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The investment in information technology and the training of personnel to use this effectively and knowledgeably, is paramount if a company is to be successful in facing increasing and unrelenting competition. Many chairmen and chief executives do not, and perhaps are not willing or able to, understand the details or capabilities of information technology, and consequently the advantages the systems can bring to their business are perhaps lost on them.

This paper aims to provide empirically derived insights into trust and its predictors within a cyber-physical system context of a household service.

The methodology comprises an innovative mixed methods design encompassing a videographic animated film portraying a potential “slice of life” household service-system scenario that was subsequently incorporated into a quantitative survey. A total of 400 responses were then used to examine trust dimensions and their hypothesised predictors.

Findings suggest trust is two-dimensional, with “online networking competency”, “perceptions of risk”, “propensity to trust technology in general” and “concerns about security” being significant predictors. Surprisingly, “concerns about privacy” do not have a significant effect.

The contribution of this research is twofold. Firstly, from a theoretical perspective, the paper offers empirical insights into trust and its predictors within a cyber-physical system context of a household service. Secondly, and from a pragmatic perspective, the model derived from this study may aid practitioners in developing trust strategies and trust management systems within such contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to study the portrayal of early accountants in the unfamiliar site of Portugal by examining Portuguese-language realist literature from the second half of the nineteenth century.

Two popular literary works – Uma Família Inglesa (An English Family), written by Júlio Dinis and published in 1867, and Singularidades de uma Rapariga Loura (The Idiosyncrasies of a Young Blonde Woman), written by Eça de Queirós and published in 1873 – were examined through a qualitative content analysis.

The dimensions of the accounting stereotype discerned for the two early accounting practitioners featured in these works are portrayed as: modest; on-the-job trained practitioner; uncreative, conservative and unenergetic; honest financial manager; servant of the capitalist (i.e. merchant), and warm and sentimental. The accountant stereotype depicted from 1860s to 1870s period is similar to the conventional accountant stereotype, identified as the “traditional accountant” stereotype. Variations from this stereotype, however, are identified in the local, time-specific settings of Lisbon and Oporto.

The study’s portrayal of early accounting practitioners occurs during a period of transformation marked by liberalism. It augments an understanding of the image of early accounting practitioners, reflecting their social positioning at a time of significant social, economic, political and cultural changes, thereby contributing to an appreciation of the historical legacy of the accountant stereotype in continental Europe. Importantly, a taxonomy is proposed for content analysis that can be used and developed by future researchers.

The characteristics of the Internet of Things (IoT) are such that traditional models of trust developed within interpersonal, organizational, virtual and information systems contexts may be inappropriate for use within an IoT context. The purpose of this paper is to offer empirically generated understandings of trust within potential IoT applications.

In an attempt to capture and communicate the complex and all-pervading but frequently inconspicuous nature of ubiquitous technologies within potential IoT techno-systems, propositions developed are investigated using a novel mixed methods research design combining a videographic projective technique with a quantitative survey, sampling 1,200 respondents.

Research findings suggest the dimensionality of trust may vary according to the IoT techno-service context being assessed.

The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, and from a theoretical perspective, it offers a conceptual foundation for trust dimensions within potential IoT applications based upon empirical evaluation. Second, and from a pragmatic perspective, the paper offers insights into how findings may guide practitioners in developing appropriate trust management systems dependent upon the characteristics of particular techno-service contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how Utah Valley University Library staff created two games to orient students to the library and library services.

Library staff developed and marketed the Get a Clue game, which used clues placed throughout the building at the beginning of the Fall semester to orient new students as they solved a mystery. During the Spring semester, the library staff introduced library services through LibraryCraft, an online game where students used library resources to slay a dragon.

In post‐game surveys, students found the games entertaining and informative. The results show students saw the orientations as a good use of their time and their comfort levels with library services increased.

As a means of engaging and informing students, games offer a new means of orienting students to the library and library services. The self‐paced game approach allows students to learn valuable information with minimal impact on staff.

This paper offers practical information about using games as an academic library orientation. Assessment data support the effectiveness of games as an effective, asynchronous method of introducing students to a library facility and services. This information can be used by other libraries to create their own self‐paced orientation games.

The emergence of social media has brought the influencer marketing landscape to an unprecedented level, where many ordinary people are turning into social media influencers. The study aims to construct and validate a model to yield strategic insights on the relevance of content curation, influencer–fans interaction and parasocial relationships development in fostering favorable endorsement outcomes (i.e. purchase intention).

