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The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of e-business implementation (in terms of internal integration and external diffusion) on organizational performance through the mediating effects of differentiation, enterprise agility, customer relationship development and partner attraction.

A survey of franchisors was conducted across the USA and Spain. Before running the model, the paper tests for measurement invariance across the two country samples. The paper uses structural equation modeling to test the conceptual model.

The results of the measurement invariance suggest that all the constructs supported this characteristic, except for internal integration. External diffusion leads to differentiation, enterprise agility, relationship development and partner attraction for American and Spanish firms. However, internal integration has no impact on any outcome in the USA while, for Spanish firms, it has a positive and direct effect on economic performance. The full mediating role of non-financial performance between external diffusion and organizational performance depends on the country analyzed. While differentiation and relationship development fully mediate this relationship in the US sample, in the Spanish sample, the advantages of external diffusion are transferred through differentiation, enterprise agility and partner attraction.

–The paper suggests that franchise firms should not focus on the direct effect of e-business implementation on performance. Instead, franchisors should consider that its effect on performance is achieved through greater differentiation, relationship development, enterprise agility and partner attraction. So, the paper suggests that franchisors should think about the long-term effects of the advantages obtained from implementing e-business.

This study contributes to IS research by identifying the link between internal integration and external diffusion and organizational performance through the examination of the mediating role of non-financial performance measures in two countries. Compared with previous research, the paper first analyzes measurement invariance across countries to provide unbiased results.

This paper suggests that motives for engaging in affiliative‐promotive “helping” extra‐role behavior is related to cross‐cultural differences. The cultural dimensions of in‐group collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, performance orientation, and humane orientation, and their differential effect on helping extra‐role behavior in a diverse workforce are examined. Theoretical implications provide guidance for future empirical research in this area, and provide managers with more realistic expectations of employee performance in the workplace.

Rural consumers’ in- and out-shopping intention has been a research topic for many years. This study investigates the relationship between social identity and rural consumersʼ intent to shop within their local community, along with a number of moderating demographic variables. Using a sample of respondents from the Midwest, this study found a significant and positive relationship between rural consumers who socially identify with people in their local community and their intent to inshop. The influence of several demographic moderators is also explored, and implications for practice and future re-search are discussed.

Americans who travel internationally are often shocked to discover retail outlets closed during weekend and evening hours in cities such as Paris, Rome and Berlin. Based on the implicit assumption that demand clearly exists, retailers at various locations throughout the globe have increased their hours of operation. While political debate regarding a variety of issues (costs, the rights of labor, religion, etc.) often rages, there has been an implicit assumption that latent demand for longer hours of operations exists. This study investigates through a longitudinal examination consumer perceptions of Saturday shopping in a country where such an activity was previously restricted. Specifically, studies perceptions of Saturday shopping among a sample of German college students who were raised with limited Saturday shopping hours. Data were gathered in 1996 – the year German legislation allowed expanded hours for retailers – and again in 1999, and comparisons are made. Strong differences are found between consumer attitudes towards Saturday shopping at the time of expansion and three years later, indicating the need for differentiating retail strategies in Germany and in other parts of the world that may soon be providing similar expanded retail access.

This paper explores from a US perspective two size‐related issues that may motivate aspiring franchisees to consider multi‐unit franchising as a superior alternative to the traditional single‐unit approach. First, one of the reasons for multi‐unit franchising might be the enhanced influence opportunity upon the franchisor’s decision making that arises from owning multiple outlets. Second, a potential franchisee may be interested in engaging in multi‐unit franchising in the anticipation of scale efficiencies, i.e. efficiencies that arise because of the size of the operation. The managerial relevance of the discovered issues and their potential for future research is outlined.

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to test the effect of consumers’ readiness level to use new technology on their intention to use mobile payment applications based on the technology readiness and acceptance model (TRAM). In detail, it examines how the dimensions of TR as ‘optimism, innovativeness, discomfort, and insecurity’ affect consumers’ intention to utilise mobile payment applications. Moreover, the effect of the technology-accepting behaviour measured by two major factors as ‘perceived usefulness’ and ‘perceived ease of use’ on the intention to use mobile payment applications is also examined.

Need for the study: The existence of a mobile system alone is not enough to attract consumers with no user experience to these applications. The user-centred attribute in the usage of these applications, which involves the influence of technology readiness (TR), has been largely ignored especially in developing countries. By focussing on this area, it is expected to fill the gap that has not been sufficiently handled in the developing country settings and, particularly in Turkey.

Methodology: The study population consists of the consumers who live in İstanbul who is aged 18 and over and use mobile payment technology at least once. After collecting data, confirmatory factor analysis was applied to validate the measurement model. Afterward, the structural model was tested by the Maximum Likelihood-MI estimation method, and the bootstrap samples were stated as 5,000.

Findings: When the results of the study are examined, it is seen that optimism has a significant influence on the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use dimensions of the technology acceptance model, while innovativeness is significant only on the perceived ease of use. This study results also show that discomfort and insecurity don’t significantly influence the perception of usefulness and easy-to-use mobile payment applications as perceived by individuals. Perceived ease of use is to positively affect the perceived usefulness. Additionally, the perceived ease of use and the perceived usefulness are strong predictors of intention to use mobile payment applications.

Practical implications: Findings of this study demonstrate the validity of the technology readiness and acceptance model for explaining the intention of using mobile payment applications in Turkey. To improve consumers’ intent in the usage of m-payment apps, their level of technological readiness towards technology should be determined and the factors that affect the formation of insecurity and discomfort attitudes of individuals should be emphasised.