Elvira Bolat, Julie Robson, Kokho Jason Sit, Shannon Birch-Chapman, Samreen Ashraf, Juliet Memery and Caroline Jackson
This paper aims to understand consumers’ response to the trust repair mechanisms adopted by corporate brands in a service sector context following prominent trust damaging…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand consumers’ response to the trust repair mechanisms adopted by corporate brands in a service sector context following prominent trust damaging organizational transgressions.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting a qualitative approach, six focus group discussions are used to investigate three high-profile consumer trust erosion cases within the service sector.
Findings
Consumer trust varies by context. Despite the severity of trust damage, corporate brands can recover trust towards their brands amongst consumers not directly affected by transgressions. Not all trust repair mechanisms are equally applicable to all service contexts, and re-branding could be used as a trust repair mechanism. Corporate brands in the service sector should focus on sense-making, relational approaches and transparency. Orchestration of trust repair mechanisms needs to be integrated within the trust rehabilitation processes.
Research limitations/implications
This study illustrates it is important to reconsider trust repair processes to accommodate context and integrate post-transgression consumer research.
Practical implications
Successful corporate brand rehabilitation of consumer trust requires examination of the trustworthiness dimensions consumers express before and after the transgression to select the most appropriate trust repair mechanisms. Findings suggest organizations also have preventative trust repair management programs.
Originality/value
This research is the first to empirically apply the conceptual framework of Bachmann et al. (2015) to explore consumer responses to the trust repair mechanisms adopted by corporate brands by context.
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Samreen Ashraf, Asmah Mansur Williams and Jeff Bray
The Muslim population is growing at twice the non-Muslim rate and forecast to represent over 25% of the global population by 2030. The Muslim fashion market is predicted to be…
Abstract
Purpose
The Muslim population is growing at twice the non-Muslim rate and forecast to represent over 25% of the global population by 2030. The Muslim fashion market is predicted to be worth $311bn globally by 2024. This market is currently not well understood or served. This study aims to present new insights into the fashion consumption opinions, attitudes and behaviours of female Muslim consumers through the lens of consumer culture focusing on Muslim identity.
Design/methodology/approach
An inductive qualitative method was adopted comprising 23 in-depth semi-structured interviews from respondents of seven ethnicities residing in the UK. Data were coded using a thematic approach.
Findings
Findings highlight the effect of Muslim identity on fashion consumption. Data demonstrates the importance of fashion for Muslim women despite the potential conflict between Islamic principles and public image. Respondents were conscious that their fashion behaviours were consistent with their identity; however, concerns were raised around limited choice and availability. Religiosity and family context/background were highlighted as key influences.
Social implications
Findings provide clear guidance, enabling fashion brands to most effectively serve this substantial and rapidly growing market. It is important that Muslim women are able to engage fully with fashion trends, satisfying their will to fit in with both their religion and their wider community.
Originality/value
This qualitative research provides depth of understanding of consumer motivations and attitudes and a multi-ethnic perspective which is lacking from previous studies that have adopted quantitative and single nationality approaches.
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Pantea Foroudi, Charles Dennis, Dimitris Stylidis and T.C. Melewar
Shagufta Parveen, Zoya Wajid Satti, Qazi Abdul Subhan, Nishat Riaz, Samreen Fahim Baber and Taqadus Bashir
This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on investors' sentiments, behavioral biases and investment decisions in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on investors' sentiments, behavioral biases and investment decisions in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors have assessed investors' behaviors and sentiments and the stock market overreaction during COVID-19 using a questionnaire and collected data from 401 investors trading in the PSX.
Findings
Results of structural equation modeling revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic affected investors' behaviors, investment decisions and trade volume. It created feelings of fear and uncertainty among market participants. Evidence suggests that behavioral heuristics and biases, including representative heuristic, anchoring heuristic, overconfidence bias and disposition effect, negatively influenced investors' decisions at the PSX.
