The formation of habit and word-of-mouth intention of over-the-top platforms

The current study examines how video content on over-the-top (OTT) platforms and the enjoyment from watching them form habits and word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions. We propose a research model that integrates elements from the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and the concept of “habit loop” from the Interest-Driven Creator (IDC) theory. The model was analyzed using PLS-SEM on 302 responses from OTT users. The study elucidates how video content availability helps in habit formation indirectly through perceived enjoyment. The results also demonstrated that the WOM of OTT platforms is explained by perceived enjoyment, affective commitment, and the habit of using the OTT platforms. The study highlights that habit is a significant predictor of affective commitment and WOM intention of hedonic apps. This is the first study to illustrate how video content availability affects users’ enjoyment, habitual use, and WOM intentions. Habit as a significant predictor of affective commitment and WOM intention of hedonic apps, like OTT platforms, is unprecedented.     

Effects of augmented reality technology characteristics on customer citizenship behavior

In recent years, augmented reality (AR) technology has received considerable attention from academics and practitioners. Although AR technology has a bright side, its dark side has been relatively overlooked. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of AR technology characteristics on customer citizenship behavior via two conflicting mechanisms: customer immersion and customer fatigue. The study also explored the boundary conditions of customer experience. A total of 247 questionnaires were collected from customers who had prior experience of using IKEA's AR mobile shopping application. A structured model was analyzed using SmartPLS 3 and PROCESS Macro for mediation and moderated mediation effects. The study enriches the current knowledge on AR technology by demonstrating that AR technology can lead to customer citizenship behavior in relation to a brand's AR technology. Interestingly, customer immersion was found to positively mediate the relationship, but customer fatigue was found to negatively mediate it. Furthermore, customer experience was found to strengthen the positive mediation effect of customer immersion and weaken the negative mediation effect of customer fatigue.     

Consumers’ willingness to disclose their personal data in e-commerce: A reciprocity-based social exchange perspective

While personal data is invaluable to firms, the drivers of e-commerce customers' willingness to disclose their personal data remain tenuous. Using social exchange theory, we develop a model that explores the impact of consumers' perceived benefit, and relative power, on store trust, in turn driving their willingness to disclose their personal data. We collected our empirical data using a representative online survey, with the results being analyzed by using structural equation modeling. The results corroborate that (a) consumer-perceived e-commerce store trust drives their willingness to disclose their personal data, and (b) perceived e-commerce provider reciprocity outweighs consumers’ perceived data disclosure benefit, suggesting the existence of symbolic (vs. purely instrumental) social exchange.     

Personalized managerial response and negative inconsistent review helpfulness: The mediating effect of perceived response helpfulness

Understanding the effect of managerial response on online review management has attracted the attention of scholars in recent years. However, the effect of personalized managerial response on the negative inconsistent review is a lack of evidence. This study investigates how personalized managerial responses influence negative review helpfulness according to the various levels of review inconsistency and the underlying mechanism behind the effect. We adopted a secondary data analysis based on the TripAdvisor dataset and used an online experiment study to investigate the impact mechanism. Findings reveal that the personalized managerial response positively influences review helpfulness, review inconsistency (negative rating with positive textual sentiment) moderates the effect of personalized managerial response on review helpfulness, and perceived response helpfulness mediates the above relationships. More specifically, personalized managerial response to negative inconsistent reviews has a pronounced effect on consumers’ perception of response helpfulness and their evaluation of review helpfulness. This study improves the current understanding of managerial responses, and provides practical guidance for hoteliers, consumers, and travel websites.     

Credit stimulus and corporate excess employees

This study examines how the large and unexpected Chinese credit stimulus in 2008 affects firms' labor decision. Using a large sample of industrial firms, we find that state-owned enterprises tend to hire more employment than their counterparts after the credit stimulus. Mechanism analysis shows that the credit stimulus package is followed by lower financing costs and more bank loans for the state-owned enterprises, enhancing the degree of their excess employment compared with their counterparts. Moderating effect tests suggest that the overemployment effect is stronger in provinces with a high unemployment level, where the political leaders have stronger promotion incentives, in industries that are selected as the key stimulating industry, and in provinces with higher bank competition level, but weaker in provinces with higher marketization level. Finally, we find that the firm's overemployment caused by the credit stimulus plans decreases firm labor productivity. Overall, our findings shed light on how credit policy influence firms' labor decision and offer important implications for regulators.     

