Is similarity a constraint for service-to-service brand extensions?

Are service brands constrained in launching new service offerings? Both research evidence and managerial wisdom suggest brands should extend to similar categories. However, in five studies using real-life brands - four experiments and one large-sample survey - we provide evidence that similarity is less of a constraint for service brands extending to other service categories (service-to-service extensions), compared to cases involving parent brands or extension categories of a product nature. Importantly, we demonstrate that such an effect occurs because service brands possess associations relevant across the spectrum of service categories. Our results suggest that service brand managers have the opportunity to stretch their brands to dissimilar service offerings; yet, they need to ensure the marketing execution does not make the brands’ service associations inaccessible to consumers. The findings suggest that even product brands can build service associations by adding service components to their offering, thus becoming “servitized” and better able to extend to dissimilar service categories. Overall, our work contributes to the academic debate documenting that the principles governing the management of product vs. service brands are not identical.     

Too cute to be bad? Cute brand logo reduces consumer punishment following brand transgressions

Research on brand transgressions has suggested that when a brand is involved in a transgression and perceived as harmful, consumers will punish the brand. The present research seeks to extend this literature by investigating how having a cute brand logo may reduce consumer punishment of a transgressing brand. Across five experimental studies, this research shows that a brand logo with high (vs. low) levels of cuteness associated with a transgressing brand can motivate consumers to protect the brand from harm, thus reducing consumer punishment of that brand. Notably, such motivations to protect the brand are driven by an incremental belief about the brand’s development. Moreover, the cuteness effect is attenuated in the case of repeated transgressions. Theoretical contributions to the literature on cuteness, brand logo, and brand transgression are discussed, as well as practical implications.     

组织模块化对研究型大学技术转移绩效的影响

技术转移是将社会科技资源转化为实体经济效益的重要途径。当前，我国研究型大学技术转移渠道不畅、技术转移绩效不高、大学科技成果成功产业化“最后一公里”问题凸显。基于现实需求和研究缺口，构建组织模块化对研究型大学技术转移绩效影响的理论模型。在此基础上，收集我国38所研究型大学样本数据，采用SPSS24.0和AMOS软件进行结构方程路径分析，论证和检验组织模块化对于研究型大学技术转移绩效的影响机制。结果表明：组织模块化对研究型大学技术转移绩效具有显著正向影响；技术创新能力在组织模块化与技术转移绩效之间起显著中介作用；知识共享的调节作用主要体现在组织模块化独立性、响应性与技术创新能力之间的关系上，其对组织模块分工性与技术创新能力关系的影响作用不显著。     

Innovation under debtor-friendly institutional policy: Strategic patenting perspective of Chinese listed firms

Drawing on insights from the strategic patenting perspective, we examine the impact of debtor-friendly institutional policy on the innovation behavior of firms. We argue that while conventional wisdom indicates the negative impact of debt on patent counts, debt financing based on a set of weak creditor rights may lead firms to apply for more patents at the expense of the innovativeness of those patents. By analyzing financial data and patenting information of the Chinese listed firms, we show that debt financing motivates firms to apply for more patents while both R&D intensity and the portion of innovative patent applications diminish. These effects are more pronounced among firms more adversely exposed to China's debtor-friendly institutional policy. Our paper extends the scope of innovation financing studies by demonstrating that firms behave strategically in the context of state policies, in this case by privileging patent quantity over quality.     

The impact of adopting customization policy and sustainability for improving consumer service in a dual-channel retailing

In recent decades sustainability and dual-route retailing have been adopted by many big industries. Companies are now bound to maintain such strategies that fulfill the sustainable goals developed by the United Nations. Industries face a huge penalty if carbon emissions exceed a certain boundary. Moreover, factories should maintain sufficient flow in retail chains and product quality. This paper demonstrates 3-pillar sustainability in dual channel retailing, empowering firms to integrate the financial-economic pillar with the non-financial (environmental, social, and ethical) pillar. The core product is made available through the traditional channel and customized products are through online channels. The model is enabling the customers with customization provisions where they can influence the products. Thus, as a novel approach, the article incorporates a presumed threshold limit on the product's (standard and customized) selling price difference. Due to customization, a new product is developed which needs extensive quality checks. The study introduces an investment in checking the quality of the customized product which reduces the probability of customization defects exponentially. Additionally, current research adapts the carbon emission cost, penalties charged to a firm for overshooting the limit, and social costs in a smart supply chain. It also exemplifies that production is directly proportional to financial investments in meeting sustainability objectives. The numerical analysis reflects that as production increases, penalty costs decrease at a significant rate but after reaching optimal production penalty cost again starts to increase. It is observed that the downfall of penalty is 20% more for the single-channel than dual. Adaptation of the customization policy makes the retailing strategy more cost-effective. The model exemplifies that it is more economical to adopt dual-channel retailing compared to single-channel as there is approximately a 14.0625% reduction in total cost in dual-channel retailing. Moreover, an 80% improved quality is observed with a financial investment, which improves consumer satisfaction.     

