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

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

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

Medicinal Plants with Multiple Effects on Diabetes Mellitus and Its Complications: a Systematic Review

Purpose of Review This systematic review describes evidence concerning medicinal plants that, in addition to exerting hypo- glycemic effects, decrease accompanying complications such as nephropathy, neuropathy, retinopathy, hypertension, and/or hyperlipidemia among individuals with diabetes mellitus (DM). Recent Findings Studies on the antidiabetic mechanisms of medicinal plants have shown that most of them produce hypogly- cemic activity by stimulating insulin secretion, augmenting peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs), inhibiting α- amylase or α -glucosidase, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) secretion, advanced glycation end product (AGE) formation, free radical scavenging plus antioxidant activity (against reactive oxygen or nitrogen species (ROS/RNS)), up-regulating or elevating translocation of glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT-4), and preventing development of insulin resistance. Summary Not only are medicinal plants effective in DM, but many of them also possess a variety of effects on other disease states, including the complications of DM. Such plants may be appropriate a lternatives or adjuncts to availa ble antidiabetic medication

VeriSFQ - A Semi-formal Verification Framework and Benchmark for Single Flux Quantum Technology

In this paper, we propose a semi-formal verification framework for single-flux quantum (SFQ) circuits called VeriSFQ, using the Universal Verification Methodology (UVM) standard. The considered SFQ technology is superconducting digital electronic devices that operate at cryogenic temperatures with active circuit elements called the Josephson junction, which operate at high switching speeds and low switching energy - allowing SFQ circuits to operate at frequencies over 300 gigahertz. Due to key differences between SFQ and CMOS logic, verification techniques for the former are not as advanced as the latter. Thus, it is crucial to develop efficient verification techniques as the complexity of SFQ circuits scales. The VeriSFQ framework focuses on verifying the key circuit and gate-level properties of SFQ logic: fanout, gate-level pipeline, path balancing, and input-to-output latency. The combinational circuits considered in analyzing the performance of VeriSFQ are: Kogge-Stone adders (KSA), array multipliers, integer dividers, and select ISCAS'85 combinational benchmark circuits. Methods of introducing bugs into SFQ circuit designs for verification detection were experimented with - including stuck-at faults, fanout errors, unbalanced paths, and functional bugs like incorrect logic gates. In addition, we propose an SFQ verification benchmark consisting of combinational SFQ circuits that exemplify SFQ logic properties and present the performance of the VeriSFQ framework on these benchmark circuits. The portability and reusability of the UVM standard allows the VeriSFQ framework to serve as a foundation for future SFQ semi-formal verification techniques.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables; submitted, accepted, and presented at ISQED 2019 (20th International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design) on March 7th, 2019 in Santa Clara, CA, US

Organizational justice in the hotel industry: revisiting GLOBE from a national culture perspective

Purpose - Despite its significance, national culture is often underrepresented in the hospitality industry. Implementing tools such as the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE), while valuable to a considerable extent, might induce false assumptions about of the universality of managerial practices for hotels through purposefully ignoring the in-group variations within each cultural cluster. Because employees’ perceptions are deeply rooted in context-specific value systems, this study challenges the tendency to adopt a globalized approach to leadership and management through investigating potential variations in employees’ perceptions in two countries in the south Asian cluster of the GLOBE. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected by using hard-copy and online by convenience-sampling technique from a sample of hotel employees and managers in Iran (392) and India (421). Structural equation modeling using AMOS 22 was adopted to test the hypotheses. Findings - Both similarities and differences were observed between the Iranian and Indian contexts. The similarities confirm that GLOBE is correct to place them in the same regional cluster but the differences which relate to perceptions of organizational justice are also revealing. While Procedural Justice affects organizational factors that influence employee motivation with the Iranian sample, Distributive Justice has no effect, whereas with the Indian sample these results were the other way around. Implications – For scholars and practitioners we show that organizational theories and concepts cannot necessarily be transferred from a Western context to other parts of the world without making adjustments for national culture and generalizations cannot even be made within regions of similar culture. For example, this study shows that in Iran organizational justice is perceived differently from how it is perceived in India. Originality - This study extends the literature about the effect of national culture on the hotel employees’ cognitions and behaviours through shedding light on the divergence between countries within the same regional cluster in the GLOBE classification

Assessment of axial bone rigidity in rats with metabolic diseases using CT-based structural rigidity analysis

Objectives: This study aims to assess the correlation of CT-based structural rigidity analysis with mechanically determined axial rigidity in normal and metabolically diseased rat bone. Methods: A total of 30 rats were divided equally into normal, ovariectomized, and partially nephrectomized groups. Cortical and trabecular bone segments from each animal underwent micro-CT to assess their average and minimum axial rigidities using structural rigidity analysis. Following imaging, all specimens were subjected to uniaxial compression and assessment of mechanically-derived axial rigidity. Results: The average structural rigidity-based axial rigidity was well correlated with the average mechanically-derived axial rigidity results (R$^2$ = 0.74). This correlation improved significantly (p < 0.0001) when the CT-based Structural Rigidity Analysis (CTRA) minimum axial rigidity was correlated to the mechanically-derived minimum axial rigidity results (R$^2$ = 0.84). Tests of slopes in the mixed model regression analysis indicated a significantly steeper slope for the average axial rigidity compared with the minimum axial rigidity (p = 0.028) and a significant difference in the intercepts (p = 0.022). The CTRA average and minimum axial rigidities were correlated with the mechanically-derived average and minimum axial rigidities using paired t-test analysis (p = 0.37 and p = 0.18, respectively). Conclusions: In summary, the results of this study suggest that structural rigidity analysis of micro-CT data can be used to accurately and quantitatively measure the axial rigidity of bones with metabolic pathologies in an experimental rat model. It appears that minimum axial rigidity is a better model for measuring bone rigidity than average axial rigidity

Microstructural, Densitometric and Metabolic Variations in Bones from Rats with Normal or Altered Skeletal States

Background: High resolution μCT, and combined μPET/CT have emerged as non-invasive techniques to enhance or even replace dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) as the current preferred approach for fragility fracture risk assessment. The aim of this study was to assess the ability of µPET/CT imaging to differentiate changes in rat bone tissue density and microstructure induced by metabolic bone diseases more accurately than current available methods. Methods: Thirty three rats were divided into three groups of control, ovariectomy and vitamin-D deficiency. At the conclusion of the study, animals were subjected to glucose (18FDG) and sodium fluoride (Na18F) PET/CT scanning. Then, specimens were subjected to µCT imaging and tensile mechanical testing. Results: Compared to control, those allocated to ovariectomy and vitamin D deficiency groups showed 4% and 22% (significant) increase in 18FDG uptake values, respectively. DXA-based bone mineral density was higher in the vitamin D deficiency group when compared to the other groups (cortical bone), yet μCT-based apparent and mineral density results were not different between groups. DXA-based bone mineral density was lower in the ovariectomy group when compared to the other groups (cancellous bone); yet μCT-based mineral density results were not different between groups, and the μCT-based apparent density results were lower in the ovariectomy group compared to the other groups. Conclusion: PET and micro-CT provide an accurate three-dimensional measurement of the changes in bone tissue mineral density, as well as microstructure for cortical and cancellous bone and metabolic activity. As osteomalacia is characterized by impaired bone mineralization, the use of densitometric analyses may lead to misinterpretation of the condition as osteoporosis. In contrast, µCT alone and in combination with the PET component certainly provides an accurate three-dimensional measurement of the changes in both bone tissue mineral density, as well as microstructure for cortical and cancellous bone and metabolic activity