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The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of sports sponsorship on brand equity using two managerially related outcomes: price premium and market share.

This study uses a best–worst discrete choice experiment (BWDCE) and compares the outcome with that of the purchase intention scale, an established probabilistic measure of purchase intention. The total sample consists of 409 fans of three soccer teams sponsored by three different competing brands: Nike, Adidas and Puma.

With sports sponsorship, fans were willing to pay more for the sponsor’s product, with the sponsoring brand obtaining the highest market share. Prominent brands generally performed better than less prominent brands. The best–worst scaling method was also 35% more accurate in predicting brand choice than a purchase intention scale.

Future research could use the same method to study other types of sponsors, such as title sponsors or other product categories.

Sponsorship managers can use this methodology to assess the return on investment in sponsorship engagement.

Prior sponsorship studies on brand equity tend to ignore market share or fans’ willingness to pay a price premium for a sponsor’s goods and services. However, these two measures are crucial in assessing the effectiveness of sponsorship. This study demonstrates how to conduct such an assessment using the BWDCE method. It provides a clearer picture of sponsorship in terms of its economic value, which is more managerially useful.

This study aimed to explore the expectations and challenges of institutionalized and noninstitutionalized elderly persons.

A purposive sampling technique was used to recruit the participants. The sample of the study consisted of eight (N = 8) elderly persons. Four were institutionalized, and four were noninstitutionalized. The age range of the participants was between 60 and 80 years. A semi-structured interview guide was prepared to explore expectations and challenges of institutionalized and noninstitutionalized elderly persons. The interviews were audio-recorded and later on transcribed verbatim for a detailed in-depth analysis. The interviews were analyzed by using an interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Emergent and subordinate themes were emerged. Superordinate themes emerged after analysis were expectations from self, expectations from immediate family, expectations for betterment in life, expectations from society, challenges related to physical self, psychological challenges, difficulties due to immediate family, problems at a societal level, satisfactory behavior of children, supportive family, satisfaction from society, positive values in old age, striving for betterment in life and health-promoting behaviors. These themes were interpreted in the context of given subordinate themes and verbatim of the participants.

This study will help implement proper strategies for the betterment of institutionalized and noninstitutionalized persons. The study results can also aid in a better understanding of the challenges faced by the elderly population and also provide them with better facilities to fulfill their expectations.

Recognizing the unique and individualized expectations and challenges of the elderly persons can help in providing them person centered care. Better strategies can be introduced to increase their interactions, for better housing facility, health care, food facilities and transportation.

Old age is a challenging phase for individuals if they face difficulties and challenges. This stage is currently unaddressed by society. So, there is a strong need to bring them to the surface so that we can provide them with opportunities to achieve well-being. It can help in better understanding of challenges faced by the elderly population as well as expectations of the elderly population. This better understanding can give the idea about the different ways that elderly persons use to overcome and face these challenges in their life. A comparative study of expectations and challenges among institutionalized and noninstitutionalized elderly populations will give information about the differences among them, helping to understand them better

The topic of expectations and challenges faced by institutionalized and noninstitutionalized elderly in Pakistan holds significant originality value. Although discussions on aging and elderly care are not uncommon, exploring the specific context of Pakistan adds a unique perspective to the subject. By delving into the cultural context, policy implications and comparative analysis, researchers can contribute to the existing knowledge and pave the way for targeted interventions that enhance the well-being of the elderly population.

For ranking aggregation in crowdsourcing task, the key issue is how to select the optimal working group with a given number of workers to optimize the performance of their aggregation. Performance prediction for ranking aggregation can solve this issue effectively. However, the performance prediction effect for ranking aggregation varies greatly due to the different influencing factors selected. Although questions on why and how data fusion methods perform well have been thoroughly discussed in the past, there is a lack of insight about how to select influencing factors to predict the performance and how much can be improved of.

In this paper, performance prediction of multivariable linear regression based on the optimal influencing factors for ranking aggregation in crowdsourcing task is studied. An influencing factor optimization selection method based on stepwise regression (IFOS-SR) is proposed to screen the optimal influencing factors. A working group selection model based on the optimal influencing factors is built to select the optimal working group with a given number of workers.

