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Our need to understand the impact of communication media on negotiation is growing as technological advances offer negotiators more communication options. As access to technologies such as computer chat and videoconferencing increases, negotiators are choosing to use or to avoid these media without knowing the impact of their choices on negotiations. This research assesses objective and subjective negotiation outcomes, such as profit and outcome satisfaction, across four communication media with varying levels of media richness (face‐to‐face, videoconference, telephone, and computer‐mediated communication). A conceptual framework is offered to illustrate how media richness impacts objective and subjective outcomes. Results suggest that media richness affects required bargaining time, outcome satisfaction and the desire for future negotiation interaction. Thus, the communication media for negotiations should be chosen with care.

The first purpose is to assess the quality of containerized multimodal export and the second is to develop and demonstrate the design of a service network with quality approach.

The article used the structural equation model to develop a model to measure the quality of multimodal transportation for containerized exports and finalized the model with an alternative approach. The evolutionary algorithm had been used to design a service network based on quality.

Provided factors affecting quality of multimodal transportation and reverse to one hypothesis, the construct variation in cost, time shape and quantity did not affect the quality of multimodal transportation for containerized exports. The model without variation construct was finalized by exploring causality.

This research had scope till container loading onto the vessel and assessed the quality for containerized cargo only, and second research purpose is limited by assumed values of fitness function and the limited number of nodes, in service network design demonstration.

This research provided a tool to measure the quality of multimodal transportation for containerized exports and demonstrated the field application of the model developed in service network design. This approach included all factors applicable across the container movement. The integrated approach of the article provided an organized method to design a service network for containerized exports.

This work provided the tool to assess the quality of multimodal transportation for containerized exports and developed an approach to design a service network of multimodal transportation based on quality. This approach has considered the factors of multimodal transportation comprehensively in contrast to the optimization approaches based on operation research techniques.

Lean manufacturing, a philosophy that revolutionized the manufacturing industry, is often linked to the Toyota Production System (TPS). At the core of a lean company, one can observe proper implementation of lean manufacturing tools and practices such as just-in-time, work teams, cellular manufacturing, lean layout, etc. The goal of lean production is to minimize the waste producing activities while offering the same or enhanced quality to customers.

The aim of this research is to investigate the implementation degree of lean manufacturing and its tools and practices focusing on the case of an SME in Albania as a concrete example. Higher attention is given to some of the pillars of lean manufacturing such as just-in-time and cellular manufacturing.

In this case study, researchers observed a variety of features of lean production. Just-in-time was implemented to a certain extent and cellular manufacturing at a more surprising level, which was facilitated especially by the U-shaped facility layout designs observed during the site visits. The value stream mapping showed a proper group technology in place and the management displayed signs of engagement and future advancement desire regarding this philosophy.

Chatbots are increasingly engaged in service marketing. Some academics and managers think using anthropomorphism chatbots will improve positive attitudes and behaviors in the customer journey, but at a high degree of anthropomorphism, consumers may experience negative emotions such as fear and disgust due to the feeling that the robots resemble humans too much, which is known as the uncanny valley effect. Therefore, the authors aim to explore whether chatbot anthropomorphism will promote or limit the development of the customer journey and explore the moderating factors and the antecedent factors affecting consumers' perceptions of chatbot anthropomorphism.

The authors collected 72,782 unique data points from 42 articles and 82 samples using a meta-analysis. Based on the stimuli-organism-response (SOR) model, the impact of anthropomorphic chatbots on the consumer journey was discussed.

The authors’ findings show that chatbot anthropomorphism positively impacts the customer journey but not their negative attitudes. Further moderator analysis reveals that the impact depends on service result, chatbot gender and sample source. The chatbot anthropomorphism is significantly influenced by social presence cues, emotional message cues and mixed cues.

This research contributes to the chatbot anthropomorphism literature and offers guidance for managers on whether and how to enhance chatbot anthropomorphism to facilitate the customer journey and improve service sustainability.

With the upgrade of natural language interaction technology, the simulation extension of intelligent voice assistants (IVAs) and the uncertainty of products and services have received more and more attention. However, most of the existing research focuses on investigating the application of theories to explain consumer behavior related to intention to use and adopt IVAs, while ignoring the impact of its privacy issues on consumer resistance. This article especially examines the negative impact of artificial intelligence-based IVAs’ privacy concerns on consumer resistance, and studies the mediating effect of perceived creepiness in the context of privacy cynicism and privacy paradox and the moderating effect of anthropomorphized roles of IVAs and perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) of IVAs’ companies. The demographic variables are also included.

