Establishing psychological relationship between customers and retailers: a study of the small to medium scale clothing retail industry

Purpose The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate how young female customers establish psychological relationships with small- to medium-scale retail stores over time forming purchase intentions, actual purchase patterns and repurchase behaviour. Role of various customer typologies was also considered. Design/methodology/approach A case study approach was implemented to collect and analyse data, where data was collected from 20 young female customers and ten clothing retailers using purposive sampling via semi-structured interviews. Interviews with customers were conducted in a place of their choice such as in a coffee shop, whereas data from retailers were collected in the retail stores. Both online and offline retail patronage was considered to incorporate the growing tendency towards online shopping. Results were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings This study managed to reveal a number of interesting findings on how female customers form and develop psychological relationships with clothing retailers over time that ultimately builds customer loyalty. Customer behaviour in pre-purchase, purchase and re-purchase stages can significantly vary according to their individual perceptions, whereas they have a few favourite clothing brands that they frequently shop for. Preference for online shopping was found to be minimal, most of them enjoying in store experiences. Further, word of mouth and unique designs emerged as key contributors in establishing retail brand loyalty. Practical implications This paper provides better insights for clothing retailers and industry practitioners in understanding how customer perceptions affect clothing purchase decisions. Originality/value This paper contributes to the retail literature by emphasizing on various elements that should be amalgamated through proper synthesis to serve customers. The research is unique as it analyses customer behaviour using a recreational activity model as opposed to marketing models to demonstrate how customers develop relationships with retail brands overtime

Leaders or organisations? A comparison study of factors affecting organisational citizenship behaviour in independent hotels

Purpose - Managers of independent hotels need to maximise organisational citizenship behaviour among employees to gain sufficient competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive environment so it is important to understand what affects it. To achieve this, our study tests if servant leadership, organisational citizenship behaviour and other related constructs have the same relationships between them in two contrasting parts of the world. Design/methodology/approach - Survey data were gathered from managers of independent hotels in Spain (451) and Iran (429). Spain was selected because it is a developed country that is a leading destination for tourists. Iran was chosen as a contrast since it is a developing country with a growing tourist industry. Findings - Our findings show that Spain and Iran demonstrate different patterns of relationships in the selected variables suggesting that Iranians trust their leaders more than the organisational systems while the Spanish trust organisational systems more than their leaders. These results are consistent with Spanish culture having higher individualism than Iranian culture. They are also consistent with Iranian culture prioritising traditional values, such as personal loyalty to managers, and Spanish culture prioritising modern values, such as impersonal rules and objective processes. Research limitations/implications - Our study suggests leadership and justice affects organisational citizenship behaviour in different ways where modern values prevail compared to where traditional values prevail. It suggests that managers of independent hotels in Iran should follow the example of Spanish hotel managers by adopting more objective and fair procedures while showing that inward investors and expatriate managers in Iran should be aware of the importance of personal leadership style. Further research is needed in different countries and regions to improve the generalisability of our findings. Originality/value – Our study contributes to the literature on the application of the servant leadership construct, which was developed in the West, to other regional contexts. It also adds to the literature of independent hotels, which are an important yet under-researched part of the hospitality industry

Perceptions and Responsiveness to Intimacy with Robots; A User Evaluation

In human-robot interactions research it is significant to question what measures humans will take to contest the challenges and what will become of them. Levy hypothesizes that robots will stimulate human senses with their many capabilities and humans will accept them as intimate companions because the human perception of intimacy will transform to accommodate various nuances. However, the question remains, how much humans understand and accept intimacies with robots. We argue that perceptions of human-robot interactions (HRI) and intimate interactions with robots have a certain impact on how individuals comprehend intimacies with robots. Long term contact with robots, in terms of robotic technology and conversations, will change our views and practices regarding intimacy with robots. Our study revealed that lack of awareness of the potentials of future AI robots has created a fear; fear of losing both tangible, intangible, and the sense of dominance. Yet, our participants’ intimate interactions with robots produced varying degree of responses that, we believe are revealing another scope of human-robot interactions

