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This study aims to empirically analyze the effects of marketing communications, such as advertisement/promotion and social network service (SNS) content, on consumer engagement (CE), brand trust and brand loyalty.

The study’s participants were 230 US and 376 Korean consumers who have used (i.e. contacted) a food service establishment (i.e. family restaurant) at least once before and who continue to use an SNS (e.g. Facebook and Instagram). This study conducted a hypothesis test using structural equation modeling analysis. In addition, hierarchical analysis was performed to further generalize and support the statistical analysis results.

Advertisement/promotion and SNS content have a statistically significant positive effect on CE. Advertisement/promotion has a statistically significant positive effect on brand trust, and SNS content has a statistically significant negative effect on brand trust. CE has a statistically significant positive effect on brand trust, and CE and brand trust have a statistically significant positive effect on brand loyalty. No statistically significant differences were shown between the US and Korean consumer groups (critical ratios for difference of path coefficient < ± 1.96). The hypothesis test results of the structural equation model analysis and hierarchical analysis were the same for the entire group.

The findings indicate that the overall mediating role of CE is important. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate which marketing communication channels are most effective in the restaurant sector.

We adopt a super slack-based measurement (SBM) data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to estimate the efficiency of five biggest freight rail operators in Russia, which are included in the top 30 freight rail operators in terms of two dimensions – financial and operational efficiency during 2013–2017. The result shows that the private companies characterized by high financial and operational efficiency, while the Rossiiskye Zheleznye Dorogi (RZD) subsidiaries characterized by sufficiently low financial and operational efficiency scores. And the result also presents that operational efficiency score of operators handling universal rolling stock is higher than financial efficiency scores. In contrast, financial efficiency scores of operators handling special rolling stock is higher than operational efficiency scores. rail freight operators in addition to a special rolling stock park should have a universal rolling stock park for higher profitability. State-owned companies and its subsidiary operate inefficiently in the midst of a market economy in Russia. Rail freight operators for a higher level of financial efficiency should be transferred to the private sector.

The purpose of this research is to account for the internationalization of restaurants. The conceptual framework of upper echelons theory is applied to identify the demographic determinants of internationalization among chief executive officers (CEOs).

Data from 30 restaurant firms for the period 1999-2013 were collected from a variety of sources, primarily Compustat and Execucomp, based on Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code 5812, the annual 10-K and public information. A panel feasible generalized least squares model was used as the main instrument of analysis.

The findings indicate that the CEO gender and share ownership negatively affect the internationalization of restaurant companies, whereas size, the extent of franchising, the type of restaurant and stock options positively affect the degree of internationalization. Additionally, an inverted U-shaped relation exists between CEO tenure and the degree of internationalization.

The presented information may provide shareholders and boards of directors with valuable guidelines regarding the assignment of appropriate managers depending on the extent to which their companies are pursuing internationalization strategies.

Most studies in hospitality sectors have focused only on accounting-based measures to explain strategic decision-making, although proponents of upper echelons theory have argued that CEO attributes influence strategic decisions/changes. This study contributes to the literature on hospitality by identifying the effects of CEO characteristics on internationalization decisions.

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 analyze the influence of coffee quality on brand preference and loyalty using Starbucks as a study subject. The determinants of coffee food healthiness are also investigated.

Food quality measures are composed of healthiness, taste, customization, price fairness and convenience. Hygiene and nutrition disclosure were examined as determinants of food healthiness. The highlighted food quality attributes were brand love and brand loyalty. Data were collected using Amazon Mechanical Turk. A total of 431 observations were used for data analysis. A structural equation model was conducted for hypotheses testing.

The results revealed that healthiness is positively associated with hygiene and nutrition disclosure. Brand love is also significantly influenced by healthiness, taste, customization and price fairness. Moreover, taste and price fairness appeared to be essential determinants of Starbucks brand loyalty.

This study scrutinized food quality in the domain of coffee business, and presented implications for the business. Data collected in this study contributed to the literature by revealing quality attributes of coffee and its determinants and also showing the significant relationship between coffee food quality, brand love and brand loyalty.

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 study is to identify individuals’ preferences for the information attributes of Airbnb, a representative peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation platform. In the sharing economy, platforms are considered to be the principal intermediaries in supply and demand, and these platforms have distinctly different attributes from traditional accommodation reservation systems.

The present study used a choice experiment, which is a method for systematically identifying attributes’ preferences in the form of marginal willingness-to-pay (MWTP). Amazon Mechanical Turk, a crowdsourcing marketplace, was used for data collection, and 243 respondents ultimately participated in the survey.

Results showed that respondents’ choices were positively affected by the number of pictures of an accommodation, host experience, cancellation policy and local information but negatively affected by cost. Regarding MWTPs, host experience had the highest value (US$84.25), followed by cancellation policy (US$40), photos (US$26.67) and local information (US$10.92).

These study results could provide strategic guidance for guiding the development of P2P accommodation platforms by providing a prioritized list of preferred attributes for Airbnb.

