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This study explores the mediating effects of relationship marketing orientation (RMO) and service quality orientation (SQO) on market orientation, selling orientation, and policyholder retention in non-life insurance services. Additionally, it offers important recommendations for non-life insurers in Taiwan for policy development and improving policyholder retention.

Data were collected from a sample of policyholders belonging to the top five non-life insurance companies in Taiwan. The data were then analyzed with structural equation modeling.

RMO and SQO mediate the effects of the salesperson’s market orientation on policyholder retention. Thus, RMO and SQO are key factors influencing policyholder retention. Consequently, high levels of market orientation should be maintained to increase RMO and SQO, strengthening the retention rate of non-life insurance policyholders.

The main limitation of this study is its cross-sectional nature. In the future, researchers should collect data from other countries and service industries (e.g. banks, securities, and other financial institutions), expand to different insurance contexts (e.g. life insurance), and conduct longitudinal studies or experimental research.

The results of this study can act as a guide for providers of non-life insurance services. Based on the research results, we recommend decision-makers pay increased attention to increasing policyholder retention rates by strengthening their firm’s RMO and SQO.

Few studies have investigated the relationships among market orientation, selling orientation, RMO, SQO, and policyholder retention in non-life insurance services within Asian contexts in general and specifically in Taiwan. Thus, this study’s theoretical contributions, managerial implications (especially for decision-makers), and the proposed future research directions represent timely and valuable additions to the literature.

This research seeks to understand whether employer branding (EB) and internal marketing (IM) are fundamental to the challenge of attracting and retaining talent and how these strategies can help companies to overcome the difficulties related to the talent shortage, from the perspective of a SME Portuguese metallurgical industry.

The research resorts to a case study of a qualitative nature, through a semi-structured interview with the head of the human resources (HR) training and development area of the Navarra Group, and quantitative, through surveys to its employees. Based on the literature, a conceptual model was constructed, whose application allowed us to perceive the relationships between the practices of EB and IM; satisfaction, motivation and commitment; attraction and retention.

The exploratory interview concluded that organizations consider EB and IM essential for an effective talent management strategy. The quantitative results demonstrate that IM and EB practices implemented in the organization contribute to the satisfaction, motivation and involvement of employees, which results in a decrease in the intention to leave. It is also noted that these practices promote an increase in the perception of organizational attractiveness, which represents a positive impact on its ability to attract.

From a theoretical perspective, the research contributes to the development of knowledge about IM, EB and talent management, providing relevant data that can help define the best strategies for attraction and retention, from the point of view of IM and EB.

The research presents preliminary insights that can be an auxiliary tool for HR managers and professionals in the context of industrial SMEs.

The purpose of this study is to understand how consumers' green trust and green brand equity (GBE) vary by perceived brand greenness and age in the US market from the lens of brand knowledge (brand awareness and brand image).

Three multiple-group comparisons of structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data collected from a questionnaire. An experimental design was applied (high vs. low perceived brand greenness). A total of 440 usable responses were collected from an online consumer panel. With a higher percentage of participants older than 60 years, two groups were used, younger (under 55) and older (over 55), within each brand condition to conduct age comparisons.

Consumers' previous brand experience is important. The most promising indicators are brand image and green trust for GBE. A difference was observed between the group comparisons. For the less perceived green brand, existing brand image played a more important role in the process, and there is a need to enhance its green trust. For the higher perceived green brand, more factors should be included to explain their GBE, especially for consumers under 55.

This study identified two moderators, perceived brand greenness and age, in the formation of GBE, which has not been widely explored in the literature. The findings provide significant insights for generational cohorts, focusing for the first time on the joint catalyst effect of greenness and age regarding the influence of GBE on consumers' commitment to green brands. Additionally, the fact that a higher percentage of participants are Baby Boomers enables this study to add to the existing body of literature and bring unique perspectives to understand their and their younger counterparts' attitude toward green consumption.

This paper aims to examine the relationships between motives, skepticism and brands evaluations in the LGBT-friendly branding hotels context.

An online survey is created and 278 LGBT participants are recruited through a consumer panels firm. The research model is tested through structural equation modeling.

Values-, stakeholder- and strategic-driven motives are negatively related to skepticism, while egoistic-driven motive is positively related to skepticism. Also, sexual orientation openness moderates the relationship between stakeholder-driven motives and skepticism. Finally, skepticism is negatively related to brands evaluations.