Did U.S. and Chinese investors respond differently to the exogenous shocks from COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine?

This paper investigates the U.S. and Chinese stock markets' long-run responses to COVID-19 and the Russia–Ukraine war, the main shocks that have recently battered the globalized economy. The investigation uses both static data analysis and ARMA-GARCH and DCC-GARCH dynamic risk models incorporating both events' impacts. Model fitting reveals opposite reactions of the two stock markets' long-run volatilities to the pandemic, but both volatilities have been enhanced by the war, with a much stronger reaction from the U.S. than from the Chinese market. Furthermore, the war has reduced the linkage between the two markets, while the pandemic has had no significant effect. The different responses of U.S. and Chinese investors may be attributed to the two countries' very different virus containment strategies, pandemic severities, and policy approaches to the geopolitical conflict. Our results have important practical implications for regulators' risk mitigation policy design and investors' cross-market hedging strategy development.     

Toward a new business model of retail industry: The role of brand experience and brand authenticity

While the customer-to-manufacturer (C2M) business model has received increasing attention as a new business model for e-commerce and retail industry, little is still known about it and the effect of its approach. This study aims to understand how brand-related stimuli in C2M environments affect customer responses as the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. The outcomes reveal that the Sensory, affective, and intellectual aspects of brand experience positively influence brand authenticity. Brand authenticity has a positive effect on behavioral intention, such as reuse intention and word-of-mouth. Additionally, this research finds that social presence moderates the association between the sensory aspect of brand experience. Thus, this study can suggest a C2M business model as a means of sustainable operation of the retail industry to both researchers and practitioners in relation to the retail industry.     

The role of socially rich photos in generating favorable donation behavior on charity websites

While online retail sites succeed in reinforcing perceptions of human warmth on their websites thanks to more and more interactive technologies, the charitable sector cannot, for lack of human, technical and financial resources, make use of such technologies. This research paper demonstrates the potential of a simple tool: the socially rich photo. Although the literature has extensively documented how photos impact visitor behavior in online environments, research in the context of donations through charity websites is rare and has provided contradictory results. By focusing more closely on the role of the individual represented in such photos (the recipient of a donation versus the donor), our studies, conducted in France, offer additional insights on the subject as well as managerial advice for organizations.     

Does justice affect brand advocacy? Online brand advocacy behaviors as a response to hotel customers’ justice perceptions

This study focuses on customers' information-sharing behavior in the context of online brand advocacy behavior regarding hotel brands. We aim to explain hotel customers' online brand advocacy behavior through three-sided justice evaluations (i.e., justice for employees, justice for the self, and global belief in a just world), and their hotel satisfaction. Hypotheses are tested by using survey data acquired from 688 individuals on Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings show that customers' perceptions of justice for the self positively affect their hotel satisfaction, perceptions of justice for employees and the global belief in a just world positively affect online brand advocacy behavior, and hotel satisfaction also positively affects online brand advocacy behavior. We expand current research efforts on online brand advocacy research and provide theoretical and managerial implications for the development of marketing and management research and practice.     

Institutional dynamics and access to non-farm employment in rural China, 1950–1996

This article examines non-farm employment in the context of Chinese rural institutional change, based on evidence from discrete-time logistic models for event history analysis using the Life History and Social Change survey. We find the transition to non-farm sector rose rapidly during the Great Leap Forward and market reform, while the Cultural Revolution saw it reach the lowest ebb. While male advantage prevailed exclusively during the Cultural Revolution and early marketization, education possessed a stable positive effect in all historical periods. Although the returns to different kinds of political capital vary along with institutional dynamics, intergenerational reproduction was greatly reduced after the Cultural Revolution.