects of stable and situational animosities on perceived product quality. The empirical context is unique because it allows the authors to investigate the relationship between Chinese antagonism toward the THAAD deployment in Korea and Chinese consumers' stable and situational animosities in terms of their quality evaluation of, and purchase intention toward, imported Korean cosmetics. Hence, this study contributes to the literature on consumer animosity by empirically testing the moderating effect of within- and cross-country cultural distance on the relationship between stable and situational animosities and purchase intention.

The study has relevant practical implications, notably for Korean exporters' marketing management and within- and cross-cultural management. The results suggest that countermeasures are needed because Chinese consumers' stable and situational animosities are negatively related to their purchase intention toward Korean cosmetics. Moreover, the findings provide the insight that when foreign firms export culture-sensitive products to a large, multicultural country, their managers should pay attention to within- and cross-cultural differences simultaneously.

Previous studies have shown that the effects of animosity on product evaluation and purchase intention differ depending on the animosity dimension, product type, country and the situation causing animosity, among others. However, the existing literature on animosity has neglected the reality that within-cultural differences in a single large emerging market are relevant to explaining the concept of animosity and its effect on the purchase intention toward culture-sensitive products. Furthermore, none of the animosity studies have touched on the important moderating role of within- and cross-cultural differences between a large and multicultural importing country and a brand's home country in this manner. Therefore, the study fills this gap by empirically examining whether different moderating effects of stable and situational animosities exist for a specific conflict situation caused by a military issue and investigates the causes of these different effects.

This study aims to investigate the interaction of independent variables [Reynolds number (Re), thermal power and the number of ball grid array (BGA) packages] and the relation of the variables with the responses [Nusselt number ((Nu) ¯ ), deflection/FPCB’s length (d/L) and von Mises stress]. The airflow and thermal effects were considered for optimizing the Re of various numbers of BGA packages with thermal power attached on flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) for optimum cooling performance with least deflection and stress by using the response surface method (RSM).

Flow and thermal effects on FPCB with heat source generated in the BGA packages have been examined in the simulation. The interactive relationship between factors (i.e. Re, thermal power and number of BGA packages) and responses (i.e. deflection over FPCB length ratio, stress and average Nusselt number) were analysed using analysis of variance. RSM was used to optimize the Re for the different number of BGA packages attached to the FPCB.

It is important to understand the behaviour of FPCB when exposed to both flow and thermal effects simultaneously under the operating conditions. Maximum d/L and von Misses stress were significantly affected by all parametric factors whilst (Nu)¯ is significantly affected by Re and thermal power. Optimized Re for 1–3 BGA packages with maximum thermal power applied has been identified as 21,364, 23,858 and 29,367, respectively.

This analysis offers a better interpretation of the parameter control in FPCB with optimized Re for the use of force convection electronic cooling. Optimal Re could be used as a reference in the thermal management aspect in designing the BGA package.

This research presents the parameters’ effects on the reliability and heat transfer in FPCB design. It also presents a method to optimize Re for the different number of BGA packages attached to increase the reliability in FPCB’s design.

Corruption was a serious problem in Singapore during the British colonial period and especially after the Japanese Occupation (February 1942–August 1945) mainly because of the lack of political will to curb it by the incumbent governments. In contrast, the People’s Action Party (PAP) government, which assumed office in June 1959 after winning the May 1959 general election, demonstrated its political will with the enactment of the Prevention of Corruption Act (POCA) in June 1960, which strengthened the capacity of the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) to combat corruption effectively. Indeed, Singapore’s success in curbing corruption is reflected in its consistently high scores on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) from 1995 to 2012 as the least corrupt country in Asia. Singapore was ranked first with Denmark and New Zealand in the 2010 CPI with a score of 9.30. Similarly, Singapore has been ranked first in the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) annual surveys on corruption from 1995 to 2013. Why has Singapore succeeded in minimizing the problem of corruption when many other Asian countries have failed to do so? What lessons can these countries learn from Singapore’s experience in combating corruption? This chapter addresses these two questions by first describing Singapore’s favorable policy context, followed by an identification of the major causes of corruption during the British colonial period and Japanese Occupation, and an evaluation of the PAP government’s anti-corruption strategy.