The impact of influencers' multi-SNS use on followers’ behavioral intentions: An integration of cue consistency theory and social identity theory

The considerable marketing potential brought by the rapid growth of social media has been extensively examined in the literature, particularly in terms of the impact of influencers' recommendations on their followers' decisions. However, little attention has been given to how the individual influencers' use of multiple social networking sites affects their followers' behavioral intentions. Hence, this academic gap warrants further exploration. Drawing on cue consistency theory, social identity theory, and stimulus-organism-response framework, this research proposes three research questions and constructs an integrated research model to explore how the influencers' cue consistency affects the social identification of their followers, subsequently influencing their behavioral intentions. A structural equation modeling technique is performed to analyze the data of 510 valid respondents. The findings show that influencers' consistent cues (i.e., information and image consistency) across social media have positive impacts on followers' cognitive and affective identification toward the influencers. Furthermore, the determinants for followers' purchase intention and electronic word-of-mouth intention are affirmed to serve as both cognitive and affective identification. Especially, the results indicate that the relationships between followers’ social identifications and behavioral intentions are moderated by the type of influencer (i.e., lifestyle vs. review). Accordingly, the results indicate how the use of multiple social networking sites by influencers impacts the behavioral intentions of their followers. The findings offer new insights into influencer marketing and provide important lessons for marketers.     

Predicting inflation expectations: A habit-based explanation under hedging

One of the main challenges monetary policymakers face is predicting the trajectory of short-term inflation, especially considering the consistently flat Phillips curve observed in recent years. A promising approach to tackling this challenge involves modifying the hybrid New Keynesian Phillips curve (HNKPC) by incorporating a hedging factor. This factor accounts for the efforts risk-averse economic agents make to safeguard their spending decisions against uncertainties arising from inflation. Our study provides evidence that the hedging factor plays a crucial role and is a statistically significant predictor of the upcoming year's inflation rate. Specifically, a one-standard-deviation increase in the hedging factor predicts a positive rise in short-term inflation. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the hedging factor significantly determines the common component found in both well-known survey-based and model-based inflation expectation indicators.     

Capital market integration in ASEAN: A non-stationary panel data analysis

Motivated by the establishment of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) at the end of 2015, we examine saving-investment relationship in various subgroups of ASEAN to assess their capital market integration. The results from second generation panel unit-root and cointegration tests that account for cross-sectional dependence as well as estimates of long-run saving-retention rate provide some evidence of market integration in ASEAN. The analysis of short-run dynamics suggests that capital mobility in ASEAN during 1980–2014 appears similar to that in OECD countries during 1970–1999. More importantly, across different panel estimators and subgroups of membership, there is considerable heterogeneity among the member countries. The saving-investment association is very weak, thereby implying very high capital mobility, in more developed members such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei; the association is very strong, implying very low capital mobility, for much less developed members such as Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia. The results call for renewed effort to develop capital markets in less developed nations and integrate them with the rest of the membership in ASEAN. In this paper, we also address several major shortcomings of the original Feldstein-Horioka framework.     

粮食与经济重心迁移路径及空间耦合关系分析*——以湖北省粮食主产县为例

[目的]我国的粮食安全问题一直备受关注,作为粮食安全重要保障的粮食主产区近年来却面临着粮食生产与经济发展协调性、可持续性下降的困扰。文章以湖北省46个粮食主产县为研究区,对其粮食生产与经济发展的耦合协调状况进行研究,以期为地方政府粮食安全政策制定提供参考。[方法]以研究区粮食产量、地区生产总值、行政区划图层为数据源,构建重心模型和空间耦合模型,对粮食主产县2006—2015年间粮食重心和经济重心迁移路径、粮食生产与经济发展耦合协调状况进行分析。[结果](1)研究期间粮食主产县的粮食重心和经济重心整体上皆向西北方向转移,经济重心始终位于粮食重心东南部,经济重心的移动幅度大于粮食重心,但经济重心的移动方向更稳定。研究区北部的粮食生产地位高于南部,南部的经济地位则高于北部,粮食生产的稳定性相对低于经济发展。(2)两重心整体上虽均向西北方向转移,但具体移动方向存在较大差异,两者空间重叠性整体下降,变动一致性减弱,空间耦合性变差。(3)粮食生产与经济发展空间一致性地域分异特征明显,相较于2006年,2015年粮食经济整体协调性进一步减弱,粮食生产与经济发展日趋分散。[结论]建立重心模型和空间耦合模型对粮食生产与经济发展耦合协调状况进行研究是有效可行的,为推动粮食生产与经济发展协调稳步发展决策提供一定的参考。     

Economic policy uncertainty and imitation behaviors of corporate social responsibility practices: Evidence from China

In this paper, we examine whether firms facing higher economic policy uncertainty (EPU) are more likely to show similar corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices compared with their peer firms. Drawing upon institutional theory, in response to uncertainty under complex circumstances, managers tend to imitate peer firms' strategic actions to acquire legitimacy. Consistent with our theoretical expectations, we find that EPU increases the likelihood that a focal firm will show CSR practices similar to its peer firms. Such a likelihood is amplified for firms that (1) bear more negative media coverage, (2) have higher industry competition intensity, (3) belong to heavy-polluting industries, and (4) for the first-time disclosures. Our results hold when we employ a series of endogeneity tests and robustness checks.