How do foreign customers' perceptions of product-harm crises affect their transfer of capability- and character-based stigma?

PurposeCustomers often trace a product-harm crisis to the deviant firm's capability- or character-relevant issues. This study examines how capability- and character-based stigma associated with product-harm crises influence foreign customers' product preferences (i.e. brand affect and purchase intention) for other firms from the same country of origin.Design/methodology/approachQualitative survey data are used to test hypotheses with a structural equation model.FindingsThe authors find that negative capability judgment significantly affects foreign customers' product preferences for other firms from the same country of origin, whereas negative character judgment does not. However, customers' national animosity and product knowledge moderate the stigma spillover effects. Specifically, national animosity and product knowledge weaken the spillover effects of capability-based stigma but strengthen those of character-based stigma.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research could examine strategies for uninvolved firms to avoid the stigma-by-association effect. Moreover, due to the lack of resources to collect data, this study does not investigate how customers' generalized favorability and familiarity with crisis-stricken firms and uninvolved firms moderate the stigma-by-association effect.Originality/valueThe findings of this study advance our knowledge on product-harm crises and the stigma-by-association effect.

The Antineoplastic Role of STAT5 Inhibition in BCRABL1-Positive Cells Exposed to Pimozide Alone and in Combination with Dasatinib and Ponatinib

Background: Though tyrosine kinase inhibitors managed to reach outstanding responses in the treatment of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, resistance is still a challenging point, occurring in approximately 10–20% of the cases, due to several mechanisms. STAT5 expression has been strictly linked to resistance and disease progression and may thus represent a significant target to overcome resistance to TKI in CML. The aim of the study is to explore the in vitro antineoplastic role of the STAT5 inhibitor Pimozide in association with 2nd and 3rd generation inhibitors on chronic myeloid leukemia cells. Methods: The cytotoxic effect was evaluated by the Trypan blue dye exclusion test. K562 cell lines were exposed to pimozide alone and in association with ponatinib and dasatinib at different concentrations to explore the drugs association effect and the in vitro cytotoxic concentrations. Conclusions: Pimozide showed a synergic effect when associated with ponatinib and dasatinib in survival inhibition of K562 cell lines. This results are of note and pave the way for a possible in vivo associations.

Encoding Numbers in the Context of Multiple Overlapping Cues: Evidence from a Chinese Finger Number Cognition Study

How people encode numbers in the context of multiple overlapping encoded cues remains unclear. In this study, we explored Chinese finger numbers, which contain both a numerical magnitude cue and a left-right hand cue offered by the expressing hand, to investigate the number encoding mechanism in the context of multiple overlapping cues. Chinese finger numbers expressed by the left or right hand were randomly and centrally presented on a computer screen to participants who were asked to perform a hand classification task (Experiment 1), a magnitude classification task (Experiment 2), a parity classification task (Experiment 3) and a magnitude classification or ring classification task (Experiment 4). We discovered (a) only an association effect between the pressed key and the expressing hand in hand classification and parity classification tasks, (b) the SNARC effect only on the magnitude classification task, (c) the association effect between the pressed key and the expressing hand on the larger, Chinese finger number, magnitude classification task in Experiment 2, and (d) the SNARC effect and the association between the pressed key and the expressing hand were reversed on the ring classification task. From these results, we concluded that people can flexibly choose appropriate number encoding cues and how numbers are encoded in the context of multiple overlapping cues depending on (a) which cognition task individuals perform and (b) the character of the numbers involved.

Insights Into Defect Arrangements in Y-Doped BaZrO3 From Large-Scale First-Principles Thermodynamic Sampling: Association, Repulsion, Percolation, and Trapping

<div>Y-doped BaZrO₃ is an ion conductor under intense research for application in medium temperature solid oxide fuel cells. The conductivity is maximized at ~20% doping, and the decrease with further doping has often been attributed to the association effect, or the trapping of ionic charge carriers by the dopant. This seems like a reasonable conjecture since the dopant and carrier are charged in opposite polarities</div><div>and should attract each other. However, at such high doping concentrations, many-body interactions between nearby dopants and carriers are likely to modify such a simple two-body attraction picture. Thus, in this work, we employ a large-scale first-principles thermodynamic sampling scheme to directly examine the configuration of dopants and charge-compensating defects at realistic doping concentrations under processing conditions. We find that although there is, indeed, a clear Y_Zr – V_Oassociation effect at all doping concentrations examined, the magnitude of the effect actually decreases with increasing dopant concentration. We also find that Y_Zr–Y_Zrand V_O –V_Ointeractions cannot simply be understood in terms of two-body Coulomb attraction and repulsion, highlighting the importance of many-body effects in understanding the defect chemistry</div><div>in heavily doped oxides. Finally, we examine the dopant configurations and successfully explain the conductivity maximum based on a percolation vs. trapping picture that has gained attention recently.</div>

Insights Into Defect Arrangements in Y-Doped BaZrO3 From Large-Scale First-Principles Thermodynamic Sampling: Association, Repulsion, Percolation, and Trapping

<div>Y-doped BaZrO₃ is an ion conductor under intense research for application in medium temperature solid oxide fuel cells. The conductivity is maximized at ~20% doping, and the decrease with further doping has often been attributed to the association effect, or the trapping of ionic charge carriers by the dopant. This seems like a reasonable conjecture since the dopant and carrier are charged in opposite polarities</div><div>and should attract each other. However, at such high doping concentrations, many-body interactions between nearby dopants and carriers are likely to modify such a simple two-body attraction picture. Thus, in this work, we employ a large-scale first-principles thermodynamic sampling scheme to directly examine the configuration of dopants and charge-compensating defects at realistic doping concentrations under processing conditions. We find that although there is, indeed, a clear Y_Zr – V_Oassociation effect at all doping concentrations examined, the magnitude of the effect actually decreases with increasing dopant concentration. We also find that Y_Zr–Y_Zrand V_O –V_Ointeractions cannot simply be understood in terms of two-body Coulomb attraction and repulsion, highlighting the importance of many-body effects in understanding the defect chemistry</div><div>in heavily doped oxides. Finally, we examine the dopant configurations and successfully explain the conductivity maximum based on a percolation vs. trapping picture that has gained attention recently.</div>