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This paper aims to examine the effect of intercultural accommodation efforts on service quality perceptions among ethnic minority consumers. Specifically, the paper postulates that during an intercultural service encounter, the impact of the service provider’s language and ethnicity on the consumer’s service quality perceptions is moderated by the level of service involvement, consumer acculturation and perceived discrimination, which, in turn, influence purchase intent.

A 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design with an online nationwide consumer panel of Hispanic consumers was conducted where 377 participants were randomly assigned to a series of service encounter scenarios in the banking service context to manipulate accommodation efforts (yes vs no) and the level of involvement with the service (high vs low).

When such language and ethnicity accommodations were offered, highly acculturated minority consumers regarded the service encounter less favorably than low acculturated minority consumers. Moreover, during low-involvement service encounters, intercultural accommodations positively impacted consumer’s service quality perceptions compared to situations involving high-involvement services. Also, minority consumers with perceptions of past discrimination had less favorable evaluations of the service quality than when such perceptions were nonexistent when intercultural accommodation efforts were made by the service provider.

The findings add to the sparse literature that examines the effectiveness of intercultural accommodation and focuses on the combined use of service provider’s language and ethnicity as a means to enhance service quality.

The study delivers cautions for service firms not to generalize the receptivity of intercultural accommodation efforts. Given the increasingly sizable segments of minority customers, this study offers insights for service providers to develop suitable recruitment strategies and training programs when devising effective ethnic targeting strategies.

This research is among the first to explain why the effect of target marketing is not homogenous by expanding the research on intercultural accommodations toward a new context considering service involvement levels among varied minority consumer groups.

The purpose of this study is to report and contrast manufacturer–supplier relationships, supplier selection and procurement performance of two manufacturing sectors in Kuwait. The effect of supplier relationship and selection on the performance of the procurement function was also investigated.

Surveys of supplier selection, supplier relationship and procurement performance are taken from 62 plants operating in 2 competitive manufacturing sectors in Kuwait (foods industry and refractors industry). The study utilizes multivariate and multi-regression analyses in understanding the effect of supplier relationship and selection on the performance of the procurement function.

Findings indicate a significant effect of supplier relationship and supplier selection on a plant’s procurement performance. However, variance in plant size and/or industrial sector was found to not affect this relationship.

Despite the significance of the Gulf states and the growing importance of the manufacturing sector in these countries, relatively little is known about how buyers and suppliers within this sector interact. This study is the first to document supplier relationships and selection processes in this area of the world. The study also provides a reliable and valid scale for measuring the performance of the procurement function in the Kuwaiti manufacturing sector. Furthermore, the postulated impact of supplier–buyer relationships on the performance of the procurement functions was investigated in a newly emerging economy in the Gulf.

This research seeks to add to the body of research pertaining to animosity by examining the additional roles of anticipated emotions and subjective norms on consumers' purchase intentions regarding foreign products when companies' or governments' actions cause negative repercussions. The paper also examines the role of group responsibility as an antecedent to animosity.

Data were collected using a snowball sampling technique among undergraduate students from a prominent university in Kuwait. Of the 460 questionnaires received, 13 were eliminated for incompleteness. Sample members were aged 18 and above, and 53.9 percent of the respondents were females.

Subjective norms related to buying Danish products – as well as the negative emotions expected from buying the product and the positive emotions expected from not buying the product – led to less willingness to buy Danish products. In addition, social pressure was found to be the more important factor in consumers' willingness to buy compared to anticipated emotions.

This paper suggests that, in addition to animosity, other factors influence a consumer's decision to withhold consumption. Therefore, managers need to assess the emotions and norms characterized by citizens of the target country to capitalize on such information when marketing their products.

In this time of severe national budget deficit, all programs are reviewed for trimming/downsizing and effectiveness. Just as educational systems are evaluated for trimming, so are school and academic library services. This article will address why it is crucial to have close linkages between school and academic libraries through articulation programs to avoid duplication and waste of human resources, and explain how articulation can be initiated through precollege programs offered by colleges and universities. It will focus on why academic libraries participate in precollege access programs, highlight how collaboration between school and academic libraries helps the “town and gown” community relationship, and point out how precollege programs help minority students and university recruitment and retention efforts. As an example, it will describe the outreach program of the College Library at the University of Wisconsin‐Madi‐son. The article concludes by discussing the future goals of strengthening and broadening the participation of academic libraries in precollege access programs.

