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This study aims to explore how individual-level and organizational-level factors interact to influence pay information (PI) seeking and PI sharing preferences in PI conversations (i.e. the face-to-face communications context). The authors examine how an individual’s judgment of their pay relative to others – or pay equity perception – affects their PI seeking and PI sharing preferences and how those relationships are affected by organizationally created pay transparency policies and pay transparency practices.

Using a 2 × 2 × 2 experimental design on the MTurk platform, the authors used a scenario-based prompt method to manipulate employee perceptions of pay equity and organizational pay transparency and tested those effects on employee pay disclosure preferences. The authors consider both pay policy and pay practice dimensions of pay transparency and both PI seeking and PI sharing dimensions of pay disclosure preferences. The final sample had 597 participants.

The authors find employees’ pay equity perceptions are negatively related to PI seeking behaviors and are even more so when organizations have restrictive pay transparency policies. Also, both pay transparency policy and pay transparency practice increase PI sharing preferences.

The authors provide insight into how individual perceptions drive pay disclosure motivations and the role of organizational policy and practice in influencing pay disclosure preferences within PI conversations. The authors provide insight into the antecedents that shape pay disclosure preferences, which lead to a both PI conversations among coworkers and an increase in one’s pay understanding. This study shows the contextual nature of PI seeking and PI sharing preferences, which are a motivational antecedent to pay-related sensemaking behaviors.

The purpose of this study is to use a lifetime income measure to evaluate the long-run housing affordability for an understudied cohort of households in the literature – the millennials. The authors do this in the context of Malaysia, measuring long-run affordability for four housing types across geographic locations and income distributions.

This study calculates a long-run housing affordability index (HAI) using data on house prices and household incomes. Essentially a ratio of predicted lifetime incomes to house prices, the HAI is computed for four common housing types in Malaysia from 2005 to 2016 and for six states in the country. The HAI is also compared across four income percentiles.

The analysis reveals varying patterns of housing affordability among different states in Malaysia. Housing affordability has declined since 2010, with most housing types being unaffordable for millennial-led households with the lowest income. Housing is most affordable for those in the highest income bracket, although even here, there are pockets of unaffordable housing as well.

Based on the findings, this study proposes three targeted interventions to improve housing affordability for Malaysian millennials.

This study fills a gap in the literature by examining the long-run housing affordability of Malaysian millennial-led households based on both geographic location and income distribution. The millennial population is understudied in the housing affordability literature, making this study a valuable contribution to the field.

This study aims to investigate the integration of blockchain technology into the food supply chain within the restaurant industry. It focuses on how blockchain can be applied to enhance transparency and trust in tracking food sources, ultimately impacting customer satisfaction.

A service design workshop (Study 1) and three between-subjects experiments (Studies 2–4) were conducted.

Results indicate that blockchain adoption significantly improves traceability and trust in the food supply chain. This improvement in turn enhances customer satisfaction through perceived improvements in food safety, quality and naturalness. This study also notes that the effects of blockchain technology vary depending on the type of restaurant (casual or fine dining) and its location (tourist destinations or residential areas).

The findings offer practical insights for restaurant owners, technology developers and policymakers. Emphasizing the benefits of blockchain adoption, this study guides decision-making regarding technology investments for enhancing customer service and satisfaction in the hospitality sector.

This research contributes novel insights to the field of technology innovation in the hospitality industry. It extends the understanding of signaling theory by exploring how blockchain technology can serve as a tool for signal transmission in restaurant food supply chains.

As technology increasingly integrates into the restaurant industry, avatar servers present a promising avenue for promoting healthier dining habits. Grounded in the halo effect theory and social comparison theory, this study aims to delve into the influence of avatars' appearance, humor and persuasion on healthier choices and customer satisfaction.

This paper comprises three experimental studies. Study 1 manipulates avatar appearance (supermodel-looking vs normal-looking) to examine its effects on perceived attractiveness, warmth and relatability. These factors influence customer satisfaction and healthy food choices through the psychological mechanisms of social comparison and aspirational appeal. Studies 2 and 3 further refine this theoretical model by assessing the interplay of appearance with humor (presence vs absence) and persuasion (health-oriented vs beauty-oriented), respectively.

