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The emergence of consumerism has led to regulatory measures being integrated into business practices, but the influence of consumers in developing countries remains limited, resulting in businesses being less responsive. The digital retail landscape is undergoing a transformative revolution, driven by Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0 technological advancements such as artificial intelligence (AI), wearables, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and blockchain technology. This development focuses on convenience, personalisation, and emotional connections. Companies are adapting to modern consumer behaviour through various strategies, including online shopping, mobile commerce, data analytics, technology integration, user reviews, and contactless payments. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this seismic shift in the retail industry, and online retail is expected to continue to grow post-pandemic, driven by these technologies. AI enhances the customer experience, wearables provide interactive engagement, VR offers immersive shopping, AR merges online and physical shopping, and blockchain ensures secure transactions in the emerging metaverse. As retail converges with the metaverse, the potential for borderless and personalised shopping experiences is enormous. Advances in VR technology could lead to interconnected virtual spaces that seamlessly connect physical and digital retail, providing immersive and personalised shopping experiences. However, challenges such as cost, learning curves, digital security, legal ambiguity, data privacy, financial risk, and ethical considerations need to be addressed through vigilant and informed consumer engagement in this evolving digital landscape.

The environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement has become a global phenomenon, penetrating even the sports branding industry. Accordingly, this study investigated whether ESG activities can lead to positive attitudes among customers and thereby affect their behavioral intentions.

We collected data by administering questionnaires to 154 consumers, after which we conducted partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized relationships.

The results indicated that ESG activities favorably influenced brand image and brand loyalty. Brand loyalty was positively associated with the willingness to pay (WTP) for a price premium. The indirect effect of brand loyalty was confirmed in the association between ESG activities and WTP a price premium. ESG activities indirectly affected WTP a price premium via serial mediation through brand image and brand loyalty.

This research extends our understanding of the mechanism behind consumers’ decision-making processes on the basis of ESG activities and their impact on WTP a price premium.

In the digital era, price transparency—the practice of disclosing cost breakdowns in product manufacturing—has become present on digital platforms. Although its benefits are well-documented and consumers should theoretically desire costless and relevant information for informed decision-making, this paper proposes that consumers may resist overly transparent pricing, particularly when it pertains to premium-priced (vs regular-priced) products from countries with high equity.

Our research comprises three experimental studies utilizing both student and representative online Prolific samples, covering various products and countries with different equity levels. Initially, a pilot study identifies an interpersonal should-want conflict induced by price transparency when purchasing premium-priced products, leading to information avoidance. Subsequent studies further explore this phenomenon by examining the moderating role of country equity and the mediating role of price unfairness perceptions.

Price transparency can backfire when purchasing premium-priced products due to the want-should conflict among consumers—the desire to receive disclosure of cost breakdowns versus the inclination not to view it. This conflict results in increased resistance to receiving transparent price information and decreased brand attitudes and purchase intentions, especially for products originating from high-equity countries. Heightened perceptions of price unfairness explain these dynamics.

The study primarily relies on experimental designs with limited sample sizes. To enhance the generalizability of the findings, incorporating large-scale real market data across diverse domains and countries would be beneficial.

Grounded in the should-want conflict and information avoidance theories, this paper uniquely explores the adverse effects of price transparency on digital platforms. We extend this by demonstrating that this conflict is influenced by country equity, where the perceived value added by the association of a product with a given country name affects whether consumers experience the conflict. Our investigation of perceived price unfairness further deepens our understanding of the nuanced effects of price transparency.

The objective of this work is twofold: firstly, to develop a model for assessing healthcare service quality (HSQ), and secondly, to evaluate the effectiveness of machine learning algorithms in predicting the quality of healthcare services.

In this study, a comprehensive literature review has been performed to identify key quality dimensions in the healthcare services domain. Delphi’s method has been used to confirm the criticality of these dimensions based on experts’ opinions and proposed a novel CIRMQUAL model. Factor analysis techniques have been used to further validate the CIRMQUAL model. Using the data collected through a questionnaire survey, a number of machine learning models have been developed to predict the customer satisfaction level based on the service quality (SQ) performance of a healthcare unit on different dimensions of the CIRMQUAL model.

