Georg Fassott, Jörg Henseler and Pedro S. Coelho
The purpose of this paper is to explain how to model moderating effects of composites using partial least squares (PLS) path modeling. It provides the methodological underpinning…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain how to model moderating effects of composites using partial least squares (PLS) path modeling. It provides the methodological underpinning of moderating effects in general and describes the various approaches for forming the interaction term, i.e., the product indicator approach, the two-stage approach, and orthogonalization.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper discusses the use of standardized vs unstandardized construct scores and introduces spotlight analysis as a useful way to report findings.
Findings
Researchers should rely on unstandardized estimates when analyzing moderating effects. Centering or orthogonalization can help improve the interpretability of path coefficients.
Practical implications
PLS software implementations should facilitate unstandardized estimates.
Originality/value
This paper formulates step by step guidelines for analyzing moderating effects of composites using PLS path modeling. It is the first to propose spotlight analysis for PLS path modeling.
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Pedro S. Coelho and Jörg Henseler
Although practitioners and scholars alike embrace service customization as a possibly powerful management instrument, its impact on customer relationships as well as contingencies…
Abstract
Purpose
Although practitioners and scholars alike embrace service customization as a possibly powerful management instrument, its impact on customer relationships as well as contingencies for its effective application are not well understood. Drawing from relationship marketing and exchange theory, this paper aims to develop a model of customer relationship outcomes of service customization and the efficacy of service customization.
Design/methodology/approach
Two large‐scale, representative, cross‐sectional studies in different service industries based on the European Customer Satisfaction Index framework are conducted, and PLS path modeling is applied to test the model.
Findings
Customization increases perceived service quality, customer satisfaction, customer trust, and ultimately customer loyalty toward a service provider. Customization has both direct and mediated effects on customer loyalty and interacts with the effects of customer satisfaction and customer trust on loyalty.
Research limitations/implications
Service customization is a viable instrument for relationship marketing. Its efficacy depends on customer satisfaction and customer trust. While this study solely focuses on the impact of service customization, future research could assess the relative importance of service customization in the presence of other relationship marketing instruments.
Practical implications
Service providers can use service customization as an effective instrument for achieving not only higher customer satisfaction, but also higher customer loyalty. Service customization is most effective for companies that have deficits in satisfying their customers, while at the same time their customer relationships are characterized by a high level of trust. These results help managers to decide upon resource allocation to enhance customer satisfaction, trust and loyalty.
Originality/value
This paper investigates the simultaneous effects of service customization on customer loyalty and other relationships variables and offers new insights relatively to the nature and size of customization effects. It fills an important gap in the knowledge of customization outcomes, and clarifies under which circumstances service customization is most effective. The paper is of great value for service providers that face the decision whether to customize their offering or not.
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Dwayne Ball, Pedro S. Coelho and Manuel J. Vilares
To investigate the effect of service personalization on loyalty, and to measure some of the psychological dynamics of the process.
Abstract
Purpose
To investigate the effect of service personalization on loyalty, and to measure some of the psychological dynamics of the process.
Design/methodology/approach
Structural equation modeling.
Findings
It is shown that the effect of service personalization on loyalty exists, but that the effect is not all direct. Personalization works through improving service satisfaction and trust. Personalization and improved communication act together in such a way that they account for the variance in loyalty that would be otherwise explained by corporate image.
Research limitations/implications
Data, though comprising a very large probability sample, are from one economic sector in one European country.
Practical implications
Service personalization is a powerful way to retain customers in its own right. In addition, the other results show that personalized service can partially replace the effects of communication and corporate image on loyalty. This argues that personalized service can be a powerful addition to mass communications.
Originality/value
Growing conventional wisdom in marketing argues that customer loyalty is responsible for large fractions of the profits of many service businesses. Constructs such as satisfaction, trust, customer collaboration, customer interaction, firm image, personalization, learning relationships, and so forth, have all been proposed as intermediate objectives, or as tools to build loyalty. Yet, to date, only some of these constructs have been measured and shown to be related to loyalty. This paper fills a portion of the empirical gap by showing that service personalization, indeed, affects loyalty, above and beyond the other explanatory variables.
