The main objective of this experiment was to investigate effects of two different feeding systems on body weight, milk yield, milk composition, and mineral and fatty acids content of Holstein dairy cows’ milk. Sixteen of 25 months-old Holstein dairy cows were assigned to two groups (n=8) to study effects of the feeding system for 150 days. Two feeding systems were compared for five months; Group 1 was housed indoors and mainly fed a concentrate diet, Group 2 was maintained outdoors for five-seven hours/day on various kinds grass in a pasture. The experiment was conducted June-October 2017. Results revealed the indoor-fed cows had higher body weight, that was significant compared with the outdoor-based feeding system of Holstein dairy cows (p<0.05). Indoor-raised milking cows had higher milk yield (32.45 kg) as compared with pasture-raised milk yield (26.44 kg). Cows fed indoors significantly increased milk yield, total protein content, lactose, citric acid level, and lowered level of total solid and free fatty acids relative to the pasture-fed milking cows (p>0.05). There were higher levels of mineral content and fatty acid content in the milk of indoor-fed dairy cows than the pasture-raised dairy cows (p>0.05). Our study results demonstrated the potential benefits of the indoor feeding system for increased body weight, milk yield, mineral and fatty acids content summer through autumn when low pasture growth rates and quality may otherwise limit production.

The aim of this research is to evaluate the impact of various process conditions on the physical properties and digestibility of extruded fish feed at different barrel temperatures (120, 130, and 140oC) and moisture contents (35, 40, and 45%). The expansion ratio decreased with increasing the moisture content. The hardness was negatively correlated with the expansion ratio. The bulk density decreased by increasing moisture content. The water holding capacity increased by increasing the moisture content and barrel temperature. Soaking time significantly (p<0.05) affected water stability and the best water stability was observed in all samples soaked for 1 h, but water stability was also stable at 2 h and 3 h. There was a significant increase in the protein digestibility of extruded fish feed, compared to that of the raw material.

A citric acid functionalized graphene oxide nanocomposite was successfully synthesized and the structure and morphology of the nanocatalyst were comprehensively characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, X-ray diffraction patterns, atomic force microscopy images, scanning electron microscopy images, transmission electron microscopy images, and thermogravimetric analysis. The application of this nanocatalyst was exemplified in an important condensation reaction to give imidazole derivatives in high yields and short reaction times at room temperature. The catalyst shows high catalytic activity and could be reused after simple work up and easy purification for at least six cycles without significant loss of activity, which indicates efficient immobilizing of citrate groups on the surface of graphene oxide sheets.

In this study, graphene oxide(GO) was used as drug carriers to amorphize poorly watersoluble drugs via a co-spray drying process. Two poorly water-soluble drugs, fenofibrate and ibuprofen, were investigated. It was found that the drug molecules could be in the graphene nanosheets in amorphous or nano crystalline forms and thus have a significantly enhanced dissolution rate compared with the counterpart crystalline form. In addition, the dissolution of the amorphous drug enwrapped with the graphene oxide was higher than that of the amorphous drug in activated carbon (AC) even though the AC possessed a larger specific surface area than that of the graphene oxide. The amorphous formulations also remained stable under accelerated storage conditions (40°C and 75% relative humidity) for a study period of 14 months. Therefore, graphene oxide could be a potential drug carrier and amorphization agent for poorly water-soluble drugs to enhance their bioavailability.

