Cognitive structures of Iranian senior tourists towards domestic tourism destinations: a means-end chain approach.

Although the internet plays a significant role in daily activities, particularly shopping, some individuals are reluctant to shop online due to distrust in the online environment. This research aims to investigate trust barriers to online shopping from the relevant literature and prioritize them in an intuitionistic fuzzy environment. After reviewing the relevant literature, 18 barriers were extracted and a questionnaire based on these barriers was distributed among 150 internet users to rank three criteria of Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA), namely severity, occurrence, and detection. Afterward, using the entropy method based on FMEA in an intuitionistic fuzzy environment, the priority of each barrier was assessed. The findings showed that the most important barriers to trust in online shopping are ‘privacy risk’, ‘lack of feel‐and‐touch associated with online purchases’, ‘psychological risk’, ‘social risk’ and ‘feeling that e‐vendors are pretending to care about buyers’ welfare’. Based on the findings, marketing managers should focus on improving and promoting the infrastructure security of their online shopping sites, providing comprehensive information, and benefiting from influencers and celebrities’ endorsements in order to increase customer trust.

PurposeA review of previous studies on the voices of employees and knowledge workers clarifies that paying attention to employees' voice is critical in human resource management. However, limited studies have been conducted on it, and much less emphasis has been placed compared to other human resource management activities such as human resource planning. Therefore, the voice of knowledge employees has been one of the critical issues that have attracted a great deal of attention recently. Nonetheless, there is no evidence of various comprehensive and integrated voice mechanisms. As a result, this study aims to design knowledge workers' voice patterns in knowledge-based companies specialising in information and communication technology (ICT) in Iran in May and June 2020.Design/methodology/approachThis study is a qualitative grounded theory research. We collected the data from a target sample of 15 experts in knowledge-based ICT companies using in-depth semi-structured interviews. Since all the participants had practised the employee voice process, they were regarded as useful data sources. Data analysis was also performed using three-step coding (open, axial and selective) by Atlas T8, which eventually led to identifying 14 components and 38 selected codes. We placed identified components in a paradigm model, including Personality Characteristics, Job Factors, Economic Factors, Cultural Factors, Organisational Policies, Organisational Structure, Climate Of Voice in the Organisation, Management Factors, Emotional Events, Communications and Networking, Contrast and Conflict and, etc. Then, the voice pattern of the knowledge staff was drawn.FindingsThe results showed that constructive knowledge voice influences the recognition of environmental opportunities and, additionally, it helps the competitive advantages among the employees. By forming the concept of knowledge staff voice, it can be concluded that paying attention to knowledge staff voice leads to presenting creative solutions to do affairs in critical situations. The presentation of these solutions by knowledge workers results in the acceptance of environmental changes, recognition and exploitation of new chances and ideas, and sharing experiences in Iranian knowledge-based companies.Practical implicationsStrengthening and expanding the voice of employees in knowledge-oriented companies can pave the way to growth and development towards a higher future that prevents the waste of tangible and intangible assets.Originality/valueCompanies' ability to engage in knowledge workers is a vital factor in human resource management and strategic management. However, the employee voice has not been involved integrally in the context of corporate.

Social marketing, as an interdisciplinary approach, has been proved effective in improving individual and social life in multiple fields. One way to expand this growing field is to investigate and evaluate the current literature on principles and benchmark criteria of social marketing. Thus, the present study aims to evaluate social marketing interventions in the country of Iran with two main objectives: (a) examining the use of seven social marketing components used in interventions and (b) investigating the scope of intervention in three social marketing streams (i.e., downstream, midstream, upstream). Following standard review studies in this field, a primary search was conducted on 13 online databases (7 Persian and 6 English databases). Using relevant keywords, Persian and English articles published from 2002 to 2017 were extracted from national and international journals. A total of 497 records were obtained from the search, 5 of which met the criteria for entering this review study. Analyses of the findings indicated that most interventions in Iran lack the minimum social marketing criteria and merely focused on a downstream approach. By investigating social marketing interventions, this research extends understanding of the social marketing status in developing countries, specifically in Iran with a non-English language. While the findings provide empirical support for the previous framework of the seven benchmark criteria, it can be concluded that Iran is at an early stage in its development of using social marketing interventions. This study recommends the use of multiple methods for conducting formative research and considers midstream and upstream approaches.

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