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Drawing on self-concept theory, this study evaluates the mediating effects of employees' psychological states on the relationship between human resources (HR) practices and employee engagement.

Through random sampling, 434 customer-contact frontline employees from five-star hotels in Malaysia participated in the cross-sectional survey.

The results produced by the Smart-PLS (partial least squares) indicate that HR practices positively and significantly influence employees' psychological states of safety, meaningfulness and availability. All these psychological states also exert positive influences on employee engagement (organisational and work engagement). Safety and availability mediate the links between HR practices and employee engagement, but not meaningfulness.

HR practices and employees' psychological states are necessary in ensuring positive employee outcomes and improving customer service provision.

The findings contribute to the further extension of self-concept theory and employee engagement by incorporating the mediating roles of employees' psychological states in the relationships between HR practices and employee engagement.

以自我概念理論為依據，本研究擬評估僱員的心理狀態、如何在人力資源做法與員工敬業度之間的聯繫上起著仲介的效應。

透過隨機抽樣法，434名在馬來西亞五星級酒店工作、接觸顧客的一線員工被選參與一個橫斷面調查。

以SmartPLS (偏最小平方)取得的研究結果顯示、人力資源做法正面地影響著員工的安全感、工作給予的意義和感知的組織支援；而且，這些心理狀態，均會對員工的敬業度(對組織的自豪感及對工作的投入)起著正面的影響。另外，安全感和感知的組織支援在人力資源做法與員工敬業度之間的聯繫上、起著仲介之效應；唯工作給予的意義則沒有這個效應。

研究結果進一步伸展了自我概念理論及員工敬業度方面的論述，這是由於本研究把員工心理狀態所扮演的中介角色，納入人力資源做法與員工敬業度的聯繫中。

若要確保積極的員工成果及提供更佳的顧客服務，有效的人力資源做法和正面的員工心理狀態是不可或缺的。

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the simultaneous relationships among transformational leadership (TFL), customer citizenship behavior (CCB), employee intrinsic motivation (IM) and employee creativity (EC).

This study was conducted in companies (hotels and tour operators) from the hospitality sector in Vietnam. The respondents were selected based on convenience sampling. A cross-sectional survey design and questionnaire method was used for data collection.

The results of the empirical analysis suggest that: employee IM is significantly associated with EC, both TFL and CCB are positively related to employee IM and EC and employee IM positively mediates the effects of both TFL and CCB on EC.

The results may help managers focus on TFL behavior, CCB and employee IM to achieve higher EC.

This investigation is expected to be new and valuable. Research on relationships of CCB, employee IM and EC is of significant importance but has not been examined to date. It is hoped that this study addresses this important gap in the marketing literature.

This study aims to investigate whether frontline retail banking employees’ proactive personality helps in ameliorating customer engagement. This study further aims to investigate the mediational role of work engagement and service recovery performance in the employee proactivity – customer engagement relationship.

This study used a triadic approach for the collection of primary data. Each triad consisted of a customer, a frontline employee and an immediate colleague of the frontline employee. Structured questionnaires were used to solicit data from the respondents. Specifically, customers were asked to report their level of engagement with the bank and the recovery performance of the employee who redressed their grievances. Frontline employees responded to their level of work engagement while their colleagues reported about the proactive disposition of frontline employees at the workplace.

Empirical findings revealed under service scenario, Indian retail banking employees’ proactive disposition nurtures customer engagement. It was further observed that this relationship is sequentially mediated by work engagement and service recovery performance.

The role of frontline employees in enriching customer engagement has to date remained under-researched among marketing scholars. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the maiden attempt to relate frontline employee proactivity with customer engagement. Also, this study is one of the early research to investigate customer engagement under a service recovery context, thereby, opening pathways for further exploration.

While existing research has explored the association between supervisor support and turnover intention among construction workers, there is a notable gap in the literature concerning the potential mediating role of work engagement in elucidating this relationship, warranting further investigation. The paper, hence, aims to examine the mediating role of work engagement in the relationship between supervisor support and turnover intention among construction workers.

