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As universities and colleges face an increasingly global environment, internationalization is viewed as a critical aspect of education, a fact that has significant academic and economic implications for higher educational institutions worldwide which need to be current with cultural education to adapt to change. Learning from other cultures is essential and valuable for students to connect with other cultures even as they enrich their own lives. Practical processes for developing successful cross-cultural education programs merit serious attention from higher educational institutions. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The case study explored in this paper demonstrates a practical application of internationalization of music education by examining the experience and outcomes from a cross-cultural program jointly developed by a US and a Korean university. The success of the case study under review hinged on three critical factors for developing a cross-cultural program between international academic partners: organizational commitment, teamwork, and pedagogical content.

The findings support the assertion that the three key factors introduced in the framework can be applied to develop a cross-cultural program between international academic partners.

This study proposes a practical framework for developing cross-cultural education programs among higher educational institutions.

The purpose of this research is to analyze consumers’ post-purchase reviews of the Owlet Smart Sock (OSS) and investigate the factors influencing continued use and product recommendation.

The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 and the privacy calculus model were used to focus both on technology and privacy aspects of OSS – a wearable technology product for baby monitoring. A sample of 450 online consumer review data was collected from Owletcare.com and Amazon.com. The data analysis was done by using NVivo 11.

Findings show that effort expectancy, price value and performance expectancy played the most striking role during adoption, continued future use and recommendation to others, whereas perceived privacy risk had the least importance.

Consumer empowerment through online reviews plays a crucial role in conveying their specific needs and desires to both manufacturers and other prospective consumers. The research is also expected to contribute research and development of technology-integrated products.

The research findings will provide valuable insights for manufacturers and retailers to understand consumers’ actual preferences and acceptance during the use of wearable technology.

This study extends research work on consumer use behavior by evaluating online reviews that provide them the opportunity to express their satisfaction and concerns. Insights from experience consumers’ reviews facilitate designers, developers and manufacturers to have a strategic focus during wearable technology development.

The purpose of this research was to develop clothing-typed soft wearable robot embedded with textile-based actuators on ankles for elderly adults needing gait assistance.

Design guidelines were developed and they included function (type, targeting area, routing line and anchor points), design (size/fit, fabric/material, fastener, detail, color) and actuator (shape memory alloy type, size, deformation type, integration material, integration technique and evaluation method). Fabric-based actuator, integration methods to fabrics, routing lines and anchoring points were developed based on the guidelines and evaluated. Then, three long socks types and a pants type were designed and prototyped. Routing line position displacement measurement test was conducted with the prototypes. A survey was conducted to investigate satisfaction, likeness and use intention on the design/prototype to modify the designs.

Important design factors were identified, and design guidelines for clothing-typed soft wearable robots (SWRs) were developed. People satisfied the developed SWR designs and prototypes with mean scores over 4.60.

The results are expected to be helpful for designers and developers of SWRs in the development process, and they will ultimately be beneficial to members of the elderly population who have gait difficulties.

While there has been increasing interest in the impact of courtmandated education finance reform on school district efficiency, research on the subject is scant. Taking advantage of New Jersey Supreme Court cases that have altered the way in which state school aid is distributed, this paper examines the effect of changes in the education finance system on school district efficiency. Building on existing literature on public sector efficiency, a longitudinal data analysis based on two-stage DEA models reveals that courtmandated increases in state aid to a limited number of poor school districts decreased the districts' efficiency. Though these results should be interpreted with some caution, in particular, the limitation of DEA as an efficiency measure, they imply that, as with any policy, policy makers and courts should be aware of how policy changes affect local government behavior and that it is necessary to evaluate policy outcome taking into account both resources and performance.

This paper aims to establish the relation between corporate governance – as represented by investor protection at both the legal and firm levels – and stock market liquidity.

This paper avails of the unique features of Hong Kong- and China-based stocks that are traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange so as to test whether differences between “common law” and “civil law” legal environments contribute to differences in stock liquidity. In addition, by constructing an internal corporate governance index score for each firm based on board size, board independence and information on the audit and remuneration committee, we document whether firms with better corporate governance scores have narrower spreads, greater depth and higher trading volumes.

