bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Consumer attitudes towards electric vehicles
Authors: Bennett Roger , Vijaygopal Rohini 
Published: February 2018

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of gamification on connections between consumers’ self-image congruence in relation to the purchasers of an environmentally friendly product electric vehicles (EVs) and their possession of a stereotype of EV owners as being “unconventional”, and their attitudes towards EVs, having regard to their levels of environmental concern and prior knowledge of EVs. Additionally, the research explored the link between attitudes towards and willingness to purchase EVs.Design/methodology/approachParticipants completed a questionnaire and an Implicit Association Test (IAT) both before and after playing a computer game wherein the player assumed the identity of an EV driver. A structural equation model was constructed to predict attitude to EVs. The relationship between attitude and willingness to purchase was examined via a conditional process analysis.FindingsThe experience of playing the game improved the favourability of the respondents’ stereotype of EV owners by an average of 19 per cent, and their attitude towards EVs by 17 per cent. Self-image congruence in relation to EV ownership increased on the average by 14 per cent and reported EV product knowledge by 8 per cent. However, willingness to purchase an EV was not substantially affected. The link between attitude and willingness to purchase was weak, but was significantly moderated by stereotype favourability and self-image congruence with EV owners.Research limitations/implicationsAs with any IAT study, it was necessary to pre-specify a particular form of stereotype. Future research could employ alternative stereotypes. The investigation took place in a single country and involved a single environmentally friendly product.Practical implicationsGamification has much potential for helping manufacturers and government agencies to stimulate the mass market for EVs. To negate unfavourable images of EV owners, marketing communications promoting EVs might usefully employ celebrities, sports personalities and/or leading political figures as exemplars of the types of people who drive electric cars.Originality/valueThe research is the first to explore the effects of gamification on product user self-image congruence and stereotype formation. It is novel both in its employment of an IAT to measure the consumer stereotype of an environmentally friendly product and in its examination of the moderating influences of stereotype and product user self-image congruence on the attitude-willingness to purchase link.
Customer empowerment and firms’ performance
Authors: Berraies Sarra , Hamouda Manel 
Published: February 2018

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of customer empowerment (CE) on financial performance and the role of innovation and customer satisfaction as mediating variables in this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach
To empirically test the conceptual model and research hypotheses, data were collected through a survey from 216 branches of 14 commercial banks in Tunisia. Results were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

Findings
The results indicate a significant and a positive impact of CE on firms’ financial performance. Customer satisfaction, exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation mediate the relationship between CE and firms’ financial performance.

Practical implications
These findings provide useful insights for practitioners, particularly bank managers who can improve their financial performance, customer satisfaction and innovation by empowering their customers and integrating them in the products and/or services conception process. Conclusions emphasize practices to be encouraged within banks such as services customization which are acquired by customers themselves, the expression of opinions, customers’ needs and the interaction among bank customers.

Originality/value
Several studies in the literature have studied the CE and its impact on business performance. However, few research studies have focused on the variables that mediate this relationship. So far, this paper not only integrates mediating variables such as customer satisfaction and innovation to study the link CE-firm performance but also makes the distinction between exploitative and exploratory innovation which is seldom made by researchers.
Assessing the intentions to use internet banking
Authors: Namahoot Kanokkarn Snae , Laohavichien Tipparat 
Published: February 2018

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships among five dimensions of service quality towards the overall behavioural intentions to use internet banking in Thailand and explain the indirect effects between service quality and behavioural intentions to use internet banking using perceived risk and trust as the mediating variables.

Design/methodology/approach
A multi-stage sampling procedure was performed to select the 505 respondents for this study. The participants were selected based on their experiences using internet banking in Thailand. The data obtained from the participants was analysed using a structural equation modelling approach.

Findings
The results show that service quality, perceived risk and trust influence behavioural intentions to use internet banking. This study primarily aims to find out whether perceived risk and trust worked as a mediator variable between service quality and behavioural intentions to use internet banking. The study will be useful for the developers of internet banking, when they are implementing and developing a system that is in accordance with the needs and lifestyles of the potential users; and CEOs, to create strategies and relevant policies to achieve competitive advantage.

