Multi-group Moderation Research Articles

Social support moderates the relation between childhood trauma and prenatal depressive symptoms in adolescent mothers

ABSTRACT Background Depression is a concern during pregnancy, but it is especially prevalent for pregnant adolescents. Because prenatal depression is a strong predictor of postpartum depression and other forms of psychopathology in both mothers and children, it is important to understand potential risk and protective factors for prenatal depression. Objectives The present study examined whether social support buffered the impact of childhood trauma on prenatal depression, and whether social support exerted a stronger buffering effect for adolescents compared to adults. Method Self-reported levels of childhood trauma, social support, and prenatal depression were collected in a racially and ethnically diverse sample of 682 first-time mothers, 58% were adolescents (n = 396; Mage = 17.38 years) and 42% were adults (n = 286; Mage = 26.29 years). Results Using multi-group moderation analyses, we found that pregnant adolescents with more social support were buffered from the effects of childhood trauma on prenatal depression symptoms, but pregnant adults with more social support were not. Conclusion Findings support the stress-buffering model in that those with more stressors may benefit more from social support than those with fewer stressors. These results highlight the importance of social support and inform prenatal depression prevention/intervention strategies particularly with pregnant adolescents.

Blood Diamonds and Ethical Consumerism: An Empirical Investigation

Although ethical consumerism has witnessed significant interest in recent years, most studies have focused on low-value, commoditized product categories such as food and beverage and apparel. Despite its significance, the research on ethical consumerism in luxury product segments such as diamonds is relatively scant. This formed the motivation of this study, which examined the ethical buying behavior of consumers and the moderating effects of their income levels in the diamond industry. Four hundred eightteen responses toa structured questionnaire were collected. The framework comprising of four constructs, namely ethically-minded consumer behavior, willingness to pay more, ethical concerns regarding country of origin of diamonds, and ethical buying behavior of diamonds was first validated, and then the hypothesized relationships between the constructs were assessed using structural equation modeling. Overall, ethically minded consumer behavior had a significant positive impact on willingness to pay more, ethical concerns regarding the country of origin of diamonds, and ethical buying of diamonds. Additionally, ethical concerns regarding country of origin positively influenced the ethical buying of diamonds, while the willingness to pay more had no significant impact on ethical diamond purchases. The multi-group moderation test results revealed that the income levels of buyers do affect the relationships between constructs. For instance, for the middle income group, generic ethically-minded consumer behavior did not translate into the ethical buying behavior of diamonds. The findings provide useful insights for practitioners and policy-makers regarding ethical consumerism in the diamond industry and help to highlight the issues facing the industry, such as its poor supply chain transparency, human rights abuses, child labor, money laundering, bribery and corruption, and environmental degradation from mining activities.

DO PERSONALITY AND GENDER MITIGATE THE ADVERSE EFFECTS OF EMOTIONAL LABOR? EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM HEALTHCARE DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Purpose: The impact of emotional labor on organizational outcomes is contingent upon numerous factors. Moreover, after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, the implications of emotional labour practices, especially among physicians, have become more uncertain. This study aims to address these notions by examining the multigroup moderating effect of social and enterprising personalities and gender on a model of emotional labour. The aim is to determine whether emotional labour affects emotional exhaustion and well-being varies across these groups.
 Methodology: Serial mediation and multigroup moderation methods were employed to test the proposed hypotheses. Data was collected from 400 physicians across Pakistan. Snowball sampling method was adopted for data collection. Structural equation modelling, including serial mediation and multigroup moderation techniques were employed for data analysis.
 Main Findings: Physicians with highly social personalities and low enterprising personalities are more likely to experience detrimental effects of surface acting. Genuine emotions improve well-being for high social and enterprising as well as low enterprising personality physicians. No across-group differences exist for deep acting. For gender, females are found to be more susceptible to negative repercussions of emotional labor than their male counterparts. Positive effect of genuine emotions remains somewhat the same for both.
 Implications/Applications: This study assists healthcare organizations in making the right choices during the recruitment and selection process to choose the most suitable candidates for tasks involving emotional labor, i.e., ones whose personality and gender attributes are aligned with the affective or emotional component of work. This would aid in ensuring doctors’ high psychological and physical well-being at work.
 Novelty/Originality of this study: This research proposes a model of emotional labour strategies and their effects on physicians' emotional exhaustion and well-being. Multigroup moderating effects of two personality types, i.e., social and enterprising, and gender, are investigated with respect to the proposed model to see if there lie any differences between physicians belonging to various personality or gender groups.

