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The business landscapes in Asia and Africa are predominantly characterized by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) facing significant resource constraints. Understanding the capability dynamics of these enterprises in such contexts carries significant implications for theory and practice. This paper aims to addresses a crucial question of whether increasing customer involvement capability consistently yields the necessary rent for enterprises operating under resource constraints in emerging markets in Asia and Africa. By investigating this question, the paper offers SMEs a more nuanced approach to capability development, enabling them to achieve better returns on their investments.

To ensure the robustness of the findings, data were collected from SME service firms operating in two emerging economies: India (Asia) and Ghana (Africa). Data were collected in two waves to allow for catering to specific environmental conditions not accounted for in the study. Two-stage data analysis was then conducted to test the hypothesized relationships across the two countries.

The findings reveal that customer involvement capability does not always lead to an increase in firm-level competitiveness, and the effect follows an inverted U-shaped pattern. However, the nature of this relationship varies under different market conditions in both contexts. Specifically, in periods of low customer demand and intense competition, the relationship is linear and positive. On the other hand, in periods of high demand and competition, the relationship becomes inverted U-shaped, returning to a direct relationship with firm-level competitiveness.

This paper provides a resolution to the critical issue of whether customer involvement capability consistently delivers firm performance benefits, particularly for resource-constrained SMEs in emerging markets. By explaining how SMEs in emerging markets can fully capitalize on their capability development to optimize their resources, this paper makes a distinctive contribution. Moreover, it sheds light on the importance of aligning involvement capabilities with prevailing market conditions for SMEs to reap the maximum benefits.

The study advances an enhanced model encompassing psychological involvement, denoted as the psychological continuum model (PCM) and perceived customer service quality as intermediaries in the association between subjective customer knowledge (SCK) and behavioral loyalty. The purpose of this study is to assess the mediating role of psychological engagement and consumers' perceived service quality in the relationship between SCK and behavioral loyalty among members of nonprofit sports service organizations. Additionally, the study aims to examine the impact of membership duration on the relationship between consumer knowledge and behavioral loyalty.

The study used a quantitative research design, and primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire from 527 members of nonprofit Chinese sports clubs who were selected using a simple random sampling technique. A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was developed to measure all constructs in the intended research model. The suitability of the measurement model was analyzed by performing confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data using AMOS-24.

The results of the overall direct effect indicate a significant influence of subjective knowledge on perceived service quality, perceived service quality significantly and positively influences psychological engagement; psychological engagement was found to be an important predictor of consumer behavioral loyalty.

The results offer information for nonprofit sports club (NPSC) managers who seek to increase the attractiveness and retention of their clubs' members by establishing the importance of subjective consumer knowledge.

In 2014, the Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland published its Safeguarding National Policy and Procedures (HSE, 2014). Under this policy, all agencies providing services through the social care directorate must ensure a robust culture of safeguarding is in place. Concurrent to this has been a move in social policy, practice and research to include the voice of the service user, both in terms of planning and reviewing services. (e.g. HIQA, 2012; Flanagan, 2020) This article examines whether service users with intellectual disabilities want to be involved in safeguarding plans and, if so, how that can be supported. Using focus groups service users demonstrated their knowledge of safeguarding as a concept, how they felt about the issues raised, and, crucially what they felt they would like to see happen next in addressing a safeguarding incident or concern. The focus groups took place in a large organisation providing residential services, day services, independent living supports and clinical supports. Engaging service users in planning and responding to safeguarding concerns is a fundamental principle of human rights legislation, both nationally and internationally. This study aims to highlight that it is both possible and desirable to engage fully with service users using a range of simple communication tools. For this to be implemented as routine practice in services providing support for people with intellectual disabilities, authentic leadership is required. Services will need to devote time, human resources and will need champions to get on board with the necessary culture shift.

