Extant Literature Research Articles

Zooming in small family wineries: exploring service quality, loyalty and the moderating role of wine involvement

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the role of wine involvement in moderating the effect of winery service quality on loyalty toward small family wineries. Design/methodology/approach This study used a structured questionnaire. The survey was distributed to wine tourists who visited small family wineries located in Crete, Greece and a total of 216 usable questionnaires were collected for the study. To analyze the data, the study used partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings The results reveal that wine involvement moderates the effects of winery service quality on wine tourists’ loyalty. Specifically, staff behavior affects the loyalty toward wine tourists with low involvement more significantly compared to the wine tourists with high wine involvement. On the other hand, the quality of wine tastings affects the loyalty of wine tourists with high wine involvement more significantly in contrast with the wine tourists with low wine involvement. Practical implications Findings suggest that winery operators need to take into consideration wine involvement among wine tourists when they develop a winery service strategy. Operators of small family wineries can provide more customized, diverse and quality wine tastings to wine tourists with high wine involvement while prioritizing winery staff’s behavior and hospitality to those wine tourists with low wine involvement. Originality/value This study contributes to extant wine tourism literature by adding the effects of wine involvement on wine tourists’ loyalty toward the winery, and particularly focusing on small, family wineries.

The effect of natural disasters on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa

Purpose This study aims to assess the effects of natural disasters on food security in a sample of 40 sub-Saharan African countries. First, the authors assess the effects of natural disasters on the four dimensions of food security and second, the authors disaggregate natural disaster using the two dimensions that are most representative, namely, hydrological and biological disasters. Design/methodology/approach The regressions are based on the generalised method of moments on a data set covering the period 2005–2020. Natural disasters are measured by the total number of people affected and food security by its characteristics: access, availability, use and sustainability. Findings The results show that natural disasters increase the prevalence of undernourishment but reduce dependence on cereal imports. An increase in natural disasters by 1% increases the prevalence of undernourishment by the same proportion. As for import dependency, a 1% increase in natural disasters reduces dependency by 2.2%. The disaggregated effects show that hydrological disasters are more significant than biological disasters in impacting food security. Floods reduce the average energy supply adequacy but also dependence on cereal imports. Policy implications are discussed. Originality/value The study complements the extant literature by assessing the effects of natural disasters on food security in a region where food insecurity is one of the worst in the world.

Does Childhood Cochlear Implantation Spill Over to Carers' Employment Status?

Carers of children with disabilities, especially primary carers, tend to have poorer labor market outcomes than carers of typically developing children. However, the extant literature has been largely silent on whether interventions for children's disabilities spill over to carers' employment outcomes, if at all. We aimed to fill this gap. We analyzed data from the Longitudinal Outcomes of Children with Hearing Impairment study, which is a unique panel dataset of Australian children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH). The Longitudinal Outcomes of Children with Hearing Impairment dataset includes information about 449 DHH children. We used 3 waves covering the same children at ages 0 to 3, 5 to 7, and 8 to 10 years during 2005 and 2018. We used a panel random-effects model, the use of which was supported by the Hausman specification test to control for time-invariant individual heterogeneity. We found that primary carers (typically mothers) of DHH children with cochlear implants (CI) were more likely to be employed relative to DHH children without a CI. The positive association was stronger among carers from a lower socioeconomic background. The association between childhood CI and carer employment may potentially be due to relaxed primary carers' time constraints to care for the child, increased self-efficacy, and reduced carer stress, enabling them to engage in other activities, including employment. Further research through large-scale, longitudinal studies is warranted to solidify the findings of this research.