Moderating Role of Organizational Levels in the Autonomy, Feedback, Role Stressors, and Job Satisfaction Model

The present study determines the moderating role of organizational levels in autonomy, feedback, role stressors (role conflict and role ambiguity), and job satisfaction among Indian software employees because very few Indian researchers explore this aspect. This study also determines the impact of autonomy, feedback, and the role of stressors on job satisfaction among low and middle levels of software employees. Multi-group moderation analysis found that high autonomy is experienced by low-level software employees, and high feedback is experienced by high-level software employees. In case of role stressors, role conflict was experienced more by middle level as compared to low-level, and role ambiguity was significantly more experienced by low-level as compared to middle-level software employees. Chi-square difference test found invariant moderation effects of organizational levels in autonomy, feedback, role conflict, role ambiguity, and job satisfaction model.

Innovation orientation and its relationship with business performance: moderating role of firm size

PurposeThe study aims to test the relationship between innovation orientation (INO) and business performance. It also explores the moderating effect of firm size on the relationship between INO and business performance.Design/methodology/approachA purposive sample of 278 firms (manufacturing and service) was taken from the National Capital Region and the Punjab state of India. The survey questionnaire was administered to two to three managerial-level employees from each of the 278 firms. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to validate the INO and business performance scales. The hypotheses were tested using multi-group moderation analysis and structural equation modeling.FindingsThe study shows that INO has a significant positive effect on business performance. The results have indicated that firm size (based on the number of employees) moderates the relationship between INO and business performance. However, firm size (based on investment) does not moderate the relationship between INO and business performance.Originality/valueThe study is an attempt to synthesize the fragmented results testing innovation–performance relationship using firm size as a moderator on the relationship between INO and business performance and provides insights for both academicians and practitioners.

The moderating role of gender and religiosity on the EMA model: an Indonesian Muslim pilgrim perspective

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the relationship between expectations of umrah visit, the two dimensions of motivation for umrah visit and attitude toward umrah visit using the expectation, motivation and attitude (EMA) model. The study aims to expand the domain of religious tourism and destination marketing by including the moderating role of gender and religiosity on the EMA model to investigate the pre-visit stage of Indonesian Muslim pilgrims.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey for 299 potential Muslim pilgrims was conducted to test nine hypotheses. A multi-group moderation test with chi-square differences was conducted to test the moderation effect of gender and religiosity on the model. The construct of motivation begins with an open question.FindingsThe paper provides empirical insights on how the interrelationship between EMA. The results indicate that umrah visit expectations and umrah visit motivations have a significant positive relationship with the attitude toward umrah visit. Moreover, this study concludes that gender significantly moderates the relationship between umrah visit expectations and attitude toward umrah visit. Religiosity significantly moderates the relationship between umrah visit expectations and umrah visit motivations.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors discovered three limitations. First, the construction of the research model only added two moderation variables in the EMA model. Second, many Muslim pilgrims have other situations that influence their decision to perform umrah. Third, although this study gathers Muslim pilgrims from all regions in Indonesia, fairly small sample size can influence the generalization of findings.Practical implicationsManagers should be focusing more on accommodating the religious needs of Muslim pilgrims. Although there was no gender difference in the relationship between expectations and motivations, managers still must be careful in creating and carrying out umrah programs and activities. To capture the market for male Muslims, priority should be given to promoting aspects of the culture and history of Islam when performing an umrah. Considering the important role of religiosity for market segmentation and to capture the market of Muslim pilgrims with low religiosity is by focusing more on the aspects of religious and spiritual motivation when performing umrah.Social implicationsBy increasing umrah’s visit, umrah is now more in demand by the Muslim community because it is not only an alternate pilgrimage but also to improve the spiritual and religious individual and family. This is coupled with the increasing number of umrah travel agents and people’s lifestyles that make umrah a holiday choice with colleagues and family. With these advantages, prospective Indonesian Muslim pilgrims must be more selective and look for a broad range of information about umrah departures because many umrah travel agents do not yet have a permit and offer a cheap umrah departure. Also, prospective Muslim pilgrims must prepare themselves better by studying the terms and pillars of Umrah.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature on tourism marketing and religious tourism research by comparing gender and religiosity on EMA model.

