Effective communication styles for the customer-oriented service employee: Inducing dedicational behaviors in luxury restaurant patrons

The goals of this study were (1) to identify the optimal facets of communication style for customer-oriented service employees and (2) to examine the ways in which the customer-oriented service employee (COSE) induces luxury restaurant patrons’ dedicational behaviors. Customer dedicational behaviors are defined as ‘a set of active and positive customer voluntary behaviors towards a business induced by high relationship quality’. Based on the existing body of communication literature, nine types of communication styles were derived. Theoretical relationships between the nine communication styles and the COSE also were developed via literature review, and causal relationships between the COSE and three different types of consumer dedicational behavior styles were subsequently suggested. By integrating the derived theoretical hypotheses, a conceptual model was proposed and then tested utilizing data collected from 527 luxury restaurant patrons. The results of data analysis revealed that five types of communication styles (attentive, friendly, impression leaving, open, and relaxed) bear a positive impact on COSE, while one communication style (contentious) bears a negative impact. It was also found that the customer-oriented service employee plays a critical role in inducing three types of dedicational behaviors in consumers: enhancement, cooperation, and advocacy. The key theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed in the latter part of this article.     

Expertise, Subversion, and Bureaucratic Discretion

This article examines a legislature's delegation of policy-makingauthority to an imperfectly controlled, expert bureaucrat. Thelegislature can reduce the bureaucrat's expertise advantagethrough costly investigations of its own before delegating.Further, the bureaucrat is granted discretionary bounds by thelegislature, but can subvert legislative dictates by steppingbeyond them at some cost. I analyze the interaction of preferencedivergence, investigation cost to the legislature, and subversioncost to the bureaucrat on the decision to delegate. The modelshows that, because of the equilibrium effect of subversionon discretion, bureaucrats will want subversion of legislativedictates to be difficult, while legislators want it to be relativelyeasy. It also highlights an indirect effect between preferencedivergence and discretion: preference divergence leads the legislatureto become more expert on policy matters, which leads it to delegateless.     

Effectiveness of harvest strategies in achieving multiple management objectives in a multispecies fishery

Fisheries management is characterised by multiple objectives, some of which may be complementary, while others may require trade‐offs between outcomes. Balancing these objectives is made more complex in the case of multispecies and multigear fisheries. In this paper, we develop a bioeconomic model that captures the key elements of such a fishery to test a range of potential harvest strategies to provide insights into how economic target reference points could lead to both desirable and undesirable management outcomes (e.g. discards). The model is developed as a long‐run optimisation model to identify target reference points to achieve multispecies maximum economic yield, and a dynamic recursive optimisation model, which includes more realistic representation of fishers’ behaviour, such as discards and trading of under‐caught species quotas. The potential economic, social and ecological impacts are evaluated using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The results suggest that the use of proxy target reference points can result in short‐term economic benefits at the cost of slower stock recovery and higher discarding. Limiting the number of species subject to quota controls may also prove beneficial in multispecies fisheries, while ensuring quota markets are efficient is likely to produce benefits irrespective of the harvest strategy adopted.     

Switching intention model development: Role of service performances,customer satisfaction,and switching barriers in the hotel industry

The intricate relationships among core service and service encounter performances, customer satisfaction, and switching barriers in the formation of satisfaction and switching intention were examined in this study. A field survey was conducted at upper-midscale hotels. The results of the structural analysis revealed that both core service and service encounter performances significantly affected customer satisfaction, and satisfaction completely mediated the effects of service performances on switching intention. In addition, findings from the tests for metric invariances indicated that components of switching barriers (switching costs, relational investment, and lack of alternatives’ attractiveness) moderated the relationships between satisfaction and switching intention. In particular, the role of satisfaction derived from service performances in decreasing hotel guests’ intention to switch is greater when they perceive high switching costs, relational investment, and lack of alternatives’ attractiveness. Based on study findings, theoretical and practical implications are identified and discussed.     

Vivid-memory formation through experiential value in the context of the international industrial exhibition

This study empirically tests the relationships between experiential value, vividness, storytelling intentions, and patronage intentions in the industrial exhibitions, and examines the moderating effect of mementos. A total of 211 respondents were recruited from visitors to the international game exhibition. According to the results, (1) three dimensions of experiential value (service excellence, playfulness, and aesthetics) had positive effects on vividness, (2) vividness positively influenced storytelling and patronage intentions, (3) storytelling intentions increased patronage intentions, and (4) mementos had a significant moderating effect on the relationship between vividness and storytelling intentions but not on the relationship between vividness and patronage intentions.     

Price Linkages in Asian Equity Markets: Evidence Bordering the Asian Economic, Currency and Financial Crises

This paper examines price linkages among Asian equity markets in the period surrounding the recent Asian economic, financial and currency crises. Three developed markets (Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore) and six emerging markets (Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand) are included in the analysis. Multivariate cointegration and level VAR procedures are conducted to examine causal relationships among these markets. The results indicate that there is a stationary relationship and significant causal linkages between the Asian equity markets. Nevertheless, lower causal relationships that exist between the developed and emerging equity markets suggest that opportunities for international portfolio diversification in Asian equity markets still exist.     

Lend me your wallets: the effect of charismatic leadership on external support for an organization

We argue that charismatic leadership can influence external support for the organization, particularly in making the company more attractive to outside investors. Two studies were conducted to test this general hypothesis. First, an archival study demonstrated that the stock of companies headed by charismatic leaders appreciated more than the stock of comparable companies, even after differences in corporate performance were controlled. It was also found that the effect of charismatic leadership was heightened under more difficult economic conditions. Second, an experiment was conducted in which the salience of charismatic leadership was manipulated, along with information about the prospects for an organization's turnaround. Results showed that appeals from a charismatic leader led to increased investment in the firm, and the leader's influence was greater when the prospects for an organizational turnaround were more difficult. It was also found that an endowment of stock enhanced the influence of charismatic appeals and that charismatic leadership may have affected the general risk propensities of followers. These findings were interpreted in terms of an external perspective on leadership, illustrating how leaders can manage the firm's economic and social environment. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From schoolyard to workplace: The impact of bullying on sales and business employees' machiavellianism,job satisfaction,and perceived importance of an ethical issue

Bullying can precipitate many negative outcomes at work, but previous research does not adequately address how such misbehavior affects employee dispositions and attitudes; how these characteristics impact ethical decision making is also underexplored. Given these research gaps, the purpose of this study is to assess (1) the impact of bullying on Machiavellianism and job satisfaction, and (2) the influences of Machiavellianism and job satisfaction on perceived ethical issue importance, a measure of ethical decision making. Three hundred eighty‐four sales and business employees working for different firms operating in the United States answered a self‐report questionnaire. The findings showed that, after accounting for social desirability bias, workplace bullying was positively associated with Machiavellianism and negatively associated with job satisfaction. Machiavellianism was negatively related to the perceived importance of an ethical issue embedded in a vignette highlighting Machiavellianism and latent bullying behaviors. In addition, job satisfaction was positively related to ethical issue importance. Finally, both Machiavellianism and job satisfaction mediated the relationship between bullying experiences and importance of an ethical issue, as evidenced by their significant indirect effects. HR professionals should minimize bullying and Machiavellianism to reduce the corrosive effect on the ethical environment and enhance work attitudes and ethical decisions.