Background Our usage of technology and the continuous adoption of technological innovations has implications for our lives that go beyond traditional marketing questions such as product quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. The psychological consequences of new technology affect our lives and our well-being as individuals. A current technological advancement is the ongoing development of automated driving capabilities. The recent advances have led to the diffusion of semi-autonomous driving systems, such as Teslas autopilot or Daimlers DISTRONIC PLUS. These commercially available technologies correspond to the second level of SAE international’s J3016 standard for automated driving, which ranges from 0 (“No Automation”) to 5 (“Full Automation”, no human needed). SAE level 2 (“Partial Automation”) is defined as “the driving mode-specific execution by one or more driver assistance systems of both steering and acceleration/deceleration using information about the driving environment and with the expectation that the human driver performs all remaining aspects of the dynamic driving.” (SEA On-Road Automated Driving (ORAD) committee, 2014). First of all, qualities of mobility such as safety and comfort influence well-being directly and autonomous driving has a potential impact on these qualities. Furthermore, advances in autonomous driving have particularly social but also ecological and economic benefits. On the one hand, social benefits result from increased social participation by improving mobility of the non-driving, elderly or people with travel-restrictive medical conditions (Harper, Hendrickson, Mangones, & Samaras, 2016; Wadud, MacKenzie, & Leiby, 2016). On the other hand, social benefits result from increasing road safety, less congestions as well as from a reduced number of accidents (Fagnant & Kockelman, 2015). Individual social or personal benefits such as improved safety and comfort or reduced stress levels are also widely perceived by potential users (Bansal, Kockelman, & Singh, 2016; Karlsson & Pettersson, 2015). Additionally, ecological benefits can be realized due to more efficient driving of vehicles and a smoother traffic flow (Wadud et al., 2016). Economic benefits are mainly a result of decreased travel times and of the fact that at high automation levels driving time could be used more productively. Accordingly, this research tends to answer the following research questions: • How does automated driving impact consumers’ well-being? • What qualities of mobility (e.g. safety) mediate the impact of automated driving on consumers’ well-being? Conceptual Model As argued above, automated driving potentially has both a direct and an indirect (mediated) impact on well-being. Subjective well-being (SWB) describes one’s well-being through the global evaluation of life satisfaction (LS), positive affect (PA), and negative affect (NA) (Diener, 1984). This tripartite concept of well-being has been widely adopted by researchers, even though the relationship of the three aspects remains in question (Busseri & Sadava, 2011). Busseri and Sadava (2011) provide an overview of five prominent conceptualizations: As three separate components, as a hierarchical construct, as a causal system, as a composite, and as configurations of components. We adhere to Diener’s original model that describes LS, PA, and NA as three separate components. Accordingly, the correlations among the three components are not of primary interest in this model. Therefore, the impact of automated driving on LS, PA, and NA is assessed separately in order to provide a full image of SWB. This leads to the following hypotheses: H1a. Semi-autonomous driving has a positive impact on the level of SWB by increasing positive affect. H1a. Semi-autonomous driving has a positive impact on the level of SWB by decreasing negative affect. H1c. Semi-autonomous driving has a positive impact on the level of SWB by increasing life satisfaction. Driving influences subjective well-being through different mediators. One potential mediating factor, discussed quite controversially in literature, is fun. While non-automated driving shows a higher level of fun than automated driving, still a large majority is fascinated by automated driving (Kyriakidis, Happee, & Winter, 2015) and also a discharge from the actual driving could be perceived as fun. The most relevant perceived benefit of automated driving studied in literature is safety, followed by stress (e.g. Bansal et al., 2016; Karlsson & Pettersson, 2015; Kyriakidis et al., 2015). Therefore, we formulate the following hypotheses: H2a. The impact of semi-autonomous driving well-being is mediated by fun. H2b. The impact of semi-autonomous driving well-being is mediated by stress. H2c. The impact of semi-autonomous driving well-being is mediated by security. Design/methodology/approach Our sample comprises of two groups with a total of 259 respondents. Group 1 contains 111 respondents using automated driving while group 2 contains 148 respondents not using automated driving. In a first step, to test hypotheses H1a to H1c, we use ANOVA to analyse the group’s differences regarding positive affect, negative effect, and life satisfaction. We analyse both the aggregated values and the single items for all three aspects of subjective well-being. ANOVA was conducted using SPSS version 25. In a second step, to test hypotheses H2a to H2c, three multiple parallel mediation models were estimated with ordinary least squares path analysis. Each model consisted of one of the aspects of SWB as the dependent variable as well as the three mediators. The models were estimated using PROCESS version 3.0 (Hayes, 2013) and SPSS version 25. Findings ANOVA shows a highly significant interaction between semi-automated driving and well-being for negative affect, but not for positive affect and life satisfaction. Looking at the items that amount to positive affect, we see that drivers with the new technology have more excitement, pride and interest. But these effects are counterweighted by significantly less activity, determination and attention. In the context of semi-autonomous driving, being less active, attentive and determined can be interpreted as a positive thing (driving more relaxed). Therefore, we adjust the positive affect scale and remove these three items to from the scale for further analysis. Cronbach’s alpha for all three aspects of subjective well-being is 0.73 or above, thus indicating adequate convergence. Mediation analysis (process model 4) on positive affect reveals a significant indirect effect of semi-automated driving moderated by fun. There is no significant mediation effect for safety and stress as well as no significant direct effect of semi-automated driving on positive affect. The parallel mediation model using negative affect as the dependent variable, shows a significant direct effect of semi-automated driving as well as significant indirect effects mediated by safety and stress. Semi-automated driving reduces negative affect directly as well as by increasing safety, which reduces negative affect. It also reduces negative affect by decreasing stress, which is positively linked to negative affect. Fun, however, has no significant effect on negative affect. Last, life satisfaction shows a combination of the effects mentioned above: Automated-driving has a significant positive direct effect on life satisfaction. Furthermore, life satisfaction is influenced positively through increased fun, safety, and decreased stress. Implications ANOVA and mediation analysis show a positive impact of semi-automated driving on subjective well-being, thus contributing to the investigation of new technologies on consumers’ well-being. Using Diener’s tripartite model of subjective well-being, analyses revealed that the positive effect is especially driven by reducing negative affect. Further research is needed to investigate the transformative impact of (semi-) autonomous driving more deeply and broadly. Especially investigations differentiating between target groups of the new technology might be an interesting path to follow, since the impact on the different aspects of SWB might differ (e.g. increase of positive affect for early adopters vs. decrease of negative affect for people with reduced mobility). Furthermore, our investigation contributes to the conceptual discussion about the structure of the tripartite model of subjective well-being. The fact that life satisfaction as a dependent variable, to some extent, combines the effects observed for positive and negative affect indicates that the three aspects are causally linked instead of being separate. Researchers have promoted a system where positive affect and negative affect are conceptualized as inputs to life satisfaction before (Busseri & Sadava, 2011). Last, our findings give directions to marketing executives for marketing new technologies in general and (semi-)automated driving specifically. First, practitioners need to think about the well-being impact of their technology, i.e. evaluate if it increases well-being by increasing positive affect or by decreasing negative affect. The two paths lead to different marketing measures and ways to promote the technology. More specifically, for semi-autonomous driving a mixed strategy commends itself. It is essential to demonstrate that the new technology reduces the pains of driving while being fun at the same time.

