Search results

This study aims to explore and extend the consumer–brand relationship literature by integrating the relatively new construct of brand coolness with a growing body of work on gratitude. Specifically, gratitude is explored alongside emotional brand attachment as an additional mechanism affecting the relationship between cool brands and the loyalty outcome of repurchase intention. Consumption context is examined as a boundary condition to the effect of gratitude.

Data was collected from an online survey of a Qualtrics panel of 356 US consumers. A moderated mediation model is used to explain the effects of brand coolness on repurchase intention via emotional brand attachment and brand gratitude in the moderating presence of consumption context.

Brand coolness significantly increases repurchase intention. Furthermore, emotional brand attachment and brand gratitude are established as parallel mediators of the relationship between brand coolness and repurchase intention, with brand gratitude exhibiting a significantly stronger mediated effect. The impact of brand coolness on brand gratitude is moderated by social visibility, with publicly consumed cool brands stimulating greater brand gratitude than their privately consumed counterparts.

Brand gratitude is shown to influence repurchase intention independent of the impact exerted by consumers’ emotional brand attachment. Cognitive appraisal theory is used to distinguish brand gratitude from other mediators studied in consumer–brand relationships. Findings establish the moderating influence of the social visibility of the brand on the relationship between brand coolness and gratitude.

This study aims to investigate the relationships between the perceived neighborhood walkable environment (PNWE), neighborhood interaction (NI) and residents’ mental health, with a focus on examining differences among residents of different age groups.

Using an electronic survey questionnaire, data on PNWE, NI and mental health were collected from 1,159 residents across 205 communities in Shanghai, China. Our study utilized a structural equation modeling (SEM), employing the maximum likelihood estimation method. The structural equation model was fitted using the MPLUS software.

The mental health of young and middle-aged adults is generally poor, and they are at higher risk of depression than children and older adults. The effects of PNWE and NI on the mental health of residents varied among different age groups. As residents get older, their mental health is more affected by the PNWE. In addition, the influence of the PNWE on children and older adults’ mental health is direct and not mediated by NI. For young and middle-aged adults, the influence of the PNWE on their mental health needs to be mediated by NI.

This study marks the first examination of the relationship between PNWE, NI and mental health among different age groups of residents in China. The findings of this research can assist policymakers in gaining a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms by which PNWE affects mental health. Furthermore, it can contribute to the development of more targeted walkable environment designs aimed at enhancing mental health among various age groups.

This paper aims to explain the occurrence of sustainable entrepreneurship in the underresearched sub-Saharan Africa context and to improve the understanding of how effectuation manifests in this context.

This study uses a qualitative research approach based on multiple case studies. Responses were sourced from owners, employees, suppliers, the community and customers of sustainable entrepreneurial firms. Data collection methods included in-depth interviews, document reviews and observations. The Gioia analytical approach was used.

Overall, the authors find the concept of effectuation to be well-suited to capturing the processes through which individuals with limited means seek to engage in sustainable entrepreneurship. The authors also identify three pervasive practices that are key to understanding effectuation in the developing country context: complementation of indigenous knowledge with modern science, compassion and pluriactivity.

This study underscores the importance of co-creation, diversification of revenue sources and the role of emotional awareness and interpersonal skills in entrepreneurial endeavors.

This study, therefore, contributes new knowledge about the mechanisms through which entrepreneurs faced with resource constraints use control as opposed to prediction strategies to exploit sustainable entrepreneurship opportunities. In so doing, this study contributes to entrepreneurship theory by proposing the integration of cognitive and affective dimensions in realizing sustainable entrepreneurship goals.

With the increased demand for the application of technology in property activities, there is a growing need for property professionals adept in using digital technology. Hence, it is important to assess the competence of academia in equipping property professionals with digital technology skills. This study, therefore, assesses property academics in Australian universities to identify their level of knowledge and use of digital technology applicable to the property industry.

Online questionnaire surveys were administered to 22 out of 110 property academics contacted through the Australia Property Institute (API) database to achieve this aim. The collected data were analysed using mean score ranking and ANOVA.

The study found that apart from databases and analytics platforms such as Corelogic RP data, price finder and industry-based software such as the Microsoft Office suite and ARGUS software, the academics were not knowledgeable in most identified and sampled proptech tools. Similarly, most proptech tools were not used or taught to the students. It was also found that early career academics (below five years in academia) were the most knowledgeable group about the proptech tools.

Relying on the API database to contact property academics potentially excludes the position of property academics who may not be affiliated or have contacts with API, hence, the findings of this study should be generalised with caution.

