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The development of electronic information technology and its increasing rate of adoption and implementation is having a major impact upon both the volume of information activity and the levels of employment in information related jobs.

In this paper the authors aim to review the state-of-the-art literature on online review systems and their impacts on consumer behavior and retailers' performance with the aim of identifying research gaps related to different design features of review systems and developing future research agenda.

The authors conducted a systematic review based on PRISMA 2020 protocol, focusing on studies published in the domains of retailing and marketing. This procedure resulted in 48 selected papers investigating the design features of retailer online review systems.

The authors identify eight design features that are controllable by retailers in an online review system. The design features have been researched independently in previous literature, with some features receiving more attention. Most selected studies focus on the design features adapted metrics and review presentations, while other features are generally neglected (e.g. rating dimensions). Previous literature argues that design features affect consumer behaviors and retailers' performance. However, the interactions among the features are still neglected in the literature, creating a relevant gap for future research.

This paper distinguishes between different types of retailer online review systems based on how they are implemented. The authors summarize the state-of-the-art of relevant literature on design features of online review systems and their effects on consumer- and retailer-related outcome variables. This systematic literature review distinguishes between online reviews provided on websites controlled by retailers (internal systems) and third-party websites (external systems).

The resource‐based view (RBV) has been used on various industry studies. To examine the resources required to thrive in the private housing development sector in Malaysia, the RBV was similarly utilised. Using a combination of mailed questionnaires and face‐to‐face interviews, the study identified and ranked fourteen resources by virtue of their ability to exploit opportunities and/or neutralise threats, or in short, value. While the ranking of some of the resources echoe similar past industry studies, others interestingly did not, perhaps due to the unique characteristics of the industry, or even country. New players to the industry can take stock of the findings to maximise their chances of success. The paper ends by recommending that the study be repeated in Malaysia, this time with many more respondent, to confirm the findings. It also proposes that similar studies be conducted in other countries to enable cross‐country comparisons to be made.

Though social trends are driving consumers toward solo consumption of various services, many are reluctant to do so. There is little guidance for service providers as to how to effectively induce solo consumption. This study aims to examine the joint effect of self-esteem and an incidental similarity cue (e.g. a person’s initials) on anticipated satisfaction with with a solo consumption experience to fill this gap.

This study used a two-factor (incidental similarity cue and self-esteem) quasi-experimental design to test the hypotheses. The respondents read a scenario depicting a solo service consumption experience and completed scales that measured perceived fit with the service context and anticipated satisfaction with the experience.

Results indicate that, in the absence of an incidental similarity cue, self-esteem has a positive effect on solo consumers’ perceived fit. In the presence of such a cue, however, self-esteem has a minimal impact on perceived fit. Furthermore, perceived fit mediates the effect of self-esteem on anticipated satisfaction when the cue is absent.

The authors’ findings suggest that promoting incidental similarities with consumers may not be an efficient strategy to attract solo consumers. Conversely, service providers wishing to induce solo consumption may benefit from situationally increasing self-esteem among potential solo consumers. The current research advances the authors’ understanding of the effect of an incidental similarity cue and self-esteem in the context of a growing social trend of solo consumption.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led to drastic changes in the lives of customers. Social isolation, financial difficulties, fear of being infected and many other factors have caused the psychological well-being of customers to deteriorate. By taking up the role of online reviews in the regulation of consumers’ moods, this study aims to examine the changes that have occurred in online product ratings, as well as the negative tone and word counts of product reviews during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study examines the online reviews of 321 products in the pre-COVID, immediate COVID and extended COVID periods. This paper compares the changes that have taken place in product evaluations via various analysis of variance analyses. The authors also test the effect of COVID-related deaths on product evaluations via regression analyses.

The results indicate that online product ratings decreased sharply just after the outbreak of COVID-19. The study also found that the tone of reviews was found to be more negative and the length of reviews appeared to be longer in comparison to the pre-COVID-19 period. The results also revealed that the product type (experience vs search) moderated the effect of the pandemic in online reviews and the impact of COVID-19 on online product reviews diminished in the later stages of the ongoing pandemic.

Managers should be aware of the detrimental impact of pandemics on online product reviews and be more responsive to customer problems during the early stages of pandemics.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that analyzes the effects of a pandemic on online product ratings and review content. As such, this study offers a timely contribution to the marketing literature.

Drawing from conservation of resources (COR) and regulatory fit theories, this paper aims to propose and examine moderated mediation model of service innovative behavior among salespeople.

The hypothesized links were gauged based on time-lagged and multiple sources of data collected from salespeople and their supervisors in a large-scale multi-brand retail firm.

The hypothesized relationships were confirmed, and the moderated mediation model proposed in this paper was viable. Results suggest that person–job (P-J) fit boosts salespeople’s service innovative behavior, and intrinsic motivation (INTMOT) mediates this relationship. Promotion focus strengthens the positive influence of P-J fit on salespeople’s INTMOT. More importantly, promotion focus moderates the indirect positive link between P-J fit and service innovative behavior through INTMOT.

