PurposeThis study aims to examine the effects of three self‐congruity constructs: the brand's personality congruity (BPC), the brand's user imagery congruity and the brand's usage imagery congruity, in consumers' attitude and brand loyalty toward two luxury fashion brands.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of Australian consumers, this study examines two luxury fashion brands (CK and Chanel) from two product categories, watches and sunglasses. Structural equation modeling is used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThis study finds that user and usage imagery congruity are stronger predictors for brand attitude and brand loyalty than BPC in the context of the luxury fashion brands tested. Both user and usage imagery congruity have significant effects in brand attitude and brand loyalty in most analyses. This study finds no significant effect of BPC in either brand attitude or brand loyalty for the two brands tested.Research limitations/implicationsFuture studies should include more populations, product categories and more brands in each category.Practical implicationsSymbolic benefits are key motivations behind luxury brand purchases. Symbolic benefits are from non‐product‐related attributes like imagery. One important implication of the study is that user and usage imagery are more important to build than attempts to develop a brand's personality. Because most luxury brands market in multiple product categories, attention should be paid to the core perceptions of user and usage imagery for the brand when designing communication strategies for different categories.Originality/valueThis study provides the first evidence that these self‐congruity concepts may represent different imageries that lead to different effects in brand attitude and brand loyalty. Findings from this study add to the understanding of the consumption of luxury brands.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) are promising for next-generation energy storage. However, the reported electrode materials for ZIBs are facing shortcomings including low capacity and unsatisfactory cycling stability etc. Herein, hexaazatrinaphthalenequione (HATNQ) is reported for aqueous ZIBs. The HATNQ electrodes delivered an ultrahigh capacity (482.5 mAh g À 1 at 0.2 A g À 1 ) and outstanding cyclability of > 10 000 cycles at 5 A g À 1 . The capacity sets a new record for organic cathodes in aqueous ZIBs. The high performances are ascribed to the rich C=O and C=N groups that endowed HATNQ with a 2D layered supramolecular structure by multiple hydrogen bonds in plane with π-π interactions out-of-plane, leading to enhanced charge transfer, insolubility, and rapid ion transport for fast-charge and -discharge batteries. Moreover, the 2D supramolecular structure boosted the storage of Zn 2 + /H + , particularly the storage of Zn 2 + , due to the more favorable O•••Zn•••N coordination in HATNQ.

Purpose -Sex appeal has been widely used in most countries. However, little is known about consumers' responses to sex appeal advertising in different cultures. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of sex appeal on ad and brand evaluation among Australian, Chinese and US consumers. Design/methodology/approach -The paper adopted a three (Australia, China and the USA) £ two (male or female model) £ two (low or high level of sex appeal) between-group factorial design. Findings -Australian, Chinese and US consumers have significantly different attitudes when exposed to the same ad. However, consumer buying intentions towards the advertised brand are not significantly different. Despite the general assumption that Chinese consumers might react least favourably to sex appeal ads, this paper finds that they hold similar attitudes towards sex appeal ads as US consumers and even more favourable attitudes than Australian consumers. Product involvement is found to be a significant covariate.Research limitations/implications -The sample includes young consumers, who may be more tolerant to sex appeal advertising than older generations in China. A similar situation may exist in Australia and the USA. Practical implications -Understanding how consumers in different cultures respond to different advertising appeal strategies is important for international advertisers. Originality/value -This is the first reported empirical study that compares Chinese consumers' responses to sex appeal advertising with those in Western countries. Findings add to the understanding of the standardisation-localisation debate.

Purpose This study contends that consumer ethnocentrism and animosity rest on semantic and episodic memory, respectively. It further examines how the influence of consumer ethnocentrism and animosity on consumer boycott behaviour may vary over time and use the memory theory to explain these temporal differences. Design/methodology/approach Part 1 involved an experiment to demonstrate the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism/animosity and semantic/episodic memory. To determine the temporal characteristics of consumer ethnocentrism and animosity, Part 2 involved two quantitative surveys (one each in China and Japan), followed by another two surveys six months later. Findings Part 1 showed that consumer ethnocentrism and animosity were underpinned by semantic and episodic memory, respectively. Consistent with memory theory, Part 2 found that consumer ethnocentrism was temporally more stable than animosity. Consumer animosity influenced boycott behaviour during but not after the dispute, whereas consumer ethnocentrism influenced boycott behaviour during as well as the dispute. Finally, consumer ethnocentrism was antecedent to consumer animosity, siding with the relationship between semantic and episodic memory. Research limitations/implications Limited to two countries, both with collectivistic culture. A longitudinal approach over multiple phases would further enhance the robustness of the findings. Practical implications Understanding the psychological underpinning of consumer ethnocentrism and animosity would allow firms to develop effective marketing strategies to appeal to consumers’ ethnocentric and animosity dispositions. Originality/value The first study to examine the psychological underpinnings of consumer ethnocentrism and animosity by drawing on the memory theory.