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PORTUGAL: Likely leftist government could be unstable
Details
DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-ES206608
ISSN: 2633-304X
Keywords
Geographic
Topical
Everton Coelho, Mário Augusto and Pedro Torres
This study aims to clarify the influence of different CEO’s political orientation (liberal/conservative) and corporate political activity on ESG performance, considering…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to clarify the influence of different CEO’s political orientation (liberal/conservative) and corporate political activity on ESG performance, considering contingencies related to CEO attributes and corporate governance mechanisms.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of 131 companies from the Standard and Poor’s 500 index, this study employs fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fs/QCA) to analyze combinations of conditions (i.e. configurations) that lead to greater ESG (i.e. environmental, social, and governance) performance.
Findings
Drawing on the upper echelon theory and the theory of social exchange, the findings show that different CEO’s political orientation (liberal/conservative) can contribute to ESG performance, depending on the combination of conditions. Furthermore, the results emphasize the importance of corporate political activity as a core condition to enhance ESG performance.
Originality/value
Taking a configurational approach, this study explores combinations of conditions that explain ESG performance, including CEO’s political orientation and corporate political activities as antecedent conditions. Unlike past research, this study examines possible complementarities between these two conditions and assumes that different CEO’s political orientation can have a positive influence on ESG performance, depending on the combination of conditions.
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Sílvio Aparecido Verdério Júnior, Pedro J. Coelho, Vicente Luiz Scalon and Santiago del Rio Oliveira
The purpose of this study is to numerically and experimentally investigate the natural convection heat transfer in flat plates and plates with square, trapezoidal and triangular…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to numerically and experimentally investigate the natural convection heat transfer in flat plates and plates with square, trapezoidal and triangular corrugations.
Design/methodology/approach
This work is an extension of the previous studies by Verderio et al. (2021a, 2021b, 2021c, 2021d, 2022a). An experimental apparatus was built to measure the plates’ temperatures during the natural convection cooling process. Several physical parameters were evaluated through the experimental methodology. Free and open-source computational tools were used to simulate the experimental conditions and to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate the thermal plume characteristics over the plates.
Findings
The numerical results were experimentally validated with reasonable accuracy in the range of studied
Practical implications
The results demonstrate that corrugated surfaces have greater thermal efficiency than flat plates in heating and/or cooling systems by natural convection. This way, corrugated plates can reduce the dependence on auxiliary forced convection systems, with application in technological areas and Industry 4.0.
Originality/value
The empirical correlations obtained for the corrected Nusselt number and thermal efficiency for the corrugated plate geometries studied are original and unpublished, as well as the experimental validation of the developed three-dimensional numerical code.
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Fábio Monteiro Conde, Pedro Gonçalves Coelho, Rodrigo Paiva Tavares, Pedro Castro Camanho, José Miranda Guedes and Helder Carriço Rodrigues
This study aims to achieve a “pseudo-ductile” behaviour in the response of hybrid fibre reinforced composites under uniaxial traction by solving properly formulated optimization…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to achieve a “pseudo-ductile” behaviour in the response of hybrid fibre reinforced composites under uniaxial traction by solving properly formulated optimization problems.
Design/methodology/approach
The composite material model is based on the combination of different types of fibres (with different failure strains or strengths) embedded in a polymer matrix. The composite failure under tensile load is predicted by analytical models. An optimization problem formulation is proposed and a Genetic Algorithm is used. Multi-objective optimization problems balancing failure strength and ductility criteria are solved providing optimal mixtures of fibres whose properties may come either from a pre-defined list of materials, currently available in the market, or simply assuming their continuum variation within predefined bounds, in an attempt to attain unprecedented performance levels.
Findings
Optimal solutions of hybrid fibre reinforced composites exhibiting pseudo-ductile behaviour are presented. It is found that a fibre made from a material exhibiting relatively low stiffness combined with high strength is preferred for hybridization. Furthermore, the ratio of the average failure/critical strains between the low and high elongation fibres to be hybridized must be equal or greater than two.
Originality/value
Typically, a ductile failure is an inherent property of metals, that is, their typical response curve after the linear (elastic) region exhibits a yielding plateau still followed by an increase in stress till collapse. In stark contrast, composite materials exhibit (under some loading conditions) brittle failure that may limit their widespread usage. Therefore, a “pseudo-ductility” in composites is valued and targeted through optimization which is the main original contribution here.
