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While the brand equity associated with tangible goods has received a great deal of attention in the literature, a basic understanding of the nature of brand equity for services has yet to emerge. Most of what is known about brand equity for services is based on theoretical or anecdotal evidence. In addition, the presumed differences in brand equity associated with search‐dominant, experience‐dominant, and credence‐dominant services has yet to be empirically examined. The objectives of this study are threefold: to empirically test whether brand equity is more important for services than for tangible goods, to test whether the presumed differences in brand equity for search‐, experience‐, and credence‐dominant services can be confirmed in an empirical examination, and to assess whether consumer knowledge of a product category has an effect on the importance of brand equity across product types. Contrary to suppositions in the literature, the results indicate that brand equity is more important for tangible goods than for services. In addition, the results do not support the presumed differences between service types as brand equity for search‐dominant services is more important than for both experience‐ and credence‐dominant services. The same pattern of results is achieved when consumer knowledge of each product category is included as a covariate.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating roles of two distinct styles of coping and decision latitude on the relationship between three facets of role stress and psychological strain in six national contexts.

The objective of the research is to examine the relative predictive efficacies of three theory specific moderators in six countries which differ on the cultural dimension of individualism‐collectivism. The data are analyzed using moderated regression analysis.

The results show that problem‐focused coping is a better moderator in the individualistic countries and that emotion‐focused coping is a better moderator in the collectivistic contexts. None of the three moderators moderate the relationships in Germany and South Africa – the two countries which had scores in the mid‐range of the individualism‐collectivism continuum. Findings are discussed for their significance into the interplay of cultural variations and coping with work stress in predicting psychological strain or distress on the job.

Practical implications for managing human resources in various subsidiaries of multinational and global organizations are discussed.

This paper confirms existing theories and expands the authors’ understanding of role stress and psychological strain in different cultural contexts.

This research seeks to examine how the expectation process and its components evolve over time and purchase experience.

A longitudinal study was conducted over the period of one year using a sample of university students who were purchasing an undergraduate education. The sample was surveyed three times over the year. Structural equation analyses and regression were used to test various research hypotheses.

Key findings include confirming two significantly different levels of expectations: a lower, predictive “will” level and a higher normative “should” level. Expectation antecedents change in their degree of influence on expectations, weakening over time and service purchase experience.

There is a need to extend the results to other service contexts.

The consumer's expectation formation process changes over service purchase experience, thus indicating a need to segment on experience with the service firm.

The application of an expectation formation process to a longitudinal study provides the first partnership of the theoretically‐based model and longitudinal methodology.

This research has the purpose of exploring whether the construct of consumer ethnocentrism extends to contexts in which foreign products are preferred to domestic products.

The study evaluates the psychometric properties of the consumer ethnocentrism scale (CETSCALE) in the transition economies of China and Russia using both student and non‐student samples. A valid and reliable six‐item version of the CETSCALE is developed based on these samples. The refined six‐item scale is then validated through a re‐analysis of Netemeyer et al.'s data collected in four developed countries.

Findings show that the scale can be used effectively in these transitional economies. A consistent pattern of support is found for the six‐item CETSCALE across eight samples from six countries.

The research provides practicing marketers as well as international researchers with a parsimonious six‐item CETSCALE that can be used in both developed and transition economies.

This paper aims to raise some important questions for cross‐cultural research on occupational stress and well‐being and sets the stage for the five papers in the special issue.

This paper reviews some previous literature on cross‐cultural understanding of occupational stress and well‐being, why such research is difficult to undertake, and summarizes the five original manuscripts that comprise this special issue.

Manuscripts in this special issue represent authors from several countries and report data collected from over a dozen countries. Some contributions attempt to replicate previous North American and European research findings in other countries while others undertake comparative studies of two or more countries.

It is important to undertake more cross‐cultural comparative research of the effects of occupational stress and well‐being to determine whether any boundary conditions exist for previous results based in North American and European samples. In addition, future research should include assessments of some national culture values.

Employees’ emotional competencies (EEC) are skills, based on emotional intelligence, used to perceive, understand and regulate customer emotions during a service encounter. In the context of service recovery, these skills are especially important and allow employees to influence consumers’ attitude and behaviours. The purpose of this study is to assess the direct and indirect impacts of EEC in post-recovery satisfaction, trust, word-of-mouth and repurchase intention, considering the moderating role of service (level of employee-customer contact) types.

