Joseph Lok-Man Lee, Noel Yee-Man Siu, Tracy Junfeng Zhang and Shun Mun Helen Wong
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating role of cultural factors (concern for face and stability of attribution) in the relationships among service recovery…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating role of cultural factors (concern for face and stability of attribution) in the relationships among service recovery quality, postrecovery satisfaction and repurchase intention. Based on the politeness theory, this paper proposes a theoretical model for understanding how concern for face and stability of attribution may affect collectivists’ consumption behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected in a field survey of 600 Hong Kong consumers who had experienced a telecommunications service failure. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the theoretical hypotheses.
Findings
A cultural factor of concern for face is found to negatively moderate the relationship between service recovery quality and postrecovery satisfaction. Face also positively influences the relationship between postrecovery satisfaction and repurchase intention. Another cultural factor, stability of attribution, is found to negatively moderate the relationship between service recovery quality and postrecovery satisfaction and to negatively moderate the relationship between postrecovery satisfaction and repurchase intention.
Practical implications
This study contributes to the understanding of the relevance of concern for face and stability of attribution in collectivists’ consumption behavior. The findings have significant implications for managers in a position to exploit the cultural value mechanisms of collectivist consumers.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this has been the first research to examine the impact of concern for face and stability of attribution among service recovery quality, postrecovery satisfaction and repurchase intention.
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This study aims to examine the relationship between leaders' personality traits and their internal communication practices from the leaders' and the followers' perspectives. The…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the relationship between leaders' personality traits and their internal communication practices from the leaders' and the followers' perspectives. The effectiveness of leader communication on the followers' perceived relational quality with their organization is also tested.
Design/methodology/approach
Two survey studies in the United States were conducted focusing on leaders' and followers' perspectives on communication practices, respectively.
Findings
Results of Study 1 showed that leaders' self-reported extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability and openness to experience are all significantly and positively associated with their symmetrical and transparent communication practices. From the followers' perspective (Study 2), extraversion and agreeableness positively influenced symmetrical leader communication, while agreeableness and conscientiousness were positively related to transparent leader communication. Both symmetrical and transparent leader communication enhanced the followers' perceived relationship quality with their organization.
Originality/value
The current study is among the first attempts to incorporate the trait theory of leadership in understanding organizational leaders' effective and ethical communication practices with their followers.
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There is no comparative research into the Chinese (PSB) police and the Indian police generally and none on police corruption in particular. This paper aims to show what police…
Abstract
Purpose
There is no comparative research into the Chinese (PSB) police and the Indian police generally and none on police corruption in particular. This paper aims to show what police corruption and malpractices look like in China and India and offer up some suggestions as to why wide spread malpractices persists.
Design/methodology/approach
Horses’ mouth qualitative research is supported by primary public and police survey data.
Findings
There are many similarities in corruption “tricks of the trade” in both the countries, as well as in the reasons for its persistence. However, petty police corruption is more pervasive and less subtle in India. But both the forces suffer from politicization of policing, criminalization of politics, culture of tolerance towards substantive justice over procedural justice and master/servant attitude towards the public. In China, the police have administrative powers beyond criminal legislation, and Indian corruption is underscored by the culture of “Jugaad”.
Research limitations/implications
This is largely a qualitative research, so the usual arguments regarding limitations on its generalization applies. However, the insights in this article may provide some understanding of this under-researched topic and may stimulate further research in this field. It may also offer pointers to potential solutions for practitioners and policymakers.
Practical implications
By providing data on what corruption looks like and why it persists, policymakers can use the findings of this study to develop measures to address them. In so doing they would create a police service in India and China that is less prone to corruption and misconduct, thereby increasing public trust in these institutions.
Social implications
Peace and security is a prerequisite condition for economic and social modernization through the rule of law. Reform of the police is a critical success factor in this process. Therefore, by reforming the police, India and China stand a better chance of eradicating poverty and reducing inequality.
Originality/value
There is little in the way of research into the Chinese Police and none into Chinese police corruption. There is also no comparative study of the Chinese and Indian police generally and none on police corruption in particular.
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Kim Man Erica Lee, Yanto Chandra and Ho Lee
The social venture (SV) is an increasingly popular form of organization to pursue social goals using a commercial approach. Although marketing plays an important role in SV…
Abstract
Purpose
The social venture (SV) is an increasingly popular form of organization to pursue social goals using a commercial approach. Although marketing plays an important role in SV research and a key driver of the performance of SVs, how and the extent to which market conditions play a role remains understudied. This study examines if market turbulence can moderate marketing capabilities and performance relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors developed several hypotheses rooted in the marketing literature and tested them using data collected from a sample of 109 SVs from East Asia (i.e. Hong Kong and Taiwan). Using multiple regression analysis and structural equation modeling, the authors analyzed the marketing capabilities and financial and social performance relationships and the positive moderating role of market turbulence.
