Assessing the Effects of Service Quality,Past Experience,and Destination Image on Behavioral Intentions in the Spring Training Camp of a Japanese Professional Baseball Team

This study aimed to examine the theoretical relationships between service quality, past experience, destination image, and behavioral intentions in the spring training camp of a professional baseball team in Japan. The results indicate that the service quality of spring training camps was divided into five factors: (1) place, (2) enjoyment, (3) information, (4) fan interaction, and (5) operating time. The findings suggest that service quality and past experience had positive effects on both destination image and behavioral intentions. Behavioral intentions were also highly influenced by destination image. Future research and managerial implications are also discussed.     

Effect of price increases on future intentions of sport consumers

This work analyzes the relationships between perceived value, satisfaction and future intentions among users of a public sport service who experience a price increase in the service they receive. A self-administered survey provides data from two samples (before and after the service price increase). After confirming the reliability and validity of the measures, hierarchical multiple regression provides the means for analyzing the data. The results show that the increase in the service price worsens the perception of service performance. As expected, satisfaction, perceived value and future intentions decrease following an increase in the service price. Perceived value also serves as a more effective predictor of future intentions than satisfaction. Finally, price increase has a low direct effect on predicting future intentions of sport users.     

基于扩展计划行为理论的乡村旅游经营者从众行为研究——西安市上王村实证

乡村旅游是实现巩固拓展脱贫攻坚成果同乡村振兴有效衔接的重要路径选择。乡村旅游经营者的从众行为能够促进旅游地的规范化与规模化发展,但一味地盲从也必然会给旅游地造成不可挽回的损失,理性对待乡村旅游经营者的从众行为对旅游地的可持续发展意义深远。本文基于扩展的计划行为理论基本框架,引入精英影响感知和模糊情境感知两个变量,对乡村旅游经营者从众行为意向的影响因素进行实证研究,并构建乡村旅游经营者从众行为形成机制的理论模型。研究发现,行为态度、指令性规范、知觉行为控制、精英影响感知和模糊情境感知与从众行为意向呈显著正相关关系。另外,乡村旅游经营者的受教育水平对从众行为意向存在显著影响,且呈现受教育水平越高从众行为意向越低的趋势。为了进一步发展乡村旅游,助推乡村振兴,建议提升乡村旅游经营者的经营能力;发挥乡村旅游精英的信息传递与示范带动作用;落实政府的引导与监管职能;防范政府决策层的盲从行为。     

The effect of controversial global sourcing practices on the ethical judgments and intentions of U.S. consumers

Global sourcing has led to lower cost and more effective supply chains for many companies. However, when the cost-driven practices of many suppliers in these chains come to light there is often considerable debate over the ethics of these practices. This research uses the well-known Hunt–Vitell framework as the theoretical foundation for a structural equation model of the deontological and teleological evaluations used by consumers when making ethical judgments of a firm's controversial cost-driven global sourcing practices. Data from a large-scale U.S. consumer survey show the importance of deontological and teleological evaluations in forming consumers’ ethical judgments of global sourcing practices, and establish a strong relationship between ethical judgment and the intention of consumers to alter consumption of a firm's products. Extensions to the framework and demographic analyses for age, gender, and income provide insights as to how perceptions of these practices affect consumer evaluations of a company involved in global sourcing and how consumers actualize their resultant intentions.     

Determining factors and impacts of the intention to adopt mobile banking app in Cameroon: Case of SARA by afriland First Bank

This study aims to know what are the factors determining the adoption of M-Banking app among customers in Cameroon. In other words, what are the factors that influence users in their decisions to adopt and use a system or technology such as the MBanking app, and indirectly, what is the impact of this use on both the customers and financial inclusion? The research model developed relying on a combination of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM ), Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology ( UTAUT2 ), Information System Success Model ( ISSM ), and Protection Motivation Theory ( PMT ) and other constructs; it was then tested with a sample of 223 users of the “ SARA” M-Banking app of the financial institution called “ Afriland First Bank” . Findings revealed that: (1) utilitarian expectation, hedonic motivation, and status gain, habit, and perceived privacy concern have a significant influence on the intention to adopt M-Banking apps; and (2) the exploitative/explorative use of this technology has an impact on user’s loyalty and satisfaction but also contributes strongly to fostering financial inclusion in Cameroon. Also, the Multi-group analysis was performed on the sample using 2 gender-based groups (males, n=121; females, n=102).     