Introduction - Dubois (2002) said that luxury is identical with perception of comfort, beauty, and sumptuous lifestyle. There are five key factors of perceived luxury goods such as uniqueness, quality, hedonic, conspicuousness, and extended self (Vigneron and Johnson, 2004). So that, the definition of luxury fashion brand itself is goods (in terms of fashion) that has brand image and perceived as something that has uniqueness, quality, hedonic, conspicuousness, and extended self and could give comfort, beauty, and sumptuous lifestyle. Online visual display nowadays is one of maketer’s channel to promote the product. In terms of exclusivity, there is only few channels that has been used by marketer, such as website of the luxury brand itself, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and so on. This research of online luxury fashion brand is focused on one mobile app, named Instagram. Instagram is choosen because the usage of Instagram is increasing over time, especially in Indonesia. This research is focused on pre-loved luxury fahion brand on online shop at Instagram. There is one problem of this research, which is the percentage of middle to high income is increasing in 5 years (2010-2015) in Indonesia, but consumer is less likely to buy pre-loved luxury fashion brand. The tendency that consumer is less likely to buy because of decreasing sales of some pre-loved online shops in Indonesia. Exploratory research was taken and it can be concluded that the root cause of decreasing sales happens because visual display of pre-loved online luxury fashion brand is not too attractive. Method - The method that which is used is experiment design. The respondent of this research are choosen by non-probability sampling, which is judgemental sampling (we already know the priority characteristic of respondent, such as middle to high income) and female (because the online shop that will be observed is only offer luxury fashion for female). This research will use eye tracker, named Gaze Point. To get the quantitative experiment data, the minimum respondents that will be need is 39 people if we want to generate until get the heatmaps (Kara Pernice and Jakob Nielsen, 2009). Users will be given some oral question after they finished the experiment with eye tracking. There are some contents that will be measured in this reseach, such as caption, image clarity, and background of product. This research will be conducted only for consumer in Bandung. Respondents are female with middle to high income that has been bought pre-loved luxury fashion bag. The variables which are used in this research are the result of combination of construct from previous research about luxury brand perception and attractiveness of visual display. Sensory stimuli of sights will make automated perception actives and determine whether the information attractive or not. Findings – This research found that pre-loved online luxury fashion brand is currently growing rapidly. However, more respondents still prefer to buy online product if the visual display could be more attractive and the longer respondent saw the visual display, means that the respondents tend to be more interested of that posting. Author made proposed design improvements. Author then recommend them to the owner of pre-loved online luxury bag.