Examining the Moderating Role of Brand Loyalty among Consumers of Technology Products

The long-term survival of a company depends on its economic sustainability. It costs several times more to acquire new customers than retain current ones, and loyal customers spend more than new ones. Unfortunately, consumers are increasingly becoming less loyal to brands/products than before. Unearthing the underlying reasons for this diminishing consumer loyalty is critical. This forms the motivation of this study, which aims to examine the moderating role of loyalty among consumers of technology products. Specifically, the study explores the heterogeneity in the factors (antecedents) influencing brand-loyal attitudes and behavior among consumers of different loyalty levels. A total of 355 survey responses were obtained from an administrated survey across three loyalty groups (high loyalty—155; medium loyalty—99; low loyalty—90) in the United Arab Emirates. Structural equation modeling and multi-group moderation tests were used to test the hypothesized differences in the relationships between antecedents (trust, self-image, quality, and perceived ease of use) and customer attitude, and between customer attitude and repurchase intentions among the different loyalty groups. The results show that the different levels of loyalty have a moderating impact on the relationships. The findings are useful for marketers to better understand and manage customer attitudes, and subsequent purchase/repurchase intention depending on the levels of loyalty they may be in, as well as maneuver their customers through the different levels of loyalty to achieve business sustainability.

The Impact of Social Media Marketing on Consumer - Moderating Role of Gender and Income

<p><strong>Purpose</strong>: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of social media marketing activities on consumer behavior (i.e. value consciousness, brand consciousness, and brand loyalty) in the light of the moderation effect of gender and income.</p><p><strong>Methodology</strong>: The questionnaire method was used for data collection. 261 questionnaire was gained through convenience and snowball sampling. Data were analyzed with SPSS-24 and AMOS-23. Explanatory factor analysis was first done with SPSS. To test the moderation effects multigroup moderation analysis was performed in AMOS.</p><p><strong>Findings</strong>: SMM (perceived social media marketing activities) impacts brand loyalty (for male, female, and lower-income sample), value consciousness (for male, higher income, and lower-income sample), and brand consciousness (for male, higher income, and lower-income sample). The effect of gender as a moderator is not statistically significant. The effect of income as a moderator is significant in only two paths.</p><p><strong>Originality/Importance</strong>: At a time when social media usage increases and brand loyalty declines, it is important to investigate the impact of social media marketing activities on consumer behavior. The present study underlines the value of replication studies in a cross-cultural context. Besides, the moderation effect of gender and income were tested.</p>

Linking structural empowerment and distributive justice to employee's behavioral and attitudinal consequences: Testing the mediating role of psychological empowerment

Psychological empowerment plays a vital role in affecting the individual and organizational consequences. However, there is scant research on the antecedents and consequences of psychological empowerment despite being an essential variable in organizational studies. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the impact of structural empowerment and distributive justice on employee's commitment and citizenship behavior through psychological empowerment. A cross-section research designed was used to collect the data from 389 nurses employed in public and private hospitals operating in Punjab, India. Out of these, 224 respondents were working in public hospitals, while 165 were of private hospitals. To test the proposed hypothesized relationships, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied. The findings of the study depicted that structural empowerment significantly impacts the affective commitment and organizational citizenship behavior through psychological empowerment. Findings of the multi-group moderation analysis depicted that the majority of the hypothesized relationships showed no significant results. The results of the study proposed that rather than changing the individual characteristics, a leader should improve the structure of the organization and should provide access to structural empowerment, which ultimately leads to positive behavioral and attitudinal organizational consequences. This study examines the effect of structural empowerment and distributive justice on OCB and affective commitment, which is being mediated through the psychological empowerment of nursing professionals in healthcare settings of India.

