Teng Shao, Hong Jin and Lihua Zhao
According to the survey and measurement on rural housing in the Northeast severe cold regions of China, this paper analyzed the existing situation and problems of current rural…
Abstract
According to the survey and measurement on rural housing in the Northeast severe cold regions of China, this paper analyzed the existing situation and problems of current rural housing in terms of integral development, functional layout, envelop structure, interior thermal environment, heating system and energy utilization etc.. Based on the climatic features of severe cold regions, as well as rural financial and technical conditions, living and production mode, residential construction characteristics and existing resource status etc., the feasible approaches of achieving building energy saving has been proposed, thus acting as a guidance for new rural housing design in severe cold regions.
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Xuzhong Qin, Zongshui Wang, Hong Zhao and Lars Bo Kaspersen
This paper aims to help scholars know about the focus and frontier in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Although related research in CSR started 60 years ago…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to help scholars know about the focus and frontier in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Although related research in CSR started 60 years ago, there is not much systematical literature review on CSR in recent years. This paper applies scientometric method, especially co-word analysis, to explore the frontier and focus of CSR in the twenty-first century, based on the articles from 2001 to 2014 in SSCI database.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors first use the scientometric method and co-word analysis for keywords filtering and apply social network methodology to investigate the networks of high-frequency keywords and high-frequency authors.
Findings
The authors summarize the current state of CSR research in two aspects. By co-word analysis of high-frequency keywords, the findings show that the focus and frontier are highly related to CSR. Based on the findings of social network analysis, this paper concludes four important research directions and possible future research of CSR.
Originality/value
The findings in this paper will help scholars of CSR or other related fields to realize the focus and frontier of CSR and provide some guidance for their future research.
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Min-Hsin Huang, Zhao-Hong Cheng and I-Chun Chen
Promoting customer–company identification (CCI) has become a crucial relationship marketing strategy for service firms. The purpose of this study is to examine how customers’…
Abstract
Purpose
Promoting customer–company identification (CCI) has become a crucial relationship marketing strategy for service firms. The purpose of this study is to examine how customers’ perceptions of service quality and corporate social responsibility (CSR) affect CCI over time. More importantly, a comparative analysis is conducted to compare the long-term effectiveness of service quality versus CSR in forming CCI.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual framework is developed and then empirically examined using latent growth curve modeling. The study data were collected from restaurant customers in Taiwan in four waves of 213 repeated measures.
Findings
The results of this study show that customers’ perceptions of both service quality and CSR affect CCI. Particularly, the results of this study indicate that compared with service quality, customers’ perceived CSR has a stronger effect in the promotion of CCI over time.
Practical implications
This study offers a new insight for service marketing practitioners who are planning and implementing strategies for enhancing CCI. The findings suggest that relationship investments are more effective over the long term when service firms shift their investment priority over time from achieving high service quality to increasing consumers’ belief in the firm’s commitment to CSR.
Originality/value
Though previous research has explored the various drivers of CCI, longitudinal examinations are surprisingly scarce in this context. Using latent growth curve modeling, this study examines how CCI antecedents influence changes in CCI over time. More importantly, this study reveals that CSR has a stronger long-term impact on CCI than service quality.
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Min-Hsin Huang and Zhao-Hong Cheng
Enhancing consumer-company identification (CCI) is a useful means by which to build deeper, more committed relationships with consumers. The purpose of this paper is to examine…
Abstract
Purpose
Enhancing consumer-company identification (CCI) is a useful means by which to build deeper, more committed relationships with consumers. The purpose of this paper is to examine how consumers’ perceptions about the company (service quality and corporate social responsibility) and construal of the self (independent self-construal and interdependent self-construal) affect their identification with a service firm. This study also investigates how consumers’ involvement with the service firm moderates the relationships between CCI and four specific drivers.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual model is developed and empirically tested through two field-based studies (restaurant services and financial services) and one follow-up laboratory experiment.
Findings
The results of this research show that service quality, corporate social responsibility and interdependent self-construal positively affect CCI and that independent self-construal has a negative effect on CCI. In particular, the greater the involvement of the consumer with the service firm, the more positive the effects of service quality and corporate social responsibility are on CCI.
