The role of the customer–seller relationship in the intention of the customer to complain: A study of Chinese restaurateurs

The potential benefits of customer–seller relationships in the area of consumer complaints are seldom advocated, particularly in the relational oriented, Chinese society. The purpose of this paper is to explore how customer–seller relationships affect the intention of Chinese consumers to complain. Given that Chinese are collectivistic by nature, this paper also examined the effect of social approval and pressure on the act of complaining. Several relationships between personal attitudes, the subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, the extent of relational contact and the complaining intention of Chinese consumers were postulated. Results show that the complaining intention of Chinese consumers is influenced by customer–seller relationships and the social pressure on act of complaining while personal attitudes do not have any effect. Possible explanations for the results and implications for researchers and practitioners are presented.     

Interdaily Volatility in a Continuous Order-Driven Market

Since Amihud and Mendelson (1987) documented a higher open-to-open return volatility compared to close-to-close return volatility in the US market, there have been various explanations offered, such as call auction opening, a long halt of trade, and specialist systems. No consensus has been reached so far. As an order-driven dealership market, the Hong Kong stock market provides another dimension for examination. If halt of trade is the major cause of the open-to-open volatility in the Hong Kong market, this volatility should also be higher. This is not observed. Positive autocorrelation of the open-to-open return series also suggests that there is no temporary price deviation at market opening. We view these as consistent with the specialist argument put forth by Stoll and Whaley (1990).     

The Chinese negotiation

Most Westerners preparing for a business trip to China like to arm themselves with a list of etiquette how-tos. "Carry a boatload of business cards," tipsters say. "Bring your own interpreter." "Speak in short sentences." "Wear a conservative suit." Such advice can help get companies in the door and even through the first series of business transactions. But it won't sustain the prolonged, year-in, year-out associations Chinese and Western businesses can now achieve. The authors' work with dozens of companies and thousands of American and Chinese executives over the past 20 years has demonstrated that a superficial adherence to etiquette rules gets executives only so far. They have witnessed communication breakdowns between American and Chinese businesspeople time and time again. The root cause: the American side's failure to understand the much broader context of Chinese culture and values, a problem that too often leaves Western negotiators flummoxed and flailing. American and Chinese approaches often appear incompatible. Americans see Chinese negotiators as inefficient, indirect, and even dishonest, while the Chinese see American negotiators as aggressive, impersonal, and excitable. Such perceptions have deep cultural origins. Yet those who know how to navigate these differences can develop thriving, mutually profitable, and satisfying business relationships. Four cultural threads have bound the Chinese people together for some 5,000 years, and these show through in Chinese business negotiations. They are agrarianism, morality, the Chinese pictographic language, and wariness of strangers. Most Western businesspeople often find those elements mysterious and confusing. But ignore them at any time during the negotiation process, and the deal can easily fall apart.     

Employee–organization exchange and employee creativity: a motivational perspective

Abstract

A critical omission in employee creativity literature is lack of a clear understanding of why and how employee–organization exchange (EOX) affects employee creativity. We collected three-phrase data from 384 employees working with 64 supervisors in Guangdong Province, China. Results of Mplus (using design-based modeling approach) suggest that (i) need satisfaction mediates the EOX-creativity relationship, (ii) leader-member exchange (LMX) enhances the positive EOX-need satisfaction relationship, (iii) creative self-efficacy (CSE) neutralizes the positive need satisfaction-creativity relationship, and (iv) the indirect effect of EOX on creativity via need satisfaction is stronger for employees with high quality LMX and with low CSE. Using inducement-contribution framework, the study integrates social exchange and self-determination theories to explicate the mediating role of need satisfaction in the EOX-creativity relationship. Further, the study contributes to the understanding of the EOX-creativity relationship by examining the boundary conditions of LMX (as a synergistic enhancer) in the first stage and CSE (as a neutralizer that diminishes gains) in the second stage of indirect effect.     