This study aims to explore whether collectivistic and individualistic users exhibit different e‐commerce loyalty and purchase intentions.

The paper operationalises Triandis' individuality and collectivism typology. Empirical data were gathered using face‐to‐face questionnaire instruments with 140 respondents, comprising undergraduate students and government employees.

Online shoppers are more individualistic than those who have not shopped online, while individualism and collectivism do not influence online loyalty.

As firms compete for online custom, it would be useful to gain some understanding of the possible effects of individual and collective behaviour on purchasing behaviour.

Instead of competing for existing online users, online stores could expand their market by appealing to offline shoppers using collective techniques.

Online loyalty has been an important focus of prior work and, while there has been significant focus on communities, Internet use remains a very personal activity. The paper provides new evidence that offline shoppers are more collectivistic than online shoppers.

Local brands in emerging markets suffer from fierce competition and chronic disadvantages. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if outbreaks of animosity against the West (AAW) might benefit local brands by raising consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to buy (WTB).

The study employed 2 methods: structural equation modeling (n=244 Chinese students); and experiment, multiple regression (n=676 Chinese students, different sample than those included in study 1).

AAW is different from ethnocentrism and the measurement has good validity and reliability. After an outbreak of animosity, AAW increases Chinese consumers’ WTB local products. The WTP is also enhanced by AAW in such a situation. Under “normal” circumstances, there is no effect of AAW on the WTP. This might be due to the cost of substituting western goods for local ones (e.g. inferior perceived quality and other-signaling value). An outbreak of animosity presents a risk to consumers and thus lowers their overall WTP.

The study introduces the construct “AAW,” which stretches the animosity construct to an inter-regional level. On such a level, it is possible to find consequences of animosity on local brand consumption, which have not been the focus of previous studies. Additionally, this research introduces the concept of WTP to animosity research. The measurement is built on a real economic exchange and better represents the cost aspects of substituting one brand for another.

This study incorporates two Chinese cultural variables guanxi (personal relationship) and xinyong (personal trust) with other relational variables that are well defined in the west, i.e. supplier competence, commitment, conflict handling and satisfaction to see how they generate partnership relationship in a sino‐western relationship marketing context.

Research objectives are achieved through a combination of model building, quantitative design, testing of hypotheses using AMOS and analysis of findings. The subject scope is imbedded within cultural impact on relationship marketing in a sino‐western context.

This study finds that Western suppliers must be competent in product knowledge, market development, and adaptation to buyers' requirements to resolve conflicts in order to establish their xinyong with the buyers. Competence allows suppliers to show psychological commitment and establish guanxi with the buyers. It also shows that guanxi has a stronger influence on xinyong than on satisfaction. Suppliers should use guanxi to generate buyer's perception on xinyong whilst maintaining a reasonable level of buyer satisfaction with their products and services. Also, relationship between xinyong and satisfaction is not significant. A buyer's satisfaction on the supplier's product and services does not necessarily mean that this buyer perceives the supplier having xinyong because Chinese mix (up) business with personal relationships together and sometimes they make trade‐off between them!

This relationship study was conducted in a single‐product relationship context within the clothing industry in the PRC environment and therefore, its findings may not be generalised to other industry. Future Chinese relationship study should increase the sample size so as to cover more industries to allow comparison across industries. This is especially valid between a manufacturing and a service‐based industry. A service‐based industry may even emphasize more on guanxi and xinyong because of its intangible aspects! Future research should include the xinyong constructs, the concepts of face and reciprocity. To what extent these important Chinese cultural values affect satisfaction and xinyong have not been determined.

Effective conflict handling skills and guanxi are vital to formulate a xinyong positioning strategy. A supplier must be competent in product knowledge, market development skills, and adapt to a buyer's requirements to resolve conflicts with the buyer to establish xinyong.

