The consequence of possessions: Self-identity,extended self,psychological ownership and probabilities of purchase for pet’s fashion clothing

This research attempts to exemplify whether pets ascribed as possessions can be regarded, as part of our selves, i.e., a metaphoric relationship with pets, by examining the dynamic relationship between beliefs, extended self, self-identity concerning possessions, and psychological ownership.This study extends the literature by developing a conceptual model asserting that probabilities of purchase for pets, in particular, are contingent on possessions and the extended self. A sample of 326 pet owners was selected, and by using SEM, the direct and indirect relationships were explored. Self-identity and beliefs were significantly associated with psychological control and the extended self, however, beliefs were negatively related to the probabilities of purchase. The extended self and the psychological ownership demonstrated mediating relationships. The study contributes to an understanding of the theoretical relationship between the role of possessions and provides scholars and retail practitioners with an understanding of probabilities of purchase for pet fashions.     

YouTube vloggers’ popularity and influence: The roles of homophily,emotional attachment,and expertise

This study examines how homophily, emotional attachment, and credibility influence the popularity of a video blogger (hereinafter referred to as vlogger) and his/her viewers' purchase decision in the context of the beauty product industry. More specifically, the research investigates the effects of four dimensions of the homophily construct (i.e., attitude, value, background, and appearance), vlogger's expertise, and emotional attachment to the vlogger on his/her popularity. In turn, the vlogger's popularity influences viewers' purchase of recommended products. Data were collected online among a sample of 501 US women about beauty product vloggers. The results show that three dimensions of homophily (attitude, values, and appearance) have a significant effect on the vlogger's popularity. Emotional attachment has a significant effect whereas expertise has no significant effect. Vloggers' popularity has a significant effect on viewers' purchase of recommended beauty products. Overall, our findings highlight the role of homophily and emotional attachment for the study of vloggers' popularity.     

Corporate identity management in the banking sector: effects on employees’ identification,identity attractiveness,and job satisfaction

This paper analyzes the effects of corporate identity management (CIM) on employees’ responses. Specifically, it advances previous literature by exploring how CIM dimensions affect identity attractiveness, organizational identification, and job satisfaction from the employees’ perspective. The empirical study is aimed at 293 branch managers in the Spanish banking sector, an industry facing changes in the corporate identity of many financial entities. The results show the relative importance of each dimension and help brand managers to anticipate the effects of CIM practices. Of all the dimensions, it highlights the key role of the employee–client focus strategy.     

Institutional unpredictability and foreign exit−reentry dynamics: The moderating role of foreign ownership

We extend the internationalization process literature by theorizing how institutional unpredictability and its changes can affect the foreign exit?reentry process and how the multidimensionality of foreign ownership can alter these impacts as a firm's conduit to different foreign countries. Drawing on the dynamic institution-based view, we examine a process whereby firms exit and reenter foreign countries in response to institutional dynamism. By distinguishing foreign shareholders from host and nonhost foreign countries, we identify the negative moderation effects of host-country foreign ownership but not nonhost foreign ownership. Our study, therefore, contributes an integrative framework to the de- and re- internationalization research.     

Top management team’s formal network and international expansion of Chinese firms: The moderating role of state ownership and political ties

This article explores the role of the formal network centrality of top management teams (TMT) for foreign expansion, looking at the case of Chinese firms. The former is defined by the degree to which top managers are connected with TMTs of other firms in formal ways, through service as independent board members. We explore boundary conditions, comparing state ownership with political ties. The analysis of a panel data of 489 firms expanding to 72 developed and developing host markets in the period 2000–2012 confirms that network centrality facilitates internationalization. We found that TMT network centrality had a stronger effect on internationalization in developed than emerging markets. Conversely, state ownership had a positive moderating effect in the latter and political ties a negative effect in developed ones. The literature on comparative institutional analysis suggests that formal ties are more important in developed economies, and informal ties in emerging ones. However, formal political ties and/or links to the Chinese state may be more of value in internationalizing into other emerging markets, where the balance of diplomatic power may be more skewed in China’s favor.     

