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In the competitive retailing environment, retailers who provide service experiences that stand out from the competition can gain a competitive advantage. Increasingly, an important aspect of the service experience involves product returns, in particular, the fairness of returns policies and procedures. Previous research studies support that interpersonal justice and informational justice relate positively to consumer attitudes and behaviors. In this paper, the authors examine the relative effects of interpersonal justice and informational justice on return satisfaction, positive word-of-mouth (PWOM) and trust. Additionally, the authors examine the moderating effects of returns process convenience and returns policy restrictiveness as indicators of procedural justice.

A scenario-based experiment methodology was used to test the relationships of interest.

Results support that the effects of interpersonal justice on the outcome variables are stronger than the effects of informational justice. There is also support for a moderating effect of returns process convenience on the relationships between interpersonal justice and each outcome variable, as well as partial support for the moderating effect of returns policy restrictiveness on the relationship between interpersonal justice and PWOM.

The research extends previous work on the effects of justice on customer outcomes. Results support the importance of retailers treating customers with fairness during the returns experience and further support the benefits of providing a convenient returns experience.

This study aims to answer two questions: do self-efficacy and outcome expectations serial mediate the effect of entrepreneurial education (EE) on the intention to start a business? and how can the social cognitive career theory explain entrepreneurial intention (EI)?

This study is based on the social cognitive career theory to examine the effect of EE on start-up intention via self-efficacy and outcome expectations by a serial mediation model. A sample of 1,232 students in Vietnam and the structural equal modelling method was used to test the hypotheses.

The results of this study reveal that entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) significantly mediates the effect of EE on the intention to start a business. Similarly, entrepreneurial outcome expectations (EOEs) mediate the association between EE and EI. Especially, the results of serial mediation analysis show that ESE and EOEs serially mediate the EE–intention relationship.

Under a new perspective of social cognitive career theory, the current study is expected to contribute to clarifying the gap in the relationship between EE and EI. In addition, this study also contributes to investigating the antecedents of ESE and outcome expectations and providing empirical evidence supporting the relevance of social cognitive career theory in explaining EI.

On the basis of the hierarchical organizational structure, this study investigated how empowering leadership influences hotel employees' proactive work behavior through multiple cross-level mediation processes. This study also investigated whether psychological empowerment, positive psychological capital, job characteristics and job embeddedness can activate the linkage of the aforementioned trickle-down effects.

This study draws data from 826 international tourist hotel employees at different times with hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses.

Multiple cross-level mediation analyses indicate that (1) psychological empowerment mediates the cross-level influences of empowering leadership on job characteristics and positive psychological capital; (2) positive psychological capital mediates the cross-level influences of empowering leadership on job embeddedness and proactive work behavior; and (3) job embeddedness mediates the cross-level influences of psychological empowerment and job characteristics on proactive work behavior.

In the post-pandemic era, the valuable trickle-down effects of empowering leadership could spill over into employees' positive beliefs of psychological empowerment, which ultimately benefit working responsibility and organizational operations.

The results support and suggest that maximizing the benefits of empowering leadership could eventually foster proactivity and performance in the workplace under hospitality and tourism settings.

This study aimed to develop an in-depth understanding of the outcomes of servant leadership at the team and organizational levels. It reviews the relationship between servant leadership and its team- and organizational-level outcomes, and examines the mediation and moderation effect of the relationship. It further identifies the mechanism by which servant leadership is beneficial to the organization.

A systematic literature review is conducted, focused on 52 articles published between 2012 and 2022. Content analysis and descriptive analysis were used to respond to the research questions.

A new conceptual model was developed to better understand the outcomes, mediators and moderators of servant leadership at team and organization level.

Future research should further explore outcomes of servant leadership at team and organizational levels and test how mediators affect the relationship between servant leadership and associated outcomes.

This study provides a framework for leaders on how servant leadership contributes to teams and organizations, and how a leader applies servant leadership.

This systematic review presents a new model that builds on existing research into servant leadership and its impact on team and organizational levels completed in the past decade. To date, there have been no reviews of servant leadership that focus only on outcomes at the team and organizational levels using a widely recognized database.

This paper aims to explore the effectiveness of ethnically targeted ads in developing consumer–brand relationships through an application of social identification theory and elaboration likelihood model among African American consumers in the service sector.

Study 1 used a 2 (service type: hedonic vs utilitarian) × 2 (strength of ethnic identification: high vs low) between-subjects experimental design. Study 2 used the same experimental design, procedure and ads as Study 1.

Taken together, the findings from these two studies demonstrate how ethnically targeted advertising, in conjunction with service type, can influence consumer–brand relationships. The results showed that those with high strength of ethnic identification had more brand love, as well as higher intentions to spread positive word-of-mouth, purchase intention and brand loyalty for hedonic services, but that this effect was not significant for utilitarian services.

The environments in which advertisements appear (e.g. in an in-store display or a magazine advertisement) is important, and consumers’ reactions to targeted ads in various environments should be considered in future research. Future studies should also examine the role of individuals’ personality traits and level of acculturation in determining their relationships with brands.

Across two studies, the authors demonstrated that ethnic ads are more effective for African American individuals with high level of ethnic identification especially for hedonic services.

A stylized fact in finance literature is the belief in positive relationship between ex ante return and risk. Hence, a rational investor, by utility preference axiom can only consider committing fund in asset which promises commensurate higher return for higher risk. Questions have been asked as to whether this holds true across securities, sectors and markets. Empirical evidence appears less convincing, especially in developing markets. Accordingly, the author investigates the nature of reward for taking risk in the Nigerian Capital Market within the context of individual assets and markets.