The study bears huge implications for the property education sector and industry in Australia; a low knowledge and use of nascent tools such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, drones, fintech, which have received intense interest, reveals some level of skill gap of students who pass through that system and may need to be upskilled by employers to meet the current day demand.

In response to the clamour for technology-inclined property professionals, this paper presents itself as the first to assess the knowledge levels and application of digital technology by property academics.

The aim of this paper is to generate a streamlined, transparent and effective instrument to fairly measure the contribution made by each student to a group project within a higher education context. The primary aim is to moderate the grades of underperforming students at the end of the project. There is a secondary benefit in alerting underperforming students to raise their contribution mid-task or face a potentially reduced grade at the final stage.

The development of this multi-dimensional instrument is guided by findings from previous research. The quest is to minimise the instructor's administrative work load in applying a moderation-only instrument that is open-source and available at no cost. Based on the literature, the survey instrument seeks to apply a peer-based, equitable and transparent evaluation of each member's contribution to a group task. The survey is applied at mid-task and again at end-task in order to afford underperformers the opportunity to address contribution deficits during the final phase of the project.

The instrument, called TANDEM©, offers a transparent, streamlined, equitable, confidential and practical measure of each student's contribution to a graded group task. Students whose end-task contribution falls below the group average rating receive a proportional reduction in their personal grade. Additionally, the end-task moderation instrument captures a single-item holistic measure of relative contribution that may, in the future, serve as a surrogate for the multi-dimensional measures currently in place.

TANDEM© was developed with group sizes of four or five members in mind. There is no evidence to support its application to three-person groups. Moreover, the application was applied only amongst under-graduate students. It is yet to be applied across post-graduate groups and within online learning environments. Future research into diverse cultural settings would serve to advance understanding of how moderation is perceived across borders.

Several existing group grade moderation methods propose complex algorithms that are “black box” solutions from a student's perspective. In establishing a fair, streamlined, confidential and transparent process for peer-rated moderation, TANDEM© deploys a concise instrument with a relatively small administrative load. TANDEM © may be applied to all groups or can selectively be applied to groups that report moderate, strong or extreme levels of conflict.

Students will appreciate the opportunity to rate peer contributions to group projects. This will dissipate the negative social sentiment that may arise when fellow students benefit from the work of others. Those students seeking conflict resolution within the group will value the transparent and equitable moderation of grades as well as the positive social implications that follow.

This research forms part of an ongoing quest to present a moderation instrument that fairly identifies student contribution to a group project. Whilst the solution proposed is one of many existing alternatives, its focus is on a practical moderation-only instrument that can immediately be applied to a course or major. The benefits lie in the ease of application and minimal administrative workload. This constitutes an original contribution to the individual (course or major) coordinator who seeks to apply a moderation-only instrument without having to commit to an extensive, broad-based group optimisation programme.

This paper examines gender diversity in the Australian valuation industry from the perspective of valuers in senior management and leadership roles and discusses gender diversity policies and practices in their organisations. Then, it explores the initiatives that can be implemented to improve gender diversity in the Australian valuation industry.

A focus group discussion was conducted with valuers in senior management and leadership roles from selected large valuation firms and government valuation agencies in Melbourne, Australia. Data collected through the focus group discussion was combined with secondary data sourced from journals, online articles and archival materials.

The findings reveal that whilst gender diversity in the Australian valuation industry has improved over the years, females remain underrepresented. Nonetheless, whilst some valuation companies have recognised the need to address the underrepresentation of women and introduced specific gender-focussed human resource policies and practices, these initiatives are not streamlined and implemented across the industry.

The study highlights the need for closer collaboration between key stakeholders such as universities, professional associations, valuation companies and government agencies in devising strategies to attract female talents into the valuation industry.

The paper is the first empirical study to assess gender diversity in the Australian valuation industry from the perspective of valuers in management and leadership roles. The proposed policies can inform future initiatives to improve gender diversity in the valuation industry.

While sustainability experts point to interrelated social, economic and environmental goals, students may think about sustainability primarily as natural resources. To prepare students to tackle global challenges to well-being, this paper aims to show that educators need to assess and address students’ shortcomings in considering socioeconomic dimensions.

This study coded essays on the meaning and components of sustainability written by 93 undergraduate and graduate students in environmental policy, business and engineering courses at US and Austrian universities. Then, the study reviewed a teaching strategy using diverse experts, case studies and assignments. Finally, the analysis evaluated students’ final projects proposing sustainability legislation with social, economic and environmental dimensions.

Students usually connect sustainability with limited natural resources affecting current and future generations, but seldom think that sustainability means acting on prominent socioeconomic challenges like poverty, food insecurity, pandemics and violence. Teaching in diverse courses through multidimensional case studies and legislation broadened and deepened students’ understanding and preparedness to act.