Findings
The results suggested that market turbulence is a positive moderator which influences the effect of the marketing capabilities–financial performance relationship, but not the marketing capabilities and social performance relationship.
Originality/value
This paper attempts to interrogate the SV's marketing capabilities–performance relationship in the East Asian context and how market turbulence may enhance or weaken the relationship. This is one of the earliest papers in this research area. The key findings from this research offer valuable theoretical contribution to the study of SV performance.
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Joseph Lok-Man Lee, Noel Yee-Man Siu and Tracy Jun-Feng Zhang
Can we always expect that service recovery justice leads to satisfaction? Literature has shown that a number of moderating factors impact the recovery justice-satisfaction link in…
Abstract
Purpose
Can we always expect that service recovery justice leads to satisfaction? Literature has shown that a number of moderating factors impact the recovery justice-satisfaction link in different cultures. However, there is a dearth of research that has indicated the key cultural variables that play a moderating role. This study aims to attempt to fill the research gap by investigating the moderating role of concern for face, belief in fate and brand equity in the relationship between perceived justice and satisfaction in Chinese culture during service recovery.
Design/methodology/approach
The hypothesized relationships are tested using data from interviews with 600 persons who have recently complained about their telecommunications services. Structural equation modeling is applied in analyzing their responses.
Findings
Concern for face is found to strengthen the relationship between interactional justice perceptions and satisfaction, but to weaken the relationship between distributive justice perceptions and satisfaction. Belief in fate weakens the link between perceptions of interactional justice and satisfaction. Brand equity positively moderates the relationship between perceptions of interactional justice and satisfaction, but it negatively moderates the relationship between perceptions of distributive justice and satisfaction.
Practical implications
The cultural variables, namely, face, fate and brand equity, are found to serve as a moderating role in the relationship between recovery justice dimensions and satisfaction. They are more salient when it is related to social element. Face and brand equity, as interpersonal constructs, aggravate the impact of interactional justice on satisfaction. Fate, as non-social factor, weakens the impact of interactional justice on satisfaction. It is argued that managers should provide staff training in product knowledge and customer service as a preventive measure against damage to the brand. Regular customer satisfaction research and benchmarking exercises should be conducted to understand how customers perceive interactional justice.
Originality/value
This has been the first research to examine the impact of concern for face, belief in fate and brand equity in the relationship between justice perceptions and post-recovery satisfaction during service recovery.
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Joseph Lok-Man Lee, Vanessa Liu and Calvin Cheng
Unlike traditional products and services, customer motivation to purchase green products/services may be due to non-marketing factors, such as their personal values about health…
Abstract
Purpose
Unlike traditional products and services, customer motivation to purchase green products/services may be due to non-marketing factors, such as their personal values about health. In this study, the authors aim to propose and validate an integrative model using both advertising attitude factors and health beliefs to explain purchase intention and word of mouth in the context of green marketing. The authors focus specifically on collectivist consumers as values and social norms that tend to be more salient in driving their decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
The model was tested empirically using a survey study with 308 Chinese consumers in Hong Kong. The data were analyzed using confirmatory composite analysis (CCA) and partial least squares structural equation modeling.
Findings
All health beliefs were significant predictors of green advertising attitude. Green satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between green advertising attitude and positive word of mouth for products and services with green advertising for collectivist Chinese consumers. Meanwhile, green satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between green advertising attitude and purchase intention. In addition, green brand equity partially mediates the green advertising attitude–purchase intention/positive word of mouth link.
Practical implications
The significant impacts of health belief factors on green advertising attitude present important implications to advertising managers in terms of the use of information appeal in promoting green products/services. Green brand equity should also be developed in order to optimize green advertising effectiveness, especially in the context of collectivist customers.
Originality/value
This research is one of the first few studies investigating the mediating role of green satisfaction and green brand equity for collectivist consumer behaviors based on the health belief model (HBM).
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Danping Lin, Carman Ka Man Lee, M.K. Siu, Henry Lau and King Lun Choy
The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential impacts of various variables on product return activities after online shopping. Previous studies on customer behaviour have…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential impacts of various variables on product return activities after online shopping. Previous studies on customer behaviour have been predominantly concerned with return on used products and other product-quality-related constructs in the model. This study aims to specially examine the logistics service-related and customer intention–related variables for general products under the e-commerce circumstance.
Design/methodology/approach
Structured questionnaire data for this study were collected in the two southeast cities of China (162 useable responses). Structural equation modelling was used to examine the latent variables.
Findings
The results confirmed that product return intention has the greatest impact on online shopping returns with a direct effect of 0.63, followed by the flexibility in return (logistics service) with a direct effect of 0.49.
