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.
PurposeExtant theories suggest that entrepreneurs' personal characteristics have substantial impacts on their firm's performance. From a resource‐based view, the paper considers an entrepreneur's personal characteristics to be a unique resource endowment to their firm. The paper seeks to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through a national survey of owners and senior managers of small‐ to medium‐sized Canadian manufacturing companies. Mediation relationships were tested with hierarchical regression analyses.FindingsConsistent with the authors' hypotheses, it is found that entrepreneurs' personal characteristics, such as need for achievement, need for cognition, and internal locus of control, have positive influences on firm performance. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that their strategic orientations mediated these influences. The data indicate that entrepreneurs with higher levels of internal locus of control are more likely to adopt an entrepreneurial orientation than a market orientation.Originality/valueThis paper helps to better understand why entrepreneurs make different strategic decisions under seemingly similar competitive environments. The findings suggest that entrepreneurs do not simply react mechanically to external environmental changes. Instead, how they seek and interpret information and formulate organizational strategies is partially influenced by their personal characteristics. Entrepreneurs develop their own ways of utilizing the human capital that they bring to their firms.
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between Canadian and Indian consumers' national cultural orientations and banking service quality expectations. Using two of Hofstede's five cultural dimensions operationalized at the individual level, and five dimensions of service quality from Parasuraman et al.'s SERVQUAL scale, the aim is to develop and test hypotheses relating national culture values to service quality expectations. Design/methodology/approach -The study is quantitative in nature, using surveys (online and written) from respondents in Canada and India. Data were analyzed using dummy variable regression and structural equation modeling. Findings -The results show that the importance of various SERVQUAL dimensions is related to Hofstede's power distance and individualism cultural dimensions both at the individual and national levels. More specifically, consumers low on power distance expect highly responsive and reliable service. High power distance customers attach higher importance to tangible service attributes. Consumers high on individualism expect lower empathy and assurance from service providers. Furthermore, Indian consumers attach higher importance to tangible attributes, whereas Canadian consumers find service reliability more important. However, differences in overall service quality expectations are not significantly different across the two countries. Practical implications -The results suggest that managers must be aware of the cultural values of the buyer/client in order to fully understand the most effective means of establishing and nurturing the service delivery process and, consequently, establishing service quality expectations. Banks will be more successful when service delivery is in tune with cultural imperatives, particularly sub-group cultural imperatives. Originality/value -The study provides an original insight into the manner in which national culture impacts on service quality expectations. Furthermore, the study identifies individual sub-cultural influences that shape service quality expectations.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to determine the extent to which hedonic and utilitarian attitudes and loyalty are influenced by perceived financial performance (PFP) and executive compensation plan image (ECPI) in financial services; second, the authors evaluate relationships among hedonic and utilitarian attitudes, trust, and loyalty. Design/methodology/approach Using a quasi-experimental design in Study 1 the authors test the relationship between antecedents (PFP and ECPI) and relational elements (attitudes, trust, and loyalty) to address the first objective. To accomplish the second objective, the authors employ structural equation modeling in Study 2 to test the relationship among hedonic and utilitarian attitudes, trust, and loyalty. Findings Study 1 confirms that PFP and ECPI positively impact both hedonic and utilitarian attitudes but do not directly affect loyalty. Study 2 demonstrates a positive association between utilitarian attitudes and trust, although the hedonic attitudes-trust relationship is negative. Hedonic attitudes are also significantly related to utilitarian attitudes. Finally, trust mediates the relationship between attitudes and loyalty. Practical implications Building customer trust is an important correlate of loyalty, and emphasizing an attribute-based aspect of perceived financial service generates greater trust compared to enhancing a non-attribute aspect (i.e. minimizing negative effects on image of executive compensation plans). Originality/value The authors link attitude research to service/relationship quality research and discover that attitudes are indirectly related to loyalty through increases in trust. The findings suggest that perceived image and performance of financial services are important to relationship quality when applied to financial services.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe a cross‐cultural study which examined individualism's moderating effect on the relationship between bonding and commitment between banks and their corporate clients.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through surveys completed by corporate customers from 126 Canadian companies and 156 Indian companies. Multiple regression analysis was used to calculate relative effects of structural and social bond on commitment across the two samples. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis was used to examine individualism's moderating effect on the bonding‐commitment relationship.FindingsThe paper's findings indicate that social and structural bonding are both antecedent to commitment, but that social bonding is given higher importance in the low individualism Indian society, while structural bonding is more important in the high individualism Canadian society. Individualism moderates the relationship between both social and structural bonding and commitment.Practical implicationsBank relationships are dependent upon specific cultural contexts in which buyers and sellers interact. The type of bonding relationship (e.g. social or structural) determines the strength of commitment. Bank managers must understand the proper emphasis to place on developing social connections versus business transactional relationships with clients in individualistic versus collective cultures.Originality/valueThis paper dramatizes the importance of understanding ways in which bonding relates to commitment, particularly when societal values vary and thus alter the relative importance of forms of bonding that generate commitment. Through empirical analyses, the paper demonstrates the moderating effect of individualism on the social bonding‐commitment and structural bonding‐commitment linkages in the context of an important service sector. To date, these relationships have not been explored in either the Indian or Canadian context.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.