Based on the theory of human–computer interaction (HCI), this study addresses the consumer privacy concerns of IVAs, builds a model of the influence mechanism on consumer resistance, and then verifies the mediating effect of perceived creepiness and the moderating effect of anthropomorphized roles of IVAs and perceived CSR of IVAs companies. This research explores underlying mechanism with three experiments.

It turns out that consumers’ privacy concerns are related to their resistance to IVAs through perceived creepiness. The servant (vs. partner) anthropomorphized role of IVAs is likely to induce more privacy concerns and in turn higher resistance. At the same time, when the company’s CSR is perceived high, the impact of the concerns of IVAs’ privacy issues on consumer resistance will be weakened, and the intermediary mechanism of perceiving creepiness in HCI and anthropomorphism of new technology are further explained and verified. The differences between different age and gender are also revealed in the study.

The research conclusions have strategic reference significance for enterprises to build the design framework of IVAs and formulate the response strategy of IVAs’ privacy concerns. And it offers implications for researchers and closes the research gap of IVAs from the perspective of innovation resistance.

Purpose – This study investigates the sociodemographics, late entry to antiretroviral therapy (ART), and clinical markers associated with AIDS-related mortality.

Methodology/Approach – Applying retrospective cohort design, 960 medical records of people who died of AIDS, from October 2006 to December 2014, were accessed from the ART center at tertiary health care center of Ranchi (India).

Findings – With useable data from 889 medical records revealed that the majority of people who died of AIDS consisted of married males in the age group of 19–40 years who were truck drivers, migrant laborers, and of rural origins. The median survival period was below 3 months following the ART. Males and people on the pre-ART group had a shorter survival period than their counterparts. Early mortality was associated with lower CD4+ T cell counts, the third or fourth clinical stage, ambulatory or bed-ridden functional status, and poor medication adherence.

Research limitations/implications – This study was limited to the analysis of AIDS deceased people only; it did not compare the survival duration with living people on ART. The lower CD4+ T cell counts and medication adherence, being strong predictors of mortality, can be addressed to attain higher survival rates of people who have AIDS.

Originality/Value of Paper – This is the first study conducted in the tribal-populated region, covering a large sample of 889 cases. Unique findings of this study update the existing data on AIDS-related mortality.

The concept of ubiquitous assimilation in e-commerce, denoting the seamless integration of technologies into customer shopping experiences, has played a pivotal role in aiding e-satisfaction and, consequently, fostering patronage intention. Among these, text-based chatbots are significant innovations. In light of this, the paper aims to develop a conceptual framework and comprehend the patronage behaviour of artificial intelligence-enabled chatbot users by using chatbot usability cues and to determine whether the social presence and flow theories impact e-satisfaction, which leads to users’ patronage intention. The current research provides insights into online travel agencies (OTAs), a crucial segment within the travel and tourism sector. Given the significance of building a loyal clientele and cultivating patronage in this industry, these insights are of paramount importance for achieving sustained profitability and growth.

The research framework primarily focused on the factors that precede e-satisfaction and patronage intention among chatbot users, which include social presence, flow, perceived anthropomorphism and need for human interaction. The researchers collected the data by surveying 397 OTA chatbot users by using an online questionnaire. The data of this cross-sectional study were analysed using covariance-based structural equation modelling.

Findings reveal that e-satisfaction is positively linked with patronage intention and the variables of social presence and flow impact e-satisfaction along with chatbot usability cues. There were direct and indirect relations between chatbot usability and e-satisfaction. Moreover, the personal attributes, “need for human interaction” and, “perceived anthropomorphism” were found to moderate relations between chatbot usability cues, social presence and flow.

The impact of chatbot’s usability cues/attributes on e-satisfaction, along with perceived attributes – social presence and flow in the realm of OTAs contributes to the human–chatbot interaction literature. Moreover, the interacting effects of perceived anthropomorphism and the need for human interaction are unique in the current contextual relations.

