If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.Abstract Consumer travel and multinational service corporations have increased the opportunity for service failures where consumers from one culture experience service problems in another cultural setting. This study extended the Stauss and Mang model, which proposed the possibility that intercultural service failures exhibit lower seriousness ratings due to the customer's attributing errors to cultural distance. Such a possible outcome has important implications for service providers whose customers are from different cultures, such as tourist or visiting businesspeople. A pretest, employing the critical incident technique, established descriptions of common service failures and recovery strategies for the sample frame. Domestic (in Taiwan) and foreign (outside Taiwan) service encounters were then compared in both failure and recovery stages, reported in an online survey employing a modified critical incident technique. Results showed that the apparent reduction in intercultural failure seriousness can be attributed not to the error itself, but to increased acceptance of the recovery strategy. These findings broaden the Stauss and Mang model by including the importance of recovery strategies, and the benefit gained by any recovery attempt within an intercultural service setting.

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The relationship between environmental management practices and firm performance has continuously received much attention in academic research. As existing literature on the link of the two constructs is characterized by heterogeneous research characteristics and mixed empirical evidence, one interesting question arises: Do research characteristics affect the magnitude and direction of the relationship between environmental management practices and firm performance? Amassing a database of 92 studies, 199 effect sizes, and 72,258 firms, we examine this question by conducting a meta-analysis. The characteristics investigated in this study include item number of performance measures, year of data collection, industry type, economic development, and Hofstede's five cultural dimensions. A meta-regression reveals that environmental management practices are positively associated with firm performance and that the degree of this association depends on these contexts. Specifically, the environmental management practices-performance relationship increases with year of data collection, is stronger with multiple item measures, and is higher for firms in developed countries and in cultures characterized by high power distance, low individualism, low uncertainty avoidance, and low long-term orientation.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to answer why wet markets still survive in Taiwan while facing to fierce competition from western-style supermarkets. Design/methodology/approach – The authors adopt the perspectives of retail service to develop a model to address how food quality, relational benefit, and personnel service affect consumers’ satisfaction. A sample of 250 consumers was surveyed in a major wet market at Taiwan. Findings – The results obtained from the partial least square (PLS) method reveal that food quality and relational benefit positively affect consumers’ satisfaction, and the effects of these increase with time; employee service has a positive effect on consumers’ satisfaction, but the effect decreases with time; and the ambience does affect consumer satisfaction, but the store design does not. Originality/value – This paper provides empirical answers to the question about why wet markets still play a critical role in the food retailing industry in a newly industrial economy where consumer’ tastes are supposed to be more westernized or so-called ‘supermarketized’ four decades after the introduction of supermarkets.

While empirical studies of organic food consumption have centred primarily on European and North American countries, the amount of research occurring in Asian countries is increasing. This article describes the attributes, consequences, and values influencing consumer perceptions and adoption of organic rice in Taiwan, where rice is the major food. Based on a means‐end chain (MEC) rationale, regulatory focus theory and self‐construal theory, this article describes the attributes, consequences and values influencing Taiwanese consumer perceptions and adoption of organic rice. Using a questionnaire and a sample of 300 organic food shoppers in Taiwan, we applied the MEC technique in a different fashion via the proposed genetic algorithm‐based fuzzy association mining rules (GFAMR) algorithm to depict the attribute‐consequence‐value links to purchasing organic rice. This study has at least two merits: (a) it is among the first integrating regulatory focus theory, self‐construal theory and MEC to explore the reason why Taiwanese consumers purchase organic rice and (b) it introduces a new method to quantitatively deal with MEC analysis. The results show that the most important ultimate values are fun and enjoyment in life and security, which are in line with the promotion focus and prevention focus, respectively, of regulatory focus theory. Furthermore, we found three consumer segments related to organic rice: prevention focused housekeepers, promotion‐focused egoists, and promotion‐focused (meta‐personal self) altruists. The different paths found in the results can also provide green companies and policy makers with more information about organic rice consumers, allowing them to craft better marketing and communication strategies by which to promote organic food.

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This study adopts a meta-analytic approach to review the performance effects of the market predictors of new product performance and their structural relationships. Based on empirical findings from the relevant studies published before 2011, this study has a number of interesting findings. First, market orientation, competitor orientation, product advantage and launch proficiency are the dominant drivers of new product performance. Second, market orientation, marketing synergy, product advantage and competitive intensity have significant effects on new product performance. Third, product advantage serves as an important intermediary between the market predictors and new product performance. Fourth, product innovativeness per se does not affect new product performance. Finally, launch proficiency translates the effect of market orientation into new product performance. These findings not only identify the dominant market drivers of new product performance, but also profile the routes leading to better new product performance. Some important implications for market research and practice are also provided.