本研究旨在识别个人对Airbnb这一代表性P2P住宿平台信息属性的偏好。在共享经济中, 平台被视为供需的主要中介, 而这些平台与传统住宿预订系统有明显不同的属性。

本研究采用选择实验法（CE）, 这是一种系统地确定属性偏好的方法, 表现为边际支付意愿（MWTP）。数据采集使用了Amazon Mechanical Turk（MTurk）, 最终有243名受访者参与了调查。

结果显示, 受访者的选择受到住宿图片数量、房东经验、取消政策和本地信息的积极影响, 而受到价格的负面影响。关于边际支付意愿, 房东经验具有最高价值（84.25美元）, 其次依次为取消政策（40美元）、照片（26.67美元）和本地信息（10.92美元）

通过提供优先考虑的 Airbnb 偏好属性列表, 本研究结果可以为引导P2P住宿平台的发展提供战略指导.

Firms’ real activities management (RAM) can have a more detrimental effect on firms’ future performance than accrual earnings management. This paper aims to examine whether analysts, who play an important role as information intermediaries, understand the negative effect of RAM on firms’ future performance and respond to it accordingly.

The authors investigate whether analysts lower their earnings forecasts and stock recommendations of the firms with RAM. The authors measure RAM by examining firms’ abnormal decreases in discretionary expenses, abnormal increases in production and abnormal decreases in cash flow from operations following prior literature.

The authors find that after controlling for earnings surprises and other important firm characteristics, analysts lower their forecasts of future annual earnings and stock recommendations of the firms that show signs of RAM.

First, as in other RAM studies, the results in this study are subject to measurement errors inherent in the estimation of RAM (i.e. abnormal production costs, abnormal CFO and abnormal discretionary expenditures). Second, we include only firm-year observations that barely make positive income in our samples following the previous study. This sample selection criterion helps increase the power of the test by examining the “suspect firms group,” which are more likely to engage in earnings management. However, one can challenge that our findings on the association between RAM and analysts’ reactions could be only case-specific and cannot be generalized.

This study contributes to the literature on earnings management and especially on RAM. Specifically, none of the previous studies clearly examines whether analysts understand the negative impact of RAM on firms’ future performance and respond accordingly, although there are studies showing the negative association between RAM and firms’ future operating performance and studies showing the negative association between analysts following and RAM. Thus, filling the gap, this study provides a specific reason for the negative association between the analyst following and real earnings management presented in previous studies.

The findings will be of interest to regulators, who are concerned about the potential negative consequences in which tighter accounting standards can result. For example, Ewert and Wagenhofer (2005) theoretically demonstrate that tighter accounting standards can prompt more RAM instead of accounting earnings management. The study provides important evidence supporting that such suboptimal operating activities are closely watched by analysts and are potentially penalized by the market. If the market is able to detect RAM and allocate fewer resources to the firms that engage in it, then the concerns associated with the substitution effect between accrual-based earnings management and RAM can be diminished.

Prior research suggests that tighter accounting regulations (e.g. the Sarbanes-Oxley Act) prompt more RAM than accounting earnings management. The study provides evidence supporting that such suboptimal operating activities are closely watched by analysts and are potentially penalized by the market.

This study explores food delivery app users and technology acceptance model as a theoretical underpinning. This study thus investigated the determinants of usefulness, ease of use and intention to use for food delivery app service.

The variables of delivery time, diverse menu, quarantine, review quality and ease of use are employed as determinants of usefulness. The antecedents of ease of use are easy registration and easy payment. This study also examined the association between ease of use, usefulness and intention to use. This study collected data using Amazon Mechanical Turk, and the number of valid observations for statistical analysis was 484. A structural equation model was used to test the hypotheses.

Regarding the results, usefulness was positively affected by delivery time, quarantine, review quality and ease of use. Additionally, ease of use was positively impacted by easy registration and easy payment. Finally, this study showed that ease of use positively affects both usefulness and intention to use, and usefulness is positively associated with intention to use.

This study contributes to the literature by ensuring the explanatory power of technology acceptance model for food delivery app.

This study aims to investigate how upper echelon theory accounts for franchising by selecting the top management team to proxy for the upper echelon and using age, tenure, education, equity ownership and stock options as its main attributes.

The sample was drawn from the Execucomp and Compustat databases and from other publicly accessible resources (e.g. LinkedIn and Business Week, in addition to Annual 10-K reports). A total of 29 restaurant companies were used for data collection, which covered the period of 2000-2013. A panel feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) regression was used to analyze the data.

The study found a significant moderating effect of the degree of internationalization on the relation between the attributes of the upper echelon (e.g. tenure, education and share ownership) and franchising decisions.

The results verified that top managers in the restaurant industry with more tenure and share ownership become more risk averse when they operate under riskier conditions, whereas highly educated restaurant top management teams tend to take more risks in strategic decision-making.

This study expanded internationalization research to upper echelon theory and into the arena of franchising.