Originality/value
Literature has focused on understanding service quality dimensions that influence the behavioural intentions to use internet banking. By expanding on the previous research in internet banking, this paper empirically examines the overall direct and indirect influences between service quality, perceived risk, trust and behavioural intentions.
Human trafficking in hotels: an “invisible” threat for a vulnerable industry
Authors: Paraskevas Alexandros , Brookes Maureen 
Published: February 2018

Purpose
This paper aims to identify and analyse the hotel sector’s vulnerabilities that human traffickers exploit to use hotels as conduits for trafficking in human beings (THB).

Design/methodology/approach
Using the Method for the Assessment of the Vulnerability of Sectors framework of sector vulnerability analysis, the study adopted a qualitative approach using environmental scanning and semi-structured key stakeholder interviews in three European countries: UK, Finland and Romania.

Findings
The study identifies the types of THB occurring within the industry and the specific macro-, meso- and micro-level factors that increase hotel vulnerability to trafficking for sexual exploitation, labour exploitation or both.

Research limitations/implications
Given the sensitivity of the topic, the number of interviewees is limited as is the generalisability of the findings.

Practical implications
The framework developed serves as a practical tool for independent or chain-affiliated hotels to use to assess their vulnerability to human trafficking for both sexual and labour exploitation.

Social implications
The framework will assist hotel professionals to assess their vulnerability to human trafficking and identify specific and proactive measures to combat this crime within their business.

Originality/value
This is the first study to empirically explore human trafficking in the hotel sector and to apply an integrated theoretical lens to examine macro-, meso- and micro-level sector vulnerabilities to a crime. It contributes to the authors’ understanding of why hotels are vulnerable to human trafficking for both sexual and labour exploitation.
“What is beautiful we book”: hotel visual appeal and expected service quality
Authors: Kirillova Ksenia , Chan Janelle 
Published: February 2018

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the effect of hotel aesthetics as represented in online spaces (e.g. online travel agency website) in prospective guests’ evaluation of expected service quality and booking intentions, as well as the interplay between aesthetic and functional values as related to those outcomes.Design/methodology/approachA scenario-based experimental design is conducted with 203 Chinese respondents. A between-subject two-way multivariate analysis of covariance (high vs low aesthetic value; high vs low functional value), which also controlled for respondents’ individual tendency to appreciate beauty, is used.FindingsResults show that high aesthetic value hotels are more likely to be booked and perceived as able to deliver better services in SERVQUAL dimensions of tangibles, reliability and assurance. There are no significant effects for responsiveness and empathy. Given the presence of the aesthetic effect, hotel functional value has no impact on the outcome variables.Practical implicationsHotel managers are recommended to employ professional photographer-artists who are aware of the aesthetic value of hotels and can translate this value into information technology-mediated spaces. Such professionals should be able to create a composition that balances the elements of classic (e.g. symmetry vs asymmetry) and expressive (e.g. color) aesthetics.Originality/valueThis research brings out a number of insights from the product experience literature in the hospitality context and points to the limitations of the product visual attractiveness in engendering positive service quality evaluation.
Frontline employees’ high-performance work practices, trust in supervisor, job-embeddedness and turnover intentions in hospitality industry
Authors: Afsar Bilal , Shahjehan Asad , Shah Syed Imad 
Published: February 2018

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating effect of job embeddedness on the relationships between high-performance work practices, trust in supervisor and turnover intentions of frontline employees in the hospitality industry.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 343 frontline employees working in four- and five-star hotels of Thailand. Partial least squares was used for analysis because it is considered as the best method to analyze the data containing both reflective and formative indicators.FindingsResults suggest that job embeddedness fully mediates the effects of high-performance work practices and trust in supervisor on turnover intentions and turnover intention positively affects the actual voluntary turnover.Practical implicationsThe study confirms that high-performance work practices (empowerment, training and rewards) and trust in supervisor affect turnover intentions through on-the-job embeddedness. Hence, high-performance work practices embed hotel employees in their jobs, and they are unlikely to display turnover intentions. Furthermore, low level of trust in supervisor must be addressed to maintain a healthy environment where employees are able to develop their job embeddedness.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the body of research on the theoretical explanation of the consequences of trust in supervisor in hospitality industry, as well as to the growing body of research on turnover intentions in frontline employees.
What is the state of hospitality and tourism research – 2018?
Authors: McKercher Bob 
Published: February 2018

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a personal view of the state of hospitality and tourism research as we enter 2018. It seeks to highlight a number of systemic issues that are affecting adversely the quality of research published.

Design/methodology/approach
This is an auto-ethnographic approach based on the author’s nearly 30 years of working and researching in the field of hospitality and tourism.

