The growing trend of companies using digital platforms for internationalization has raised the important issue of how companies on such platforms develop unique abilities, but few academic studies have focused on this field. This study develops a theoretical framework of the drivers and outcomes of multinational corporations’ organizational generativity on digital platforms. This study explores how companies effectively convert and integrate resources for generativity, and further improve firm performance during the process of internationalization. Our empirical results show that companies’ big data analytics capability, customer agility, platform openness, and network centrality have significant positive effects on organizational generativity. Furthermore, organizational generativity has a significant positive effect on firm performance. This study ultimately discusses theoretical and practical implications.

With the rapid growth of Podcast listening volume in the past two years (SoundOn, 2021), more and more research is also devoted to podcasts. Previous literature investigating podcasts mainly focused on the motivation of podcast listeners. This study aims to find out the voice characteristics of the producer and the psychological needs of the listener that affect listening intention, including speech rate, voice pitch, voice gender, and especially the mediating effect of affiliation needs and epistemic curiosity between proximity and listening intention. This study collects data from 3 experiments. We construct our stimuli from a script for a book introduction.

According to field surveys between 1998 and 2009, four tomatoinfecting begomovirus species detected in Taiwan were Ageratum yellow vein Hualien virus (AYVHuV), Tomato leaf curl Taiwan virus (ToLCTWV), Tomato yellow leaf curl Thailand virus (TYLCTHV), and Tomato leaf curl Hsinchu virus (ToLCHsV). After TYLCTHV first detected in 2005, it quickly replaced ToLCTWV in the tomato fields in Taiwan. In 2009, 8% of the positive samples were infected with ToLCTWV, 51% with TYLCTHV and 41% with mixed infection of both viruses. We performed field surveys again in 2015, 2016, and 2018, and we discovered that all symptomatic tomato plants were infected with ToLCTWV and/or TYLCTHV. Altogether, 59% of the positive samples were infected with ToLCTWV, 33% with TYLCTHV and 8% with mixed infection of both viruses. Surprisingly, the positive samples were more infected with ToLCTWV and less infected with TYLCTHV. To confirm the “revenge” of ToLCTWV in tomato fields, we plan to carry out a more extensive field survey in the upcoming year.

Satisfaction paradox indicates customer satisfaction does not necessarily translate into customer repurchase. Competitor’s attractiveness and customer demographics are two main moderators for the paradoxical phenomenon. Competitor’s attractiveness exhibits customer switching effect, whereas customer demographics imply customers moored with their current service provider. Still, the cases were few investigated in B2B settings where customers are in general more complex than consumers as involving more intricate organizational network influences. In a business network, transactions may incur buyer/seller relational activities that mitigate paradoxical behavior. Nonetheless, the variable is yet identified and the interacting effects between the moderating variables are not clarified. Thus, this study aims to develop an operational model to classify satisfied customers into loyal, moored and paradoxical segments using three genres of moderators: competitor’s attractiveness, organizational and transactional variables in a B2B setting. In the model, the theoretical bases of switching behaviors are applied for four statistical analysis executed in a logic sequence, including a factor analysis to consolidate quality measurements, a quadrant analysis to locate the effect of competitor’s attractiveness, a clustering analysis to segment satisfied customers into four segments, and finally, nonparametric tests to validate the organizational and transactional segmentation variables. Empirically, we study Taiwanese manufacturers who engaged in global trade and have had experiences in choosing the global air express services that form an oligopolistic market and a strategic group so competitor’s attractiveness can be better calibrated. A total of 180 valid samples are collected and analyzed. The results contribute to the literatures of B2B service marketing.

