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1 – 10 of over 77000Dalia Abdel Rahman Farrag, William H. Murphy and Mohammed Hassan
The purpose of this study is to modify the service quality scale (SERVQUAL) for measuring the performance of Islamic banks after modifying and validating it to fit the Islamic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to modify the service quality scale (SERVQUAL) for measuring the performance of Islamic banks after modifying and validating it to fit the Islamic banking context. Furthermore, it provides insights for the limitations good service delivery has on maintaining favorable provider’s satisfaction in Islamic banks under conditions when category attitudes have been disrupted and made salient by major disruptive events.
Design/methodology/approach
Focus groups (managers of Islamic banks) were conducted to develop context-specific service quality measures. Exploratory factor analysis and CFA have been conducted to test the validity of scales developed and questionnaires were then sent to Islamic banking customers of major Islamic banks in Egypt for testing the relationships between the research variables and hypotheses developed.
Findings
The findings of this study are two-fold; identifying a service quality dimension not previously identified in extant service quality measures (SERVQUAL, CARTER), devotion to customers and alerts brand managers that harm to category attitudes caused by societal-level disruptive events can make it difficult to gain high satisfaction even with superior customer service. In this disruptive event context, although high service quality is associated with brand satisfaction, brand satisfaction seems unexpectedly dampened by category attitudes, perhaps, due to the general malaise felt toward the category following the disruptive events.
Practical implications
Islamic institutions are alerted to the heightened need for providing superior service, as even superior service may no longer assure high satisfaction. Extrapolating to an even bigger societal disruptor, in the soon-to-come post-COVID-19 world, category attitudes toward walk-in banking services will be in turmoil and highly salient. So, brand managers will need to develop creative ways to strengthen not just brand attitudes but also to re-stabilize category attitudes if the category is to recover.
Originality/value
This is considered a pioneer study in using mixed methods to re-think the famous SERVQUAL scale in a unique context and relating findings to impacts of disruptive events on attitude toward Islamic banking.
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This study aims to assess the usefulness of Dick and Basu's framework of customer loyalty to examine consumer loyalty on the grocery product market.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to assess the usefulness of Dick and Basu's framework of customer loyalty to examine consumer loyalty on the grocery product market.
Design/methodology/approach
After a short presentation of Dick and Basu's framework, the article discusses a number of anticipated antecedents and consequences to consumer loyalty on the grocery product market. Next, the four loyalty categories and the hypothesized relationships with antecedents and consequences are tested on empirical data from a large survey investigating brand loyalty across five grocery product categories.
Findings
The results support the presence of Dick and Basu's four loyalty typologies within all the investigated product categories and further provide evidence for the expected differences between product categories with regard to the proportion of loyalty categories within each product category. The results also support relationships between relative attitude and corresponding antecedents and consequences as suggested by Dick and Basu. And, finally, men are found to be less loyal consumers when compared with women.
Practical implications
The study shows that, at least within some categories of grocery products, it is still possible for marketers to create loyal consumers. The importance of building true loyalty is highlighted by the evidence of true loyals being significantly more likely to postpone their purchases if the store is out of their favourite brand, the least likely to switch to another brand if on sale and less keen on variety seeking.
Originality/value
Survey data from 348 households were used to test the hypothesised relationships.
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Raj Singh Badhesha, James M. Schmidtke, Anne Cummings and Scott D. Moore
This paper aims to examine the effects of watching a video providing knowledge about either a Sikh student or an older student on participants' knowledge about each particular…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the effects of watching a video providing knowledge about either a Sikh student or an older student on participants' knowledge about each particular group, their attitudes towards that group.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a pre‐post experimental design and examined the effects of diversity awareness training using a short web‐based video.
Findings
Results indicated that watching a Sikh video significantly increased knowledge of Sikhs and had a marginally significant effect on improving attitudes toward that target group. Additionally, White participants experienced a greater positive attitude change towards Sikhs than non‐White participants. There were no significant effects on knowledge or attitude change for older individuals. However, watching either video was associated with a decline in participants' multiculturalism attitudes.
Research limitations/implications
The results suggest that further work is needed on the effects of specifically focused diversity training as well as more general multicultural training. The study only examined short‐term change in participants' knowledge and attitudes: more research is needed to examine the long‐term effects of diversity training.
Practical implications
The results indicate that organizations should perform some type of need assessment prior to conducting diversity training because narrowly focused diversity training is not likely to have generalized effects.
Originality/value
The paper should interest academics and practitioners since there is very little research that has examined how diversity training works and whether it is effective.
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Ting-Hsiang Tseng, George Balabanis and Matthew Tingchi Liu
The purpose of this paper is to examine the inconsistency of explicit and implicit domestic country bias (DCB) across different types of products and in the context of two…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the inconsistency of explicit and implicit domestic country bias (DCB) across different types of products and in the context of two countries.