How leadership affects organisational citizenship behaviour – a study of independent hotels

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that managers in independent hotels can influence to improve organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) by examining the relationship between leadership style and OCB through newly developed balanced organisational culture and trust variables. Unlike most studies, which have been on chain hotels, this study investigates these relationships in independent hotels in Iran. Additionally, organisational size was also included in the study. Design/methodology/approach: Using information from Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism 160 independent hotels were identified and approached. A survey was assembled using well-known instruments. 392 usable questionnaires, out of 1150 distributed, were collected from employees and analysed using SEM. Findings: Contrary to previous studies, we found that in this context neither transformational nor transactional leadership affects trust directly but only through balanced organisational culture and only transactional leadership had a direct relationship with OCB. Also, organisational size had a moderating effect on the relationship between trust and OCB. Originality/value: We add to the theoretical literature dealing with the different behaviour of constructs developed in a Western context in other contexts and suggests that hotel managers in a collectivist culture, like Iran, who want to build OCB can do so by creating organisational culture conditions (Balanced Organisational Culture) that foster trust between managers and their subordinate

Valuation of Marine Ecosystem Conservation: A Case Study on Hikkaduwa National Park, Sri Lanka

Hikkaduwa National Park is one of the four marine national parks in Sri Lanka and a main recreational attraction. Hikkaduwa coral reef is a typical shallow fringing reef with an average depth of around 5 metres. However, the reef has suffered high degradation due to both natural and manmade causes. Despite being designated as a protected area, the coral reef has been subjected to constant exploitation including removal of breeding ornamental fish for the commercial market. This stress the need for sustainable management of the resource related to tourism activities. This research aims at providing an economic valuation of coral reef management policy options, using stated preference-choice experimental analysis. Random sampling method was used and 200 visitors were interviewed using pretested questionnaire with different choice sets. Tourists were interviewed onsite from June to July 2019 for data collection. A conditional logit model was employed to analyse the data using STATA14. According to the results, highest number (34%) of respondents had A/L qualifications. Many visitors (50%) were from Gampaha and Colombo Districts. The estimated model is statistically significant with 0.46 pseudo R-sq value. The cost variable is statistically significant but negatively influenced confirming theoretical expectations. The main attributes selected for the study were condition of the coral reef, cleanliness of the beach, condition of the boats and availability of facilities. The condition of the coral reef was considered as an important attribute, but healthy and improved coral reef is insignificant in the model. In addition, bleached and broken coral was a less important variable compared to status quo option. Regarding the attribute of cleanliness of the beach, clean beach and no proper management of beach were less important compared to somewhat clean beach. Condition of the boats were the other attribute presented and new boats with safe jackets were considered as important compared to no safe jackets and old boats and boats with engines that are not properly functioning and with some safe jackets. The significant variables were used to estimate the marginal willingness to pay (WTP) values. According to the results Marginal Willingness To Accept (MWTA) if the corals are bleached and broken is Rs. 711, if the beach is clean Rs. 684 and if not properly managed Rs.66.38. The usefulness of the derived results in guiding the park management are discussed.Keywords: Coral reef, Choice experiment analysis, Hikkaduwa National Park, Sustainable tourism, Willingness to pa

How leadership affects organisational citizenship behaviour – a study of independent hotels

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that managers in independent hotels can influence to improve organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) by examining the relationship between leadership style and OCB through newly developed balanced organisational culture and trust variables. Unlike most studies, which have been on chain hotels, this study investigates these relationships in independent hotels in Iran. Additionally, organisational size was also included in the study. Design/methodology/approach: Using information from Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism 160 independent hotels were identified and approached. A survey was assembled using well-known instruments. 392 usable questionnaires, out of 1150 distributed, were collected from employees and analysed using SEM. Findings: Contrary to previous studies, we found that in this context neither transformational nor transactional leadership affects trust directly but only through balanced organisational culture and only transactional leadership had a direct relationship with OCB. Also, organisational size had a moderating effect on the relationship between trust and OCB. Originality/value: We add to the theoretical literature dealing with the different behaviour of constructs developed in a Western context in other contexts and suggests that hotel managers in a collectivist culture, like Iran, who want to build OCB can do so by creating organisational culture conditions (Balanced Organisational Culture) that foster trust between managers and their subordinates