Contingent effects of firm and employee reputations on professional advice adoption

Applying resource-based theory and signaling theory, we argue that firm and employee reputations affect consumer adoption of advice offered by professional service providers, and these effects are contingent on contextual variables. Our study on brokerage reports in Singapore supports our arguments. We show that reliance on firm (employee) reputation when adopting advice is higher (lower) if the evaluation of an entity is an initial rather than a repeated one. Also, reliance on employee reputation increases with stronger recommendation or when the entity has a business relationship with the advice-giving firm. These findings have implications for advice-giving firms and policy makers.     

Reversal of fortune? The long-term effect of conservation-led displacement in Nepal

Building on a panel data-set using two rounds of self-administered surveys, this study assesses the long-term welfare effects of conservation-led displacement in Nepal. Empirical findings indicate that while displaced households suffered from poor land productivity and food insecurity in the first five years after displacement, they appear to be better off today, a decade since displacement, compared to non-displaced households. However, this has come at the expense of loosening social ties, increased strain on human capital and, most importantly, an overall deterioration in people’s socio-cultural wellbeing.     

Does the look matter? The impact of casino servicescape on gaming customer satisfaction,intention to revisit,and desire to stay

Despite huge investment made by casinos on their physical structures, little has been know if physical environment actually affects psychological responses of gaming customers. This paper explores how dimensions of servicescape influence customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions in the casino environment. Using Bitner's model of physical surroundings, we hypothesized how ambience, navigation, seating comfort, interior decor, and cleanliness affected cognitive and affective satisfaction of gaming customers. We further proposed that gaming customer satisfaction would affect their desire to stay and intention to revisit. Data from 513 gaming customers of Macau offered support to most of our hypotheses. Implications for research and managerial practices were also discussed.     

Switching customers from branches to internet: A credit union's journey

This research paper reports how a credit union applied knowledge from the literature to solve a marketing problem. A credit union serves a unique group of customers who may be in the same profession, have the same employer, or simply in the same regional location. The marketing problem is how to switch bank customers from branches to internet for the main reason of reducing transaction costs. The research model comprises the independent factors of customer, transaction, application, and bank; and the dependent variables the number of internet banking transaction, perceived usefulness of internet banking, and willingness to use internet banking measuring different aspects of internet banking. We carried out an on-site survey in different branches of our subject credit union to capture the opinion of customers who rely solely on branches for banking transactions. To our knowledge, this study provides a pioneer internet banking survey in the context of credit unions. The survey results reveal different internet banking facilitators for customers with and without internet bank accounts. For customers with internet bank accounts, application security is the most important facilitator variable for them to continue its use in the future; while promises for continuous improvement can be a prohibitive variable. In order to encourage customers without internet bank accounts to adopt internet banking, the management should focus on strengthening the variables of bank diversified service, bank responsiveness, bank image, and extra online instruction and feedback for complicate internet transactions; and reducing the negative effect of web fun/entertainment. We also found that the variables of proficiency in using computers, application security, and bank image have opposite effects on customers with and without internet bank accounts.     

Is the Chinese stock market really inefficient?

Groenewold et al. (2004) documented that the Chinese stock market is inefficient. In this paper, we revisit the efficiency problem of the Chinese stock market using time-series model based trading rules. Our paper distinguishes itself from previous studies in several aspects. First, while previous studies concentrate on the viability of linear forecasting techniques, we evaluate the profitability of the forecasts of the self-exciting threshold autoregressive model (SETAR), and compare it with the conventional linear AR and MA trading rules. Second, the findings of market inefficiency in earlier studies mainly rest on the statistical significance of the autocorrelation or regression coefficients. In contrast, this paper directly examines the profitability of various trading rules. Third, our sample covers an extensive period of 1991–2010. Sub-sample analysis shows that positive returns mainly concentrate in the pre-SOE reform period, suggesting that China's stock market has become more efficient after the reform.