Continuous intention to use mobile money (MM) services: Driving factors among small and medium-sized tourism and hospitality enterprises (SMTHEs)

ABSTRACT Mobile money (known popularly as “MOMO” in Ghana) usage has become common in Africa. However, the driving factors explaining the continuous use of such services among small and medium-sized tourism and hospitality enterprises (SMTHEs) is still unknown. This study examines the driving factors of continuous intention to use MM services among SMTHEs in Ghana. It employs the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2), and the diffusion of innovation and perceived risk theories to examine the key drivers and deterrents of continued MM usage among SMTHE operators. A structural model was developed to test eleven hypotheses. A multi-stage proportionate random sampling was conducted on sub-sectors such as accommodation, restaurants, transport agencies and artisans within four selected cities in Ghana, yielding 380 useful survey questionnaires. Overall, the results of both CFA and SEM indicate that the model fits the data. For instance, effort expectancy, performance expectancy, hedonic motivations, habit, personal innovations, destination-infrastructure risk, technology risk and awareness were significant drivers of the intention to continuously use MM services. Further results from the multi-group moderation analysis show significant differences between males and females relative to the relationship between effort expectancy and continuous intention. The implications and limitations of the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are given.

Women as Key Agents in Sustainable Entrepreneurship: A Gender Multigroup Analysis of the SEO-Performance Relationship

Literature points out that the effect of sustainable entrepreneurship on firm performance may be contingent on internal factors, such as top manager characteristics. This paper proposes that the gender of a firm’s chief executive officer (CEO) greatly influences the sustainable entrepreneurial orientation (SEO)-firm performance relationship. An empirical study was conducted on a stratified random sampling, collecting 210 questionnaires from top managers of firms in Valencia (Spain). A multigroup moderation analysis method was used. The results confirm that women tend to increase the positive effect of SEO in firm performance.

Leadership Styles as Predictors of Work Attitudes: A Moderated–Mediation Link

Drawing on the recent locus and mechanism models of leadership (Eberly, Johnson, Hernandez & Avolio, 2013), the purpose of this paper is to begin to explore the role of leadership styles from two different loci standpoints – (1) dyadic-focused, transformational leadership; and (2) leader-focused, transactional leadership—as important antecedents to individual and organizational outcomes in the organizational context. Among employees in several organizations in Israel (N=265), we investigated the relationships between (1) several individual and organizational work outcomes (i.e., job engagement, work enjoyment); and (2) the two leadership styles (the predictors, namely, transformational and transactional leadership). In addition, we explored the roles of (3) a possible mediational mechanism through which we posited the leadership styles operate (i.e., work drive); and (4) a possible moderator (i.e., organization types). These associations were presented as a model that was both tested via multi-group moderation structural equation modeling (SEM) and through moderated–mediation analyses via competing models of demographical differences. The findings illustrated that both transformational and transactional leadership styles have a direct, positive influence on outcomes. However, with regard to the intermediary moderator and mediator variables, the results demonstrate varied and interesting relationships in current study, the indication being that each of the two leadership styles, when interfacing with unique combinations of moderator and mediator, produce outcomes specific to the leadership style. Important concepts, recommendations, and implications are discussed.

Leadership Styles as Predictors of Work Attitudes: A Moderated–Mediation Link

Drawing on the recent locus and mechanism models of leadership (Eberly, Johnson, Hernandez & Avolio, 2013), the purpose of this paper is to begin to explore the role of leadership styles from two different loci standpoints – (1) dyadic-focused, transformational leadership; and (2) leader-focused, transactional leadership—as important antecedents to individual and organizational outcomes in the organizational context. Among employees in several organizations in Israel (N=265), we investigated the relationships between (1) several individual and organizational work outcomes (i.e., job engagement, work enjoyment); and (2) the two leadership styles (the predictors, namely, transformational and transactional leadership). In addition, we explored the roles of (3) a possible mediational mechanism through which we posited the leadership styles operate (i.e., work drive); and (4) a possible moderator (i.e., organization types). These associations were presented as a model that was both tested via multi-group moderation structural equation modeling (SEM) and through moderated–mediation analyses via competing models of demographical differences. The findings illustrated that both transformational and transactional leadership styles have a direct, positive influence on outcomes. However, with regard to the intermediary moderator and mediator variables, the results demonstrate varied and interesting relationships in current study, the indication being that each of the two leadership styles, when interfacing with unique combinations of moderator and mediator, produce outcomes specific to the leadership style. Important concepts, recommendations, and implications are discussed.

