Moderated Mediation Approach Research Articles

“Badge of Honor”: Honor Ideology, Police Legitimacy, and Perceptions of Police Violence

Research indicates that police legitimacy is a function of how well police officers subscribe to community values, norms, and beliefs. Because such perceptions are likely to be culturally derived, the influence of culture on shaping community expectations for and responses to police brutality and violence should be examined. One specific cultural framework worthy of examination is honor ideology, as it values instrumental violence and aggression in defense of reputation, as well as the perceptions of the same, in a way that is relevant to the study of police violence. Study 1 utilizes publicly available data to examine if there is a relationship between the presence of a culture of honor and rates of police shooting within the USA. Results indicate that, as with other forms of aggression, honor does predict and uniquely explain police violence. Having established a relationship to exist between honor and police use of violence in Study 1, Study 2 experimentally examined this relationship as a function of individual perceptions of the legitimacy of police violence. Through a moderated-mediation approach, Study 2’s results indicate that honor endorsers perceive police officers as reflecting their personal values, believe it is their duty to reflect such values, and approve of police violence as a means of reputation management. The implications of these findings for the fields of both honor and police research are discussed.

Uniqueness and luxury: A moderated mediation approach

Luxury consumption has become a worldwide phenomenon. Irrespective of consumers’ need for uniqueness being considered as an important psychological factor impacting luxury consumption intention, research seldom investigates the impact of CNFU dimensions on luxury consumption. This study investigates how CNFU dimensions (i.e. creative choice counter-conformity, unpopular choice counter-conformity and avoidance of similarity) drive luxury consumption intention in light of the mediating role of social comparison and the moderating role of materialism. Four hundred twenty-eight surveys completed by high-income consumers in India were used for analysis. The findings showed that social comparison mediates the effects of creative choice counter conformity and avoidance of similarity on luxury consumption. Materialism moderates these mediation effects. This study contributes to the luxury consumption literature by explaining how the interplay of psychological and social factor affects luxury purchase intention among the people driven by different uniqueness dimensions. Practically, the findings will be useful to the retailers and marketers of fashion luxury items and brands.

Linking workplace ostracism to turnover intention: A moderated mediation approach

The purpose of the study is to understand the effect of workplace ostracism on turnover intention relationship and the roles of moderated mediated variables. The data was collected from 350 employees from hotels situated in the Delhi NCR region of India. Structural Equation Modeling and Macro PROCESS (Hayes, 2013) were used to study the hypothesized relationships. Openness to experience and neuroticism partially mediated the effect of workplace ostracism on turnover intention, and resilience moderated the mediating effects. The findings would help explore the role of resilience in altering the mechanism between workplace ostracism and turnover intention. The study is the first of its kind in the Indian context, which has linked variables like workplace ostracism, turnover intention, and personality variables to understand their impact on the hotel industry. Linking the study with the ‘Conservation of Resource’ perspective, the study has added a new dimension to the prevalent frame of knowledge.

Supervisors’ Leadership Styles’ Influence on Foreign Teachers’ Self-Efficacy in a Cross-Cultural Work Setting: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

Leadership style impacts on the manner and frequency of feedback transmission. However, communication challenges between superiors and subordinates originate from cultural differences, which undermine the usefulness of feedback. The study tested leadership style’s effect on self-efficacy through a moderated mediation approach, examined through the lens of the cross-cultural adaptation theory. Path analysis conducted on data from 281 foreign teachers in Chengdu, China, revealed that there is a positive effect of Chinese supervisors’ leadership styles on foreign teacher’s self-efficacy. Leadership style similarly has an influence on the nature of feedback. And the nature of feedback in turn mediates leadership style and self-efficacy. We establish in particular that transactional and transformational leadership styles, through the nature of feedback, influence self-efficacy of foreign teachers. Moreover, the association between the nature of feedback and self-efficacy is moderated by the perceived value of feedback. Employees’ perceptions are also found to be crucial in determining the value of feedback. It is thus imperative for supervisors and managers working with foreigners as subordinates to figure out when and how to provide valuable feedback. We conclude with suggested areas for further research.

Inculcation of Green Behavior in Employees: A Multilevel Moderated Mediation Approach.