Findings
The paper begins by talking about many of the positive things that are occurring in this field, before raising five main issues of concern: the changing nature of academic research; our own lack of critical thinking; becoming method robots; publishing and authorship pressures that hinder career development and creativity; and whether our own lack of working experience hurts the academic development of the field.

Originality/value
The paper provides a list of five key issues all academics must be aware of to ensure both their own career progression and the continued development of the field.
Tie me to the mast: artificial intelligence & reputation risk management
Authors: Hirsch Peter Buell 
Published: February 2018

Purpose
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have spread rapidly across every aspect of business and social activity. The purpose of this paper is to examine how this rapidly growing field of analytics might be put to use in the area of reputation risk management.

Design/methodology/approach
The approach taken was to examine in detail the primary and emerging applications of artificial intelligence to determine how they could be applied to preventing and mitigating reputation risk by using machine learning to identify early signs of behaviors that could lead to reputation damage.

Findings
This review confirmed that there were at least two areas in which artificial intelligence could be applied to reputation risk management – the use of machine learning to analyze employee emails in real time to detect early signs of aberrant behavior and the use of algorithmic game theory to stress test business decisions to determine whether they contained perverse incentives leading to potential fraud.

Research limitations/implications
Because of the fact that this viewpoint is by its nature a thought experiment, the authors have not yet tested the practicality or feasibility of the uses of artificial intelligence it describes.

Practical implications
Should the concepts described be viable in real-world application, they would create extraordinarily powerful tools for companies to identify risky behaviors in development long before they had run far enough to create major reputation risk.

Social implications
By identifying risky behaviors at an early stage and preventing them from turning into reputation risks, the methods described could help restore and maintain trust in the relationship between companies and their stakeholders.

Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, artificial intelligence has never been described as a potential tool in reputation risk management.
Mediating and moderating influencers of firm performance
Authors: Niranjan Suman , Spulick Stephen R. , Savitskie Katrina 
Published: February 2018

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to conduct an exploratory study that will assist supply chain firms in the development of partner satisfaction, flexibility, and supply chain performance. The authors examine how the interaction of information exchange, partner interaction, knowledge sharing and flexibility as mediated through partner satisfaction effectuates firm performance. The goal of this research is to answer the supply chain managers’ need to better understand where to invest their time and effort to get improved firm performance.

Design/methodology/approach
The model was tested with panel data from 105 experienced, US-based supply chain managers. Structural equation modeling using partial least squares approach was utilized to conduct the analysis.

Findings
The results provide crucial evidence that simple information exchange among supply chain partners does not result in improvements in firm performance or partner satisfaction, but, when mediated through the flexibility construct, it does. Further, the use of integration tools has a moderating effect on the relationship between flexibility and firm performance. The results suggest that working closely with supply chain partners helps ensure improved relationship satisfaction, and can reduce issues that can impact firm performance.

Research limitations/implications
The empirical research presented requires additional validation though larger sample data from supply chain managers.

Practical implications
This study stresses on the importance of managers using information exchange, partner interaction, and knowledge sharing as a means of improving their firm’s indirect influence on firm performance through flexibility and integration tools.

Originality/value
This is one of the few studies in the supply chain literature that integrates flexibility as a mediator variable. Additionally, this study introduces the new construct of integration tools to the supply chain literature.
Dorothy Dignam’s advocacy for women’s careers in advertising: 1920-1950
Authors: Wills Jeanie 
Published: February 2018

Purpose
This paper aims to examine how women working in the advertising industry during the 1920s and 1930s encouraged and resisted stereotypes about women to establish a professional identity. This seemingly paradoxical approach provided women with opportunities for professional development and network building. Dorothy Dignam is presented as a case study of one such advertising woman. She was a market researcher, a teacher, an advocate for women’s employment in advertising, a historian of women’s advertising clubs and a supporter of and a contributor to women’s professional networking.

Design/methodology/approach
Archival material is drawn from the N. W. Ayer and Son archives at the Smithsonian Institute, the Advertising Women of New York archives and the Dorothy Dignam Papers at the Schlesinger Library, the Philadelphia Club of Advertising Women papers at Bryn Mawr, the Dignam Collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Women’s Advertising Club of Chicago (WACC) archives at the University of Illinois, Chicago. A close reading method of analysis places the material in a historical context. Additionally, it provides a narrative structure to demonstrate the complementary relationship between advertising club work and professional identity.

