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The purpose of this paper is to answer the question of how brand-specific transformational leadership (TFL) and transactional leadership (TRL) enhance employee-based brand equity (EBBE) by influencing employees’ perceived brand value congruence (EPBVC).

This study employed hierarchical linear modeling and chose moderating variables that are primarily related to the working environment: person–job fit (PJF) and person–group fit (PGF). The sample included managers and employees of the largest domestic bank in Taiwan.

Questionnaires were distributed to banking staff in the service industry. The results imply that both brand-specific TFL and brand-specific TRL require the mediation of PJF and PGF to influence EBBE, which then influences brand equity. Without these mediators, brand-specific TFL and brand-specific TRL have no effects on EBBE.

Compared to the results from other studies, these results imply a unique discovery that both brand-specific TFL and brand-specific TRL require the mediation of PJF and PGF to influence EPBVC, which in turn influences EBBE. Without these mediators, brand-specific TFL and brand-specific TRL do not have any effects.

This study examines whether relational capital influences self-disclosure behavior through the mechanism of needs-based motivation in virtual communities.

This study adopts hierarchical linear model (HLM) to differentiate between the relationships at different levels, with 378 online questionnaires recovered from 42 virtual communities.

The results show that group-level relational capital is positively related to self-disclosure and affects it through the partially mediating mechanism of motivation. Relational capital also strengthens the positive influence of the need to be on trend on individual self-disclosure behavior.

This study makes four research contributions. Firstly, we identify the means by which relational capital established within a virtual community influences user disclosure behavior. This focus differs from those of previous studies, which have emphasized privacy and security of information systems, cost–benefit considerations, and/or adopted personality traits as the research basis. Secondly, this study examines and verifies the mediating mechanism of motivation, establishing an alternative perspective for theoretical studies, and providing future studies with a reference for investigating the self-disclosure behavior of members. Thirdly, this research introduces and verifies the moderating effects of relational capital based on member relationships, thus making further theoretical and empirical contributions. Finally, we adopt HLM to conduct our analyses, thereby ensuring higher precision regarding the explanatory power of group-level explanatory variables for individual-level dependent variables.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether online leadership affects offline leadership through a mediation mechanism.

Drawing on social presence theory, the authors developed a mediation model of online leadership to offline leadership, and examine the moderating effect of interactivity. Data were collected through an internet questionnaire, with gamers in Taiwan’s leading forum as research targets. After receiving 912 valid questionnaires, the authors used SPSS 21 and AMOS 21 to conduct data analysis to test the model.

The results show that online leadership will affect offline leadership. Moreover, game achievements and character identification have partial mediated effects in this model. Finally, interactivity has a moderating effect in this model.

These findings provide insights for future leadership training effectiveness, training guidelines, game design, and selection of references.

This research extends the current state of knowledge about the paths to transfer online leadership experiences to office situations through direct influence, game achievement, and character identification.

This study aims to identify the driving forces of customer value co-creation (VCC) that occur through employee positive psychological capital (PPC), employee service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (SOOCB) and customer brand experience (BE).

In total, 493 valid samples were retrieved from 30 hotels in Taiwan. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to extensively and accurately examine customer VCC from a cross-level perspective.

The results showed that employee PPC was not positively related to customer VCC, that employee PPC affected customer VCC indirectly through the mediating effect of employee SOOCB and that the relationship between employee SOOCB and customer VCC was positively moderated by customer BE.

First, this study investigated the customer VCC driving forces through the role of the employee, and thus advances the customer VCC field. Second, it identified employee SOOCB as a key mediating mechanism that links the indirect relationship between employee PPC and customer VCC. Third, it identified customer BE as a key moderating mechanism in the relationship between employee SOOCB and customer VCC. Fourth, regarding methodology, few studies investigate VCC through a cross-level approach. The present study used hierarchical linear modeling to extensively and accurately examine customer VCC and its cross-level relationships, thus providing greater research value compared with single-level analysis. Finally, the result findings suggest that organizational leaders should enhance the PPC of employees in furtherance of encouraging the employees to perform extra-role SOOCB, which makes customer co-creation behavior, and ultimately, contributes to managerial practice.

This paper aims to examine the environmental awareness, initiatives and performance in the Macau hotel industry.

A mixed research method was adopted involving quantitative surveys with 31 hotels in Macau and 11 face-to-face interviews with the hotel managers, facilities managers and engineers.

Response from surveys and interviews with 31 hoteliers show that hotels in Macau have a high level of environmental awareness. Most hoteliers actively introduce initiatives that contribute to cost savings. Initiatives including using energy conservation light bulbs, having an active system to detect/repair leaking facilities and installing water conserving fixtures are widely implemented, while programs involving using solar lawn light, recycling leftover food and reusing wastewater are not. Major barriers for going green include the lack of government regulations on environmental management (EM), financial constraints, the lack of employees to handle EM and the fear that environmental initiatives may negatively impact the guest’s experience, especially those VIP and hardcore gamblers and customers who expect enjoying the luxuries services in Macau hotels. Lower star hotels experience more difficulties in adopting green approaches.

This paper presents a single case study of Macau; therefore, the results in this research may have limited generalizability.

This paper is one of the very few attempts that investigate EM in Macau – a renowned world tourism and gambling destination, where the vast majority of hotels have their casino facilities. Results show that apart from the financial consideration and the lack of government enforcement to adopt green measures similar to hotels in other destinations, EM practices of Macau’s hotels are also constrained by its customer base and the acute shortage of human resources that is caused by the tourism boom.