The Effect of Earnings Quality on Financial Performance in Indonesia : is the State-Owned Bank better than Private Bank?

The primary objective of this study is to analyze the effect of earnings quality on financial performance of banks in Indonesia by comparing the SOEs and private banks. This study uses discretionary accruals and earnings persistence indicators to measure earnings quality, as well as financial performance variables measured through return on assets, return on equity, rate return on loans and total asset turn over. Eight conventional banks compared in this study are 4 government banks and 4 private banks, with research data from 2006-2018. Data is processed using Partial Least Square Multigroup Moderation Technique. The results of this study indicate that earnings quality has a significant effect on financial performance of banks in Indonesia. While the results of bank type moderation show that the effect of earnings quality on financial performance of private banks is greater than that of state-owned banks. This study recommends the importance of applying earnings quality in banks, especially in state-owned banks. Furthermore, this study suggests that government companies should avoid earnings management in order to create good and high quality financial performance, especially in the banking sector in Indonesia.

Organic consumerism: A comparison between India and the USA

This study is an investigation of consumer perceptions relating to organic food products based on the factors of the theory of planned behaviour and protection motivation theory with consideration of the variances in culture and economic conditions in two different countries viz. India and the USA. The study also examines how these factors affect consumers purchase intention of organic food in developing (India) and developed (USA) countries. Results of multi-group moderation and multi-group moderated mediation analysis with the data collected from India (n = 714) and the United States (n = 656) using an Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) show the existence of significant difference in the proposed relationships viz. Responsive efficacy → Attitude, Responsive efficacy →Purchase intention, Responsive efficacy → Perceived behvioural control, Attitude → Purchase intention, and Perceived behvioural control → Attitude with respect to the country type (i.e. India and USA). Further, attitude and perceived behavioural control perfectly act as mediators for both the country samples. Outcomes of this study recommend for marketers and promoters of organic food products to consider the consumer culture and settings behind the landscape they live in.

Service innovation, corporate reputation and word-of-mouth in the banking sector

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to establish the link between three constructs, namely, service innovation, corporate reputation (CR), and word-of-mouth (hereinafter WOM). Primarily, the aim is to understand whether innovation in a service firm drives its reputation, thereby resulting in positive WOM where the direct effect of service innovation of a firm on WOM is mediated by reputation. Furthermore, the study also seeks to understand whether the type of service firm has an effect on determining the level of the mediation effect.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts an integrated approach where the measure for the construct service innovation is explored through a qualitative approach, and the conceptual model is estimated through path analysis. The service industry taken for this study is banking, and the through non-probability criterion sampling technique, 252 customers responded to their level of agreement. The PLS-SEM technique was used to estimate the path coefficient by following the two-stage approach. The multigroup moderation analysis is performed to determine whether the type of the bank plays a major role in determining the direct effects and the mediation effect of CR between service innovation and WOM.FindingsThe result of this study indicates that there is a strong positive association between the three constructs. Further, the direct relationship between service innovation and WOM is partially mediated by reputation. The result of the multigroup moderation indicates that the type of the bank plays a major role in determining the mediation effect of reputation.Practical implicationsThe study helps the decision makers and the managers of the bank to understand that frequent innovation within the firm would help to gain reputation, and thereby customers would tend to give a positive WOM. Further, non-reputable firms can still gain a positive WOM if they continuously innovate new services. In the Indian context, it is noted that there is a difference between private and public banks in determining the mediation effect of reputation between service innovation and WOM.Originality/valueThe originality of the study is based on the following: development of a unique scale to measure service innovation in the banking industry overcoming the existing scales which are based on goods-dominant logic; estimating empirically the combined effect of service innovation and CR on WOM; the process of evaluating the moderated mediation effect; how the mediating effect of CR varies from private sector banks to public sector banks.