The present study analyzes data from a survey of 411 consumers using partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to understand the net and combined effects of content attributes, interaction strategies and parasocial relationships on purchase intention.

PLS-SEM results reveal that content attributes (i.e. prestige and expertise) and interaction strategies (i.e. interactivity and self-disclosure) positively influence parasocial relationships, and in turn, lead to high purchase intention. Findings from fsQCA indicate six solutions with different combinations of content attributes, interaction strategies and parasocial relationships that sufficiently explain high purchase intention.

The present study demonstrates the roles of content attributes and interaction strategies in engendering parasocial relationship and the endorsement outcome (i.e. purchase intention) from both linear and non-linear (complexity) perspectives.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how interactional justice within a retail context may influence employee organizational commitment and how this may evoke guardianship behaviors that manifest in shoplifting prevention.

This research uses a phenomenological approach conducting semi-structured in-depth interviews with 26 shop-floor employees of two major national supermarket chains in New Zealand.

The findings suggest that interactional justice in the workplace is important in shaping organizational commitment amongst employees. Additionally, heightened organizational commitment may have a significant effect on employee propensity to engage in shoplifting prevention/guardianship behavior. A conceptual model is developed based on these findings.

Retail managers may promote and exercise interactional justice practices with employees to improve their organizational commitment and consequential shoplifting prevention/guardianship behaviors.

The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, and from a theoretical perspective, it offers both a conceptual foundation and empirical-based evaluation of interactional justice and its effect on organizational commitment and, specifically, on guardianship/shoplifting prevention behaviors. Second, and from a pragmatic perspective, the conceptual model derived from this research may assist retailers in developing interactional justice strategies that encourage organizational commitment of employees that consequently leads to employees’ guardianship/shoplifting prevention behaviors. Finally, it explores significance and role of employee perceptions of interactional justice, employee workplace attachment and organizational commitment within the context of retail crime prevention.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether competitor concentration relates to better customer acceptance of the firm’s offerings and better networking of the firm with competitors and government officials.

The research is conducted in the context of the transition economy of Vietnam, using a combination of methods. Qualitative interviews are followed by a survey of 199 small firms in Hanoi, Vietnam. Since competitor concentration is count data, Poisson regression is used to test the relationship between networking, customer acceptance, and competitor concentration.

The results show that locating in a competitor concentration area improves customer acceptance of the firm’s offerings and increases networking with competitors, while decreasing networking with government officials. Competitor concentration does not help improve firm performance.

A sample of 199 businesses in the food, furniture, and jewelry sectors in Hanoi may not be representative of all private businesses in Vietnam. The use of cross-sectional data could not establish causational relationships among variables.

Small firms in transition economies should be aware of the trade-offs between initial customer acceptance and negative consequences of being in a competitor concentrated area. Thus, once the firm’s offerings are generally accepted by customers, the firm may consider moving out of competitor concentration areas to expand and differentiate.

This paper points out that in the absence of effective market institutions, businesses want to be located near a concentration of similar firms as a means of gaining initial customer acceptance. This initial acceptance does not necessarily help firms improve business performance beyond the firm’s survival.

The purpose of this study is to assess the mediating role of brand trust and commitment in the relationship of brand engagement and brand experience with brand loyalty in the online service context.

To achieve the study’s objective, 414 users of virtual service brands, predominantly in the online banking, airline and hotel sectors, were surveyed.

Both brand engagement and experience exert direct effects on brand trust and commitment, as well as indirect effects on brand commitment (via brand trust) and service brand loyalty (via brand commitment).

This paper adds to the literature by incorporating brand engagement, experience, trust and commitment into a unifying framework. The framework emphasizes brand trust and commitment’s mediating role in the relationship that brand engagement and experience share with brand commitment and loyalty in the online service context.

Marketers should formulate online brand engagement and experience strategies that strengthen customer brand trust and commitment, which are expected to exert a significant brand loyalty-enhancing effect.

Brand engagement and experience were validated as key drivers of brand trust and commitment, thereby further substantiating their role as important strategic metrics. Moreover, the role of commitment as a mediating factor in the association between brand engagement and experience and their respective impact on brand loyalty has been verified. Although the findings suggest that improved brand engagement/experience contributes to brand loyalty, this effect transpires only though brand commitment.