Marketing becomes more and more data driven and hence enables machine learning to empower instruments to foster the interaction between firms and consumers to a new level of customization. Replacement and redirection of workforce through machine learning powered devices is not anymore a mere myth (Huang and Rust 2018). Adaption of machine learning has remained low in the recent years even though disposability was given. Nevertheless the acceptance and the implementation of machine learning based marketing efforts experience currently an exponential increase (Syam and Sharma 2018). In this article, the authors aim to develop a stronger understanding of machine learning in the context of marketing as well as to provide an overview about already established usage and implementation of machine learning in the interactions between firms and customers. To achieve this objective, the authors discuss and study machine learning in marketing from both the management and the consumer perspective. This is supported by survey data retrieved from managers out of varies industries as well as consumers, which reveal great variety in usage of machine learning not only among different marketing activities but also among industries. The authors examine the roots of machine learning in marketing and evaluate inferential state-of-the-art instruments. Predictions of what can and will evolve in the marketing context with the help of machine learning in the near future are also connected with concerns and safety issues related to the increasingly transparent consumer-firm-relationship. To conclude, the article the authors present a summary of state-of-the-art mechanisms in machine learning in marketing and propose a research agenda for upcoming research.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that incidents like the recall of the exploding Samsung Galaxy 7 phones drive owners of other (competing) brands to experience and express feelings of joy when a rival brand fails (e.g., “the hottest phone in the streets!”). Although consumers sometimes experience brand-related schadenfreude—that is, joy out of other brand’s failure—, psychological processes driving schadenfreude are not clearly understood (Hickman & Ward, 2007; Van Dijk, Van Koningsbruggen, Ouwerkerk, & Wesseling, 2011). We propose that schadenfreude may be elicited by consumers’ tendencies to stand by their choices (Ye & Gawronski, 2016). We demonstrate that consumers show higher levels of schadenfreude if their choice is disconfirmed; for example, by a comparative product review that evaluates their chosen brand to be inferior to a rival non-chosen brand. Furthermore, this effect is moderated by the popularity of the chosen brand and mediated by feelings of self-threat. Moreover, we show that this effect is stronger for narcissists. We also find evidence that schadenfreude is a means for consumers to reaffirm their sense of self after they experience a self-threat induced by the disconfirmation of their choice.

Despite the rise of digital media, trade shows have not lost their importance within the marketing mix. However, to this date, their specific impact has been hard to measure. To address this gap, this article aims to investigate the outcomes of knowledge creation, sharing, and acquisition occurring at trade shows by utilizing Return on Trade Show Information (RTSI) model (Bettis-Outland et al. 2010). The analysis supports the findings of Bettis-Outland et al. (2012) as well as shows that information quality has a positive impact on information dissemination and information, which then increases the value of this information.

Despite the growing interest towards stakeholder marketing, research aimed at understanding how the marketing function may engage with the different company’s stakeholders (beyond the customers) for value creation is still scant. Therefore, new horizons need to be explored in search for research avenues and effective practices that may entrust a concrete role for stakeholders in marketing. Among the strategic assets that may be used to strengthen relationships with both internal and external stakeholders, corporate heritage emerges as potentially one of the most interesting. Indeed, scholars and practitioners have widely acknowledged the strategic value of heritage, a multifacets construct considered as a specific attribute of corporate identity able to connect past, present and future and inspiring solidity and credibility in different audiences. Thus, heritage has become the core of a specific marketing literature stream. However, the possibility of using corporate heritage (at strategic and operational level) to engage different stakeholders seems to have been little explored to date. This study aims at investigating corporate heritage as a vehicle of multi-stakeholder engagement, through an in-depth analysis of 20 long-lived Italian firms that stand out for the wise use of heritage marketing strategies. Specifically, we adopted an inductive approach to uncover the process of heritage marketing followed by the investigated companies. Thus, the study helps to interpret and deepen the role of corporate heritage as a platform for stakeholder engagement, according to an integrated, strategic and multi-stakeholder perspective that has been to a large extent neglected by previous literature; furthermore, it presents an ideal decomposition of the strategic process of heritage marketing in key stages, with a precise indication of the stakeholder engagement opportunities referred to each stage; finally, it presents a categorization of the main tools and activities that companies may use to convey their historical and cultural heritage to the different stakeholders, both in and out of the business domain.