This research enhances the current knowledge by assessing promotion focus as a moderator of the impact of P-J fit on service innovative behavior via INTMOT among salespeople. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no established research examining the abovementioned links in the sales literature.

With the rapid development of the service industry, service innovation has gradually become a hot topic in business today. How to further improve employees' service innovative behaviors has become critical to organizations' survival and success. Servant leadership, as a leadership style characterized by serving others, is closely related to employees' service innovative behaviors. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop a theoretical framework to examine the influence of servant leadership on employees' service innovative behavior, the mediating role of intrinsic motivation and the moderating role of identification with the leader.

To test the theoretical model, a multi-time survey method was used to collect data from 381employees from a large high-tech company in Mainland China.

The results confirm that servant leadership can promote employees' service innovative behavior and intrinsic motivation. Meanwhile, employees' intrinsic motivation partly mediates the influence of servant leadership on their service innovative behavior. Moreover, this mediating relationship is conditional on the moderating role of individual identification with the leader in the path from servant leadership to individual intrinsic motivation.

The key limitation of this study lies in the representativeness of sample data, which is the convenience of non-probability sampling and self-reported data only from a large high-tech company in China.

This study not only further verified a promotion factor of individual service innovative behavior from the perspective of leader influence, but also enriched the understanding of the positive influence of servant leadership on employees.

This study is the first to examine the relationships among servant leadership, employees' intrinsic motivation, identification with the leader and service innovative behavior. The results may help to open the “black box” of the relationship between servant leadership and employees' service innovative behavior by introducing their intrinsic motivation. The conclusions also indicate employees' identification with the leader is an important boundary condition among their relationships. Particularly, it not only moderates the relationship between servant leadership and intrinsic motivation, but also moderates the mediating role of intrinsic motivation.

The future of pathology services in the NHS is currently under consideration. Recent developments in diagnostic technologies and their possible impact on pathology testing in the future are discussed. Trends and patterns of demand for all three main pathology specialties are analysed over the 12‐year period, 1974‐86. The inflation‐adjusted, revenue cost of pathology testing per hospital admission (excluding capital costs) is shown to have fallen in real terms over this period, although it is uncertain whether this would still be the case were capital costs to be included. In the hospital sector, reported increases in demand can be quite simply related to increasing hospital activity by using a linear regression model. However, the very large increases in demand observed in the primary care sector cannot be related reasonably to any routinely reported practice activity indicators. The implications of this highly volatile pattern of demand in general practice are discussed, especially in relation to recent technological advances designed to produce rapid, near‐patient, surgery‐based tests. Although analysis indicates no evidence for historical technology‐induced increases in demand for laboratory services following the introduction of laboratory automation in the 1970s, the possibility of technology‐induced demand in the primary health care sector following the widespread introduction of surgery‐based tests is discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of politicians’ facial attractiveness on their online popularity as reflected in audience engagement with their Facebook posts during the 2015 Israeli election campaign.

Using Israel’s 2015 election campaign as the case study, the authors analyzed all messages posted (n=501) on 33 politicians’ official Facebook pages during the week leading to Election Day.

The results demonstrate that audiences do engage more with posts of the more facially attractive politicians. These posts generated more shares, more comments and more participants in their discussions – but not more likes – relative to posts of less attractive politicians. These effects became even stronger when the posts were accompanied by one or more visual image, and remained significant even after controlling for other engagement predictors, such as a politician’s gender, seniority or the timing of a post’s publication.

The findings emphasize the importance of attractive looks for politicians. The findings highlight that attractive politicians’ posts attract more attention, allowing them to better spread their ideas. Thus, politicians should aim to post aesthetic images and visuals to promote better engagement with their ideas on social media.

The study expands our understanding of online presentations of politicians, focusing on the effect of politicians’ facial attractiveness on their online popularity. Recent studies have demonstrated that physically attractive politicians enjoy more and better media attention on television news, but not in non-visual media such as radio and newspapers. This effect has not been examined in the social media environment, a central arena for today’s political debates and one that involves many visual messages.

The concept of recovery is well accepted internationally as a guiding vision for mental health services. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the challenges faced by in-home psychiatric support workers in implementing this vision in their work with clients with severe psychiatric disability.

The findings reported here are based on interviews with 27 support workers and ten managers of organisations providing support services. These were collected as part of evaluations of two supported housing programmes carried out between 2010 and 2011.

Challenges faced by support workers coalesced around two areas: first, balancing the need to provide care with the need to promote autonomy and second, developing an effective working relationship while working mainly within a clients’ home.

These challenges for support workers highlight tensions within the recovery vision that are not easily resolved. To ensure high quality, recovery-oriented care services are provided, support workers need access to training courses that focus on challenging areas of this work and should be provided with regular professional supervision.

Existing literature on support workers has generally focused on the nature of the role and support worker interactions with other health workers. In this paper, the authors highlight difficulties faced by support workers in implementing the vision of recovery in their work. The paper provides important information for policy makers and managers who are designing service delivery systems that aim to promote recovery.