Search results

This study aims to investigate the impact of the audit committee chair’s trust on the quality of interactions between the external auditor and the audit committee chair in Hong Kong.

The research uses a questionnaire survey to gather data from the audit committee chairs of the listed companies in Hong Kong, with a response rate of 19.2%. Partial least squares structural equation modelling is used in this study.

The results reveal that the audit committee chair’s trust in the external auditor’s competence, integrity and goodwill is an important determinant of the interaction quality. The findings also show that interaction quality during the pre-engagement stage is important to mediate the relationships between the three dimensions of trust and interaction quality during the audit performance stage.

This is the first study, to the best of the author’s knowledge, that examines the impact of the audit committee chair’s trust in the external auditor on the quality of their interactions. The findings provide insights for board of directors, auditors and policymakers to implement policies that enhance trust between them to improve audit quality.

While there have been numerous studies on the antecedents and consequences of service quality, there has been little investigation of the moderators of service quality. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the effects of two moderators: service convenience and the social servicescape. The moderating effects are tested in two service settings: retail and hedonic (concert).

A survey of 270 customers at kitchen display showrooms and 320 concert‐goers was undertaken. The results were analysed using regression analysis.

The results show support for ten of the 12 hypotheses. Service convenience moderated the relationships between perceived service quality and its three sub‐dimensions (interaction, environment, and outcome quality), differently in different settings (retail vs hedonic). This supports the authors' general argument that the outcome dimension tends to be more important to customers in a retail setting, while interaction and environment quality dimensions tend to be more important in hedonic service consumption.

These findings suggest that managers need to use different service management tactics in retail and hedonic service settings. Specifically managers in retail settings need to pay more attention to service convenience to achieve service quality and managers in hedonic settings should concentrate on the social servicescape.

This paper is the first to test the moderating factors of service convenience and social servicescape on service quality.

The purpose of this study is to propose the research model integrating the expectation-confirmation model with the views of learning engagement (LE) and extending DeLone and McLean information systems (IS) success model to examine whether quality determinants as antecedents to students' beliefs can influence students' continuance intention of massive open online courses (MOOCs).

Sample data for this study were collected from students enrolled in a comprehensive university in Taiwan. A total of 600 questionnaires were distributed, and 363 (60.5%) useable questionnaires were analyzed using structural equation modeling in this study.

This study proved that students' perceived knowledge quality, system quality, interface design quality, learner–instructor interaction quality, and collaboration quality all positively caused students' perceived usefulness, confirmation and LE in MOOCs, which jointly explained students' satisfaction with MOOCs and subsequently resulted in students' continuance intention of MOOCs.

This study fully evaluates IS-related and interaction-related quality determinants via an understanding of students' state of LE in explaining students' continuance intention of MOOCs that is difficult to expound with only their utilitarian perception of MOOCs. Hence, this study contributes to deep insights into an all-round quality evaluation in the field of MOOCs continuance intention and takes extrinsic and intrinsic motivators into account in the theoretical development of MOOCs continuance intention to acquire a more comprehensive and robust analysis.

In the ever-increasing competitive market of private hospital industry, creating a strong relationship with the customers that shapes patients’ loyalty has been considered a key factor in obtaining market share. The purpose of this paper is to test a model of customer loyalty among patients of private hospitals in Iran.

This cross-sectional study was carried out in Tehran, the capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2010. The study samples composed of 969 patients who were consecutively selected from eight private hospitals. The survey instrument was designed based on a review of the related literature and included 36 items. Data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling.

For the service quality construct, three dimensions extracted: Process, interaction, and environment. Both process and interaction quality had significant effects on perceived value. Perceived value along with the process and interaction quality were the most important antecedents of patient overall satisfaction. The direct effect of the process and interaction quality on behavioral intentions was insignificant. Perceived value and patient overall satisfaction were the direct antecedents of patient behavioral intentions and the mediators between service quality and behavioral intentions. Environment quality of service delivery had no significant effect on perceived value, overall satisfaction, and behavioral intentions.