Based on the quantitative research method, the hypothesis was tested. The data were collected from 144 construction professionals using a structured questionnaire. Observed variables were tested using confirmatory factor analysis, and the mediating role relationship was validated using hierarchical regression.

The outcome of this study shows a significant positive impact of work engagement and supervisor support on employee turnover intention. The study further showed that work engagement plays a mediating role in the connection between supervisory support and the intention to turnover and improve project and business performance. Turnover intention, on the other hand, negatively affects project and organizational performance.

By enhancing employee work engagement and perceptions of supervisor support, the findings of this study may aid construction organizations in making better judgments regarding the likelihood of employee turnover. The effectiveness of the project and the organization will likely be greatly impacted.

The results of this study provide supporting evidence and advance efforts at reducing employee turnover intention through work engagement and supervisor support in improving project and organizational performance.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the relation between the dimensions of employer brand (EB) attractiveness and the intention to submit a job application to the organisation. An increase of competitiveness in the business world has resulted in an increased effort by organisations to improve the processes of recruitment and retention of talented professionals, as the human capital of organisations is extremely important for their growth and sustainability. Regardless of an organisation’s size, the difficulties faced in recruiting and retaining highly qualified human capital are tangible. In this sense, the research problem identifies EB as being a strategic element for attracting future employees to work for an organisation.

This study used both quantitative (a questionnaire survey) and qualitative (in-depth interviews) data to investigate the perceptions of future and current employees.

Evidence from 281 respondents (of which almost 60 per cent belong to the millennial generation) who participated in the quantitative study supports the multi-dimensionality of EB attractiveness, highlighting the importance of economic factors, such as an above-average salary or opportunities for promotion, which are seen to be less important to millennials when considering future job prospects. Interestingly, the results of the qualitative research for current employees show slightly different concerns, in that career progression appears to be crucial.

The study findings not only offer a basis for research on the dimensions of employer attractiveness, but also, they serve as a managerial guide towards enhancing companies’ ability to attract, retain and motivate talented individuals.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of bank branch managers’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in CSR marketing outcomes.

The paper proposes a causal model establishing that managers’ perceptions of CSR influence the perception of CSR held by the branch’s customers, which in turn directly affects customer satisfaction, customer trust, customer engagement and customer loyalty. The unit of analysis in this quantitative study is the bank branch. Two questionnaires were administered: one to branch managers and another to five customers in each branch.

Branch managers’ perceptions of CSR have a marked influence on customers’ perceptions of CSR, which again have a notable impact on the relationship variables studied: customer satisfaction, customer trust, customer engagement and customer loyalty.

The sample was taken from two banks in the same country (Spain) and only five customers were interviewed in each branch. The type of customers analyzed should be taken into account since a growing number of customers now carry out all of their banking online and are less likely to visit their branch.

The results highlight the importance of adopting socially responsible actions not only in the bank as a whole, but also in individual branches. It would, therefore, seem crucial for high level bank executives not only to involve branch managers in the bank’s CSR strategy, but also to empower them to undertake CSR actions that involve the customers and local community with which they interact.

First, the paper reveals the differences within the same organization in the way its CSR strategy is implemented. Second, intermediary figures or supervisors are shown to have a key role in ensuring the organization’s CSR strategy is effective. Third, the study emphasizes the importance of customers’ perception of CSR in achieving the main outcomes of relationship marketing (satisfaction, trust, engagement and loyalty). Fourth, the methodology applied in the study is innovative in its construction of dyads in which the branch is the unit of analysis, enabling a comparison between the manager’s perceptions of CSR with that of five customers from the same branch. Fifth, the findings add to the knowledge of a particularly relevant sector in the recent economic crisis, namely, the retail banking industry.

Although consumers feel that the move toward service robots in the frontline so far was driven by firms' strive to replace human service agents and realize cost savings accordingly, the COVID-19 pandemic has led customers to appreciate frontline robots' ability to provide services in ways that keep them safe and protected from the virus. Still, research on this topic is scant. This article offers guidance by providing a theoretical backdrop for the safety perspective on service robots, as well as outlining a typology that researchers and practitioners can use to further advance this field.