The proposed approach can identify the optimal influencing factors of ranking aggregation, predict the aggregation performance more accurately than the state-of-the-art methods and select the optimal working group with a given number of workers.

To find out under which condition data fusion method may lead to performance improvement for ranking aggregation in crowdsourcing task, the optimal influencing factors are identified by the IFOS-SR method. This paper presents an analysis of the behavior of the linear combination method and the CombSUM method based on the optimal influencing factors, and optimizes the task assignment with a given number of workers by the optimal working group selection method.

This paper aims to comment on resilience research within the context of frontline employees in sales and services marketing.

This commentary is a reflection based on my research, extant academic and managerial literature and personal perspectives.

Research findings show resilience is associated with increased employee effort and reduced turnover intentions in customer-facing roles. In addition, resilience can change over time and is not just a trait the employee is born with (or not). Hence, managers can cultivate resilience in employees.

Resilience cannot be purchased. Instead, managers can inspire resilience in frontline employees by developing their feelings of self-efficacy on the job, a sense of belongingness to the organization and peers and a sense of purpose and relatedness to customers.

Resilience is not merely perseverance or grit; it is overcoming adversity and bouncing back to become better in the process. Thus, resilience is an important construct to study, particularly in customer-facing roles.

This commentary offers a unique approach to understanding resilience, its outcomes and its antecedents in customer-facing roles.

Foreign subsidiaries incur substantial institutional conformity costs because they have to respond to host-country institutional pressures (Slangen & Hennart, 2008). The purpose of this paper is to study this type of cost from institutional and regulatory perspectives. The authors argue that these costs decrease when the host country adopts concepts of international regulations that multinationals may be familiar with due to their own home country regulation experience. This prior regulatory experience gives foreign subsidiaries an advantage of foreignness (AoF), which can offset their liability of foreignness (LoF).

This study compared the returns on assets of 35 domestic firms with those of foreign subsidiaries in the Brazilian energy industry between 2002 and 2021, using regression dynamic panel data.

The existence of a relationship between the international regulatory norm and the Brazilian regulator has transformed the LoF into an advantage of foreignness to compete with local energy firms. The results also suggest that the better the regulatory quality of the subsidiary’s country of origin, the better its performance in Brazil, as it can reduce compliance costs. Finally, the greater the psychic distance between Brazil and the foreign subsidiary’s home country, the worse its performance.

The research suggests that one of the keys to competitiveness in host countries is local regulatory ties. Prior international regulatory experience gives foreign subsidiaries an asset of foreignness (AoF). This result complements the current institutional and regulatory foreignness studies on emerging economies (Cuervo-Cazurra & Genc, 2008; Mallon et al., 2022) and the institutional asymmetry between home and host country (Mallon & Fainshmidt, 2017).

This research suggests that one of the keys to competitiveness in host countries is local regulatory ties. Prior international regulatory experience gives foreign subsidiaries an asset of foreignness (AoF). This result complements the current institutional and regulatory foreignness studies on emerging economies (Cuervo-Cazurra & Genc, 2008; Mallon et al., 2022) and the institutional asymmetry between home and host country (Mallon & Fainshmidt, 2017). The practical implication is that the relationship between conformity costs, capital budget calculation and strategic planning for internationalization will be related to the governance quality of the home country of multinationals. The social implication is that a country interested in attracting more direct foreign investment to areas that need foreign technology transfer and resources may consider adopting international regulatory standards.

The social implication is that a country interested in attracting more direct foreign investment to areas that need foreign technology transfer and resources may consider adopting international regulatory standards.

This research discuss firm and local regulator tie is one of core competitiveness in host countries (Yang and Meyer, 2020). This study also complements the current institutional and regulatory foreignness studies in emerging economy (Cuervo-Cazurra & Genc, 2008; Mallon et al., 2022). Second, prior regulatory experience of multinational enterprise in similar environment can affect its foreign affiliate performance (Perkins, 2014). Third, this study confirms current literature that argues that knowledge and ability to operate in an institutionalized country can be transferred from parent to affiliate. In the end, this study investigates whether AoF persists when host governments improve the governance of their industries.