Design/methodology/approach
Two studies in two countries are conducted to examine the inconsistencies in implicit and explicit DCB. The first study collected data through mall intercept survey method in Taiwan and identified 189 valid respondents. The second study applied a mixed (within and between subjects) factorial experiment in China using 200 subjects.
Findings
Results show that explicit and implicit attitudes are moderately related to each other. The results also confirm that ethnic product typicality can explain inconsistencies in both explicit and implicit DCB. For ethnically typical products, DCB is more pronounced in consumers’ explicit attitudes than in consumers’ implicit attitudes. On the contrary, for ethnically atypical goods, DCB makes itself present in both explicit and implicit attitudes.
Originality/value
The results shed new light on DCB and confirm that the bias could divaricate between explicit and implicit attitudes in the case of ethnically typical products.
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To propose a categorisation of customer loyalty types to further increase our understanding of the nature of loyalty.
Abstract
Purpose
To propose a categorisation of customer loyalty types to further increase our understanding of the nature of loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
By segmenting customers who are both loyal in attitude and behaviour to a brand, a model is proposed that differentiates between customers whose loyalty is inertial, and those whose loyalty is positive.
Findings
Four categories of loyal customer are proposed: captive, convenience‐seekers, contented and committed. The behaviours and attitudes that can be expected of customers in these different categories are discussed. It is also suggested that customers in different categories will respond in different ways to triggers to switching. Further research that investigates customers' reasons for loyalty behaviour in relation to a portfolio of brands is recommended to validate the model and to enhance understanding and predictability of customer loyalty propensities.
Originality/value
There is agreement that loyals are important for the future of the business, and that this category is deserving of special attention. Since loyalty is key in customer development and profitability, it is important to understand the loyalty condition in more detail, and to use this understanding to develop further the relationship with customers in the loyal category. The model proposed here subdivides loyals in Dick and Basu's categorisation based on behaviour and attitudes. Four categories of loyalty are proposed: captive, contented, convenience‐seeker and committed. Each is described and discussed, and their management implications and research agendas identified. It is noted that any one individual is likely to exhibit the characteristics of each of these categories in relation to different products, services, outlets, and their associated brands. This is a speculative model at this stage of development, which is intended to provoke further thought about the nature of loyalty.
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The main objective of the present study is to explore whether there are variations in the employment of evaluative language resources by male and female writers. More…
Abstract
Purpose
The main objective of the present study is to explore whether there are variations in the employment of evaluative language resources by male and female writers. More specifically, the study focuses on variations, if any, that can be attributed to difference in gender.
Design/methodology/approach
The study compared and contrasted forty recommendation letters written by male academics to the same number of letters written by female recommenders. The study uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches.
Findings
The investigation of three attitudinal resources in letters of recommendations showed that the most employed resource was the judgment sub-system. The appreciation domain was in the second position, and the least frequent was the affect. The results also revealed no statistically significant variations in attitude sub-systems: Affect and appreciation as the writers in both groups (males and females) employed almost the same options in each. In respect with judgment, however, the analysis explored significant differences between the two sets as male academics used more judgment resources than females.
Originality/value
The main contributions of this study may be as follows: first, it is one of very few studies drawing on the attitude-category of appraisal system, as an analytical tool to examine gender differences in recommendation letters very particularly on the ones written by non-native speakers of English. Second, the gender factor is central in the genre of the recommendation letters and hence researchers should be cognizant of its role as certain variations might be impacted by it. Third, the lists of tokens can be offered as heuristics for academics to have most common words or phrases to use in their letters. Finally, the findings can hopefully bear some important pedagogical implications, very specifically for novice and non-native academic writers of recommendations letters.
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Maram Saeed Sabri and Keith Thomas
This paper aims to investigate psycho-attitudinal features in female entrepreneurs participating in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Saudi Arabia, using the Big Five…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate psycho-attitudinal features in female entrepreneurs participating in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Saudi Arabia, using the Big Five model of personality traits and risk propensity. These attitudes, further grouped into three broad categories, namely, fixed, moderate and growth-oriented mindsets, are used to illustrate the collective impact of attitude over the entrepreneurial process.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is a quantitative study, using a survey to registered business owners and entrepreneurs operating in micro, small and medium businesses in Riyadh, Makkah and Eastern Province, three major administration areas of Saudi Arabia. Survey distribution was through the Chamber of Commerce located in each city. In total, 701 questionnaires were collected with 232 completed responses suitable for use in the study’s empirical findings. The overall response rate was 33 per cent.
Findings
The paper provides practical insights into gender-specific attitudes, including reported variance over the entrepreneurial process. It shows that attitude is an equally predominant feature for both genders through all business stages, with female entrepreneurs reporting a slightly higher growth-oriented attitude relative to their male counterparts. Overall, significant differences were noted between gender and business stages for five of the six-attitudinal growth subscales. From a policy perspective, noting the country’s plan for economic reform and desire for greater participation by women, there are important questions that arise concerning the impact of incentive devices and policy measures.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of this study is in the number of women participants, which was small. As participation rates for women rise, there is a good opportunity for future analysis to extend this current study’s findings.
