Hsiu-Yuan Tsao, Ming-Yi Chen, Hao-Chiang Koong Lin and Yu-Chun Ma
The basic assumption is that there is a symmetric relationship between review valence and rating, but what if review valence and rating were linked asymmetrically? There are few…
Abstract
Purpose
The basic assumption is that there is a symmetric relationship between review valence and rating, but what if review valence and rating were linked asymmetrically? There are few studies which have investigated the situations in which positive and negative online reviews exert different influences on ratings. This study considers brand strength as having an important moderating role because the average rating of existing reviews for a particular product is a heuristic cue for decision makers. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to argue that an asymmetric relationship between review content valence and numerical rating will depend on brand strength.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors have conducted a sentiment analysis via text mining, using self-developed computer programs to retrieve a data set from the TripAdvisor website.
Findings
This study finds there is an asymmetric relationship between review valence (verbal) and numerical rating. The authors further find brand strength to have an important moderating role. For a stronger brand, negative review content will have a greater impact on numerical ratings than positive review content, while for a weaker brand, positive review content will have a greater impact on numerical ratings than negative review content.
Practical implications
Marketers could adopt sentiment analysis via text mining of online reviews as a valid measure or predictor of consumer satisfaction or numerical ratings. Strong brands should direct more attention to negative reviews, because in such reviews the negative impact transcends the positive. In contrast, weak brands should aim to exploit as many positive reviews as possible to minimize the impact of any negative reviews.
Originality/value
This study finds there is an asymmetric relationship between review valence (verbal) and numerical rating and considers brand strength to play an important moderating role. The authors have used real data from the TripAdvisor website, which allow people to express themselves in an unsolicited manner, and linked these with the results from the sentiment analysis.
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Coronavirus disease 2019-related fake news consistently appears on social media. This study uses appraisal theory to analyze the impact of such rumors on individuals' emotions…
Abstract
Purpose
Coronavirus disease 2019-related fake news consistently appears on social media. This study uses appraisal theory to analyze the impact of such rumors on individuals' emotions, motivations, and intentions to share fake news. Furthermore, the concept of psychological distance and construal level theory are used in combination with appraisal theory to compare toilet paper shortages and celebrity scandal rumors.
Design/methodology/approach
Data collected from 299 Taiwanese respondents to 150 toilet paper shortage-related and 149 celebrity gossip-related questionnaires were processed using partial least squares regression and multigroup analysis.
Findings
In both cases, surprise is felt most intensely. However, unlike in the celebrity fake news scenario, worry plays a prominent role in driving the altruistic sharing motivation related to the toilet paper shortage rumor. Furthermore, while emotional attributes (basic or self-conscious, concrete, or abstract) serve as a guide for how emotions change with psychological distance, the degree to which an emotion is relevant to the fake news context is key to its manifestation.
Originality/value
This study examines the impact of individuals' emotions on their motivations and intention to share fake news, applying the appraisal theory and the psychological distance concept in a single study to fake news sharing intention. It evaluates the relationship between psychological distance and emotions, revealing that it is not absolute and need not necessarily shift according to psychological distance change; rather, the relationship is context-sensitive.
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Kun‐Huang Huarng, Tiffany Hui‐Kuang Yu, Luiz Moutinho and Yu‐Chun Wang
This study aims to adapt a neural network based fuzzy time series model to improve Taiwan's tourism demand forecasting.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to adapt a neural network based fuzzy time series model to improve Taiwan's tourism demand forecasting.
Design/methodology/approach
Fuzzy sets are for modeling imprecise data and neural networks are for establishing non‐linear relationships among fuzzy sets. A neural network based fuzzy time series model is adapted as the forecasting model. Both in‐sample estimation and out‐of‐sample forecasting are performed.
Findings
This study outperforms previous studies undertaken during the SARS events of 2002‐2003.
Research limitations/implications
The forecasting model only takes the observation of one previous time period into consideration. Subsequent studies can extend the model to consider previous time periods by establishing fuzzy relationships.
Originality/value
Non‐linear data is complicated to forecast, and it is even more difficult to forecast nonlinear data with shocks. The forecasting model in this study outperforms other studies in forecasting the nonlinear tourism demands during the SARS event of November 2002 to June 2003.
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This study aims to examine the consequences when audit committees have different economic incentives (i.e. incentive-based compensation) to switch auditors.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the consequences when audit committees have different economic incentives (i.e. incentive-based compensation) to switch auditors.