A typology is developed based on a combination of a theory- and practice-driven approach. Departing from the type of behavior performed by the service robot, the typology synthesizes three different service robot roles from past literature and proposes three new safety-related role extensions. These safety-related roles are derived from a search for examples of how service robots are used in practice during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The typology's roles are corroborated by discussing relevant robot implementations around the globe. Jointly, the six roles give rise to several ideas that jointly constitute a future research agenda.

This manuscript is (one of) the first to provide in-depth attention to the phenomenon of service customers' physical safety needs in the age of service robots. In doing so, it discusses and ties together theories and concepts from different fields, such as hierarchy of needs theory, evolutionary human motives theory, perceived risk theory, regulatory focus theory, job demand–resources theory, and theory of artificial intelligence job replacement.

This paper aims to examine how team-level empowering leadership related to service performance through thriving at work and how shared organizational social exchange and customer orientation moderated the latter relationships.

The authors collected the data from 283 flight attendants and their supervisors working at a major Korean airline. Multi-level analyses were used to test the effect of empowering leadership on employee outcomes.

Both team-level empowering leadership and customer orientation were significantly and indirectly associated with service performance via thriving at work. Additionally, customer orientation significantly moderated the relationship between team-level empowering leadership and thriving at work such that the relationship was stronger when customer orientation was low rather than high. In addition, shared organizational social exchange augmented the influence of team-level empowering leadership on service performance but not on thriving at work.

The findings suggest that team-level empowering leadership is more effective in enhancing thriving at work of employees when their customer orientation is low rather than high. In addition, a shared high-quality organizational social exchange augments the effect of empowering leadership on employees’ service performance.

This paper provides initial evidence of the interaction of team-level empowering leadership and individual¬-level customer orientation on thriving at work and service performance. Additionally, it documents the differential augmenting effect of shared organizational social exchange on the relationship between empowering leadership and these outcomes. Collectively, the findings explain why and when team-level empowering leadership relates to service performance.

This study aims to explore past and present service research and to provide a future research agenda for service researchers by presenting a big picture of the intellectual connections and emerging topics in the discipline.

This study is an empirical analysis of citations and cocitations on a sample of 5,837 articles published in leading service journals (from 1981 to December 2020). Network analysis was adopted to analyze the data. This study is exclusive in conducting the inquiry at the individual publication level, rather than using the normal aggregated author co-citation analysis approach.

The findings reveal that the main themes of service research centered on customer satisfaction, service quality, service-dominant logic, methodological foundations, market orientation and service encounter. Also clarified is the periphery domain that may become more important in the future (i.e. technology). The findings also present anchor points for conceptual framing and conceptual development – five main themes that are momentous to navigate theory discovery and justification in the knowledge domain.

It calls for a more academic effort to evaluate the service research by considering different epistemological paradigms, such as positivism, monologic and hermeneutic, to better understand the process and progress of the discipline.

Through exploring the transformation of service research into a customer-centric model and technology-based service logic, this study offers possible implications for practitioners and further research areas for service researchers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to use a citation, cocitation and network analysis to examine service research published in leading service journals. This study provides a significant contribution to the theory by combining main conceptual areas and interests in the given discipline.

Este estudio explora la investigación de servicios pasada y presente y proporciona una agenda de investigación, presentando un panorama general de las conexiones intelectuales y los temas emergentes en la disciplina.

Este estudio es un análisis empírico de las citas y co-citas sobre una muestra de 5.837 artículos publicados en las principales revistas de servicios (1981–2020). Se utilizó el análisis de redes para examinar los datos. Este trabajo es único en la realización de la investigación a nivel de publicación individual, en lugar de utilizar el enfoque habitual de análisis de co-citación de autores agregados.

