Zooming in on co-creation practices of international franchisors

There is limited knowledge on value co-creation in international franchising despite the collaborative nature of this major foreign entry mode. This article zooms in on international franchisors' co-creation practices through in-depth interviews with 28 French franchisors and 25 of their foreign franchisees, offering three main contributions. First, the interviews reveal that franchisors do not always co-create value with their franchisees. Instead, franchisor-franchisee co-dependency manifests in both value co-creation and facilitation. Second, this research offers a typology of the domains of co-creation in franchising, showing that franchisors can participate in foreign franchisees' value creation processes during the set up and launch of the franchise abroad, training and knowledge dissemination, adaptation of the offering, and management of problems. Third, it offers a typology of seven franchisor co-creation styles – mentor, custodian, broker, partner, strategically focused, controlling principal, and chameleon – and their underlying dimensions in terms of franchisor activities and preferences. The mapping of co-creation domains and styles offers international franchisors a detailed account of the practical ways to support their foreign franchisees' value creation processes depending on their preferences, resources, and capabilities.This work was supported by the French Franchising Federation (FFF), grant FFFCR803/E460/AS12CVHRXX

A PREDICITON MODEL BASED ON STUDENTS’S BEHAVIOR IN E-LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS USING DATA MINING TECHNIQUES

E-Learning has become an essential teaching approach during the COVID-19 pandemic. All over the world, various internet-based learning management systems (Google classroom, Moodle, etc.) were adopted to convey knowledge and enhance learning outcomes. However, measuring learning outcomes and knowledge acquisition in E-Learning environment is a controversial issue. To this end, this paper aims to predict learning outcomes using data mining techniques.  Student data are collected and analyzed to construct the prediction model. The collected data covered students from various undergraduate studies. Cross-Industry Standard Process for Data Mining is used as a research model. The obtained result shows the significant of some attributes in predicting learning outcomes. Four correlation-based attributes selection schemas are applied. The selected attributes are examined using four data mining algorithms: random forest, k-nearest neighbors, Decision Tree, and neural network. The overall performance of the constructed mining models is evaluated using various performance measures: Accuracy, Precision, Recall and F1-score are calculated. Overall, an 86% accuracy is secured

The effect of service failure severity on brand forgiveness: the moderating role of interpersonal attachment styles and thinking styles

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of service failure severity on brand forgiveness and to investigate the moderating effects of interpersonal attachment styles and thinking styles on the service failure severity–brand forgiveness relationship. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used retrospective experience sampling to collect the data and structural equation modeling (AMOS 24) to analyze 570 responses collected via an online survey. Findings: This study shows that the service failure severity–brand forgiveness relationship is not always negative, as different conditions may amplify or weaken it. Specifically, a secure attachment style and holistic thinking weaken the negative impact of service failure severity on brand forgiveness, whereas an anxious attachment style and analytic thinking negatively amplify the relationship. An avoidance attachment style did not appear to play a role. Practical implications: This study should help hotels fine-tune their segmentation, targeting and positioning efforts and may also help in implementing more focused recovery strategies. Originality/value: This study provides insights into the role of psychological traits in amplifying/reducing the negative impact of service failure severity on brand forgiveness, thus showing the importance of developing the psychological profiles of customers beyond demographic profiling. The emotional and cognitive typologies of consumers are key to understanding the dependence of forgiveness on service failure severity

Stereotyping human-like virtual influencers in retailing: Does warmth prevail over competence?

Building upon the Stereotype Content Model (SCM), the current research provides insights into how virtual influencers (VIs) influence consumer responses. More specifically, it investigates the associations between the VI's anthropomorphism and stereotypical judgments of the VI's warmth and competence as well as the differential and mediating roles of these stereotypes in influencing consumers' willingness to follow the VI's recommendations and purchase intentions. The results support the idea that anthropomorphizing VIs has a direct bearing on stereotyping VIs along the competence and warmth dimensions of the SCM. Consistent with the "Primacy-of-Warmth Effect" hypothesis, the study's findings show that perceived warmth, compared to perceived competence, is positively more associated with consumers' willingness to follow the VI's recommendations. Furthermore, the findings reveal that perceived warmth mediates the association between the VI's anthropomorphism and consumers' willingness to follow the VI's recommendations. However, the findings lend partial support to the mediating role of competence. The willingness to follow the VI's recommendations, in turn, is positively associated with purchase intention. The paper wraps up with some implications for research and practice.Scopu

Stereotyping human-like virtual influencers in retailing: Does warmth prevail over competence?