Results suggest that avatars resembling supermodels evoke stronger aspirational appeal and positive social comparison due to their attractiveness, thus bolstering healthier choices and customer satisfaction. Moreover, humor moderates the relationship between appearance and attractiveness, while persuasion moderates the effects of appearance on social comparison and aspirational appeal.

This research bridges the halo effect theory and social comparison theory, offering insights enriching the academic discourse on technology’s role in hospitality.

The findings provide actionable insights for managers, tech developers and health advocates.

Despite its significance, avatar design research in the hospitality sector has been overlooked. This study addresses this gap, offering a guideline for crafting attractive and persuasive avatars.

The present study aims to examine and explain cultural heritage destination by applying multiple dimension image model (cognitive–affective–conative aspects).

A total of 233 international heritage-based tourists were surveyed on-site at some of the most prominent historical attractions in Malacca, one of the first cities in Malaysia declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The covariance-based structural equation modelling was applied to examine the hypotheses.

The structural equation modelling validated that cognitive image aspects such as living culture, intangible and tangible are affected positively. The effects are statistically significant for conative and affective images. On the other hand, cognitive tangible image is an aspect that impacted affective image to a lesser degree than conative image. Whereas affective image attributes were found to have significant and positive influence on conative image.

This study enriches the limited empirical research study on heritage image conceptualisation by expanding into tri-component model. The destination image has garnered a great deal of attention, particularly due to its significant and impactful influence on the decision-making and the sustainable behaviour of tourists, and it has since become the subject of many studies in the tourism and hospitality literatures. But most research concerning heritage image for destinations has considered the construct uni-dimensionally.

In this study, the authors argue that the private information obtained and transmitted by institutions during the corporate visits can alleviate the degree of information asymmetry between firms and investors, so institutional visits may influence investors' heterogeneous beliefs. Therefore, the authors investigated whether and how institutional investors' corporate visits affect investors' heterogeneous beliefs.

This study examines whether and how institutional investors' corporate visits affect investors' heterogeneous beliefs using the data of A-share companies from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) during 2013–2019. Using empirical research method, this study designs and conducts an empirical research according to empirical research's basic norms.

The authors find that institutional visits effectively decrease investors' heterogeneous beliefs, especially institutional investors. Meanwhile, institutional site visits and sell-side institutional visits have a more significant negative effect on investors' heterogeneous beliefs. The findings remain after robustness tests with the alternative variable, instrumental variable, propensity score matching and quantile regression methods.

The development of China's capital market is imperfect, resulting in a strong speculative atmosphere. So, investors' irrational investment behaviors occur from time to time, leading to sizeable heterogeneous beliefs in China's capital market, which increases the risk of investment and is not conducive to the discovery of corporate value and the efficient allocation of resources. Therefore, exploring the factors influencing heterogeneous beliefs and finding ways to alleviate heterogeneous beliefs can reduce the proportion of speculative investors and promote the healthy development of China's capital market.

This research paper aims to examine two hybrid models of logistics service quality (LSQ) and its influence on satisfaction, loyalty and future purchase intention in a business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce context. This study extends the literature for LSQ by incorporating the second-order assurance quality construct, which comprises personnel contact quality, order discrepancy handling and order returns, into one of the hybrid models.

A survey-based approach is used to collect data. Participant responses to questions concerning multiple LSQ dimensions and behavioral perceptions from their most recent online shopping experience are measured using structural equation modeling.

Findings highlight the importance of including a second-order construct assurance quality as a more explanatory model. Results illustrate that online ordering procedures and assurance quality impact customer satisfaction more than other prominent LSQ dimensions. Furthermore, the findings revealed a customer loyalty is a partial mediator between customer satisfaction and future purchase intention. This underscores the significance of improved logistics services as a competitive edge for e-commerce retailers.

Implications are limited to the e-commerce B2C domain.

The findings of this study underscore critical LSQ dimensions that garner greater satisfaction and retention in the online shopping experience. The results indicate that the effective and efficient handling of the initial order and any order problem significantly influences customer satisfaction and reaps the long-term benefits of customer retention.

