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The aim of this paper is to extend the knowledge of the link between job insecurity and job performance by exploring potential mediating mechanism of psychological strains and moderation role of psychological advantages on the mentioned relationship in the hospitality industry.

A sample of 288 frontline employees from five and four star hotels in north Cyprus was selected through judgmental sampling. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the research model, and hierarchal multiple regression was used to test forwarded hypotheses.

The results showed that Job Insecurity mitigates Job Performance. The results further suggested that anxiety, as a psychological strain, mediates the effect of job insecurity on job performance. Additionally, psychological advantages (supervisor support and intrinsic motivation) play a crucial role as a delimiter against the negative effect of job insecurity on job performance.

Hotel managers need to establish and communicate transparent human resource polices including, win-win-based employee contracts, fair selection, placement, appraisal, compensation, reward and similar human resource systems within hotels. Empowering and developing relations skills between supervisors and employees by providing continued training programs are vital for minimizing organizational stress and anxiety from job insecurity. Keeping in mind high employee turnover rates in the industry and its considerable costs, especially intrinsically motivated employees willing to work long hours should be selected in those organizations. Additionally, buddy-buddy approach in mentoring can be used by well-selected senior employees to help new employees socialize, improve their performance via social support and retain them in the end. By implication, lacking time lag is considered as the limitation.

Empirical research relating to the psychological strains and leverages of job insecurity is sparse in the hospitality industry. Based on job demand-resource and conservation of resource theories, the present research aimed to fill this gap.

This study aims to explore the structural relationship among food quality, usefulness, ease of use, convenience, brand trust and willingness to pay. The technology acceptance model was used as the theoretical foundation of this work.

Amazon Mechanical Turk was used to recruit survey participants, and 436 valid observations were ultimately used for the analysis. In the data analysis, the structural relationships between variables were explored through structural equation modeling.

The results of hypothesis testing show that ease of use positively affects the usefulness of the Starbucks mobile application. Usefulness also exerts positive impacts on both brand trust and convenience. Moreover, brand trust is positively associated with food quality. Finally, willingness to pay is positively influenced by both convenience and brand trust.

This study contributes to the literature by not only validating the technology acceptance model using the Starbucks mobile application but also proposing food quality-related attributes in the domain of the café business.

The purpose of this study is to identify the attributes that statistically affect reason intention. The triple bottom line, a theoretical framework of corporate social responsibility (CSR) consisting of economic, social and environmental subdimensions, is used as the theoretical foundation.

In this study, price fairness, quarantine and hygiene, and eco-friendliness represent economic, social and environmental CSR, respectively. Amazon Mechanical Turk is used for data collection. The valid number of observations is 474. Structural equation modeling is implemented to test the research hypotheses.

The results indicate that price fairness, quarantine and hygiene positively affect the reuse intention of coffee shops. However, eco-friendliness appears to be an attribute that does not significantly affect reuse intention.

This study theoretically contributes to the literature by demonstrating the explanatory power of triple bottom line theory for café customer intention.

The purpose of this paper is to compare customer experience (CE) between digital and traditional South Korean bank users and its relationship with customer satisfaction (CS).

A survey of bank customers was conducted, and an ANOVA test was performed to compare the means of CS between digital and traditional bank (TB) users as well as four dimensions of CE, such as usefulness, convenience, employee-customer engagement (ECE) and security. The ordinal regression analysis was also performed to test the moderation effect of digital bank (DB) use on the relationship between CE and satisfaction.

The means of usefulness were higher among DB users than TB users. By contrast, ECE and security means were lower for digital than TB users. The ordinal regression analysis indicated that DB use had a moderating effect on the relationship between convenience and CS and the relationship between ECE and CS. DB use encouraged increased positive relationships between convenience and CS, and moderated the relationship between ECE and CS in a negative direction.

ECE and security for DBs is weak. Therefore, bank executives need to improve these areas through real-time customer services and adding authentication procedures.