Contrary to previous similar studies, the role of service quality was investigated not in a general sense, but in the form of three types of qualities including quality of environment, quality of process, and quality of interaction.

Despite the importance of incorporating social media with customer relationship management (CRM), the implementation of social CRM is still in its initial stages for a majority of green brands. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether consumers’ perception-based factors of the online CRM tactics through social media (i.e. perceived marketer-dominated information quality, perceived interaction quality, and perceived service content quality in social media) offered by the green brand were related to the perceived customer retention orientation (CRO) of the green fashion retailer, which was related to patronage intention towards the green retailer, and the moderating effect of green consciousness on the link between perceived CRO of the green retailer and patronage intention.

Data were collected from social media users (n=631) using a consumer panel via an online survey. Structural equation modelling was employed to test the proposed model and research hypotheses.

This study found that the perceived CRO of the green retailer was positively related to patronage intention. The perceived marketer-dominated information quality and perceived service content quality in social media were positively related to the perceived CRO of the green retailer. Green consciousness moderated the link between perceived CRO and patronage intention.

First, this study contributes to the further theoretical understanding of the underlying factors that influence customer perception of the CRO of the green retailer and green patronage intention. Second, on a managerial level, this proposed model provides green retailers with beneficial insights into the development of successful social CRM.

The purpose of this study was to empirically investigate the role of e-service quality factors in predicting e-satisfaction. The study context was spirituality and well-being over-the-top services. The e-service quality factors consisted of perceived functional completeness, perceived performance, perceived quality of interface and interaction, perceived quality of content and information and perceived quality of customer support. The study goal was to ascertain over-the-top services customers’ behavioral intention toward upgrading to premium subscription and the spread of electronic word of mouth.

This study was based upon the integrated stimulus-organism-response framework where e-service quality represented the stimulus, e-satisfaction the organism, behavioral intention and electronic word of mouth as the response. The study used a moderated-mediation approach with e-satisfaction as the mediator and the price value of a premium subscription as the moderator. To empirically test the model, the authors collected data from 312 spirituality and well-being over-the-top services users in India. Partial least squares-structured equation modeling was used to analyze the collected data.

The findings of the study supported the association between e-service quality factors and e-satisfaction while using spirituality and well-being over-the-top service. The results furthermore indicated that satisfied spirituality and well-being over-the-top customers were willing to upgrade to the premium subscription and spread favorable electronic word of mouth. The moderated-mediation study results revealed that the price value of premium subscriptions moderated the relationship between e-service quality and e-satisfaction but did not moderate the relationship between e-satisfaction and behavioral intention, and e-satisfaction and electronic word of mouth.

This study offered a comprehensive stimulus-organism-response theoretical model by using the five e-service quality measurement factors as “stimuli” for motivating the internal state of spirituality and well-being over-the-top subscribers. This was toward sustained usage in over-the-top services subsequent to the end of the freemium period. Furthermore, in this study, both e-service quality theory and user satisfaction theory were integrated into the stimulus-organism-response model. This helped to better comprehend the impact of e-service quality factors in driving e-satisfaction among spirituality and well-being over-the-top service users.

This study revealed the significance of differentiating premium over-the-top subscriptions based on price value. To ensure a high level of e-satisfaction from a premium subscription, a greater emphasis on the e-service quality dimensions was required. This study provided insights to managers regarding the role of favorable electronic word of mouth in fostering effective customer acquisition.

This was one of the first studies which concurrently integrated perceived value of the premium subscription and e-satisfaction with customers’ behavioral intention and electronic word of mouth through the theoretical lens of stimulus-organism-response.

The research on consumerism has been dramatically rising in recent decades. However, in the food industry, little research has been empirically conducted in the beverage industry. This research empirically tests the consequences of consumer perceptions: perceived price (PPR), perceived quality (PQ), perceived packaging (PPG) and perceived taste (PT) on repurchase intention (RI) particularly; it unveils the consumer attributes, e.g. gender, age and ethnicity between consumer perceptions and RI of the consumers.