A total of 355 customers who experienced a service failure and subsequent recovery were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire. EEC was specified as a formative construct, determined by its perceiving, understanding and regulating dimensions. To measure EEC and its impact on selected outcomes, PLS-SEM was used. A multi-group analysis was performed to analyse the moderating role of service type.

Results confirm EEC as a formative construct, with a positive direct impact on post-recovery satisfaction, particularly in high-contact customized services. Findings also reveal the mediating role of satisfaction on selected outcomes, and the significant direct impact of EEC on trust, even when controlling for satisfaction.

EEC remains unexplored in the service recovery literature, and most research fails to understand how EEC role may vary given contextual differences. This study adopts a consumer perspective of EEC in the emotionally charged situation of service recovery, considering the moderating role of service type. The authors further contribute to both literature streams while examining the impact of EEC on post-recovery evaluations. Companies should consider these findings in the recruitment and training of front-line employees to develop better service recovery strategies.

The purpose of this research is to identify the effect of transformational leadership and transactional leadership on task performance, as well as the mediating role of psychological empowerment.

A questionnaire survey was sent to 177 academic staff in a Public University in Malaysia. The data were analysed using SmartPLS 3.2.9.

The results show that only psychological empowerment is positively associated with task performance. Unexpectedly, transformational leadership and transactional leadership have no direct effect on task performance. However, there is an indirect positive relationship between leadership styles and task performance, whereby this relationship is mediated by psychological empowerment. Furthermore, both leadership styles positively influenced psychological empowerment.

This study was conducted among academicians from Public Universities in Malaysia using two types of leadership styles. Therefore, it is recommended for future study to include academician from private universities and also to consider more leadership styles dimensions. The finding of this study shows that R² was 35.3% for psychological empowerment; according to Cohen (1988), this percentage indicates substantial predictive accuracy in explaining psychological empowerment. Nevertheless, it would be interesting to explore other factors.

Empowered employees were highly responsible, put extra work effort and creative in doing their jobs, which tends to increase their performance at work. It is also found that psychological empowerment has the highest and largest effect, contributing to task performance (f² = 0.389).

The inconsistencies of the previous studies' results provide evidence and opportunities for this study to review by including the mediating variable of leadership styles and task performance relationship.

This paper's aim is to investigate the effect of surface radiation on the developing laminar forced convection flow of a transparent gas between two vertical parallel plates. The walls are heated asymmetrically, this enhances the effect of radiation even with the two walls having low values of emissivity.

Numerical techniques were used to study the effect of the controlling parameters on wall temperatures, fluid temperature profiles, and Nusslet number.

The values of the radiation number at which surface radiation can engender symmetric heating (and hence maximum average Nusslet number on the heated wall and maximum reduction in the maximum heated wall temperature are achieved) are obtained. Threshold values of the radiation number at which radiation effects can be neglected are obtained.

Boundary‐layer flow model is used.

The implications include design of high‐temperature gas‐cooled heat exchangers, advanced energy conversion devices, advanced types of power plants, and many others.

Though a number of analyses of internal flows including radiation effect have been made, most have been directed at the simplest case of the prescribed uniform (isothermal) temperature boundary condition. The available literature that deals with the problem with prescribed heat flux at the walls is limited to fully developed flow or specifying the convection coefficient a priori. The lack of both theoretical and experimental data concerning combined forced convection and surface radiation developing flows between two parallel and its practical importance motivated the present work.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and examine a theoretical framework that evaluates the effects of banking consumers’ justice perception on their post-complaint mindsets. It also aims to help business strategists to customize service failure management activities to achieve a competitive advantage.

To examine the proposed framework using partial least square structural equation modeling, the authors collected data through a survey. The authors also evaluated the proposed framework through multi-group analysis and importance-performance map analysis (IPMA).

Results show that recovery disconfirmation mediates the relationship between banking consumers’ perception of justice and recovery satisfaction. Moreover, after a service failure, brand equity and loyalty mediate the relationship between recovery satisfaction and positive word-of-mouth behavior. IPMA analysis at the construct level shows that fostering the perception of recovery satisfaction is crucial for creating a positive post-failure impression in the mind of the banking consumer.

For banking practitioners, the findings of this research provide a strategic blueprint for managing service failure by developing relationships with consumers, thus creating an opportunity to gain competitive advantage.

Anchored in the theoretical framework of justice theory (Adams, 1963), expectation disconfirmation theory (Oliver, 1977) and social exchange theory (Kelley and Thibaut, 1978), the research adds to the literature by providing a critical evaluation of how to influence banking consumers’ post-complaint behavior from a more systematic perspective.