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Service encounters are becoming increasingly virtual through the infusion of computer-mediated technologies. Virtual services separate consumers and service providers both spatially and temporally. With the advent of virtual services is the need to theoretically explain how service separability is psychologically perceived by consumers across the spectrum of computer-mediated technologies. Drawing on construal-level theory, the purpose of this paper is to conceptualize a theoretical framework depicting consumer’s construal of spatial and temporal separation across a continuum of technology-mediated service virtuality.

The authors conducted two studies: first, to investigate consumers’ levels of mental construal associated with varying degrees of service separation across a spectrum of technology-mediated services; second, to empirically examine consumer evaluations of service quality in response to varying degrees of spatial and temporal service separation. These relationships were tested across two service industries: education and tourism.

Consumers mentally construe psychological distance in response to service separation and these observations vary across the spectrum of service offerings ranging from face-to-face (no psychological distance) through to virtual (spatially and temporally separated – high psychological distance) services. Further, spatial separation negatively affects consumers’ service evaluations; such that as service separation increases, consumers’ service evaluations decrease. No such significant findings support the similar effect of temporal separation on customer service evaluations. Moreover, specific service industry-based distances exist such that consumers responded differentially for a credence (education) vs an experiential (tourism) service.

Recent studies in services marketing have challenged the inseparability assumption inherent for services. This paper builds on this knowledge and is the first to integrate literature on construal-level theory, service separability, and virtual services into a holistic conceptual framework which explains variance in consumer evaluations of separated service encounters. This is important due to the increasingly virtual nature of service provider-customer interactions across a diverse range of service industries (i.e. banking and finance, tourism, education, and health care). Service providers must be cognisant of the psychological barriers which are imposed by increased technology infusion in virtual services.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how and why some service ecosystems are more resilient and, consequently, more sustainable than others during turbulent times, and how resilience can be cultivated to enable pathways to service ecosystem sustainability.

This work integrates disparate literature from multiple service and sustainability literature streams, iterating through constant comparison with findings from 44 semistructured interviews conducted in the context of primary health care clinic service ecosystems.

The authors offer a novel conceptual framework comprising pillars (shared worldview, individual actor well-being and multiactor interactions), changing practices to cultivate resilience through resilience levers (orchestrators, individual actor effort, actor inclusivity and digitaltech–humanness approach), and pathways to service ecosystem sustainability (volume vs value, volume to value, volume and value). The authors demonstrate that service ecosystems need to change practices, integrating resources differently in response to the turbulent environment, emphasizing the importance of a shared worldview across the ecosystem and assessing different pathways to sustainability.

This paper offers new insights into the important intersection of service marketing, sustainability and health care. The authors provide guidance to practitioners aiming to cultivate resilience in service ecosystems to achieve pathways to sustainability in primary health care clinics. Finally, implications for theory are discussed, and directions to guide future service research offered.

This paper aims to examine how consumers’ perceptions of innovativeness affect an important brand performance metric: consumer brand loyalty. Specifically, the mediating role of perceived quality in this relationship is explained using signaling theory.

The conceptual model was tested in two empirical studies for three global consumer electronics brands in two product categories. Data were collected using a mall-intercept approach from consumers at a major shopping precinct in a metropolitan city. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results provide compelling evidence for the proposed mediation relationship. Study 1 shows that perceived quality fully transmits the impact of brand innovativeness on to brand loyalty. Study 2 confirms this mediation relationship.

The results can help product managers in their brand management and promotion of new products.

Emerging research on consumer-level effects of innovativeness provides conflicting advice regarding how consumers’ perceptions of brand innovativeness affect intangible assets such as loyalty toward the brand. The present research reconciles contradictory findings in the literature by uncovering a different route through which consumer perceptions of brand innovativeness affect a key brand performance metric: brand loyalty. Specifically, the present study fills an important knowledge gap in the innovativeness literature and deepens our understanding of the relationship between brand innovativeness and brand loyalty by empirically examining and confirming the role of a hereto overlooked intervening variable, perceived quality.

At the nexus of social movement and organizational studies is the question of how social movements matter to organizational processes, such as how anticorporate activism impacts corporations, markets, and industries. This chapter presents a framework for better answering this question. The chapter suggests that the contentious and private politics literature should be brought closer together to understand this phenomenon. Drawing on the concepts of scale shift and the political, industry, and corporate opportunity structures, the chapter illustrates how the contentious politics literature can be adjusted to help explain the outcomes of private politics.