A Non-Compensatory Index of Community Participation in Cross-Border Tourism Development Processes

We propose a composite index to measure and benchmark community participation in cross-border tourism development processes. The index synthesizes information regarding three dimensions of this construct, deemed as very important by the extant literature: residents’ engagement in the planning process and willingness to proactively welcome tourists and provide tourist services directly through sharing-economy platforms. The latter aspect is crucial to develop a local tourist supply able to combine environmental sustainability and financial feasibility in marginal areas, where public funding is scarce and private investments are unprofitable. This study offers a methodological innovation using response rates to open-ended questions to measure residents’ engagement in tourism planning. By applying the ELECTRE III algorithm, which is non-compensatory and ensures reliability in the presence of a high degree of uncertainty, survey information is aggregated in a single figure, which can be easily interpreted by destination managers and policymakers. After COVID-19, in readying for the next pandemic, decision makers should find our index as a very relevant and useful tool for tourism recovery and innovation planning, including compliance with measures to prevent the spread of future infections. We apply the proposed index to ten Croatian and Italian lands involved in a European development project. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with residents, according to an availability sampling design. We obtained 879 valid questionnaires. The robustness of the resulting index is tested through an uncertainty and a sensitivity analysis.

Marketing Strategies and Sales Performance of a Manufacturing Company

This study was carried out to investigate how marketing strategies, consisting of product, price, place, and promotion strategies, affected the sales performance of a food and beverage manufacturing company. A review of extant literature indicated the need for studies, in this regard, in Nigeria’s food and beverages industry. The study adopted a survey research design. Two hundred and seventy four employees of a food and beverage manufacturing company in Lagos State were studied. Data were collected on a four-point scale ranging from strongly disagree, 1, to strongly agree, 4. Mean and standard deviation values of statements relating to marketing strategies were obtained from descriptive statistics while inferential statistics based on multiple regression analysis produced results that determined the effects of marketing strategies on sales performance. The results indicated statistical significance [F(4,269)df = 4783.108, p < .05)] for the effect of marketing strategies on sales performance. Product (β = .478, t = 5.588, p < .05), place (β = .454, t = 5.360, p < .05), and promotion (β = .075, t = 1.773, p > .05) strategies had positive effects on sales performance while price strategy indicated insignificant negative effect (β = -.023, t = -.626, p > .05) on sales performance. Marketing strategies explained 98.6 percent variation in sales performance. The conclusion of the study indicated a need for the managers of the company to increase the tempo of premium-pricing promotion strategy and advertisements in the social and electronic media as well as reevaluate the pricing strategy of the company as a means of improving its effectiveness by increasing the chances of achieving the objectives of cost recovery and meeting the needs of customers.

Big data analytics capabilities and leadership: catalysts of firm performance in telecommunications

PurposeThe proliferation of big data analytics (BDA)-enabled tools and technologies has endowed organizations with the capacity to augment decision-making processes, optimize operational endeavors and foster innovation across diverse business domains. Consequently, BDA has been posited as a catalyst for enhanced customer relationship management, improved risk mitigation strategies and heightened operational efficiencies, all of which converge to augment overall firm performance. Thus, the purpose of this research is to introduce a conceptual framework aimed at explaining the influence of BDA capabilities on the performance of telecommunications firms in Pakistan. Additionally, it examines the potential mediating effect of talent capabilities and moderating effect of top management attitude on firm performance.Design/methodology/approachData from a sample comprising 520 participants were collected via survey questionnaires. The study employed Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling to empirically evaluate the proposed model.FindingsResults reveal a positive association between BDA technology and information capabilities with both BDA talent capabilities and firm performance. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that BDA talent capabilities mediate the relationship between BDA dynamic capabilities and firm performance, while top management attitude acts as a moderator, enhancing the relationship between BDA talent capabilities and firm performance.Originality/valueThere is a scarcity of research that has examined the relationship of BDA capabilities, top management attitude and firm performance. This study attempts to examine their interrelationships. First, it enhances the extant literature by elucidating the mediating role of BDA talent capabilities in the relationship between BDA technology and information capabilities and firm performance. Second, the study introduces a novel dimension by incorporating top management attitude as a moderator variable. This augmentation adds layers of complexity to comprehending BDA implementation dynamics, emphasizing leadership’s role in fostering an enabling environment for effective utilization of BDA capabilities.