Introduction Virtual communities have changed lifestyles and interpersonal relations, creating an internet community culture. They are a primary medium of emotional contact with others. American psychologist estimated that more than 350 million people have Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD) (Hong et al., 2014; SickFacebook.com, 2010), some kind of virtual community addiction (VCA). An average of 728 million people use Facebook every day, and users spend much time on Facebook (Hong et al., 2014). 80.24% of university students think that Facebook is an important element of social culture (Thompson & Lougheed, 2012). VCA has been explored in psychology in the past. This study adds three psychological dimensions and sense of virtual community when investigating the antecedents of VCA. The results of this study may direct public attention to VCA and help develop guidelines for online marketing and operation of virtual communities. Literature review and hypotheses development Virtual community addiction (VCA) Many people are not aware of addictive in virtual community. While some addictive behaviors are considered mental disorders, an increasing number of studies has found potentially addictive behavior involving computers and the internet (Andreassen et al., 2012), including video game addiction (Fisher, 1994), Internet addiction (Beard, 2005), mobile phone addiction (Choliz, 2010), and online addiction (Griffiths, 2012). The definition of Internet addiction remains controversial. This study defines VCA as a tendency that users forced to use and even can not control not to use for the virtual communities. Virtual community codependency (VCC) Although codependency lacks a clear definition, there are only two perspectives on codependency that are relevant to this study. First, codependency is a learned helplessness, resulting in individuals who cannot create or participate in interpersonal relationships in the future (O’Gorman, 1993). Second, codependency is a pattern of dysfunction in interpersonal relationships. According to the social compensation theory, if people feel insecurity and negative social identity in real life interpersonal networks, they may spend more time using virtual communities as compensation. Therefore, we hypothesize: H1. Virtual community codependency (VCC) positively influences virtual community addiction (VAC). Sense of virtual community (SVC) Blanchard (2007) defined the SVC as members feel membership, a sense of belonging and attachment to the group through electronic communication. Abfalter et al. (2012) defined the SVC as members having a sense of ‘spirit of belonging together’ in a virtual community. Members are interacting more, making them develop close relationships that lead to a stronger bond (Abfalter et al., 2012; Chavis et al., 1986; Obst et al., 2002). Facebook is widely used in the virtual community, regardless of the number and use of the degree has been increasing. Thus, we conclude that high VCC will need individuals to have a desire to derive compensation from the virtual community that cannot be achieved in the real world. If people in this community have similar needs, priorities, and goals, increasing the use of Facebook will lead to an increase in VCA. We propose the following hypothesis: H2. The relationship between the Virtual Community Codependency (VCC) and Virtual Community Addiction (VAC) is mediated by the Sense of Virtual Community (SVC). Behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and behavioral approach system (BAS) Gray (1982) proposed the most widely applied pair of systems controlling behavioral activity, the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and the behavioral approach system (BAS). These are intrinsic motivation systems in charge of desire and disgust (Carver & White, 1994). They are used to measure the sensitivity of individuals to punishment avoidance and to reward acquisition. When the sensitivity of an individual toward penalty/reward is higher, their response to a stimulus is greater (Linden et al., 2007). Studies also show that Internet addiction and BIS are related (Yen et al, 2009). Thus, we conclude that high VCC will be stimulated by BIS when there is an accident or a novel experience, and negative emotional reactions will seek to be resolved in the virtual world. Hence, Facebook users will to escape from the real environment to the virtual world, so as to addict on the virtual community. This leads to the following hypothesis: H3. The direct relationship between the Virtual Community Codependency (VCC) and Virtual Community Addiction (VAC) is mediated by the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS). BAS is based on motivations for an individual to pursue and achieve goals. BAS is more active and more sensitive to external reward clues, leading to stimulated sensory seeking behavior (Beauchaine et al., 2001). If the incentive clues appear, individuals who have high BAS are more prone to short positive emotions and approaching behavior individuals with low BAS. Thus, we speculate that high VCC will be stimulated by BAS when there is reward responsiveness or when driven in pursuit of goals in the virtual community. It will also make it more likely to engage in fun seeking in virtual communities. Thus, Facebook users deeply trapped in the virtual environment by BAS stimulation and fail to pull themselves out. Therefore, we hypothesize: H4. The direct relationship between Virtual Community Codependency (VCC) and Virtual Community Addiction (VAC) is mediated by the Behavioral Approach System (BAS). Methodology Survey development and measurement We adapted a number of scales (Abfalter et al., 2012; Andreassen et al., 2012; Carver & White, 1994; Fischer et al., 1991) and compiled a 55 item self-report scale questionnaire. Following the procedure recommended by Churchill (1979), we pre-tested the scale on 30 college students to determine the reliability and validity of the constructs. Based on the feedback, we refined the measures and ensured that all of the questionnaire items were applicable to our research. Finally, 53 valid items were retained in the formal questionnaire. Data collection and sample profile We used a web-based survey to collected data from the Youthwant survey platform in Taiwan. This was a more effective way to search for respondents for this study. The formal questionnaires were free to answer by members of the network platform. The participants were told of the survey’s importance to trigger participant’s interest, and give a 10 bonus points as reward. A total of 224 questionnaires were returned, 3 invalid and 221 effective. Respondents were evenly distributed across various ages between 18 and 50 years. The majority of respondents were female (60.2%) and only about 23.1% were students. Most respondents had completed university education (60.6%). 93.6% had been used Facebook for more than one year, with 63.3% having over four years of membership. 70.6% use Facebook more than once a day and for 82.8%, daily usage is at least a half hour, while 71.0% exceed a half an hour each time they use Facebook. This shows that of all respondents were long-term users. Results The total effects are determined by testing the direct impact of VCC on VCA without the mediator constructs. The results (see Table 1) show a significant relationship between VCC and VCA (β11 = 0.572, p < 0.001), supporting H1 (VCC positively affects VAC). The mediating effect is slight but statistically significant. 0.096 of the indirect effect is the result of the effect of VCC on SVC, which in turn influences VCA. The direct relationship between the VCC and VCA is significant as mediated by the SVC. Thus, H2 was supported. The mediating effect involves testing the direct relationship between the VCC and VCA mediated by the BIS. The results show a significant relationship between VCC and VCA (β13 = 0.488, p<0.001). VCC positively and significantly affects BIS (β12 = 0.493, p < 0.001). The effect of BIS on VCA is also positively significant (β23 = 0.169, p <0.05). This was confirmed by the evaluation of the structural model results. The direct effect is 0.488 (t = 5.661, p < 0.001) and the indirect effect is 0.083 (0.493  0.169= 0.083) which is significant (z = 2.039, p < 0.05) by Sobel test. Thus, the direct relationship between the VCC and VCA is slightly mediated by BIS. H3 was supported. The VAF of the model is 33.70% (0.193 / (0.380 + 0.193)  100%). In this situation, a VAF larger than 20% and less than 80% can be characterized as partial mediation (Hair et al., 2014). The ƒ2 effect size is 0.117, showing that BAS has medium effects on VCA. Thus, H4 was supported. Discussion This study is a step by step quantification of how changes in virtual community codependency (VCC) are related to changes in virtual community addiction (VCA) directly and indirectly through one or more mediators. First, the results show a strong relationship between virtual community codependency (VCC) and virtual community addiction (VCA). Furthermore, we cannot deny that the sense of virtual community (SVC) has a small mediating effect on the direct relationship between virtual community codependency (VCC) and virtual community addiction (VCA). The increased use of Facebook when there is a sense of the ‘spirit of belonging together’ can lead to increased tendency to virtual community addiction (VCA). The results are supported by Fischer et al. (1991) and Hong et al., (2014). Limitations and future research directions There are limitations in this study. First, this study does not have a large sample. Second, with technology advances and use behavior changes, the popularity of virtual communities and dependency is rising. The virtual community addiction scale can only evaluate the current situation. This study investigated the latent variables that determine partial or complete mediation using the AVF of Hair (2014). The judgment of AVF uses rules of thumb and awaits meta-analysis of partial and/or complete mediation in the future. Finally, future research could examine virtual communities in other cultures.