The data were collected from 403 consumers of the beverage industry (e.g. Nestle, Mitchell's Fruit Farms, Murree Brewery and OMORE) in Pakistan. The researchers used online survey questionnaires followed by a cross-sectional approach because data collection physically was not possible due to COVID-19.

Data were analyzed by Smart partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) 3.3.3, and the results supported the significant influence of consumer perceptions separately, e.g. PPR, PQ, PPG and PT on RI. Additionally, gender, age and ethnicity were found to have a moderating role between consumer perceptions and RI, so, the truth of having consumer attributes has been revealed.

The managers of beverage industries should provide ethical and operational strategies to tackle consumer's problems based on cultural norms. Furthermore, they should make sensible measures for the quality branding of the beverage products. In this way, the consumers will have a better experience of quality, price, taste and packaging, in turn, to RI.

This research targeted the beverage industry that needs facts and figures based on consumer attributes, e.g. age, gender and ethnicity. This research also disclosed the behaviors of consumers according to their gender, age and area of residence.

The purpose of this study is to explore how service employee choice and use of language to initiate and maintain conversation with second generation immigrant customers (SGIC) influence customer evaluation of the service encounter, and whether such employee acts may lead customers to employee switching, branch switching (i.e. switching from one to another location within the same brand) and/or brand switching (switching to another brand altogether).

A scenario-based between-subjects experiment of 4 (employee: match, adapt, bilingual, no adapt) × 2 (fast food, post office) × 2 (English, Spanish) was used to examine the SGIC response to service encounters in different contexts arising from employee choice and use of language. These scenarios were complemented with a series of measurement scales. The instruments, which were identical except in scenario sections, were administered on 788 second-generation Mexican American customers, resulting in 271 (fast food) and 265 (post office) effective responses.

In both service contexts, when employees initiated conversation that matched (English or Spanish) the customer expectations, the SGIC perceptions of interaction quality was higher as compared to other scenarios, leading to subsequent satisfaction and lower switching intentions (employee and branch). Similarly, interaction quality was higher for adapt scenarios as compared to bilingual or no adapt scenarios. Bilingual customers perceived higher interaction quality in bilingual/no-adapt scenarios when compared to monolingual customers. In both contexts, service quality and satisfaction were associated with employee switching and branch switching, but not with brand switching.

By utilizing interaction adaptation theory to conceptualize the effects of employee choice and use of language, the study grounds the model and the hypotheses in theoretical bases and provides empirical corroboration of the theory. The study also contributes toward understanding the service encounters from the perspective of an overlooked group of vulnerable customers: second-generation immigrants.

Service research cautions service providers that a key factor in attracting and retaining customers is having detailed communication guidelines and empowering employees to follow those guidelines. The findings go a step further and underscore the critical role of communication from a managerial standpoint. It is in the interest of service organizations to develop guidelines that will govern employee choice and use of language during service encounters. So doing is commercially justified because unguided employee choice and use of language can result in customer switching and attrition.

The juxtaposition between assigned versus asserted identities is an important one not only in social sciences but also within service research. As service encounters grow increasingly multicultural, the need to educate employees on multiculturally appropriate communication etiquette rises in importance. The findings should encourage service firms and local governments to develop formal communication guidelines that begin with multiculturalism as a central tenet permeating all aspects of employee–employee, employee–customer and customer–customer communications. Service providers ought to take precautionary measures to ensure customers will be empowered to assert their identities in their own terms, if they wish so.

The study demonstrates how employee choice and use of language during service encounters may thwart SGIC, who might view such employee behaviors as acts of identity assignment and, consequently, feel stigmatized, marginalized and offended; and links such customer experiences to switching behavior through mediatory mechanisms.

The purpose of this paper is to show how individuals perceive the quality of intercultural interactions at work in multinational subsidiaries and to address the question of what actually prevails in their accounts, i.e., “the dark side” or “the bright side.”