On the opposition to market institutions on moral grounds

From a liberal viewpoint, voluntary trade appears to be something that should meet universal approval. If no one is obliged to trade, establishing a market institution could only make all better off. Nonetheless, specific market institutions meet substantial skepticism and criticism. This paper extends the extant literature by surveying the moral opposition towards trade in multiple dimensions and linking this to policy support measures. We provide survey results on moral opposition to trade in organs, sex services, surrogate mothers, trade in carbon permits, goods produced in poor countries, and food from countries where people suffer from hunger. These cover the potential reasons for opposing trade institutions: moral concerns, paternalism regarding risk-taking, and distributional concerns. Beyond this, we measure support for policies on unemployment benefits, risk prevention, equality goals within society, and redistribution. The survey of Amazon Mechanical Turk workers from the U.S. reveals significant moral opposition to trade in diverse dimensions. About a third of the participants strongly oppose trade in body items, sex services, and food imports from countries where a large proportion of the population suffers from hunger and malnutrition. Fewer participants strongly oppose trading CO2 permits, importing from developing countries, or allowing surrogate mothership. Besides other correlates (e.g., gender, education, being conservative), individuals’ attitudes towards imposing risks on others are identified as an important correlate of the opposition to trade for all the contexts of trade: those who are averse to exposing others to risk for their own advantage are more likely to oppose trading institutions. This measure of social preferences also relates to support for policies on risk prevention, equality goals within society, and redistribution. We discuss potential mechanisms behind this explanatory power of the newly identified measure.

Anti-Corruption Research in Southeast Europe: A Comparative Assessment of Global and Regional Literature

This paper analyzes anti-corruption research and the body of knowledge produced by researchers in Southeast Europe (SEE). It compares it to the extant global anti-corruption literature. We consider all available scientific outputs from the SEE region, indexed by the Elsevier Scopus bibliometric database, and employ the Elsevier SciVal software solution to analyze the productivity and impact of the regional anti-corruption research. We also consider the influence of international cooperation on regional scientific productivity and its impact. The bibliometric comparison of the global and regional research and the authors’ qualitative assessment of these differences are performed. We also identify the implications and future research priorities.

When and how it is good for fashion to look typical: visual prototypicality affecting product valuation and brand preference

PurposeAlthough visual prototypicality in fashion is an observed phenomenon, empirical examinations of the link between fashion products' design prototypicality and consumer evaluations still need to be included. The present study analyzes the influence of the visual prototypicality of fashion products on consumer-perceived product values and brand preference.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey adopting the fashion product images with significantly differing levels of visual prototypicality was used to collect data from 456 US consumers. The hypothesized relationships among visual prototypicality, product values and brand preference were analyzed through multi-group analysis.FindingsPerceived visual typicality of fashion product designs significantly increased the hedonic and utilitarian value of the product and only indirectly increase brand preference. The hypothesized positive relationship between visual prototypicality and the product’s social value was found to be significant only in the low-price levels but became insignificant in the high-price levels.Originality/valueThe findings of this study contribute to the extant literature by first providing an initial analysis of the mechanism of visual prototypicality in the fashion product design field. The results confirm that visual prototypicality indirectly influences consumers' brand evaluations by the product’s perceived value. This relationship was previously assumed but not empirically proven only in non-fashion product categories. The study also presents additional new points, further enriching the understanding of visual typicality. Additionally, the results show the complex relationship between the visual prototypicality of fashion product designs and the perceived social value of the product, which varies depending on the price range.

Tax privacy concerns hamper digitization of the nanostore channel

AbstractVarious entities, such as startups, suppliers, and governments, face substantial difficulties in convincing nanostore shopkeepers to adopt digital technologies. Given the informal status of nanostores, we posit that shopkeepers experience Tax Privacy Concerns from their operational records potentially becoming transparent to the tax authorities, which hampers their inclination to digitize. Through the application of a survey and vignette experiments in the field with hundreds of shopkeepers across three cities in Latin America, we find consistent evidence for the negative role of Tax Privacy Concerns, above and beyond shopkeepers' Willingness to Share Data with various entities, Trust in the government and other entities, and general Privacy Concerns. Further, we show that having entities that shopkeepers trust and are willing to share data with offer technological solutions does not mitigate shopkeepers' Tax Privacy Concerns and boosts digitization. In contrast, positive word of mouth that data are unlikely to be shared with the tax authorities does mitigate Tax Privacy Concerns. Overall, our findings provide novel evidence for the existence and influence of privacy concerns for operational data among microentrepreneurs, which answers calls in the extant literature to explore privacy concerns beyond the consumer context.

