Exploring the Impacts of McService on Customers’ Loyalty: An Emerging Market’s Perspective

The aim of the study is to examine the key service quality attributes that affect Korean consumers’ loyalty toward McDonald’s in Korea. A survey instrument was developed to examine the key service quality attributes that influenc Korean consumers’ loyalty. The surveys were distributed to Korean college students. The results of the study suggest that social place and employee service quality are the two major dimensions that significantly affect Korean respondents’ intent to return to McDonald’s. Interestingly, convenience, value, and food quality were not found to be major dimensions that impact Korean respondents’ intention to return to McDonald’s. This finding is starkly different from the common belief that McService is based on value and covenience, as emphasized by McDonald’s value statements. The results of the study suggests that Korean consumers view McDonald’s as a social gathering place and expect high service quality from McDonald’s.     

What's in a logo? The impact of complex visual cues in equity crowdfunding

Visual cues are pervasive on crowdfunding platforms. However, whether and how low validity visual cues can impact the behavior of backers remains largely unknown. In this article, we propose a disfluency-based heuristic framework for understanding the influence of low validity visual cues on equity crowdfunding platforms. Drawing on processing fluency theory and visual heuristics, we propose that backers often automatically process visual cues, and that the subjective experience of ease/difficulty with which backers perceptually process low validity visual cues serves as a heuristic and informs their perceptions of early-stage entrepreneurial ventures. We test our propositions focusing on logos (low validity visual cues that are particularly salient and ubiquitous on equity crowdfunding platforms) and logo complexity (a fundamental characteristic of logo design and established antecedent of processing disfluency). We contend that logo complexity can be interpreted by backers as a signal of venture innovativeness because more (vs. less) complex logos are more difficult to process, and thus, feel less familiar and more unique, original, and novel to backers. Since backers often value innovativeness, we further contend that logo complexity can positively impact backers' funding decisions. We find support for our framework and propositions using a multimethod approach comprising three studies: one survey, one field study, and one experiment. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are also discussed.     

On solving bias‐corrected non‐linear estimation equations with an application to the dynamic linear model

In a seminal paper, Mak, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society B, 55, 1993, 945, derived an efficient algorithm for solving non‐linear unbiased estimation equations. In this paper, we show that when Mak's algorithm is applied to biased estimation equations, it results in the estimates that would come from solving a bias‐corrected estimation equation, making it a consistent estimator if regularity conditions hold. In addition, the properties that Mak established for his algorithm also apply in the case of biased estimation equations but for estimates from the bias‐corrected equations. The marginal likelihood estimator is obtained when the approach is applied to both maximum likelihood and least squares estimation of the covariance matrix parameters in the general linear regression model. The new approach results in two new estimators when applied to the profile and marginal likelihood functions for estimating the lagged dependent variable coefficient in the dynamic linear regression model. Monte Carlo simulation results show the new approach leads to a better estimator when applied to the standard profile likelihood. It is therefore recommended for situations in which standard estimators are known to be biased.     

Qualitative analysis of feminine morality and visible personality characteristics among young adults

This article documents the perceptions and judgments of youth about character of female as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, based on her visible personality characteristics. A qualitative study is carried out among the undergraduate students in two public sector universities. This study highlights contextual factors linked with the choice of clothing and quality of physical appearance among young girls. The judgments about a girl’s character are based on immediate, apparent personality characteristics. This study found that there are two contrasting categories of clothing and visible personality associated with positive and negative feminine morality. Certain expectations are also found to be associated with the attire of young women in Pakistani society which restricts their individual choices. Pakistani and Britain national boys judged girl’s character as immoral or bad based on cosmetics usage, fashion-ability, body exposedness, physical attractiveness, friendliness, bold temperament, and easiness while interaction with boys.     

The Impact Of Business Intelligence Systems on an Organization’s Effectiveness: The Role of Metadata Quality From a Developing Country’S View

ABSTRACT

Business Intelligence (BI) systems are extensively used by large hotels in Jordan; however their effectiveness has not yet been researched. The aim of this research is to explore the relationships among definitional metadata quality, data quality metadata quality, navigational metadata quality, lineage metadata quality, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and system effectiveness in enhancing organizational effectiveness of five star hotels in Aqaba, Jordan. To test the research hypotheses, 225 usable responses containing 37 items were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) and a Machine Learning technique. Results suggest that organizational effectiveness was directly and positively affected by perceived usefulness and BI systems effectiveness. Nevertheless, perceived usefulness did not impact BI systems effectiveness.     

Motivations for corporate social responsibility reporting by MNC subsidiaries in an emerging country: The case of Bangladesh

While many studies of the motivations behind the corporate social responsibility reporting (CSRR) practices of large corporations have been reported internationally, few have focussed on multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries. Most importantly, we still do not know how host country institutional norms, or parent corporation policies, influence MNC subsidiaries embarking upon CSRR. By integrating legitimacy theory (LT) and neo-institutional theory (NIT) explanations, this paper offers a theoretical framework for investigating the CSRR practices of MNC subsidiaries in general, and provides empirical evidence on the nature and motivations of subsidiaries’ CSRR practices in Bangladesh, a developing country. Employing a case study method and using qualitative data, the study finds that CSRR practice in Bangladeshi MNC subsidiaries is limited, consisting mainly of employee information. This observation mirrors the overall CSRR trend in Bangladesh. A desire for internal legitimacy emerges as the primary motivation for CSRR practice in MNC subsidiaries. In particular, the external host country environment of the Bangladeshi subsidiaries seems to be a major limitation in the development of CSRR.     

Does the hazard rate for new plants vary between low- and high-tech industries?

Based on a longitudinal data base the hazard rates of over 12000 newly established plants in U.S. manufacturing industry in 1976 are estimated and then compared between low and high-tech industries. It is found that the hazard rate differs across industries, and it also varies between low and high-tech industries. The hazard rate in lowtech industries is reduced in the presence of scale economies, whereas the exposure to risk tends to be higher in high-tech industries. The influence of start-up size in reducing the hazard rate is apparently similar between low and high-tech industries, but its role is found to be more important in the high-technological industries. Market growth and R&D intensity exert no influence on the hazard rate in either the low- or high-tech industries.     

Isolating the Roles of Individual Covariates in Reweighting Estimation

A host of recent research has used reweighting methods to analyze the extent to which observable characteristics predict between‐group differences in the distribution of an outcome. Less attention has been paid to using reweighting methods to isolate the roles of individual covariates. We analyze two approaches that have been used in previous studies, and we propose a new approach that examines the role of one covariate while holding the marginal distribution of the other covariates constant. We illustrate the differences between the methods with a numerical example and an empirical analysis of black–white wage differentials among males. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.