The authors report the findings from five subsidiaries located in Poland and interviews with 68 employees of these companies.

The “bright side” dominated the interviewees’ accounts. The phenomenon of high social identity complexity or common in-group identity can help explain the findings. The results also shed some new light on the associations between the context of subsidiaries and the perception of the quality of intercultural interactions.

The paper contributes to the literature on cultural diversity and intercultural interactions in multinational subsidiaries. As the “bright side” of interactions was emphasized in the interviews, it particularly supports positive cross-cultural scholarship studies. Yet the explorative research does not allow for a broader generalization of the results.

Managers of multinational corporations (MNCs) should do the following: shape the context of MNCs to influence the dynamics of intercultural interactions and the way they are seen by their employees; emphasize common in-group identity to help their employees to adopt more favorable attitudes toward intercultural interactions; look for individuals with multicultural identity who display more positive approaches to intercultural contacts; place emphasis on recruiting individuals fluent in the MNC’s functional language; offer language training for the staff; and recruit employees with significant needs for development who will perceive more opportunities in intercultural contacts.

The research demonstrates that the multicultural workplace of MNCs may be recognized by employees as activating the positive potential of the individuals and organizations that make up a society.

The accounts of intercultural interactions are analyzed to illuminate some significant foundations of how individuals perceive such interactions. The study provides a qualitative lens and highlights the positive approach to intercultural interactions. It may redress the imbalance in prior research and satisfy the need for positive cross-cultural scholarship.

The advent of technology has propelled audit firms to incorporate AI-based audit services, bringing the relationship between audit clients and firms into sharper focus. Nonetheless, the understanding of how AI-based audit services affect this relationship remains sparse. This study strives to probe how an audit client's satisfaction with AI-based audit services influences their trust in audit firms. Identifying the variables affecting this trust, the research aspires to gain a deeper comprehension of the implications of AI-based audit services on the auditor-client relationship, ultimately aiming to boost client satisfaction and cultivate trust.

A conceptual framework has been devised, grounded in the client-company relationship model, to delineate the relationship between perceived quality, perceived value, attitude and satisfaction with AI-based audit services and their subsequent impact on trust in audit firms. The research entailed an empirical investigation employing Facebook ads, gathering 288 valid responses for evaluation. The structural equation method, utilized in conjunction with SPSS and Amos statistical applications, verified the reliability and overarching structure of the scales employed to measure these elements. A hybrid multi-analytical technique of structural equation modeling and artificial neural networks (SEM-ANN) was deployed to empirically validate the collated data.

The research unveiled a significant and positive relationship between perceived value and client satisfaction, trust and attitude towards AI-based audit services, along with the link between perceived quality and client satisfaction. The findings suggest that a favorable attitude and perceived quality of AI-based audit services could enhance satisfaction, subsequently augmenting perceived value and client trust. By focusing on the delivery of superior-quality services that fulfill clients' value expectations, firms may amplify client satisfaction and trust.

Further inquiries are required to appraise the influence of advanced technology adoption within audit firms on client trust-building mechanisms. Moreover, an understanding of why the impact of perceived quality on perceived value proves ineffectual in the context of audit client trust-building warrants further exploration. In interpreting the findings of this study, one should consider the inherent limitations of the empirical analysis, inclusive of the utilization of Facebook ads as a data-gathering tool.

The research yielded insightful theoretical and practical implications that can bolster audit clients' trust in audit firms amid technological advancements within the audit landscape. The results imply that audit firms should contemplate implementing trust-building mechanisms by creating value and influencing clients' stance towards AI-based audit services to establish trust, particularly when vying with competing firms. As technological evolutions impinge on trustworthiness, audit firms must prioritize clients' perceived value and satisfaction.

To the researcher's best knowledge, no previous study has scrutinized the impact of satisfaction with AI-based audit services on cultivating audit client trust in audit firms, in contrast to past research that has focused on the auditors' trust in the audit client. To bridge these gaps, this study employs a comprehensive and integrative theoretical model.