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This study examines the role of cognitive trust and the potential for relationship dissolution when consumers perceive themselves to be in a hostage relationship with their retail banking service provider. This study reviews current literature on relationship continuance intentions, hostage relationships and transaction‐based cognitive trust to develop testable hypothesis on the affect of cognitive trust in hostage relationships. Quantitative data gathered via a cross‐sectional survey is then analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that consumers who perceive themselves to be in a hostage relationship with their bank indicate significant cognitive trust in the transactional ability of their bank and are deterred from dissolving the relationship, regardless of their perception of the undesirability of the relationship. This paper provides evidence of the effect of cognitive trust as a deterrent of relationship dissolution in hostage relationships. Also provided are managerial and theoretical implications and directions for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the development and nomological testing of a 17‐item scale measuring the five dimensions of service convenience (decision, access, transaction, benefit, and post‐benefit) as proposed by Berry, Seiders, and Grewal.

A cross‐sectional survey methodology was used to collect the data.

Reliability and validity assessments provided evidence of the scale's psychometric validity. Service convenience was found to be a significant predictor of overall satisfaction in the context of personal cellular telephone and internet usage.

This study uses a student sample which may limit its generalizability to other respondents. Also, the cross‐sectional survey methodology does not allow for the investigation of causation. Future research should investigate other contexts outside of the cellular and internet services examined in this study and across a broader sample. Furthermore, the ability to retrospectively rate service convenience, the trade‐off between price and convenience, and the continuum of convenience need to be investigated further.

This study provides psychometrically valid scales to measure service convenience as conceptualized by Berry et al..

Contemporary frameworks on institutional theory and corporate environmentalism observe that institutional fields positively influence a firm’s environmental response in the form of implementation of environmental practices. These frameworks, however, provide little evidence on why firms facing similar institutional field differ in their environmental response. This paper aims to incorporate the intra-organizational dynamics within the traditional institutional theory framework to address this heterogeneity, examining specifically the role of absorptive capacity for environmental knowledge in the organizational implementation of corporate environmental practices.

Integrating the institutional theory and resource-based view, this paper examines the mediating role of absorptive capacity in the relationship between institutional pressure for corporate environmentalism vis-a-vis the implementation of corporate environmental practices. Partial least square structural equation modeling was used for hypotheses testing based on data obtained from the Indian apparel and textile industry.

The results support the mediating role of absorptive capacity in the relationship between institutional pressure and implementation of corporate environmental practices. Further, this study highlights the importance of acquisition and utilization of environmental knowledge in driving environmentalism through developing absorptive capacity; the findings also suggest that the role of institutional pressure in the implementation of environmental practices should not be analyzed in isolation but rather in conjunction with the development of absorptive capacity that forms the internal basis of implementation.

Managers need to focus on the development of organizational capabilities for acquiring and exploiting environmental knowledge to complement their preparedness in responding to any institutional pressures for environmental sustainability. Firms also need to link their environmental orientation with various sources of environmental knowledge and capabilities residing outside the organizational boundaries. It is important to note here that the development of absorptive capacities for the exploration and exploitation of external knowledge is indeed both required and necessary to build sustainable organizational capabilities.

This paper is among the very few studies that address the issue of knowledge and development of related organizational capabilities for corporate environmentalism. Recognizing that environmental knowledge resides outside organizational boundaries with regulatory agencies and special interest groups, this paper highlights the importance of developing organizational capabilities for the acquisition and exploitation of environmental knowledge.

The statements which have recently been made in various quarters to the effect that Danish butter is losing its hold on the English market, that its quality is deteriorating, and that the sale is falling off, are not a little astonishing in face of the very strong and direct evidence to the contrary furnished by the official records. As an example of the kind of assertions here alluded to may be instanced an opinion expressed by a correspondent of the British Food Journal, who, in a letter printed in the March number, stated that “My own opinion is that the Danes are steadily losing their good name for quality, owing to not using preservatives and to their new fad of pasteurising… .”

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

A pæan of joy and triumph which speaks for itself, and which is a very true indication of how the question of poisonous adulteration is viewed by certain sections of “the trade,” and by certain of the smaller and irresponsible trade organs, has appeared in print. It would seem that the thanks of “the trade” are due to the defendants in the case heard at the Liverpool Police Court for having obtained an official acknowledgment that the use of salicylic acid and of other preservatives, even in large amounts, in wines and suchlike articles, is not only allowable, but is really necessary for the proper keeping of the product. It must have been a charming change in the general proceedings at the Liverpool Court to listen to a “preservatives” case conducted before a magistrate who evidently realises that manufacturers, in these days, in order to make a “decent” profit, have to use the cheapest materials they can buy, and cannot afford to pick and choose; and that they have therefore “been compelled” to put preservatives into their articles so as to prevent their going bad. He was evidently not to be misled by the usual statement that such substances should not be used because they are injurious to health— as though that could be thought to have anything to do with the much more important fact that the public “really want” to have an article supplied to them which is cheap, and yet keeps well. Besides, many doctors and professors were brought forward to prove that they had never known a case of fatal poisoning due to the use of salicylic acid as a preservative. Unfortunately, it is only the big firms that can manage to bring forward such admirable and learned witnesses, and the smaller firms have to suffer persecution by faddists and others who attempt to obtain the public notice by pretending to be solicitous about the public health. Altogether the prosecution did not have a pleasant time, for the magistrate showed his appreciation of the evidence of one of the witnesses by humorously rallying him about his experiments with kittens, as though any‐one could presume to judge from experiments on brute beasts what would be the effect on human beings—the “lords of creation.” Everyone reading the evidence will be struck by the fact that the defendant stated that he had once tried to brew without preservatives, but with the only result that the entire lot “went bad.” All manufacturers of his own type will sympathise with him, since, of course, there is no practicable way of getting over this trouble except by the use of preservatives; although the above‐mentioned faddists are so unkind as to state that if everything is clean the article will keep. But this must surely be sheer theory, for it cannot be supposed that there can be any manufacturer of this class of article who would be foolish enough to think he could run his business at a profit, and yet go to all the expense of having the returned empties washed out before refilling, and of paying the heavy price asked for the best crude materials, when he has to compete with rival firms, who can use practically anything, and yet turn out an article equal in every way from a selling point of view, and one that will keep sufficiently, by the simple (and cheap) expedient of throwing theory on one side, and by pinning their faith to a preservative which has now received the approval of a magistrate. Manufacturers who use preservatives, whether they are makers of wines or are dairymen, and all similar tradesmen, should join together to protect their interests, for, as they must all admit, “the welfare of the trade” is the chief thing they have to consider, and any other interest must come second, if it is to come in at all. Now is the time for action, for the Commission appointed to inquire into the use of preservatives in foods has not yet given its decision, and there is still time for a properly‐conducted campaign, backed up by those “influential members of the trade” of whom we hear so much, and aided by such far‐reaching and brilliant magisterial decisions, to force these opinions prominently forward, in spite of the prejudice of the public; and to insure to the trades interested the unfettered use of preservatives,—which save “the trade” hundreds of thousands of pounds every year, by enabling the manufacturers to dispense with heavily‐priced apparatus, with extra workmen and with the use of expensive materials,—and which are urgently asked for by the public,—since we all prefer to have our foods drugged than to have them pure.

