Group number:         2838 Research Questions:  Does the country of origin influence Thai consumers’ buying decision towards beer purchasing?  What are the consumers’ attitudes and perception towards beer consumption? Purpose: The authors aim to explore the effect of COO towards beer purchasing behavior of Thai consumer. The research study examines the attitudes of Thai consumers in terms of the beer purchasing based on two aspects: foreign and domestic brands. Method: Qualitative approach and quantitative approach was used in order to get the primary data. Questionnaire online were sent out 247 forms to the respondents and get the response 240 forms that could answers the question effectively. Interviews also were conducted with ten beer drinkers. Furthermore, several articles, researches, and literatures were used to strengthen reliability of the paper and improve the validity as well. Conclusion: Based on the study results, country of origin does not affect much in consumers’ buying decision in term of low-involvement products. Also country of origin showed that can influence consumer first purchasing activity. The research also portrayed when consumers have more knowledge or experience other cues such as price and taste have definitely effects in their buying decision more than Country of Origin factors.

Purpose The main purpose of the research is to continue to the understanding of the relationship between the country-of-origin effects and automobile evaluation and apply the Extended COO-ELM model(Bloemer, Brijs and Kasper, 2009) for the cognitive processes underlying country of  origin-effects. The study also aims to give managers some information to assess consumer's purchase intentions of car and assist them in managing their product's COO. Design/methodology/approach A self-administered survey was used in this study.The main samples consist of the 31 students in Linnaeus university from more than 10 countries.The Spss software was used to analyze the empirical data which provide the source of judging three hypothesis of the study. Findings The results indicated the impact of country of origin on automobile evaluation is mainly moderated by other prior country-product knowledge rather than the perceived economic development.In addition, the different cognitive processes  underlying country of origin-effects occur when responders evaluating Chinese automobile and Swedish automobile Originality?Value The paper applies ELM model with extensions.This finding yields some insight for the efficiency in marketing strategy of Chinese car and Swedish car. By designing the marketing strategy more efficiently, the managers will subsequently make a better decision of how brand and country of origin should be managed. Paper type Research paper

¡@¡@Famous for its products all made in Taiwan and relatively cheap prices, Lativ is one of the popular clothes brands in Taiwan. By a great deal of key word advertising, Lativ gets its popularity and makes its sales rise tremendously. However, taking into consideration of ascending product costs and limited production in Taiwan, Lativ decided to change the location of production lines from Taiwan to China and Vietnam in the beginning of 2012. The issue of production difficulties in Taiwan comes again. In this cosmopolitan trend of division of labour, it's a tough problem that clothes companies in Taiwan could boost the taste of customers in Taiwan by the feature of products made in Taiwan. This research into the change of the customers' tastes with varied brands and different places of production is to find the new way for clothes companies in Taiwan to manage. Country image and other variables are discussed and select to form research model. The goal of this research is to find the relationship between country image and consumers' perceived quality. Another goal is to find the moderator effect between country image and consumers' perceived quality. Sample of 328 collected through questionnaire survey from field and online, and hypotheses were tested by regression analysis. ¡@¡@The result showed that there is a significant relationship between the country image and consumers' perceived quality, and the brand awareness is a moderator between the country image and consumers' perceived quality. The result also indicated that the higher country's design image, prestige, and workmanship image leaded to higher consumer's perceived quality. But country's innovation image did nothing to consumer's perceived quality. Furthermore, brand awareness is a moderator only between the country's design image and consumers' perceived quality. Based on the result, suggestions are as followed: clothing store can claim "brand in Taiwan" instead of "made in Taiwan." They can cooperate with the competitor or form horizontal alliances to increase Taiwan's design image which increase consumer's perceived quality.

As a result of the internet & digital technology developing rapidly, the effectiveness of communication between countries has improved dramatically, thus giving birth to the concept of a global village-replacing the idea of traditional country land. The positions of cities becomes increasingly important day by day, and becomes a country¡¦s critical centre point for its existence & development. The modern idea of city country induces the attention & sparks discussion amongst people all over the world, Therefore, questions of how to improve the marketing of a city, how to increase the rate of development of a city, and how to promote competition within a city become the main focus of international cities. City marketing becomes the key point in whether a city succeeds or failures in the global market. For this reason, the main point of research will be how local governments, can excel in city marketing, better understand the professional process of marketing management including object, analysis, project, performance, evaluation, and how the information office can assist as well as act as the framework of the organization. This research paper is written on the topic of ¡§the analysis and research for the function and position of city marketing in governmental information office¡¨. It adopts the method of question investigation, and uses statistics of material in researching the reason for all hypotheses. The targets for investigation include the information officers and journalists from 23 counties. There are 177 valid samples in total, discovering that 80% of counties understand the importance of city marketing, and promote it positively. Both ¡¨Propagating decree of Government¡¨ and ¡§City Marketing¡¨ are the key points, as well as, developing internet technologies, e-city, combining public & private resources, uniting unbeneficial organizations, encouraging citizens to attend public affairs, etc. The above mentioned promoting strategies should be performed positively. As for the problem of the existence of information office, 90% of those who answered thought it was necessary, and over 80% of those who answered want the information office expanded and its functions reinforced. By collecting the domestic and foreign documents, successful examples of city marketing and analysis of investigation statistics, this research will supply some suggestions and opinions to the reorganization of local governments. Key words: city country, city marketing, marketing management

