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1 – 10 of 308Elok Zubaidah, Eirene Charista Dea, Ella Saparianti, Rhytia Ayu Christianty Putri, Hidayat Sujuti, Ignatius Srianta, Laura Godelive and Ihab Tewfik
This research intended the utilization of Javanese turmeric (0.4% w/v) as a kombucha substrate and analysis of its hepatoprotective activity, in comparison against nonfermented…
Abstract
Purpose
This research intended the utilization of Javanese turmeric (0.4% w/v) as a kombucha substrate and analysis of its hepatoprotective activity, in comparison against nonfermented Javanese turmeric beverage (JTB) and black tea kombucha.
Design/methodology/approach
Forty-two healthy male Balb/c mice (two- to three-week-old, 20–30 g) were divided into six groups with seven replicates each. The treatments were normal diet, normal diet + Javanese turmeric kombucha (JTK), normal diet + diethylnitrosamine (DEN), DEN + JTB, DEN + JTK, DEN + black tea kombucha. Kombuchas and JTB were given at 0.3 mL/20 g BW/d. DEN was induced intraperitoneally at a dose of 100 mg/kg. Observed biomarkers were blood serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT) and serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT) activity, serum malonaldehyde (MDA), as well as liver histology. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance.
Findings
Among DEN-induced groups, JTK significantly (p < 0.05) diminished the level of blood SGPT, SGOT and serum MDA. JTK also had lower blood SGPT (8.604 ± 2.195 U/L) and serum MDA levels (2.884 ± 0.083 nM/mL) compared to the normal group (8.604 ± 2.195 U/L and 5.050 ± 0.998 nM/mL, respectively). JTK also produced the least damaged liver-cell numbers.
Originality/value
JTK demonstrated better hepatoprotective activity compared to JTB.
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Joeri Van den Bergh, Patrick De Pelsmacker and Ben Worsley
The purpose of this study is to identify segments in the Gen Z population (born between 1996 and 2010) in Europe, the USA and Australia, based on brand- and lifestyle-related…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to identify segments in the Gen Z population (born between 1996 and 2010) in Europe, the USA and Australia, based on brand- and lifestyle-related variables and perceptions about their online activities. This study explores how these segments differ and provide insights into cross-country similarities and differences.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was conducted with 4,304 participants, and cluster analysis and analysis of variance were used to identify and profile Gen Z segments in each of three geographical areas.
Findings
Five segments in Europe and four segments in the USA and in Australia were identified. Segments differ in terms of the importance they attach to exclusivity, inclusivity and sustainability of brands, how Gen Z members perceive money issues and stand in life and how they perceive their online activities. Similar segments are found in the three geographical areas.
Research limitations/implications
This study proposes a conceptual and analytical approach for exploring intra-cohort diversity. Future research can apply this approach to different generational cohorts and use it to study intra-cohort diversity in other parts of the world.
Practical implications
This study provides input for marketing practitioners to create better focused and more effective campaigns.
Originality/value
Cross-country generational cohort research is scarce, and especially intra-cohort diversity is under-researched. This study offers a deep and fine-grained insight into the diversity of the Gen Z cohort across three geographical areas, based on representative samples in these areas.
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Ana Isabel Lopes, Edward C. Malthouse, Nathalie Dens and Patrick De Pelsmacker
Engaging in webcare, i.e. responding to online reviews, can positively affect consumer attitudes, intentions and behavior. Research is often scarce or inconsistent regarding the…
Abstract
Purpose
Engaging in webcare, i.e. responding to online reviews, can positively affect consumer attitudes, intentions and behavior. Research is often scarce or inconsistent regarding the effects of specific webcare strategies on business performance. Therefore, this study tests whether and how several webcare strategies affect hotel bookings.
Design/methodology/approach
We apply machine learning classifiers to secondary data (webcare messages) to classify webcare variables to be included in a regression analysis looking at the effect of these strategies on hotel bookings while controlling for possible confounds such as seasonality and hotel-specific effects.
Findings
The strategies that have a positive effect on bookings are directing reviewers to a private channel, being defensive, offering compensation and having managers sign the response. Webcare strategies to be avoided are apologies, merely asking for more information, inviting customers for another visit and adding informal non-verbal cues. Strategies that do not appear to affect future bookings are expressing gratitude, personalizing and having staff members (rather than managers) sign webcare.
Practical implications
These findings help managers optimize their webcare strategy for better business results and develop automated webcare.
Originality/value
We look into several commonly used and studied webcare strategies that affect actual business outcomes, being that most previous research studies are experimental or look into a very limited set of strategies.