Extending behavioral theory of the firm to new ventures: Dispositional optimism as a moderating influence on new product introductions in high-tech ventures

Extant literature has typically drawn from the behavioral theory of the firm (BTOF) to examine new product introductions in the context of well-established companies. This paper extends the behavioral theory of the firm to entrepreneurial firms and argues that jointly considering founders' dispositional optimism together with the performance feedback promises to yield a better understanding of new product introductions in new ventures. We analyze a longitudinal dataset on the activities of 344 newly founded high technology ventures in the United States. The key insight of our study is that when BTOF is applied to the context of nascent, entrepreneurial ventures, the personality and dispositional characteristics of the entrepreneur must be considered. Specifically, we find that performance attainment discrepancy leads to new product introductions, but only when the entrepreneur's dispositional optimism level is high.

Reexploring the conception of heat-health risk: From the perspectives of dimensionality and spatiality.

Extreme heat events are more frequent and intense as a result of global climate change, thus posing tremendous threats to public health. However, extant literature exploring the multidimensional features of heat-health risks from a spatial perspective is limited. This study revisits extreme heat-health risk and decomposes this concept by integrating multi-sourced datasets, identifying compositional features, examining spatial patterns, and comparing classified characteristics based on local conditions. Using Maryland as the focal point, we found that the components of heat-health risk are different from traditional risk dimensions (i.e., vulnerability, hazards, and exposure). Through a local-level clustering analysis, heat-health risks were compared with areas having similar features, and among those with different features. The findings suggest a new perspective for understanding the socio-environmental and socio-spatial features of heat-health risks. They also offer an apt example of applying cross-disciplinary methods and tools for investigating an ever-changing phenomenon. Moreover, the spatial classification mechanism provides insights about the underlying causes of heat-health risk disparities and offers reference points for decision-makers regarding identification of vulnerable areas, resource allocation, and causal inferences when planning for and managing extreme heat disasters.

Understanding the intellectual structure of technology adoption in the foodservice industry: thematic trajectories and future research agenda

ABSTRACT Foodservice firms are adopting varied technologies to enhance their operational efficiency and sustain their competitive position. The literature has discussed technological enhancements and their adoption in the foodservice industry. However, the intellectual structure of technology adoption in foodservice industry is not well defined. Therefore, the present research attempts to map the evolution, themes, and intellectual structure of technology adoption within the foodservice industry. The study uses extant literature published at the intersection of technology and foodservice research. The Scopus database is used to extract the information from published article. Using the defined keywords, the study performs a bibliometric and topic modeling analysis on the extracted data from 653 articles. The study maps the evolution and identifies prominent author(s), journal(s), and most cited work in the area. Furthermore, the study develops the intellectual structure of technology adoption in foodservice research. The intellectual structure comprises five topics, including the application of technologies, digital transformation, optimizing the supply chain, customer insights, and human-robot interaction. The study provides future research directions and implications for theory and practice.

