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This research aimed to raise awareness about the need for safety measures and features of online food delivery applications (OFDAs) to build electronic trust (e-trust) with augmented purchase intention among customers. Moreover, this study explores the attributes of electronic commerce (e-commerce) and how e-trust influences the purchasing intention of consumers while ordering food through OFDAs including fear of contagious diseases. Determinants of e-commerce in the digital era profoundly impact the performance of enterprises.

Data from 493 food consumers collected from Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Pakistan, who were regular users of OFDAs. To scrutinize the dataset, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to assess the construct validity in this research study. Structural equation modeling (SEM), which is facilitated by Smart-PLS, was employed to examine the direct, moderation and mediation effects of the proposed model.

Results revealed the positive and significant impact of the e-trust on the purchase intention. Additionally, e-trust acted as a mediating factor in the connection between electronic security (e-security), electronic privacy (e-privacy), usability, electronic payment (e-payment), electronic innovativeness (e-innovativeness) and the buyer's purchase intention. Furthermore, the fear of contagious viruses negatively moderated the e-trust and purchase intention that weakened buying behavior.

This research is primarily centered on enhancing the comprehension regarding safety orientation within the context of an evolving restaurant industry. The findings of this study hold substantial contributions for academics, web developers, application designers, OFDAs, restaurants and other businesses since they indicate the attractiveness of OFDAs in generating feelings of pleasure and boosting users' intentions to keep using the application.

Online games are widely adopted electronic applications that facilitate flow experiences, which is a highly enjoyable experience for players, thus motivating further engagement in online gameplay. During gameplay, players set gaming goals, and they must make cognitive efforts to achieve these goals. However, we do not know how goal-setting and cognitive gaming elements (game complexity and game familiarity) create flow, indicating a research gap. To fill this gap, we use the cognitive gaming elements in the literature and the theoretical elements of goal-setting theory to build a model.

Conducting a large-scale online survey, we collect 3,491 responses from online game players and use structural equation modeling for data analysis.

We find that challenging goals, game complexity, game familiarity and telepresence are positively linked to player-perceived flow, explaining 45% of the variance. The new finding is that challenging goals can strengthen the link between game complexity and flow. We also find that telepresence can strengthen the link between game familiarity and flow.

Our study provides the novel insight that gaming goals and cognitive gaming elements can generate player-perceived flow. This insight can help game makers design gaming elements to accommodate players' cognitive efforts to achieve in-game goals, thus creating flow and effectively increasing players' game engagement.

Studies have explored the determinants of customer advocacy because of customer advocacy's vital role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing. The current research complements the existing literature in the hospitality field by examining the association between restaurant innovativeness and customer advocacy while also investigating the mediating roles of self-image congruity and customer engagement.

The statistical software AMOS version 25 and bootstrapping were employed to test the hypotheses. Purposive sampling was employed for participant recruitment, and a self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were collected from Taiwanese customers who had dined at selected restaurants.

The results from 385 restaurant customers reported that self-image congruity had an indirect impact on customer advocacy through customer engagement. Customer advocacy was influenced by restaurant innovativeness through the mediation of customer engagement. The influence of restaurant innovativeness on customer advocacy was positively and sequentially mediated by self-image congruity and customer engagement.

Restaurant innovativeness is linked to customer advocacy through self-image congruity and customer engagement. Thus, restaurant managers should implement strategies focusing on innovativeness to improve self-image congruity and engagement among customers.

The current research may be the first to provide a research model that explores restaurant innovativeness, self-image congruity, customer engagement and customer advocacy in the hospitality context. This study also has practical implications for enhancing customer advocacy.

Customer engagement has key practical implications for hospitality management. However, little is known about how perceived coolness and wow affect customer engagement. The purpose of this research was to investigate the associations among perceived coolness, perceived wow and customer engagement and examine the mediator of self-image congruity (SIC).

Survey data were collected from 406 restaurant customers in Taiwan, and structural equation modeling was adopted to examine the hypotheses. Furthermore, a replica model was produced for another sample of 412 hotel customers.