The purpose of this research is to seek to understand and explain the non‐governmental organisation (NGO) and its location in civil society in order to provide a basis for future research work. The paper aims to explore and develop understandings of accountability specifically in the context of the NGO and then extend these insights to the accountability of all organisations.

The paper is framed within a theoretical conception of accountability and is primarily literature‐based. In addition secondary data relating to the issues of concern are collated and synthesised.

The research finds that the essence of accountability lies in the relationships between the organisation and the society and/or stakeholder groups of interest. The nature of this relationship allows us to infer much about the necessary formality and the channels of accountability. In turn, this casts a light upon taken‐for‐granted assumptions in the corporate accountability and reminds us that the essence and basis of success of the corporate world lies in its withdrawal from any form of human relationship and the consequential colonisation and oppression of civil society.

The principal implications relate to: our need to improve the analytical incisiveness of our applications of accountability theory; and the possibility of the accounting literature offering more developed insights to the NGO literature. The primary limitations lie in the paper in being: exploratory of a more developed understanding of accountability; and a novel excursion into the world of the NGO and civil society – neither of which feature greatly in the accounting literature.

These lie in the current political struggles between civil society and capital over appropriate forms of accountability. Corporations continue to avoid allowing themselves to be held accountable whilst civil society organisations are often accountable in many different and informal ways. Ill‐considered calls from capital for more oppressive NGO accountability are typically, therefore, hypocritical and inappropriate.

NGOs are introduced in a detailed and accessible way to the accounting literature. The concept of accountability is further developed by examination of relationships and channels in the context of the NGO and, through Rawls' notion of “closeness”, is further enriched.

Research on internationalization of emerging market firms (EMFs) has received an increasing attention in the international management field. A central argument in a majority of these studies is that the internationalization of EMFs is different from that of firms from developed economies, and existing internationalization theories are insufficient to fully explain this new phenomenon. We conduct a critical review of important studies on the internationalization of EMFs to address two related questions. First, is the internationalization of EMFs really a new phenomenon, never been witnessed in the past? Second, does it warrant new theoretical developments? Our review suggests that there are important variations in the internationalization strategies of EMFs and developed economy firms, within EMFs from different emerging economies, and during different time periods. A thorough understanding of motivations, paths, processes, and performances of EMFs does require new theoretical approaches that can take into account the unique aspects of EMFs.

This study investigates the relationship between national culture and the country level of firms' digitalisation, by applying Hofstede's cultural framework to the European Union member states. Although many studies have observed the impact of national culture on firms' innovation and information and communication technology (ICT) adoption, there have been no analyses of how cultural dimensions impact firms' digitalisation at the country level. This study intends to fill that gap.

Using a pooled ordinary least square (OLS) model, this study analyses data from 27 European countries over the period from 2014 to 2018.

The results suggest the existence of a negative, significant, relationship between both masculinity and uncertainty avoidance, and the country level of firms' digitalisation. Indulgence is found to positively and significantly influence a country's level of digitalisation. Contrary to expectations, this study indicates a negative, significant, relationship between individualism and the degree of digitalisation. Power distance is found to have no significant impact.

This study contributes to the literature by showing how a country's various cultural dimensions help or hinder the level of firms' digitalisation in that country. Theoretical and managerial implications are presented, including suggestions for future research.

Digital piracy is one of the most popular forms of intellectual property theft and is currently recognized as a crime in several countries. This begs the question, if persons are fully informed that digital file sharing is a crime and, if caught, can be legally prosecuted, why do individuals opt to engage in such criminal behaviour? The purpose of the paper is to determine the psychological, social and economic factors influencing digital piracy. Understanding the social and psychological features of digital pirates is necessary if effected strategies are to be developed to deter the practice of digital piracy.

In this paper, a representative sample drawn from the population of Barbados was surveyed. The conceptual models were estimated using ordinary least squares multiple regression, Tobit estimation and quantile regression.

The results suggest that intentions and willingness to pay (WTP) both have a significant impact on digital piracy. Intentions are in turn influenced by the pirate's attitude, perceived consequences, ethics, education level and environment. Finally, a facilitating environment and perceived importance of the piracy issue help to predict’ WTP for digital products.

To the best of the knowledge, no other study has combined notions from attitude/values/behaviour with that of WTP. Yet, the literature would suggest that they both have significant impacts on the quantity of digital goods that are pirated. It is possible that not modelling their joint impact could have resulted in loss of vital information.