This chapter aims to answer whether foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) operating within the Chinese context differ from indigenous firms on several essential labor standards indicators: white- and blue-collar salaries, pension insurance, and working hours. In drawing upon neo-institutional and organizational imprinting theories and applying these to the Chinese context, the study addresses competing arguments regarding the expected effects of ownership type on these indicators. We employ seemingly unrelated regressions (SURs) to empirically examine a novel national survey of 1,268 firms in 12 Chinese cities. The regression results show that foreign MNCs do not provide uniquely beneficial labor practice packages to workers when compared with various indigenous firm types, including state-owned enterprises (SOEs), affiliate businesses of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, and domestic private enterprises (DPEs). Specifically, although MNCs provide relatively higher wage rates, they underperform relative to SOEs concerning social insurance. However, DPEs consistently underperform relative to MNCs across most indicators. The mixture of the results contributes important nuances to the application of neo-institutional and organizational imprinting theories to the Chinese context.

The purpose of this paper is to integrate social capital theory and motivation theory to identify the factors that affect the intention of users to share mobile coupons (m-coupons) via social network sites (SNS). Social capital includes social ties, trust, and perceived similarity, whereas motivation comprises sense of self-worth and socializing.

A research model that integrates three social capital factors, two motivations, and m-coupon sharing is developed. Quantitative data from 297 users who had coupon usage experience are collected via offline and online survey. Partial least squares is used to conduct data analysis and test hypotheses.

Social ties, trust, and perceived similarity are positively related to m-coupon sharing intention and positively affect sense of self-worth and socializing, which have significant positive effects on m-coupon sharing intention and mediate the relationships between social capital factors and sharing intention.

This study highlights the integrated effects of social capital and motivations on m-coupon sharing intention in SNS. While social capital factors (i.e. social ties, trust, and perceived similarity) and motivations (i.e. sense of self-worth and socializing) positively affect m-coupon sharing, motivations are more directly associated with m-coupon sharing than social capital factors.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the construction of social and environmental strategies and the related implementation of management control by a key organisation located in a pivotal Asian location in the global hospitality industry. In doing so, it sets out to elucidate the forms and processes of strategic social and environmental control as well their relationship to the traditional financial control system.

The study employs field-based case study of a single case operating in both regional and global context. Drawing upon documentary, survey and interview sources, the study employs structuration theory to inform its design and analysis.

The findings reveal the interaction of top-down global corporate framing and bottom-up local-level staff initiatives that combine to develop a locally focussed and differentiated social and environmental programme and expedite an associated management control and accountability system. The study also reveals the dominance of the traditional financial control system over the social and environmental management control system and the simultaneously enabling and constraining nature of that relationship.

Signification and legitimation structures can be employed in building social and environmental values and programmes which then lay the foundations for related discourse and action at multiple levels of the organisation. This also has the potential to facilitate modes of staff commitment expressed through bottom-up initiatives and control, subject to but also facilitated by the dominating influence of the organisation’s financial control system.

This study reveals the importance of national and regional governmental, cultural and social context as both potential enablers and beneficiaries of organisational, social and environmental strategy and control innovation and implementation.

The paper offers an intra-organisational perspective on social and environmental strategising and control processes and motivations that elucidates forms of action, control and accountability and the relationship between social/environmental control and financial control agendas. It further reveals the interaction between globally developed strategic and control frameworks and locally initiated bottom-up strategic initiatives and control.

Traditional paper-based contracts are document-intensive, insecure, susceptible to forgery and errors, detrimental to productivity improvement and require multiple intermediaries. Addressing these challenges requires computerised construction to modernise the way modern construction projects are procured with blockchain-enabled smart contracts. Smart contracts could replace paper-based contracts by improving transparency and security and automating contractual terms, processes and transacting activities. However, smart contracts are an emerging technology with limited adoption in construction projects, and the issues influencing its widespread adoption remain unclear and unexplored. Hence, this study aims at exploring and understanding the important obstacles to adoption of smart contracts in construction projects.

Using an international questionnaire survey, the study draws on experienced construction practitioners with direct involvement and knowledge in blockchain technology and smart contract initiatives and activities. Descriptive statistics and fuzzy logic techniques were used to analyse and model the quantitative survey data to establish the critical barriers to smart contracts adoption.

Organisational and external characteristics, personal characteristics and technology characteristics constitute major obstacles to the successful adoption of smart contracts. Construction practitioners’ limited knowledge of smart contracts, resistance to technology change, insufficiently digitalised construction industry and lack of or weak governmental support are critical to smart contracts adoption.

The research contributes to the body of knowledge on diffusing cutting-edge technology by advancing the understanding of practitioners’ perspectives on the primary obstacles to smart contracts adoption. Understanding the obstacles provides industry stakeholders (policymakers, leaders and practitioners) with underpinning knowledge with which to develop and implement corrective actions.

Limited research has espoused a comparative perspective to study social networking sites’ (SNS) use continuance despite most of them being abandoned after initial adoption. Most existing empirical works have been undertaken in western contexts, and they do not consider country-origin influence. Thus, they are of little benefit to global and transnational organizations. Awareness of countries’ similarities and contrasts provides the basis for understanding people’s behaviors in cross-cultural contexts, which can be crucial to ensuring technology acceptance and success, especially in multinational organizations. Our research aims to explain why and how people use SNSs sustainably in the workplace through a model and comparative study.

The theoretical framework was developed to integrate and extend two major behavioral adoption and technology use models in explaining SNS use continuance. This paper collected data through a survey and analyzed it using structural equation modeling through partial least squares (PLS).

One major contribution of this study is to highlight that the users in selected countries are driven strongly by subconscious factors rather than traditional factors based on the system attributes and users’ perceived rationality of continuing to use SNSs.

This paper recommends that the model in this study be tested in other technology environments to evaluate the external validity of the research study. The research was based on an unspecified platform, but each SNS may have its own singularities that should merit further consideration.

This paper will contribute to the literature by integrating and extending two major theoretical frameworks and espousing a cross-national perspective.