Overall, results provide support for a linkage between corporate governance issues – as investor rights protection at both the environment and firm protection levels – and stock market liquidity.

This paper recognizes that investor protection constitutes a single component of the desirability of investing in a firm’s stock. Nevertheless, it does appear to constitute an important component of a stock’s attractiveness.

The practical implications are clear, namely, that good corporate governance of firms leads to their attractiveness as investment vehicles (for both the shorter and the longer terms).

The paper has clear social implications. In particular, the paper serves to highlight that prospects for enduring wealth creation are contingent on the safeguards accorded to the equity ownership of a firm’s stock.

The originality lies in taking advantage of the unique features of the Chinese and Hong Kong firms on the Hong Kong Exchange, so as to examine the contrasting influences of common law and civil law on stock liquidity. Thus, the authors allow for the effects of corporate governance across the two legal environments (China and Hong Kong) to be compared and contrasted while maintaining other influences unchanged across Chinese and Hong Kong shares.

In a competitive environment, firms continually need to establish new business objectives to fulfill their corporate visions. A whole organization should be structured to achieve these objectives. In order to support the objectives, information technology (IT) needs to be aligned to the organization’s mission. IT professionals have provided systems for the organization and, in most cases, these systems consist of individual function, which should be used in an integrated manner. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software has emerged to offer an integrated IT solution. It is suggested that ERP could facilitate achieving compatibility between task characteristics and technology characteristics, a long overdue IT solution. ERP has become one of the major IT investments for many organizations. Unfortunately, little research has been done to provide managers guidance on ERP potential for their organizations. Some useful information about ERP can be found by examining the technological evolution of ERP from MRP.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the thermo-physiological comfort of male business garments made of common textiles, as well as business clothing that contains phase change materials (PCMs) as a lining or outerwear material. In view of the fact that people wear business clothing throughout the whole day in different environmental conditions, this study investigate the effect of PCMs incorporated in male business clothing systems on the thermo-physiological comfort of the wearer under different cold environmental conditions.

The influence of particular business garments on the thermo-physiological comfort of the wearer during different physical activities and cold environmental temperatures was determined experimentally with the help of study participants, as a change of two physiological parameters: mean skin temperature and heart rate. A questionnaire and an assessment scale were also used in order to evaluate the wearer’s subjective feeling of comfort. In this investigation, all tests with study participants were performed under artificially created environmental conditions in a climate chamber at different cold environmental temperatures ranging from 10°C to −5°C with increments of 5°C, and different physical activities that simulate as closely as possible real life activities such as sitting and walking.

The results of the performed research work show that PCMs provide a small temporary thermal effect that is reflected in small increases or decreases in mean skin temperature during changes in activity. Furthermore, it was concluded that the small effect of PCMs in business clothing systems on the thermo-physiological comfort of the wearer in a cold environment, which is shown as a change of mean skin temperature when subjects walk on a treadmill and subsequently move to a sitting position, should not be ignored in a cold environment where low skin temperatures were measured.

The results of this study demonstrate that the physiological parameters of thermo-physiological comfort, in combination with subjective evaluation, provide valuable information for textile and clothing manufactures as well as scientists and engineers involved in the design and development of new products with thermal comfort as a quality criterion.

The investigation shows that different environmental conditions, activity levels and thermal properties of clothing systems have a considerable impact on the physiological parameters of the subjects and subjective assessment of thermal comfort in a cold environment, and that PCMs incorporated in business clothing systems provide a small temporary thermal effect that is reflected in small increases or decreases in mean skin temperature during changes in activity, such as when subjects walk on a treadmill and subsequently move to a sitting position.

The purpose of this study was to conduct a content analysis of humor styles used in US and Mexican television advertising.

A total of 97 television commercials broadcasted by major US and Mexican national television networks were classified under the four humor styles described by Martin et al.

Humor styles used in television advertising significantly differ between the two countries. US commercials use more affiliative, aggressive, and self‐defeating humor than do Mexican advertisements, while self‐enhancing humor is the predominant humor style of Mexican commercials and is used more frequently in Mexico when compared to the USA.

The findings reveal the frequency and types of humorous television commercials used in the USA and Mexico.

The study suggests that cultural differences should be taken into consideration when humorous advertising is used across borders.

