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This study aims to, first, identify how service perception can differ depending on the customers’ cultural background during intercultural encounters and, second, provide useful and specific directions of more culturally competent service interaction to restaurant managers and servers in US restaurants. Effective exchanges between service providers and international customers are important to ensure the success of restaurants. While frequently and explicitly checking in on customers is common in the USA, this may not be preferable to people from different cultures.

Study 1 (n = 975) utilized a survey, and Study 2 (n = 145) used an experimental design to, first, examine cultural differences between American and Japanese participants in their preferences about restaurant servers’ check-back style and, second, examined the moderating effect of culture (i.e. American and Japanese culture) on the relationship between the servers’ check-back behavior and the evaluations of service effectiveness, emotional response and the intention to return to a restaurant.

The results showed that the frequency of a server’s visits had a positive effect on evaluations of service effectiveness, emotional response and intent to revisit for the Americans, but not for the Japanese.

This research has practical implications for restaurant managers and servers who are expected to interact with international customers. They can apply the findings of this research to examine culturally appropriate check-back styles, which are an important attribute of effectiveness in intercultural service encounters in US restaurants.

The current study indicates that providing standardized service to all customers, regardless of cultural differences, might not be ideal.

This study examines how the presence of labor unions affects a firm’s pay disparity between executives and employees and its financial statement comparability.

It uses firm-level labor union data in Korea and applies regression analyses to a sample of 1,776 firm-year observations from 2004 to 2008.

The authors find that unionized firms have a smaller pay disparity between executives and employees than non-unionized firms, suggesting that labor unions place pressure on the pay structure. Unionization also lowers financial statement comparability, which helps managers of unionized firms maintain information asymmetry. Further, this negative relationship between unionization and financial statement comparability is stronger in non-chaebol firms, implying that they are more motivated than chaebol firms to reduce their financial statement comparability in response to the presence of labor unions. In addition, the negative relationship between unionization and financial statement comparability is pronounced in profit-making firms, firms with less analyst following, firms with fewer foreign investors and firms in more competitive product markets.

The finding that firms adjust comparability in response to labor unions interests regulators and policymakers, who emphasize the role of comparability in providing usefulness to information users.

The findings add to the existing literature on the effect of labor unions on firms' pay structures and accounting choices.

This study aims to investigate the impact of human resource investment in internal controls (hereinafter, IC personnel) on managers’ goodwill impairment decisions.

The authors use the ratio of IC personnel to the number of employees in the firm and the average work experience of IC personnel as quantitative and qualitative measures for IC personnel, respectively.

The authors find that the relationship between the likelihood of impairment and the expected impairment is not associated with the ratio of IC personnel. However, the average experience of IC personnel increases the likelihood that a company will record an impairment when there are market and financial indicators of impairment. The findings suggest that the effectiveness of IC is determined by practical proficiency rather than size. Furthermore, our analyses demonstrate that the greater the experience of the IC personnel in the accounting/finance or IT departments, the more likely the manager will record an expected impairment. Overall, our findings emphasize the importance of IC personnel expertise to enhance the effectiveness of IC for financial reporting.

Using unique data available only in Korea, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to show the effect of human resource investment in IC on goodwill impairment.

This study aims to investigate international students’ experiences through a lens of knowledge management perspective, emphasizing their strategies for knowledge management in tandem with cultural adaptation. The primary objective is to elucidate how international students navigate cultural differences and use knowledge management strategies to augment their learning and integration, thereby supporting their academic progress in a new academic environment.

An in-depth qualitative research strategy was used, using semistructured interviews with Pakistani doctoral students who were studying in Australia. A thematic analysis was conducted to identify recurring themes and patterns in the data.

The findings reveal that international students adeptly adopt various knowledge management strategies to facilitate cultural adaptation. These strategies encompass embracing otherness through a sense of belonging, engaging in both personal and shared learning experiences, achieving individual success, and using critical inquiry as a guiding framework for observations. Notably, this study underscores the pivotal role played by cultural competence in conjunction with social networks, influencing cultural intelligence and, subsequently, impacting knowledge sharing and integration for academic progress.

This study’s findings provide practical insights for higher education institutions and policymakers, emphasizing the importance of supporting international students in their cultural adaptation and knowledge management endeavors. These practical implications encompass fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment, supporting intercultural engagement, using technology for enhanced learning and communication and promoting the development of cultural intelligence among international students.

This study contributes to the literature on international student experiences and knowledge management by providing insights into the strategies used by international students to navigate knowledge of cultural differences to enhance their learning experiences and advance academic progress. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the intersection between cultural adaptation and core knowledge management concepts of knowledge sharing and integration in the context of higher education.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the dye affinity of natural dye of Terminalia chebula retzius (T. chebula) using the dye substrate of leather.

The dyeing conditions such as temperature, concentration of dye, and time are controlled by measuring the dye affinity. The effect of enzymatic post-tanning process on dye affinity is evaluated by using different type of proteases such as flavourzyme, alcalase, and bromelain. The optimum conditions for enzymatic post-tanning process are evaluated depending on different pH, temperature, and concentration of enzyme.

The highest dye affinity was obtained at 50°C using a dye concentration of 200 percent (owf) for 30 min treatment by measuring of K/S values of dyed leather. Distilled water was proved as a better extraction liquid to improve the dye affinity of T. chebula. The K/S values of dyed leather were enhanced after the enzymatic post-tanning process by flavourzyme. Moreover, the fastness properties against the rubbing and dry cleaning of the dyed leather were improved by the enzymatic post-tanning process.

