Search results

This study aims to investigate how customers’ perceived risks of sharing economy (SE) affect their self-protective behaviors when using SE, leading to their future behavioral intention. Additionally, this study looks into whether there are any differences between accommodation-sharing and ride-sharing customers in the aforementioned relationships.

An online survey targeting two groups of SE customers (i.e. accommodation sharing and ride sharing) was used. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling, the mechanism of how SE customers’ perceived risks of SE affect their self-protective behaviors, which in turn influence their future behavior intention. A multigroup analysis was performed to assess the difference between the two groups of SE customers. Finally, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to see the potential differences between the five classifications of self-protective behaviors in their perceived risks.

SE customers’ psychological risks positively affected their hygiene protective behaviors and social protective behaviors, influencing their behavior intention and relative intention (compared with traditional services). Social risk had a negative impact on SE customers’ hygiene protective behaviors. There was a significant difference between accommodation sharing and ride sharing customers in their psychological mechanism of how perceived risks influence their self-protective behaviors.

The findings of this study help SE platforms and service providers better understand their customers’ perceived risks of their services and suggest them to promote their customers’ self-protective behaviors so that perceived risks can be mitigated, thereby generating strong behavior intentions. As the results indicated that there is a significant difference between the two major forms of SE (i.e. accommodation sharing and ride sharing) in their customers’ perceived risks and self-protective behavior, SE platforms can further refine their operational and marketing efforts based on the findings.

This study offers a comprehensive understanding of SE customers’ self-protective behaviors by examining the effects of SE customers’ different perceived risks on their self-protective behaviors during the unprecedented pandemic. Furthermore, the comparison of the two most popular forms of SE (i.e. accommodation sharing and ride sharing) provides new perspectives to understand customers’ behavior in the SE context.

Emergence of COVID-19 has posed a big challenge around the world demanding responsible behavior at all levels for effective mitigation of its adverse effects on humanity. Despite deadly nature of the pandemic, people yet tend to violate the lockdowns, social distancing, and related protective measures. This study presents a critical view and identifies underlying causes of the deviant behavior of masses. It highlights specific areas where responsible leadership can make a difference in fighting the pandemic from organizational perspective.

Qualitative data collected through in depth interviews from three different countries - Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia. The data was collected thrice with time lags and integrated view has been presented in this study.

The study finds that perceptual dissonance, cost of protective behavior, reactive attraction and perceived triviality of protective measures are some of the main causes of deviant behavior.

Although the data have been collected from three countries, yet smaller sample size remains a limitation of the study. Similarly, the longitudinal data was collected once in each wave of COVID-19 and its increased frequency could make findings more reliable.

The findings provide an “analysis template” for responsible leaders to analyze any crisis situation in future. In the light of findings, leaders can locate causes of deviant behavior and the way they can influence behavior of employees in a crisis.

The study is highly valuable in analysis of social dimension of COVID-19 crisis at organizational level. It clearly highlights the significance of social and financial support by responsible leaders for influencing the protective intentions of employees in an emergency situation.

The organizational perspective and the responsibilities of leaders for fighting the pandemic has not been adequately explored. This study has investigated the likely causes of deviant behavior of employees in adoption of protective measures. It also highlights the areas where responsible leaders can make a difference in inducing protective behaviors.

This paper aims to address the role of psychological empowerment in proenvironmental consumer behaviour, focussing on climate protection.

Study 1 analyses the interaction of the effects of psychological empowerment and personal norms on two environmental behaviours with a sample of 600 individuals drawn form a representative online panel of the Australian population. Study 2 addresses the reinforcing influence of empowerment with a quasi-experimental design comparing 300 consumers of green electricity with 300 conventional electricity clients.

Psychological empowerment moderates the effects of personal norms on climate-protective consumer behaviour in a value-belief-norm (VBN) framework. Personal norms have a stronger influence for consumers experiencing high psychological empowerment than for disempowered feeling consumers. Furthermore, psychological empowerment experienced as an outcome of actual proenvironmental behaviour mediates the relationship between prior climate protection and future climate-protective intentions.

Future research should focus on the experimental manipulation of psychological empowerment with communicational claims, studying how perceived empowerment can be enhanced.

To promote climate friendly products and behaviours, marketers should use communication claims aimed at enhancing consumer’s subjective experience of empowerment.

Public policy aimed at climate protection should focus on consumer education increasing consumers’ awareness of their potential influence.