Impact of employees’ perceived threat of market competition on unethical marketing and selling practices: Moral disengagement and ethical leadership

This study draws on the social cognitive theory to examine the effect of perceived market competition on employees’ unethical marketing and selling practices. The boundary conditions associated with this relationship were examined, and we posit that perceived market competition is related to unethical marketing and selling practices through the mediating mechanism of moral disengagement. We further propose that ethical leadership moderates the relationship between the perceived threat of market competition, moral disengagement, and tendency toward unethical marketing and selling practices. We tested our hypotheses with a sample of 387 employees working in the banking sector in Pakistan. Our results suggest that moral disengagement had a full mediation effect between the perceived threat of market competition and tendency of employees toward unethical marketing and selling practices. Moreover, ethical leadership moderated the relationship between moral disengagement and the tendency of employees toward unethical marketing practices. The research findings indicate that when field employees encounter threat perceptions due to market competition, they have a propensity toward engaging in unethical marketing and selling practices when they can activate moral disengagement. This study also found that ethical leadership negatively moderates the relationship of moral disengagement with employees’ tendency toward unethical marketing and selling practices.     

Why do consumers buy green apparel? The role of dispositional traits,environmental orientation,environmental knowledge,and monetary incentive

This study investigates the influence of both consumer optimism and pessimism on the green apparel buying behavior, using the self-focused regulation theoretical framework. Further, it measures the mediation effect of environmental orientation, and the moderation effect of environmental knowledge and monetary incentive on the proposed associations. An online survey was conducted through Amazon Mechanical Turk to collect data from 450 consumers. The findings reveal that optimistic consumers buy green apparel, while pessimistic consumers avoid it. Interestingly, when environmental orientation is introduced as a mediator, the pessimistic consumers also express the intent to buy green apparel. Further, environmental knowledge and monetary incentive both significantly moderate the relationships of green apparel buying behavior with consumer pessimism and environmental orientation. Holistically, this study provides significant implications for both green apparel marketers and retailers.     

“Service Encounter 2.0”: An investigation into the roles of technology,employees and customers

The service encounter – one of the foundational concepts in service research – is fundamentally changing due to rapid evolutions in technology. In this paper, we offer an updated perspective on what we label the “Service Encounter 2.0”. To this end, we develop a conceptual framework that captures the essence of the Service Encounter 2.0 and provides a synthesis of the changing interdependent roles of technology, employees, and customers. We find that technology either augments or substitutes service employees, and can foster network connections. In turn, employees and customers are taking on the role of enabler, innovator, coordinator and differentiator. In addition, we identify critical areas for future research on this important topic.     

Uncertainty and affluent teenagers’ luxury buying-decision: The role of avoidance-related indecisiveness

Global teen population constitutes a sizable market in the luxury brands industry. However, little is known about the mechanism through which teens form an attitude towards luxury brands, particularly in the context of emerging economies. Drawing insights from self-concept theory, self-discrepancy theory, and social consumption motivation, our study proposes a theoretical framework to explain how teenagers' self-related perception influence social consumption motives through avoidance-related indecisiveness, thereby determining teenagers' attitude towards luxury brands. Using a sample of 610 affluent private school students across five major cities of India, we empirically validate our theoretical framework through structural equation modelling. Our study contributes to the existing literature by demonstrating the impact of teenagers’ self-perception on the display of avoidance-related indecisiveness and resisting social consumption motives of luxury brand purchases.     

Institutional background as a determinant of boards of directors’ internal and external roles: The case of Russia

This conceptual paper analyses why some companies in Russia give strong weight to the external roles and some to the internal roles of the boards of directors. The institutional background of Russian corporate governance is reviewed, concentrating on the contextual variables of time of founding, ownership type and governmental dependency, which are seen to explain the varying weight given to internal and external board roles. After arriving at several propositions, the paper finishes with suggestions for an empirical evaluation of the proposed relationships and addresses several managerial implications that stem from the discussion. This paper addresses the under-researched field of contingencies in board roles, focusing on Russia and emphasizing the importance of the prevailing institutional framework in transition economies.     

Expatriates’ international opportunity recognition and innovativeness: The role of metacognitive and cognitive cultural intelligence

International opportunity recognition has become increasingly important in both the international business and international entrepreneurship fields. While previous international entrepreneurship research has suggested a wide variety of innovation-inducing factors, it has neglected the role of cross-cultural competences and the expatriate as a potential actor. Building on the experiential learning theory and a model of opportunity recognition, we argue how and why metacognitive and cognitive cultural intelligence are important cross-cultural competences that stimulate and enable expatriates to discover international opportunities and be innovative. We use a mixed method approach to analyze differences in the innovativeness of expatriates.     

