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1 – 10 of 19Khaled Aboulnasr and Gina A. Tran
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of emotional brand attachment in consumers’ evaluation of new products that represent technological innovation.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of emotional brand attachment in consumers’ evaluation of new products that represent technological innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative study was conducted using survey data from a nationally representative probability sample of US consumers (n = 624) to understand the role of emotional brand attachment in the context of consumers’ evaluation of really new products (RNPs). A framework was developed and tested using structural equation modeling that included emotional brand attachment, brand trust, product incongruity, product familiarity, perceived risk, willingness to try, product evaluation and word-of-mouth intentions.
Findings
The results support the role of emotional brand attachment in the diffusion of RNPs. Specifically, results indicated that increased brand attachment reduces consumers’ perceived risk associated with a RNP and increases brand trust. Both constructs played a key role in shaping willingness to try the innovation, word-of-mouth intentions and product evaluation. Findings of this paper add explanatory power to demand-prediction models that more accurately describe the mechanism of the innovation adoption process. For marketing managers, the results emphasize the importance of consumer–brand emotional connections.
Research limitations/implications
The paper used a cross-sectional design; it would be interesting to use a longitudinal design to examine if the role of emotional brand attachment changes over time and how the changes might impact consumers’ perceptions and behaviors in the context of RNPs.
Originality/value
This is the first paper to explore the role of emotional brand attachment in the context of RNPs and consumers’ potential behavioral outcomes.
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David Strutton and Gina A. Tran
The purpose of this article is to develop three approaches that managers should use to channel formerly negative stressors and anxieties into productively motivated behaviors…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to develop three approaches that managers should use to channel formerly negative stressors and anxieties into productively motivated behaviors. When managers deal more deftly with naturally arising and anxiety-inducing stress, they and their subordinates should perform more effectively simply because their levels of motivation will increase.
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual discussion is grounded in ideas and principals adopted and/or adapted from ancient and contemporary Western and social scientific bodies of thought.
Findings
This deductive essay demonstrates how the conscious choice to manage through paradox as bad stressors arrive offers managers actual tools through which they could convert the threatening stresses into challenging – and motivating – anxieties.
Originality/value
Managers often seek to eliminate – or choose to consciously ignore – anxiety. Either behavior, of course, is unreasonable. The sense of realism that emerges from the paradoxical middle path introduced above should decrease the onset of such unreasonable responses to stress. Meanwhile, managing through this middle path approach also elevates the likelihood that motivated managers establish proper goals, break problems and challenges into manageable chunks and address them. In the bargain, managers should become better able to convert bad stress into good.
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Gina A. Tran, David Strutton and David G. Taylor
Consumers are increasingly connected to each other through electronic devices. Consequently, the potential for online retailer (hereafter, e‐tailer) initiated communications…
Abstract
Purpose
Consumers are increasingly connected to each other through electronic devices. Consequently, the potential for online retailer (hereafter, e‐tailer) initiated communications delivered through electronic media to inspire viral‐like e‐WOM processes among consumers is also expanding. Microblog postings and e‐mails may impact consumers' perceptions of retail web sites (e‐servicescape). These perceptions may trigger other outcomes (i.e. greater trust, patronage, or e‐WOM) that redound to e‐tailers' interests. The first purpose of this paper is to expand online e‐tailers' (e‐tailers') understanding of how and whether microblog postings affect consumers' e‐servicescape perceptions. The second purpose is to investigate how and whether e‐servicescape perceptions influence consumers' trust in e‐tailers' web sites, patronage of e‐tailers, and propensity to engage in e‐WOM about e‐tailers' messages.
Design/methodology/approach
By integrating the e‐servicescape construct with the Network Coproduction Model of WOM theory, a model is developed. This model examines how e‐communication efforts affect consumers' perceptions of e‐servicescape, trust, e‐tail patronage and e‐WOM. Each relationship is investigated through a consumer survey.
Findings
Findings suggest: microblog postings may have a negative impact on consumers' e‐servicescape perceptions; retail web site's usability, financial security, customization, and entertainment value positively affect consumers' trust; and consumers' trust positively impacts retail patronage and e‐WOM intentions.