The generation of compartmentalized nanoparticles containing siRNA and cisplatin using a multi-needle electrohydrodynamic strategy

This study outlines a novel manufacturing technique for the generation of compartmentalized trilayered nanoparticles loaded with an anti-cancer agent and siRNA as a platform for the combination treatment of cancers. More specifically, we describe the use of a multi-needle electrohydrodynamic approach to produce nanoparticles with high size specificity and scalable output, while allowing suitable environments for each therapeutic agent. The inner polylactic-glycolic-acid (PLGA) layer was loaded with cisplatin while the middle chitosan layer was loaded with siRNA. The corresponding polymeric solutions were characterized for their viscosity, surface tension and conductivity, while particle size was determined using dynamic light scattering. The internal structure was studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM). The inclusion of cisplatin was studied using electron dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). We were able to generate nanoparticles of approximate size 130 nm with three distinct layers containing an outer protective PLGA layer, a middle layer of siRNA and an inner layer of cisplatin. These particles have the potential not only for uptake into tumors via the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect but also the sequential release of the siRNA and chemotherapeutic agent, thereby providing a means of overcoming challenges of targeting and tumor drug resistance

Interdependence of Logistics and Tourism: Crafting a Novel Logistics Concept in Tourism

A literal gap has been identified between the concepts of tourism and logistics. Tourism Industry is a dependent industry on Transport, logistics and global supply chain. While all transport modes play an almost equal role of moving the tourists from place to place, logistics plays an indispensable role regarding supply of goods required to fulfil the hospitality needs of tourists. As far as cruise tourism is concerned the entire business model is designed through logistics. Therefore, for the tourism sector to run smoothly the efficient logistics service is required. However, the dependency of the logistics services in an active tourism industry is not explicit other than cruise tourism. This paper reveals a novel concept namely, Tourism Logistics that illustrates the interdependence of Logistics and Tourism. Desk research has been conducted to identify the interdependency of two phenomena while taking the contribution of logistics in the overall supply chain is taken to the limelight. The interdependency of transportation, procurement, delivery and warehousing have been shown via analysis of peer reviewed journal articles regarding interdependency of tourism and logistics. A conceptual model has been introduced to identify the interdependency of tourism and logistics functions, delivery, transportation, warehousing and procurement

Assessing Visitor Preferences and Willingness to pay for Marine National Park Hikkaduwa: application of choice experiment method

Eco-tourism all over the world is threatened by the fact that the coral reefs and associated ecosystems are in a process of disappearing at an accelerated rate due to several natural and anthropogenic causes. In this context, the Marine National Park Hikkaduwa (MNPH), one of the four marine national parks in Sri Lanka, that features a fringing coral reef with a high degree of biodiversity, reports a decreasing trend in visitation mainly due to a condition of coral bleaching caused by an El Nino effect. Unfortunately, the regeneration of the corals is found to be slowed by continuous anthropogenic activities. Against this background, the research focuses on investigating how visitor behaviour changes with the degraded situation and what avenues are available to attract more visitors to ensure benefit flows. In this concern, visitor preferences regarding the quality of the habitats and other facilities and their significance were analysed under a conditional logistic regression model. Further, a choice experiment was carried out with a randomly selected group of 200 visitors to diagnose their response to the present condition of the coral reef, the beach, and the facilities provided. Under a conditional logistic model, it was discovered that the condition of the coral reef is an important attribute that answers the question of why visitors are not willing to pay if the corals are bleached and broken. It was also discovered that the visitors are willing to pay LKR 322.52 if they are provided with new boats and new safety jackets. The results indicate that benefit flows could be enhanced with the restoration of coral ecosystems and the improvement of the physical infrastructure. Overall, the research attempts to establish that the standard maintenance of the coral reef along with high-quality visitor welfare facilities to match visitor preferences will positively impact all types of payment compliance issues with regard to the visitors