At the present time when all kinds of adulterants are being employed by many bakers in the manufacture of bread, and the food rations, and bread rations in particular, are considerably reduced, it is of the utmost importance that the public should take what steps they can to obtain a bread which contains a relatively high percentage of assimilable proteins. Many of the “ war breads ” which have been manufactured of late cannot be characterised as satisfactory and desirable products especially in view of the cases of acute indigestion which have been directly attributed to the use of such bread. One of the “ Die Hard ” fallacies, which continues to be promulgated by some members of the Scientific and Medical professions with obstinate regularity, is that the protein content of a food is an absolute indication as to its nutritive value. Nothing could be much more misleading or erroneous. It is quite possible for a food to contain a high percentage of substances described as proteins and yet to possess very little or no nutritive value for the average person inasmuch as many of the substances described as proteins may be entirely indigestible or nearly so. The nutritive value of any food to any given person is largely dependent upon the idiosyncrasies of the person, the amount of available protein present in the food, and certain other factors.

Within the service industry, the serviceperson enhances customer loyalty by increasing customer benefits and decreasing customer costs, but is also embedded within and influenced by the organizational context. Thus, the influence of a serviceperson's orientation may differ or even conflict with the organization's orientation. There are two purposes to this paper. The paper first aims to develop a conceptual model that clearly distinguishes between benefit‐ and cost‐based explanations of the effect of the serviceperson. The paper's second aim is to examine the impact of the organization on the serviceperson's ability to foster customer loyalty through interactions with customers.

A survey methodology is used and data gathered from managers and customers. Multi‐group structural equation modeling is employed to test partial mediation and partial moderation theses.

In line with social exchange theory, the paper finds that a serviceperson's customer orientation can reduce customer costs and increase customer benefits. Furthermore, consistent with the literature on strategic orientations, when the serviceperson's organization evinces a low competitive service orientation, it attenuates the direct effects of a serviceperson's customer orientation on customer loyalty, such that the direct effect no longer exists.

The paper shows how multiple direct and indirect pathways connect serviceperson customer orientation to customer loyalty. It also shows how the effect of serviceperson customer orientation on customer loyalty depends on the organizational context and specifically the extent to which the organization embraces a competitive service orientation. The moderating role of organizational context has implications both for social exchange theory specifically and theories of exchange, such as transaction cost analysis more generally.

With considerable international awareness of circular economy (CE), the purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework, informed by institutional theory and upper echelon theory (UET), to explain how top management commitment (TMC) mediates the relationship between external pressures and supplier relationship management (SRM) practices for CE.

The authors test the hypotheses using cross-sectional data gathered using a survey of companies involved in sustainability practices.

The results of the hierarchical regression and mediating regression analyses suggest that TMC positively mediates the effect of external institutional pressures on SRM.

The authors advance existing theory by integrating institutional theory and UET to explain SRM practices in sustainable supply networks. Furthermore, the authors offer guidance to managers who would like to engage in leveraging SRM in sustainable supply networks and outline future research directions.

This study aims to propose that the institutional environment exerts pressure on the behavior of wineries toward wine tourism development (WTD) and the effect of this influence confers legitimacy to the business of wine tourism.

Structural equation modeling through partial least squares was applied to estimate and validate a model using data from a quantitative survey in the universe of 62 wineries with a wine tourism component along the Alentejo Wine Route in Portugal. The proposed model is based on institutional theory through an inter-organizational perspective of wineries.

The results show that WTD coexists with a highly institutionalized environment, exerting distinctive mechanisms of external pressure together with the search for social legitimacy through actions and practices on the part of the involved wineries. However, the relationship between legitimacy and organizational performance in wineries with wine tourism is not validated.

The specific sample of the Alentejo wine companies does not allow the results to be generalized. Future studies should replicate the proposed research model using other geographic areas.

The results are particularly interesting for managers of wineries and should be considered in the decision-making and strategic processes regarding wine tourism.

The use of institutional theory in the wine tourism context is novel and original. This study fills a research gap by conducting an empirical investigation of wine tourism based on institutional theory, which allows the identification of exogenous factors that can influence and impose restrictions on the organizational behavior of winery companies toward wine tourism.