This study aims to test the effects of Celliant armbands on grip strength in subjects with chronic wrist and elbow pain. Celliant® is a functional textile fabric containing minerals that emit infrared radiation (IR) in response to body heat. IR-emitting fabrics have biological effects including the reduction of pain and inflammation and the stimulation of muscle function.

A randomized placebo-controlled trial recruited 80 subjects (40 per group) with a six-month history of chronic wrist or elbow pain (carpal tunnel syndrome, epicondylitis or arthritis) to wear an armband (real Celliant or placebo fabric) on the affected wrist or elbow for two weeks. Grip strength was measured by a dynamometer before and after the two-week study.

For the placebo group, the mean grip strength increased from 47.95 ± 25.14 (baseline) to 51.69 ± 27.35 (final), whereas for the Celliant group, it increased from 46.3 ± 22.02 to 54.1 ± 25.97. The mean per cent increase over the two weeks was +7.8% for placebo and +16.8% for Celliant (p = 0.0372). No adverse effects was observed.

Limitations include the wide variation in grip strength in the participants at baseline measurement, which meant that only the percentage increase between baseline and final measurements showed a significant difference. Moreover, no subjective measurements of pain or objective neurophysiology testes was done.

Celliant armbands are easy to wear and have not been shown to produce any adverse effects. Therefore, there appears to be no barrier to prevent widespread uptake.

IR-emitting textiles have been studied for their beneficial effects, both in patients diagnosed with various disorders and also in healthy volunteers for health and wellness purposes. Although there are many types of textile technology that might be used to produce IR-emitting fabrics, including coating of the fabric with a printed layer of ceramic material, incorporating discs of mineral into the garment, the authors feel that incorporating ceramic particles into the polymer fibers from which the fabric is woven is likely to be the most efficient way of achieving the goal.

Celliant armbands appear to be effective in painful upper limb inflammatory disorders, and further studies are warranted. The mechanism of action is not completely understood, but the hypothesis that the emitted IR radiation is absorbed by nanostructured intracellular water provides some theoretical justification.

By integrating the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory, technology acceptance model (TAM), and social capital theory, the purpose of this paper is to: develop a model of consumer behavior and trial willingness toward nano-foods from product, consumer, and social perspectives; examine the effects of innovative features, consumer characteristics, and trust in authority on subjective perceptions (perceived trustworthiness and perceived benefit) as well as the social influence on attitudes toward nano-foods and trial willingness; examine the moderating role of product uncertainty on the relationship between these characteristics and subjective perceptions; and examine the effect of perceived benefit on perceived trustworthiness.

The results of the structural equation model (SEM), with nano-food knowledge data collected from 431 respondents, supported the research model and revealed the main effects hypothesized in this study and the moderating effect of product uncertainty. Simple slope analysis was further adopted to test the significant moderating effects.

The SEM results indicated that innovative characteristics (relative advantage, lack of observability, and novelty), consumer characteristics (perceived technology application), and social characteristics (trust in authority) affect perceived trustworthiness or perceived benefit. Social influence also has a direct effect on attitude toward nano-foods and trial willingness. Product uncertainty significantly moderates the relationship between characteristics (relative advantage and perceived technology application) and subjective perceptions (perceived trustworthiness and perceived benefit).

With increasing numbers and kinds of nanotechnology products now being developed and sold, it is important to go further to determine consumer perceptions and attitudes toward these. This study, thus, applied the DOI, TAM, and social capital theory to examine this issue. However, other theories might also be used to carry out research from other perspectives. This study should, thus, be seen as preliminary, and it is hoped that more works will discuss consumer attitudes toward nanotechnology products in the future.

When a new nano-food is introduced, the current study suggests that food manufacturers use the description on the package as a communicative tool. Detailing the advantages of nano-foods on food packages might be a useful way to enhance trial willingness and to reduce the fears and insecurities related to the use of nano-related products. In addition, if food manufacturers could cooperate with organizations or individuals seen as having some authority in this area (e.g. nanotechnology researchers) in order to disseminate accurate information about nanotechnology and related food products, this might be an effective way to increase sales and profits.

This is the first paper integrating the DOI, the social capital theory and the TAM to empirically investigate consumer willingness to try nano-food products.