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Social exclusion is a complicated psychological phenomenon with behavioral ramifications that influences consumers' lifestyles and behaviors. In contrast, anthropomorphism is a phenomenon that marketing strategists employ and that occurs in customers' lives as a result of social isolation. The literature discusses these two complicated structures as ones that require investigation based on consumer judgments. The purpose of the current study is to understand the fundamental motivations that underlie the propensity for anthropomorphizing in people who suffer social isolation through their pets.

To look into the motivations driving these themes, a study technique with three distinct components was created. Cyberball was employed as a technique to manipulate social exclusion in the initial stage of this research methodology. Two scenarios, one of which had an anthropomorphizing tendency and the other of which did not, were presented to participants who had suffered social exclusion and advanced to the second phase in order to determine the anthropomorphizing tendency. The Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS), which Johnson et al. (1992) created based on the social support provided by pets, was utilized while creating the scenarios. The Zaltman method was applied as an interviewing technique in the third stage of the research design, with the interviewees being guided by visuals that reflected their emotions and thoughts.

The results of the data analysis were evaluated in light of social psychology. A more thorough expression of the complex relationship between anthropomorphism and those who experience social exclusion has been made. The findings showed that when people anthropomorphize their pets in response to feelings of social exclusion, the motivations that emerge include pure love, loyalty, animals' need for a human, living creature and embracing. The study emphasizes that these ideas will be helpful in customers' interactions with anthropomorphic objects.

As a contribution to the literature, the study findings offer the five major motivations underpinning these beliefs. These findings may help marketing scientists comprehend social exclusion and anthropomorphism, thereby benefiting the individual and society.

The majority of research in the literature (Chen et al., 2017; Epley et al., 2008; Eyssel and Reich, 2013; Waytz et al., 2019) verified that people who were socially excluded would use anthropomorphism, but no studies were discovered about the motivations outlined in the current study. The results of this investigation should add to the body of knowledge in this area. The pet was employed as an anthropomorphism tool in the current study because it is the object that a person chooses to anthropomorphize deliberately and independently. It adds to the study's originality by explaining in the individual's own terminology how he will feel as a result of his social isolation, how he will make up for it and potential responses he may have. In addition to all of these contributions, the study's primary goal of analyzing the motivations behind anthropomorphism yields significant findings that are relevant to both industry and academic research.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the linkages between intergenerational income mobility and crime for 27 OECD countries, considering different types of crime, family ties, enforcement, in terms of punishment rate and perceived quality of the legal system, redistributive outcomes and government expenditure.

Using the Global Database of Intergenerational Mobility (GDIM), the empirical analysis is conducted by coupling the principal components analysis with the hierarchical clustering. The variance tests verify the robustness of the clusters.

Income mobility is higher in those countries where there is high public investment devoted to education and high perception of rule of law to buffer the adverse effects of crime on income mobility. The redistributive policies must be oriented to better the wealth distribution and not only income equality opportunity to decrease crime and to increase income mobility. A plausible existence of “hidden” income mobility emerges from the linkages between income mobility and frauds.

More redistributive policies for education, income and wealth equality should be applied in those countries with low income mobility and high violent crime rates; higher punishment rates should be applied to reduce the rates of thefts and frauds in high income mobility countries.

The main contribution is the identification of what type of crime leads to downward income mobility, as well as the role of perceived quality of the legal system, government and family ties in the association between income mobility and crime, suggesting also the potential existence of “hidden” income mobility.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-07-2023-0520

This study aims to examine the impact of COVID-19 on tourism and hospitality small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in an emerging country located in Latin America and identifies service innovation strategies adopted by these firms to survive a prolonged crisis.

A qualitative investigation was conducted drawing on a framework of imposed service innovation. Data were obtained from in-depth interviews with owners/managers of 20 SMEs in the hospitality and tourism sector in Chile.

Findings show that the effect of COVID-19 on SMEs includes a decline in demand due to lockdowns and restrictions, with minimal government support. Tourism and hospitality SMEs developed different service innovation strategies to confront the crisis, and several businesses were even able to exploit new opportunities for future growth.

The effect of COVID-19 and SMEs' service innovation strategies to confront a prolonged crisis is a topic that is largely unexplored, particularly in the tourism and hospitality sector. The findings contribute to the literature on emerging markets, crisis management and SME innovation in tourism and hospitality. The findings provide managerial implications for SME managers, governments and policymakers.