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To examine how perceptions of complementary and supplementary fit and relationship quality contribute to successful mentorship co-creation.

Data were collected via cross-sectional survey of 145 mentor–protégé dyads within institutions of higher education in the USA. Mentors evaluated their perceptions of supplementary and complementary fit and relationship quality with their protégés and vice versa. Additionally, mentors evaluated their protégés’ performance, whereas protégés reported on their own learning. Data were analyzed using the actor–partner interdependence model.

Results suggest that one's own fit perceptions are most important in predicting one's evaluation of relationship quality. Additionally, for both mentor and protégé, complementary fit and supplementary fit predict evaluations of relationship quality to a similar degree. Finally, each person's perceptions of relationship quality mediated the relationships between their own perceptions of fit and mentor-rated protégé performance, but not the relationships between perceptions of fit and protégé-rated learning.

Research has often studied mentorships from the perspective of one party, which limits our understanding of mentorship co-creation. This study investigates how both parties simultaneously contribute to mentorship success, as indicated by protégé learning and performance. Additionally, the authors clarify the extent to which perceptions of different types of fit are instrumental in co-creating successful mentorships.

Based on the person-environment (P-E) fit theory, this study aims to explore the effect of customer mistreatment on the reduced service performance of hospitality employees mediated by person-job (P-J) fit perceptions and moderated by job crafting.

The authors tested this study’s hypotheses with a nine-day diary study involving 83 service employees located in Lanzhou, China; a total of 548 daily surveys were completed. The authors used multilevel structural equation modeling to analyze the data.

Employees who experienced daily customer mistreatment suffered diminished P-J fit perceptions, leading to lower levels of service performance the next day. In addition, job crafting significantly buffered the impact of customer mistreatment on P-J fit perceptions and the indirect impact of customer mistreatment on service performance through P-J fit perceptions.

Given the damaging effect that customer mistreatment has on service performance, where employees’ P-J fit perceptions are impaired, hotel managers should implement service competence improvement training programs and managerial preventions to reduce the possibility of customer mistreatment behavior. The moderating role of job crafting behavior suggests that managers should offer supportive practices (i.e. job autonomy) to encourage job crafting behaviors among employees.

This study reveals that individuals’ P-J fit perceptions can explain the damaging impacts of customer mistreatment on service performance, a finding that contributes valuable information to the literature on customer mistreatment and P-E fit. Second, this study also tests the impact of individuals’ job crafting behaviors in terms of mitigating the negative effect of customer mistreatment. Finally, this study’s findings broaden the scope of predictors of P-J fit perceptions by revealing that customer mistreatment can pose a threat to hospitality employees’ P-J fit perceptions.

The purpose of this study is to explore the tradeoff between person-job (PJ) fit and person-organization (PO) fit by new job seekers across different recruitment stages and the influence on their job choice decisions.

A time-lapse research design was adopted with data from a survey over a two-year period of college students majoring in hospitality and tourism management at different recruitment stages (i.e. generating applications, maintaining applicant status and making a job choice).

The results suggest that PJ fit has a stronger influence on job choice decisions than PO fit, and both fit perceptions are consistent across recruitment stages. However, the difference between the two fit perceptions may be affected by direct interactions with recruiters at career fairs and interviews.

When recruiters start interacting with job seekers during the initial stage of the recruitment process, the recruiters are more likely to receive a favorable job choice decision from these potential applicants. Additionally, recruiters should create a positive perception of hiring companies and jobs through career fairs or other face-to-face communications to keep job seekers interested and maintain their applicant status throughout the recruitment stages.

This paper explores important factors that influence job seekers’ job choice decisions throughout the recruitment process with three main stages, which provides a more holistic overview of the transition of job seekers’ fit perceptions of the job and the organization. It also provides empirical support for current understanding of recruitment issues in the hospitality industry.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating effect of vocational identity and the moderating effect of work values on the relation between career exploration and fit perception of Chinese new generation employees.

