Clyde A. Warden, Stephen Chi-Tsun Huang, Wan-Hsuan Yen and Judy F. Chen
Collectivism in service research is so bound with Asian cultures as to risk being overly deterministic. Contesting this stereotype, this paper surfaces the individualistic…
Abstract
Purpose
Collectivism in service research is so bound with Asian cultures as to risk being overly deterministic. Contesting this stereotype, this paper surfaces the individualistic consumption facets of consumers within a collectivist cultural setting, describing the compensating role servicescapes may play and the service marketing opportunities they present.
Design/methodology/approach
Within a Chinese cultural research frame, a qualitative grounded approach is adopted that surfaces subconscious metaphors of private consumption through photo elicitation, deep psychological metaphor elicitation and triangulated with field observation.
Findings
Individuals within a collectivist culture do actively seek private psychic space to regenerate the self and prepare for social obligations heavily influenced by Confucian norms. Servicescapes play an important role in private consumption as they provide both a physical and mental oasis of privacy not easily obtainable in regular life and work.
Practical implications
Service providers could offer East Asian consumers a package that includes the individual aspect of their value system, whenever and however they see suitable. More specifically, servicescapes can be designed to provide services that facilitate consumer restoration by implementing the mental metaphors consumers of have this process.
Social implications
A stereotype of a consumption has grown around Chinese consumers that while not totally false, misses a vital aspect of human values and risks missing profitable market niches. Consideration of the whole person's collective-individualistic cycle benefits both the consumer and the business.
Originality/value
Moving beyond a one-dimensional description of East Asian consumer behavior, focused on collective values, we show the key role servicescapes play in private consumption. A psychological renewal of the self, in preparation to re-enter the collective, show the multiple aspects of Asian consumers.
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Clyde A. Warden and Judy F. Chen
The purpose of this paper is to extend research on metaphors of consumption to a Chinese cultural setting, specifically examining consumer thoughts related the Chinese concept of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to extend research on metaphors of consumption to a Chinese cultural setting, specifically examining consumer thoughts related the Chinese concept of renao (hot and noisy).
Design/methodology/approach
The Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) was used – a photo elicitation approach and semi‐structured interviews that surfaced metaphors. Field observation and participative techniques were combined with the 14 interviews, in Taiwan, through a grounded theory approach that classified results in categories using the software XSight.
Findings
Five main categories of related concepts consistently arose: food, inexpensive, crowd, marketing communication and servicescape. Respondents closely tied renao with consumption behavior. All five categories resulted in rich descriptions that these consumers, and possibly a wider group, associate with successful retail locations.
Research limitations/implications
This in‐depth approach was limited to 14 respondents and two researchers living in Taiwan. Thus, both the sample and the sample frame are restricted. Although the concept of renao is common in all Chinese cultural settings, its exact interpretation differs in different locations, sub‐cultures and marketing segments.
Originality/value
Consumers expressing their values though consumption is a marketing topic both studied and used in the West. The convergence of consumers' perception of self and consumption is no less important, but certainly different, for consumers in a Chinese cultural setting. Local values heavily influence Chinese consumption in Taiwan, such as the central concept of renao. These local values are rarely discussed in Western literature. Retailers can benefit by incorporating at least some of these metaphors, while marketing researchers can gain an expanded definition of consumer self‐image and values.
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Tom Chen, Judy Drennan, Lynda Andrews and Linda D. Hollebeek
This paper aims to propose user experience sharing (UES) as a customer-based initiation of value co-creation pertaining to service provision, which represents customers’ level of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose user experience sharing (UES) as a customer-based initiation of value co-creation pertaining to service provision, which represents customers’ level of effort made for the direct benefit of others in their service network. The authors propose and empirically examine a user experience sharing model (UESM) that explicates customer-to-customer (C2C) UES and its impacts on firm-desired customer-based outcomes in online communities.
Design/methodology/Approach
Based on an extensive review, the authors conceptualize UES and UESM. By using online survey data collected from mobile app users in organic online communities, the authors performed structural equation modeling analyses by using AMOS 24.
Findings
The results support the proposed UESM, showing that C2C UES acts as a key driver of both firm-desired customer efforts and customer insights. The results also confirmed that service-dominant (S-D) logic-informed motivational drivers exert a significant impact on C2C UES. Importantly, C2C UES mediates the relationship between S-D logic-informed motivational drivers and firm-desired customer-based outcomes.