Despite experts’ attention to the interconnected Sustainable Development Goals, educators and policymakers need information on whether students associate sustainability with socioeconomic challenges. Open-response questions can reveal gaps in the respondents’ sustainability beliefs. In a wide range of courses, teaching can use diverse experts and multidimensional case studies and legislative assignments.

This paper aims to understand how immigrant entrepreneurs use digital opportunities to overcome the liability of newness and foreignness and how an immigrant's ethnicity can be digitally performed as an asset in business.

The study adopts an inductive multiple case study approach using social media content. The data consist of over 3,500 posts, images and screenshots from Facebook, Instagram and the webpages of seven successful Vietnamese restaurants in Sweden. Grounded content analysis was conducted using NVivo.

The findings suggest that digitalising ethnic artifacts can mediate and facilitate three digital performances that together can turn ethnicity from a liability to an asset: (i) preserving performance through digital ethnicising, (ii) embracing performance through digital generativitising and (iii) appropriating performance through digital fusionising. The results support the introduction of a conceptual framework depicting the interwoven duality of horizontal and vertical boundary blurring, in which the former takes place between the offline and online spaces of immigrant businesses, and the latter occurs between the home and host country attachment of the immigrant businesses.

This study responds to calls for understanding how immigrant entrepreneurs can overcome the liability of foreignness. It offers a fresh look at ethnicity, which has been seen in a negative light in the field of immigrant entrepreneurship. This study illuminates that ethnicity can be used as a resource in immigrant entrepreneurship, specifically through the use of digital artifacts and digital platforms.

This study, informed by the Situational Crisis Communication Theory, aims to suggest two primary response strategies that can be used for effective internal crisis communication during a pandemic situation, such as COVID-19. The effect of base response strategies on employees' perceptions of communication quality, leadership and relational outcomes were investigated.

An online survey of full-time employees in the United States was conducted.

The findings showed that for an instructing information strategy, not all types of information were equally associated with positive employee responses in terms of perceived quality of internal communication related to the COVID-19 pandemic and transformational leadership. Specific information that employees need to know in order to safely perform daily tasks, such as organizational protocols and thorough preparation, seem to be the most needed and desired information. Adjusting information was positively associated with employee perceptions of internal communication quality and perceptions of CEO leadership. Employees' perceived quality of internal communication affected by the base crisis response strategies were positively correlated with perceptions of transformational leadership and relational outcomes (i.e. employee trust in the organization, employee perceptions of the organization's commitment to relationships with employees, employee support for organizational decision-making related to COVID-19).

This study presents important theoretical and practical insights through an interdisciplinary approach that applies the theoretical framework and relationship-oriented outcomes of public relations to public health crisis situations.

Sustainability has become an integral part of the real estate industry, alongside advancing globalization and demographic development. Due to real estate's influence on greenhouse gas emissions throughout its life cycle, both the regulatory and legal requirements concerning the sustainability of real estate are growing and, as a result of social responsibility, the interest of tenants and investors in sustainable real estate. However, criteria for measuring the ecological sustainability of a real estate investment in the purchase process in order to reduce the risk of including “stranded assets” in the portfolio are missing. This paper aims to address the need to integrate the issue of carbon stranding into existing sustainability rating tools.

Existing tools are examined based on defined criteria to determine whether they are suitable for purchasing a property before suitable tools for purchase are compared. Strengths and weaknesses are identified, which are to be remedied with the scoring tool. Taxonomy regulation is integrated into the existing valuation basis as a legal regulation.

The result is a scoring tool that enables real estate companies to measure and evaluate the ecological sustainability performance of a property during the acquisition process, taking into account the three aspects of sustainability and considering them when determining an appropriate purchase price in line with market conditions. Moreover, the developed tool helps to minimize the risk of acquiring a stranding asset.

The environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework employed in this study does not incorporate governance considerations. While the analysis extensively evaluates the building's environmental and social aspects, it does not extend to examining the governance practices of the companies involved. Thus, the assessment is confined solely to the physical attributes of the property without accounting for broader corporate governance factors.

The developed scoring tool represents a valuable tool for the real estate industry, offering insights into sustainability performance during property acquisitions and providing a structured framework for decision-making. By addressing both certification and taxonomy regulation requirements, the tool contributes to the industry's evolution toward more sustainable and environmentally responsible real estate practices.

In response to the growing importance of sustainability in the real estate industry, this paper introduces a novel scoring tool for evaluating the sustainability of real estate investments during the acquisition process.