A survey was conducted to measure variables in this study. Based on review of the related studies about work value, career exploration, vocational identity and fit perception, the authors establish a theoretical model and propose hypotheses. Data were obtained from 647 Chinese post‐1980s generation employees.

According to the statistical analysis result, the paper demonstrates that career exploration can affect fit perception through mediator of vocational identity; when people have stronger preference to chase for job comfort and security, the relations between career exploration effort, vocational identity and fit perception becomes stronger; once individual has stronger preference for status and independence, the relations between career exploration effort, vocational identity and fit perception becomes weakened.

The data used in this study only came from the employees, although the authors test homologous deviation through Harman single factor test. If the authors can conduct the survey from both employees and their supervisors, it will be better for them to avoid homology bias. Furthermore, more factors need to be considered in the formation of fit perception of Chinese new generation employees.

The paper explains the internal relations between work value, career exploration, vocational identity and fit perception on the basis on of the characteristics of Chinese new generation employees.

The purpose of this study was to explore participants’ fit perceptions of customized garments and investigate the factors that affected the customized fit.

Because different patternmaking methods generate varied fit results, eight customized dresses were developed for four fit models aged 18–25 using two different made-to-measure (MTM) systems (Gerber AccuMark and Telestia Creator). The authors designed a questionnaire to assess the fit of the final garments on each of the four models. A total of 12 participants (four fit models and eight experts) attended a live evaluation meeting and completed the questionnaire. The quantitative and qualitative data of the participants’ fit perceptions were collected and analyzed.

The authors compared the fit outputs of the two MTM systems and determined the fit issues from the participants’ perceptions. The results showed that the participants evaluated the customized fit mainly according to the ease, seam placement and wrinkle occurrence. The majority of fit models and experts preferred Dress B created using Telestia Creator to Dress A developed using Gerber AccuMark. The participants’ fit perceptions also revealed that many factors, such as the MTM systems, participants’ fit preferences, models’ body characteristics, fabric and ease, impacted the fit results. In addition, the experts perceived more fit issues than the models.

The fit output comparison of the two MTM systems could be valuable for pattern makers to use the systems. The research results would also be useful for apparel companies to conduct a fit evaluation and improve their customization processes.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the dual nature of social cause‐brand fit by studying the influence of two cause‐brand fit categories, functional fit and image fit, on the formation of brand corporate social responsibility consumer perception (CSR perception) in a cause‐brand alliance (CBA) context.

A theoretical model is proposed, based on previous research, which explains the effect of functional fit and image fit on altruistic attributions, brand credibility and CSR image; these relationships were assessed through structural equation modelling. The model was estimated with a sample of 299 Spanish consumers of toiletries and cosmetics products, randomly selected. Two newly created, printed CBA advertisements served as the basic stimulus of the study.

This research shows that consumers perceive functional and image fit differently, and each has its own mechanism for influencing brand CSR perception. While functional fit has a direct, although gentle influence on CSR perception, image fit has an indirect influence, as it is used as a cue to evaluate altruistic brand motivations and brand credibility.

The chosen research approach may reduce the generalisability of the results. Further empirical testing using alternative brands and outcome measures is encouraged.

Both types of fit influence the formation of CSR perception, and should therefore be postulated as decision criteria to brand managers for choosing the CBA partner. Specifically, brands which are likely of being perceived as not credible or egoistic when associating with the cause, must pay special attention to image fit.

This work analyses and compares simultaneously the influence of functional fit and image fit on CSR brand perception formation in the context of a CBA strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer perceptions of a potential sustainable line extension introduced by a specific fast-fashion retailer. Following brand-extension theory, the study seeks to identify the influences of knowledge of and involvement with the cause of sustainability, as well as knowledge and affect toward brand, on the evaluation of a sustainable line extension.

Participation was limited to those with in-store browsing experience with either Zara or H&M in the past 12 months. A self-administered online survey was developed using the written scenario approach. After several screening processes, 598 completed surveys were deemed usable for statistical analysis.

