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The purpose of this paper is to explore how a positive country-of-origin image will impact consumer perceptions for a high-risk product when the price is unexpectedly low.

An experimental approach was used with consumers from the USA and India. Consumers were divided into groups and given two scenarios that involved purchasing medicine that may have been counterfeit. In one scenario manufacturing took place in India, the other in Switzerland. They were asked to state the probability that certain goods could be counterfeit if they originated from the stated country and then make choices based on those perceived probabilities. An analysis of variance was conducted to test for differences between groups.

The authors found that in both samples consumers attached greater probabilities toward low-priced medicines if they originated from Switzerland vs India. Conversely, the higher priced medicines were more likely to be counterfeit if they originated from India vs Switzerland. When given a choice scenario consumers chose more versions of the cheaper products from India than from Switzerland.

When country-of-origin is salient then it is believed that a positive country-of-origin image will benefit products that are produced from that country. Consumers expect that more expensive products come from a country with a positive country-of-origin image. The results demonstrate that when there is a conflict between expectations of the country and the price of the product the outcome is lowered perceptions and consumption of the product. This holds true for consumers from a high-cost economy (USA) and consumers from a low-cost economy (India). The authors add to the literature on country-of-origin by demonstrating that a positive image can be a liability when consumers are wary of purchasing a high-risk product.

This paper presents an overview of the recent development of Eurasian rail freight in the Belt and Road era and further evaluates its service quality in terms of transit times and transport costs compared to other transport modes in containerised supply chains between Europe and China.

A trade-off model of transit time and transport costs based on quantitative data from primary and secondary sources is developed to demonstrate the market niche for Eurasian rail freight vis-a-vis the more established modes of transport of sea, air and sea/air. In a scenario analysis, further cargo attributes influencing modal choice are employed to show for which cargo type Eurasian rail freight service is favourable from a shipper's point of view.

At present, Eurasian rail freight is about 80% less expensive than air freight with only half of the transit time of conventional sea freight. Our scenario analysis further suggests that for shipping time-sensitive goods with lower cargo value ranging from $US1.23/kg to $US10.89/kg as well as goods with lower time sensitivity and higher value in a range of $US2.46/kg to $US21.78/kg, total logistics costs of Eurasian rail freight service rail is cheaper than all other modes of transport.

As an emerging competitive solution, Eurasian rail freight demonstrates to be an option beneficial in terms of transport cost, transit time, reliability and service availability, which offers a cost-efficient option enabling shippers to build up agile and more sustainable supply chains between China and Europe.

Our study firstly provides a comprehensive assessment of present Eurasian rail freight including a thorough comparison with alternative modes of transport from a shipper's point of view.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of parallel importation on brand equity in high and low product involvement arrangements.

A 2 × 2 (authorized goods/gray‐marketed goods)×(high involvement/low involvement) between‐subjects experimental design is utilized; consumer electronics and ballpoint pens are examined.

The results of this empirical study show that source channel (authorized goods versus gray goods) has a significant impact on brand equity; among the five brand equity dimensions, consumers are most concerned about the difference in “perceived quality” between gray goods and authorized goods; given the levels of stimuli, sourcing channel stimuli are found to have more powerful effects than product involvement on consumer evaluations of brand equity.

Marketing implications of the study are as follows. For authorized agents: they could emphasize the “perceived quality” of their products in order to prevent market “squatting” from gray marketers. For manufacturers: authorized goods have a stronger effect on brand equity than gray goods; therefore, manufacturers could adapt the contents and packaging of their products to match consumption behavior in each different country to achieve the purpose of market segmentation and to prevent the products from being diverted. For gray marketers: they should not only emphasize the lower prices of their products, but also highlight their brand knowledge and the brand recognition and provide a valid and sensitive reflection of the brand's standing to their customers.

The most notable finding from this study may be that given the levels of stimuli, sourcing channel stimuli were found to have more powerful effects than product involvement on consumer evaluations of brand equity.

The purpose of this paper is to theorize country-of-origin (COO) to be important to retail buyers in making purchase decisions. However, this question has not been addressed in the literature and leaves a critical gap in determining how COO ultimately affects consumer purchase options.

Retail buyer behavior is empirically tested with both premium and value brands from Italy. A sample retail buyers was taken from a LexisNexis database and provided 205 completed surveys. Construct scales were taken from existing literature and tested using composite reliability. SEM was used to analyze the data.

Results showed that retail buyers are affected by COO; that low involvement purchases are not differentially affected compared to high involvement; product typicality enhances likelihood of purchase and this typicality is more important for high involvement goods.

Retail buyers are affected by COO and will make product choices for their stores accordingly. Companies should be aware of this and take it into consideration to strengthen their acceptance by retail buyers. Trade organizations within countries may consider advertising approaches to distinguish themselves and stimulate positive COO among retail buyers.

