Purpose Prior research in the human resources management fields focused primarily on one type of employees’ pro-environmental behaviors yet failed to empirically investigate interrelationships among the distinct dimensions of their pro-environmental behaviors. To build a deeper understanding of the psychological process in becoming an environmental activist in the workplace, this study aims to examine the interrelationships among frontline employees’ green autonomous motivation, green external motivation, environmental concern, self-efficacy and three types of pro-environmental behaviors (i.e. green idea generation behavior, green idea promotion behavior and green idea activist behavior). Design/methodology/approach With the survey method, the data were collected from frontline employees working at hospitality enterprises in South Korea. This study analyzed the collected data, including frequency analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings The empirical results showed that autonomous motivation significantly influenced environmental concern, self-efficacy, green idea generation behavior and green idea promotion behavior. Also, external motivation significantly affected environmental concern, self-efficacy and green idea promotion behavior. Furthermore, environmental concern had significant influences on self-efficacy and green idea promotion behavior, and self-efficacy had significant effects on green idea generation behavior and green idea promotion behavior. Finally, green idea activist behavior was significantly influenced by green idea generation behavior and green idea promotion behavior only. Practical implications This study proposes managerial implications to hospitality organizations and public policymakers for maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of their green initiatives via frontline employees’ green idea activist behavior. Originality/value Based on the empirical findings, this study proposes several theoretical and practical implications for the extant literature and the service industry in the context of frontline employees’ three types of pro-environmental behaviors from their working motivation.

Medical tourism organizations have increasingly recognized that loyalty makes a medical clinic a marketing success. To increase understanding of the importance of medical clinics, this study examined the roles of servicescapes, emotions, and satisfaction in the development of customer loyalty toward medical clinics and destination. Data were collected among international medical tourists visiting Korea. Results identified that dimensions of medical clinics’ servicescape (ie, medical clinic environment, medical treatment, staff, and doctor) influenced emotions and satisfaction among international medical tourists. Also, positive emotions and the 2 dimensions of satisfaction with a medical clinic and doctor mediate the influence of medical clinics’ servicescapes on 2 types of loyalty (the medical clinic and Korea for medical care). Overall, these findings indicate that the interrelationship of servicescapes, positive emotion, and satisfaction is essential in influencing international medical tourists’ loyalty to a medical clinic.

PurposeThe study focuses on how to build long-term relationships with multi-channel agencies (MCAs) (dealers) who serve multiple manufacturers on a non-exclusive basis in a business-to-business (B2B) market. This study looks at the framework of relational benefits-commitment-long term orientation in a business-to-business context.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from MCAs of three leading companies in the food distribution business. The survey used established scales to measure the relational benefits (core, operational, social and special treatment), commitment (affective and calculative) and long-term orientation (LTO).FindingsThe findings of the study show that core, social and special treatment benefits influence calculative commitment, and operational and special treatment benefits influence affective commitment. The study also supports that calculative and affective commitment play an important role in understanding the loyalty of MCAs.Originality/valueThe research examines how relational benefits impact commitment and loyalty among MCAs and manufacturers, in a non-exclusive relationship, in the business-to-business environment. This study incorporates social exchange theory (SET), relational benefits paradigm and commitment and long-term orientation in its framework and tests it within the food distribution industry. This study is the first of its kind to examine the effects of relational benefits on MCAs behavior in a food supplier–buyer setting.

This study investigated the relationship between the type of volunteer tourism (human vs. flora vs. fauna) and the type of message (individual with no statistic vs. individual with small statistic vs. individual with large statistic) and potential tourists’ attitudes towards volunteer tourism and their intention to donate their time. To do so, this study conducted a between-subject 3 × 3 factorial design online experiment, where the influences of compassion fade on attitudes and behavioral intention to donate time for volunteer tourism, along with the impacts of positive affect, emotional involvement, and credibility, were examined. The results of the current study revealed that type of volunteer tourism and type of message do not affect attitude towards volunteer tourism and attitude towards the ad. Further analysis indicated that, among all three mediating variables, only positive affect mediated the relationship between type of volunteer tourism and attitude towards volunteer tourism, and all other hypotheses were not statistically significant. Moreover, the results indicated that there is a positive relationship between perceived ad credibility and attitude towards the ad, and also between perceived ad credibility and attitude towards volunteer tourism. The implications of these results are discussed based on the empirical findings.

This study emphasized the source credibility effect on consumers’ responses to restaurant companies’ CSR efforts on social media. Based on the source credibility brand development process (i.e., brand trust, brand affect, and brand engagement), this study employed an online survey-based experiment and revealed the meaningful associations among types of CSR posters (a restaurant brand vs. a nonprofit organization), brand trust, brand affect, and brand engagement. The empirical results indicated that the nonprofit organization has higher significant effects on brand trust and brand affect than those of the restaurant brand. Additionally, in the case of the nonprofit organization, the effects of brand trust and brand affect on brand engagement were significantly stronger than that of the restaurant brand. Based on the empirical findings, this study provided several theoretical and managerial implications for restaurant companies’ CSR communication on social media.