Personal response systems and learning performance: The mediating role of learners’ engagement

The use of personal response systems (PRSs) to support the learning process is increasing. This study examines the impact of PRSs from individual learners’ and instructors’ perspectives on individual learners’ engagement with PRSs and their learning performance. Data were collected from a sample of 236 undergraduate bachelor of business administration students in the School of Business at a Hong Kong university. The results indicated that the learner interface was important to individual learners’ engagement with PRSs and their learning performance. Instructor attitude and technical competence had significant impacts on learning performance. Engagement with PRSs partially mediated the effect of both perspectives on learning performance. Implications for the theory and practice of individual learners’ learning performance are discussed.     

The benefits and implementation of performance transparency: The why and how of letting your customers ‘see through’ your business

While some organizations swear by the benefits of transparency and are eager to learn and implement transparency practices, many managers are still reluctant or even afraid to use them. Our research reveals that only a few innovative companies have taken steps to leverage a potentially useful form of transparency: the provision of accessible and objective information to customers (e.g., sharing unbiased benchmark data, publishing unfiltered customer comments, or providing candid product reviews that may praise but also criticize the company’s products). Our study also shows that many companies remain wary and view greater calls for transparency as a challenge to be managed rather than an opportunity to be traded upon. This is partly due to limited research into the performance benefits of giving customers access to objective information, and lack of practical guidelines on how to actually implement it. This article addresses these shortcomings. First, we investigate whether performance transparency leads to customer outcomes that can be profitable for an organization and, second, we analyze the characteristics of successful transparency initiatives in a wide range of industries. Our research shows that customers exhibit more trust and are willing to pay a premium to deal with transparent businesses. Also, it uncovers seven effective strategies to leverage transparency. This article provides convincing empirical evidence for the benefits of performance transparency and the ways in which management may implement it successfully.     

Formal voice mechanisms and portfolio career workers’ prosocial voice in Japan and Korea: the mediating role of managers’ issue-related leadership activities

ABSTRACT

This study analyses the relationship between formal voice mechanisms and prosocial voice among portfolio career workers (PCWs) in Japan and Korea. We particularly focus on the leadership activities of managers as human resource management agents and issue sellers. Under similar conditions, data on 400 and 409 PCWs in Japan and Korea, respectively, are gathered through web-based longitudinal surveys conducted in 2017 and 2018. The findings are threefold. First, when PCWs perceive that formal voice mechanisms are activated, they also rate the levels of their managers’ issue-related leadership activities more highly. Second, when PCWs evaluate the issue-related leadership activities of managers as being at a high level, they perceive that employment relations are based on a social exchange relationship. Third, when PCWs perceive employment relations based on a social exchange relationship, they provide their prosocial voice more actively. These results are discussed relative to the internal labour market models of Japan and Korea.     

That honey,my arsenic: The influence of advanced technologies on service employees’ organizational deviance

Although advanced technologies represent extraordinary opportunities for service organizations, research has come to the fore warning of their negative effects on service employees. Drawing on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress, this study aims to examine the influence of STARA (Smart Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Algorithms) awareness on service employees’ organizational deviance through psychological contract breach, with this path moderated by industrial relations climate. Using a three-wave data from 359 employees in various Chinese service industries, the results indicated that STARA awareness had a positive impact on psychological contract breach, which in turn triggered organizational deviance. Industrial relations climate was an effective remedy in alleviating the positive association between STARA awareness, psychological contract breach, and organizational deviance. This study contributes to the growing body of research on the “downside” of STARA by illustrating organizational deviance as an outcome. It offers insights into how STARA awareness influences employees’ misbehaviors by adding an employee-organization relationship (i.e., psychological contract breach) perspective and advances our knowledge of a potential safeguard (i.e., industrial relations climate) that organizations can employ to minimize the negative consequences of STARA awareness.     

Emerging-market firms’ dynamic capabilities and international performance: The moderating role of institutional development and distance

While extant research has examined the separate influences of dynamic capabilities and institutions on international performance, their interactive role has received limited attention. Therefore, we examine the role of host-country institutional conditions in the relationships between emerging-market firms’ (EMFs) innovation-related dynamic capabilities and their international performance. We use multi-source secondary data and primary data from multiple informants from 254 Turkish international firms to test our framework. The study finds that the linkages between three innovation-related dynamic capabilities (innovativeness, supply-chain agility, and adaptability) and international performance are positively and negatively moderated by institutional development and institutional distance, but that their influences are opposite. These influences demonstrate that host-country institutional conditions shape the link between dynamic capabilities and EMFs’ international performance in a multifaceted and paradoxical fashion.     