Design/methodology/approach
The author focuses on companies experiencing an auditor switching event (client-initiated dismissals) and uses Heckman’s (1997) two-stage estimation procedure to control endogenous bias. Audit committee quality is measured by the level of incentive-based compensation. Accrual quality and abnormal audit fees are examined over the periods of auditor switches.
Findings
Using 1,087 US companies between 2006 and 2014, the author found that audit committees’ incentive-based compensation is negatively (positively) associated with accruals quality (abnormal audit fees) only when companies switch from Big 4 to non-Big 4 auditors or switch within non-Big 4 auditors. For companies that switch from non-Big 4 to Big 4 auditors, she found no evidence.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides a detailed discussion of the consequences of audit committee quality. The findings also contribute to the literature by concluding that economic incentives are associated with ineffective oversight, particularly after auditor switches.
Practical implications
Sarbanes–Oxley Act and its associated regulations significantly expanded the oversight role of audit committees. However, regulators bypassed restrictions on audit committee compensation. Accordingly, the author suggests that regulators focus on the issue of economic incentives to improve audit committee quality.
Originality/value
Minimal research has been conducted on the role of audit committees when companies switch to a new external auditor. The author shows that when companies switch auditors, incentive-based compensation significantly affects the monitoring quality of audit committees.
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Jun Yang, Chun-Sheng Yu and Jun Wu
This study aims to examine how the perceived importance of work values differs among the three generations (Cultural Revolution, Social Reform and Millennial) in the Chinese…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine how the perceived importance of work values differs among the three generations (Cultural Revolution, Social Reform and Millennial) in the Chinese workforce.
Design/methodology/approach
Grounded in work values and generation theories, hypotheses were tested by empirical data collected from 464 Chinese employees from companies located in the Yangtze River Delta of China. A one-way multivariate analysis of covariance and a series of one-way analysis of covariance and t-tests were conducted to compare the three generations with respect to work values.
Findings
The results revealed significant generational differences existing in China with respect to extrinsic–intrinsic work values measured by the work-need typology (Huseman and Hatfield, 1990). After controlling for demographic variables, Millennial employees were found to show the highest preference for both extrinsic and intrinsic work values, followed by the Social Reform generation, whereas the Cultural Revolution generation scored lowest. Additionally, important similarities across the three generations were also found.
Research limitations/implications
These findings highlight the complex nature of generational phenomena and suggest the need to further develop a deep appreciation and understanding of the underlying reasons for those generational differences and similarities.
Originality/value
Drawing from generation and work values theory, the authors developed a theoretical framework that allows us to directly compare the three generations in the Chinese workforce with respect to the magnitude of importance each generation attaches to various work priorities. The present study represents an important initial step in throwing more light on the mechanisms underlying the observed generational differences and similarities in work values.
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Jung-Kuei Hsieh, Hung-Chang Chiu, Chih-Ping Wei, HsiuJu Rebecca Yen and Yu-Chun Cheng
– This paper aims to link academic classifications of service innovation with practical activities by firms to detail the essence of service innovation.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to link academic classifications of service innovation with practical activities by firms to detail the essence of service innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
This research employs both qualitative and quantitative analyses. The qualitative study features interviews with senior managers from 590 companies, covering nine industries in Taiwan, to gather practitioners ' perspectives on service innovation. A content analysis details specific forms of service innovation. The quantitative study provides a homogeneity test and two-sample proportions test to examine differences in service innovation perspectives/activities across organizational characteristics.
Findings
The interview data link three types of service innovations to 11 associated elements and 25 labels, derived from 659 potential service innovation incidents (550 new service concepts, 82 new service processes, and 27 new service business models). This study also shows that elements of service innovations vary by company size, service innovation experience, and industry life cycle.
Practical implications
The three types of service innovations enable businesses to benchmark and modify their current service innovation activities. Service managers can use the results of this study to develop their own service innovation strategies and concrete action plans.
Originality/value
This pioneering study links the viewpoints of academics with practical service innovation activities and empirically shows that service innovation is dissimilar, depending on various organization characteristics.
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June Lu, Chun‐Sheng Yu, Chang Liu and James E. Yao
Wireless Internet via mobile devices (WIMD) is leading the world into another spectrum of communications and means of conducting day‐to‐day business and life activities. Full…
Abstract
Wireless Internet via mobile devices (WIMD) is leading the world into another spectrum of communications and means of conducting day‐to‐day business and life activities. Full bloom of wireless Internet services depends on user acceptance, as well as technology improvement. This paper develops a technology acceptance model for wireless Internet via mobile devices (TAM for wireless Internet), a conceptual framework to explain the factors influencing user acceptance of WIMD. By revising the technology acceptance model (TAM) to represent some unique features of the wireless system under study, TAM for wireless Internet proposes that constructs such as individual differences, technology complexity, facilitating conditions, social influences, and wireless trust environment determine user‐perceived short and long‐term usefulness, and ease of using WIMD. These, in turn, determine user intention and willingness to adopt WIMD. Twelve propositions are developed to promote and facilitate future empirical research relating to WIMD.