This study aims to examine the impact of using ChatGPT on the Halal tourism experience. It examines the relationships among Halal-friendly travel motivations and satisfaction, revisit intention and electronic word-of-mouth (e-WoM) while testing the moderating effect of ChatGPT on the relationship between satisfaction and revisit intention.

This study employed a quantitative methodology. Using purposive sampling techniques, it approached about 800 tourists (from November 2023 to January 2024) from several halal tourism destinations in Indonesia. A total of 395 usable surveys were analyzed to test the relationships and moderation effects by SEM.

The study indicates that Halal-friendly travel motivations positively impact Muslim tourist satisfaction, which in turn influences e-WoM and revisit intention. Importantly, ChatGPT significantly moderates the relationship between satisfaction and revisit intention, thereby strengthening tourist loyalty for those using the AI tool.

The study’s findings provide practical guidelines for halal tourism providers to enhance Halal-compliant services and incorporate ChatGPT as an AI tool to boost Muslim travelers’ satisfaction, drive e-WoM and increase revisit intentions. AI technology gives Halal tourism companies an advantage in offering customized, immediate support, which leads to Muslim visitors becoming loyal.

The study fills a significant gap in the Halal tourism literature by examining AI’s impact on the market. It expands the Expectation-Confirmation Theory (ECT), the push-pull theory and word-of-mouth models in Halal tourism. It also contributes to AI adoption in Halal tourism by addressing how modern AI tools can influence tourist behaviors, improve satisfaction and encourage repeat visits.

This paper aims to explore the international response to the discovery and development of gas fields in the East Mediterranean basin.

The study applies key concepts into a framework and explores the strategies used by nations for developing their influence in the region.

The key nation states (the USA and Russia) and the supranational EU are notable in their divergent approaches to obtaining access to and influence regarding the gas fields.

The development of the strategies used by the international rivals for access to the resources available from the offshore oil fields is set to be an area for further study.

This paper offers insight into a developing rivalry over energy security, which will a platform for further investigation throughout the exploitation of the “New Gulf” gas fields.

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the eighteenth to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items in English published in 1991. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.

The purpose of this paper is to standardised four-step flexibility assessment methodology for evaluating the available electrical load reduction or increase a building can provide in response to a signal from an aggregator or grid operator.

The four steps in the methodology consist of Step 1: systems, loads, storage and generation identification; Step 2: flexibility characterisation; Step 3: scenario modelling; and Step 4: key performance indicator (KPI) label.

A detailed case study for one building, validated through on-site experiments, verified the feasibility and accuracy of the approach.

The results were benchmarked against available demonstration studies but could benefit from the future development of standardised benchmarks.

The ease of implementation enables building operators to quickly and cost effectively evaluate the flexibility of their building. By clearly defining the flexibility range, the KPI label enables contract negotiation between stakeholders for demand side services. It may also be applicable as a smart readiness indicator.

The novel KPI label has the capability to operationalise the concept of building flexibility to a wider spectrum of society, enabling smart grid demand response roll-out to residential and small commercial customers.

This paper fulfils an identified need for an early stage flexibility assessment which explicitly includes source selection that can be implemented in an offline manner without the need for extensive real-time data acquisition, ICT platforms or additional metre and sensor installations.

This paper aims to summarise a contribution to the International Comparative Social Enterprise Models (ICSEM) Project from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It particularly highlights the relevance of the social constructionist approach adopted in the study to investigate and make sense of the social enterprise concept as an imported concept in a new environment.

This approach is used as a thread to follow through the structure proposed by the ICSEM Project, namely, to look at the concept in context, to identify social enterprise models and establish a typology, as well as to describe institutional trajectories shaping the models. This paper highlights the constructs and institutional trajectories shaping the concept, and the main findings of the study when identifying the models and establishing the typology, based on an in-depth survey of 12 social enterprises in the UAE.

While this typology can be considered as a preliminary one, it reveals creative recurrent models, with the state and private sector involved as incubators. Although the UAE offers a tax-free environment, the lack of a legal and regulatory system conducive to social enterprises seems to hamper the opportunities for them to develop and scale up.

This contribution is the first study to investigate the ecosystem of social enterprise and its deriving models, and to propose a preliminary typology in the UAE.