Qualitative research examined peoples’ “lived experiences” and knowledge of safeguarding. Focus groups were used with thematic analysis highlighting common themes throughout, as guided by Braun and Clarke (2006). There were two objectives: Objective 1: measuring participant’s understanding of the safeguarding process. Objective 2: compare the potential differences between safeguarding plans devised by the participants in the focus groups, versus plans devised by trained designated officers responsible for safeguarding within the service.

Four principal themes emerged – 1. participants understanding of safeguarding; 2. restorative justice; 3. consent; and 4. high levels of emotional intelligence and compassion. Participants demonstrated that they could and did want to be involved in safeguarding planning and showed little variation in the plans compared to those completed by trained staff.

The study was completed with a small sample size in a single service in one area. It may not represent the lived experiences and knowledge of safeguarding in other services and indeed other countries. The video may have led to some priming; for instance, the Gardai in the footage being called may have resulted in the participants stating that contacting Gardai should be part of the plan. After the video was shown, there was a heightened awareness of safeguarding. This may indicate that participants are aware of safeguarding but unsure of the terminology or how to discuss it out of context.

For this to be implemented as routine practice in services providing support for people with intellectual disabilities, authentic leadership is required. Services will need to devote time and human resources and will need champions in the safeguarding arena to get on board with the shift in culture required.

While there did not appear to be many barriers to listening to participants, to progress this as a standard practice a very real shift in culture will be needed. It is important for practitioners to ask: Is the vulnerable person aware that this concern has been raised? What is known of the vulnerable person’s wishes in relation to the concern? To truly engage with service users in safeguarding plans these questions need to be more than a “tick box” exercise. This process needs to be fully embedded into a culture that promotes a person-centred, rights-based, inclusive approach as a standard rather than a one-off project. Some structural changes will be needed regarding the time given to designated officers, and what resources they can access (such as speech and language therapy). However, the real difference will be made by services operating authentic leadership that champions engagement on this scale, to fully answer the question posed by the researchers at the beginning of this report, “Whose safeguarding is it anyway?”

There appears to be little evidence of service user engagement in terms of planning and processing safeguarding responses, either in research or anecdotally.

The authors' research examines how negative electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) alters focal customers' post-recovery justice perceptions and attitudes to determine their future behavior with the service provider. Specifically, this paper develops and tests a conceptual model to investigate how negative e-WOM alters focal customers' perceptual and attitudinal outcomes after the service recovery experience. It also examines the post-recovery effect of negative e-WOM on focal customers’ willingness to patronize the service after their recovery experience.

To test the hypotheses, two pretests and two experimental studies with created scenarios in the retail context were conducted.

The authors' findings reveal that services are judged during and well beyond failure and recovery occurrences. To maintain a loyal customer base, service managers should develop processes that address service complaints both within and beyond the service consumption stage. The authors also find that despite a favorable recovery, focal customers gravitate toward the failure experience and develop unfavorable attitudes toward the service provider, leading to likely defections.

The authors' research demonstrates the persuasive power of negative e-WOM at the post-service recovery stage, making a unique contribution to the service recovery literature. This research also contributes to the persuasive effect of negative e-WOM, demonstrating message context as a boundary condition of negative e-WOM effects. In general, the authors' work highlights the importance of understanding the psychological processes involved in eliciting the persuasive influence of negative e-WOM in the post-service recovery stage that may lead to the defection of “so-called” successfully recovered customers.

Globally, hepatitis C treatment uptake is lower among people who are homeless or unstably housed compared to those who are housed. Understanding and addressing this is essential to ensure no one is left behind in hepatitis C elimination efforts. This study aims to explore peoples’ experiences of unstable housing and health care, and how these experiences influenced engagement in hepatitis C treatment.

Purposive sampling was used to recruit people with lived experience of injection drug use, hepatitis C and unstable housing in Melbourne, Australia. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted and a case study approach with interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to identify personal experiential themes and group experiential themes.