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Yi-Chun Huang, Minli Yang and Yu-Chun Wang
The purpose of this paper is to build a comprehensive model and examine the relationship among green brand positioning (GBP), green brand knowledge (GBK), attitude toward green…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to build a comprehensive model and examine the relationship among green brand positioning (GBP), green brand knowledge (GBK), attitude toward green brand (AGB), and green purchase intention (GPI).
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey was deployed to collect data from the members of Taiwan's Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) Club, obtaining 425 valid samples which were analyzed with structural equation modeling.
Findings
GBP and GBK influence green brand attitudes separately. GBK affects green brand attitudes. Meanwhile, green brand attitudes influence GPIs. Another finding indicates that the mediating effects exist.
Research limitations/implications
By applying the environmental knowledge-attitude-intention paradigm to green brand research, it was empirically supported the existence of a GBK-attitude-intention hierarchy in the context of GPIs.
Practical implications
GBP can be used as brand marketing strategy to improve consumers’ GBK and form positive green brand attitudes as well as enhance GPIs.
Originality/value
Proposing two novel concepts, i.e. GBK and green brand attitude to develop and test the framework of this study.
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Chun-Yu Lin and Chung-Kai Huang
In the face of a changing and turbulent environment, an organizational learning culture (OLC) is crucial for the long-term operation of an organization. A learning culture…
Abstract
Purpose
In the face of a changing and turbulent environment, an organizational learning culture (OLC) is crucial for the long-term operation of an organization. A learning culture provides the capacity to effectively integrate employees, and it also provides structure so that an organization can move forward via continuous learning and change. Few empirical results are available from Chinese companies enduring an organizational change. To bridge this research gap, this study investigated the relationships among an OLC, job satisfaction, turnover intentions and job performance during organizational change.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative approach with structural equation modeling (SEM) and bootstrapping estimation was used to test hypotheses developed from a sample of 434 employees in a restructured telecommunications company in Taiwan.
Findings
Employees who experienced a higher learning culture had lower levels of turnover intentions and exhibited better job performance. Job satisfaction had a negative impact on employee turnover intentions but a positive impact on job performance. Moreover, job satisfaction fully mediated the relationships between an OLC and employee turnover intentions and job performance. When encountering organizational planned changes, a vibrant learning culture gave employees a higher level of satisfaction in their jobs and workplace. Although unexpected challenges often appeared during the organizational changes, employees with a higher level of job satisfaction tended to fulfill their own job duties and showed fewer turnover intentions.
Originality/value
In investigating issues related to organizational change, this study provides managerial insights and addresses strategies for facilitating the adoption of an OLC into the design and implementation of a better workplace environment.
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Yi‐Chun Huang, Yen‐Chun Jim Wu, Yu‐Chun Wang and Nolan Christopher Boulanger
The aim of this study was to draw on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and attempt to identify the factors influencing the customer decision to purchase via online auctions…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study was to draw on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and attempt to identify the factors influencing the customer decision to purchase via online auctions, focusing on how managers selling via online auctions can modify product positioning and promotion decisions in order to make their offerings more congruent with these factors.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed a survey instrument to collect data from Yahoo!Kimo website consumers in Taiwan, obtaining 450 samples which were analyzed with structural equation modeling.
Findings
Attitude toward online auctions, perceived behavioral control and past related experiences significantly and positively influence the intention to purchase on online auctions, whereas subjective norm does not have such influence. Additionally, past related experiences have a positive effect on perceived behavioral control.
Research limitations/implications
There has been a relative dearth of work on online auction customer behavior. By applying the TPB to online auction research, it was empirically supported that behavioral intention to purchase via online auctions is determined by attitude and perceived behavior control. Past related experiences were further integrated, discovering that they can strengthen perceived behavioral control.
Practical implications
Recommendations are put forward in order to help better align product positioning and promotion decisions in online auctions with customer attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and past related experiences. These constructs may also be capable of explaining employee actions in general managerial contexts, thus extending the contribution of the paper beyond the limited world of online auctions.
Originality/value
This study integrated online auctions, the theory of planned behavior and consumer decision‐making philosophies in order to develop and empirically test a theoretical framework of consumer decision making in online auctions.