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This research reviews numerous studies of the relationship between consumer knowledge and external search in conventional marketing channels to investigate differences among these studies that have produced conflicting results. The findings provide a benchmark for future researchers and practitioners seeking to gain insight into consumer information search processes unfolding in the new environment of online, mobile, and social networking channels.

A meta-analysis of an extensive array of empirical studies of the relationship between consumer knowledge and external information search was conducted. Regression analysis was used to test whether certain characteristics in the studies can explain variability in the effect sizes in which effect sizes are entered as dependent variables and moderators as independent variables.

Objective and subjective knowledge tend to increase search, while direct experience tends to reduce search. Consumers with higher objective knowledge search more when pursuing credence products. However, they search relatively less when pursuing search products. Consumers with higher subjective knowledge are much more likely to search in the context of experience products, but as is the case for objective knowledge having little effect on search for experience products, subjective knowledge has no significant effect on information seeking for search products. In addition, objective knowledge facilitates more information search in a complex decision-making context while higher subjective knowledge fosters more external information search in a simple decision-marketing context. Finally, the findings indicate that the knowledge search relationship reflects strong linkage in the pre-Internet era.

Relatively little is known about how the relationship between knowledge and information search varies across different types of products in simple or complex decision-making contexts. This study begins to fill this gap by providing insight into the relative importance of objective knowledge, subjective knowledge, and direct experience in influencing consumer information search activities for search, experience, and credence products in simple or complex decision-making contexts.

This study aims to develop and validate a best‐worst scaling (BWS) measure of preferred conflict‐handling styles, named the Conflict‐handling BWS (CHBWS).

The authors conducted three studies. Study 1 consisted of a sample of psychology students (n=136) from a Canadian university and was designed to assess the convergent validity of the CHBWS by comparing it with the ROCI‐II and DUTCH instruments. Study 2 consisted of a sample of psychology students (n=154) from a US university and was designed to assess the predictive validity of the CHBWS by relating conflict‐handling styles to consumer complaint behavior. Study 3 consisted of a random sample of adults registered with an online survey company in Australia (n=204) and Germany (n=214). This study was designed to assess the antecedent relationship of Schwartz's personal values to conflict‐handling styles.

The study shows that best‐worst scaling is a valid and advantageous way of measuring conflict‐handling styles. The CHBWS demonstrated both convergent and predictive validity, and was able to reproduce the structure of the dual‐concerns model. The study also showed that preferred conflict‐handling style influences the choice of complaint behavior in a retail service failure situation. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that Schwartz's personal values can influence the preferred conflict‐handling style in two individualistic cultures.

This is the first study to measure conflict‐handling style preferences using a BWS approach. Furthermore, it is the first study to relate consumer complaint behavior to preferred conflict‐handling style.

The paper aims to measure and identify customer preference for social issues and understand the importance of customer engagement when service organisations implement corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes.

Developing a relevancy/scope typology framework, this paper then examines the relationships between social issues preference, engagement and loyalty. The models were estimated to assess the role engagement played in the relationship between CSR issue preference and loyalty. The sample was obtained from customers who used a large national Australian Internet service provider.

Local and global CSR issues relevant to the organisation were most preferred, while engagement had the strongest, positive effect on loyalty and was a full mediator of the relationship between CSR issue preference and loyalty.

Service organisations should direct their CSR efforts towards addressing social issues that are relevant to their business, and obtaining customer engagement is imperative if they wish to improve loyalty.

Providing greater clarity on how organisations can improve loyalty from CSR programmes will increase the likelihood of organisations investing their resources towards addressing social issues.

Few empirical studies have identified which social issues are the most preferred by customers. The development of a social issue typology and the testing of the relationships between social issue preference, engagement and loyalty provides empirical evidence of how a CSR strategy can improve loyalty.

Today's terrorism has been considered one of the main global threats the Western civilisation faces, even a great challenge posed for the next years. After 9/11, theorists of tourism triplicated the number of publications that took tourism security and terrorism as main objects of study. In spite of the proliferation of these studies, terrorism targeted the main European cities such as London, Madrid, Paris and Brussels (only to name a few). Over years, scholars believed that the industry of tourism was particularly sensitive to terrorism; at least the decline of tourist destinations in the Middle East seems to testify this assumption. In this complex context, two significant families of theories surface: the socio-cultural theory and the economic-based theory. Though debated in the chapter, we opt for a third alternative model which expands the current understanding of terrorism. The chapter not only explores the historical intersection between tourism and terrorism but also deciphers the moral dilemmas of extortion which remains as the touchstone of Western capitalism.

Employees’ personalities towards occupational outcomes have significantly gained academic attention. Personality traits (PTs) of employees as the determinant of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) outcomes research domain is emerging. This paper aims to assess extraversion PT activation for CE outcome under the problem-solving conflict handling style (CHS) situational cue.

The survey was conducted in automotive manufacturing firms in Pakistan for cross-sectional data collection. Structural equation modelling was used to assess the hypothesised theoretical model from 376 employees.

Results revealed a positive and significant impact of extraversion on CE. Also, employees with high extraversion traits were found to prefer the problem-solving style in managing workplace conflicts. The extraversion trait was also found to be activated under the situational cue of the problem-solving style.

The present study draws implications on person-job fit conceptions at the workplace while hiring, promoting and appointing employees. Personality assessment at the workplace is still in infancy in developing countries. The benefits of employees’ personalities can positively impact organisational performance measures like CE.

The present study has proposed the theoretical model based on Trait Activation Theory (TAT) and contributed theoretically through empirically testing the theoretical model by investigating the employees’ CHS role in activating their PTs towards the CE outcomes. Theoretically, using TAT conceptualisations in entrepreneurship and CE is novel as previous knowledge on PTs activation towards CE outcomes is non-existent. CHS as situational cues will attract social science researchers towards studying its role in various predictor outcome links across multiple work settings.