This article examines how consumer ethnocentrism (CE) relates to Chinese consumers’ evaluations of three store signs – Chinese name, English and Chinese name, and both languages along with the country of origin (COO) – for a hypothetical foreign bread shop. From an applied perspective, consumer attitudes and intention to purchase significantly favour the latter strategy. From an academic perspective, CE showed a significant relationship with bi-lingual signs. Compared to low ethnocentric consumers, high ethnocentric consumers had significantly less favourable attitudes and buying intentions towards bi-lingual signs. Ethnocentrism however, showed no relationship with attitudes and intentions towards a sign solely in Chinese. The study also found that COO can moderate the impact of CE on foreign brand evaluations, significantly so for a US brand but insignificant when the COO was Australia. The article closes with academic and applied implications for foreign brand naming strategies in China, as well as future research areas

With expanding applications of hydrogels in diverse fields ranging from biomaterials to sensors, actuators, and soft robotics, there is an urgent need to endow one single gel with multiple physicochemical properties, such as stimuli-responsiveness, injectability, self-healing, and tunable internal structures. However, it is challenging to simultaneously incorporate these highly sought-after properties into one single gel. Herein, a conceptual hydrogel system with all of these properties is presented via combining bioconjugate chemistry, filamentous viruses, and dynamic covalent bonds. Nanofilamentous bioconjugates with diol affinity were prepared by coupling a tailor-synthesized low-pK a phenylboronic acid (PBA) derivative to a well-defined green nanofiber the M13 virus with a high aspect ratio (PBA-M13). Dynamic hydrogels with tunable mechanical strength were prepared by using multiple diol-containing agents such as poly­(vinyl alcohol) to cross-link such PBA-M13 via the classic boronic–diol dynamic bonds. The as-prepared hydrogels exhibit excellent injectability and self-healing behaviors as well as easy chemical accessibility of the PBA moieties on the virus backbone inside the gel matrix. Ordered internal structures were imparted into virus-based hydrogels by simple shear-induced alignment of the virus nanofibers. Furthermore, unique hydrogels with chiral internal structures were fabricated through in situ gelation induced by diffusion of diol-containing molecules to fix the chiral liquid crystal phase of the PBA-M13 virus. Sugar responsiveness of this gel leads to a glucose-regulated release behavior of payloads such as insulin. All of these properties have been implemented at physiological pH, which will facilitate future applications of these hydrogels as biomaterials.

Rich post-buckling phenomena of spherical polymeric shells are revealed by controlled reversible buckling of polydopamine spherical microcapsules.

Purpose -This research was designed in order to explore the gender differences in Chinese consumers' responses to sex appeal advertising. Design/methodology/approach -Experiments were conducted at a university in South China with a total of 157 commerce students. Four advertisements, designed for the same fictional brand but featuring different genders and different levels of sex appeal, were tested in the experiments. Data analyses were conducted using t-tests and ANOVA tests. Findings -When comparing the male and female differences in the responses to the ads, it was found that males and females only differed significantly when they were exposed to the ad featuring a male model with the low level of sex appeal. No significant differences were found between male and female consumers regarding the other three ads featuring the male model with the high level of sex appeal or featuring the female model with the low or high level of sex appeal. Further analyses on male or female consumers' responses to the four ads found that females had significantly different attitudes towards the ads, whereas males did not. Research limitations/implications -Using a convenient sample and testing only one product category were two major limitations of this study. Future research should adopt a more representative sample and test different product categories. Practical implications -The findings of this study suggest that international advertisers need to take careful consideration if they are going to use sex appeal in their advertising to the Chinese consumers. Particularly, they must first take into account whether an ad targets a male or female audience. Originality/value -This article is the first empirical study on mainland Chinese consumers' responses to sex appeal advertising. It provides significant insight into gender differences among Chinese consumers regarding different sex appeal advertising strategies.