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on management-level hotel employees’ work behaviors: Moderating effects of working-from-home

This study examines the effects of working-from-home during the COVID-19 pandemic on management-level hotel employees’ work engagement, burnout, and turnover intentions. The study demonstrates that working-from-home tends to be a double-edged blade that leads to both positive and negative employee behavioral outcomes. Findings reveal that while working-from-home is associated with a higher level of vigor, it magnifies the effects of absorption on burnout. In addition, due to work-home interference, working-from-home suppresses the positive effect of dedication and amplifies the negative effect of burnout on turnover intentions. The theoretical contributions and managerial recommendations are provided.     

Diversified behavioral portfolio as an alternative to Modern Portfolio Theory

The traditional mean–variance approach has been complemented by alternative theories that use risk measures different from standard deviation of returns or involve additional distributional features of returns like skewness and kurtosis. We propose a portfolio choice model that combines different distributional characteristics of the returns in the decision-making making process, considering preferences of investors which are modeled as non-statistical uncertainties of investors using fuzzy theory. We use 20 stocks of the S&P500 from January 2013 to December 2017. We assess the obtained portfolios’ performance, and the diversified behavioral portfolios outperform than the mean–variance portfolio. This methodological proposal can be seen as a strong managerial tool to make investment portfolio decisions.     

A field experiment to estimate the effects of anchoring and framing on residents’ willingness to purchase water runoff management technologies

Watersheds throughout the world have been severely polluted by nutrient-laden runoff that comes from industrial, agricultural, and residential sources. Efforts to reduce this runoff have focused on industrial and agricultural sources, while little attention has been paid to encouraging residents to reduce runoff from their properties. To study residents’ willingness to adopt landscaping practices that reduce runoff, we conducted a field experiment in the Delaware River watershed. In the experiment, over three hundred adults participated in a series of random-price auctions that revealed their willingness to pay (WTP) for five products that reduce nutrient runoff. To study how WTP can be influenced by attributes of the choice architecture, we randomized the starting bid values (anchors) and the way in which the external benefits of the five practices were framed. Compared to a neutral framing, a positive framing (using the product can improve water quality) increased average WTP by about one-third, while the estimated effect of a negative framing (failing to use the product can worsen water quality) was also positive, but smaller and not statistically different from zero. The estimated effect on average WTP from the anchor depends on how bids of $0 are modeled, but the results imply that higher anchors lead to higher WTP. Although we believe the magnitudes of our results should be considered suggestive and we recommend replications with higher statistical power, the results add to the evidence base that environmental programs can achieve policy-relevant gains in program performance through a series of small changes to the decision environment.     

Time-varying pricing may increase total electricity consumption: Evidence from Costa Rica

We study the implementation of a time-varying pricing (TVP) program by a major electricity utility in Costa Rica. Because of particular features of the data, we use recently developed understanding of the two-way fixed effects differences-in-differences estimator along with event-study specifications to interpret our results. Similar to previous research, we find that the program reduces consumption during peak-hours. However, in contrast with previous research, we find that the program increases total consumption. With a stylized economic model, we show how these seemingly conflicted results may not be at odds. The key element of the model is that previous research used data from rich countries, in which the use of heating and cooling devices drives electricity consumption, but we use data from a tropical middle-income country, where very few households have heating or cooling devices. Since there is not much room for technological changes (which might reduce consumption at all times), behavioral changes to reduce consumption during peak hours are not enough to offset the increased consumption during off-peak hours (when electricity is cheaper). Our results serve as a cautionary piece of evidence for policy makers interested in reducing consumption during peak hours—the goal can potentially be achieved with TVP, but the cost is increased total consumption     

BeFi meets DeFi: A behavioral finance approach to decentralized finance asset pricing

This systematic literature review summarizes the extant research in the Behavioral Finance (BeFi) and digital asset spaces to understand better the interactions of behavioral effects on the pricing of assets constructed, enabled, and exchanged in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) markets. We find that asset pricing in these rapidly evolving markets is better explained through BeFi than through traditional finance (TradFi) theory. Investor attention, sentiment, heuristics and biases, and network effects interact to form a highly volatile and dynamic market. We offer a deterministic research framework with propositions for future research. We further provide investors with a theoretically and empirically supported structure to better inform their decisions through an understanding of BeFi applications to DeFi.