This is the first time that retail buyer behavior has been studied with regard to COO effects using consumer models. Results showed that use of these models is more appropriate than only using industrial buying models. Retail buyers are found to indeed be affected by COO, which in turn influence buying choices for consumers and offerings from retailers.

While there is strong consensus at the conceptual level about sustainable development there are few formal models that outline the conditions for environmentally steady and sustainable growth in a decentralized market economy. Addresses this issue by building a Green GNP model and then deriving a single long‐run condition for environmentally steady and sustainable growth. Examines the relationship between industrial affluence and environmental decay. If industrial affluence comes from the lower elasticity of substitution among goods, it does not necessarily cause environmental decay. Finding that substitutability still plays an important role in environmentally steady and sustainable growth and concludes that public policy makers should pay more attention to the relationship between substitutability among goods and environmental sustainability.

Comprehensive studies examining how Korean e-commerce trade works are currently limited. This study seeks to explore whether Korea’s e-commerce trade is more applicable to traditional trade theory or to modern theories. According to our analysis, the share of intra-industry trade (IIT) in modern trade theory is less than that of general trade for Korean e-commerce. Therefore, trade based on comparative advantage can be more valid in explaining e-commerce trade. From results in analyzing the gravity model, it was found that Korea’s e-commerce exports are higher as IIT with its FTA partners. In contrast, it is found that the lower the proportion of e-commerce trade, the higher chance for the import growth. Lastly, this study looked at what kind of comparative advantage is realized through imports. While Korea has been mostly exporting goods of high quality, its major trading partners import products based on price and selection of goods. In order for Korea’s e-commerce to grow, a more strategic approach is necessary. A strategy of high price based on superior quality is not effective, and as e-commerce has radically reduced sales and marketing costs, so a price reduction needs to be reflected in the price of goods for consumers.

The theory of third order inference is a theory of how cultural beliefs influence individuals' decisions under conditions of interdependence and uncertainty. In this study, I build on prior work extending the theory to the role of third order information on social trust in public goods dilemmas. Namely, I argue that when second order information on the beliefs of those relevant to the group task are present, this information should influence decision-making over first and third order.

I test this argument in an experimental public goods game. After measuring first order social trust, participants are randomly sorted into one of four conditions – two that pair third and second order information on social trust as parallel and two that pair them as in conflict.

The results suggest that in the presence of second order information on social trust, third order information doesn't have an effect on cooperation.

The study extends the theory of third order inference to understanding the role of social trust at the first, second, and third levels in public goods dilemmas. It puts second order information in competition with third order in predicting cooperation. It suggests that resolving the uncertainty over the second order beliefs of a collective is key to preventing inefficient equilibriums when second and third order beliefs conflict.

Classical economics recognizes three categories of inputs into production: land, labor, and capital goods. The three factors are also germane to Austrian economics.

The aim of this paper is to shed light on recent debates in this journal on differences in home‐region orientation depending on type of company and the home region in which they are based.

The paper looks at the structure of trade (imports and exports) across different types of goods in order to shed light on differences between sectors and types of technology. The paper also explores structures across regions in order to shed light on regional differences.

This research indicates that there are major differences in structures of trade between different types of goods. However, these differences do not necessarily conform to a clear pattern across different technological levels and differ between regions and the direction of trade. The fact that Asian cultures have greater psychic distance from European and North American cultures is not reflected in higher levels of home‐region orientation.

The paper helps to clarify some of the hypotheses on home‐region orientation recently identified in this journal and, thus, helps to advance theories about why this orientation is so prevalent. The main limitations are related to the methodology. Using trade data, the paper cannot define the boundaries of the firm and, therefore, can only make conclusions at the macro level. These conclusions can, nevertheless, help to orient work at the micro level to further explore the key questions which recent work has raised.

Limited comparative work across sectors or technologies has been undertaken in the context of the debate on home‐region orientation. Differentiating between different types of goods can help to give us insights into why so many companies tend to focus so consistently on their home region, while others are more global.

Overview All organisations are, in one sense or another, involved in operations; an activity implying transformation or transfer. The major portion of the body of knowledge concerning operations relates to production in manufacturing industry but, increasingly, similar problems are to be found confronting managers in service industry. It is only in the last decade or so that new technology, involving, in particular, the computer, has encouraged an integrated view to be taken of the total business. This has led to greater recognition being given to the strategic potential of the operations function. In order to provide greater insight into operations a number of classifications have been proposed. One of these, which places operations into categories termed factory, job shop, mass service and professional service, is examined. The elements of operations management are introduced under the headings of product, plant, process, procedures and people.