Subjective norm vs dogmatism: Christian consumer attitude towards Islamic TV advertising

PurposeWith concern on cross-religion research, this study aims to examine Christian consumer attitude towards Islamic TV advertising in Indonesia. This study includes together both subjective norm and dogmatism in an analysis as moderating variables.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey for 186 sample respondents was conducted to test nine hypotheses. Multi-group moderation test was conducted to test the moderation effect of subjective norms and dogmatism on the model.FindingsThe results indicate that Christian intrinsic religiosity has a significant negative relationship with Islamic TV advertising credibility. Consumers’ attitudes towards Islamic TV advertising are proven to be the consequence of Islamic TV advertising credibility, even if the relationship is inverted. Moreover, this study concludes that subjective norms and dogmatism significantly moderate the relationship between Islamic TV advertising credibility and attitudes towards Islamic TV advertising differently. Subjective norms tend to weaken the relationship, while dogmatism strengthens it.Research limitations/implicationsDuring the process of this study, the authors uncovered three research limitations. First, too many measurement items for dogmatism eliminated from the analysis. Second, having balanced proportion for the high and low group has become the concern of this study, Third, a sample size of 186 is not adequate for such a complex model.Practical implicationsManagers should employ endorsers with multi-faceted images who can be accepted by all segments of society to combat the negative perception and attitudes of Christian consumers on Islamic attributes in TV advertising.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature on cross-religion marketing research, especially on the topic of advertising, by comparing the internal influence (dogmatism) and external influence (subjective norm) on attitude towards Islamic TV advertising.

A new approach to modelling the effects of cognitive processing and threat detection on phishing susceptibility

Phishing threats are real and are ever increasing in their reach and devastating effects. This study delves into the role of cognitive processing in detecting and curtailing phishing attacks. The proposed model is grounded on the Elaboration Likelihood Model and is tested empirically using data from 192 cases. Data was collected through direct observations of phishing susceptibility and self-reported questionnaires after staging a phishing attack targeting a university population in Nairobi, Kenya. The model was found to have excellent fit and was able to account for 50.8% of a person's cognitive processing of a phishing attack, 69.5% of their ability to detect phishing threats and could predict 28% of their actual phishing susceptibility. Analysis was done to test 25 hypothesis, and to examine the mediating effects of cognitive processing and threat detection. In addition, multi-group moderation analysis was done to examine if the model was invariant based on the level of knowledge. Results indicate that threat detection has the strongest effect in reducing phishing susceptibility. Threat detection was found to be what explains why people who expend cognitive effort processing phishing communication are less likely to fall for phishing threats.

Innovativeness, business performance and environmental uncertainty: a multivariate configuration

This study attempts to explore the contextual nature of innovativeness - business performance relationship. Environmental uncertainty is being considered as the contingent variable. The study is descriptive and cross-sectional in nature. It relies upon a purposive sample of 457 North Indian firms. Confirmatory factor analysis assesses the psychometric properties of the constructs under investigation. Structure equation modelling is used to examine the impact of innovativeness on business performance. Multi-group moderation analysis evaluates the role played by environmental uncertainty in innovativeness-business performance relationship. This study finds that the pursuit of innovativeness is required for better performance. Results support the contextual nature of innovativeness-business performance relationship and reveal that firms operating in a dynamic environment are more likely to be benefited from the pursuit of innovativeness as compared to firms operating in a stable business environment. The study provides meaningful insights for managerial decision making and also attempts to draw the attention of management personnel towards the pursuit of innovativeness.

The dichotomy of customer relationship management and variety-seeking behaviour in the hotel sector

Customer relationship management (CRM) and variety-seeking behaviour (VSB) are paradoxical constructs due to their contradictory intentions. CRM is implemented by organizations to retain customers and generate loyalty while VSB by customers can result in switching. This study addresses the question ‘what is the impact of VSB on the relationship between CRM and its outcomes: repeat visitation and positive word of mouth?’ Following analysis of 400 questionnaire responses from Australian leisure travellers who have visited the same international destination two or more times, the findings indicate that CRM leads to word-of-mouth recommendations, but not repeat visitation. Through multi-group moderation analysis, it was further identified that the outcomes of CRM do not vary based on the degree of VSB of travellers, and CRM leading to repeat visitation is fully mediated by the intrinsic factors affecting VSB, while CRM does have a significant influence on VSB.