Linking the dots among destination images, place attachment, and revisit intentions:A study among British and Russian tourists

Limited evidence suggests that the incorporation of both image components (cognitive, affective, and conative) and holistic image is meaningful for predicting tourists' revisit intentions. Extending this line of research, the present study aims to unravel the relative influence that each component of image has directly and indirectly, via holistic image, on revisit intentions. In doing so, we incorporate two national samples (British and Russians) of diverse tourist profile and significantly different levels of visitation frequency to investigate place attachment as a moderator. Evidence from 1362 British and 1164 Russian tourists indicated that all image components have a positive indirect effect on revisit intention via holistic image, while conative has also a direct one. As expected, the image components rank differently for British and Russian tourists. The indirect effects of destination images on revisit intention, except conative, are conditional and, interestingly, most of these are stronger for tourists with low PA

Quality in bank service encounters: Assessing the equivalence of customers’ and front-line employees’ perceptions

Purpose: The paper discusses the need to evaluate perception-based quality in service encounters. It sets out to diagnose potential mismatches in how customers and front-line employees perceive quality in high involvement service settings, based on the premise that any initiatives towards quality enhancement in service encounters is advisable only when employees and customers evaluate quality utilizing common perceptual structures. Design/methodology/approach: The study utilizes invariance analysis. The survey involved 165 bank branches and 1522 respondents (463 front-line employees and 1059 customers) and operationalized the same set of questions for both groups of participants. Multisample Confirmatory Factor Analysis tested a series of measurement models. Findings: Results revealed equivalence for tangibles, responsiveness, and assurance but also mismatches between customers and front-line employees perceptions of reliability and empathy. Practical implications: Findings add to current knowledge of how both groups of participants evaluate quality in service encounters and are discussed with reference to managerial consequences for perception-based quality mismatches. Originality/value: So far only a few studies have simultaneously examined front-line employees’ and customers’ perceptions of service quality in service encounters. Unlike previous research designs, this study addresses the critical aspect of potential mismatches in how customers and employees perceive service quality, and presents a methodological procedure to detect them

Destination images, holistic images and personal normative beliefs: Predictors of intention to revisit a destination

This research examines the complex relationship between components of images of destinations and behavioral intentions, incorporating two pivotal constructs that have not been explored in the related literature, namely holistic image and personal normative beliefs (PNBs). Previous studies incorporating destination images as predictors of intention to revisit have mostly investigated their direct effect. This research integrates holistic image as a mediator and PNBs as a moderating variable. The findings verify the mediating role of holistic image for predicting tourists’ intentions to revisit a destination, supporting a model that incorporates a partial effect and two indirect mediations. Interestingly, only affective and conative images contribute to the prediction of tourists’ intentions to revisit a destination through the holistic image towards this destination. Moreover, PNBs moderate the effect that conative destination images have on tourists’ holistic images. Practically, the research sheds light to factors that affect tourists' tendency to select a tourism destination, which can serve as a basis for tailoring the effective positioning of destinations

Διερεύνηση δυνατότητας παραγωγής εμπλουτισμένων προιόντων λιγνίτη με τη μέθοδο της εκλεκτικής αλάττωσης μεγέθους και τη χρήση της μεθόδου των βαρέων διαμέσων

Περίληψη: Μη διαθέσιμ

Αξιολόγηση λιγνιτικών γεωτρήσεων από περιοχές λόφων Φλώρινας και Δομένικου Ελασσόνας

Μη διαθέσιμη περίληψηNot available summarizatio

Estimating Soil Clay Content Using an Agrogeophysical and Agrogeological Approach: A Case Study in Chania Plain, Greece

Thorough knowledge of soil lithology and its properties are of considerable importance to agriculture. These parameters have a direct impact on water permeability and the content of the water in soil, which represent significant factors in crop yield, decisively determining the design of irrigation systems and farming processes. In the framework of this study, and considering the inevitable impacts of climate change, the rational management of water resources and the optimization of irrigation through innovative technologies become of significant importance. Thus, we propose an interdisciplinary approach based on robust techniques from the allied fields of earth (geological mapping, geophysical methods) and soil sciences (sampling, mechanical analysis) assisted by statistics and GIS techniques. Clay or the sum of clay and silt soil content is successfully determined from the normalized chargeability using induced polarization and electrical resistivity techniques. Finally, we distinguished three classes (S1, S2 and S3) considering the clay or the sum of clay and silt soil content in the study area (a) based on the dry period geophysical data and (b) using as classification criterion the spatial distribution of the geological formations

Determinants of Global Reporting Initiative report: a comparative study between USA and European companies

Summarization: The paper intends to increase the understanding of the diffusion of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report standard. It specifically investigates the main determinants which influence the decision behind publishing the CSR report according to Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guideline standards. Two different samples were employed for the year 2019: United States (US) listed companies in S&P 500 and European companies listed in STOXX Europe 600. Three main aspects were considered regarding the potential determinants: Board of Directors (BoD) attributes, company commitment to CSR network, such as United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), and interactions with CSR management standardization institutions (such as ISO 14000). BoD's attributes comprise of three main dimensions, namely, non-executive directors, Chief Executive Officers' (CEO) duality situations, and board gender diversity (BGD). From an agency-oriented theory, US companies with more non-executive directors in BoD are more likely to publish a CSR report in accordance with GRI guideline standards. In addition, CEO duality situation is a crucial factor behind publishing a GRI report only for the US companies reducing the likelihood of companies to publish a GRI report. Furthermore, the results revealed that BGD (more women) favorably affects the decision for the CSR information dissemination under GRI requirements for both US and European companies. Under the prism of legitimacy theory, the commitment to CSR networks and the interaction with CSR management standardization institutions seems to increase the likelihood to publish GRI so as to obtain the social “license to operate” to continue their business operations. The obtained results are crucial since they provide useful implications to dominant stakeholders, mainly to shareholders and BoD, socially responsible investors (SRI) and to regulators and policymakers.Presented on: Sustainable Production and Consumptio