Research limitations/implications
This study will contribute to behavioral finance literature in the context of developing countries as it has revealed the impact of COVID-19 on the emerging stock market, and its results are generalizable to other emerging stock markets.
Practical implications
The findings of this study will help academicians, researchers and policymakers of developing countries. Academicians can formulate new behavioral models that can depict the solutions of dealing with an uncertain situation like COVID-19. Policymakers like the Securities Exchange Commission and the PSX can formulate crisis management strategies based on behavioral finance concepts to cope with situations like COVID-19 in the future and help lessen investors' losses in the stock markets. The role of the Securities Exchange Commission is crucial as it regulates the financial markets. It can arrange workshops to educate investors to manage their decisions during crisis time and focus on the best use of irrational and rational decision-making at the same time using Lo (2004) adaptive market hypothesis.
Originality/value
The novelty of the paper is that the authors have introduced overconfidence and disposition effect as mediators that create a connection between representative and anchoring heuristics and investment decisions using primary data collected from investors (institutional and retail) to demonstrate the presence of psychological biases during COVID-19, and it has been done for the first time according to authors' knowledge. It is a contribution and addition to the behavioral finance literature in the context of developing countries' stock markets and their efficiency.
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Xiaohong Shi, Ziyan Wang, Runlu Zhong, Liangliang Ma, Xiangping Chen and Peng Yang
Smart contracts are written in high-level programming languages, compiled into Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) bytecode, deployed onto blockchain systems and called with the…
Abstract
Purpose
Smart contracts are written in high-level programming languages, compiled into Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) bytecode, deployed onto blockchain systems and called with the corresponding address by transactions. The deployed smart contracts are immutable, even if there are bugs or vulnerabilities. Therefore, it is critical to verify smart contracts before deployment. This paper aims to help developers effectively and efficiently locate potential defects in smart contracts.
Design/methodology/approach
GethReplayer, a smart contract testing method based on transaction replay, is proposed. It constructs a parallel transaction execution environment with two virtual machines to compare the execution results. It uses the real existing transaction data on Ethereum and the source code of the tested smart contacts as inputs, conditionally substitutes the bytecode of the tested smart contract input into the testing EVM, and then monitors the environmental information to check the correctness of the contract.
Findings
Experiments verified that the proposed method is effective in smart contract testing. Virtual environmental information has a significant effect on the success of transaction replay, which is the basis for the performance of the method. The efficiency of error locating was approximately 14 times faster with the proposed method than without. In addition, the proposed method supports gas consumption analysis.
Originality/value
This paper addresses the difficulty that developers encounter in testing smart contracts before deployment and focuses on helping develop smart contracts with as few defects as possible. GethReplayer is expected to be an alternative solution for smart contract testing and provide inspiration for further research.
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Rashid Javed and Mazhar Mughal
One of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals is to ensure the availability of improved drinking water for everyone. In this study, we examine the association between…
Abstract
Purpose
One of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals is to ensure the availability of improved drinking water for everyone. In this study, we examine the association between access to improved drinking water at the district level and child nutritional outcomes in Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach
We employ district-level unbalanced panel data from Pakistan from various rounds of Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Surveys and Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys compiled by the Data4Pakistan, Pakistan District Development Portal. We examine the impact of the percentage of the population in a given district with access to clean drinking water on the percentage of stunted, underweight and wasted children in the district. The analysis proceeds in two steps. In the first step, we explore the spatial distribution of improved drinking water coverage and child development outcomes across districts. In the second step, we study their relationship by employing standard panel estimation methods and controlling for district characteristics.
Findings
The spatial analysis reveals the large disparity among districts and provinces in terms of improved drinking water coverage and child nutrition. The estimation results indicate that there is a significant association between the accessibility of improved drinking water and child development outcomes. The effect is significant for child stunting and underweight but not for child wasting. The impact appears to be stronger in rural districts. These findings are robust to alternate empirical strategies.
Originality/value
This is the first such study to examine the provision of improved drinking water at the district level in relation to child developmental outcomes in a developing country context.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2023-0739