Psychological empowerment has not been studied previously as either an antecedent or outcome of proenvironmental behaviour. This is the first study to show that psychological empowerment moderates normative influences on climate-protective consumer behaviour. This research further reveals a novel behavioural reinforcement process, in which psychological empowerment intervenes as a behavioural outcome as well as an antecedent of climate-protective consumer behaviour. Findings contribute to the development of the VBN framework as well as to the consumer-empowerment perspective on proenvironmental behaviour.

Individuals use money, time, and effort to consume, yet implicit in most consumer research is the availability of these resources, particularly money. While the literature provides an explanation of many aspects of consumption experiences, an explanation of how money is used to fund consumption is needed.

In the present research, I explore ordinary consumer behaviors through depth interviews with individuals regarding everyday experiences to develop an understanding of the relationship between earmarking money and consumption.

Prior research finds consumers earmark monies thereby allocating it to distinct purposes, such that this earmarking influences consumer behaviors. Emergent from these data, I find evidence for two categories of consumer behaviors: protective, which are those addressing responsibilities in daily life; and, prospective which are those for shaping and representing identity. Further, I find protective or prospective behaviors are systematically associated with earmarking of money to either indexical or prosaic accounts, respectively, to fund consumption in support of the behaviors.

This study explores everyday experiences to develop an understanding of how monetary earmarks are used to fund consumption. Other resources necessary for consumption, specifically time and effort, were not examined, yet are influential in consumption experiences and therefore are in need of study.

These findings contribute a distinct pattern of funding evident in the relationship between types of earmarks and categories of everyday behaviors.

Utilizing the theoretical foundation of the stimulus-organism-response framework, the present work developed and investigated a conceptual model. The work explores the effects of perceived risk of COVID-19 on tourists' choice hesitation and choice confidence. Furthermore, it examines the impacts of choice hesitation and choice confidence on psychological distress, which, in turn, influences purchase intentions and risk-protective behavior. Additionally, the study assesses the boundary effects of vulnerability on the association between choice hesitation, choice confidence, and psychological distress.

An online survey was administered in China during COVID-19 to assess the postulated hypotheses. We collected 491 responses using purposive sampling, and covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) was performed to investigate the relationships.

Results show that the perceived risk of COVID-19 positively influences the choice hesitation and negatively impact choice confidence. It was also found that choice hesitation and choice confidence positively developed psychological distress, which, in turn, negatively triggered purchase intentions and positively developed risk-protective behavior. Additionally, perceived vulnerability had a significant moderating impact on the proposed relationships, strengthening psychological distress.

In the current context, this study measures bipolar behavioral outcomes using the S-O-R model. Because cognitive processes influence participation in health preventative behavior during the spread of diseases, we highlighted how the perception of risk and vulnerability to a pandemic serves as a reliable indicator of certain behaviors. This study advances understanding of how the psychological mindset of tourists copes with such circumstances. Due to the pandemic, tourists face limitations in their choices and are placing greater emphasis on adopting protective measures to mitigate associated risks.

This paper uses a supplemented health belief model (HBM) to explain the risk perception of COVID-19 coronavirus infection by potential and actual domestic and international travelers (from primarily European countries) in the early pre-vaccine phase of the pandemic and its influence on their travel intentions, decisions, and actions. With a health crisis of this magnitude, it is vital to understand the effect of COVID-19-associated containment measures and safety industry strategies in abating public fear and apprehension associated with non-essential travel.

The authors used a sequential transformative design consisting of a (QUAN + Qual) survey to explore the HBM dimensions. The questions in the quantitative part of the survey were disseminated online examine perceptions of the severity and susceptibility of the disease, travel risks and willingness to travel. The questions in the qualitative face-to-face survey examined, how international/cross-border travelers (from Spain and Germany) perceive the benefits and barriers of personal protective behavior and the potential influence of cues to action.

Results suggest that despite potential fear arousal and confusion associated with this infectious disease, people were willing to travel during periodic on-and-off travel restrictions and perceive the benefits of such travel as outweighing barriers like wearing masks, social distancing and other containment measures.

The conceptual model enabled the capture of real-time traveler's feelings about the benefits of traveling in the presence of the coronavirus and their perceptions of COVID-19 safety strategies used at destinations. This study adds to the lack of existing knowledge about potential psychological factors influencing travel decisions and behavior, including self-protective behavior. As borders reopen and we progress towards tourism and hospitality recovery, the results of this study can assist organizations, including health officials and governments, by reminding them of the likelihood of residual public fear when planning their COVID-19 safety strategies.

Given the scarcity of COVID-19 research on people's travel intentions and behavior following periods of social isolation due to lockdowns and border closures, this study captures sample public perceptions at two stages early in the pandemic. It is the first to apply all of the HBM dimensions with the addition of travel risk as a construct to investigate people's travel intentions and behaviors without vaccinations or treatments and to include cues to action in the investigation.