In this era of globalization, preventing organizations from undermining and degrading the environment has become a great challenge, especially when considering that organizations are among the major contributors to environmental deterioration. As a result, scholars have recently begun to focus on understanding the key determinants of employee green behavior (EGB), a nascent field within the area of sustainable development and organizational behavior. This study extends the emerging discussion over EGB by investigating how green behavior can be inculcated into employees’ mindsets and under what conditions this can best be accomplished. The present research examines the relationship between ethical leadership and EGB by the mediating mechanisms of green psychological climate, employees’ harmonious environmental passion, and employees’ environmental commitment, through the underpinnings of social learning theory. Further, the study examines the contingency effects of leaders’ pro-environmental attitudes to determine how leaders with ethical attributes and pro-environmental attitudes can create a green psychological climate that ultimately leads to EGB through employees’ harmonious environmental passion and employees’ environmental commitment. The approach to implementing theory development is deductive as the research employed a quantitative research design and survey administration with a time-lagged approach. Multi-level data were collected from 400 respondents working in public and private sector hospitals and universities in Pakistan. The analysis was conducted in MPlus. The results show positive and statistically significant effects of ethical leadership on EGB through the serial mediations of a green psychological climate and employees’ harmonious environmental passion, and a green psychological climate and employees’ environmental commitment. Moreover, the leaders’ pro-environmental attitude contingency strengthens the indirect impact of ethical leadership on EGB. This research provides several managerial implications through which organizations can strategically concentrate on EGB, including saving energy by turning off unused lights, reducing waste, and recycling.

CSR, Co-Creation and Green Consumer Loyalty: Are Green Banking Initiatives Important? A Moderated Mediation Approach from an Emerging Economy

The homogenization of the banking segment has made it difficult for banking institutions to practice the quality of services that are needed in order to retain consumers. Thus, these days, finding ways to increase consumer loyalty—especially green loyalty—has become a challenge for the banking industry around the planet. Research has long acknowledged that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a strategic concern that could help organizations to increase consumer loyalty. However, the impact of CSR practices on green consumer loyalty is rarely addressed in the extant literature. Hence, the present research investigated the impact of CSR on green consumer loyalty with the mediating effect of co-creation in the banking industry of Pakistan. The study also introduced green banking initiatives as a moderator between the mediated relation of CSR and green consumer loyalty, with the intention that such a moderator would strengthen this indirect relationship. The structural equation modeling technique was used for the data analysis. The results confirm that CSR enhances consumer loyalty, and that co-creation partially mediates this relationship. Furthermore, green banking initiatives further strengthen this relation. The results of the current survey could help banking institutions learn how they can develop core strategic considerations based on the integration of CSR co-creation and green banking initiatives.

COVID-19 Knowledge, Risk Perception, and Precautionary Behavior Among Nigerians: A Moderated Mediation Approach.

The novel coronavirus has not only brought along disruptions to daily socio-economic activities, but sickness and deaths due to its high contagion. With no widely acceptable pharmaceutical cure, the best form of prevention may be precautionary measures which will guide against infections and curb the spread of the disease. This study explored the relationship between COVID-19 knowledge, risk perception, and precautionary behavior among Nigerians. The study also sought to determine whether this relationship differed for men and women. A web-based cross-sectional design approach was used to recruit 1,554 participants (mean age = 27.43, SD = 9.75; 42.7% females) from all geopolitical zones in Nigeria, through social media platforms using a snowball sampling technique. Participants responded to web-based survey forms comprising demographic questions and adapted versions of the Ebola knowledge scale, SARS risk perception scale, and precautionary behavior scale. Moderated mediation analysis of the data showed that risk perception mediated the association between COVID-19 knowledge and precautionary behavior and this indirect effect was in turn moderated by gender. Results indicate that having adequate knowledge of COVID-19 was linked to higher involvement in precautionary behavior through risk perception for females but not for males. It was also noted that awareness campaigns and psychological intervention strategies on COVID-19 related activities may be particularly important for males more than females. Drawing from the health belief model, we recommend that COVID-19 awareness campaigns should target raising more awareness of the risks associated with the infection to make individuals engage more in precautionary behaviors.

Effects of tobacco addiction on links between early life adversities, sleep disturbance, and depression: A moderated mediation approach.

Despite the well-established relationship between early life adversities (ELA) and depression, the underlying mechanisms for this link remain less clear and need to be developed. The aim of this study was to advance our understanding of this link by testing the mediating role of sleep disturbances and the moderating role of tobacco use in this mediation. A total of 579 smokers and non-smokers were recruited in two US communities (Duluth and Minneapolis, MN). Simple and moderated mediation analyses were performed using the PROCESS macro for SPSS, with the number of ELA as an independent variable, depression symptoms assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) as a dependent variable, sleep quality assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) as a mediator, and smoking status as a moderator variable. The study demonstrated that ELA and depressive symptoms were positively correlated; and sleep quality fully mediated this relationship. This mediation was moderated by tobacco use (index of moderated mediation = 0.10, 95%CI [0.03; 0.19]) and was more pronounced among smokers (b = 0.14, 95%CI [0.07; 0.23]) than non-smokers (b = 0.04, 95%CI [0.0002; 0.10]). Subsequent mediation analyses run separately for each component of the PSQI suggested that individuals who experienced ELA and who were smokers had greater delays in sleep onset and were more likely to sleep for a shorter duration, both of which predicted greater depressive symptoms. Sleep quality is therefore a promising ELA-related target for preventive and therapeutic interventions as well as for further research in depression and tobacco addiction.

