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This study aims to investigate the combined effects of product design and environment congruence on consumers’ aesthetic, affective and behavioral responses.

Two lab experiments with a 2 (high-level design cues vs low-level design cues) × 2 (congruent environment vs non-congruent environment) between-subjects design were conducted to test the hypotheses. The experimental stimuli (product: digital camera; environment: product display in a retail environment) were presented in a 3D simulation environment using a large TV (Experiment 1) and a stereoscopic virtual reality headset.

The results support the notion that product design cues elicit more positive aesthetic and affective responses. Environment congruence, on the other hand, plays a moderating role; product design cues elicit more favorable consumer responses in a congruent environment. In contrast, no such effect was found in a non-congruent environment.

Creating a congruent environment is only effective for well-designed products. In contrast, for products with low-level design elements, the congruence of promotional environment is not instrumental and may not elicit more favorable responses. Hence, such products can simply be presented in a generic display, especially considering the significant costs associated with designing, building and setting up a congruent display.

Despite the empirical findings supporting the significant role of product design and environment congruence on consumers’ perceptual and behavioral responses, there is a paucity of research on the combined effect of these two factors. The present investigation is an attempt to fill this gap and challenges the generalizations made in previous research suggesting that a product’s environment must be aligned with the design elements embedded in the product.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of field sponsorship through sponsor recall and recognition across two environments that differ on the degree of felt presence they trigger among viewers: on-site and television. A series of research hypotheses concerning the interaction effects of viewing environment, event – sponsor congruence and arousal intensity were developed.

To test the effect of the viewing environment, a field experiment was conducted where 44 ice hockey fans attended a professional ice hockey game in the local team’s arena, whereas 44 others saw the same game, at the same time, on television. The participants were randomly assigned to one of the two game viewing conditions.

A higher level of arousal was detrimental to sponsor identification in a manner consistent with the intensity of the processing principle according to which arousal polarizes attention resources on the arousing stimulus (the event) while diverting resources away from the peripheral stimuli (the sponsors). In addition, because the event congruent sponsors are more superficially processed in comparison with the incongruent ones, this negative impact was more pronounced in the former group. This was qualified by a three-way interaction with the type of environment; the on-site, direct, audience was less affected by the processing intensity principle and exhibited better recall and recognition than the television audience as arousal and congruency increased, whereas, at lower levels of arousal, higher event – sponsor congruence hampered on-site sponsor identification in comparison with television.

The findings were obtained in the context of a single sports event; additional studies need to be conducted using different sports. In addition, the comparison of on-site audience with other types of media audiences (e.g. on-line broadcasting) is warranted.

Arousal intensity results from the game’s drama, which is a function of game importance and game outcome uncertainty. Hence, except for low-stakes games (e.g. pre-season matches, exhibitions), initiatives that promote a leveled playing field such as salary cap, financial fair play and open leagues are likely to jeopardize sponsor identification, particularly for congruent sponsors. With respect to the impact of the viewing environment, congruent sponsors should reap superior benefits from the television audience when the stakes are low. However, when the stakes are high, their benefits will accrue to a greater extent from on-site spectators.

This is the first study to offer a rigorous comparison of sponsorship’s impact on direct (on-site) versus indirect (television) audiences through a field experiment. This is also the first research to provide a framework based on the processing intensity principle that encompasses predictions related to arousal and its interaction with event – sponsor congruence and the viewing environment. Within this perspective, the degree of sponsor integration in the viewing environment is instrumental in predicting sponsorship outcomes.

Many have applied the concept of congruence or fit in the context of person‐organization, person‐environment and person‐person relationships and interactions. However, despite the significance of customer‐employee interactions and relations in a services context, no research has investigated the effects of congruence between a customer's self‐concept and employee‐image on important relational outcomes such as relationship satisfaction, loyalty to employees and satisfaction towards service provider. The paper aims to fill this gap in the literature and to investigate the effects of self‐employee congruence on customer satisfaction via the mediating effects of personal interaction, relationship satisfaction and loyalty to employees. The paper also seeks to investigate the links among personal interaction, relationship satisfaction and loyalty towards employees.

