PurposeThis study's first objective is to experimentally examine the effect of brand‐cause fit and campaign duration on company and brand image, commercial objectives and buying intention as perceived by Japanese consumers. Second, the study aims to evaluate the moderating role of gender and participation in philanthropic activities on the impact of cause‐related marketing (CrM) programs in Japan.Design/methodology/approachAn experimental design was used with 196 Japanese subjects completing a survey online.FindingsA high brand‐cause fit was found to elicit more positive attitudes toward the CrM program than campaign duration. Japanese female respondents were showing more favorable attitudes than men, confirming results in previous research studies conducted in the West. Previous participation in philanthropic activities was also found to increase positive attitudes especially when brand‐cause fit and duration were high.Research limitations/implicationsThe experiment relied on fictitious advertising materials. Many respondents were students from the greater Tokyo area. This may make it difficult to generalize findings to a broader population.Practical implicationsResults show that CrM campaigns in Japan are viewed more positively when consumers perceive a good match between the brand and the cause. Japanese marketers targeting women and consumers with philanthropic experience are likely to benefit by supporting matching social causes.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to contribute to better understanding of the impact of CrM in Japan. It does confirm the gender effect previously observed in western countries.

Bacterial adhesion to and subsequent colonization of surfaces are the first steps toward forming biofilms, which are a major concern for implanted medical devices and in many diseases. It has generally been assumed that strong irreversible adhesion is a necessary step for biofilm formation. However, some bacteria, such as Escherichia coli when binding to mannosylated surfaces via the adhesive protein FimH, adhere weakly in a mode that allows them to roll across the surface. Since single-point mutations or even increased shear stress can switch this FimH-mediated adhesion to a strong stationary mode, the FimH system offers a unique opportunity to investigate the role of the strength of adhesion independently from the many other factors that may affect surface colonization. Here we compare levels of surface colonization by E. coli strains that differ in the strength of adhesion as a result of flow conditions or point mutations in FimH. We show that the weak rolling mode of surface adhesion can allow a more rapid spreading during growth on a surface in the presence of fluid flow. Indeed, an attempt to inhibit the adhesion of strongly adherent bacteria by blocking mannose receptors with a soluble inhibitor actually increased the rate of surface colonization by allowing the bacteria to roll. This work suggests that (i) a physiological advantage to the weak adhesion demonstrated by commensal variants of FimH bacteria may be to allow rapid surface colonization and (ii) antiadhesive therapies intended to prevent biofilm formation can have the unintended effect of enhancing the rate of surface colonization.Biofilms consist of surface-associated colonies of bacteria (11, 45) and are a major concern for implanted medical devices and in many diseases. They are the dominant mode of bacterial life in nature and exist on biological as well as abiotic surfaces (11,45). Eradication of biofilms is more problematic than that of bacteria in the planktonic mode of growth, since biofilms are resistant to innate host defenses (21, 32, 51), mechanical removal, and antibiotic treatments (6, 52). Therefore, a more promising strategy that has been proposed is to prevent biofilm formation through interference with the earliest steps of formation (11,38,45). Surface adhesion, defined as the binding of a planktonic bacterium to a surface, is the first step, and it is generally assumed that strong irreversible adhesion is necessary for biofilm formation (9,14). The next step is surface colonization, defined as the spread of adherent bacteria across a surface through division. It has been suggested that biofilms can be prevented by restricting these early stages of colonization by blocking specific receptor-ligand interactions with soluble inhibitors or antibodies that block adhesion rather than prevent bacterial growth (39).Escherichia coli binding via the protein FimH provides a model system for studying surface adhesion and colonization for two reasons. First, E. coli is the most common cause of both urinary tract infections (22, 23) and bi...

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