Impact of online convenience on mobile banking adoption intention: A moderated mediation approach

The purpose of this study to investigate the effect of online convenience dimensions on mobile banking (m-banking) adoption intention using a comprehensive moderated mediation framework. A total of 446 responses from Indian banking users were received using systematic sampling. The covariance-based structural equation modelling and PROCESS macro were used to examine the hypotheses. The results indicated that access convenience, transaction convenience, benefit convenience, and post-benefit convenience have a crucial impact on m-banking adoption intention. The perceived hedonic values and perceived utilitarian values mediate the effects of convenience dimensions on m-banking adoption intention. The study's findings will help banks to identify which dimension/s of online convenience they should focus on over m-banking platforms to enhance adoption intention. As, “Convenience” plays a crucial role in mobile commerce adoption intention. This study attempts to examine how convenience dimensions affect m-banking adoption intention.

Factors affecting luxury consumers’ webrooming intention: A moderated-mediation approach

The aim of this study to investigate factors affecting luxury consumers’ webrooming intention using a moderated mediation framework. The study also investigates the mediating effects of perceived hedonic value and perceived utilitarian value and how these mediating effects are moderated by online risk perceptions. Data were collected using offline survey from 374 luxury consumers in India, using systematic sampling. The results indicated that perceived usefulness of online search, need for touch and socialization have significant impact on webrooming intention. Perceived hedonic value and perceived utilitarian value mediate the effect of variables on webrooming intention and mediation effect of perceived utilitarian value varied between high and low levels of online risk perceptions. Findings of this study will help luxury retailers in managing consumer channel switching behaviour. The study enriches luxury marketing literature by examining emerging webrooming, channel switching phenomenon.

Resilience Moderates Negative Outcome from Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Moderated-Mediation Approach.

Resilience refers to an individual’s healthy coping abilities when encountering adverse life events. The COVID-19 pandemic represents a situation with a high amount of stress exposure, which in turn may be associated with negative emotional outcome like depressive symptoms. The current study investigated if resilience moderated the effect of stress on symptoms of depression and if anxiety symptoms mediated this association. An adult sample of community controls completed the Perceived stress scale 14 (PSS-14), the Resilience scale for adults (RSA), the Patient health questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) and the Generalized anxiety disorder 7 (GAD-7). Independent samples t-test, correlation analyses and moderated mediation analyses were conducted. The results showed that resilience moderated the relations between stress and anxiety symptoms (β = −0.131, p < 0.001) as well as between stress and depressive symptoms (β = −0.068, p < 0.05). In support of a moderated mediation model, resilience moderated the indirect effect of stress on depressive symptom, as confirmed by the index of moderated mediation (IMM = −0.036, p < 0.001; [95% BCa: −0.055, −0.020]). The high resilience subgroup was less affected than the low resilience subgroup by the effect of stress exposure symptoms of depression, mediated by anxiety. The study shows that stress exposure is associated with symptoms of depression, and anxiety mediates this association. Level of resilience differentiates the direct and indirect effect of stress on depression. Knowledge about the effect of stress in response to a pandemic is important for developing treatment and prevention strategies for stress, depression and health-related anxiety.

Does Consumer Spirituality Block the Road Toward Innovativeness? A Moderated Mediation Approach

Abstract Innovation is the only way to sustain in a highly competitive market, and the success of innovative products depends on the innovativeness level of the consumers. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between consumer spirituality and consumer innovativeness through the mediating role of materialism. The study also attempts to determine the moderated mediation effect by taking gender as a moderator. In this study, the data were collected from 237 consumers through online surveys and from some target locations like malls, universities, public places in Punjab and Chandigarh by adopting judgemental sampling technique. Results indicated a significant negative relationship between consumer spirituality with materialism and consumer innovativeness while materialism and consumer innovativeness are significantly positively related. Furthermore, results showed that materialism mediates the relation between consumer spirituality and consumer innovativeness among both gender categories, but there is no moderated mediation effect of gender. The implications for marketing managers are discussed.

