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Building on organizational justice and privacy literatures, the purpose of this paper is to test a model capturing the impacts of potentially inappropriate/discriminatory interview questions on job applicant perceptions and behavioral intentions in a developing economy context with a multicultural workforce.

An experimental design using senior undergraduate students (n=221) seeking or about to seek jobs in the United Arab Emirates was used to examine interviewees’ reactions to inappropriate/discriminatory interview questions. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. Structural equation modeling and bootstrapping were used for data analysis and hypothesis testing.

This study demonstrates that inappropriate/discriminatory interview questions influence privacy invasion perceptions, which in turn influence job applicants’ fairness perceptions and behavioral intentions. This study also demonstrates that privacy invasion perceptions fully mediate the effect of inappropriate/discriminatory employment interview questions on fairness perceptions. Moreover, the findings show that privacy invasion directly and indirectly, via fairness perceptions, influence litigation intentions. On the other hand, findings of this study indicate that privacy invasion influence organizational attractiveness and recommendation intentions only indirectly, via fairness perceptions.

This is the first study to examine the impact of inappropriate/discriminatory interview questions on applicant reactions in a developing economy context with social, cultural, and legal environment that is different from those prevailing in developed Western societies. This study demonstrates that privacy invasion is an important mechanism to understand job applicant reactions to inappropriate interview questions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Hispanic business professionals’ perception of psychological contract fairness, perception of discrimination, and the influence of autonomous status judgments on these variables.

Participants were drawn from a sample of an association of Hispanic business professionals. The survey instrument was created from existing scales; validity and reliability were established in a pilot study. The survey was administered at two time intervals to 164 Hispanic business professionals. Data were analyzed using a multiple regression analysis.

There were significant relationships between Hispanic business professionals’ psychological contract fairness perceptions, and perceptions of discrimination and autonomous status. As the score for psychological contract fairness increased, the score for perception of discrimination decreased. As the score for psychological contract fairness increased, the score for perception of autonomous status increased.

The sample for the study was a convenience sample and therefore may contain a self report bias.

By empowering Hispanic employees and giving them the resources to truly believe they are valued by the organization, individual outcomes such as productivity and satisfaction could be positively affected.

This study took a new approach to investigating the psychological contract over time and provided useful data on the global fulfillment argument. It created a new model for studying the interaction of mediating variables on the psychological contract and filled a gap in the present research on Hispanic perceptions of psychological contract fairness.

Buyers and suppliers often perceive relationship governance mechanisms, such as trust and contractual fairness, in different ways. These differences in perception create an extra layer of complexity that is often ignored in the extant literature. This study adds to the understanding of how perceived asymmetries in trust and contractual fairness, two key relationship governance mechanisms, impact relational rents. This study also analyzes how boundary spanners aid managers to deal with these perceived asymmetries.

Based on survey data of 103 buyer–supplier dyads from a single global manufacturer of industrial equipment, the authors test hypotheses of perceived asymmetries in trust and contractual fairness, as well as the moderating effect of boundary spanners, on relational rents.

This research challenges the belief that asymmetries negatively impact or lead to unstable buyer–supplier relationships. Furthermore, it explains how preferential treatment and length of the relationship could reduce the impact of asymmetric perceptions.

This study stresses that open communication, which considers different viewpoints, helps to overcome the negative differences in attitude and perception. In addition, the authors found that long-term relationships seem to be far more resilient in dealing with asymmetries and that preferential treatments are best applied in (approximately) symmetric relationships in terms of contractual fairness.

While studies on buyer–supplier relationships often assume symmetric perceptions of governance mechanisms, asymmetric perceptions are far more prominent in reality. This study aims to improve one’s understanding of the impact of these asymmetries as well as how boundary spanners can affect these perceptions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore consumers' perceptions of price unfairness in services, what are its antecedents and when it is important for the consumer. Thus, the central question of this research is whether consumers care about how much profit the service company is making and whether there are significant differences to physical goods.

Building on justice and equity theory, a causal model is developed – which analyses the main antecedents (seller profits vs customer value), moderators and consequences of perceptions of price unfairness. Structural equation modelling has been applied to test the proposed model.

The lack of specific tools to measure perceptions of price fairness required the development of a multi‐item scale to capture the complexity of the evaluation. This instrument has been tested for reliability and validity in a variety of settings, with excellent results, and can be appropriate when using the survey as a data collection method. Also, the authors have argued that there should be significant differences due to the nature of the product – service industries vs physical goods– as well as due to the number of available alternatives that the buyer has in the market.

