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The adjustment of business managers from Beijing and Shanghai assigned to Hong Kong and of Hong Kong expatriates working in Beijing and Shanghai were compared in an exploratory study. The personal in‐depth interviews showed differences between the managers from the Chinese mainland and those from the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. The mainland respondents perceived substantial adjustment needs inside and outside the workplace in Hong Kong, but made earnest efforts and experienced few obstacles. On the other hand, the predicament experienced by many Hong Kong managers on the mainland closely resembles the worst experiences of expatriate managers reported in the literature on international adjustment. The implications of these non‐reciprocal results are discussed, and possible reasons for such findings are speculated upon.

Misconduct allegations have been found to not only affect the alleged firm but also other, unalleged firms in form of reputational and financial spillover effects. It has remained unexplored, however, how the number of prior allegations against other firms matters for an individual firm currently facing an allegation. Building on behavioral decision theory, we argue that the relationship between allegation prevalence among other firms and investor reaction to a focal allegation is inverted U-shaped. The inverted U-shaped effect is theorized to emerge from the combination of two effects: In the absence of prior allegations against other firms, investors fail to anticipate the focal allegation, and hence react particularly negatively (“anticipation effect”). In the case of many prior allegations against other firms, investors also react particularly negatively because investors perceive the focal allegation as more warranted (“evaluation effect”). The multi-industry, empirical analysis of 8,802 misconduct allegations against US firms between 2007 and 2017 provides support for our predicted, inverted U-shaped effect. Our study complements recent misconduct research on spillover effects by highlighting that not only a current allegation against an individual firm can “contaminate” other, unalleged firms but that also prior allegations against other firms can “contaminate” investor reaction to a focal allegation against an individual firm.

During this current era of the knowledge economy, knowledge activities have greatly impacted manufacturing activities, with knowledge being treated as a critical factor that creates and sustains competitive advantages. Past studies tended to relate knowledge works with organizational tasks and assumed that knowledge workers implement those tasks to achieve organizational goals. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to employ the perspective of task domain as the basis to clarify the impact of manufacturing task domains on the manufacturing strategy, as well as the mediating effects of knowledge advantage on such an impact.

The authors follow Becerra-Fernandez and Sabherwal’s (2001) task which focus/task breadth dichotomy as the basis to define market-based task domains, employs Leonard-Barton’s (1995) T-shaped skill as the theoretical base to construct knowledge advantages, i.e., knowledge depth (I-shaped skill), diversity (hyphened skill), and convergence (T-shaped skill), and uses the conventional typology to measure the manufacturing strategy (i.e. cost, quality, flexibility, and delivery). The empirical study is conducted via a questionnaire survey and selects Taiwan’s top 600 manufacturers as the population and accordingly collects 131 effective observations.

The empirical evidence indicates that firms’ priorities on cost and delivery are positively caused by the focus orientation of the tasks, while their priorities on quality and flexibility are positively caused by both focus and diversity orientations of the tasks. The results also signify that knowledge advantages perform complete mediation on the previous relationships. In more detail, knowledge depth presents mediation on focus orientation, and knowledge convergence exhibits mediating effects both on focus and breadth orientations. The statistics point out that knowledge depth has the highest impact on the manufacturing strategy, but knowledge diversity fails to significantly explain the manufacturing strategy.

Literature assumed that knowledge activities are task-driven issue; this study hence examines knowledge advantage based on the task domain perspective to clarify the architecture and contents of knowledge advantages.

Prior research finds that firms disclosing a focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR) experience less negative reactions following a corporate misstep. We predict that this “insurance effect” is limited to cases of ordinary failures (i.e., failures not directly related to the social or environmental impacts of the firm) and may provide no protection when a failure is directly related to CSR. Further, we hypothesize a potential “backfire effect,” where investors react more negatively to a CSR-focused firm in the case of a CSR-related failure than to a traditional firm experiencing the same failure. In-keeping with attribution theory and expectancy violations theory, our results support the predicted limitation of the insurance effect. In addition, we find that the limited insurance effect is mediated by reputational assessments. Although directionally consistent, the proposed backfire effect is not statistically significant. Overall, our results suggest that CSR is not a panacea for dampening the penalties associated with business missteps, and managers seeking to benefit from CSR engagement should be diligent in monitoring their firms' future CSR performance.

