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Drawing upon the stimulus-organism-response model, this study aims to explore the impact of soft aspects of service quality on revisit intention through the mechanism of perceived empathy.

For the examination of the hypothesized relationships, the study adopts structural equation modelling to analyse the data of 562 respondents (i.e. 281 family members and 281 inpatients).

The empirical results suggest that service quality increased family member empathy perception, which, in turn, improved inpatients’ revisit intentions.

Past studies have focused on the roles of overall service quality. The authors have extended the literature by examining the specific but important aspect of service quality and its effects on emotional response. Importantly, the study explains that the affective reactions of a patient’s family, fastened with perceived empathy, have a central role in influencing the patients’ subsequent reactions. Moreover, the prior studies collected the data either from hospital employees or patients. However, in the present study, the authors used a unique sample (family members as well as patients) to have a deeper understanding. Thus, the study enhances the literature on the stimuli-response (i.e. service quality – revisit intentions) relationship in the context of service marketing in general and health care in specific. Important academic and managerial contributions and recommendations for future research are discussed.

This paper's purpose is to explore the current interest and knowledge that UK consumers hold around agroforestry. Despite the many reported benefits of agroforestry systems, uptake in the UK, as well as other temperate nations, has been low. As the consumer has a role to play in the transition of agriculture to methods that are more environmentally friendly it is vital to have an understanding of their perceptions. Yet to date no work has looked at agroforestry from the perspective of the UK consumer.

An online survey was conducted using a convenience sample accessed by floating a link through social media and messaging apps. The survey was also shared to the members of a private Facebook group associated with an organic vegetable box service. A mix of multiple choice and open text boxes were used. The survey received 139 responses.

Non-parametric tests indicate that this sample of UK consumers would be mostly likely to buy, and willing to pay more for, agroforestry produce; and the sample showed a split group regarding familiarity. Inductive thematic analysis of the qualitative data highlighted some important barriers to the purchase as well as capturing a snapshot of this sample's perceptions.

This paper presents, to the authors knowledge, the first set of data regarding a sample of UK consumers' perspective of agroforestry produce. The findings could bolster producers' confidence in adopting agroforestry practices, but also highlight the need for policymakers to bolster consumer support through parallel means.

Recently, there has been a shift toward the embodied energy assessment of buildings. However, the impact of material service life on the life-cycle embodied energy has received little attention. We aimed to address this knowledge gap, particularly in the context of the UAE and investigated the embodied energy associated with the use of concrete and other materials commonly used in residential buildings in the hot desert climate of the UAE.

Using input–output based hybrid analysis, we quantified the life-cycle embodied energy of a villa in the UAE with over 50 years of building life using the average, minimum, and maximum material service life values. Mathematical calculations were performed using MS Excel, and a detailed bill of quantities with >170 building materials and components of the villa were used for investigation.

For the base case, the initial embodied energy was 57% (7390.5 GJ), whereas the recurrent embodied energy was 43% (5,690 GJ) of the life-cycle embodied energy based on average material service life values. The proportion of the recurrent embodied energy with minimum material service life values was increased to 68% of the life-cycle embodied energy, while it dropped to 15% with maximum material service life values.

The findings provide new data to guide building construction in the UAE and show that recurrent embodied energy contributes significantly to life-cycle energy demand. Further, the study of material service life variations provides deeper insights into future building material specifications and management considerations for building maintenance.

This study aims to investigate the role of interpersonal influence on consumer purchase decisions regarding foreign products, specifically by exploring consumers’ social reaction styles (acquisitive and protective) when confronted with normative pressures and their subsequent impact on consumers’ purchase behavior in the context of situational animosity.

Three studies were conducted in China to empirically examine the proposed research model. The US–China Chip War of 2022 was used as the research context for situational animosity, while the Japan–China relationship representing a stable animosity condition was used for contrast.

This study establishes the mediating role of perceived normative pressure in linking animosity attitudes to purchase avoidance in situational animosity. It also validates that consumers’ social reaction styles (acquisitive and protective) help predict distinct behavioral outcomes, holding significant implications for advancing research in the field of product and brand consumption.

This research provides a novel perspective by exploring consumers’ social reaction styles when dealing with normative pressure in situational animosity. The distinction between acquisitive and protective reaction styles adds depth and originality to the study. Moreover, this study examines consumer behavior in two distinct consumption contexts: switching intentions to local products and purchase intentions for products from offending countries in hidden consumption situations. This dual perspective offers a comprehensive exploration of consumers’ purchase behavior under normative pressure, contributing to the novelty of this research.

The present study aims to investigate the relationship between institutional influence and performance, mediated through transformational leadership (TL) and moderated by barriers, situational factors, communication and implementation.

Using a structured survey instrument, data were collected from 370 faculty members from 31 higher educational institutions in southern India. After checking the psychometric properties of the instrument, the authors used Hayes’s PROCESS to test the direct hypotheses and three-way interactions.

The results revealed that TL mediated the relationship between institutional influence and performance. Further, the findings supported the three-way interactions between (1) institutional influence, barriers and communication positively affecting TL; and (2) TL, situational factors and implementation affecting the performance of faculty members.

This study underscores the importance of TL for the smooth functioning of higher educational institutions and achieving superior performance, especially in the new normal context after the global pandemic.

This study makes several significant recommendations to administrators in higher educational institutions, in addition to contributing to the vast literature on TL. The study suggests that administrators must invest resources in developing TL skills so that employees reach their fullest potential and contribute to achieving organizational goals. In addition, leaders in organizations need to exercise a transformational style to combat the new normal post-pandemic academic environment.

This study provides new insights into the importance of TL style and institutional influence to enhance performance. To the best of our knowledge, the conceptual model developed and tested the first of its kind in India, significantly contributing to theory and practice.

The deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in travel and tourism has received much attention in the wake of the pandemic. While societal adoption of AI has accelerated, it also raises some trust challenges. Literature on trust in AI is scant, especially regarding the vulnerabilities faced by different stakeholders to inform policy and practice. This work proposes a framework to understand the use of AI technologies from the perspectives of institutional and the self to understand the formation of trust in the mandated use of AI-based technologies in travelers.

An empirical investigation using partial least squares-structural equation modeling was employed on responses from 209 users. This paper considered factors related to the self (perceptions of self-threat, privacy empowerment, trust propensity) and institution (regulatory protection, corporate privacy responsibility) to understand the formation of trust in AI use for travelers.

Results showed that self-threat, trust propensity and regulatory protection influence trust in users on AI use. Privacy empowerment and corporate responsibility do not.

Insights from the past studies on AI in travel and tourism are limited. This study advances current literature on affordance and reactance theories to provide a better understanding of what makes travelers trust the mandated use of AI technologies. This work also demonstrates the paradoxical effects of self and institution on technologies and their relationship to trust. For practice, this study offers insights for enhancing adoption via developing trust.