The validity of a new model is tested by means of an empirical research conducted in four different settings, two different services (automobile repair services and music concerts) and their related physical goods (automobiles and music CDs). A multi‐item scale is also developed to capture the complexity of price fairness perceptions. Finally, significant differences between contexts, as well as due to the number of available alternatives present in the marketplace are examined.

The purpose of this paper is to examine Chinese traditionality as a predictor of applicants' procedural fairness perceptions in selection, and both its direct and indirect relationship with applicants' recommending behavior, job performance and turnover intention three to four months post hire. Traditionality, as a moderator of perceptions‐outcomes relationships, is also tested.

Survey data of 218 supervisor‐subordinate dyads were collected from Mainland Chinese organizations. Data were gathered in two waves, with demographic and traditionality measures taken at time 1, and supervisory ratings of performance, recommending behavior and intention to turnover taken at time 2.

One component of traditionality alone (Respect for Authority) positively predicted applicants' procedural fairness perceptions. These perceptions, in turn, predicted recommending behavior (+), job performance (+) and turnover intentions (−). There were also direct relationships between Respect for Authority and both job performance (+) and turnover intention (−). The data failed to support the moderating effect of Chinese traditionality on the relationships between procedural fairness perceptions and outcome variables.

Despite the methodological strengths of this study, the study is cross‐sectional in nature which weakens causal inferences regarding the relationships in the theoretical model. Moreover, the paper does not investigate empirically the concrete mechanisms from Chinese traditionality to fairness perceptions and from fairness perceptions to outcome variables, since its foci are the predicting and moderating roles of Chinese traditionality.

The paper's findings underscore the importance of Respect for Authority as the key and only component of Chinese traditionality that predicts procedural justice perceptions and worker outcomes.

This paper aims to link conceptually the concepts of price fairness and customer satisfaction and empirically demonstrate the influence of perceived price fairness on satisfaction judgments. Further, it seeks to examine specific factors that influence fairness perceptions including price perception and consumer vulnerability.

The study is conducted in the context of automobile purchases in major German car dealerships. Based on a theoretical conceptualization of the constructs and an empirical pretest, 246 car buyers were surveyed and their fairness perceptions and satisfaction judgments with the car buying process measured.

The research shows that price perceptions directly influence satisfaction judgments as well as indirectly through perceptions of price fairness. Results also indicated that consumers' vulnerability, which is induced by a perceived demand‐supply relationship and the urgency of need from the consumers' side, had a negative effect on perceived price offer fairness.

The research demonstrated the influence of perceived price fairness on satisfaction judgments empirically. The study was conducted in the context of car purchases and the generalizability of the model should be further tested.

The effect of consumer vulnerability implies that sellers should not only avoid exploiting their customers but should also anticipate consumers' potential feelings of being exploited. Being sensitive to the buyers’ psychological state and assuring buyers of fair treatment will enhance perceptions of price fairness without changing the price offer.

Both the direct and indirect effects of price perception on satisfaction judgment were examined in the paper. Specifically, the influences of consumer vulnerability and price procedure fairness on satisfaction judgments are new and contribute to the dual‐entitlement principle and our existing knowledge in price fairness.

Employee reward is central to contemporary debates about work and employment relations; and in the context of ongoing wage stagnation, benefits represent a growing proportion of total reward value. Past studies have shown that when employees perceive benefits as unfair, this has a negative impact on engagement, performance and retention. Yet no previous studies have explored the components of a benefits system that influence employees’ fairness concerns. Using organisational justice as a theoretical lens, the purpose of this paper is to examine how dimensions of an employee benefits system influence the fairness perceptions of employees.

This paper reports on a qualitative, inductive case study of the benefits system in a large finance and insurance company, drawing on three data sources: interviews with the company’s benefits managers, organisational documents and open-text responses from a benefits survey.

Three dimensions of the benefits system strongly influenced fairness perceptions – constraints on accessing and utilising benefits; prosocial perceptions about the fairness of benefits to third parties; and the transparency of employee benefits.

The study informs organisations and benefits managers about the important role of supervisors in perceived benefits usability, and how benefits may be managed and communicated to enhance employee fairness perceptions.