Unlike previous studies, this study proposed a model that reveals differences in CE between traditional and DB users. It explored the effects of CE on CS to contribute to the continued development of South Korean DBs.

The objectives of this paper are to estimate the annual Malmquist TFP(total factor productivity) index of Korea and China’s road freight transport with DEA(data envelope analysis) and to decompose the index into technical efficiency change and technology change. In the process of the estimation, we used labor, capital, and fuel as input factors and ton-km of road freight transport as output factor. The panel data of Korea and China’s road freight transport industry from 1985 to 2004 are used. The results of the analysis show several points. First, there was no significant improvement in China’s TFP growth before 1997, but there was continuous growth in TFP since 1997 because of constantly increasing domestic freight transport demand. Second, there was downward trend in Korea’s TFP, especially there was a large reduction of productivity in 1998 because of the huge reduction of road freight transport demand during the period of the economic crisis. Third, the technology improvements play a significant role in the TFP growth and the technical efficiency had negative effects on the TFP growth of Korea. However, the technology improvements as well as the technical efficiency had positive effects on the TFP growth of China’s road freight transport industry.

To examine the nature of Chinese business negotiating style in Sino‐Western business negotiations in business‐to‐business markets involving large industrial projects from a social cultural point of view.

A conceptual approach developed from personal interviews.

This study reveals that the Chinese negotiator does not possess an absolute negotiating style but rather embraces a mixture of different roles together: “Maoist bureaucrat in learning”, “Confucian gentleman”, and “Sun Tzu‐like strategist”. The Chinese negotiating strategy is essentially a combination of cooperation and competition (termed as the “coop‐comp” negotiation strategy in this study). Trust is the ultimate indicator of Chinese negotiating propensities and role choices.

The focus of this study is on Chinese negotiating style shown in large B2B negotiations with Chinese SOEs.

Differing from most other studies on Chinese negotiating style which tend to depict the Chinese negotiator as either sincere or deceptive, this study points out that there exists an intrinsic paradox in Chinese negotiating style which reflects the Yin Yang thinking. The Chinese negotiator has a cultural capacity to negotiate both sincerely and deceptively and he/she changes coping strategies according to situation and context, all depending on the level of trust between negotiating partners.

The goal of this paper is twofold: (1) to investigate how relatedness-supportive corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives influence brand happiness among retail bank customers through a mediating mechanism of customer participation in brand CSR movements; and (2) to analyze how relatedness-supportive CSR initiatives’ effect may be moderated by cause choice and customer-brand goal congruence.

Data were collected from 379 retail bank customers via a paper-and-pencil survey. The hypothesized moderated-mediation effects were tested using Hayes’ (2013) PROCESS (Model 3, Model 4 and Model 7).

Results show that relatedness-supportive CSR initiatives increase brand happiness among retail bank customers through increasing their participation in brand CSR movements. Furthermore, the use of customer determination in the choice of cause enhances the positive effect of relatedness-supportive CSR initiatives on customer participation in brand CSR movements. Similarly, when customers choose the cause and the customer-brand goal is congruent, the effect of relatedness-supportive CSR initiatives on brand happiness is stronger than when the customer-brand goal is incongruent and cause choice is not aligned.

This research is grounded on the relationship motivation theory (RMT), basic psychological needs theory and self-congruity theory to unpack the relationship between relatedness-supportive CSR programs on brand happiness. Integrating three research streams (i.e. CSR, brand management and retail banking), this study proposes customer participation in brand CSR movements as a novel mechanism and sheds light on how relatedness-supportive CSR interplays with cause choice/customer-brand goal congruence to affect brand happiness among retail bank customers in emerging markets.

This paper aims to provide a case study of complex conflict management within the arms race on the Korean Peninsula. Exploring the complex nexus of nuclear weapons, asymmetry and a qualitative arms race, the study explains how the arms race between Seoul and Pyongyang has promoted stability on the Korean Peninsula.