Green crowdfunding – fundraising for green initiatives – has become a growing source of alternative finance for sustainable entrepreneurs. The current paper explores the business model of green crowdfunding from three perspectives, i.e. funders, founders and platform. We pay special attention to how green crowdfunding extends consumers‘ involvement in sustainable economy.

Value creation is the purpose and end result of business relationships. However, there has been little research on the sources of relationship value in cross-border interfirm relationships. This is surprising given that value creation and delivery is arguably a more complex and difficult task in international markets than in domestic ones due to the differences in culture, language, management styles, and economic, social, and legal systems between exchange partners. This study investigates the drivers of relationship value in manufacturer–foreign distributor relationships. The focus is on distributor-perceived relationship value because it is typically the customer firm the final arbiter of value. The study develops a research model that consists of four different groups of predictors of relationship value: (1) exporter capabilities (i.e., marketing and technological); (2) importer capabilities (i.e., market-sensing and customer relationship management); (3) relational factors (i.e., relationship learning and cultural compatibility); and (4) market factors (i.e., competitive intensity and market growth). The identification and specification of these prognostic factors of relationship value formation was based on the review of extant literature and exploratory interviews with import and export managers. The study employs partial least squares-structural equation modeling to test model relationships. The results indicate that exporter marketing and technological capabilities, importer market-sensing and customer relationship management capabilities, relationship learning, cultural compatibility, and market growth are potent determinants of relationship value in manufacturer–foreign distributor relationships, while competitive intensity has no detectable effect. Several managerial implications are extracted from the study, as well as suggestions for future research.

This paper examines the mechanisms and the determinants of cross-border partnerships formed by Japanese companies and their foreign partners. The result of the analysis suggested that four key variables, equality, fit, trust and commitment, empirically influence the outcomes of the partnerships. The research sheds additional light on the mechanism and the determinants for materializing successful cross-border partnerships.

Public transportation companies often classify customers into only two classes, i.e. first and second class. This segmentation largely ignores travelers’ needs and may leave heterogeneity within classes. Using a discrete choice experiment, this work investigates if the introduction of dedicated sections based on travelers’ characteristics can provide them additional value.

This research was conducted to examine factors affecting tweens´ brand preference for mobile network choice decisions. The results suggest that mobile network providers’ attributes, satisfaction and perceived risk have significant impact on brand preference. Further, tweens´ choices are more likely to be affected by the choices of other people within their local (district) geographic area.

