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This study developed and tested a consumer relations model to determine linkages among brand identity, reputation and value congruence with positive Word-of- Mouth (WOM) intentions.

An intercept survey was conducted during which 350 participants were asked about their perceptions of the store from where they are most likely to purchase coffee among options including multi-national corporations (MNCs) that have global brand identity and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) with local brand identity.

Reputation and value congruence were positively related to positive WOM intentions. Unexpectedly, respondents indicated more positive WOM intentions toward SMEs than MNCs.

The findings suggested that value congruence and reputation are positively associated with WOM intentions. Yet, consumers indicated greater WOM intentions toward SMEs than MNCs, which implies that SMEs may be unique and have the ability to create more emotional attachment between businesses and consumers.

To promote consumers' positive WOM intentions, corporate/brand communication practitioners need to build a favorable reputation through effective communication that externalizes organizational values among consumers and includes companies' commitment to the communities in which they operate.

Like SMEs, MNCs should build quality relationships with the local community where they conduct business. Also, based on definitions of values and values congruence in the research literature, an original five-item scale of value congruence was developed and validated to measure the congruence between consumers' personal values and their perceptions of a company's values in the context of consumer relationship management.

This study was designed to test two models linking relationship perception, attitude, and behavior‐based involvement in a membership organization. This study helps fill a gap in the relationship management literature by exploring the hierarchy of effects among a strategic public some of whom could be characterized as having low involvement.

After a couple of pilot tests, a state‐wide mail survey was conducted. As recommended by several studies, the mail survey for this study was included in a packet with a cover letter and a pre‐addressed, pre‐stamped return envelope mailed to 2,100 randomly selected current members of the organization. Of the 2,100 members who received questionnaires, 493 usable responses were collected, resulting in a 23.4 per cent response rate.

For the four relationship quality dimensions used in this study – i.e. control mutuality, satisfaction, trust, and commitment – current members' perceptions of relationship trust and commitment positively influenced their attitudes toward the organization. More importantly, this study demonstrates that the public's perception of commitment can also directly engender supportive behavior toward the organization among members of a key public.

This study was designed to empirically test two models that link relationship quality perceptions, attitude, and behavioral intentions with members in a membership organization based on their levels of involvement. By testing a model of standard sequential order (relationship perceptions → attitude → behavioral intentions), this study found that the originally tested model met the criteria. However, the model was revised based on the modification index and theoretical justification. A new path directly connecting commitment of the relationship quality outcomes to behavioral intentions was added.

Given the link between quality relationships and supportive behaviours among organisations and publics, it is not surprising that public relations scholars and practitioners have turned their attention to trying to measure public relationships and understanding their value for organisations and publics. As part of the development of a diagnostic tool for measuring relationships, the present study attempted to test a measurement scale for the organisation‐public relationship. This research effort was designed to test empirically Hon and Grunig’s proposed organisation‐public relationship instrument. Although each of the two data sets displayed slightly different operationalised items, the two groups of subjects similarly perceived the six‐factor (trust, satisfaction, control mutuality, commitment, exchange relationship, communal relationship) measures as a valid and reliable instrument for measuring their relationship with the university.

A survey of 463 students examined how they perceive their relationship with the University of Florida. Overall, students described the relationship as one characterised by trust and satisfaction and they tended to feel more neutral about control mutuality, commitment and an exchange relationship. Items measuring a communal relationship were the weakest relationship indicators. Data from interviews with nine administrators further validated the relationship outcomes measured in the survey.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

The demanding nature of the construction industry poses strain that affects the health of construction personnel. Research shows that mental ill health in this industry is increasing. However, a review mapping the field to determine the extant of research is lacking. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to conduct a scientometric review of mental health (MH) research in the construction industry.

A total of 145 bibliographic records retrieved from Web of Science and Scopus database were analyzed using CiteSpace, to visualize MH research outputs in the industry.

Top co-cited authors are Helen Lingard, Mei-yung Leung, Paul Bowen, Julitta S. Boschman, Peter E.D. Love, Martin Loosemore and Linda Goldenhar. Previous studies focused on healthy eating, work efficiency, occupational stress and workplace injury. Emerging research areas are centered around physiological health monitoring, work ability, and smart interventions to prevent and manage poor MH.

Result is influenced by the citations in retrieved articles.

The study found that researchers in the construction industry have intensified efforts to leverage information technology in improving the health, well-being, and safety of construction personnel. Future research should focus on developing workplace interventions that incorporate organizational justice and flexible work systems. There is also a need to develop psychological self-reporting scales specific to the industry.

This study enhances the understanding of researchers on existing collaboration networks and future research directions. It provides information on foundational documents and authors whose works should be consulted when researching into this field.