While women remain the majority of caregivers, gender parity is reported among Millennials, people of color, and LGBTQ caregivers. Such dynamics of care dyads are rarely explored in relationship with caregiver selection, social support, or care outcomes, and without standardized measures we are uncertain whether this trend is associated with youth, demographic changes, or a societal shift. Utilizing the Caregiving in the US 2015 data set, this exploratory, quantitative study examines relationships between gender, primary condition, and two social designations around age (kinship generations and birth cohorts) to develop a preliminary categorization of informal caregivers in the United States by reviewing descriptives and correlations, then testing with multivariate regression. A model combining Millennial caregivers, same-generation dyads, and two primary conditions (mental illness and stroke) successfully predicts variance as to whether a dyad will comprise one woman caring for another woman, the most common dyad. Findings demonstrate the interconnectedness of caregiving generational models, suggesting that categorizing dyads from such variables is viable. This study deepens inquiry into intergenerational caregiving and makes a case for generationality and caregiving to be studied together.

The chapter investigates factors shaping convenience orientation in the 21st century as well as present-day barriers to the consumption of food and non-food convenience products.

A qualitative research approach with two kinds of data triangulation is used. Multiple key informants (marketing managers and consumers) allow a consideration from different angles and multiple methodologies (in-depth and focus group interviews) help to gain deeper insights into the topic.

Convenience orientation comprises dimensions that were previously not considered in marketing research. In addition to the known factors time and effort saving, consumers buy convenience products because of the flexibility they provide. Moreover, concerns for health, environment, and quality are important barriers that prevent consumers from buying and consuming convenience products.

Our results suggest that factors increasing and decreasing convenience consumption depend at least partly on the product category. Future research should integrate various other product groups to further explore domain-specific convenience orientation.

The conceptualization of convenience orientation offers important implications for new product development as well as for the design of the marketing mix. For instance, existing barriers could be overcome by improving transparency or meeting environmental concerns.

The chapter reveals the factors shaping the consumption of convenience products. The presented findings are important to academics researching convenience consumption and practitioners producing and distributing convenience products.

This study proposes a conceptual model to assess the perceived service quality properly using fuzzy set theory, since customers' perceptions of service quality are generally expressed subjectively in vague linguistic terms

To demonstrate the proposed model, the exploratory prospect of empirical study with questionnaire is given in measuring the service quality. The customer first records his or her perception of service quality in linguistic terms. The reviewer then quantifies the perception with fuzzy numbers. By mutually comparing all the criteria, importance weights of criteria in assessing the service quality can be prioritized. The fuzzy perceived quality score is then calculated by combining the fuzzy numbers of criteria with the corresponding weights. The fuzzy scores are then transformed to linguistic terms to reflect the customer's satisfaction level of overall service quality as interpreted by the reviewer.

The investigation shows that distinguishing satisfaction scores with crispy numbers may be difficult, but that customer satisfaction is much easier to identify. The sample information reveals the percentage of population customers who are satisfied with the service provided, since customer satisfaction and attitude toward perceived service quality are linguistic in nature.

Fuzzy linguistic assessment of service quality is much closer to human thinking than methods based on crispy numbers. Similarly, the proposed method can also be extended to other studies or contests in which the evaluation or appraisal is subjective or verbal in nature.

The purpose of the study is to report on an in‐depth exploration of service quality in an Information Technology service department in a Higher Education Institute (HEI) and to evaluate the instrument used.

The study surveys customers using the SERVQUAL instrument, which is one of the most widely used and applied scales for the measurement of perceived service quality.

A focused and rigorous examination of customers' views of the importance of the service elements is provided. The study confirmed previous research that the application of SERVQUAL in the public sector can produce different service quality dimensions from those found in private sector services. It was also found that the service quality gaps, and the relative importance of the five dimensions of service quality, were the same for students and staff, albeit with some specific differences. Reliability was the most important dimension for all customers and the greatest improvement in service quality would be achieved through improved service reliability.

The implications of these findings for the department are discussed, together with the value of SERVQUAL to the public sector, in general, and Higher Education, in particular, in assisting with improvement of services. Further research at the HEI which would benefit the department is identified as well as a broader project to survey service provision and approaches to quality measurement across HEIs.

In an increasingly consumerist environment, a serious approach to service quality can only enhance the reputation of HEIs which address the area in a coherent and consistent manner. This study details a useful approach.