Los resultados revelan que los temas principales de la investigación sobre servicios se centran en la satisfacción del cliente, la calidad del servicio, la lógica del servicio dominante, los fundamentos metodológicos, la orientación al mercado y el encuentro de servicios. También se clarifica un ámbito periférico que puede adquirir mayor importancia en el futuro (la tecnología). Los resultados también presentan puntos de anclaje para el encuadre y el desarrollo conceptual de diversos temas importantes.

Este estudio es el primero que utiliza un análisis de citas, co-citas y redes para analizar la investigación en servicios publicada en las principales revistas de servicios. Proporciona una importante contribución a la teoría al combinar las principales áreas conceptuales y los intereses de la disciplina.

Mediante la exploración de la transformación de la investigación en servicios en un modelo centrado en el cliente y en la lógica de los servicios basados en la tecnología, este estudio ofrece posibles implicaciones para los profesionales y nuevas áreas de investigación para los investigadores.

Se reclama un mayor esfuerzo académico para evaluar la investigación de servicios considerando diferentes paradigmas epistemológicos, como el positivismo, el monologismo y la hermenéutica, para comprender mejor el proceso y el progreso de la disciplina.

本研究旨在探索过去和现在的服务研究, 并通过展示该学科的知识联系和新兴主题的全局, 为服务研究领域的学者提供未来的研究议程。

本文是基于1981年到2020年12月期间发表在五个领先服务类期刊上的5,837篇文章进行引用和共同引用的实证分析, 并采用网络分析法对数据进行分析和分类。这项研究的独到之处在于在单个出版物层面上进行调查, 而不是采用正常的汇总作者共被引分析方法。

我们的调查结果显示, 服务研究的主题主要集中在顾客满意度、服务质量、服务主导逻辑、方法论基础、市场导向和服务遭遇。同时, 还阐明了未来可能变得更加重要的外围领域（即技术）。研究结果还提出了概念框架和概念发展的锚点–概念图的五个主要主题对导航知识领域的理论发现和论证至关重要。

本研究首次使用引文、共同引文和网络分析来考察发表在领先服务期刊上的服务研究。它结合特定学科的主要概念领域和兴趣, 为理论研究做出了重要的贡献。它还确定了我们在服务学术研究中已知和未知的内容。

通过探索服务研究转变为以客户为中心的模式和基于技术的服务逻辑, 本研究为从业者提供了启示, 也为后续服务研究指引了值得进一步研究的领域。

本文呼吁更多的学术研究通过考虑不同的认识论范式, 例如实证主义、一元论和解释学来评估服务研究, 以便更好地了解该学科的过程和进展。本文还呼吁未来研究可以尝试填补本文研究结果提出的知识空白。

Professional service firm (PSF) performance depends on the accumulation and application of specialist knowledge to find customised solutions to customer problems. However, available research has not examined whether knowledge acquired from external sources affects PSF outcomes by strengthening professionals’ beliefs rather than only by increasing technical competency. Drawing on self-efficacy theory, this study tests a model that links the quality of content acquired from external sources and the credibility of those sources to professionals’ self-efficacy and, in turn, to PSF outcomes (solution quality and firm performance). In particular, this paper aims to consider the case of professional content exchanged through professional social media.

A cross-sectional research design was applied. Data were collected from a sample of 208 accountants, auditors and lawyers who used professional social media and were analysed using covariance-based structural equation modelling.

When accessing professional content from external sources, source credibility and content quality are significant antecedents of professionals’ self-efficacy, which, in turn, has positive effects on PSF outcomes (solution quality and PSF performance).

Self-efficacy plays a key role in the link between knowledge acquired from external sources (professional content) and PSF outcomes.

This study provides recommendations and actionable insights for PSFs, professionals and other actors who create and exchange professional content. Professional associations may also take an active role by contributing and sharing credible and high-quality content, using, for example, professional social media.

This paper advances the current understanding of the effects of professionals’ access to content from external sources on PSF outcomes. It provides an explanation of these effects based on the enhancement of professionals’ beliefs instead of their technical competencies, as indicated in previous research. In addition, it is the first research effort to consider professional social media as a communication channel to exchange content that affects the self-efficacy of PSF professionals.