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The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of sports sponsorship on brand equity using two managerially related outcomes: price premium and market share.

This study uses a best–worst discrete choice experiment (BWDCE) and compares the outcome with that of the purchase intention scale, an established probabilistic measure of purchase intention. The total sample consists of 409 fans of three soccer teams sponsored by three different competing brands: Nike, Adidas and Puma.

With sports sponsorship, fans were willing to pay more for the sponsor’s product, with the sponsoring brand obtaining the highest market share. Prominent brands generally performed better than less prominent brands. The best–worst scaling method was also 35% more accurate in predicting brand choice than a purchase intention scale.

Future research could use the same method to study other types of sponsors, such as title sponsors or other product categories.

Sponsorship managers can use this methodology to assess the return on investment in sponsorship engagement.

Prior sponsorship studies on brand equity tend to ignore market share or fans’ willingness to pay a price premium for a sponsor’s goods and services. However, these two measures are crucial in assessing the effectiveness of sponsorship. This study demonstrates how to conduct such an assessment using the BWDCE method. It provides a clearer picture of sponsorship in terms of its economic value, which is more managerially useful.

This study addresses how algorithmic recommendations and their affordances shape everyday information practices among young people.

Thematic interviews were conducted with 20 Finnish young people aged 15–16 years. The material was analysed using qualitative content analysis, with a focus on everyday information practices involving online platforms.

The key finding of the study is that the current affordances of algorithmic recommendations enable users to engage in more passive practices instead of active search and evaluation practices. Two major themes emerged from the analysis: enabling not searching, inviting high trust, which highlights the how the affordances of algorithmic recommendations enable the delegation of search to a recommender system and, at the same time, invite trust in the system, and constraining finding, discouraging diversity, which focuses on the constraining degree of affordances and breakdowns associated with algorithmic recommendations.

This study contributes new knowledge regarding the ways in which algorithmic recommendations shape the information practices in young people's everyday lives specifically addressing the constraining nature of affordances.

This paper aims to examine prospective graduate students' attitudes toward educational loan borrowing in an experimental setting.

Participants were randomly assigned to two treatment groups and one control group. Subjects in experimental group 1 received financial education: a short online course on the economic viability of getting a master's degree and how to finance it with a graduate student loan, while subjects in experimental group 2 received financial education along with information on the availability bias.

Relying on a control group in the assessment of financial literacy education intervention impacts, this research finds positive causal treatment effects on individuals’ attitudes toward debt-financed graduate education. In comparison to the control group, experimental subjects perceived the possibility of going into debt with a graduate loan to complete a master’s degree as less stressful and worrying.

This study has important educational policy implications to prevent students from stopping investing in human capital by perceiving educational loan debt as something stressful or worrying. The results can help potential (and current) grad students develop a feasible financial plan for graduate school by encouraging higher education institutions to implement educational loan information and financial education into university seminar courses for better graduate student loan decision-making.

Student attitudes toward debt have been analyzed in the context of higher education, but only a few researchers internationally have used an experimental design to study personal financial decision-making.

This study aimed at investigating employee training, employee participation and organizational commitment (OC) and the moderating effect of workplace ostracism among bank employees.

The study used a descriptive and cross-sectional design with the aid of a standard scale constructed into a questionnaire. Cluster, convenience and simple random sampling techniques were used to select 1,067 respondents, of which 870 were deemed fit for the study. The theories underpinning the study were the social exchange theory (SET) and social identity theory (SIT). Four hypotheses were developed and tested using hierarchical multiple regression analysis, and moderation using PROCESS macro.

The study found that employee training and employee participation had a significant positive relationship with organizational commitment, while organizational ostracism had a significant but negative relationship with organizational commitment among bank employees. The study also found that workplace ostracism moderated the relationship between organizational climate and organizational commitment The study recommended that organizational commitment requires management training their workforce, allowing employee participation in decisions, and minimizing or outrightly eradicating the practice of organizational ostracism. It is, therefore, concluded that workers place great value on training and participation in decision-making and frown at organizational ostracism.