Practical implications
Prescriptive insights for managing microblogging in ways that more favorably influence consumers' perceptions of e‐tailers' e‐servicescapes – and subsequently consumer trust in, patronage of, and e‐WOM about the retailer and its web site – are developed.
Originality/value
The paper is the first to integrate word‐of‐mouth theory with e‐servicescape to test a model examining how microblog postings affect e‐servicescape perceptions, consumer trust, consumer retail patronage, and e‐WOM intentions.
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Yaw A. Debrah and Ian G. Smith
Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on…
Abstract
Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.
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Pachayappan Murugaiyan and Venkatesakumar Ramakrishnan
Little attention has been paid to restructuring existing massive amounts of literature data such that evidence-based meaningful inferences and networks be drawn therefrom. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Little attention has been paid to restructuring existing massive amounts of literature data such that evidence-based meaningful inferences and networks be drawn therefrom. This paper aims to structure extant literature data into a network and demonstrate by graph visualization and manipulation tool “Gephi” how to obtain an evidence-based literature review.
Design/methodology/approach
The main objective of this paper is to propose a methodology to structure existing literature data into a network. This network is examined through certain graph theory metrics to uncover evidence-based research insights arising from existing huge amounts of literature data. From the list metrics, this study considers degree centrality, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality to comprehend the information available in the literature pool.
Findings
There is a significant amount of literature on any given research problem. Approaching this massive volume of literature data to find an appropriate research problem is a complicated process. The proposed methodology and metrics enable the extraction of appropriate and relevant information from huge quantities of literature data. The methodology is validated by three different scenarios of review questions, and results are reported.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed methodology comprises of more manual hours to structure literature data.
Practical implications
This paper enables researchers in any domain to systematically extract and visualize meaningful and evidence-based insights from existing literature.
Originality/value
The procedure for converting literature data into a network representation is not documented in the existing literature. The paper lays down the procedure to structure literature data into a network.
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Helen Abdali Soosan Fagan, Brooke Wells, Samantha Guenther and Gina S. Matkin
The impending demographic shift in the United States (Vespa et al., 2020) will require leadership educators to reexamine the relationship between diversity and inclusive…
Abstract
The impending demographic shift in the United States (Vespa et al., 2020) will require leadership educators to reexamine the relationship between diversity and inclusive leadership. Our literature review revealed inclusive leadership has historically not been viewed with a diversity perspective. To better understand the link between diversity and inclusive leadership, we reviewed how leadership scholars, researchers, and authors have described the attributes and impacts of inclusive leaders. Through inductive coding, we identified seven attributes (i.e., characteristics and actions) of inclusive leaders. When these attributes are acted upon, inclusive leaders create various impacts on followers. These impacts are applied to Shore et al.’s (2011) inclusion framework. Both the attributes and impacts are presented to provide information and tools to better equip leadership educators with the knowledge to foster classroom inclusion in diverse classroom environments.
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Salman Ghazwani, Patrick van Esch, Yuanyuan (Gina) Cui and Prachi Gala
This paper aims to investigate the impact of financial anxiety and convenience on the relation between cashier-less versus traditional checkouts and purchase intentions among…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the impact of financial anxiety and convenience on the relation between cashier-less versus traditional checkouts and purchase intentions among Saudi Arabian consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
In an online experiment, 329 Saudi participants were randomly assigned to one of two checkout conditions (traditional vs. AI-enabled) in a between-subjects design and indicated their financial anxiety. Through moderation-of-process design, the authors examine and showcase that the effect of convenience leads to higher purchase intent for AI-enabled checkouts. Moreover, the authors examine financial anxiety as an underlying mechanism and show that for high-convenience consumers, this enacts higher purchase intent.
Findings
The effect of AI-enabled checkouts depends on consumers' convenience perception. High-convenience consumers prefer AI-enabled checkouts over traditional ones, whereas low-convenience consumers are indifferent. Based on the Roy adaptation model theoretical framework, this occurs because high-convenience consumers experience greater financial anxiety when using AI-enabled checkouts, which in turn leads to higher purchase intent.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the reactions of Saudi Arabian consumers toward cashier-less stores versus traditional stores. Interestingly, their intent to purchase increases, due to the financial anxiety they experience while encountering AI-enabled transactions. Due to the limited research of retailers going cashier less, little is known about consumer reactions and how they may differ culturally.
