If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.Abstract Examines consumers' perception of brands as influenced by their origins and the differences in classification ability between consumers' knowledge levels. Specifically, culture-of-brand-origin (COBO) is proposed to have replaced country-oforigin (COO) as the most important origin influence regarded by consumers in their perceptions of brands. Culture-of-brand-origin is used to mean the cultural origin or heritage of a brand. Data were gathered from 459 respondents in the Asian city of Singapore; and used to assess Singaporean consumers' ability to classify the cultural origins of fashion clothing brands. This was compared to their ability to classify the country origins of the same brands. Six brands were used in a between-subjects design, with three brands of western countries and three of eastern countries. Results indicate that consumers can more readily identify the cultural origin of brands over their countryof-origin. Reveals that a consumer's ability to make this distinction is influenced by the consumer's perception of how well he/she knows the brand. IntroductionBrand names have become increasingly valuable assets for many companies in an age of growing globalised business. In a cluttered marketplace, brand names are very nearly the last source of differentiation for providers of products and services that are readily emulated with easy access to the technology and information available today.

Background/Aims: Neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) can affect cognitive function. We assessed cognitive function and cognitive impairment among community-dwelling elderly in a multi-ethnic urban low-SES Asian neighborhood and compared them with a higher-SES neighborhood. Methods: The study population involved all residents aged ≥60 years in two housing estates comprising owner-occupied housing (higher SES) and rental flats (low SES) in Singapore in 2012. Cognitive impairment was defined as <24 on the Mini Mental State Examination. Demographic/clinical details were collected via questionnaire. Multilevel linear regression was used to evaluate factors associated with cognitive function, while multilevel logistic regression determined predictors of cognitive impairment. Results: Participation was 61.4% (558/909). Cognitive impairment was found in 26.2% (104/397) of residents in the low-SES community and in 16.1% (26/161) of residents in the higher-SES community. After adjusting for other sociodemographic variables, living in a low-SES community was independently associated with poorer cognitive function (β = –1.41, SD = 0.58, p < 0.01) and cognitive impairment (adjusted odds ratio 5.13, 95% CI 1.98–13.34). Among cognitively impaired elderly in the low-SES community, 96.2% (100/104) were newly detected. Conclusion: Living in a low-SES community is independently associated with cognitive impairment in an urban Asian society.

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This study examines consumer brand associations, focusing on the differences in price perceptions, self-image, and brand -image congruency held for Western and Eastern brands of fashion clothing by young Singaporeans. The study also examines consumer ethnocentric tendencies (CET), finding very low levels of ethnocentrism among respondents, and that ethnocentrism had no effect on brand preference or purchase intention for brands from different origins. ᭧

This study examines consumer brand associations, focusing on the differences between association held for western brands and eastern brands by young Singaporeans under the country-of-origin umbrella. The study also examines consumer ethnocentric tendencies (CET), finding very low levels of ethnocentrism among respondents, and results indicate CET had no effect on brand preference or purchase intention.