Four people were interviewed. The precarious nature of housing for women who inject drugs was a group experiential theme, however, this did not appear to be a direct barrier to hepatitis C treatment. Rather, competing priorities, including caregiving, were personal experiential themes and these created barriers to treatment. Another group experiential theme was “right place, right time, right people” with these three elements required to facilitate hepatitis C treatment.

There is limited research providing in-depth insight into how personal experiences with unstable housing and health care shape engagement with hepatitis C treatment. The analyses indicate there is a need to move beyond a “one size fits-all” approach to hepatitis C care. Instead, care should be tailored to the needs of individuals and their personal circumstances and regularly facilitated. This includes giving greater attention to gender in intervention design and evaluation, and research more broadly.

Developing green innovative services is critical to the restaurant industry to achieve significant benefits as well as environmental sustainability. This study aims to explore the mechanisms through which employees’ green involvement can foster green service innovation behavior.

The data set garnered from employees who worked in restaurants was used to test these mechanisms. A partial least square technique was conducted on this data set.

The results revealed the employees’ green involvement significantly influences their green service innovation intention, which subsequently influences their green service innovation behavior. Furthermore, information technology (IT) adoption was found to fortify the linkage of employee green involvement with green service innovation intention.

The results suggest to the restaurant industry that awareness of green service innovation and IT adoption practices can help restaurants to develop effective sustainability work practices and meet societal expectations.

This study extends the restaurant management literature by linking the green involvement of restaurant employees to green service innovation intention as well as identifying the moderating role of IT adoption underlying this link.

The purposes of the present study were to analyse: (1) if there is a hierarchical relationship between cognitive dimension (attention) and emotional dimension (enthusiasm); (2) to what extent the cognitive and emotional dimensions of the customer engagement (CE) affect loyalty to consumer brands in traditional settings and in social media; and (3) if involvement moderates the relationships between cognitive and emotional dimensions of CE and between each CE dimension and the two kinds of loyalties (offline and social media).

The authors applied structural equation model on a sample of 272 passengers of main airlines operating the domestic Argentinian market in 2018. The authors also used multigroup analysis to combine involvement as a moderator variable.

Cognitive dimensions of engagement (attention) had a direct and positive effect on the emotional engagement (measured by enthusiasm). Capturing the attention of passengers is key to maintaining their loyalty both in offline and online environments, especially if they are lowly involved with brands.

The present study suggests and tests a model for the consequences of CE as a multidimensional construct in a specific service context.

Following the attitude formation approach and the hierarchy of effect of advertising theory, this study researched the dynamic of relationship between cognitive and emotional dimensions of CE. The results contribute on the line of considering CE as a process, including stages that consumers go through until they achieve the engagement with the brand. The results offer evidence of the specific impact of each CE dimension on loyalty at two environments (offline and social media).

本研究有以下三個目標：

(1) 、探討認知維度 (注意) 與情緒維度 (熱忱) 之間是否存在著一個等級關係;

(2) 、瞭解顧客契合的認知維度和情緒維度、分別在傳統的設置裡，以及在社交媒體內，影響消費者品牌忠誠的程度;和.

(3) 、研究參與會否調節顧客契合的認知維度和情緒維度之間的關係;再者，參與會否調節顧客契合每個維度與兩類忠誠 (即離線和社交媒體) 之間的關係。

我們以結構方程模型，分析一個涵蓋於2018年在阿根廷國內市場營運的主要航空公司272名乘客的樣本，我們亦以多組分析，把參與作為調節變數，合併在一起。

研究結果顯示，顧客契合的認知維度對情緒維度 (以熱忱來計量) 有直接和積極的影響。研究結果亦顯示，若要在離線、以及在網絡環境下維持乘客的忠誠，最重要的是公司需取得他們的注意，特別是當他們談及品牌時是卑微的。

本研究為瞭解在一個特定服務業的背景裡，顧客契合、作為多元的構建會帶來的結果，建議並測試了一個模型。

研究人員使用態度形成的理念和廣告的階層效果理論，去探討顧客契合的認知維度與情緒維度之間的關係的動態。研究的貢獻、在於視顧客契合為一個過程，而這個過程，包括了消費者若要與品牌齧合所需經過的階段。另外，研究結果為每個顧客契合，在離線和社交媒體兩個環境裡，對忠誠所產生特定的影響提供了證據。

Drawing on social exchange theory, this study clarifies the roles of authenticity, interactivity and involvement in predicting customer engagement (CE) and, ultimately, customer loyalty towards an online peer-to-peer accommodation platform. In addition, the study explores the effect of interactivity in increasing authenticity.