Originality/value
Such a model not only enriches the theoretical understanding of customer behaviour studies but also offers online shopping stores and platforms a quantitative benchmark and new perspective on the design of online shopping supply chains by considering product returns so as to improve the customer satisfaction.
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M. Cristina Díaz García and Sara Carter
In this paper, a social capital perspective is presented to illustrate the interaction between gender and resource mobilization through business owners' networks.
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, a social capital perspective is presented to illustrate the interaction between gender and resource mobilization through business owners' networks.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper explores the resources provided by key supporters of small and young Spanish business owners within the professional service sector.
Findings
The findings suggest that a small group of key individuals provides a diverse range of mainly intangible support to the entrepreneur. Overall, the paper finds only limited support for the idea that male and female networks differ in resource mobilization except for the source of contacts‐referrals and emotional capital. The importance of including emotional capital is evident in the fact that men and women seek it in large numbers, although few studies consider it within the resources provided by the entrepreneurial networks, since it is normally attributed to women and the private sphere.
Research limitations/implications
It seems that women business owners, through their embeddedness in networks, can build a bridge between their agency and the structure which normally implies some constraints for them due to the gender‐belief system. Establishing a mentorship program can prove very useful, since business owners prioritize obtaining intangible resources from their key supporters: ideas‐advice, emotional support, and contacts‐referrals.
Originality/value
Despite the research attention on social capital in recent years, prior work has tended to focus on how actors connect (structural dimension); however, there is a dearth of research about the resources actors can potentially gain access to by examining with whom they connect. Moreover, few studies have recognized the impact of gender on networking experiences.
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Sexual health promotion aimed at men who have sex with men (MSM) is not achieving its objective of reducing the incidence of new infections of sexually transmitted diseases…
Abstract
Purpose
Sexual health promotion aimed at men who have sex with men (MSM) is not achieving its objective of reducing the incidence of new infections of sexually transmitted diseases, notably HIV/AIDS, in the MSM population. The paper aims to raise awareness of possible unintended consequences when using visual culture and advertising techniques in the field of sexual (and other) health promotion and public health messages.
Design/methodology/approach
Using critical textual analysis and drawing on visual culture methodology the approach is to critique current practice and suggest alternative ways to approach gay men's sexual health which are not predicated on a “model” gay man.
Findings
Men who have sex with men (MSM) are constructed through sexual health promotion (SHP) literature as young, hedonistic and irrational which may serve to distance the very audience it seeks to attract and address. What may at first appear to be a targeted and helpful initiative to raise awareness may inadvertently have the simultaneous and unanticipated effect of “selling” unsafe sex rather than promoting safe sex. This is because, first, the use of sexual imagery designed to attract attention works in unanticipated ways. Second, MSM are constructed through the images and language used in ways that may be at best unhelpful and potentially quite harmful.
Research limitations/implications
There are many different approaches and interventions in this field and the criticisms here may not be applicable to many of the other sources of health promotion awareness campaigns. Future research could certainly be conducted in other fields of health promotion and public health issues such as obesity, drug and alcohol abuse and smoking cessation.
Practical implications
Health promotion practice should beware of depicting their audience in stereotypical ways. MSM could be constructed far more positively as role models to be followed instead of bad examples to be avoided.
Originality/value
The methodology is new to this field and the findings provide an original basis for criticism of advertising techniques which have until now formed the basis of this type of public awareness‐raising.
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Nareatha L. Studdard and George Munchus
The purpose of this research is to examine how entrepreneurs in new venture creations use social competence skills, such as proactive help‐seeking behaviours, to acquire knowledge.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to examine how entrepreneurs in new venture creations use social competence skills, such as proactive help‐seeking behaviours, to acquire knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
An investigation is conducted into how entrepreneurs, in a new venture creation, acquire business and technical knowledge utilizing proactive help‐seeking behaviour. Social competence is operationalised as a construct dependent on a number of psychological and behavioural factors. As such, proactive help‐seeking behaviour suggests that individuals will recognise a deficiency in knowledge and actively search for possible solutions to solve the problem. However, there are social costs involved during the help‐seeking process. The level of social competence skill will impact the new venture because entrepreneurs do not want to appear incompetent, inferior, or dependent on another individual or organization in the environment.
Findings
It is theorised that entrepreneurs who proactively seek help will increase their acquisition of knowledge. However, individual autonomy, reputation of the help‐giver, and gender of the entrepreneur will moderate entrepreneurs to proactively seek help.
Originality/value
The value of the research is that it contributes to the body of literature that examines individual and firm level constructs to understand the question of why some entrepreneurs succeed while others fail. It specifically utilises the psychological construct, proactive help‐seeking behaviour, with the firm level construct, resource‐based view to understand firm formation and development.