Practical implications
The research uses the Big Five model and risk propensity to explore the important role of attitude in female entrepreneurs. Noting the moderating influence of factors in the macro-environment and the pervasive impact of social norms on women, this study flags some implications for government and policymakers in formulating supportive policies to enable greater uptake by women entrepreneurs with growth-oriented mindsets.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature on the role of gender-specific attitudes through the business stages. This paper presents original research on the attitudes of women in the context of Arabic society.
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Gerard Paul Prendergast and Alex S.L. Tsang
Consumers are becoming increasingly socially conscious when making their purchasing decisions, which in turn is providing an incentive for firms to integrate social responsibility…
Abstract
Purpose
Consumers are becoming increasingly socially conscious when making their purchasing decisions, which in turn is providing an incentive for firms to integrate social responsibility considerations into their product offerings. Explaining the various categories of socially responsible consumption (SRC) is therefore important. The purpose of this paper is to explain the various categories of socially responsible consumption.
Design/methodology/approach
Grounded in the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this paper surveyed a sample of 1,202 Hong Kong consumers.
Findings
The findings indicate that attitude towards the behavior, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control are all significant predictors of three categories of SRC (i.e. intention to purchase from firms based on their CSR performance, intention to practice recycling and intention to try to avoid or minimize their use of products based on their environmental impact). Intention to engage in SRC was then shown to be a significant predictor of SRC behavior.
Research limitations/implications
This paper relied on only the single-factor test as a measure of socially desirable responding. Furthermore, while the quota sampling was designed for broad representativeness, it is difficult to verify if the well-controlled quota controls entirely removed the possibility of a biased selection of respondents within each cell.
Practical implications
Recommendations are made for public policy-makers and marketers to devise ways to shape consumer behavior to facilitate more responsible consumption.
Originality/value
Previous research relating to SRC has not explained the various categories of SRC and often failed to test the relationship between intention and behavior, representing a considerable gap in the literature. This paper applied the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain intention and behavior with regards to the various categories of SRC.
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Arianna Ruggeri, Anne Arvola, Antonella Samoggia and Vaiva Hendrixson
At a European level, Italy experiences one of the highest percentages of population at risk of poverty (AROP). However, studies on this consumer segment are scarce. The purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
At a European level, Italy experiences one of the highest percentages of population at risk of poverty (AROP). However, studies on this consumer segment are scarce. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the food behaviours of Italian female consumers, distinguishing similarities and differences due to age and level of income.
Design/methodology/approach
The investigation adopted an inductive approach in order to analyse and confirm the determinants of food behaviours. Data were collected through four focus groups. Data elaboration included content analyses with term frequency – inverse document frequency index and multidimensional scaling technique.
Findings
The food behaviours of Italian female consumers are based on a common set of semantic categories and theoretical dimensions that are coherent with those applied by previous studies. The age of consumers impacts the relevance attributed to the categories and income contributes to the explanation of the conceptual relations among the categories that determine food behaviours. The approach to food of younger and mature consumers AROP is strongly driven by constraints such as price and time. The study did not confirm a link between a poor health attitude and low socio-economic status.
Research limitations/implications
The outcomes achieved can be strengthened by quantitative analyses to characterise the relations occurring among the factors and dimensions that influence the food behaviours of consumers AROP.
Originality/value
The study increases knowledge about Italian female consumers and provides an initial contribution to the analysis of the food behaviour of the population AROP.
Larissa Marx Welter and Sandra Rolim Ensslin
The objectives of this study were to verify and group the unintended consequences (UCs) of performance evaluation systems (PESs) reported by empirical studies in the literature;…
Abstract
Purpose
The objectives of this study were to verify and group the unintended consequences (UCs) of performance evaluation systems (PESs) reported by empirical studies in the literature; and to determine whether these consequences manifest themselves at the managerial or the operational level of organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review of the literature was undertaken using the intervention instrument Knowledge Development Process-Constructivist. In total, 33 scientifically relevant empirical articles were selected from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, representative of the theme of PESs’ UCs. The treatment of the data was due to critical reflection on the findings, synthesized in a literature map.
Findings
The study identified 24 UCs, most of which were negative. These were divided into two categories: feelings/emotions and attitudes/implications. Most conscious attitudes manifested themselves at the managerial level, whereas the unconscious ones appeared at the operational level. It was established that employees are more likely to be induced to adopt dysfunctional behaviours. Social aspects that interact with a PES, such as contextual and cultural factors, are fundamental for understanding how PES’s UCs occur.
Originality/value
The study provides insights for researchers and professionals in the field of performance evaluation who wish to delve deeper into the theme of UCs, based on the proposed structure of a literature map that consists of dividing consequences into feelings and attitudes; checking the occurrence level (managerial or operational); and identifying the nature of the attitude, whether it is conscious or unconscious.
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