Originality/value
This study offers a pioneering attempt to develop an overarching concept, UES, which reflects customers’ initiation of value co-creation, and to empirically examine C2C UES. The empirical evidence supports the key contention that firms should proactively facilitate C2C UES.
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Judy Louie, Kamran Ahmed and Xu-Dong Ji
This paper aims to examine the voluntary disclosure practices of family and non-family listed firms and whether family firms have improved their disclosure practices following the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the voluntary disclosure practices of family and non-family listed firms and whether family firms have improved their disclosure practices following the introduction of the Principles of Good Corporate Governance and Best Practice Recommendations in 2003 in Australia.
Design/methodology/approach
Voluntary disclosures are measured by constructing an index specifically for this study. Such indexes consist of corporate governance disclosure, strategic disclosure and future disclosures. They are then regressed on firm-specific variables while controlling for family and non-family firms. A total of 60 family firms and 60 non-family firms in Australia are randomly chosen from 2001 to 2006 for examining their disclosure practices.
Findings
The research findings show that family firms disclose information voluntarily to signal to the market regarding their growth potentials and abide by government regulations to improve their reputation. Despite the fact that compliance with the Principles of Good Corporate Governance and Best Practice Recommendations was not compulsory, this paper finds that the recommendation encouraged family and non-family firms to disclose more corporate governance information.
Practical implications
The findings from this research will help investors and regulators make more strategic decisions on investments and regulations respectively in family firms.
Originality/value
There has been limited empirical evidence on the disclosure practices and their determinants of family firms in Australia. The study will thus significantly contribute to the current knowledge in this regard.
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Yuan George Shan and Indrit Troshani
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) on audit fees based…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) on audit fees based on evidence from listed companies operating in an emerging economy. Whilst IFRS constitute high-quality accounting standards, XBRL represents a technology standard that can enhance the usability of IFRS and overall financial reporting transparency.
Design/methodology/approach
Multivariate analyses are used on a sample of 1,798 firm-year observations between 2000 and 2011 from companies listed in the Shanghai Stock Exchange that were subject to XBRL and IFRS adoption mandates.
Findings
The main results suggest that XBRL has a main negative effect on audit fees which is weaker for larger firms. Additionally, the authors find that IFRS increases audit fees for all companies. Whilst this effect is positive for firms of different sizes, it is weaker for larger firms.
Research limitations/implications
Whilst the findings are applicable to the selected sample and may or may not be generaliseable to other economies, they can provide important implications for both regulators and companies that are undertaking IFRS convergence and XBRL implementation projects in developing economies around the world.
Originality/value
This study offers a timely assessment of the economic consequences of IFRS and XBRL on listed companies operating in an emerging economy, in addition to providing an important basis upon which further research can be designed in order to extend the analysis.
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Chin Lung Hsu and Judy Chuan-Chuan Lin
This study combines uses and gratifications theory and flow theory to create an integrated model that predicts continuance intention to use and satisfaction with livestreaming…
Abstract
Purpose
This study combines uses and gratifications theory and flow theory to create an integrated model that predicts continuance intention to use and satisfaction with livestreaming services.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed model was empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 304 users about their perceptions of livestream services.
Findings
The results indicate that gratifications such as entertainment, informativeness and sociability were all positively related to satisfaction. The authors find that flow mediates the impact of interactivity and telepresence on satisfaction. Notably, sociability gratification and satisfaction had a significant impact on a user's intention to continue to use livestreaming services and accounted for 77% of the variance.
Originality/value
The study adds to the body of knowledge by demonstrating the uses and gratifications theory and flow theory in live stream services. In addition, the findings may provide useful insights for live stream services streamers and marketers.
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Judy Hutchings, Tracey Bywater, Catrin Eames and Pam Martin
This article reports on three pragmatic randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to help children at risk of conduct disorder (CD): two involved the Incredible Years (IY) BASIC parent…
Abstract
This article reports on three pragmatic randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to help children at risk of conduct disorder (CD): two involved the Incredible Years (IY) BASIC parent programme and the other concerned the IY teacher programme. All three interventions took place in regular service settings in North‐ and Mid‐Wales. In all three studies, staff from the provider agency delivered the programme and participated in RCT evaluations in which participants were randomly allocated to intervention or waitinglist control conditions. After a brief introduction to research into the prevention or treatment of CD, and the issues to be considered by services in selecting and delivering interventions, this article summarises the structure, content and evidence base of the IY programmes. The three Welsh studies are briefly described before exploring what factors contributed to service participation in the trials and the benefits and lessons learned in undertaking them.