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Swati Alok, Navya Kumar and Sudatta Banerjee
COVID-19 placed millions of employees under work-from-home/telework. Employers intend extending telework for the long-term, anticipating business benefits. But the benefits are…
Abstract
Purpose
COVID-19 placed millions of employees under work-from-home/telework. Employers intend extending telework for the long-term, anticipating business benefits. But the benefits are impacted by employees' well-being/ill-being, which is affected by the satisfaction of psychological needs. In turn, need satisfaction is influenced by employees' personal/job attributes. As work-from-home's blended environment disrupts routines, the satisfaction of the psychological need for structure or routines was examined in this study, along with the effect of personal/job attributes.
Design/methodology/approach
Cross-section primary data were collected from 500 teleworking information technology employees from India and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Vigour and exhaustion represented well-being and ill-being. Telework self-efficacy, standardised job, technology assistance and supervisor social support were the determinants or personal/job attributes. Need for structure satisfaction was the mediator.
Findings
Telework self-efficacy, technology assistance and supervisor social support were positively associated with structure satisfaction. In turn, structure satisfaction was related positively with vigour and negatively with exhaustion, and thus mediated between personal/job attributes and vigour/exhaustion. Standardised job did not affect vigour, exhaustion or structure satisfaction.
Originality/value
Need for structure is mostly studied as a trait, with implications of greater/lesser preference for structure examined. However, this work acknowledges structure as a basic ubiquitous need. Everyone needs some structure. Hence, need for structure is researched from the novel perspective of its satisfaction. This paper also uniquely combines job demands–resources model which identifies personal/job attributes, with concepts of epistemic which posit the need for structure.
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Despite a variety of theoretical and empirical studies on work engagement (WE), few have explored the role of individual-level factors. Underpinned by person-environment fit (PEF…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite a variety of theoretical and empirical studies on work engagement (WE), few have explored the role of individual-level factors. Underpinned by person-environment fit (PEF) and self-determination theory (SDT), the present study aims to pinpoint the fundamental process driving the relationship between WE and perceived fit (PF).
Design/methodology/approach
Using the survey method, data were collected from 263 college teachers. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling were applied to test the serial mediation paradigm.
Findings
The results of the study accentuate crafting as an important mediator between PF and WE. The current study does not support the mediating role of authentic living between PF and WE. Both authentic living and job crafting (JC) mediate the PF and WE relationship. Employees’ sense of congruence promotes living authentically and JC, resulting in WE.
Practical implications
The WE of employees is harnessed if they get an opportunity to practice authenticity. Authentic employees feel compelled to bring change to the job so that it is in alignment with their core values, thus resulting in WE. The organizations that create a culture in which the administrators allow the practice of individual-factors, namely authentic living, and JC successfully fosters WE.
Originality/value
The variables presented in the serial mediation model explain the underlying mechanisms between PF and WE. This is among the very few studies that explore the individual-level factors that boost individual levels of WE among teachers. Therefore, it adds to the literature on WE.
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Hannelore Ottilie Van den Abeele
This paper argues that Bruno Latour’s work on translation provides an alternative to dominant anthropocentric, individualistic and managerial approaches in career studies by…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper argues that Bruno Latour’s work on translation provides an alternative to dominant anthropocentric, individualistic and managerial approaches in career studies by considering careers as precarious effects of networks instead of the implicit assumption of individual strategic career actors in extant career research paradigms.
Design/methodology/approach
The article first compares the three main current approaches to studying careers – structural functionalist, interpretivist and critical – illustrated by three exemplary empirical studies. Subsequently, three concepts from the sociology of translation that are relevant for the study of careers are introduced: career making as translating interests, careers as effects of networks and career action as dislocated and overtaken. Taken together, these three concepts allow us to conceive of careers as practices performed by human and nonhuman actors. Finally, an example from an ethnographic case study in the field of contemporary art illustrates how a Latourian approach can be used.
Findings
Latour’s work on translation provides conceptual and methodological tools to investigate career processes and practices in an era of unpredictability.
Originality/value
The paper introduces Bruno Latour’s work on translation to the study of careers.