Practical implications
This research provides new insight into services marketing management by suggesting that service firms can enhance CCI and, consequently, consumer loyalty by adopting different strategies for specific consumer segments.
Originality/value
This is the first empirical study to simultaneously incorporate both company characteristics and consumer personal factors into a framework, and provide an integrative understanding of what factors determine consumers’ identification with a service firm.
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Min-Hsin Huang and Zhao-Hong Cheng
Customer satisfaction (CS) and customer-company identification (CCI) are two important relational constructs and play a complementary role in the service-profit chain. Drawing…
Abstract
Purpose
Customer satisfaction (CS) and customer-company identification (CCI) are two important relational constructs and play a complementary role in the service-profit chain. Drawing from the theory of relationship dynamics, the purpose of this paper is to define CS velocity and CCI velocity as the rate and direction of change in CS and CCI, respectively. A comparison of the relative effects of CCI velocity and CS velocity on customer loyalty is done through a latent growth curve modeling approach.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual model is developed and empirically tested based on four waves of a longitudinal survey of 213 restaurant customers.
Findings
The results show that both CCI velocity and CS velocity have positive effects on customer loyalty. More importantly, the effects of CCI velocity on customer loyalty over time are stronger than those of CS velocity. The moderation analysis further shows that the higher the frequency of visits to the service firm, the stronger the effects of relationship velocity on customer loyalty.
Practical implications
The results provide new insights for service marketing managers by suggesting that, to benefit the long-term effectiveness of relationship investments, service firms should shift the priority from increasing CS to engendering CCI.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the theory of relationship dynamics by conceptualizing new constructs of CS velocity and CCI velocity and by empirically comparing their relative effects on customer loyalty over time.
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Ruichen Ge, Sha Zhang and Hong Zhao
Extant research shows mixed results on the impact of expressed negative emotions on donations in online charitable crowdfunding. This study solves the puzzle by examining how…
Abstract
Purpose
Extant research shows mixed results on the impact of expressed negative emotions on donations in online charitable crowdfunding. This study solves the puzzle by examining how different types of negative emotions (i.e. sadness, anxiety and fear) expressed in crowdfunding project descriptions affect donations.
Design/methodology/approach
Data on 15,653 projects across four categories (medical assistance, education assistance, disaster assistance and poverty assistance) from September 2013 to May 2019 come from a leading online crowdfunding platform in China. Text analysis and regression models serve to test the hypotheses.
Findings
In the medical assistance category, the expression of sadness has an inverted U-shaped effect on donations, while the expression of anxiety has a negative effect. An appropriate number of sadness words is helpful but should not exceed five times. In the education assistance and disaster assistance categories, the expression of sadness has a positive effect on donations, but disclosure of anxiety and fear has no influence on donations. Expressions of sadness, anxiety and fear have no impact on donations in the poverty assistance category.
Research limitations/implications
This work has important implications for fundraisers on how to regulate the fundraisers' expressions of negative emotions in a project's description to attract donations. These insights are also relevant for online crowdfunding platforms.
Originality/value
Online crowdfunding research often studies negative emotions as a whole and does not differentiate project types. The current work contributes by empirically testing the impact of three types of negative emotions on donations across four major online crowdfunding categories.
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Zhuo Sun, Hong Zhao and Zongshui Wang
The success of social commerce group-buying information system (IS) is not a simple accumulation of functions, but a complex process of system integration that makes it difficult…
Abstract
Purpose
The success of social commerce group-buying information system (IS) is not a simple accumulation of functions, but a complex process of system integration that makes it difficult to design a high-quality website to improve the conversion rate of users has become a top priority for online companies. The purpose of this study is to further improve the IS success model to adapt to the new research scenarios and explore the boundary conditions between different satisfaction and repurchase intention.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the users who have used the group-buying website quality for social commerce in the last 6 months are the objects of this study. Finally, 436 valid data were collected by questionnaire survey and analyzed by Smart PLS.