Drawing on cue utilization theory and the theory of motivated reasoning, we investigate the impact of consumer xenocentrism on product preferences in a situation where domestic products objectively outperform their foreign counterparts.

We develop and test a model linking xenocentrism to consumers’ preference towards domestic vs. foreign products by (1) examining the mediating role of consumers’ ability to identify the superior product and (2) assessing the role of product involvement in potentially moderating this relationship. An experimental design was employed, whereby respondents (Thai consumers, N = 579) were asked to compare two products in the same product category, one foreign and one domestic. In one condition, the foreign product outperformed the domestic one on a range of relevant product attributes, whereas in a second condition, the opposite was the case.

Our findings provide clear evidence that xenocentric consumers often cannot recognize the superiority of domestic products and, even if they do, they still exhibit preferences toward (inferior) foreign products. Thus, for xenocentric consumers, it seems that the country of origin (COO) overrides other cues and often results in suboptimal product choices.

Our study adds to our theoretical understanding of the functioning of the consumer xenocentrism construct and has important implications for foreign companies targeting xenocentric consumers as well as for local firms seeking to counteract xenocentric tendencies.

This study aimed at exploring the differential effects of different corporate governance (CG) indicators on risk management practices in Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) and conventional financial institutions (CFIs) of Pakistan. It also investigated the moderating role of institutional quality (IQ) in shaping the effects of CG practices on financial institutions of Pakistan.

A sample of 57 financial institutions including commercial banks, insurance companies and Modarba companies over the period 2006–2017 is used to carry out the empirical analysis. The authors applied the robust two-step system-generalized method of moments estimator, which is also called the dynamic panel data estimator. They also built the PCA-based composite index of CG and IQ by using different indicators to investigate the moderating role of IQ. They used three proxies for risk taking, five for CG and one for Shari’ah governance. To test the validity of the instruments, they applied the Arellano and Bond’s (1991) AR (1) and AR (2) tests and the J-statistic of Hansen (1982).

The results provided strong evidence that several individual characteristics of CG and the composite index are significantly related to the operational risk, the liquidity risk and the Z-score (a proxy for solvency risk). The results also revealed that IQ significantly and substantially contributes in reducing the level of risks. Finally, the estimation results indicated that the effects of CG on risk management are significantly different at IFIs and CFIs. This differential impact is mainly attributed to the fundamental differences in business models, operational strategies and contractual obligations of both types of institutions.

The findings of this study are important for enhancing our understanding of how CG relates to risk taking in Islamic and conventional financial services industries and how good quality institutions are important for formulating the governance effects on the risk-taking behavior of financial institutions. The findings suggest that a suitable size of board should be chosen to manage the risk effectively. As the findings show that the risk-taking behavior of IFIs differs from that of CFIs, the regulators and international standard setting bodies should tailor the regulatory frameworks accordingly.

This paper is different from the existing studies in four aspects. First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical investigation in Pakistan, which does the comparison of IFIs and CFIs while examining the impacts of CG on risk management. Second, the paper constructs the composite index of CG by considering several different indicators of governance and examines the combined effect of governance indicators on risk management process. Third, this paper adds to the growing literature on the role of IQ by investigating whether it acts as a moderator between CG structures and risk management and if yes, then whether this moderating role is different for IFIs and CFIs. Finally, the paper builds upon the existing research work on the CG effects for different types of financial institutions by proposing a single regression based analytical framework for comparing the effects across two different types of institutions, harvesting the benefits of higher degrees of freedom and avoiding/minimizing the measurement error.

Polyurethane (PUR) foam parts are traditionally manufactured using metallic molds, an unsuitable approach for prototyping purposes. Thus, rapid tooling of disposable molds using fused filament fabrication (FFF) with polylactic acid (PLA) and glycol-modified polyethylene terephthalate (PETG) is proposed as an economical, simpler and faster solution compared to traditional metallic molds or three-dimensional (3D) printing with other difficult-to-print thermoplastics, which are prone to shrinkage and delamination (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, polypropilene-PP) or high-cost due to both material and printing equipment expenses (PEEK, polyamides or polycarbonate-PC). The purpose of this study has been to evaluate the ease of release of PUR foam on these materials in combination with release agents to facilitate the mulding/demoulding process.