The results indicate that perceived coolness positively affects customer engagement and SIC and that perceived wow positively affects SIC. SIC positively affects customer engagement. Moreover, SIC mediates the associations of perceived coolness and wow with customer engagement. The relationships between the variables did not significantly differ between restaurant customers and hotel customers.

Hospitality businesses can create environments in which customers interact with service providers through innovative technology, thereby encouraging engagement. Coolness and the wow factor must be prioritized in servicescapes, meal and room design, the service process and creative marketing.

The findings contribute knowledge on hospitality, factors affecting customer engagement and the mediating mechanism of SIC. Hospitality managers can use the results to formulate strategies for servicescape design, brand management and customer experience.

Among different leadership styles, scant hospitality researchers have studied the link between authentic leadership and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). This article examined the associations among authentic leadership, job passion, and OCBs and examined the mediation effect of job passion.

Questionnaires were distributed to 314 Taiwan's hotel employees. Structural equation modeling was performed to examine the hypotheses of this study.

The results indicated that authentic leadership positively affects harmonious and obsessive passion and that harmonious passion positively affects OCBs directed to individuals (OCBI) and OCBs directed to the organization (OCBO), whereas obsessive passion positively affects OCBI. Furthermore, harmonious passion mediates the linkage between authentic leadership and OCBs (both OCBI and OCBO), whereas obsessive passion only mediates the linkage between authentic leadership and OCBI.

Training programs for hotel managers should incorporate courses on authentic leadership to strengthen managers' skills. Succession plans for managers should prioritize the promotion and retention of candidates with authentic leadership traits. Furthermore, managers should use authentic leadership to create a transparent employee incentive system and career development plans, thereby creating a workplace with fair rewards and opportunities for promotion.

The major contribution is that it expands the knowledge of hospitality leadership and determines the linkages among authentic leadership, job passion, and OCBs. Furthermore, job passion was revealed as a mediator in the authentic leadership–OCB association.

This paper aims to examine how different contextual contingency factors and organizational goals influence construction clients’ decision-making when procuring contractors in the housing sector. More specifically, it investigates how clients’ choice of procurement strategies and organizational control systems is contingent upon various contextual factors and organizational goals.

It is based on an explorative interview study of clients and contractors in the Swedish housing sector underpinned by a review of organizational control literature.

The client's knowledge and resources, as well as project complexity and uncertainty, are the most important contextual contingency factors, while property management and sustainable development are the most important organizational goals that housing clients consider when designing procurement strategies.

The paper contributes to the understanding of how construction clients choose procurement strategies, by providing new insights into effects of the mentioned contextual contingency factors and organizational goals on clients’ choice of control systems through their procurement strategies.

Property owners who continuously procure housing projects with sustainability requirements and high degrees of complexity and uncertainty should develop knowledge and resources related to their client role, to enable the design and implementation of appropriate procurement strategies.

Novel aspects of the paper are the demonstration of the value of a holistic approach, considering both contextual contingency factors and organizational goals, when selecting control systems and explicit discussion of how the client's knowledge and resources influence possibilities to implement different control systems.

This study aims to provide empirical evidence to verify the dimensional structure of artificial intelligence (AI) Chatbot quality and examine the impact of these dimensions on consumer satisfaction and brand advocacy among Gen Z in the fast food industry in Egypt.

The empirical data was obtained with an electronic self-administered survey instrument from 397 young consumers who had prior experience using AI Chatbots across multiple fast food brands in Egypt. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the formulated hypotheses.

The results showed that AI Chatbot quality dimensions, specifically information authenticity and system compliance, significantly enhance young consumers’ satisfaction. In addition, information authenticity of AI Chatbot quality was observed to wield a significant influence on young consumers’ advocacy. In contrast, an insignificant relationship was noticed between satisfaction and advocacy. Moreover, the mediating role of consumer satisfaction was not established.

Given that Gen Z is more technology savvy and computer literate, marketers and practitioners of fast food brands should invest in AI tools to respond to young consumers’ expectations and improve their perception of their services.