Findings
The results indicate that the four dimensions of website quality enhance consumers' economic satisfaction and social satisfaction, except that the path of system quality and social satisfaction is not significant. Economic satisfaction and social satisfaction also have a significant positive effect on repurchase intentions. Besides, the interactive effect of customer involvement and economic satisfaction has no significant impact on repurchase intention, but customer involvement plays a moderate role in the path of social satisfaction on repurchase intention.
Originality/value
n order to make the IS success model better evaluate the characteristics of social commerce sites comprehensively, this present research introduces the measurement construct of interaction quality. Moreover, this study examines the effect of mechanism of economic satisfaction and social satisfaction on repurchase intention from the perspective of practical benefit and psychology. Finally, the boundary conditions of the effect of satisfaction on repurchase intention are explored.
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Zongshui Wang, Wei Liu, Zhuo Sun and Hong Zhao
Building on social media and destination brand-related literature, this study aims to explore World Heritage Sites’ (WHSs) brand diffusion and formation process from long-term and…
Abstract
Purpose
Building on social media and destination brand-related literature, this study aims to explore World Heritage Sites’ (WHSs) brand diffusion and formation process from long-term and short-term perspectives, which includes brand diffusion, user-generated content (UGC), opinion leaders and brand events’ impact.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a mixed-method including text mining, keyword analysis and social network analysis to explore the brand formation process of four popular WHSs in Beijing, namely, the Palace Museum, Great Wall, Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven and more than 10,000,000 users’ data on Sina Weibo has been implemented to uncover the underlying social media branding mechanism.
Findings
The results show that the number of postings keeps in a stable range in most months, but, in general, there are no common rules for changing trends among the four WHSs; long-term high-frequency keywords related to history and culture account for a higher percentage; different kinds of accounts have varying impacts on information diffusion, in which media accounts lead to a bigger influence. However, more followers do not necessarily mean more interactions and most of the interaction ratio is much lower than 0.01000; brand events facilitate brand dissemination and have an impact on the creation of UGC.
Practical implications
This study is valuable for destination marketers to deeper understand brand diffusion and formation and provides valuable insights for developing effective destination marketing strategies.
Originality/value
Unlike previous studies that only concern a few parts of destination brand formation via social media (e.g. brand diffusion, brand events or opinion leaders’ impact), this study takes a more comprehensive perspective by systematically analyzing the brand formation process of WHSs on social media. By considering both long-term diffusion and short-term representative events, this study provides a more holistic understanding of the branding mechanism.
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Yuejiang Li and Hong Zhao
The purpose of this paper is to review the recent studies on opinion polarization and disagreement.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the recent studies on opinion polarization and disagreement.
Design/methodology/approach
In this work, recent advances in opinion polarization and disagreement and pay attention to how they are evaluated and controlled are reviewed.
Findings
In literature, three metrics: polarization, disagreement and polarization-disagreement index are usually adopted and there is a tradeoff between polarization and disagreement. Different strategies have been proposed in literature which can significantly control opinion polarization and disagreement based on these metrics.
Originality/value
This review is of crucial importance to summarize works on opinion polarization and disagreement and to the better understanding and control of them.
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Zohaib Razzaq, Salman Yousaf and Zhao Hong
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the significant contribution of emotions along with other conventional loyalty drivers on the loyalty intentions.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the significant contribution of emotions along with other conventional loyalty drivers on the loyalty intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
The influence of three conventional loyalty drivers, i.e., value equity, brand equity, relationship equity on loyalty intentions was investigated by further exploring the moderating effects of negative and positive emotions. A sample of 834 Pakistani consumers in the supermarkets and banking industries was studied employing store-intercept survey design.
Findings
Consumer behavior is driven by emotions in both the supermarkets and banking context. Thus, in order to better predict customer loyalty intentions, the emotional component is crucial and should be included along with other cognitive components.
Practical implications
Since customers’ emotional responses throughout service delivery are strongly linked to loyalty, therefore supermarkets and bank service managers need to make sure that the customers experience with their services as pleasurable as possible and for this purpose, customer service employees need to be trained in order to better understand the customers’ emotional responses during the course of service delivery process.
Originality/value
The present study complements the existing literature regarding the role of emotions in service settings and offers a new point of view for the linkage among emotions, customer equity drivers and customer loyalty intentions.