In this paper, the enzymatic post-tanning process is introduced as the method to improve the dye affinity in natural dyeing using Terminalia chebula retzius (T. chebula) applied to leather. The results of the study could be applied for further natural dyeing of leather using various natural dyes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of learning goal orientation and training readiness on teachers’ multicultural teaching efficacy and cultural intelligence.

A total of 182 responses from secondary schools in midwest and southern areas of the USA were analyzed using the hierarchical multiple regression.

The findings indicated that learning goal orientation positively influenced both teachers’ multicultural teaching efficacy and cultural intelligence, while training readiness did not significantly affect them. In addition, teachers’ multicultural teaching efficacy positively influenced their cultural intelligence.

The study implied that high-level learning goal orientation can contribute to enhance multicultural teaching efficacy and cultural intelligence for teachers.

By conducting needs analysis of participants in advance, trainers can reflect what teachers want and need when designing and implementing a workshop. In addition, trainers could prepare for interventions to improve the participation rate of multicultural workshops and the quality of existing workshop programs.

This study is important in that it will help to develop culturally sensitive workshop/training programs that can prepare teachers for diverse classroom environments and face potential issues that may arise.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among supervisor support, awareness of employees’ developmental needs, motivation to learn, training readiness, motivation to transfer and job performance.

A total of 216 responses from educational organizations in the USA were analyzed using the structural equation modeling method.

The findings indicate that supervisor support for training directly affected motivation to learn; both developmental needs awareness and motivation to learn had direct and significant effects on training readiness, motivation to transfer and job performance; developmental needs awareness directly affected motivation to learn; training readiness directly affected motivation to transfer.

This study investigated how supervisor support contributes to motivation, training and job performance. In addition, this study attempted to bridge the gap in the literature by investigating the relationships among supervisor support, developmental needs awareness, learning motivation, training readiness, transfer motivation and job performance.

By conducting an initial needs assessment of participants, human resource development (HRD) practitioners can reflect on what participants want and need when designing and implementing professional development programs. HRD practitioners can also collaborate with participants’ supervisors to prepare for interventions to improve the quality and practicality of existing professional development programs.

Although the extant literature suggests that organizational support, motivation and training transfer are distinct but highly interrelated constructs; little is known about the predictive properties of a supervisor’s role in the training literature. Supervisors play a crucial role in that they can influence their subordinates on whether to participate in training programs. The ability of supervisors to provide adequate support and engage in comfortable communication about training programs may lead to enhanced motivation to learn and to greater training transfer. These potentially desirable effects motivate the researchers to further explore the nature of this component and its relationship with other training outcome variables.

This study aims to examine the impact of news frames associated with traditional media and with Twitter discourse on social issues.

Using semantic network analysis, it identifies the role of new alternative channels as well as discussing ways of understanding and consuming news content in the changing media environment. Additionally, it focuses on the dominant Twitter communicators who rank high in betweenness centrality.

The results confirmed that traditional news media tend to superficially describe main events and media strikes without comment. They tended to consciously or unconsciously favor media corporations by engendering anxiety and conflict or by restraining reports on the rationales of the strike. Twitter discourse, on the contrary, positively represents the striker's arguments and frequently reveals support of the strike.

The data set of this study was specialized, not generalized. However, the findings extend literature relating to the role of journalism and alternative channel. For example, this study indicated that the change of media environment has reinforced partiality of news, including both traditional and alternative channels.

The findings imply that the advent of new media does not purely represent a laymen's voice and rather tends to strengthen the partiality of media, including both traditional and new media, beyond selective exposure on content of the receiver.

By clarifying the influence of alternative channels, this study suggests the counterpart of traditional journalism in the near future.

This paper aims to investigate how brand identity is co-created, with a specific focus on how employees contributed to the process in a five-star hotel setting. The focus of this study is on understanding how two hotels planned and executed their brand identity strategy simultaneously, differentiating one from the other and how employees actively participated in this process.

A longitudinal case study approach was adopted, centred on building the identity of two luxury hotels owned by a single company in Seoul, Korea. Various organizational documents were collected and analyzed to understand the brand identity of the hotels and how brand co-creation has been implemented. In addition, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 42 employees to understand the brand co-creation process from their perspective.

The brand co-creation process of the hotels was conducted simultaneously and evolved over the following four phases, with employees’ roles varying in each phase, namely, establishing a clear brand identity strategy; designing and selecting sensory identity; aligning organizational identity; and delivering brand identity through external communication. Employees that participated in brand co-creation enhanced their brand knowledge, developed emotional bonds with the brand and were motivated to deliver the brand identity. Furthermore, those that immersed themselves in the new brand identities were able to enable positive guest perceptions towards the brand image, which consequently enhanced employees’ pride in their work.

This research advances the brand management literature in defining branding and brand identity elements, as well as emphasizing the importance of consistent branding. In addition, the current study expands the scope of internal branding, highlighting the process of brand co-creation and the role of employees as active participants. Moreover, it reveals that employees’ participation enhances not only their brand knowledge but also their emotional bonds with the brand. The proposed conceptual framework demonstrates the flow of branding elements, brand identity elements and the “infinite loop” of employee participation in brand co-creation.

The case study approach adopted here enables an in-depth investigation of employee participation in brand co-creation, including their different roles and activities in the process; a phenomenon that has not been adequately explored in previous research.