Disasters and other emergencies are increasing, with millions of people affected by events like earthquakes, fires and flooding. The use of mobile emergency alert systems (MEAS) can improve people’s responses by providing targeted alerts based on location and other personal details. This study aims to understand the factors that influence people’s willingness to share the personal information that is needed to provide context-specific messaging about a threat and protective actions.

Drawing on protection motivation theory (PMT), this study proposes and tests a model of willingness to use personalised MEAS that incorporates key factors related to an individual’s appraisal of a potential threat (i.e. perceived vulnerability and severity) and coping capacity (i.e. response efficacy and self-efficacy), with deterrents like response cost and privacy concern. This study uses survey data from 226 respondents in New Zealand and SmartPLS to assess the model.

The results show how willingness to use MEAS is influenced by people’s appraisal of an emergency threat and their perception of how using MEAS would help them to cope effectively. Fear and perceived severity are significant motivators of MEAS use, along with coping appraisal. However, when the negative influences of privacy concern and response cost are strong enough, they can dissuade use, despite knowing the risks.

The study addresses a gap in research on the use of alert systems like MEAS, which require sharing of personal information and continuous engagement such as the real-time disclosure of one’s location. It confirms the significance of factors not studied in prior research, such as privacy concerns, that can dissuade use. This study also extends the application of the PMT in the context of emergency management.

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated unprecedented public fear, impeding both individuals’ social life and the travel industry as a whole. China was one of the first major countries to experience the COVID-19 outbreaks and recovery from the pandemic. The demand for outings is increasing in the post-COVID-19 world, leading to the recovery of the ride-sharing industry. Integrating protection motivation theory and the theory of reasoned action, this study aims to investigate ride-sharing customers’ self-protection motivation to provide anti-pandemic measures and promote the resilience of ride-sharing industry.

This study followed a two-phase mixed-methods design. In the first phase, the authors executed a qualitative study with 30 interviews. In the second phase, the authors used the results of the interviews to inform the design of a survey, with which 272 responses were collected. Both studies were conducted in China.

The present results indicate that customers’ perceived vulnerability of COVID-19 and perceived COVID protection efficacy (self-efficacy and response efficacy) are positively correlated with their attitude toward self-protection, thus leading to their self-protection motivation during the rides. Moreover, subjective norms and customers’ distrust appear to also impact their self-protection motivation during the ride-sharing service.

The present research provides one of the first in-depth studies, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, on customers’ protection motivation in ride-sharing services in the new normal. The empirical evidence provides important insights for ride-sharing service providers and managers in the post-pandemic world and promote the resilience of ride-sharing industry.

The motive to manage impressions has been broken down into protective and acquisitive orientations. A protective orientation exists when an individual is concerned primarily with encountering disapproval, rather than approval, from the relevant audience. An acquisitive orientation exists when an individual is concerned primarily with obtaining approval from the audience. This study tests the proposition that organizational managers have primarily an acquisitive orientation. The affective sentiments of 95 international middle‐ and upper‐level business managers toward their organization, its leaders, and its business control mechanisms were compared with their perceptions of the acquisitiveness and protectiveness of their work environment. The results indicate that affective sentiments of managers are correlated with the acquisitiveness, but not the protectiveness, of the work environment, supporting the notion that managers have primarily an acquisitive orientation.

The evolution of digital technology has changed the way in which we, as a global society, socialise and conduct business. This growth has led to an increasing reliance on technology, much more interconnectedness and in turn, an expansion of criminal opportunities, known now as “cybercrime”. This study aims to explore the experience of victimisation, perceptions of cybercrime and use of online crime prevention strategies.

The study involved a survey of a representative sample of the adult Australian population. The study sample was made up of 595 Australian adult participants. The study seeks to better understand how previous victimisation, perception of cybercrime prevalence and perception of harm caused by cybercrime are related to the use of online crime prevention strategies. It seeks to contribute to a body of work that has found that crime prevention education focused on increasing knowledge is limited in its effectiveness in reducing victimisation.

This study identifies key levers, in particular perceived prevalence and harm of cybercrime, as critical in the use of online crime prevention strategies by potential victims.

As such, this study provides an important evidence base on which to develop more effective online crime prevention education and awareness campaigns to reduce cybervictimisation.

The practical implications include the relationship between cybervictimisation and self-protective online strategies of potential victims and the development of more effective online crime prevention programmes.

The research takes a different perspective from much of the previous research, seeking to better understand how attitudinal factors (perceived prevalence of cybercrime and perceived harm of cybercrime) might motivate or influence the use of online crime prevention strategies by potential victims.