Purpose Loyal customers are committed to repeat patronage, make business referrals and provide publicity for the business. However, rising customer expectations and price consciousness, advancement of technology, lack of product differentiation and consumer choices have posted more challenges for customer retention. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between transaction specific characteristics (i.e. food quality, service quality, atmosphere, convenience and price perception), customer satisfaction and customer loyalty (behavioral and attitudinal loyalties) in the context of Sabah full-service restaurant. The mediating effect of customer satisfaction and moderating effect of customer innovativeness were also tested. Design/methodology/approach A total of 225 valid questionnaires was collected via purposive sampling method and analyzed using Smart-PLS software 3.0. Findings All transaction specific characteristics have positive influences on customer satisfaction with price perception as the strongest predictor. Satisfaction had stronger effect on behavioral loyalty as compared to attitudinal loyalty. The mediating effects of customer satisfaction were only found in some of the relationships. None of the moderating effects of customer innovativeness was significant. Originality/value Utilizing the value-percept theory and transaction specific model which combine the evaluations of service and product elements of the full-service restaurant, this study contributed to the better understanding of the relationships between transaction specific characteristics, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The examination of both attitudinal and behavioral loyalties provided valuable insights to practitioners and researchers in understanding full-service restaurant consumers’ repatronage intention, intention to spread positive words-of-mouth (WoM) and commitment.

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic took the world by surprise in early 2020. The preventive measures imposed by many countries limited human movement, causing uncertainty and disrupting consumption patterns and consumer decision-making. This study aims to explore consumers’ panic buying (PB) and compulsive buying (CB) as outcomes of the intolerance of uncertainty (IU). The moderating role of sustainable consumption behaviours (SCBs) (e.g. quality of life [QOL], concern for future generation and concern for environmental well-being) were also tested to raise awareness of responsible and mindful consumption amongst the society and business stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach To empirically examine the grocery shopping behaviours of Malaysian consumers during COVID-19, a total of 286 valid grocery consumer survey responses based on a purposive sampling were collected and analysed during the movement control order period between March and July 2020. Findings The findings confirmed the statistically significant impact of IU on both PB and CB and the impact of PB on CB behaviour. Amongst the three SCBs tested, only QOL significantly moderated the relationship between the IU and PB. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to construct a framework of consumers’ PB and CB during the pandemic, building upon the stimulus-organism-response model and the concepts of IU and SCB. This study further serves as the pioneering study on the moderating role of SCB in consumer behaviour research in the pandemic context, whereby consumers’ QOL significantly moderates the relationship between their IU and PB. This study has also drawn specific implications for grocery retailers and government agencies for retail and policy planning to promote positive social transformation in consumer buying behaviours during a pandemic or crisis.

Manuscript type: Research paper. Research aims: This study aims to fill in the literature gap by examining the relationship between various antecedent factors affecting consumer attitude towards blogger recommendations and their purchase intention. Design/ Methodology/ Approach: A total of 384 questionnaires were collected and analysed using the partial least squares (PLS) approach. Research findings: The results highlight the relationships existing between consumer attitude and the antecedent factors namely, perceived usefulness, trustworthiness, information quality and perceived benefits. The study also confirms the mediation role of consumer attitude towards blogger recommendations. Most importantly, consumer attitude towards blogger recommendations is found to have significant influence on consumer purchase intention. Theoretical contributions/ Originality: This study provides a comprehensive empirical examination of the antecedent factors that contribute to consumer attitude towards blogger recommendations, previously examined by different researchers in separate studies. It is found that trustworthiness is the main factor contributing to consumer attitude towards blogger recommendations, followed by information quality, perceived usefulness and perceived benefits. Attitude towards blogger recommendations is found to have a strong

The exposure to a plethora of choices and relatively complex financial products has intensified the need for financial knowledge adequacy in order to acquire the skills needed to make sound financial decisions. The studyaimed to examine the effects of financial literacy and financial behaviour on respondents’ financial well-being and to assess the role of financial stress in mediating these relationships. Using a web-based online survey approach, a total of 213 employees in the government and private sectors in the Federal Territory of Labuan responded to the self-administered questionnaire via convenience sampling technique. All data were analyzed using Partial Least Square (PLS) version 3.0. This study found significant relationships between financial literacy, financial stress, and financial well-being. However, there was no significant correlation between financial behaviour and financial wellbeing. Subsequently, financial stress proved to have no mediating effecton predicting employee’s financial well-being in FT Labuan.

This study aims to understand the intention among young adult Malaysian consumers to shop via mobile shopping apps. Utilizing the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2), factors including Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Facilitating Conditions, Social Influence, Habit, Hedonic Motivation, and Personal Innovativeness are used to understand shopping intention via mobile shopping apps. A total of 180 usable questionnaires were collected and analyzed. Young adult consumers were found to have different sets of considering factors which influence their intention to shop via mobile shopping apps. The results indicate the user context variables proposed by UTAUT2, namely hedonic motivation and habits play the most significant roles on the young adult consumers, followed by social influence. However, this study revealed no significant relationships between performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions and personal innovativeness with intention to shop. Implications, limitations, future recommendations, and conclusion of this study are further discussed in this paper.