This paper fills in the gaps left by the paucity of empirical investigation of the moderating role that workplace ostracism plays between employee training, employee participation and organizational commitment – a feat that is lacking in developing countries. It serves as a reminder to management to prevent or entirely eliminate workplace ostracism to allay an employee's impression of being a threat to an organization when commitment is low.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the purchase behavior of consumers towards green products by adapting and extending the theory of planned behavior with the inclusion of three pertinent environmental factors posited to reflect environmental consciousness in the form of environmental concern, environmental knowledge and environmental values.

The data was collected from 410 consumers at shopping malls with retail stores selling green and non-green products in a developing country using cluster sampling and analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling.

The findings of this study indicate that environmental factors reflecting environmental consciousness positively influence consumers’ attitude towards purchasing green products, wherein consumers’ environmental values have a stronger influence than their environmental concern and environmental knowledge. The findings also reveal that subjective norm, attitude and perceived behavioral control toward purchasing green products positively shape green purchase intention. The same positive effect is also witnessed between green purchase intention and behavior. However, perceived behavioral control towards purchasing green products had no significant influence on green purchase behavior.

This study suggests that green marketers should promote environmental consciousness among consumers to influence and shape their planned behavior towards green purchases. This could be done by prioritizing efforts and investments in inculcating environmental values, followed by enhancing environmental knowledge and finally inducing environmental concern among consumers. Green marketers can also leverage subjective norm and perceptions of behavioral control toward purchasing green products to reinforce green purchase intention, which, in turn, strengthens green purchase behavior. This green marketing strategy should also be useful to address the intention–behavior gap as seen through the null effect of perceived behavioral control on purchase behavior toward green products when this strategy is present.

This study contributes to theoretical generalizability by reaffirming the continued relevance of the theory of planned behavior in settings concerning the environment (e.g. green purchases), and theoretical extension by augmenting environmental concern, environmental knowledge and environmental values with the theory of planned behavior, resulting in an environmentally conscious theory of planned behavior. The latter is significant and noteworthy, as this study broadens the conceptualization and operationalization of environmental consciousness from a unidimensional to a multidimensional construct.

The present research paper aims to examine the inter-relationship between organizational justice (Henceforth termed as OJ), psychological well-being at work (henceforth termed as PWBW) and organizational citizenship behavior (henceforth termed as OCB). More specifically, this paper attempts to critically analyze the mediating role of PWBW in the relationship between OJ and OCB. The study solely focuses on nurses working at private hospitals in Kerala, who are the largest group of healthcare personnel.

Data collected from 308 nursing employees were analyzed by using statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) software.

The outcomes of the analysis demonstrate that significant correlations exist between all the three key variables and their dimensions. Moreover, it has been found that the relationship between OJ and OCB is partially mediated by PWBW.

In the present healthcare scenario, just after the Covid-19 pandemic, there is a paramount need for the well-being of healthcare staff in order to improve the functioning of the healthcare system.

The study enabled us to develop and provide an explanation as to how social exchange relationship works between OJ and OCB.

Sarcasm is a linguistic expression that usually carries the opposite meaning of what is being said by words, thus making it difficult for machines to discover the actual meaning. It is mainly distinguished by the inflection with which it is spoken, with an undercurrent of irony, and is largely dependent on context, which makes it a difficult task for computational analysis. Moreover, sarcasm expresses negative sentiments using positive words, allowing it to easily confuse sentiment analysis models. This paper aims to demonstrate the task of sarcasm detection using the approach of machine and deep learning.

For the purpose of sarcasm detection, machine and deep learning models were used on a data set consisting of 1.3 million social media comments, including both sarcastic and non-sarcastic comments. The data set was pre-processed using natural language processing methods, and additional features were extracted and analysed. Several machine learning models, including logistic regression, ridge regression, linear support vector and support vector machines, along with two deep learning models based on bidirectional long short-term memory and one bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT)-based model, were implemented, evaluated and compared.