Presents a special issue, enlisting the help of the author’s students and colleagues, focusing on age, sex, colour and disability discrimination in America. Breaks the evidence down into manageable chunks, covering: age discrimination in the workplace; discrimination against African‐Americans; sex discrimination in the workplace; same sex sexual harassment; how to investigate and prove disability discrimination; sexual harassment in the military; when the main US job‐discrimination law applies to small companies; how to investigate and prove racial discrimination; developments concerning race discrimination in the workplace; developments concerning the Equal Pay Act; developments concerning discrimination against workers with HIV or AIDS; developments concerning discrimination based on refusal of family care leave; developments concerning discrimination against gay or lesbian employees; developments concerning discrimination based on colour; how to investigate and prove discrimination concerning based on colour; developments concerning the Equal Pay Act; using statistics in employment discrimination cases; race discrimination in the workplace; developments concerning gender discrimination in the workplace; discrimination in Japanese organizations in America; discrimination in the entertainment industry; discrimination in the utility industry; understanding and effectively managing national origin discrimination; how to investigate and prove hiring discrimination based on colour; and, finally, how to investigate sexual harassment in the workplace.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how organizations enact positivity, openness, access, sharing of tasks, and networking through their web sites. The paper also aims to investigate whether, different types of industries display different levels of relationship strategy.

A content analysis of 286 web sites was conducted to determine how corporations use their site as a communication medium for building and nurturing relationships with publics. Company web sites were selected from the Fortune 500 list according to industry type. The sites were analyzed for the presence and quality of variables identified in the public relations literature as measures of relationship maintenance strategies.

The study's first research question addressed how the sampled organizations display use of relationship maintenance strategies through their web sites. The results revealed that openness was the strategy used most frequently. The quality of the openness dimension also was rated more highly than it was for any of the other strategies. The second research question explored whether industry type made a difference in organizations' use of the relationship maintenance strategies. A statistically significant difference among industry type was found for three of the strategies – positivity, openness, and access.

This study gives guidelines as to how companies can use their web sites more proactively to build and maintain relationships with their publics. The study also provides some insights into why some types of organizations might be more likely than others to use web sites for relationship maintenance. This study's primary contribution to public relations theory is its original focus on strategies for organization‐public relationship maintenance and this study also sought to identify and measure the quality of maintenance strategies.

The purpose of this paper is twofold, first providing researchers with an overview about the uncertainties occurred in procurement including applicable approaches for analyzing different uncertain scenarios, and second proposing directions to inspire future research by identifying research gaps.

Papers related to supply chain risk management and procurement risk management (PRM) from 1995–2017 in several major databases are extracted by keywords and then further filtered based on the relevance to the topic, number of citations and publication year. A total of over 156 papers are selected. Definitions and current approaches related to procurement risks management are reviewed.

Five main risks in procurement process are identified. Apart from summarizing current strategies, suggestions are provided to facilitate strategy selection to handle procurement risks. Seven major future challenges and implications related PRM and different uncertainties are also indicated in this paper.

Procurement decisions making under uncertainty has attracted considerable attention from researchers and practitioners. Despite the increasing awareness for risk management for supply chain, no detail and holistic review paper studied on procurement uncertainty. Managing procurement risk not only need to mitigate the risk of price and lead time, but also need to have sophisticated analysis techniques in supply and demand uncertainty.

The contribution of this review paper is to discuss the implications of the research findings and provides insight about future research. A novel research framework is introduced as reference guide for researchers to apply innovative approach of operations research to resolve the procurements uncertainty problems.

Programmes and courses integrating learning and work, captured generally in this paper as work integrated learning (WIL), usually provide flexible and innovative learning opportunities. In a digital age, information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be vital in delivering and enhancing such hybrid forms of WIL. The purpose of this paper is to explore the correlation and trajectory of ICT use among priests in the Church of England in the various forms of WIL.

The case study explores ICT use among a sample of Church of England priests by examining initially their use of virtual learning environments (VLEs) such as Blackboard and Moodle in work-based learning (WBL); and assessing the trajectory and correlation to work-related learning (WRL) through their use of social networking/engagement tools such as Facebook and Twitter in continuing professional development courses (CPD). The correlation and trajectory is provided through a document analysis of VLE access and a survey questionnaire.

Priests in WBL and priests engaged in WRL (i.e. CPD courses) revealed a correlation in the lack of ICT pervasiveness. With only a minority of priests engaging in further higher education (HE), the familiarity and use of ICT such as VLE platforms stagnated or declined. Correlated with social networking/engagement, priests overwhelmingly cited the “lack of time” as a reason not to engage with social media, however, ICT reluctance caused by fear was the trajectory resulting in a further lack of “ICT pervasiveness”.

While results may be generalisable among Church of England priests and other faith communities internationally, due to its unique and distinctive parameters, it is not generalisable to the general mature student adult education population.

The case study highlighted that continued intentional familiarisation and use of ICT within the various forms of WIL programmes and courses among “non-digital natives” would enhance learning. Such learning in WIL would be beneficial for HE programmes addressing e-readiness as a priority.

Specific to the sample case study, considering the importance of community engagement and WIL, this study highlights the challenges and changes required for improved social capital within the field of ICT and adult education.

No studies have considered the training and education of priests as a WIL case study of ICT “pervasiveness” and self-efficacy.