The author employed ex post design to collect weekly stock prices of firms listed on the Premium Board of Nigerian Stock Exchange for period 2014–2022 to attempt to answer research questions. Data were analyzed using a unique M Vec TGarch-in-Mean model considered to be robust in handling many assets, and hence portfolio management.

The study found that idea of risk-expected return trade-off is perhaps more general than as depicted by traditional finance literature. The regression revealed that conditional variance and covariance risks reveal minimal or no differences in sign and sizes of coefficients. However, standard errors were also found to be large suggesting somewhat inconclusive evidence of existence of defined incentive structure for taking additional risk in the market.

In terms of choice of methodology and outcomes, this research adds substantial value to body of knowledge. The adapted multivariate model used in this paper is a rare approach especially for management of portfolios in developing markets. Remarkably, the research found empirical evidence that positive risk-expected return trade-off, as known in mainstream literature, is not supported especially using a typical developing country data.

This study aims to investigate the fit of a promotion (prevention) focus with malicious (benign) envy and how this fit influences positive and negative behaviours, depending on the context.

Four empirical studies (two laboratory and two online experiments) were used to test key hypotheses. Study 1 manipulated regulatory focus and envy in a job application setting with university students. Study 2 engaged similar manipulations in a social media setting. Studies 3 and 4 extended the regulatory focus and envy manipulations to the general population in pay-what-you-want (PWYW) and pay-it-forward (PIF) restaurant contexts.

The findings showed that a promotion (prevention) focus fits with the emotion of malicious (benign) envy. In the social media context, promotion and prevention foci demonstrated negative behaviour, including unfollowing the envied person, when combined with malicious and benign envy. In the PWYW and PIF contexts, combining envy with a specific type of regulatory focus encouraged both positive and negative behaviours through influencing payments.

Future research could validate and extend this study’s findings with different product/service categories, cross-cultural samples and research methods such as field experiments.

The four studies’ findings will assist managers in formulating marketing strategies to enhance their positioning of target products/services, possibly leading to higher prices for PWYW and PIF businesses.

The conceptual model is novel as, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior research has proposed and tested the fit between envy type and regulatory foci.

The paper aims to empirically test a framework to predict the desire and intention to engage with an elective health-care procedure and implement a methodology to test the anticipated positive and negative emotions in hedonic adaptation to an elective procedure.

Two studies in USA and Australia (N = 1,200) confirmed the psychometric properties of the key constructs under the chemical peel condition. Two further studies in the USA and Australia (N = 1,100) explored the research question and hypotheses in the adapted model of goal-directed behaviour under the Botox condition. A survey was self-administered to online panels who had previously engaged in such elective procedures.

The findings highlighted the pragmatic implications for communication and activation strategies to safeguard consumer interests and retain their loyalty.

From the authors’ best understanding, neither a methodology nor a theoretical framework exists to explore hedonic adaptation to recurring engagement with elective health care. A methodology and theoretical framework will highlight the mood states and factors that predict desire and intention to engage. This can advance the research on hedonic adaptation and decision-making and offer pragmatic suggestions for communication and activation strategies to safeguard consumer interests and retain their loyalty.

China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a framework of regional connectivity in which employees have to work in a cross-cultural environment. This study has extended the leader-member exchange theory by investigating the mediating role of employee commitment (EC) between the relationship of leader-member exchange (LMX) and employee's work-related behaviors.

PLS-SEM technique was used to test the model by utilizing a multi-wave/two-source data collected from employees and their supervisors (n = 500) working in different energy projects of CPEC.

According to the results/findings, LMX has a significant positive impact on employee commitment, employee performance (EP) and open-minded discussions, but insignificant impact on innovative work behaviour (IWB). Mediating role of employee commitment was significant between the relationship of LMX with EP and open-minded discussions, but insignificant with the IWB.

The study contributes empirical evidence to understanding the leader-member exchange relationship among Chinese managers and Pakistani workers. It also contributes to the LMX theory literature by investigating the effect of LMX on followers' outcomes (employee performance, IWB, open-minded discussions) through employee commitment.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between owner-manager or leader’s ambidextrous leadership style and its effect on human resource management (HRM) practices, contextual ambidexterity and knowledge-intensive small- and medium-enterprises (SMEs) strategic agility.

This study presents an in-depth qualitative case study analysis of two knowledge-intensive SMEs from India’s information technology and health-care products industry serving a range of global clients. Using the theoretical lenses of empowerment-focused HRM practices, ambidextrous leaders, contextual ambidexterity and strategic agility, semi-structured interview data of leaders, managers and employees of the case organizations were analysed. Through a two-staged analytical process, we abductively developed a novel conceptual framework at the intersection of the above theoretical lenses.

The findings suggest that the knowledge-intensive SME’s strategic agility, ambidexterity and empowerment-focussed HRM approach was influenced by the owner-manager or leader’s ambidextrous leadership style and their philosophy towards managing people and had a positive impact in creating a culture of trust, participation, risk-taking and openness, and led to delivering innovative products and services as well as several positive employee-level outcomes.

Recent literature reviews on HRM In SMEs highlight several gaps, including the impact of owner-manager or leader’s philosophy of managing people in shaping HRM practices and employee outcomes. This paper thus adds to the existing literature on HRM and knowledge-intensive SMEs.