This study uses stimulus-organism-response theory to understand the mediating effect of young consumers’ satisfaction in the relationship between AI Chatbot quality and consumer brand advocacy within the fast food industry. Also, it introduced two novel main constructs of AI Chatbot quality, namely, information authenticity and system compliance.

Drawing on the theoretical underpinnings of job crafting, this study aims to investigate how and when internal marketing orientation (IMO) promotes employees’ positive word of mouth (PWOM).

The two-wave, multisource data came from frontline employees and their supervisors in a hotel located in Eastern China. The hypothesized relationships were tested with Mplus with multilevel path analysis.

The results reveal that IMO encourages frontline employees to change the task, cognitive and relational boundaries of their jobs. Nevertheless, it is through relational crafting that IMO ultimately affects employees’ PWOM, especially when they work with supervisors high in felt responsibility for constructive change (FRCC).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first studies to investigate how organizations and supervisors can work together to encourage frontline employees’ PWOM.

The findings carry important implications for practitioners on how to encourage frontline employees’ PWOM in the service sector.

First, this research adds to the limited knowledge of how organizations and supervisors can work together to promote frontline employees’ PWOM in the service sector. Second, by proposing job crafting as a key intermediary mechanism underlying IMO’s impact on employee PWOM, this research not only offers a new theoretical perspective to understand how to promote frontline employees’ PWOM but also sheds new light on the underlying mechanisms through which IMO exerts its influence on frontline employees. Third, supervisors’ FRCC as a boundary condition of IMO can help service organizations more effectively capitalize on IMO to motivate frontline employees’ engagement in job crafting and subsequent PWOM.

This paper delves into the transformative role of brand avatars within the digital transformation landscape, focusing on their capacity to enhance brand experiences and foster dedicated communities. Brand avatars that allow consumers to customize their appearance hold the potential to elevate various brand attributes, including trust, commitment, loyalty and overall business performance.

This paper aims to gain insights into consumers’ perceptions, attitudes and experiences concerning brand avatars and their influence on brand experiences and community engagement, the study employs quantitative data collection methods, particularly surveys involving consumers.

The findings have yield both theoretical and practical implications. They will benefit digital entrepreneurs and brand managers aiming to harness the potential of personalized brand avatars in the digital innovation realm, thereby, contributing to the existing body of knowledge in the fields of brand and innovation management. This study, like any empirical endeavor, has its limitations. One significant constraint lies in the reliance on self-reported survey data, which may introduce response biases and potential overestimation of positive perceptions due to the novelty of brand avatars.

The research explores how personalized brand avatars, with their visually appealing representations, interactive functionalities and emotional expressions, contribute to enrich the innovation management perspective. Moreover, these avatars play a pivotal role in supporting community development, driving user engagement and facilitating the creation of user-generated content within brand communities.

This exploration illuminates the role played by brand avatars in shaping contemporary brand–consumer interactions and community dynamics in the digital environment.

To improve the surface quality of Mg₂Si/Al composites after solution treatment, the formation mechanism of surface defects under milling machining conditions is investigated to reduce the surface roughness.

This paper analyzes the formation mechanism of surface defects on Mg₂Si/Al composites under micro-milling conditions by establishing a two-dimensional finite element simulation model. Response surface (Box–Behnken) experiments are designed to establish a prediction model for surface roughness, and an analysis of extreme variance is used to investigate the effects of milling depth (ap), spindle speed (vs) and feed rate (vf) on surface quality. NSGA-II multi-objective optimization algorithm is used to optimize the process parameters by considering surface roughness and milling efficiency. Experiments are also applied to verify the relationship between surface defects and particle damage. The effect of depth of cut on surface defects is also investigated.

There are few studies on solid solution treated Mg₂Si/Al composites. Solid solution treated Mg₂Si/Al composites have excellent material properties without changing the original shape of the material, and they are indispensable and critical materials in the fields of aerospace, energy, electronic information and energy transportation.

This study elucidates the formation mechanism of surface damage in Mg₂Si/Al composites, optimizes reasonable process parameters and provides technical guidance for its milling processing.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-08-2024-0309/