Data were collected through an online questionnaire of a sample of Italian tourists who had previously booked a service on Airbnb. The analyses were conducted by adopting partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The model has high power in predicting customer loyalty to an online peer-to-peer accommodation platform. Specifically, involvement is the primary predictor of CE and customer loyalty. Authenticity and interactivity also have a significant and positive effect both on CE and customer loyalty. In addition, CE partially mediates the relationship between authenticity, interactivity and involvement and customer loyalty. Finally, interactivity has a significant positive effect on authenticity.

The results encourage hospitality service providers to invest in the creation (and co-creation) of authentic experiences to increase CE and customer loyalty. Hospitality managers can also enhance CE by increasing involvement and interaction with customers through various touchpoints (online and offline) in different moments of the customer journey.

This study proposes an original model to predict customer loyalty to peer-to-peer hospitality platforms. The findings shed new light on the drivers of CE and provide empirical support for the mediating effect of CE. The study also contributes to the literature on authenticity by demonstrating the positive effect of interactivity on authenticity.

This paper shows how organisational agility allows companies to adopt the necessary changes to remain competitive and produce with a lower environmental impact, implying customers in the value chain.

This investigation uses a cross-sectional design to collect data on the study variables from a sample of 260 Spanish manufacturing organisations. Structural equations with PLS are applied to test hypotheses.

Results show that organisational agility is positively related to eco-innovation. Furthermore, eco-innovation results in a positive relationship with organisational performance. Finally, it has been found that customer involvement positively moderates the effect of organisational agility on new green processes and products and makes green product innovations more successful.

Conclusions indicate that would be advisable that innovative companies promote capabilities such as organisational agility, and integrating customer involvement throughout their value chain, for developing successful new green products increasing their results with a lower environmental impact. Likewise, the customer’s involvement in eco-innovation projects has been found, in companies with agile behaviours, that could aim to increase their performance, helping to react more quickly to market trends and saving money in product development.

This investigation addresses three gaps previously identified in the literature. Firstly, it covers a lack of research on how agility could foster green innovation and how this could positively affect their performance outcomes. Secondly, it studies a moderating factor, customer involvement, and its effects on the relationship between organisational agility and eco-innovation in product and process and between eco-innovation in product and organisational performance. Thirdly, it introduces dynamic capabilities theory through agility concept to study the dynamic context of the eco-environment.

Adopting a self-congruence theory (SCT) and service dominant logic (SDL)-informed perspectives; we develop a model that investigates the interface between social media involvement (SMI), self-brand congruence (SBC), customer-brand engagement (CBE), brand co-creation behavior (BCB), brand interactivity and behavioral intentions (BIN) with luxury service hotel–brands.

We test a sample of hotel-customers to probe this matter using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The results revealed that SBC and SMI positively impact CBE and BCB and behavioral intentions. The findings also exposed SMI’s and SBC’s indirect effect on customers' BCB and behavioral intentions, mediated through CBE. Finally, the results explored the moderating role of brand interactivity to enhance our model’s explanatory power.

We focus on SMI, CBE and BCB. This study contributes to the existing marketing and hospitality management research and spawns rich opportunities for further studies.

The study article assists marketers in comprehending the CBE-based antecedents and consequences and facilitates their increasing CBE, BCB and behavioral intentions.

While the growing insight into social media, customer engagement and co-creation within the service industries, little remains accredited concerning the link of these and related variables in the luxury hotel-brand context.