This study makes a conceptual contribution to the benefits literature through a detailed exploration of the type of organisational justice judgements that employees make about benefits; and identifying for the first time prosocial fairness concerns about the impact of benefits on third parties.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate perceptions of fairness of a standardized performance appraisal in a multinational enterprise. The paper looks at the first step in understanding fairness perceptions by examining whether national culture influences the view on standardization itself and by comparing China, Lithuania, and Norway.

An experiment using a scenario that outlined a performance appraisal tool in a multinational company is conducted. National culture and individual cultural values are the independent variables and the perception of fairness of the practice is the dependent variable. A sample of 80 management respondents from Lithuania, China, and Norway is taken.

The findings suggest that national culture influences perceptions of fairness of a standardized performance appraisal tool. Employees from countries undergoing profound economic and political change, that score low on the cultural dimension of self‐expression, tend to see the standardized tool as more fair than employees from a stable country high on self‐expression. Differences in fairness perception at the individual level are found, where respondents high on power distance had higher perceptions of fairness of a standardized tool. Both national and individual levels measures of culture affected perceptions.

The sample is small; however, the differences are strong and indicate that perceptions of fairness vary. The experimental design allows good control, although it can limit generalizability to the field.

Multinational companies must understand that before analysis and choice of specific human resource practices it is important that they are aware of national and individual cultural differences towards standardization itself. Cultural differences affect reactions not only to the specific human practice but also to the standardization. Companies can use dimensions such as power distance and the survival/self‐expression dimension to understand the response of their employees. Being aware of this challenge may lead multinationals to pursue more fine‐tuned ways of communicating and implementing a standardized practice.

Using experiments to understand the implementation of practices in multinational organizations it is identified that, before deciding whether a practice should be locally adapted or standardized, the first step is to find out how standardization itself is perceived.

The purpose of this paper is to examine a varied set of personal characteristics (i.e. cultural values tied to Confucianism, Big Five personality attributes and test experience) for their combined ability to predict job applicants’ expected and experienced procedural fairness in the context of personnel selection.

A total of 324 applicants were surveyed as part of a process to select entry-level positions at a large IT manufacturing company in eastern China. Data were gathered in two waves, such that applicants’ personal characteristics and fairness expectations were obtained prior to their perceptions of procedural fairness, which were collected after the selection interview.

Confucian values, neuroticism, conscientiousness and test experience all predicted applicants’ procedural fairness expectations. Only test experience had both direct and indirect effects on procedural justice perceptions. All other effects involving personal characteristics and experience of procedural fairness were mediated by applicants’ fairness expectations.

The demonstration of the impact of a varied set of personal characteristics on applicants’ perceptions of procedural fairness is consistent with theory-driven models intended to understand and predict these perceptions. The findings suggest, among other considerations, that multinational businesses cannot assume that a standardized approach to selection will be viewed in the same manner by applicants across national contexts.

The authors show, in an operational employee selection context, how a varied set of personal characteristics can usefully combine to predict applicants’ procedural fairness expectations, as well as their experience of procedural fairness.

This study aims to examine the critical role of types of coopetition (upstream/downstream), market structure (concentrated/competitive) and innovation (low vs high degree of innovation) that can affect the way consumers perceive the resulting price (un)fairness of new offerings.

Three between-subjects experiments involving different participant populations and product categories were conducted to test the research hypotheses.

The valence of the effect of types of coopetition (upstream/downstream) on price fairness is conditional on the market structure and the degree of innovation associated with the new product offering. Downstream (as opposed to upstream) coopetition is much more detrimental to perceptions of price fairness in a concentrated market than in a competitive and fragmented market. However, within a competitive market, downstream coopetition may lead to greater price fairness perception than upstream coopetition when the new product offering is highly innovative.

The current study uses lab experiments with fictitious scenarios and focuses on two moderating variables: market structure and innovation perceptions. Future research may use field experiments and explore additional moderating variables that may annihilate the negative effect of downstream coopetition on price fairness perception, especially in a concentrated market.

In concentrated markets, firms should opt for upstream rather than downstream coopetition to limit the negative effect the announcement of coopetition has on price fairness evaluation. However, within a competitive market, when the new product offering resulting from coopetition is associated with a high perceived degree of innovation, firms should opt for downstream rather than upstream coopetition because of its positive impact on price fairness evaluation.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate that new product development from coopetition has important implications for the perception of price fairness, leading to positive or negative effects depending on market structure and the degree of innovation of the new product offering. It then explores the conditions under which types of coopetition (upstream/downstream) might backfire.