This research is an initial attempt to establish the relationship between guanxi, xinyong and partnership relationship and generates a new research area in Chinese relationship marketing.

This study aimed to investigate the influence of brand-targeted animosity on consumers' boycott intentions for target fashion products via their cognitive and affective evaluations, in the context of the “Xinjiang cotton ban” incident. The moderating role of xenocentrism was also examined.

Data were collected through an online survey in China using convenience sampling, and 411 valid responses were obtained. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 for the descriptive statistics, frequency analysis and reliability analysis. AMOS 24.0 was employed for the confirmatory factor and structural equation modeling analyses. Bootstrapping analysis using PROCESS Macro was employed to analyze the moderating effects.

This study found that consumers' brand animosity directly and positively affected boycott intentions and that this influence was sequentially mediated through cognitive-affective evaluations. However, cognitive product judgment did not directly affect boycott intentions. The results showed that xenocentrism had a moderating effect on the relationship between animosity and cognitive judgment. The higher the xenocentrism of consumers, the weaker the negative effect of animosity was on cognitive judgment.

This study bridges the gap in the literature on animosity and xenocentrism in a fashion-related context through examining the consequences of brand animosity.

The General Information Management (GIM) system defined in this paper is designed to: (1) be information independent; (2) be logically data independent (it is therefore question type independent); (3) honor requests for information in small and bounded search times; (4) provide a security system that is foolproof, virus proof and easy to use; (5) be economical and efficient in the use of memory and data communication systems; and (6) be modular in design to function in distributed or standalone environments. The basis of the GIM system is a context free language or data structure, called JOBLIST, and a simulated communications network, called SOLID. Queries, converted to JOBLIST, directly describe the information paths in SOLID that terminate with the location(s) of the referenced information. There is no directory. A proof‐of‐principle prototype has established that the JOBLIST/SOLID system fully meets the above specifications.

This study examines the effect of employees' perceptions of political connections on performance measurement systems (PMS) design choice and firm performance. In addition, this study explores the moderating effect of social networking, a very common and widely used factor by domestic and foreign multinational firms operating in China, and its joint effect with political connections or PMS design choice on firm performance. We collected survey responses from a sample of 110 managers from manufacturing firms in China. Our results reveal that highly politically connected managers use nonfinancial measures, leading to improved firm performance. Our results suggest that social networking interacts significantly with political connections, and nonfinancial and financial measures on firm performance. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine ethnocentrism and animosity in a special context of two societies that share cultural, historical, ethnic and geographical characteristics. In particular, it first investigates the relationships between Chinese ethnocentrism and animosity toward Taiwan, and then it examines the impact of these two factors on the Chinese perception of Taiwanese brand quality and their purchase intent.

Based on a sample of 605 respondents from China, data were analyzed by structural equation modeling.

The results show that although Chinese animosity toward Taiwan is moderate, it is significantly driven by ethnocentrism, which has a significant and negative effect on willingness to buy, but not on the perception of Taiwanese brand quality. The Chinese animosity toward Taiwan, however, has negative and significant effects on their perception of Taiwanese brand quality and their intention of purchasing Taiwanese brands.

The immense size of the country has impeded the representativeness of the authors’ sample and the generalizability of the results. Also, the study covers only one type of product.

Forming partnerships with local Chinese businesses and developing strong ties with local communities could be considered as a solution to minimize or circumvent the effect of animosity and might help foreign companies appear more “local.”

In contrast to past studies that investigated ethnocentrism and animosity in the context of countries presenting several differences (e.g. China vs USA), this study investigates the effect of ethnocentrism and animosity in the context of two countries (China and Taiwan) that share cultural, historical, ethnic and geographic characteristics. Despite the strong ties between the two countries, the Chinese have a certain animosity, though moderate, toward Taiwan and consequently are less inclined to buy Taiwanese brands. This implies that Chinese animosity toward a country may be toned down or pronounced, depending on whether they have strong or weak ties with that country.