This study examines the impact of emotional intelligence on the complaint handling process and outcome in the Chinese hotel setting. The results of the study indicate that the TARP model can be applied to China's hotel environment; “network evaluation” has become an important factor in assessing the severity of complaints. Besides, the negotiation and communication methods need to be adaptive in the context of Chinese consumer culture, and the complaints in the hotel environment should be handled immediately. Compared with the negative cases, the frequency of emotional intelligence application in positive cases is higher in every aspect of the TARP model. For the first time, the qualitative case study method is applied to similar research topics, and the application of various dimensions of emotional intelligence in hotel complaint handling process is thoroughly explored. This study not only has theoretical contributions but also serves as a reference for hotels to formulate a high-quality complaint handling standard operating procedure

The aims: This study aims to elucidate workers’ compensatory accident insurance purchasing behavior, as well as proposing a model to explain the behavioral intentions of front-line workers to purchase compensatory accident insurance. The scope: The workers of the container terminal in the Kaohsiung port were used as the sample in this study. Methodology: A questionnaire survey was administered to collect workers’ perceptions of accident insurance. The analysis methods of EFA, CFA and SEM were employed for further analysis. Conclusions: According to a primary component factor analysis, three dimensions of insurance perception were found: perceived risk; perceived need for accident insurance; and perceived usefulness of accident insurance. The findings indicate that perceived risk, perceived need, and perceived usefulness of accident insurance positively affect the intention to purchase accident insurance. It is also found that perceived need constitutes the major factor affecting the intention of front-line workers to purchase accident insurance. However, perceived need is determined to play both a mediating and modulating role in the insurance behavior evaluation process model.