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Arch G. Woodside and Metin Kozak
This primer defines and describes conscious and nonconscious perception and assessment processes by tourists. The primer links the field of tourism perception studies to the…
Abstract
This primer defines and describes conscious and nonconscious perception and assessment processes by tourists. The primer links the field of tourism perception studies to the literature of experimental social psychology. The primer describes the important roles that metaphors play in connecting conscious and nonconscious thinking and how both tourism brand managers and tourists use metaphors to use stories to enable enactments and favorable outcomes of archetypal motivations. The primer introduces formal implementable models of the major tenet in Urry’s tourist gaze – visitors’ home culture automatically and mostly nonconsciously profoundly influences their perceptions, assessments, and interpretations of what they see when traveling and visiting away destinations. Model implementation includes applying Boolean algebra-based asymmetric tests instead of symmetric matrix algebra-based statistical tests – the asymmetric tests examine for the consistency of high scores in perceiving, assessing, and behaviors of complex configurations of antecedent conditions. A detailed empirical example of asymmetric testing includes consistent high scores for Americans, Brits, Canadians, and Germans for not shopping for gifts to take home during their visits to Australia. This primer also introduces the concept of the tourist meta-gaze – seeing and assessing outside the automatically activated culturally based tourist gaze.
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Mark N. Wexler and Judy Oberlander
This conceptual paper explores the implications for the sociology of the professions of robo-advice (RA) provided by robo-advisors (RAs) as an early example of successfully…
Abstract
Purpose
This conceptual paper explores the implications for the sociology of the professions of robo-advice (RA) provided by robo-advisors (RAs) as an early example of successfully programmed algorithmic knowledge managed by artificial intelligence (AI).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors examine the drivers of RAs, their success, characteristics, and establish RA as an early precursor of commercialized, programmed professional advice with implications for developments in the sociology of the professions.
Findings
Within the lens of the sociology of the professions, the success of RAs suggests that the diffusion of this innovation depends on three factors: the programmed flows of automated professional knowledge are minimally disruptive, they are less costly, and attract attention because of the “on-trend” nature of algorithmic authority guided by AI. The on-trend nature of algorithmic governance and its increasing public acceptance points toward an algorithmic paradox. The contradictions arise in the gap between RA marketed to the public and as a set of professional practices.
Practical implications
The incursion of RA-like disembodied advice into other professions is predicted given the emergence of tech-savvy clients, the tie between RA and updatable flows of big data, and an increasing shift to the “maker” or “do-it-yourself” movements.
Originality/value
Using the success of RAs in the financial industry, the authors predict that an AI-managed platform, despite the algorithmic paradox, is an avenue for growth with implications for researchers in the sociology of the professions.
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Sherry L. Avery, Judy Y. Sun, Patricia M. Swafford and Edmund L. Prater
The purpose of this study is to promote Chinese indigenous research by examining a case in which adopting social capital (SC) scales developed in the Western context for Chinese…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to promote Chinese indigenous research by examining a case in which adopting social capital (SC) scales developed in the Western context for Chinese samples can decontextualize inter-firm guanxi management in the Chinese context.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting the existing Western scales to measure SC, we collected data from Chinese executives participating in executive master of business administration programs on buyer–supplier relationship. Using the same items and data source, we identified post hoc factors representing guanxi dimensions. Ordinary least squared regressions were used for both guanxi and SC dimensions to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Our analysis showed that Chinese natives responded to the Western SC items according to their understanding and mindsets rooted in guanxi. This was evidenced by the results from the post hoc-derived guanxi dimensions with the same data, which show better regression results for the hypotheses tested, although the construct validity was comparable. Adopting Western SC measurement scales deconceptualized the intricate Chinese context and inter-firm interactions.
Research limitations/implications
It is inappropriate to borrow Western-developed scales for Chinese HRM research due to intricate differences in contexts. Doing so may run the risk of ignoring the Chinese context regarding the mechanisms and processes of complex human interactions, although it may produce superficial results consistent with the Western literature. Developing indigenous measurement scales should be considered not only as a preference but also as a requirement for Chinese management research.
Originality/value
We empirically compared the difference between Western-developed measurement scales and a Chinese indigenous construct, as well as their impact on relationship management in relation to indigenous Chinese management research.