Abstract According to Standard & Poor, the market of the global medical devices of orthopedics in 2002 is $13 billion , the U.S.A market accounts for the always selling of 60%, about $7,6 billion, there is 13% to 16% increasing in every year, it is estimated that will growing up over twice within ten years , Currently, Taiwan market of the artificial joint products which mainly come from importing in foreign countries, such as Zimmer , J&J DePuy , Stryker,Wright , Smith&Nephew and British¡¦s company of Biomet ,etc. And Taiwanese medical device of orthopedics companies shares less 1% of global orthopedics market. In general speaking, besides U.S.A market, the market of Mainland China can be expected to grow up 20-30% in every year; the annual increasing in Japan and South Korea. are about 10-15%; Taiwan market also annual grow up 4-6% . The rest of Asian countries of healthcare insurance systems do not build up well so far. These countries will strong and increasing the national income and aging population in future, it is expected that the market scale will be expanded day by day. Case study found the orthopedics apparatus industry of development is influenced by government medical devices regulation and reimbursement system. Due to the loss of medical expenditure and reimbursement system reform that threaten to influence the development of transnational medical devices of orthopedics directly, relatively but the opportunity to medical device of orthopedics of native country of Taiwan enterprises. The manufacturer of Taiwan is one of the international division system, have ability to manufacture and development. Taiwan becomes the center of research and development, stand firm in the most key position in the value chain of production. Then could keep the advantage manufacture in abroad and maintain it with international factory's strategic partner's relationship. Key words: Medical devices, Transnational enterprises, Native country of Taiwan enterprises , Orthopedics apparatus , Competitiveness advantage

During our study trip to Tanzania we discovered one of the great issues for farmers to be need of running water. So we asked ourselves: How can water from Lake Victoria be transported to the small scale farmer’s household and farm in the most optimized way? During the stay in North West of Tanzania we made field trips to the rural areas in Mara Region in order to understand the farmers who are the potential users. We performed semi structured interviews and observations during the whole field study. We also came to the conclusion that wind is a good source of power which can be used to pump water. The wind comes in from Lake Victoria in the same direction everyday. So therefore we decided to construct a water pumping wind power station for small scale farmers.

Theodor Adorno’s theory of listener regression describes the process by which music industry forces transform listeners from independent social creatures into passive, compliant consumers of musical product. Listener regression is the basis of the broader theory of culture industry consumer regression which Adorno later developed, by which the culture industry creates and reinforces the passive compliance of consumers of all cultural products. By further extension, it is my theory that listener regression is the key to understanding how the phenomenon of culture industry dominance over its consumers applies to the whole range of non-cultural as well as cultural consumer products. In the second chapter of this paper I discuss how listeners of music industry output are made to regress: through the standardization of musical form, the repetition which flows from standardization and the attention to musical detail which has no formal function. I consider those childhood traits which constitute listener regression. Freud’s theory of regression is discussed and distinguished. It is important to filter out the negativity which infuses much of Adorno’s writing on listener regression. That negativity arises arguably either from Adorno’s own acute musical perception which exceeds the average listener’s or from the era of growing totalitarianism in which he formed his views. That negativity unnecessarily clouds the significance of the relationship between the music industry and average listeners, between the larger culture industry and its consumers, and between the exponentially larger consumer industry and all consumers generally. Country music as the epitome of the kind of “popular music” which Adorno argues results in the regression of its listeners is the topic of the third chapter. I conclude that country music does meet Adorno’s criteria for listener regressive music. I also conclude that within the confines Adorno finds so soul-depriving is amazingly creative music and musicality which responds to some of humankind’s most basic needs. In the last chapter, I discuss music as a fundamental component of human society which responds to some deep social need. By showing us how one segment of the consumer industry has turned that need to its commercial benefit, Adorno’s theory can help show parallels with those profit-motivated forces within other segments of our consumer society, for instance with the manipulation of the basic need for sustenance by the fast-food industry. The paper concludes with a number of observations about the manipulative nature of the powerful commercial pressure put on us as consumers, and offers a suggestion or two for dealing with that pressure.

SUMMARY Lina Kunickaitė The development of country tourism in Šiauliai region. Master’s work. The aim of master thesis “Country tourism in Šiauliai region” is to analyze the activity of Šiauliai region country tourism homesteads and to present the possibilities of these homesteads development. The theoretical part of master thesis will discuss country tourism as business and what place it takes in the tourism system. The experience of foreign countries in countries tourism is generalized; the services rendered by country tourism, business development assumptions in Lithuania and Šiauliai region are analyzed. According to contents analysis data, two the main problems as the influence of tourism law change for the country tourism development, the quality of services, investment and others, with which persons, taking part in country tourism business collide, were distinguished. According to questionnaire poll data, it may be stated that analysis of Šiauliai region country tourism development SWOT will help to distinguish negative factors, the elimination of which will allow efficient development of country tourism.

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This thesis provides an in-depth account of the Low-Country, ritual, drumming tradition of Sri Lanka. Low-Country drumming is characterized by its expressive and illusive sense of timing which makes it appear to be free of beat, pulse and metre. This makes it special in respect to other drumming cultures of the world. However, the drumming of the Low-Country is marginalized, unaccepted and unexposed. Drawing on original fieldwork from the Western province of Sri Lanka, this study analyses the drumming of three distinct rituals: devol maḍuva, Kalu Kumāra samayama and graha pūjāva of Raigama, the dominant sub-tradition of the Low-Country. The thesis reveals key features of the drumming tradition, some of which are hidden. These features include the musical structure that is beneath the surface of the drumming, timing, embellishment, improvisation and performance practice. It also documents the Low-Country drum, the yak beraya, its construction and relationship to the musician. The thesis addresses some of the changes that are occurring in the contemporary ritual and argues the need for the drumming to be brought out of its ritual context, for its survival in the future. It also documents a collaborative performance between Low-Country ritual performers and musicians from New Zealand.