Followers' engagement with instagram influencers: The role of influencers’ content and engagement strategy

Influencer marketing has emerged as an effective approach for brands to connect with customers through social media influencers. Although influencer marketing has attracted increased interest from marketing researchers in recent years, relatively little is known about influencers' content and engagement strategy and its links to followers' engagement behavior. The present study addresses this gap by examining how measures of influencers' content and engagement strategy (i.e., follower count, followee count, content volume, and domains of interest) are associated with followers' engagement behavior on Instagram both independently and interactively. The study leverages a unique dataset of Instagram influencers compiled by scraping an online influencer database to test its hypotheses. The findings indicate that follower count and content volume are negatively associated with follower engagement, while followee count is positively associated with follower engagement. However, these main effects are modified by influencers' domains of interest. The findings contribute to the literature by illuminating how elements of influencers' content and engagement strategy contribute to followers’ engagement behavior on Instagram.     

Customers’ service-related engagement,experience, and behavioral intent: Moderating role of age

Though customer engagement (CE) and experience are important research priorities, empirically derived insight into these concepts and their associations remains scarce. We therefore investigate the impact of CE on experience and behavioral intent, which we explore in the tourism context. We also envisage customer age to moderate the proposed associations, thereby further contributing to the CE literature. To investigate these issues, we collected data from key tourism-sites in Jammu/Kashmir, Northern India. Using structural equational modeling, we find that CE dimensions exert differential effects on customer experience. The findings also reveal a stronger, significant effect of younger customers' (up to 39) cognitive engagement on experience, whereas a negligible effect is attained for older customers. While the paths from affective/behavioral engagement to experience are significant across all age groups, the association's strength rises with customer age. Moreover, the effect of customer experience on behavioral intention intensifies as customers get older. We conclude by outlining key implications that arise from our analyses, followed by avenues for further research.     

The internationalization process model: A proposed view of firms’ regular incremental and irregular non-incremental behaviour

Commitment in the internationalization process model (IP-model) is challenged by the search for knowledge through experience and interactions. Critics opposing this logic even forced the founder of the model to call for the need for integration of other elements in order to understand irregular behaviour like rapid internationalization, loss of commitment and market exit. Aligned with this call, the paper raises the question of how the IP-model can be applied to analyse both regular/incremental and irregular/non-incremental behaviour of the firms. To reach an answer, the paper proposes a theoretical view by adding expectation and unknown uncertainty to the IP-model and examines this in a case study. The contribution is a further development of the IP-model by merging these two concepts that provide tools for understanding irregular behaviour. The paper analyses a Swedish firm's internationalization in different foreign markets for the period of 1995–2009. Conclusions support the understanding of how the model can describe regular incremental and irregular non-incremental commitment behaviour.     

The new wave of AI-powered luxury brands online shopping experience: The role of digital multisensory cues and customers’ engagement

Academic literature retains a dearth of empirical evidence of the cutting-edge aspect of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered digital assistance and digital multisensory cues, despite the prospect of these factors on real-life customers' luxury brand online shopping experience. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine the significant pathway and effects of AI-powered digital assistance toward customers’ luxury brand online shopping experience. Drawing on S–O-R (Stimulus, organism, and response) and TRAM (Technology Readiness and Acceptance Model) paradigm, a multi-method research design was deployed to investigate constructs. Firstly, semi-structured interviews were utilized to explore customers' online behavior under the luxury brands and information technology aspect. Secondly, survey data were collected and analyzed by using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The PLS-based analysis of quantitative data confirmed the exploratory insights of qualitative findings, establishing the connections of AI-powered digital assistance, customer engagement, and customers' luxury brand online shopping experience. Research findings also suggest that customer engagement plays a mediation role in the relationship between AI-powered digital assistance and customers' luxury brand online shopping experience. Besides, digital multisensory cues moderate the relationship between AI-powered digital assistance and customer engagement. Further, fsQCA complements the findings of PLS-SEM that reveal the significant combination of factors that lead to the perceptions of customers' luxury brand online shopping experience.