The study developed a CIRMQUAL model with 14 dimensions (quality of care, safety and security, skill and conduct, staff attitude, tangibles, quality of the atmosphere, patient rights, follow-up, communication, cost of treatment, availability of resources, accessibility, waiting time and services), and these dimensions have been clubbed into four major dimensions, i.e. clinical quality, infrastructural quality, relationship and managerial quality. Furthermore, the application of machine learning algorithms has demonstrated significant accuracy in predicting SQ, highlighting its ability to improve healthcare services and the satisfaction level of patients.

Managers of healthcare units work hard to identify and address the pain points of the patients and improve the working of the healthcare units being managed by them. The availability of many scales with numerous dimensions adds to their confusion in selecting a suitable scale. The current work addresses this confusion and provides four clear areas for assessing the quality of healthcare units. By using this scale, managers can assess the quality of services provided by them, identify the dimensions of low performance, plan and take suitable corrective actions to improve the performance of their healthcare units.

A comprehensive SQ model, i.e. CIRMQUAL has been proposed as a new scale to assess SQ in healthcare units. The model has been developed after analyzing the dimensions used by many researchers available in the literature. This model can be used by future researchers to assess the SQ in healthcare units. Moreover, an attempt has been made to use artificial intelligence-based techniques for predicting customer satisfaction. Such attempts are in the initial stage for healthcare sector. Future researchers can take this concept forward and test the applicability of different machine learning techniques in different functional areas of healthcare.

Good health is of utmost importance for all human beings. In spite of the expenditure of substantial time and efforts by various stakeholders, the service delivery doesn’t match the expectations of patients. Many times, the service providers are not aware of this dissatisfaction and specific aspects of service delivery that need to be improved to reduce dissatisfaction. The model proposed will help the service providers in this regard and the service providers will be able to take focused steps. Such initiatives will definitely improve patient’s satisfaction and their social well-being.

This work is unique because it uses a novel technique to redefine the quality of services in healthcare by using a dual methodology. The research presents a model that includes various factors and it is specially developed to evaluate the quality of services in healthcare settings. This study advances the area’s progress by implementing computational tools for accurate evaluation of HSQ. The healthcare decision-makers may use this novel perspective to evaluate and enhance the quality of service.

This study aims to examine the mediating role of the use of SMA practices on the association between SMA facets and organisational performance.

A structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data based on a survey of 408 accountants working in Australian organisations.

The results of the structural equation model indicated that SMA facets were positively associated with the use of SMA practices as a package. The use of SMA practices as a package was subsequently positively associated with organisational performance, with the use of SMA practices mediating the effect of SMA facets on organisational performance. In addition, a direct association was found between SMA facets and organisational performance.

The findings make a significant contribution to the management accounting literature, specifically to the emerging SMA and use of management accounting practices as a package line of studies. The findings also have significant implications for practice, highlighting the need to consider the interplay between the facets of SMA and the use of SMA practices as a means of enhancing the impact of SMA.

This study investigates how actual donations towards social causes within fashion supply chains can be increased in the face of negative country-of-origin effects.

Literature reports a lack of sustained consumer support for social causes within fashion supply chains. Driven by perceived psychological distance between the manufacturer and the fashion consumer, negative country-of-origin effects have an impact on donation behaviour. Using two online experiments, this study shows that including a garment worker’s image in swing tags mitigates negative country-of-origin effects on actual donations.

Fashion consumers’ actual donations towards worker rights increased with the presence of a garment worker’s image. In the higher psychological distance condition, exposure to the image reduced negative country-of-origin effects, increasing actual donations. This increase in actual donations is driven by pleasure-seeking, thus indicating that consumer support for social causes within fashion supply chains is underlined by hedonism.

This study focuses on a visual cue-based mechanism of promoting actual donations towards social causes and the role of pleasure-seeking in this process – two previously under-explored areas in the fashion marketing literature. The use of an incentive-compatible measure that required participants to donate real money allows the demonstration of actual donation behaviour, providing robust evidence of the impact of visual cues and their potential to be applied in the real-world.

Due to changing consumer thinking patterns and market dynamics, the quick service restaurant (QSR) industry has changed dramatically in the past few years. Considering this, this study aims to examine the influence of perceived brand globalness and perceived brand localness on consumer word of mouth through brand attitude by considering consumer ethnocentrism and perceived brand origin as moderators.

This study obtained 750 responses from Turkish consumers through a survey and analyzed the data using the maximum-likelihood estimation technique with structural equation modeling.

