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The purpose of this paper is to explore the service profit chain (SPC) in a Thai bank, to identify which service features customers understand to be most important in their customer satisfaction and engagement. Through this it is intended to evaluate and refine the SPC model.

The research involved two phases: a qualitative inductive process of interviews with bank customers to identify what they considered to be the most important aspects of service in their own customer satisfaction/engagement; second, a survey phase, which theoretically developed these aspects of service, and operationalized them as variables for testing in a refined SPC model.

The key service features for customers in their satisfaction and engagement were found to be convenience, courtesy, competence and internal branding. All had positive relationships with customer satisfaction/customer engagement. Customer engagement/satisfaction were further found to correlate with customer retention and acquisition. Interestingly, whereas all four service variables correlated with customer engagement and satisfaction, two of the variables – courtesy and internal branding – had stronger relationships with customer engagement.

The inductive modeling and refinement of the SPC approach can be employed in different companies and cultural contexts to identify which features of service are most important to customers in influencing their customer satisfaction/engagement.

This is the first study to use/evaluate the SPC approach in the Thai banking context; the first to use inductive methods to identify relationships between service features and customer satisfaction/engagement; and the first to examine courtesy, competence, convenience and internal branding in a holistic model with customer satisfaction/engagement and customer retention/acquisition.

The purpose of this paper is to answer the question, “Can particular types of altruism influence people to make unethical decisions?” The purpose of seeking to answer this question is to better understand those cases in personal, public and commercial life whereby a decision-maker is influenced by what is widely perceived to be a positive thing – altruism – to make unethical choices.

An experiment was designed to test the influence of different categories of altruism on decision-making about whether to find another guilty for a regulatory transgression. This involved the establishment and running of a student panel at a UK university, which was given the task of determining the guilt or otherwise of two students accused of plagiarism – one from a poor background; one from a rich background. Through a survey of both the decision-makers and their judgments, and by analyzing the data using t-tests and Mann–Whitney tests, the associations between different categories of altruism and the decisions made could be ascertained.

A total of 70.7% of the participants voted “not-guilty” for the poor student, whereas 68.3% voted “guilty” for the wealthy student. This indicated that self-interested, namely, egoistic altruism complemented by social and self-esteem needs gratification was significantly associated with violating foundational ethical principles.

This is the first study to be done that attempts to evaluate the relationships between different categories of altruism and ethical decision-making. The findings here challenge aggregating all forms of empathy together when exploring the antecedents of unethical behavior.

Librarians need to embrace some of the practices of E‐commerce, particularly in relation to marketing their service, satisfying user needs and exploiting non‐exploitative methods of generating revenue for under‐funded services. This article emerged out of an interview discussion between Karen Neal and Mark Kerr on how E‐commerce may affect the way librarians work.

The purpose of this paper is to document and analyze the case of a public sector organization in the Gulf region, in which Arab‐expatriate relations worked well and sustained a positive and high‐performing organizational climate.

The research employed an embedded ethnographic approach to produce a case analysis of expatriate‐local work relations.

The study found that although there may be multiple sources of difference and potential conflict between Arab locals and expatriates in the workplace, there are circumstances where the effects of such divisions are neutralized, and a positive work environment is sustained. The paper identifies the key sources of division, and social cohesion, and shows how – in this case – these factors interacted so that the negative impact of cultural difference was neutralized, and good working relations were achieved.

The paper is new in two respects. It is the first ethnographic study of Arab‐expatriate work relations in a public sector organization in Oman. It is also the first paper to identify, and distinguish between, the factors emphasizing alterity between Arab and expatriate workers, and those encouraging social cohesion.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate paradoxes in the development of organizational cultural problems – paradoxes that go undetected by people involved in them. The paper explains why these paradoxes remain undetected, and shows how their “invisibility” is a foundation for the development of “cultural problems”.

The approach is phenomenological, in that it explores how actors in cross‐cultural settings understand “difference” and thereby socially construct “cultural problems”.

Three interrelated paradoxes are uncovered: In dyads, actors perceive two‐way “cultural difference” as being one‐way. “Difference” thus becomes embodied in the “other” – “the other” alone is “different” and “difficult”. In bi‐cultural organizations, perceptions of “the other” as “different” and “difficult” encourage the formation of in‐groups and out‐groups that lead to “cultural problems”. “Difference” becomes embodied in “the others” while “cultural problems” that are the results of their own actions are also embedded in “the others”. In multicultural organizations these understandings break down. “Difference” becomes disembodied, and “cultural problems” become embodied in “difference”. More cultural differences thus engender fewer “cultural problems”.

The novel theoretical part of the study is so far untested. The paper thus calls for studies that apply the developed theoretical approach. The ethnographic observations that support the existence of the multicultural paradox are preliminary and ongoing.

The novel theoretical approach can immediately be applied to other organizational issues.