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Ana Claudia Braun Endo, Luiz Alberto de Farias and Pedro Simões Coelho
The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical insights about service branding from higher education administrators (HEAs) perspectives and to identify the main factors…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical insights about service branding from higher education administrators (HEAs) perspectives and to identify the main factors involved in their strategic thinking in this sector.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting a qualitative approach, 22 in-depth interviews were performed in Brazilian HEAs to analyze service branding as a strategic institutional process in this context.
Findings
Findings reveal that service branding depends on several factors, e.g., in this case, deep integration between branding and services, leadership involvement, strong value propositions, sharing of strategic guidelines, branding experiences and, finally, credibility and reputation. Excellence of service is considered essential in higher education (HE) and, therefore, service branding faces the challenge of promoting the provision of quality services.
Originality/value
Although there have been many studies relating to HE and branding, few authors have studied service branding in educational sector and which issues must be observed in a competitive marketplace.
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Sílvio Aparecido Verdério Júnior, Pedro J. Coelho and Vicente Luiz Scalon
The purpose of this study is to numerically investigate the geometric influence of different corrugation profiles (rectangular, trapezoidal and triangular) of varying heights on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to numerically investigate the geometric influence of different corrugation profiles (rectangular, trapezoidal and triangular) of varying heights on the flow and the natural convection heat transfer process over isothermal plates.
Design/methodology/approach
This work is an extension and finalization of previous studies of the leading author. The numerical methodology was proposed and experimentally validated in previous studies. Using OpenFOAM® and other free and open-source numerical-computational tools, three-dimensional numerical models were built to simulate the flow and the natural convection heat transfer process over isothermal corrugation plates with variable and constant heights.
Findings
The influence of different geometric arrangements of corrugated plates on the flow and natural convection heat transfer over isothermal plates is investigated. The influence of the height ratio parameter, as well as the resulting concave and convex profiles, on the parameters average Nusselt number, corrected average Nusselt number and convective thermal efficiency gain, is analyzed. It is shown that the total convective heat transfer and the convective thermal efficiency gain increase with the increase of the height ratio. The numerical results confirm previous findings about the predominant effects on the predominant impact of increasing the heat transfer area on the thermal efficiency gain in corrugated surfaces, in contrast to the adverse effects caused on the flow. In corrugations with heights resulting in concave profiles, the geometry with triangular corrugations presented the highest total convection heat transfer, followed by trapezoidal and rectangular. For arrangements with the same area, it was demonstrated that corrugations of constant and variable height are approximately equivalent in terms of natural convection heat transfer.
Practical implications
The results allowed a better understanding of the flow characteristics and the natural convection heat transfer process over isothermal plates with corrugations of variable height. The advantages of the surfaces studied in terms of increasing convective thermal efficiency were demonstrated, with the potential to be used in cooling systems exclusively by natural convection (or with reduced dependence on forced convection cooling systems), including in technological applications of microelectronics, robotics, internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence, information technology, industry 4.0, etc.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the results presented are new in the scientific literature. Unlike previous studies conducted by the leading author, this analysis specifically analyzed the natural convection phenomenon over plates with variable-height corrugations. The obtained results will contribute to projects to improve and optimize natural convection cooling systems.
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Pedro Gaudencio, Arnaldo Coelho and Neuza Ribeiro
The study aims to show how organisational corporate social responsibility (CSR) can influence workers’ attitudes, especially in terms of turnover intentions (TI). A second aim is…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to show how organisational corporate social responsibility (CSR) can influence workers’ attitudes, especially in terms of turnover intentions (TI). A second aim is to explore the social exchange process that may underlie this relationship, by examining the mediating role of leader–member exchange (LMX) and the moderation role of perceived external prestige (PEP).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use structural equation modelling based on survey data obtained from 315 Portuguese individuals.
Findings
The findings show that the perceptions of CSR predict TI through the mediating role of LMX. Seemingly PEP appears to be moderating the relationship between TI and its determinants. These findings suggest that managers should implement CSR practices because these can contribute towards reducing TI.
Originality/value
This study enriches the existing knowledge about relationships in organisational contexts and responds to the need of understanding the underlying mechanisms linking CSR with workers’ organisational outcomes, by analysing CSR practices in a holistic stakeholder perspective.