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Though social trends are driving consumers toward solo consumption of various services, many are reluctant to do so. There is little guidance for service providers as to how to effectively induce solo consumption. This study aims to examine the joint effect of self-esteem and an incidental similarity cue (e.g. a person’s initials) on anticipated satisfaction with with a solo consumption experience to fill this gap.

This study used a two-factor (incidental similarity cue and self-esteem) quasi-experimental design to test the hypotheses. The respondents read a scenario depicting a solo service consumption experience and completed scales that measured perceived fit with the service context and anticipated satisfaction with the experience.

Results indicate that, in the absence of an incidental similarity cue, self-esteem has a positive effect on solo consumers’ perceived fit. In the presence of such a cue, however, self-esteem has a minimal impact on perceived fit. Furthermore, perceived fit mediates the effect of self-esteem on anticipated satisfaction when the cue is absent.

The authors’ findings suggest that promoting incidental similarities with consumers may not be an efficient strategy to attract solo consumers. Conversely, service providers wishing to induce solo consumption may benefit from situationally increasing self-esteem among potential solo consumers. The current research advances the authors’ understanding of the effect of an incidental similarity cue and self-esteem in the context of a growing social trend of solo consumption.

Although the organizational identity (OI) construct (Albert & Whetten, 1985) is now in its fourth decade, research in the field has been somewhat uneven, particularly with respect to an essentialist view and hypothetico-deductive type of studies. Believing that this stems in large part from insufficient construct clarity (Suddaby, 2010), this theory-development initiative presents an expanded conceptual framework. The authors exploit several key elements of individual identity and make the case for using these as the basis for conceptualizing an organizational-level equivalent. Starting with the premise that an individual’s identity is the product of comparisons, two dimensions are identified: the type of comparison (similarity, difference), referred to as the “identity conundrum,” and the object of comparison (self–other, self–self), referred to as the “identity perspective.” The authors then propose a four-cell distinctive conceptual domain for OI and explore its implications for scholarship.

The purpose of this paper is to explain why fractal, self‐similarity, and fractional Brownian motions are so pervasive in human systems.

The analysis involves mainly relative observation, Minkowskian observation, Euclidean observation, and fractional calculus.

It is shown that observation with informational invariance, which is a modeling of subjectivity, creates fractal, and self‐similarity.

This result could have an application to the quantitative analysis of volatility in finance, for instance.

The paper supports the use of fractional dynamics to describe human systems.

The paper provides practical arguments that may explain why fractals are so pervasive in natural science, and mainly in systems involving human factors.

Internet emergence has evolved the business of tourism companies, and every tourism company is available online and provides abundant choices, which causes consumers' confusion. The current study aims to investigate the interaction effect of demographic variables on confusion, decision postponement as a negative consequence of confusion and self-efficacy as a moderator in light of the stimulus organism response (SOR) model. Also, an attempt has been made to integrate the smart technology-based solution to deal with consumers' confusion.

Three-way ANOVA, Andrew Hayes process, structural equation modelling and random forest algorithm were used to assess the 507 self-filled questionnaire responses for examining consumers' confusion.

The results reveal that confusion decreases with increased education levels for each gender and age group. Also, for every gender and education level, consumer confusion increases and then decreases. Further, it was observed that self-efficacy effectively moderates the influence of different confusions on decision postponement. An artificial intelligence-enabled predictive model with an accuracy of 71.49% was established, which forecasts the possibility of consumers' decision postponement.

This study offers the comprehension of how the travel site administrators and stakeholders have used artificial intelligence-enabled solution for consumers' confusion and to reduce decision postponement.

To the best of the authors' awareness, this is one of the first studies to unveil the interaction effect of demographic factors on confusion, assess the role of self-efficacy as a moderator and provide artificial intelligence-enabled solutions for consumers' confusion.

This study aims to examine the effect of halal company identity includes halal identity similarity, halal identity distinctiveness and halal identity prestige on customer satisfaction and customer trust. Furthermore, it verifies the influence of customer satisfaction and customer trust on customer-company identification. Finally, it explores the effect of customer-company identification on halal restaurant loyalty.