The research findings are limited to the LGBT-friendly hotels. However, this research contributes to the CSR and LGBT consumer research by examining the relationships between the four motives and skepticism considering LGBT customers’ sexual orientation openness level.

Hotels should devote greater efforts to communicating that their LGBT-friendly branding efforts are genuine by acknowledging both the social benefits and the business interests.

As more and more hotels promote themselves as LGBT-friendly brands, a key challenge is reducing skepticism by appropriately conveying their motives. This research sheds light on this critical issue.

Although existent research on LGBT-friendliness has established its importance; there is a lack of understanding as to how customers perceive LGBT-friendly branding hotels. This research examines the four motives of hotels presenting themselves as being LGBT-friendly and their relationships to skepticism.

The study aspires to enhance comprehension of the intricate interplay between supply chain management (SCM) and resilience in family businesses, thereby offering valuable insights to managers and policymakers endeavouring to foster resilience in uncertain environments.

Commencing from the premise that family businesses (FBs) prioritize the preservation of socio-emotional wealth (SEW) when formulating strategic decisions, this study endeavours to advance understanding of supply chain practices adopted by FBs and their direct impact on resilience during crisis situations or economically challenging periods. Through an exploratory case study of nine FBs, the present research reveals four pivotal strategies in SCM that contribute to their resilience: (i) reorganization of inventory management; (ii) cultivating close relationships with suppliers; (iii) emphasizing product quality and customer retention; and (iv) implementing cost reduction measures to bolster resilience. The aim of the study is to provide an in-depth understanding of the intricate interplay between SCM and resilience in FBs, thereby offering valuable insights to managers and policymakers endeavouring to foster resilience in uncertain environments.

Our approach offers a theoretical framework for SCM aligned with prior research on the interplay between characteristics of family businesses and resilience strategies. Furthermore, this paper illustrates how factors such as the emphasis on high-quality products and services by family businesses contribute to achieving non-economic objectives that owners adopt to reconcile family and business needs, creating intrinsic added value for the company. It reveals various challenges in SCM, including inventory organization changes, supplier closures and the significance of customer retention. Family businesses are implementing product and technology enhancements and leveraging digitization to enhance supply chain processes.

This paper contributes significantly to the field of FBs by highlighting the crucial role of SCM in enhancing business resilience during crises. It empirically examines how the SEW characteristics of FBs influence the reconfiguration of their supply chains to enhance resilience, presenting a theoretical model for this context. Our theoretical framework employs an SEW perspective to elucidate how FBs respond to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic by adapting their SCM processes to safeguard their social and emotional legitimacy, organizational visibility and reputation. These adaptations gain particular relevance during crises or turbulent conditions, potentially leading to alterations in how FBs formulate their supply chain strategies and manage supply chain-related processes.

Scholars and practitioners alike are paying attention to entrepreneurial orientation (EO) as an antecedent of the financial performance of SMEs. Other factors foster and improve SMEs' financial performance. This paper aims to shed the light on other two different strategic orientations that may help enhance SMEs' financial performance in addition to EO, namely; market orientation (MO) and brand orientation (BO).

The three different important strategic orientations are explored through two different studies. The first study was conducted to determine the different effects of the three orientations on SMEs' financial performance. Data were collected using a questionnaire among a convenient sample (131) of business owners/managers, and next PLS-SEM was used for data analysis. The financial performance of firms in the second study is hypothesized to be an outcome of a combination of different strategic orientations; therefore, the fsQCA method is applied to explore the causal recipes of those orientations.

The paper concluded that the three different strategic orientations are collectively, of paramount importance to strategic managers of SMEs.

The brand, market and EOs have been discussed discretely in previous studies and this study attempted to provide managers/owners of SMEs with a holistic view of the three different orientations and the amalgamation among them to be beneficial for better financial performance.

This paper aims to examine why retail firms seldom achieve full integration of online and offline channels as prescribed in omni-channel literature. It examines the intermediate process of channel integration from an internal, operational perspective.

This study is composed of two parts. In the first part, the authors interviewed informants from nine firms that were engaged in channel integration. In the second part, the authors conducted case studies with three firms from the cosmetics and skincare industry against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic to find evidence to support or negate the propositions made in the first part.