The paper uses a causal modelling approach and proposes a conceptual model after an extensive review of the literature related to consumer behaviour, organizational behaviour, relationship marketing and services marketing. The paper is based on a sample of 203 customers of bank users in Nigeria who completed a self‐administered questionnaire. The paper uses confirmatory factor analysis and SEM to analyse and confirm the conceptual model proposed in this research.

The paper demonstrates that self‐employee congruence is an important antecedent of personal interaction, relationship satisfaction and loyalty to employees each of which is in turn positively linked to customer satisfaction towards the service provider.

The paper discusses implications for service marketers and for retail banking sector and highlights the significance of self‐employee congruence for service design and delivery, advertising strategies and suggests future research directions.

The paper is first of its kind to discuss the effects of perceived similarities between customers and employees on some important relational constructs such as personal interaction, relationship satisfaction, loyalty towards employees and towards customer satisfaction.

Meeting human needs is considered as fundamental to sustainable human settlement. However, in micro level developments particularly in respect of a housing unit, for example, an operational definition of sustainability which will be useful in its practical implementation, has yet to be developed. To address this, the author posits that theories on the relationship between the environment and the person can be taken as a conceptual frame of reference. One of them is the theory of Person-Environment Congruence (PEC). This theory conceptualizes “congruence” as the favourable outcome of the person-environment relationship. Achieving PEC is considered as the most important criteria that supports the concept of housing sustainability. In the context of housing, the author considers that PEC is achieved when the dwelling place can offer its inhabitants a place which meets their basic needs. In order to operationalize this concept in terms of housing unit design, the author propagates the use of the Means-End Chain (MEC) research model to explore the relationship between a person and his or her environment. The combination of the two concepts facilitates the identification of those housing attributes emphasized in the home-making process, together with the users' perceptual orientation towards those attributes. To experiment with the application of the MEC research model in respect of exploring the concept of PEC, a case study was conducted on 15 renovated and personalized houses in a mass housing scheme in Malaysia. The traditional MEC methods were maintained with some modifications to accommodate the various housing characteristics. The results suggest that the MEC research model is able to link the relevant housing unit attributes to user values, and it is potentially applicable in the design of a housing unit. The results also indicated that user participation is essential in home making process, in order to achieve and maintain sustainability.

Contends that the E‐V‐R (environment‐values‐resources) congruence model provides an ideal framework for examining what entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial managers must achieve strategically in order to create and sustain organisational effectiveness and success. E‐V‐R shows how the environment is a source of opportunities and threats ‐ external key success factors; and that resources constitute strengths and weaknesses, strategic competencies which either match, or fail to match, environmental needs. Sustaining and changing this strategic fit is dependent on leadership, culture and values. Goes on to show that entrepreneurship is a process which is essential for establishing winning strategic positions and, as such, is relevant and vital for all types and size of organisation. Concludes with a summary model which relates the characteristics of successful strategic leadership with the key issues of risk and crisis management.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and understand the role of person-organisation (P-O) fit in mediating the relationship between job resources and work-related outcomes. The need to study the antecedents of P-O fit, dearth of its literature in India, and growing importance of ensuring congruence between the environment and the individual in a diverse workplace, to recruit and retain the employees, underlines the significance of this research. In addition to the mediating role of P-O fit, it was hypothesised that co-worker support and decision latitude will lead to an increase in P-O fit and, in turn, be positively related to work engagement (WE), job satisfaction (JS) and organisational commitment (OC).

Two-phased time-lagged data were collected from a total sample of 213 middle- and senior-level executives working in India. The data consisted of a self-report questionnaire on skill discretion, decision authority and co-worker support in Phase 1 and P-O fit, WE, OC and JS scales in Phase 2.

Structural equation modelling was simultaneously used to test the hypothesised relationships. It emerged that co-worker support and skill discretion positively correlated with P-O fit. It was found that P-O fit mediated the relationship between co-worker support and JS and OC. It also established partial mediation between co-worker support and WE, and between skill discretion and JS, organisational commitment and WE. The findings of this study, therefore, have profound implications for researchers as well as for practicing managers highlighting the need for a better job design and creating a supportive work environment.