A conceptual paper is developed in regards to the influences of institutional research, word-of-mouth (via internal students and faculties), quality signaling (to external prospect students and stakeholders as potential customers), and customer relationship management, on student recruitment performance as a special form of customer decision. Grounded on the marketing communication perspective, we propose that the student recruitment performance is largely affected by word-of-mouth, quality signaling, and customer relationship management as strategic marketing communications, which are facilitated by institutional research. Institutional research is interpreted as a strategic marketing tool that can help identify, communicate, and visualize the strengths of a university. The conceptual model contributes to the search for marketing mechanisms through which institutional research can generate impact to external stakeholders. Formal propositions and their implications for future, larger-scaled surveys were discussed. From a non-profit organization’s marketing perspective, higher education institutions (HEIs) promote itself by actively communicating the strengths, features, unique positions, and so forth, to its internal and external “customers,” including existing and prospect students and parents, the surrounding community, and governmental units (Kotler, 1982; Licata & Frankwick, 1996). For example, the decision making of that a prospect student in determining if s/he is attending a college can be treated as a cognitive psychological process involving the interaction between a college’s quality signaling and a customer’s evaluation of that signaled quality. Put differently, the “customer decisions” of whether accepting services sold from an university can depend on the result of university-stakeholders communications. With the extant progress in educational theory and practices by adopting a marketing perspective, there are significant unresolved issues in research and practices that warrant more systematic investigation. Knowing the importance of marketing communication, for example, what is the foundation for universities to communicate with internal and external stakeholders? Through what mechanisms and occasions can universities communicate with and signal to stakeholders? To respond to such gaps in the literature, WE propose that institutional research of a university (Knight et al., 1997; Jedamus & Peterson, 1980) plays a role of strategic communication in facilitating internal and external stakeholder communication, engagement, and cognition building. Overall, the propositions include the following. Proposition 1. Institutional research outcomes (i.e., created knowledge) generates significant impacts on students recruitment performance Proposition 2. The impacts of institutional research on student recruitment performance is mediated by strategic marketing mechanisms, including quality signaling, word-of-mouth, and customer relationship management Proposition 3. Quality signaling, word-of-mouth, and customer relationship management intervene interactively on the effects of institutional research on student recruitment

Nowadays in restaurant industry, the chef is the major worker in the kitchen; they are exposed to highly dangerous working environment for a long time, and their physiological safe and health should be stressed. Apron is one of the protecting cloths when chef is working, it is supposed to function as protect chef’s psychological and physiological safe. The aim of this study is to develop fire retardant apron to protect chef from thermal conductivity burns when exposed to hot objectives and avoid the heat damage from thermal radiation to chef. To improve the above situations, first of all, this study explores the situation and need expectation of chef’s use of fire retardant apron to confirm the necessity of developing apron. Then this study collects Taiwanese fire retardant function cloth, and we use the result of chef’s need expectation to develop fire retardant function apron for chefs. Finally, this study use sensibility evaluation model to explore chef’s evaluation after wearing apron developed by this study. Based on the research finding, the conclusions are as follows: 1. According to the result of questionnaire survey, at present the apron material that chef wear does not have fire retardant function, chef expect apron material can add this function, they think apron material adding this function can protect physiological health, proving the necessity for developing fire retardant apron. 2. This study use the result of chef’s need expectation, and combine ergonomics data to adjust existing apron structure design, then this study use fire retardant cloth to develop fire retardant apron to meet chef’s need expectation. 3. Through the sensibility evaluation test of fire retardant apron developed by this study, those who exposed to higher temperature fry stove fire, charcoal fire or caldron cook in specific kitchen infield for a long period of time have higher preference and feeling.

The ultrahigh pressure process for synthesizing diamond grits is due to make a quantum leap: the raw materials will incorporate diamond seeds with a predetermined pattern. The result is doubling the diamond yield with a narrower size distribution. Moreover, the shape of diamond crystals can be precisely tuned. For example, diamond octahedra or diamond cubes, that are not available today, can be mass-produced. The new technology is now being implemented worldwide so the future diamond grits will have improved quality at reduced prices.

International payment is an essential part of the economy, which is beneficial to both commercial banks and trading enterprises. Moreover, service quality, which has been a key point of discussion for decades, relates to customer satisfaction. This study aims to investigate the factors influencing international payment service quality at the Join Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) from 2015 through 2019. This research deploys both quantitative and qualitative methods to discuss the effects of these components. Statistical data was examined through different tests, including reliability analysis, correlation, and regression analysis by SPSS 16.0. The authors obtain and analyze 157 valid responses from customer surveys, then by applying an integration SERVPERF and PSQM model, identify five main components: Reliability, Tangibles, Assurance, Convenience, and Responsiveness, which explain how the customer perceives the service quality of international payment activities at BIDV. The results show that these five factors have a positive relationship with service quality, in which, Reliability has the most significant impacts on service quality level. Besides, the findings not only contribute to the literature but also give some practical implications for BIDV to improve its international payment service quality and help them to obtain customer satisfaction in the fast-changing environment.