This study selected a sample of halal restaurants in the area of Semarang City, Indonesia, using a purposive sampling method with a total of 520 respondents. The data analysis uses confirmatory factor analysis to identify discriminant and convergent validity and then structural equation modeling is used to validate the hypotheses.

The result showed that all aspects of halal company identity, namely, halal identity similarity, halal identity distinctiveness and halal identity prestige, significantly affect customer satisfaction. Halal identity similarity and halal identity distinctiveness insignificantly affect customer trust; however, halal identity prestige successfully affects customer trust. Both customer satisfaction and customer trust positively impact customer-company identification and, in turn, customer-company identification impacts halal restaurant loyalty.

This study contributes to the theory of halal tourism based on social identity theory and the theory of relationship quality in achieving customer loyalty of halal restaurants.

This paper aims to understand the relationships of complementary specialization, cognitive trust, affective trust, tie strength and similarity with group formation intention.

The data have been collected from 30 management students from a batch of 110 students of a premiere Indian business school. To assess the proposed relationship, multiple hierarchical regression was performed on collected data by using SPSS© 20.

The obtained results exhibited cognitive trust, affective trust and tie strength as significant predictors of dyadic group formation intention, whereas similarity and complementary specialization were not found.

The research on group formation is limited, and more particularly the functions of the above-mentioned factors on the group formation intentions of management graduates are yet to generalize. Therefore, present research is an early approach which tries to address the mentioned gap from a social network perspective and considers the group formation and social network literature.

This study aims to examine the effects of different types of endorsers (expert vs consumer vs celebrity) in testimonial vs non-testimonial message contexts on consumers’ responses toward direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA).

An online experiment was conducted with a 3 (endorser type: expert vs consumer vs celebrity) × 2 (message type: testimonial vs non-testimonial) plus control group (no endorser, no testimonial) factorial design to assess the various dependent variables.

Perceived source credibility and similarity was significantly different across the endorser types, and the expert endorser (i.e. a doctor) generated the highest mean level of source credibility, while consumer endorsers generate the highest mean source similarity. The interaction of endorser type and message type significantly impacted ad believability and skepticism. Specifically, the endorser type factor had a significant impact on the dependent variables only in the testimonial ad condition, but not in the non-testimonial ad condition. The effects were mediated by source credibility.

While the focused results show celebrities may not be the strongest choice to endorse when using testimonials, the overall lack of main effect of testimonials lends to the possibility of a plateauing of effects with the various appeals used in DTC ads. DTCA has now been around for over 20 years, and this study lends to the possibility consumers are becoming unaffected by the various appeals used by pharmaceutical manufactures and only respond when a multitude of personally relevant factors are in place.

Presents work carried out in the wider context of the IST Adrenalin project whose aim is to facilitate formation and lifecycle management of networked enterprises utilising concepts from two key information research areas. The approach described places heavy emphasis on the notion of mobile agent technologies and their adaptation for achieving the IT realisation of the above theoretical background. It covers specification, design and conceptual realisation of how information supply chains and routes can be organised and navigated across networked enterprise activities within the context of a branch independent model. Builds on the distribute and integrate concept as well as on the fractal idea by supporting self‐similarity, self‐organisation, self‐optimisation and dynamic organisational behavior. The harmonised combination of the concepts formulated in the Adrenalin theoretical framework and their IT realisation are employed within the context of a real‐world case study in an industrial ERP system.

Presents the most recent work carried out in the wider context of IST‐Adrenalin project, dealing with the facilitation, formation and lifecycle management of networked enterprises and organisations. In this respect, how information supply chains and routes can be organised and navigated across networked enterprise activities is specified, designed and realised in a conceptual way within the context of a branch independent model that builds on the fractal idea by supporting self‐similarity, self‐organisation, self‐optimisation and dynamic organisational behavior. The approach described places heavy emphasis on the need for interoperable, integrated, and cost‐effective business practices and capabilities within each individual organisation and across the supply as well as the value chains with respect to information technology. A reflection of the above approach will be realized by the efficient optimisation of the information supply chain and fractal company concepts which will in turn significantly affect the design and performance of the industry concerned (and particularly networked organisations).