Presenting the limits of arguments that the US security guarantee is the factor that saved the two Koreas from going to war again, this paper explores the utility of the inter-Korean arms race as a stabilizer that promotes indirect negotiations. While presenting Korean anomalies, this paper analyzes the three stages of the inter-Korean arms race – especially its nuclear weapons, its asymmetry and the nature of arms races – and provides extant explanations on the causes and consequences of the qualitative arms race. These key elements drive the states’ strategic motives.

Using the case of the inter-Korean qualitative arms race and US extended nuclear deterrence on the Korean Peninsula, the study shows the complexities of conflict management today. This paper identifies three contributing factors – US nuclear weapons, asymmetry and the qualitative characteristic of the arms race – to explain the enduring stability on the peninsula despite the arms race’s intensification. The paper finds that although US nuclear-extended deterrence plays a critical role, it does not capture the full context of the ongoing, dynamic inter-Korean arms race; a prolonged arms race between the two Koreas has become a new regularity; the qualitative characteristic of the inter-Korean arms race, which is driven by technological advancement, contributes to stability in the arms race; and as the constant mismatch in priority technologies becomes more severe, the changes to the existing asymmetry could increase instability.

This paper offers a diverse perspective to the literature on conflict management and captures the complexities of 21^st-century conflict management. Through a thorough examination of the inter-Korean arms race, it brings readers’ attention to the nested dynamics within the arms race and shows how an intensifying arms race can promote stability. Furthermore, the paper explains the implications for potential instability – fueled by the comprehensive mix of a dynamic qualitative arms race and the US extended nuclear deterrence – in the Indo-Pacific region.

Visual merchandising has a direct impact on shopping experience, making it pertinent for the retailers to ensure that their store environment has an effective design. This study blends fuzzy numbers and Analytical Hierarchy Process to create a fuzzy evaluation model prioritizing the relative weights of visual merchandising dimensions of online fashion apparel store. This study will help the fashion retailers in creating more engaging and informative online stores leading to subsequent increase in online retail sales.

Visual merchandising dimensions and sub dimensions used by retailers for online stores were identified through review of literature and discussion with experts. Twenty experts were interviewed and their responses captured. The responses were analyzed using Fuzzy AHP technique resulting in prioritizing the dimensions according to the weight. For testing the stability of the results, sensitivity analysis was conducted.

Four key dimensions and sixteen sub dimensions were extracted. Weights were calculated using FAHP. “Pictorial Presentation” has the highest weight followed closely by “Product Information” dimension. Amongst the sub-dimensions “Number of Product Images” scored highest followed by “Product Presentation mode”. “Alterable Background” scored the least weight.

Previous studies have identified Online Visual Merchandising dimensions and have also studied the impact of some of these dimensions on consumer buying behavior, but the relative significance has not been determined yet. This study fills the gap.

The 1997-98 financial crisis has had a profound effect on how East Asian economies the role of the IMF and its strategic interests relative to those of the United States in the international financial regime. It has prompted them to create a regional mechanism for financial and monetary cooperation, ranging from deeper policy dialogue and surveillance, to a system of financial cooperation, and common exchange rate arrangements. This paper analyses the economic and strategic motivations behind this and outlines recent developments in financial cooperation in East Asia to provide possible directions for the future.

A network of bilateral swap arrangements under the Chiang Mai Initiative(CMI) needs stronger policy dialogue and surveillance to develop into a regional financing facility, a sort of East Asian IMF. The facility plays a role as an regional lender of last resort, providing short-term funds to a member country facing a temporary liquidity shortage and for market intervention to stabilize foreign exchange rate. East Asian countries need to achieve regional exchange rate stability. In the long run, the region may develop a common currency arrangement, but it cannot be expected in the very near future because there is no convergence of macroeconomic conditions, economic structure and systems. A realistic approach would be for East Asian developing countries to adopt a currency basket system to minimize the impact of dollar/yen exchange rate volatility on their economies. Strong political will and a vision for regional integration will be required to introduce it.