Personal sense of power, emotion and compliance in the workplace: a moderated mediation approach

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between personal sense of power (PSP) and compliance as a function of the interaction between negative emotion intensity and emotion regulation tactics.Design/methodology/approachFirst, hypotheses linking PSP to different emotional reactions and to different levels of compliance with two types of conflict management styles were formulated. Subsequently, data were collected in three waves with a five-week interval between them to test the hypotheses.FindingsResults based on principle component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis indicated that workers with high PSP reported lower internalized negative emotions (negative emotions directed to the self) in the workplace and were less inclined to comply with harsh tactics, in comparison to workers with low PSP. The importance of emotional components (suppression and negative emotions in the workplace) was underscored by the moderated mediation model: internalized negative emotions mediated the association between PSP and compliance with harsh tactics as a function of level of suppression such that the link between negative affect and compliance was negative only under high suppression, but not under low suppression.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings point to the deleterious influence of high emotional suppression of negative emotions on study behaviors, especially for employees with a low sense of power. Because the data were collected from a single source, which could raise concerns about common method variance and social desirability bias, future study should examine other-reports.Practical implicationsRecruitment and training of employees and managers should aim to create an open and safe organizational environment that encourages emotional expression and lessens emotional suppression.Social implicationsThe findings can help develop empowering interventional programs to coach employees to use suppression in an adaptive manner.Originality/valueThe current study sheds new light on the relationships between PSP and compliance from the emotion regulation perspective.

The effect of perceived legitimacy on new venture growth in Japan: a moderated mediation approach

PurposeThis article seeks to theorize and empirically examine the conditional mechanisms through which entrepreneurial legitimacy determines the success or failure of new ventures by building upon Zimmerman and Zeitz's (2002) causal process model of legitimacy.Design/methodology/approachWe gathered cross-sectional data from 266 Japanese new venture owners running their businesses across a variety of sectors and empirically examined whether, how and when legitimacy positively affects new ventures' performance by employing the SPSS PROCESS macro for moderated mediation analysis.FindingsThe results indicate that rich access to a pool of valuable resources fully mediates the positive effects of legitimacy on new venture growth. Furthermore, this study offers robust empirical evidence that prior entrepreneurial experience and competitive intensity as the internal and external contingency factors significantly moderate the indirect effect of legitimacy on new venture growth through resource accessibility.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough our analysis provides clear support for the view that important resources for new venture performance are gained through legitimacy, it does not offer precise clarifications for the type and sources of legitimacy and for the strategies that could be deployed to achieve legitimacy. Future studies should clearly distinguish tangible assets (e.g. financial resources) from intangible assets (e.g. tacit knowledge, networks and reputation) in terms of resource accessibility. Therefore, it should be worth scrutinizing the multiple dimensions of resources as potential mediators of the legitimacy-new venture growth relationship in greater depth.Practical implicationsFrom a policy perspective, this study suggests that a special emphasis needs to be placed on designing and carrying out policies aimed at increasing the visibility and credibility of entrepreneurship as a positive career path since public acceptance of entrepreneurship is essential to new venture growth. Furthermore, it is logical to conclude that achieving greater legitimacy is a pivotal strategic tool not only to overcome resource barriers but also to maximize a probability of survival, specifically for those entrepreneurs without prior experience and those operating in a fiercely competitive market environment.Originality/valueUnlike previous studies that have mostly presented the direct effect of entrepreneurial legitimacy on venture outcomes (Capelleraset al., 2019; Kibler and Kautonen, 2016; Pindado and Sánchez, 2017), our research empirically identified the potential complexities inherent in this relationship by performing a conditional indirect effect analysis.

Financial literacy and quality of life of consumers faced with cancer: a moderated mediation approach

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate whether financial distress explains the relationship between financial literacy and quality of life (QoL) among consumers who have faced life-threatening cancer. To extend this line of research, the moderating role of social supports in the relationship between financial distress and QoL is examined.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional survey was utilized to collect quantitative data through a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 223 consumers diagnosed with cancer in Iran participated in the study by means of a convenience sampling technique. Using a forward–backward method the questionnaire was translated from English into Persian.FindingsThe findings highlight the importance of financial literacy in managing direct and indirect costs of chronic diseases that in turn can improve consumers' QoL. Moreover, while perceived social support improves QoL of consumers diagnosed with cancer, it strengthens the negative association between financial distress and QoL. Consequently, solely receiving of emotional support from acquaintances with no financial support might be bothersome.Practical implicationsThe findings highlight the need for interventions that target financial literacy and perceived financial distress for consumers with chronic diseases. These consumers can benefit from interventions that offer support based on accurate assessments of their needs and priorities.Originality/valueThe present study is the first of its kind to highlight the importance of financial literacy in improving the QoL of consumers with chronic diseases.