PETG, PLA and hardenable polylactic acid (PLA 3D870) have been evaluated as mold materials in combination with aqueous and solvent-based release agents within a full design of experiments by three consecutive molding/demolding cycles.

PLA 3D870 has shown the best demoldability. A mold expressly designed to manufacture a foam cushion has been printed and the prototyping has been successfully achieved. The demolding of the part has been easier using a solvent-based release agent, meanwhile the quality has been better when using a water-based one.

The combination of PLA 3D870 and FFF, along with solvent-free water-based release agents, presents a compelling low-cost and eco-friendly alternative to traditional metallic molds and other 3D printing thermoplastics. This innovative approach serves as a viable option for rapid tooling in PUR foam molding.

COVID-19 has occurred in more than 150 countries and causes a huge impact on the health of many people. The main purpose of this work is, COVID-19 has occurred in more than 150 countries and causes a huge impact on the health of many people. The COVID-19 diagnosis is required to detect at the beginning stage and special attention should be given to them. The fastest way to detect the COVID-19 infected patients is detecting through radiology and radiography images. The few early studies describe the particular abnormalities of the infected patients in the chest radiograms. Even though some of the challenges occur in concluding the viral infection traces in X-ray images, the convolutional neural network (CNN) can determine the patterns of data between the normal and infected X-rays that increase the detection rate. Therefore, the researchers are focusing on developing a deep learning-based detection model.

The main intention of this proposal is to develop the enhanced lung segmentation and classification of diagnosing the COVID-19. The main processes of the proposed model are image pre-processing, lung segmentation and deep classification. Initially, the image enhancement is performed by contrast enhancement and filtering approaches. Once the image is pre-processed, the optimal lung segmentation is done by the adaptive fuzzy-based region growing (AFRG) technique, in which the constant function for fusion is optimized by the modified deer hunting optimization algorithm (M-DHOA). Further, a well-performing deep learning algorithm termed adaptive CNN (A-CNN) is adopted for performing the classification, in which the hidden neurons are tuned by the proposed DHOA to enhance the detection accuracy. The simulation results illustrate that the proposed model has more possibilities to increase the COVID-19 testing methods on the publicly available data sets.

From the experimental analysis, the accuracy of the proposed M-DHOA–CNN was 5.84%, 5.23%, 6.25% and 8.33% superior to recurrent neural network, neural networks, support vector machine and K-nearest neighbor, respectively. Thus, the segmentation and classification performance of the developed COVID-19 diagnosis by AFRG and A-CNN has outperformed the existing techniques.

This paper adopts the latest optimization algorithm called M-DHOA to improve the performance of lung segmentation and classification in COVID-19 diagnosis using adaptive K-means with region growing fusion and A-CNN. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first work that uses M-DHOA for improved segmentation and classification steps for increasing the convergence rate of diagnosis.

To promote gender equality, world leaders at the UN came up with Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG5). It proposes to eliminate discrimination against women by providing them with similar opportunities for reaching leadership positions. Hence, this study aims to examine the contribution made by women transformational leaders to their employees’ performance. The study seeks to emphasize the role played by female leaders in the on-job performance of employees and their mental well-being by encouraging intrinsic motivation among them.

For the purpose of data collection, a questionnaire was sent through Google Forms to the employees who had females as their superiors or in the decision-making position. Data from a final sample of 517 respondents was gathered, on which SEM was applied to analyze the direct impact of transformational women’s leadership on employee performance and the indirect impact through the mediation of intrinsic motivation.

The study found that by having feminine traits, women are stronger transformational leaders as they encourage individuals to be self-motivated instead of getting stimulated because of some external incentive. Also, such a leadership style ensures better work performance and mentally healthier employees. In addition, transformational women's leadership creates a better work environment by inspiring a teamwork culture instead of individualism.

The study has implications for not just researchers but other stakeholders as well. The study is useful for organizations as it directs them to hire and promote more women for leadership positions. Also, the results hint that people prefer working for women-led organizations as it will ensure a healthier work atmosphere.

There are many studies from earlier times related to transformational leadership. However, female leadership and the role it plays for employees have not gotten their fair share of attention. Thus, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present work is one of the very few where contributions made by women transformational leaders have been assessed.