Introduction This study intends to analyse the impact of the engagement and employee experience towards the employee and employer success. The results demonstrate that organisations are conscious of the importance of retain and create happiness at work and are starting to create an internal experience for their workforce. They want to have employees engaged and retain talent. When employees are more committed to be happier at work they tend to take part of the ownership of their organisations. Employers and employees are more focused on people and the value that they can add to every single product and/or service they design, create and deliver. All this investment on internal world is feeding a better consumer experience as the quality standards are getting higher. Theoretical development The main goal is to evidence how the engagement is attaining more importance on both sides: employee and employer. In the past years, a growing number of studies and are giving more importance to the human side on organisations (e.g., Sinek, 2009; Nayar, 2010; Medeiros 2017). From the transactional economy, organizations are walking to an emotional, experience economy. In the customer-centric dynamics, organisations are taken employees first because these, once deep involved with the mission and goals of the organization, will be more devoted to customers. People “who love going to work are more productive and more creative. They go home happier and have happier families. They treat their colleagues and customers better. Inspired employees make stronger economies.” (Sinek, 2009, p.14) Without happy and empowered employees, the service will never achieve the best and higher levels to then be delivered to the customers. Company “can (should) focus on its value creators – the frontline employees. (…) in his or her knowledge, creativity commitment to tasks, and capacity to collaborate. In fact, (…) “the true value is created in the interface between the customer and the employee. (…) When a company puts its employees first, the customer actually does ultimately come first and gains the greatest benefit.” (Nayar, 2010, p.7). Internal engagement is crucial to companies’ reputation, to brand/service perception and ultimately for the business survival and successful future: “Employees who are dispositionally self-efficacious and proactive are likely to use their initiative, engage in proactive service performance, take charge to bring about change, proactively solve problems and implement ideas.” (Patterson et al., 2009). Research design According to the authors of the model applied, “we define engagement as the attitude, behaviour, the level of connectedness among customers, between customers and employees and of customers and employees with the firm.” (Kumar and Pansari, 2016, p. 498). This was the starting point for our interviews and our study. To complete this exploratory study, we’ve decided to follow a qualitative research by creating a script and interviewed 4 people in 10 organisations based in Lisbon. “Qualitative research starts from and returns to words, talk, and texts as meaningful representations of concepts.” (Pratt, 2009, p.856). The original script was written in English, then translated to Portuguese to be applied on the organisations. Each interview was fully transcript in Portuguese and the main findings and relevant content were enlightened in English to produce this paper. On each organisation, four employees were chosen: two women and two men from different departments and positions - board management, executive leadership, line managers and individual contributors. All interviewed people have Portuguese nationality and have a labour contract with their employer organisation. None outsourced employees have been selected to this study. All employees have between 25 and 50 years old. Interviews were done individually on the headquarters of each organisation. Interviews took between 45 and 60 minutes each. All conversations have been recorded with the individual’s authorisation. The note of confidentiality was explained and applied to all of them. The interviews followed the same script: three main blocks on a semi-structure script. Participants were asked to think about engagement and experience and share their thoughts and examples. Different organisations were chosen: multinational companies, agencies, national companies, private funds. The diversity of the organisations was accepted and taken as an added value to our work. To convert all audio into text, we’ve applied the google audio tool and a Huawei phone app that can transform audio into text. A final check was done in order to verify all sentences and avoid mishaps. After all transcription, a content analysis has been done and the most relevant facts, insights and details have been listed. The content analysis was done using the MAXQDA software. Results and conclusions The main goal of this exploratory study was to determine how engagement and experience are taking such an important role on employees and employers success. In order to be happier at work, employees are more committed and accountable. In the same equation, and to retain more talent, organisations are more focused on employees and how to design and delivery to them a better internal experience. The main finding confirm that happier and recognised employees work better, work more and have the ownership of the organisations they work for. Once people are happy and have good work conditions – financial, physic and technological – they will go further and beyond to deliver their tasks and when needed they will internally cooperate with their teammates or with other departments. To promote this good environment and to keep workforce with them, employers are changing the future of work, nevertheless a few organisations are not applying this or taking these questions as a priority. According to the content analysis of all interviews below a few findings that we would like to highlight: 1) Most of the interviewees say they like their jobs and they are happy at work. They feel that they are part of something: family, team, organisation, culture. 2) The feeling of belonging was mentioned multiple times – the emotional link and the human aspect of being accepted and valuable inside the organisation. 3) All interviewed people, despite the job and the position they have, spoke about the power of recognition and the importance of this aspect to retain talent. 4) All interviewed people raised the importance of happiness at work, the wellbeing variable and the crucial aspect of work/life balance. 5) All interviewed employees agreed that their organisations value more the individual, their soft skills, than the job position and the tasks that there are committed and designated to do. 6) From the point of view of organisations, as leaders and builders of a strategy, we could note that only a few are planning and designing a structured employee experience. Nevertheless, all companies have a list of benefits and create events to get together their employees and promote a better life for them. Following a more structured or more informal way, all interviewed organisations implement a list of actions to create a good work environment: flexibility on the work hours, the possibility to work from home, the team/company dinners and parties; the physical structure with infrastructures to have lunch or to have a break; the empowerment of the employees by asking them to be part of the decisions. 7) Only a few of the interviewed claim that their organisations are promoting situations of work mobility and career progression. Most of the people explained that is difficult to grow or to move from departments. 8) Both, organisations and employees, understand that the salary is not an imperative condition to work or to retain people. Employees value more other work conditions and benefits. The fact is that different and heterogeneous organisations understand and reveal concern in taking care of their people and on the importance of retain their employees. Strategies, or more simple activities, are taking place. All of 40 employees, aside their gender, ages, under all circumstances and positions, want the same: recognition, to be happy and to balance, the best way possible, their work and their life. People want to be treated as people, as an exclusive human being as each of one of human beings are: a unique person and to be recognise whenever they do an extra effort. And this is the part of the key for the success of employers and employees (see figure 1).