The authors present and empirically test a hybrid model of LSQ in a B2C e-commerce domain that captures many of the important elements of the customer experience as espoused in the literature.

This study aims to optimize the preparation conditions and modify the nanofiltration (NF) membranes to prepare high-performance polysulfone/sulfonated polysulfone composite nanofiltration (PSF/SPSF-NF) membranes through interfacial polymerization.

Investigating the impacts of anhydrous piperazine (PIP) concentration, trimesoyl chloride (TMC) concentration and basement membrane type on NF membrane performance, the optimal membrane was prepared. In addition, nano-SiO₂ was added to the active separation layer to modify the NF membranes.

The comprehensive performance of PSF/SPSF-NF membranes was optimized when the concentration of PIP was 0.75 Wt.% and the concentration of TMC was 0.15 Wt.%, at which time the water flux was 66.1 L·m⁻²·h⁻¹ and the retention rate of Na₂SO₄ was 98.1%. The comprehensive performance of polysulfone/sulfonated polysulfone-SiO₂ nanofiltration (PSF/SPSF-SiO₂-NF) membranes was optimized when the blending ratio of nano-SiO₂ to PIP was 2:3, with a pure water flux of 81.9 L·m⁻²·h⁻¹ and a Na₂SO₄ retention rate of 95.9%. Compared to polysulfone nanofiltration (PSF-NF) membranes and PSF/SPSF-NF membranes, NF membranes with nano-SiO₂ increased the flux recovery rate by 22.9% and 8.7%.

PSF/SPSF-SiO2-NF membrane exhibits excellent antifouling properties.

There is currently no literature available on the preparation of NF membranes using polysulfone/sulfonated polysulfone (PSF/SPFS) as a substrate. This provides a method for modifying NF membranes, starting with the modification of the basement membrane and then modifying the active separation layer.

Modular integrated construction (MiC) is an innovative and effective manufacturing-based method of construction that has become the mainstream development direction of projects in Hong Kong (HK). However, large-scale promotion of MiC practice still needs efforts. A pressing concern is that the impact of relevant policies on stakeholders during project implementation is rarely explored in depth. Therefore, to fill the research gap, this study aims to investigate the influence of policies on stakeholders to drive the successful implementation of MiC in HK.

This study uses a strategy of multiple methods. First, a comprehensively literature review and survey were adopted to identify critical policies and stakeholders. Second, semi-structured interviews with 28 experts were conducted to quantify their relationships. Third, three policy–stakeholder networks at initiation, planning and design and construction stages were established using social network analysis.

Environmental protection policy, COVID-19 pandemic policy and environmental protection policy and quality acceptance standard for project completion are found to be the most important policies of the three stages, respectively. The HK government and developers are highlighted as prominent stakeholders influencing policy implementation at all three stages. The dynamics of the influence stakeholders receive from critical policies at different stages of MiC are discussed. Valuable recommendations are accordingly proposed to enhance the successful implementation of MiC projects from the perspective of various stakeholders.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by considering the mediating influence of stakeholders during policy implementation in the MiC uptake, and is valuable in helping policymakers to deeply understand the influence of policies to further forward successful MiC implementation and practicality in HK.

This study aims to examine the unique lived experiences of international graduate students in light of COVID-19 and the recent sociopolitical climate in the USA (e.g. Black Lives Matter movement, protests against anti-Asian hate crimes and gun violence).

The authors used an exploratory qualitative design embedded within a constructivist/interpretivist paradigm. A total of 31 international health service psychology graduate students completed an online survey, 17 of whom participated in a 60-min one-on-one semi-structured interview.

Participants reported facing a range of difficulties (e.g. travel ban/inability to spend time with family, visa-related concerns, racism, decreased support) during the global pandemic and the recent sociopolitical climate in the USA. A total of 48 themes were identified and organized into six domains: COVID-19-related stress and worry, experiences of racism/discrimination, coping mechanisms, support received, recommendations for programs and higher learning institutions and advice for other international graduate students.

The recent sociopolitical climate in the US exacerbated some of the preexisting inequities for international graduate students due to their international student status and the global pandemic. Although few in number, students also spoke about some positive changes as a result of these major historical and political events. Implications for graduate education, clinical practice and policymaking are discussed.