This study discovered that perceived brand globalness and perceived brand localness are critical components that drive brand attitude, influencing consumers' WOM toward global and local QSR brands. Similarly, perceived brand globalness and perceived brand localness are important brand attributes influencing consumer WOM. Importantly, this study found the significant effects of perceived brand origin on brand attitude mainly toward perceived local brands compared to global QSR brands. Although this study did not uncover the influence of consumer ethnocentrism as expected. However, these insights may assist global and local managers to rethink their strategies toward Turkish consumer settings.

This study was conducted exclusively in Turkey. However, additional studies in other countries, such as the comparative Asian versus European consumers' perspectives, may be considered to generalize the findings.

This study provides recommendations to global and local managers to support them in designing and executing several brand positioning strategies in the QSR industry.

This novel study contributes to the accessibility diagnostic theory and signaling theory by examining consumers' perceptions of local and global brands.

The purpose of this study is to primarily focus upon the acknowledged benefits of tourist-to-tourist (t2t) encounters through productive interactions among tourists, rather than focusing on interactions between tourists and service providers.

This study delves into various value dimensions among Indian tourists that arise during different co-creation stages. A rigorous mixed-methods approach, coupled with a three-wave analysis, was used to develop a comprehensive six-dimensional scale for measuring t2t value co-creation.

The research findings shed light on the dimensions constituting t2t value co-creation, thereby providing a nuanced understanding of their interactions. The developed six-dimensional scale offers a structured framework to quantify positive interactions among tourists, previously unexplored in the literature.

This study significantly contributes to the field of tourism experience by enriching the literature on t2t interaction and value co-creation. Moreover, it provides valuable conceptual, practical and instructive insights for service design and administration within the tourism industry. These insights potentially enhance the overall tourist experience and facilitate more meaningful interactions among tourists, thereby contributing positively to the tourism sector.

The research breaks new ground by shifting the focus from tourist-service provider interactions to productive relationships among tourists. It introduces a pioneering six-dimensional scale, quantifying positive t2t value co-creation. Concentrating on Indian tourists, this study offers unique cultural insights. Methodologically rigorous and practically impactful, it clarifies conceptual ambiguities laying the foundation for nuanced research in understanding tourist interactions and value co-creation.

There are calls for irradiated food labelling due to a significant need for food safety and extensive procedures to safeguard consumer health. Additionally, there is a strong push from producers for mandatory Country of Origin (COO) labelling. The study examines how the COO and Radura labels influence consumer behaviour and shows the interplay between these influences. Using Attitude-Behavior-Context theory, a conceptual model is proposed and tested to evaluate these factors. The use of multiple labels allows for more choices. How the information presented on labels corresponds to consumers' pre-purchase information search is tested on regular label users.

Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), Generalised Linear Modelling and Cluster Analysis were used to analyse the data on a sample of 322 Australian respondents.

The study revealed that COO labelling had a significant positive relationship with attitudes but a negative relationship with WTP, acting as a suppressed mediator between attitudes and WTP. Interestingly, while knowledge was not found significant, label confidence emerged as a significant factor. Furthermore, the research suggests that regular users may prioritize COO labels over Radura labels.

This research contributes novelty by being the first to address the interplay between COO and irradiated labels, complementing the growing body of literature on irradiation labelling. It also offers valuable insights for retail practitioners, providing an understanding that can facilitate the delivery of high-value multiple labels at the point of purchase.

This study aims to cluster psychographic activities, interests and opinions of alcohol quitters in behaviour change maintenance mode to form segmentation bases for social policy and alcohol policy formulation that sustain the behaviour change.

A two-step cluster analysis was used to segment a cross-sectional sample of n = 501 former alcohol consumers based on their activity interest and opinion (AIO) framework through a multiple-response survey design.

Five clusters were found across five AIO themes of “people socialised with”, “relationship interest”, “ingredients of a good relationship”, “party activities” and “outing dressing”. The clusters were honesty-based relationship seekers, spiritual- and intellectual-based relationship seekers, attention seekers in a healthy relationship, self-conscious seeking a healthy relationship, and sincere, spiritual and intellectual-based relationship seekers.

The findings present an opportunity for social policy design that encourages alcohol-free social space creation, strong family ties, community and spiritual growth and incentives for long-term relationships as means of sustaining alcohol quitters’ behaviour. Equally, alcohol policies that match the themes of the clusters can be designed to aid sobriety sustenance.

This study advances knowledge of behaviour change maintenance and provides lifestyle segments of alcohol quitters as bases for further social and alcohol policy design to sustain gains in behaviour change.