Export diversification – the extent to which the firm seizes export sales opportunities across different nations and/or geographic regions – is a critical element of export marketing strategy. Yet, knowledge of the export performance consequences of export diversification is lacking. Underpinned by contingency and resource dependence theories, we examine the export diversification-export performance relationship as well as critical contingencies of this link. Based on a sample of UK exporters we find that firms gain the highest export performance benefits when they simultaneously increase national and regional export diversification. Our results also show that the export diversification-export performance link is weaker when firms operate in markets that are very in dynamism. Additionally, the relationship between export diversification and performance is stronger when both resource sharing and interfunctional coordination are high. Such contextual factors provide a better understanding of the diversification-performance relationship.

Service recovery strategies have been examined for their effectiveness in compensating for the customer’s loss and in restoring customer satisfaction. Current research on service recovery has largely focused on the customer involved. For instance, the most common recovery strategies hotels used for the guest involved are compensatory (e.g., discount), corrective (e.g., correction), and personal response (e.g., apology). Service recovery research suggest that, while corrective responses are viewed by customers as the minimal action, both apology and compensation have been shown to be effective in increasing customer satisfaction (e.g., Goodwin & Ross, 1992). Due to the prevalence of online reviews, our understanding of service failure and recovery must expand beyond the customer involved to include potential customers who are searching online. The difference between the customer involved and the potential customer is that while the focal customer suffered an economic or psychological loss, the potential customer has not. Past studies suggest that this difference may change the attribution tendency of potential customers (e.g., Wan, Chan, & Su, 2011). Consequently, one can expect that potential customers may use different criteria in assessing recovery strategies. For instance, in line with the equity theory which posits that people in general seek fairness in social interactions (Blodgett et al., 1997), potential customers might be more concerned about justice rather than the compensation. From the company’s perspective, in order to recover effectively from a service failure, it must know whether what works for the customer involved would also work for potential customers. The current research provides evidence that potential customers’ reaction to an online review and a hotel reply is contingent on the perceived similarity between this potential customer and the focal guest (i.e., the customer involved in the incident that the review describes), the type of hotel reply (i.e., no reply, apology, and explanation with no apology). Moreover, results suggest that the psychological mechanism that underlies this relationship is not due to negative emotions but a sense of vulnerability.

Customer engagement (CE) has commonly defined as a psychological state or process that leads to customer loyalty (Brodie, Hollebeek, Juric, & Ilic, 2011). CE research has received increasing attention due to its critical role in luring favorable customer experience and outcomes such as brand trust, affection, and future purchase intention (Harrigan, Evers, Miles, & Daly, 2017; So, King, Sparks, & Wang, 2016). Despite scholars’ continuous efforts in advancing the CE field of study, several limitations remain unaddressed. First, empirical research focuses primarily on antecedents and consequences of CE that are derived from individual dispositions (Harrigan, et al., 2017); thus, customer actual behavioral outcomes of CE are generally unexplored. Second, most, if not all, empirical research investigates the nomological network of CE based on individual-level factors (Khan, Rahman, & Fatma, 2016; So, King, & Sparks, 2014). Such an individual-level approach is important as it builds the necessary foundation of the CE domain of study. Yet, the roles of organizational strategic position are largely ignored, while organizational-level situational factors are rarely considered. This research aims to bridge the aforementioned research gaps by constructing both individual-level dispositions and organizational-level situational factors into an integrated framework. In particular, this research seeks to explore the roles of two organizational strategic initiatives – service environment and brand equity – on customer engagement and its impact on customer behaviors.