The first part identified six operational challenges to channel integration. The authors categorized these challenges into two groups: inter-channel communication and inter-channel competition. Inter-channel competition carries more weight at the latter stage of integration. The authors also identified two antecedents that affect the seriousness of these challenges: heterogeneity among channels in business operation and external competitive pressure. In the second part, the authors found that both inter-channel communication and inter-channel competition were improved because of the external competitive pressure exerted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the heterogeneity of offline channels against online channels in business operation is a double-edged sword.

The study identifies the changing effects of the challenges of channel integration and their antecedents in the midst of integration. The positive influence of a specific dimension of channel heterogeneity against other channels increases and then decreases along channel integration. The identification of the changing effects lays the foundation for a finer stage model of channel integration.

The purpose of this study is to examine how crowdfunding backer perceptions of market orientation and foreignness impact crowdfunding performance in emerging economies.

Using content analysis software, the authors analyzed 756 Kickstarter campaign narratives from the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa for the period between 2009 and 2019.

The authors’ results show that behavioral market orientation signals are positively related to amounts raised while decision criteria signals are negatively related. The authors also find that foreign entrepreneur status interacts with the two market orientations to impact funding amounts.

When creating crowdfunding campaigns in emerging economies, domestic entrepreneurs should use high levels of behavioral market orientation rhetoric but low levels of decision criteria rhetoric within their campaign narratives.

This study unpacks the components of market orientation and examines their positive and negative effects on crowdfunding success in the context of emerging economies.

This paper investigates the influence of employees’ extra-role and in-role behaviours on customer service alongside the moderating role of gender.

This paper employs the theory of behavioural intentions, cross-sectional survey design and quantitative approach to collect the data from 426 purposively sampled workers and customers of oil marketing companies. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation and the hierarchical regression model in SPSS.

The results indicate that employees’ extra-role behaviour has a significant positive effect on customer service while employees’ in-role behaviour has no significant effect on customer service. It is also established that gender of staff can significantly moderate the relationship between extra-role behaviour and customer service such that the behaviour of female staff has greater effect on customer service than their male counterparts. However, the gender of staff has no moderating effect on the relationship between in-role behaviour and customer service.

The findings imply that female staff should be allowed to directly engage customers more often than male staff to promote superior customer service. Managers should continuously improve upon the behaviour of employees through orientations, workshops and mentoring. Behaviour stimuli such as awards, appreciations and recognition for best workers would have to be encouraged to induce employees to act beyond their prescribed-roles.

This study is the first to investigate how staff behaviours (in-role and extra-role) impact customer service, with gender of the employees as a moderator. This paper contributes to literature by empirically confirming the differential influence of employees’ extra role and in-role behaviours on customer service and the effectiveness of gender as a moderator on the relationship between extra-role behaviour and customer service from a developing country perspective and an industry where there is dearth of research.

Understanding how firms manage multiple stakeholders is an academic and business call. This paper aims to describe a firm’s processes to implement a stakeholder value creation system, defined as the firm’s processes to create appropriate value with multiple stakeholders.

The authors based their investigation on a conceptual framework extracted from a previous literature review. From there, the authors conducted qualitative empirical research designed as a multiple-case study. In-depth interviews with 47 people from 11 different firms are the key source of this study.

This paper proposes a framework demonstrating how a firm can implement a stakeholder value creation system. Results pointed to three processes: value creation, distribution and capture. Value distribution mechanisms are drivers for both value creation and capture processes. The system is a set of multiple flow relationships between the firm and its stakeholders.

This research is limited to the Brazilian context.

The stakeholder value creation system is composed of seven elements: walk-the-talk organizational behavior, stakeholder business model, societal non-attended need, stakeholder preference matrix, stakeholder bargaining power, retention of rents and governance mechanism. Managers may design their firm’s unique processes using these elements as drivers.

The present investigation demonstrates that societal issues matter for firms to formulate strategies that positively impact their economic, social and environmental results.

The authors investigated competitive strategy concepts of value creation and appropriation from a combination of resource-based and stakeholder theories and a system perspective. The framework of this study consolidated both theories’ ideas from a complementary perspective. The authors suggest managers and academics should adopt the power of the “AND” position instead of the “OR” trade-off position.