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Keywords
Evelyn Lopez, Jose A. Flecha-Ortiz, Maria Santos-Corrada and Virgin Dones
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected service small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), increasing the importance of understanding how these businesses can become…
Abstract
Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected service small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), increasing the importance of understanding how these businesses can become more resilient and how service innovation can be an effective strategy to increase their adaptive capacity and survival. This study aims to examine the role of dynamic capabilities in service innovation as a factor explaining the resilience of SMEs in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic during the COVID-19 crisis and its impact on service innovation. Additionally, the authors assess whether service innovation has a significant impact on value cocreation in these businesses.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a quantitative method by surveying 118 SME owners in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The data were analyzed using partial least-squares structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results reflect important theoretical contributions by analyzing resilience from an innovation perspective instead of a retrospective approach, which is an area that has not been analyzed in the literature. Additionally, theoretical contributions to marketing services in SMEs are discussed, which is an underresearched topic. The results advance by discussing the role of service innovation through the reconfiguration of resources and how this can be an effective strategy to increase value cocreation with customers during crises.
Originality/value
This study is original in that it analyzes resilience from the perspective of innovation, and not from a retrospective approach. It offers a vision in response to the need for studies that provide a clearer conceptualization of resilience in small businesses. This highlights the importance of considering regional differences and service innovation as effective strategies to enhance resilience and value cocreation with customers.
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Aslıhan Dursun-Cengizci and Meltem Caber
This study aims to predict customer churn in resort hotels by calculating the churn probability of repeat customers for future stays in the same hotel brand.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to predict customer churn in resort hotels by calculating the churn probability of repeat customers for future stays in the same hotel brand.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the recency, frequency, monetary (RFM) paradigm, random forest and logistic regression supervised machine learning algorithms were used to predict churn behavior. The model with superior performance was used to detect potential churners and generate a priority matrix.
Findings
The random forest algorithm showed a higher prediction performance with an 80% accuracy rate. The most important variables were RFM-based, followed by hotel sector-specific variables such as market, season, accompaniers and booker. Some managerial strategies were proposed to retain future churners, clustered as “hesitant,” “economy,” “alternative seeker,” and “opportunity chaser” customer groups.
Research limitations/implications
This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of customer behavior in the hospitality industry and provides valuable insight for hotel practitioners by demonstrating the methods that facilitate the identification of potential churners and their characteristics.
Originality/value
Most customer retention studies in hospitality either concentrate on the antecedents of retention or customers’ revisit intentions using traditional methods. Taking a unique place within the literature, this study conducts churn prediction analysis for repeat hotel customers by opening a new area for inquiry in hospitality studies.
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Janet Kyogabiirwe Bagorogoza, Jaap van den Herik, Andrea de Waal and Bartel van de Walle
The study examines the mediating effect of knowledge management (KM) in the relationship between the high-performance organisation (HPO) framework and high performance in…
Abstract
Purpose
The study examines the mediating effect of knowledge management (KM) in the relationship between the high-performance organisation (HPO) framework and high performance in financial institutions (FIs) in Uganda. The paper aims to develop a framework that promotes high performance in the FIs.
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual model was tested on a sample of 28 financial instituitions using structural equation model.
Findings
The findings revealed that the high-performance framework is significantly related to high performance and KM is related high performance. KM mediates the relationship between the high-performance framework and high performance.
Research limitations/implications
The findings revealed that the high-performance framework is significantly related to high performance and KM is related high performance. KM mediates the relationship between the high-performance framework and high performance.
Practical implications
The findings revealed that the high-performance framework is significantly related to high performance and KM is related high performance. KM mediates the relationship between the high-performance framework and high performance.
Originality/value
This study makes several empirical and theoretical contributions, addressing the gap in the literature about the role of the HPO framework in strategic management. This study tests the relationship between the HPO and the firm's performance by taking the mediating effects of KM. The designed model highlights a significant organisational performance approach that can influence the finance sector positively.
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Mahsa Abedini, Bert Schreurs, I.M. Jawahar and Melvyn R.W. Hamstra
This research sought to examine the potential association between workers’ financial worry and counterproductive work behavior. Based on the basic psychological need theory, we…
Abstract
Purpose
This research sought to examine the potential association between workers’ financial worry and counterproductive work behavior. Based on the basic psychological need theory, we propose that psychological need satisfaction explains this relationship and we position this volitional pathway as an alternative to a cognitive capacity pathway based on the cognitive load theory.
Design/methodology/approach
We conducted a two-week interval-lagged survey study with three measurement points among 180 US workers. The mediation models were tested using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results support the conclusion that, while cognitive capacity could have an impact on counterproductive work behavior, its mediating effect is less strong than that of need satisfaction.
Practical implications
Based on the results, we recommend that organizations design their compensation and benefits system to shield employees from financial worries. At the same time, we advise offering the employees who do experience financial worries assistance in managing their budgets and offering other forms of financial coaching.
Originality/value
This study is innovative because we show that the negative effects of financial worry extend much further than initially thought and affect not only employees' cognition but also their motivation.
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