54 Development of an equine metabolism model to describe post-absorptive nutrient dynamics

Abstract Nutrition modelling is instrumental to modern feed formulation and diet optimization across livestock sectors. Mechanistic models of nutrient digestion, absorption, and metabolism are implemented in industry as ‘decision support systems’, and in academia to summarize and examine our cumulative biological knowledge, identify knowledge gaps and test/evaluate hypotheses. However, comparatively less progress in this field has been made in the equine sector. This limits the ability of the equine sector to address complex challenges such as interactions between equine nutrition, management, health, and welfare. To address this gap, a first iteration of a dynamic, deterministic, mechanistic model describing postabsorptive nutrient dynamics for equines has been developed. Model coding and development was performed using Python with specific libraries for mathematical equations and integration. This model was developed primarily based on extant published mechanistic models of protein and energy metabolism in other species. The present model simulates the partitioning of ingested nutrients into digested nutrients, through intermediary metabolism and ultimately to growth and deposition of protein, fat, water, and ash into the body compartments. As shown in Figure 1, the model takes digested nutrients (protein, fat, starch, glucose, volatile fatty acids) as inputs and contains 12 state variables divided into metabolite pools (amino acids, fatty acids, glucose, glycogen, acetyl-CoA, ATP), and body constituent pools (muscle protein, bone protein, hide protein, viscera protein, body fat, body ash). Ingested feed is partitioned into digested nutrients using digestibility coefficients from extant equine literature, and indigestible nutrients are excreted. Meta-analysis was used to develop empirical equations to predict VFA concentrations in the hindgut. VFA absorption is estimated using Michaelis-Menten kinetics including the pH and hindgut volume, assumed as a constant value for a mature horse Acetyl-CoA, a key intermediary metabolism pool, is produced from amino acid, glucose, and fatty acid catabolism and is consumed for maintenance requirements, which is accounted for in an ATP pool. The ATP pool is a ‘zero pool’, which balances the ATP producing and -consuming reactions in the model, with any remaining ATP balance required being pulled from the acetyl-CoA pool. Turnover of protein and fat is represented by differences in accretion and catabolism. Work is ongoing to evaluate the developed model for model performance using data extracted from the literature. The model will be trained and subsequently evaluated using equine studies in three main areas: growth and body composition, protein turnover and nitrogen balance, and energy metabolism. Developing this model for the equine sector will stimulate and assist in defining future research priorities, inform revisions to the nutrient requirements of horses, increase understanding of metabolic processes as well as related disorders, reduce waste via increased focus on precision feeding and support the development of new products and services to improve equine health.

Technology in fashion retail: exploring the nexus of in-store technology, customer experience, and store image

ABSTRACT This research aims to shed light on the complex interplay between in-store retail technologies, shopping experience, and store image in the context of fashion retail outlets. The SOR (Stimulus-Organism-Response) based Bitner’s model has been selected as the theoretical foundation of the present study. A total number of 245 customers from retail fashion outlets of Jammu & Kashmir and Delhi regions of India were sampled using convenience sampling. The hypotheses were tested using the technique of Structural Equation Modelling. Findings indicate that in-store retail technology positively influences customers’ experience (cognitive, affective, social, relative advantage component), which in turn positively impacts store image. The construct ‘customer experience’ was found to significantly mediate the relationship between ‘in-store technology’ and ‘store image’. Using Bitner’s model as theoretical foundation, the findings of the study provide useful insight that in-store technology is a crucial determinant for building a better store image through enhanced customer experience, which could be seen as a significant contribution to the extant literature.

'Cheering on from the side-lines': The perceived impact of romantic partner's commentary and behaviour on maintaining women's appearance anxiety.

Appearance anxiety (AA) is a probable risk factor for body dysmorphic disorder and a prevalent and debilitating concern. Extant literature suggests that romantic partners' commentary and accommodation behaviour may contribute to women's appearance concerns. The aim of this study is to explore how women experience and make sense of romantic partner feedback about their appearance. Qualitative semi-structured interview study. Semi-structured interviews with 13 cis-gender women explored how they make sense of appearance anxiety in the context of romantic relationships. Reflexive thematic analysis with a hybrid inductive-deductive coding approach was utilised, drawing on cognitive behavioural theory (CBT) as a theoretical lens to interpret the data. Four themes were created from the data: (1) 'Then he said to me … you could probably tone up a bit': Maintaining cycles; (2) 'I think those comments down the line do eventually help': breaking out of maintenance cycles, (3) 'It's like they're talking in a foreign language'; beliefs as a filter and (4) 'Cheering me on from the side-lines'; romantic partner a supportive coach. These themes highlight the perceived unhelpful (e.g. accommodation of behaviours) and helpful (e.g. affection) impact of romantic partners' behaviours and commentary on participants' AA. Romantic partners are perceived by women to have a potent impact on their AA. Clinical practice implications include involving romantic partners in treatment, and clinicians using their formulation and CBT skills (e.g. Socratic questioning), to understand and target these possible maintenance processes within couples.