Findings identified significant cause and brand effects on brand-cause fit and brand-extension fit. In turn, brand extension was significantly predicted by brand-cause fit and brand-extension fit. In addition, the results of the study indicated that consumers do view sustainable products as fitting with fast-fashion retailers, based on their previous knowledge and affect regarding the brand and the cause.

This study sought to identify consumers’ perceptions of sustainable brand extension introduced by a fast-fashion retailer. Implications for retailers included leveraging consumers’ past knowledge and affect regarding the brand through marketing of the sustainable product.

This study seeks to explore the value of using brand alliances, or co‐branding strategies, to influence consumer perceptions of new brand extensions under circumstances where the firm (parent brand) introduces new products that will be targeted to product categories within which the parent brand has a low initial degree of perceptual fit.

Data were collected through a four‐stage questionnaire administered to 308 subjects. Hypotheses were explored through a four‐level single factor between subjects experimental design.

Analyses suggest that by partnering with brands possessing higher perceived degrees of fit in the extension category (i.e. co‐brand), parent firms' brands can achieve more favorable positions for their extensions than could be realized if firms acted independently. Explained variance in perceptions of the extension increased substantially when perceptions of co‐ and parent‐brand fit were considered. Fit between the co‐brand and the new extension product apparently should be the driving factor in selecting best partnering brands for alliances. Fit between parent and partner brands may take a back seat when forming alliances.

Current co‐branding research typically addresses the ability of brand alliances to improve perceptions of new products bearing the names of both co‐joined brands. “Perceptual fit” and brand attitudes are major constructs thought to influence the ability of brand alliances to achieve this goal. Specifically, in co‐branding applications, perceptual fit is usually conceptualized as the fit between co‐joined brands themselves, rather than fit between each co‐joined brand and the proposed new product for which both has been combined to launch. The paper's original argument is that when one brand (parent or host brand) seeks to co‐brand for purposes of improving its ability to penetrate an untested new product category, fit should be treated from a more traditional brand extension perspective. This argument is supported.

This study aims to investigate whether organizational image: mediates the relationship between web site attributes and organizational attraction and moderates the relationship between person‐job (P‐J) fit and organizational attraction.

A total of 320 observations were collected from 80 senior‐level undergraduates, each half navigating a different set of four actual organizational web sites.

Organizational image was found to fully mediate the relationship between a web site's aesthetic features and organizational attraction; and moderate the relationship between P‐J fit perceptions and organizational attraction such that the change in organizational attraction was more sensitive to perceptions of P‐J fit when organizational image perceptions were more unfavorable rather than favorable. In addition, intercept differences revealed that individuals with below average P‐J fit were more attracted to organizations having a favorable image than an unfavorable image.

Findings underscore the importance of the positive relationship between organizational image and organizational attraction. In addition, organizations should assess applicant reactions to their web page, as it relates to perceptions and attitudes toward the organization.

This study integrates the web environment with two of the strongest antecedents to organizational attraction, organizational image and perceived P‐J fit.

This research investigates three major research questions. First, how does brand alliance type, defined by a partner's location and brand quality, affect consumers' emotional value perceptions of higher education brand alliances for dual-degree programs? Second, does perceived brand fit mediate the relationship between brand alliance type and emotional value perceptions? Third, do individual differences in world-mindedness moderate the influence of brand alliance type on emotional value perceptions?

In total, two experiments are performed. Experiment one examines the effect of brand alliance type, at varying combinations of partner brand quality and partner location (domestic or foreign), on consumers' emotional value perceptions. Experiment two examines the moderating role of world-mindedness in the relationship between brand alliance type and consumers' emotional value perceptions.

Results provide evidence that consumers' perception of brand fit mediates the relationship between brand alliance type and consumers' emotional value perceptions of the alliance. Results also indicate that world-mindedness moderates the relationship between brand alliance type and emotional value perceptions.

This research extends the previous literature on higher education dual-degree brand alliances and introduces world-mindedness as an important consumer-based characteristic to consider in this line of research. It answers calls for more research on higher education branding and calls for research into the potential mediating role and importance of brand fit. It provides several theoretical and managerial implications relevant to the higher education brand alliances, particularly in dual-degree programs.