Building upon the Stereotype Content Model (SCM), the current research provides insights into how virtual influencers (VIs) influence consumer responses. More specifically, it investigates the associations between the VI's anthropomorphism and stereotypical judgments of the VI's warmth and competence as well as the differential and mediating roles of these stereotypes in influencing consumers' willingness to follow the VI's recommendations and purchase intentions. The results support the idea that anthropomorphizing VIs has a direct bearing on stereotyping VIs along the competence and warmth dimensions of the SCM. Consistent with the “Primacy-of-Warmth Effect” hypothesis, the study's findings show that perceived warmth, compared to perceived competence, is positively more associated with consumers' willingness to follow the VI's recommendations. Furthermore, the findings reveal that perceived warmth mediates the association between the VI's anthropomorphism and consumers' willingness to follow the VI's recommendations. However, the findings lend partial support to the mediating role of competence. The willingness to follow the VI's recommendations, in turn, is positively associated with purchase intention. The paper wraps up with some implications for research and practice

Identifying patterns of alumni commitment in key strategic relationship programmes

Higher education institutions (HEIs) need to understand their alumni when drawing strategic relationship programmes. This paper aims to identify clusters of alumni based on their commitment relationship and to analyse factors influencing their intention to collaborate with the HEI. The study took place at a Portuguese university, considering a dataset of 1075 of alumni asserting intention to collaborate. First, a cluster analysis was conducted to identify patterns of commitment relationship. Secondly, a logistic regression was run to identify determinants of intention to collaborate. Both techniques revealed the decisive role of HEI commitment in the process. Relationship advantages and positive feelings towards the HEI were also pointed out as important. Alumni asserted recommendations, further training, sharing experiences and giving help as ways to collaborate with HEI. Regression results suggest that sociodemographic variables such as gender, marital status and volunteering are significantly associated with a probability to collaborate. Results also show that affiliation in sororities/fraternities and participation in extracurricular activities are significantly associated with that collaborative intention. The findings provide clues to support strategic relationship programmes based on consistent marketing campaigns, while bringing value to the literature in the European context, where alumni culture requires real insights to evolve.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Prospective student orientation in higher education: Development of the construct

The aim of this paper is to conceptualise and empirically examine the constructs that constitute the concept of Prospective Student Orientation (PSO). Using a discovery-oriented approach, conducted by supplementing educational and marketing literatures with in-depth interviews from 21 marketing personnel in seven different UK universities, the authors identified three second-order formative constructs to measure the concept of PSO. These three constructs were then validated using rigorous and different statistical techniques. The study confirms that the measurement instrument for PSO, which consists of 36 items, can be validly and reliably measured using the six multi-item components: information generation; information use; interfunctional coordination; intrafunctional coordination; managing recruitment and promotional activity; and managing prospective student interactions. The effect of PSO on university business performance and university selectivity was also hypothesised and tested using structural equation modelling

Strategic orientations and capabilities' effect on SMEs' performance

Purpose: This study aims to: first, examine the effect of interaction orientation (IO) and brand orientation (BO) on marketing capabilities and small and medium enterprises' (SMEs') performance, and second, assess the complementarity effect of IO and BO on marketing capabilities and SMEs' performance. Design/methodology/approach: A model was developed and tested using a survey methodology. Data were collected from 538 SMEs located in Qatar and analysed by structural equation modelling with AMOS. Findings: First, IO affects SMEs' performance only indirectly via marketing capabilities, whereas BO affects SMEs' performance both directly and indirectly. Second, contrary to expectations, the complementarity between IO and BO produced a destructive/suppressive effect, rather than a synergistic effect, on both marketing capabilities and SMEs' performance, reflecting the importance of a trade-off to enhance both marketing capabilities and SMEs' performance. Originality/value: To the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to examine the complementary effect of BO and IO on marketing capabilities and performance