Though the data were collected in two phases, the study design went through a time lag of four weeks, and thereby provided tests of association and not of robust causal relationships. A longitudinal design could be adopted for future research, to enable making inferences about the causal nature of these relationships. The second limitation of the study is its reliance on self- reports as the single source of data.

This is the first study to examine job resources as antecedents of P-O fit using a supplementary fit argument. Further, very few studies have explored P-O fit as a mediating variable and less than 2 per cent of published papers on P-O fit have been studied in the Indian context. Practitioners can employ findings to create interventions to generate more positive organisational outcomes.

Based on social learning theories, this conceptual paper attempts to develop a theoretical framework and testable hypotheses linking the relationship between certain personality traits and career success. Although there has been a long history of exploring the effects of personality on career development, its importance appears to be underestimated, and it is time to revitalize the psychological view of career studies. In this paper, we propose that several personality traits (locus of control, self‐monitoring, self‐esteem, optimism, and machiavellianism) along with job performance and person‐environment fit are determinants of career success. In view of social learning theories, knowledge of this relationship is of practical and theoretical value for individuals, organizations, and career consultants.

The nature of the relationship between job characteristics, personality, and job satisfaction was investigated. A longstanding debate exists between psychologists that believe structural characteristics of the job are the primary determinants of job satisfaction (Kulik, Oldham, & Hackman, 1987; O'Reilly & Roberts, 1975) and those that believe personal attributes of the worker are most important (Hackman & Lawler, 1971; Pervin, 1968). Information was collected from 163 participants on the Job Characteristics Inventory, the Myers‐Briggs Type Indicator (Form G), and the satisfaction scale of the Job Diagnostic Survey. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that job characteristics successfully predicted job satisfaction (average Ra2 =.30). A series of hierarchical regressions indicated that personality had neither a direct effect on satisfaction nor a moderating effect on the job characteristics‐job satisfaction relation. These results indicate that, at least as measured by the MBTI, the characteristics of the individual may be of little importance during job redesign.

This paper aims to examine how social comparison (SC) and belief in karma (KA) encourage materialism (MAT) and promote consumers’ life satisfaction (LS).

Two studies were conducted with Indian middle class consumers to test the basic premises of the current research. The first one used a survey (N = 247), while the second one used an experimental design (N = 206).

The survey results showed that SC and belief in KA promoted MAT amongst Indian consumers and further enhanced their LS. Findings from the experiment revealed a novel two-way interaction, in that the KA–MAT relationship was moderated by the underlying motivation for MAT.

Future research may validate and extend our findings using different samples to increase external validity.

By explaining the interactive effects of MAT, its underlying motivation and belief in KA, managers will gain a better understanding of why consumers in an emerging market like India purchase conspicuous products.

This is the first paper to study how the KA–MAT relationship influences LS amongst consumers in the world’s fastest-rising economy. Furthermore, no prior research has reported a boundary condition for the KA–MAT relationship studied here. The findings contribute to an extremely limited body of literature on KA and consumption.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between leader‐subordinate congruence and performance and satisfaction.

Data were gathered from 267 leader‐subordinate dyads in a light manufacturing electrical assembly plant in Wales and 82 leader‐subordinate dyads in another, in England, UK. Data on personality of the respondents and their supervisors were gathered using the 16 personality factor test. The absolute difference between the personality score of the respondent and the supervisor for each of the five secondary personality factors were calculated. The absolute differences were then totalled to obtain a total difference score.

As expected, there was a significant correlation between the difference scores and satisfaction with the supervisor and overall job satisfaction. The results suggest that, if management wishes to improve satisfaction of their subordinates, the personalities of supervisor and subordinate should be similar. The direction of the relationship between difference scores and performance scores in the two companies were in opposite directions to each other. Possible causes and implications for managers are discussed.

This paper establishes that the relationship between congruence and performance is contingent on the nature of work interaction between the leader and the subordinate.