Understanding Privacy Paradox in Social Media among Adolescents from Religious Perspectives

Social norms and individual characters of Malaysians are mainly shaped by religious elements. Depending on how religion is being perceived by an individual, it shapes one’s attitudes toward social media and hence affecting how one discloses personal information in social media. Using moderated mediation approach, this study examines the roles of perceived benefits and privacy risks in using social media as predictors of the information disclosure behaviors mediated by religious orientations and ethnicity as a moderator that influences the strength of the implied indirect effect. A survey study was conducted involving 471 students from nine secondary schools in southern region of Malaysia. The result shows that certain types of information disclosure behaviors in social media that were significantly mediated by religious orientations, could be predicted by the proposed benefits and privacy risks perceived from using the media such that the predictions varied across ethnic groups. The implications of religion and ethnicity on users’ attitudes and behaviors in social media are discussed.

Distorted Cognitions, Substance Use and Suicide Ideation Among Gamblers: A Moderated Mediation Approach

Psychoactive substance users and those having irrational beliefs tend to report more suicide ideation; however, there is paucity of research on substance use and distorted cognitions in relation to suicidality among gamblers. The possibility of a moderated mediation model has not been examined. This study examines substance use as a mechanism explaining the association between distorted cognition and suicide ideation, and it seeks to determine whether this process differed for men and women. Participants were 251 persons (mean age = 23.63 years, SD = 4.72 years, 82.1% men), drawn from sports betting centres in Southeast Nigeria. They completed the Psychoactive Substance Use Questionnaire and perceived inability to stop gambling scale of Gambling-Related Cognitions Inventory and Suicidal Ideation Attributes Scale. Moderated mediation analysis showed that substance use mediated the association between distorted cognitions and suicide ideation and this indirect effect was moderated by gender. Specifically, inability to stop gambling was linked to higher suicide ideation through substance use for men but not for women. Suicide prevention and intervention programmes should consider targeting substance use reduction in order to protect individuals from suicide ideation. Such potential interventions for alleviating drug use may be especially important for men.

Feedback seeking and subjective well-being at work: The role of career adaptability and person-environment fit

BACKGROUND: With the acceleration of the pace of life and the fierce competition for talents, role Conflicts and pressures caused by work and family will not only affect employees’ performance, but also reduce their job satisfaction and subjective well-being. So, as an important field for individuals, workplace factor also has an important impact on individual subjective well-being. OBJECTIVE: In this paper, we explored the relationship between feedback seeking and subjective well-being and the role of career adaptability and P-E fit in this process. METHODS: In this study, we used a moderated mediation approach to test how employee’s workplace feedback seeking affect their subjective well-being and used a quantitative survey to measure these variables. RESULTS: The results showed that both feedback monitoring and feedback inquiry ultimately improve subjective well-being through positive prediction of career adaptability. In addition, we found the moderation effect of P-E fit, when P-E fit is low, the relationship between feedback seeking and career adaptability becomes stronger. CONCLUSIONS: As the results, feedback seeking has a positive impact on employees’ subjective well-being by increasing their career adaptability. In workplace, employees can actively seek for two kinds of feedback to improve their career adaptability and thus improve their well-being.

Bridging User Perception and Stickiness in Business Microblog Contexts: A Moderated Mediation Model

This study develops a contingent mediation model to investigate whether user perception enhances customer stickiness through emotional connection and further assess such mediating effect varies with different adaptivity. A moderated mediation approach is adopted to test the hypotheses. Findings reveal the mediating role of emotional connection on the link between perceived usefulness and customer stickiness, but not moderated by adaptivity. On the other hand, the results showed that the relationship between perceived ease of use and customer stickiness is not mediated by emotional connection; however, after considering the moderating effect, our results show that moderated mediation exists.

Medical Drama Viewing and Medical Trust: A Moderated Mediation Approach

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the relationship between medical drama viewing and medical trust, applying the cultivation theory and using a moderated mediation approach. A multigroup Structural Equation Modeling analysis of survey data on 983 U.S. adults indicates that exposure to medical dramas is positively associated with perceived realism of medical dramas, which in turn is positively associated with trust in physicians in medical dramas, and this trust in physicians in medical dramas is positively associated with trust in physicians in the real world. The study suggests that perceived realism of and trust in physicians in medical dramas mediate the relationship between medical drama viewing and medical trust, with health literacy moderating this cultivation process. Implications and future research directions are discussed.