The performance of machine and deep learning models was compared in the task of sarcasm detection, and possible ways of improvement were discussed. Deep learning models showed more promise, performance-wise, for this type of task. Specifically, a state-of-the-art model in natural language processing, namely, BERT-based model, outperformed other machine and deep learning models.

This study compared the performance of the various machine and deep learning models in the task of sarcasm detection using the data set of 1.3 million comments from social media.

The purpose of this study was to examine how well a strength-based program grounded in positive psychology principles can advance the practical critical thinking skills of those pursuing the teacher training course.

This study used a single-group pre-test post-test design with 35 teacher-trainees from the Bachelor of Education course. The two-and-a-half-week strength-based program used the values in action survey to identify strengths. Pre- and post-test scores, measured with the Cornell Critical Thinking Test – Level Z, underwent Statistical Package for Social Sciences analysis including paired samples t-test for subcomponent and overall composite analysis.

Analysis of the pre- and post-test scores demonstrated a statistical significance in the critical thinking scores obtained by the teacher-trainees. Post-test scores were consistently significant. Out of the elements of critical thinking, induction, meaning, observation and credibility were more prominent. Deduction and assumption identification were also having a significant effect.

Most critical thinking programs focus on evaluating specific teaching methods for improving critical thinking skills. In education, positive psychology studies often center on students’ well-being, attention spans and academic success, aligning with wellness programs. Despite the importance of strengths in positive psychology, there is a lack of research on using a strength-based approach to boost critical thinking skills. This study aims to enhance teacher-trainees’ critical thinking by leveraging their individual strengths, moving away from traditional instructional strategies.

In recent years, there has been significant interest in adopting XR (extended reality) technologies such as VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality), particularly in retail. However, extending activities through reality-mediation is still mostly believed to offer an inferior experience due to their shortcomings in usability, wearability, graphical fidelity, etc. This study aims to address the research gap by experimentally examining the acceptance of metaverse shopping.

This study conducts a 2 (VR: with vs. without) × 2 (AR: with vs. without) between-subjects laboratory experiment involving 157 participants in simulated daily shopping environments. This study builds a physical brick-and-mortar store at the campus and stocked it with approximately 600 products with accompanying product information and pricing. The XR devices and a 3D laser scanner were used in constructing the three XR shopping conditions.

Results indicate that XR can offer an experience comparable to, or even surpassing, traditional shopping in terms of its instrumental and hedonic aspects, regardless of a slightly reduced perception of usability. AR negatively affected perceived ease of use, while VR significantly increased perceived enjoyment. It is surprising that the lower perceived ease of use appeared to be disconnected from the attitude toward metaverse shopping.

This study provides important experimental evidence on the acceptance of XR shopping, and the finding that low perceived ease of use may not always be detrimental adds to the theory of technology adoption as a whole. Additionally, it provides an important reference point for future randomized controlled studies exploring the effects of technology on adoption.

Given the important role of change capability for organizational development and competitive advantage, the purpose of this study is to clarify the influences of transformational leadership (TL) on organizational change capability (OCC) via mediating roles of two specific aspects of trust in leadership namely disclosure-based trust and reliance-based trust.

Structural equation modeling is applied to test the degree of influences of TL and employee trust on OCC via empirical data collected from 376 participants in 115 small and medium firms in China.

The results show the positive and significant impacts of TL and aspects of employee trust in leadership on OCC. It indicated that disclosure-based trust in leadership has a greater influence on change capability in comparison with the effect of reliance-based trust in leadership. Especially, the findings have shown the evidence supporting the mediating mechanism of aspects of employee trust in leadership between TL and OCC.

This study provides the practical initiatives that highlight the importance of applying TL style to build and improve the trust of employees in their leadership for fostering OCC.

The paper has significantly advanced and deepened insight of how transformational leaders nurture employee’s specific shades of trust in leadership for fostering OCC. The valuable findings of this study contribute to enriching the theoretical basis of organizational behavior and change management, and can be used to analyze and explain the relationships between TL, employee’s trust in leadership and organizational capability for change.