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Gina Myers and Christopher Kowal
Violence toward frontline health-care workers (HCWs) from patients and visitors is a pervasive issue that ranges from verbal and psychological abuse to physical assault. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Violence toward frontline health-care workers (HCWs) from patients and visitors is a pervasive issue that ranges from verbal and psychological abuse to physical assault. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased reports of escalated verbal workplace aggressions (VWPAs); however, most studies have been conducted internationally. Studies based in the USA have focused on physical violence experienced by nurses and paramedics in emergency situations. The purpose of this study is to learn about the experiences of different levels of frontline HCWs with VWPA from patients and visitors and discover ways to address this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative descriptive study asked registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and patient care technicians from one health-care system about their experiences with patient and visitor VWPA using an anonymous, voluntary open-ended survey and in-person interviews. In all, 31 participants completed the survey and 2 were interviewed. Data were analyzed using content analysis.
Findings
Three themes emerged from the data: the experience, moving through and moving forward. Frontline HCWs described experiences of VWPA, indicating its forms, frequency and conditions. They used coping, along with personal and professional measures, to manage and move through the situation. Moving forward was captured as suggestions for the future and conveyed hope for a perfect state.
Originality/value
The experiences of frontline HCWs offered insight into how they perceive and cope with difficult encounters. Recommendations relate to not only implementing interventions that support frontline HCWs but also creating a culture where aggression is not tolerated and addressing perpetrator behavior is a priority.
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Sonal Nakar and Richard G. Bagnall
Vocational education and training (VET) in Australia has for some time been driven by an agenda of “reasonable adjustment”, in which practices are modified to ensure equitable…
Abstract
Purpose
Vocational education and training (VET) in Australia has for some time been driven by an agenda of “reasonable adjustment”, in which practices are modified to ensure equitable access and participation by disadvantaged students. However, the growing marketization of VET has instead encouraged the use of more flexible approaches to attract and retain students from diverse backgrounds. They have thus paralleled and confounded reasonable adjustment practices for inclusive development. This study sought to identify the moral dilemmas experienced by VET teachers arising from implementing reasonable adjustment practices.
Design/methodology/approach
This phenomenological research project used in-depth conversational interviews with 19 experienced VET teachers from a diversity of teaching fields to identify moral dilemmas experienced as arising from changes in their workplace contexts.
Findings
One of the identified dilemmas was responding flexibly to heightened student diversity, to which study participants largely responded by prioritising the economic imperative over social inclusion. Well-intended actions thus led to unintentionally damaging outcomes, raising important ethical questions about the relative value of economic and social development outcomes and the role of reasonable adjustment in their attainment. The study also highlights the lack of appropriate VET teacher training in managing ethical conflicts to minimise risks to themselves and their employing organizations.
Originality/value
As a case study of inclusive development policies in practice, this research may be seen as a cautionary tale for inclusive development policies in other countries with similarly strong VET economic and socially inclusive development policies for sustainability. The paper thus opens a dialogue for critical reflection on the current problems in a reasonable development approach in the field of comparative and international education. Those two parallel agendas have presented VET teachers and trainers with ethically challenging situations in which the economic and social development imperatives are experienced as being conflict with each other.
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This research examines whether anthropomorphizing artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots alters consumers' risk preferences toward financial investment options involving…
Abstract
Purpose
This research examines whether anthropomorphizing artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots alters consumers' risk preferences toward financial investment options involving differential risks.
Design/methodology/approach
An experimental approach has been adopted with three studies, all featuring a between-subjects design.
Findings
Through three studies, the findings document that, in a financial decision-making context, anthropomorphizing AI leads to significantly greater risk aversion in investment decision-making (Study 1). This occurs because AI-enabled chatbot anthropomorphization activates greater psychological risk attachment, which enacts consumers to manifest stronger risk aversion tendency (Studies 2 and 3).
Originality/value
Anthropomorphizing AI has undeniable relevance in the contemporary marketing landscape, such as humanoid robotics and emotion AI algorithms. Despite of anthropomorphism's significance and relevance, the downstream impact of anthropomorphism remains unfortunately underexplored.
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