Findings
Dignam’s career strategies helped her to construct a professional identity that situated her as a guide, teacher and role model for other women who worked in advertising. She supported and created an attitude that enabled aspiring career women to embark on their careers, and she assisted in creating a coalition of women who empowered each other through their advertising club work.

Practical implications
Dignam’s published work about careers for women in advertising, her own career and its advancement and her involvement with women’s advertising clubs all served a rhetorical purpose. Her professional life sought to change both men’s and women’s attitudes about the impact of women in professional roles. In turn, the influence of attitudes helped to create space for women in business, especially those seeking advertising careers.

Originality/value
This paper illustrates how Dignam’s career, accomplishments and publications coalesce to provide evidence of how women negotiated professional identities and claimed space for themselves in the business world and in the advertising industry.
Decrease in eosinophils infiltrating into the skin of patients with dipeptidyl peptidase‐4 inhibitor‐related bullous pemphigoid
Authors: Chijiwa Chika , Takeoka Shintaro , Kamata Masahiro , Tateishi Mihoko , Fukaya Saki , Hayashi Kotaro , Fukuyasu Atsuko , Tanaka Takamitsu , Ishikawa Takeko , Ohnishi Takamitsu , Watanabe Shinichi , Tada Yayoi 
Published: February 2018

AbstractBullous pemphigoid (BP) is an acquired autoimmune blistering disease in which autoantibodies against epitopes in the basement membrane zone of the skin such as BP180 or BP230 are produced. Dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP)‐4 inhibitors have become commonly used to treat diabetes. As DPP‐4 inhibitors are more commonly prescribed for diabetes, BP related to DPP‐4 inhibitors has been reported and has attracted attention. Therefore, we retrospectively investigated patients who were diagnosed with BP in order to examine characteristics of DPP‐4 inhibitor‐related BP (nine patients; median age, 85 years) in comparison with non‐DPP‐4 inhibitor‐related BP (21; median age, 85 years). There was no significant difference in Bullous Pemphigoid Disease Area Index between DPP‐4 inhibitor‐related BP patients and non‐DPP‐4 inhibitor‐related BP patients, except for erosions/blisters score in mucosa. Laboratory tests revealed no significant differences between DPP‐4 inhibitor‐related BP patients and non‐DPP‐4 inhibitor‐related BP patients in total white blood cell count, eosinophil count, neutrophil count and the titer of anti‐BP180 antibody. The number of eosinophils infiltrating into the skin was significantly lower in patients with DPP4 inhibitor‐related BP than in patients with non‐DPP4 inhibitor‐related BP. Our results showed that DPP‐4 inhibitor‐related BP has some distinct pathological characteristics from BP not associated with DPP‐4 inhibitor.
Whitefly aggregation on tomato is mediated by feeding‐induced changes in plant metabolites that influence the behaviour and performance of conspecifics
Authors: Su Qi , Chen Gong , Mescher Mark C. , Peng Zhengke , Xie Wen , Wang Shaoli , Wu Qingjun , Liu Jie , Li Chuanren , Wang Wenkai , Zhang Youjun 
Published: February 2018

Abstract

Leaf damage caused by herbivore feeding often triggers induced resistance in plants. However, some herbivores can take advantage of the resulting metabolic changes in host plants and may even manipulate plant resistance, leading to a phenomenon known as induced susceptibility.

Previous work has shown that feeding by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci can reduce tomato Solanum lycopersicum resistance and that whiteflies tended to aggregate on infested plants. However, metabolomic changes in the plant and associated whitefly behavioural responses underlying this phenomenon remain poorly understood. We, therefore, investigated how B. tabaci infestation affects host physiology and the preference and performance of conspecific feeders.

Bemisia tabaci adults exhibited consistent behavioural preferences for plants that experienced actual and simulated herbivory by conspecifics (consistent with observed effects on whitefly performance), but not for plants that were only mechanically wounded. Leaf volatiles and extracts of B. tabaci‐infested plants showed altered terpenoid and flavonoid profiles. Manipulative behavioural experiments indicated that suppression of the monoterpenes α‐phellandrene and α‐terpinene and of flavonoids by B. tabaci infestation influenced the foraging and oviposition preferences of conspecifics.

These findings document key metabolic changes in plants exhibiting induced susceptibility and demonstrate their role in mediating herbivore foraging behaviour and aggregation on susceptible plants, thereby providing new insight into a relatively unexplored aspect of plant–herbivore interactions.

A plain language summary is available for this article.