Psychological contract violation and customer intention to reuse online retailers:exploring mediating and moderating mechanisms

This study examines the impact of psychological contract violation (PCV) on customer intention to reuse online retailer websites via the mediating mechanisms of trust and satisfaction. The moderating role of perceived structural assurance (SA) is also investigated. An empirical study conducted among online shoppers confirms the indirect effects of PCV on customers’ intention to reuse via trust and satisfaction. The findings also support the moderating impact of perceived SA in the network of relationships. The study underscores the importance of SA as a trust-building mechanism for mitigating the deleterious effects of PCV among online customers, although the role of SA in preserving satisfaction is found to be limited. The findings suggest that online retailers may benefit by investing in SA and addressing the negative effects of PCV proactively rather than simply relying on post-failure service recovery mechanisms

A comparison of international HRM practices by Indian and European MNEs : evidence from Africa

By comparing the HRM practices in Indian and European MNE subsidiaries located in four of the Southern African Development Community countries, this paper tests the relevance of the country of origin effect and analyses the strength of institutional and firm level influences. Examining data from 865 MNE subsidiaries obtained from the World Bank enterprise survey data, the paper finds that Indian MNEs have higher labour costs in relation to total sales than their European counterparts, that Indian MNEs make more use of temporary labour than their European counterparts, that Indian MNEs invest in less training than their European counterparts. No support is found for the hypothesis that Indian MNEs have a lower ratio of skilled workers in comparison to European-owned subsidiaries. The study shows that country of origin effects are weakened if they are not consistent with host country ideology and that as economies evolve so too do their expectations of HR policy and practices

The impact of review sentiments on occupancy: Evidence for signalling theory from peer-to-peer accommodation

Using data from 16,144 peer-to-peer properties in London, we study the impact of the two components of user-generated content – rating and sentiment – on occupancy rate. Our methodology is innovative because, firstly, we control for price variation when estimating these review-occupancy effects and secondly, we estimate interaction and curvilinear effects. We find that sentiment and rating have significant positive effects on occupancy rate; there is some evidence that sentiment and rating interact, one reinforcing the other; for a typical property among those analysed, an outstanding review increases occupancy by a fifth in relative terms. Thus, we interpret these associations as evidence that rating and sentiment signal value, and we estimate the strength of the signal in the peer-to-peer accommodation sector

Visual aesthetic quotient: Establishing the effects of computational aesthetic measures for servicescape design

Visual aesthetics play a pivotal role in attracting and retaining customers in service environments. Building on theories of environmental psychology, this study introduces a novel and comprehensive aesthetic measure for evaluating servicescape design, which is called as the “visual aesthetic quotient” (VAQ). This measure is presented as the ratio of the dimensions of order and complexity in servicescape’s visual design, and it aims to provide an objective and holistic approach of servicescape design evaluation. In addition, we introduce and validate a pioneering method for quantifying order and complexity objectively using algorithmic models applied to servicescape images. We investigated and established the influence of the VAQ on the perceived attractiveness of servicescapes, developing its role further in this context. The entire approach was comprehensively and rigorously examined using four studies (social media analytics, eye-tracking, a field experiment, and an experimental design), contributing to conceptual advancement and empirical testing. This study provides a novel, computational, objective, and holistic aesthetic measure for effective servicescape design management by validating computational aesthetic measures and establishing their role in influencing servicescape attractiveness; testing the mediation of processing fluency and pleasure; and examining the moderating effects of service context

Disaster Planning Intentions of Tourism Accommodation Managers: Understanding the Influence of Past Disaster Experience and Disaster Management Training

Tourism is one of the most vulnerable industries to disasters, and empirical studies on disaster preparedness have been surprisingly sparse. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior, this study sheds light on the unexplored mediating role of strategic decision-makers’ (SDMs) disaster cognition along with their attitude to explicate how and why learning influences disaster planning. Hypotheses were tested using two-phase survey data collected from 301 SDMs of Sri Lankan accommodation establishments. Clarifying previous inconsistent findings regarding the role of learning, this study demonstrated that training and past disaster experience indirectly influenced SDMs’ planning intentions via their disaster cognition and attitude toward disaster planning. In this regard, past experience was found to regulate the relationship of training with both cognition and attitude, implying that disaster training programs may be more influential for encouraging disaster planning intentions of lesser experienced SDMs by stimulating their disaster cognition and attitude

New Insights into e-Loyalty of Internet Banking Users in an Emerging Market Context: A Multilevel Analysis