Optimal prototype filter design in GFDM systems for self-interference elimination: A novel signal processing approach

We present an innovative conceptual framework and a comprehensive mathematical model to advance the understanding and mitigation of self-interference phenomena within generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM). By introducing a novel analytical perspective, we decompose the self-interference effects inherent to GFDM into two orthogonal constituents through a vectorized representation. Our elucidation of the self-interference components in terms of prototype filter parameters in the frequency domain is of particular significance. This theoretical characterization allows us to derive explicit analytical expressions, thereby paving the way for the proposition of an optimal filter design strategy that effectively mitigates self-interference distortions within GFDM systems. Our investigation reveals a noteworthy linkage between the required bandwidth allocation for individual subcarriers and the sub-symbol configuration within the proposed optimal prototype filter. This relationship underscores the filter’s adeptness in optimizing spectrum utilization across the system. Through an analytical examination of the bit error rate (BER) performance within the GFDM framework, we establish the superior efficacy of our proposed optimal filter design relative to contemporary approaches documented in extant literature. Validation of our analytical findings is conducted via meticulous computer simulations, where a strong concurrence between the analytical predictions and the observed simulation outcomes is manifest.

A cross-country, macro-level investigation into earnings retention during the COVID-19 pandemic

Orientation: Many shareholders rely on dividends for income. During crisis periods, managers, however, tend to retain rather than distribute earnings. Most prior research during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic focussed on company-specific factors and industry association that favour earnings retention. As far as could be ascertained, no studies to date have investigated the role that macro-level factors could have played.Research purpose: The authors hence examined the extent to which government efficiency, business efficiency, infrastructure, economic performance, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation and indulgence influenced earnings retention at listed companies in 62 countries from 2019 to 2021.Motivation for the study: Additional insights were uncovered regarding the earnings retention decision during an economic crisis.Research approach/design and method: Earnings retention data were downloaded from Bloomberg database, and country-level data from the International Institute for Management Development, the World Bank, Hofstede Insights and the World Federation of Exchanges. Panel regressions were used to examine hypothesised relationships.Main findings: Contrary to expectation, earnings retention was negatively associated with the cultural dimension that measures uncertainty avoidance. The notion that less earnings would be retained in countries with high indulgence scores was, however, supported. Significant differences in earnings retention were observed across geographic regions and income groups. This descriptive study provides support for the dividend signalling theory in some countries.Practical/managerial implications: Shareholders who rely on dividends should be mindful of signalling behaviour during economic crises.Contribution/value-add: The findings enrich the extant literature on the earnings retention decision during an economic crisis by highlighting the importance of cultural dimensions, notably uncertainty avoidance and indulgence. Recommendations are offered to managers, shareholders and policymakers.

Insurance Services, Sustainability, and Transformation of Businesses in the Nigerian Informal Sector: A Conceptual Review

ABSTRACT This study explores the impact of insurance services and the sustainability of businesses in the Nigerian informal sector. The analysis relies on extant literature sourced from various sources to develop an understanding of the current trends of insurance services in the Nigerian informal sector and develop a suggested model for improved insurance service delivery in the Nigerian informal sector. Findings show that stakeholder commitment is necessary for better impact of insurance services in the sector. The conclusion emphasizes the possibility of business sustainability through consolidated insurance services among stakeholders in the sector. Part of the suggestion for further research is the need for a wider focus on insurance practices both in the formal and informal sectors of the Nigerian economy. This is coupled with an exploratory view on the impact of policy development on insurance support to business activities in the Nigerian informal sector.

Understanding copycat packaging: a systematic review and research directions

Purpose The literature on copycat packaging has developed intermittently over a 30-year period, resulting in a divergent and fragmented body of knowledge. This paper aims to synthesise the extant literature to highlight the main developments in the marketing, legal and design fields and, in doing so, contributes to a holistic understanding of the research area and suggests directions for future research. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature search retrieved 5,862 articles, and after filtering against explicit criteria, 49 studies were reviewed. These articles were subsequently evaluated and interpreted, producing a synthesis of current research. Findings The constructs of copycat packaging, including similarity-related concepts, consequences of copycat packaging and mitigating approaches, have been reported across three disciplines of marketing, legal and design, each having its own distinct focus but nonetheless sharing overlapping themes. Research limitations/implications This review discusses future directions and proposes a framework of research themes relating to brand enhancement for online purchasing, measurement of brand confusion, reinforcing design features and approaches to mitigating copycat practices. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first systematic review of the literature on copycat packaging. It brings together the latest thinking on copycat packaging and identifies distinct research issues to be addressed in future studies.