With the great changes brought by information technology, there is also a challenge for the elderly's acceptance. This study aimed to determine the antecedents of elderly people's usage intention of financial artificial intelligent customer service (FAICS) and to examine the relationships between various factors and thus to help them better adapt to the digital age.

A mixed method, including the qualitative and quantitative study, was utilized to explore answers of the research questions. As the qualitative study, the authors used semi-structured interviews and data coding to uncover the influencing factors. As the quantitative study, the authors collected data through questionnaires and tested hypotheses using structural equation modeling.

The results of data analysis from interviews and questionnaires suggested that perceived anthropomorphism and virtual identity of elderly users have a positive impact on their perceived ease of use, and the perceived intelligence of elderly users positively influences their perceived ease of use, satisfaction and perceived usefulness. Additionally, the elderly's cognition age can moderate the effects of perceived usefulness and satisfaction on their usage intention of FAICS.

This study contributes to the literature by taking the elderly group as the research participants and combining those influencing factors with technology acceptance model and information systems success model. The findings provide a basis for accelerating the promotion of FAICS and help address the problem that the elderly have difficulty adapting to a new technology.

The so-called vividness effect, painting a verbal picture to an audience and a key element of charismatic rhetoric, provides opportunities to make corporate communication more persuasive. The article seeks to provide evidence regarding: (1) the presence of the effect in written, international business communication and (2) whether vivid communication by top-level executives affects perception of their communication effectiveness.

The article employs a qualitative, exploratory setting (focus groups) to examine the attitude of participants towards vivid communication of top-executives. The article also employs a computer-aided-content-analysis (CATA) in two of the most important stock indices (Deutsche Aktienindex and Dow Jones) from 2011 to 2015 to locate the presence of the rhetorical style in annual reports. Lastly, the article studies via a quasi-experimental approach whether this type of communication is perceived differently on the dimensions of communication effectiveness by Segars and Kohut (2001) using unique 485 responses from recruited US-citizens.

The article reveals empirically that companies make use of this type of communication across stock indices. The results of the conformational, quasi-experimental study (Study 3) suggests that vividness is perceived differently by an audience. Therefore, positive attributional effects are not univocally related to communication effectiveness but to the dimensions responsibility and customer commitment. The participants also attribute other desirable characteristics towards the speaker, thereby providing evidence for a partial positive effect of vividness on communication effectiveness.

The article employs an established measure of communication effectiveness and combines it with a key communication style from academia and industry. In addition, the article combines several methods to examine the construct (mixed-models).

The purpose of this study is to theoretically analyze the laminar free convection heat transfer of nanofluids in a square cavity. The sidewalls of the cavity are subject to temperature difference, whereas the bottom and top are insulated. Based on the available experimental results in the literature, two new non-dimensional parameters, namely, the thermal conductivity parameter (Nc) and dynamic viscosity parameter (Nv) are introduced. These parameters indicate the augmentation of the thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity of the nanofluid by dispersing nanoparticles.

The governing equations are transformed into non-dimensional form using the thermo-physical properties of the base fluid. The obtained governing equations are solved numerically using the finite element method. The results are reported for the general non-dimensional form of the problem as well as case studies in the form of isotherms, streamlines and the graphs of the average Nusselt number. Using the concept of Nc and Nv, some criteria for convective enhancement of nanofluids are proposed. As practical cases, the effect of the size of nanoparticles, the shape of nanoparticles, the type of nanoparticles, the type of base fluids and working temperature on the enhancement of heat transfer are analyzed.

The results show that the increase of the magnitude of the Rayleigh number increases of the efficiency of using nanofluids. The type of nanoparticles and the type of the base fluid significantly affects the enhancement of using nanofluids. Some practical cases are found, in which utilizing nanoparticles in the base fluid results in deterioration of the heat transfer. The working temperature of the nanofluid is very crucial issue. The increase of the working temperature of the nanofluid decreases the convective heat transfer, which limits the capability of nanofluids in decreasing the size of the thermal systems.

In the present study, a separation line based on two non-dimensional parameters (i.e. Nc and Nv) are introduced. The separation line demonstrates a boundary between augmentation and deterioration of heat transfer by using nanoparticles. Indeed, by utilizing the separation lines, the convective enhancement of using nanofluid with a specified Nc and Nv can be simply estimated.