This paper introduces, for the first time, the Buddhist concept of anatta in the analysis of organizations. The theoretical approach is new, and can be applied to further studies of organizational problems.

This study aims to clarify current thinking about Islamic leadership by returning to the original texts of Islam, the Qur'an and the hadith. These are analysed to identify foundational Islamic leadership prototypes, concepts and ideas. In so doing, the article provides original analysis of the foundations of Islamic leadership, so as to inform current debates about leadership in Islamic regions and communities.

The study consists of content analysis of the Qur'an and the hadith, to identify key concepts within these texts, concerning the nature of leadership. The methodological aim is to develop characterisations of Islamic leadership prototypes that are recognisable to practising Muslims today. In order to ensure this, the content analyses have been presented to academic seminar groups and conferences and refined through subsequent discussions.

Islamic leadership does not rely for its legitimacy upon traditional authority, but rather on rational-legal systems based on unity of purpose, acknowledgement of the one God, and the foundational example of Prophet Muhammad, whose referent and charismatic authority lives on in discussions of the sunnah and the hadith. It is thus vital to refine external or “etic” characterisations of Islamic leadership with an appreciation of leadership prototypes in the Qur'an, the sunnah and hadith.

The scope of this study is limited by the subject matter, the investigation of leadership prototypes in the Qur'an and the hadith. This means that the consideration of historically more recent Islamic thinking about leadership has been left to subsequent study.

Implications for subsequent researchers are the need for critical clarity in discussions of “Islamic” or “Muslim” leadership. Another significant implication comes with the recognition of the overwhelming importance of the Prophet Muhammad's life and sayings in laying the parameters for the subsequent Muslim discussions of leadership.

This is the first use of content analysis to examine the foundational leadership prototypes and concepts embedded in the Qur'an and the hadith, and thus to analyse the Prophet Muhammad as a referent and charismatic leader, whose life set the parameters for the subsequent understanding of Islamic leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to provide information about the extent to which sustainability is integrated into business school education and learning in the Asia Pacific region.

A survey was developed, and administered to business schools in the Asia Pacific region. In addition to measuring the number of courses and programs integrating sustainability, the study solicited qualitative observations by respondents, to provide information and insight into the issues.

The research found that whereas corporate governance, sustainability and business ethics were quite commonly taught in business schools, they were not generally prioritized. There was also an overall lack of systematic approaches to the integration of sustainability in business curricula, and significant barriers to the integration of sustainability into programs remained.

This is the first region‐wide survey of sustainability in business education in the Asia Pacific region.

Despite the number of articles over the past two decades mentioning the importance of the negotiation stage in the M&A process, there has been very limited theoretical development and empirical analysis emphasizing multiple factors critical to M&A negotiations. The purpose of our paper is twofold. First, we provide a review of the extant academic literature on negotiations in the M&A process. Then, drawing on the M&A process perspective and classical negotiation theory, we develop a framework to highlight major components of the M&A negotiation stage examined in existing studies and offer key insights of how this underdeveloped area of study is ripe with opportunities for future theoretical development and empirical research.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify issues concerning the implications and usefulness of the concept of supervenience in social analysis and research.

Supervenience refers to the notion that interaction in complex systems gives rise to superordinate phenomena, possessing qualities that differ from those of the interacting entities “below”. In order to discuss the application of the concept in sociology, the article draws upon the distinction between “weak” and “strong” supervenience. “Weak” supervenience characterizes the superordinate as being independent of any particular patterning at subordinate levels, while “strong” supervenience refers to the existence of tighter, more knowable, relationships between the super‐ and sub‐ordinate.

The paper finds that analyses of the social have long been preoccupied with supervenient properties. Indeed, sociological disciplines can be usefully characterized and distinguished in terms of whether they assume “weak” or “strong” supervenience in their analysis of human affairs.

The research needs further critical investigation of the use of supervenience in current sociological discourse and analysis.

Through discussing its already important place in social analysis, the article argues for the refinement and critical application of supervenience in future social studies.

The paper reviews and refines issues concerning the importance and implications of supervenience for sociological analysis and social research.

To highlight some of the tensions and complexities that persist in President Obama’s widening support of Marriage Equality during his second administration.

My primary research design uses autoethnographic detail and draws on two methodological frameworks: (1) the “personal is political” use of subjective voice in feminist theory (particularly in the writings of black feminists), and (2) the postmodern view of complex, “messy” and conflictual intersections of race, gender, sexuality, in the writings of critical race and queer theorists.

My primary finding highlights how macro social structural processes related to white privilege and racial domination and how micro cultural narratives contributing to homophobia and heteronormativity in African American religious circles creates both positive and questionable views of President Obama’s support of Marriage Equality, among African Americans heterosexuals, and within the African American LGBTIQ community.

The primary value of this chapter contributes to the discussion on the persistent tensions between religion, race, and sexuality, which make fragile allies between supporters of Marriage Equality and supporters of Civil Rights and racial justice.