Although internet banking is considered a mature technology, digital failures and breakdowns have resulted in widespread customer dissatisfaction. However, recent examples in developed countries show that customer dissatisfaction with internet banking platforms does not necessarily erode customer loyalty. While this could be due to the strong assurance provided by institutional structures that govern the internet usage, it is not known if similar results can be found in emerging markets where internet banking technology has still not reached its saturation stage and coexists with traditional brick and mortar banking services. Thus, this study aims to develop a better understanding of the e-satisfaction-e-loyalty link in the Indian internet banking context. The moderating effects of structural assurance at the individual level and market share at the firm level are analysed on the e-satisfaction – e-loyalty link applying a multilevel modeling framework. Data collected from customers along with archival data across 21 banks in India demonstrate that structural assurance significantly moderates the e-satisfaction-e-loyalty link at the consumer level and market share regulates the link at the bank level. Also, market share is found to moderate the relationships among e-satisfaction, structural assurance, and e-loyalty. Three-way interaction results suggest that the interaction effect between e-satisfaction and structural assurance is less pronounced when market share is high rather than low. This study advances our understanding of the conditional effects of e-satisfaction on e-loyalty and elucidates how different share banks may optimize customer loyalty in an emerging market context

Pro-environmental behavior in families: A reverse socialization perspective

The importance of adolescents’ influence on family pro-environmental behavior is attracting significant research attention. Drawing from the socialization perspective, the impact of adolescents’ environmental concern and environmental knowledge on parental pro-environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behaviour is investigated. The mediating impact of parental attitude towards an adolescent’s influence and parental belief in the environmental knowledge of the adolescent is also explored. The study also looks at the moderating role of two different adolescent influence strategies. The conceptual model is validated using data collected from 352 parent-adolescent dyads in India. Results show that adolescents’ environmental objective knowledge does not have any impact on parental pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour while environmental concern is a key factor. Overall, parents as learners do not simply play a passive role in the environmental reverse socialization process, challenging the traditional understanding of reverse socialization theory

Modelling the antecedents of consumers' willingness to pay for eco‐labelled food products

The purpose of this paper is to model the antecedents of consumers' willingness to pay for eco‐labelled food products. This research utilizes the Theory of Planned Behaviour to model the impact of consumers' awareness of eco‐labels, environmental concerns, beliefs in the environmental ability of eco‐labels, and presence of children on their willingness to pay for eco‐labelled food products. This study uses structural equational modelling and PROCESS macros, to test the moderated mediation model on a sample of 333 online responses. Findings suggest the impact of consumers' environmental concerns and eco‐label awareness on their willingness to pay for eco‐labelled food products is partially mediated by consumers' belief in the environmental ability of these eco‐labels. The relationship is further moderated by the presence of children living in the household. This study establishes the value of consumers' beliefs in the environmental ability of eco‐labels and implies that communication strategies need to be carefully refined to provide consumers with more information about eco‐labels and to emphasize the environmental ability of eco‐labels utilized within the food industry as this can have an impact on their willingness to pay for these products, especially for consumers, who have children in the same household

Modelling the antecedents of consumers’ willingness to pay for eco-labelled food products

The purpose of this paper is to model the antecedents of consumers’ willingness-to-pay for eco-labelled food products. This research utilises the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to model the impact of consumers’ awareness of eco-labels, environmental concerns, beliefs in the environmental ability of eco-labels, and presence of children on their willingness to pay for eco-labelled food products. This study uses Structural Equational Modelling (SEM) and PROCESS macros, to test the moderated mediation model on a sample of 333 online responses. Findings suggest the impact of consumers’ environmental concerns and eco-label awareness on their willingness-to-pay for eco-labelled food products is partially mediated by consumers' belief in the environmental ability of these eco-labels. The relationship is further moderated by the presence of children living in the household. This study establishes the value of consumers’ beliefs in the environmental ability of eco-labels and implies that communication strategies need to be carefully refined to provide consumers with more information about eco-labels and to emphasise the environmental ability of eco-labels utilised within the food industry as this can have an impact on their willingness to pay for these products especially for consumers, who have children in the same household

Psychological empowerment and creative performance: Mediating role of thriving and moderating role of competitive psychological climate

The vital importance of employees’ creative performance has been repeatedly emphasised in both academic and practitioner research. While prior literature has pointed towards the importance of psychological empowerment as a key antecedent of creative performance, mainly a direct link has been established with equivocal findings. Drawing on the Job Demands-Resources framework and the Conservation of Resources theory, this study seeks to account for the influence of perceived psychological empowerment on creative performance by investigating the underlying mediating and moderating mechanisms. A conceptual model derived from the literature is tested among salespersons in both developing (Pakistan; n = 219) and developed (South Korea; n = 201) country contexts. Our findings across both the samples demonstrate that thriving partially mediates the relationship between perceived psychological empowerment and creative performance. Moreover, the direct effect of thriving and the indirect effect of perceived psychological empowerment on creative performance are found to be weaker under highly competitive climate. However, competitive climate is found to bolster the direct effect of psychological empowerment on creativity across both samples implying that competitive climate can be a double-edged sword. The paper further discusses the academic and managerial implications emerging from the findings