Purpose: Design and UX are effective means of embodying value, but if marketers couple these with an ambiguous concept, the product/service loses its uniqueness. Starbucks exhibits strength in creating value based on concepts. Various studies report factors that contribute to brand loyalty, but the underlying idea remains unexplored. This study comprehensively verifies the contribution of four factors to Starbucks’ loyalty in Japan: concept, product, place, and staff.

Methodology: Using an online survey, a question was framed about the brand image to identify loyalty-related factors, since consumers form brand image through brand experience. To avoid bias, the responses were based purely on recall. The contribution of each derived factor to loyalty was evaluated using structural equation modeling.

Findings: When asked about the Starbucks brand image, respondents mostly recalled its products (related words), but the brand concept was the most effective factor for loyalty. In addition, places were more significant than products. However, product superiority was confirmed in terms of both frequency and contribution compared to place.

Implications: Companies should reaffirm the importance of brand concepts. Thus, emphasis should be placed on the index of concept recall in brand management.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the antecedents of consumers’ purchase intention toward local dairy products. In doing so, this article delves into the relationships between perceived quality, perceived price, customer satisfaction, brand image, and customer purchase intention in the context of developing countries.

Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework, the research model was tested using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique with a questionnaire applied to 731 respondents from Saudi Arabia.

Findings: The results showed that perceived quality, consumer satisfaction, and brand image have a positive impact on purchase intention, whereas perceived price could not explain purchase intention. Moreover, consumer satisfaction and brand image appeared to significantly mediate the relationships in the research model.

Research limitations/implications: This article studies a specific country and local dairy consumption. One should be careful when generalizing the results to other food and country contexts.

Originality/value: This study investigates consumer purchase intention specifically toward local dairy products, which was a matter underexplored in the literature as opposed to studies on a variety of other local products. Moreover, the article contributes to an extension of the SOR framework onto the body of literature regarding local products.

Purpose: The study examines the influence of socially responsible human resource management (SRHRM) on employees’ voluntary environmental behavior (VEB), and it tests the moderating effect of ecocentric leadership (EL).

Design/Method: We adopted deductive reasoning in a positivist paradigm by applying quantitative analytical techniques and structural equation modeling. We selected 187 respondents from clothing industry through a self-administered questionnaire survey in Chattogram, the commercial capital of Bangladesh.

Findings: The outcomes revealed that both SRHRM and EL influence VEB. However, the moderation analysis indicated that EL negatively intervenes in the effect of SRHRM on VEB.

Implications: One of the essential contributions of our study is its development of the knowledge related to valuing, developing, and measuring SRHRM’s contribution to improving VEB in a moderated model with the help of EL to ensure long-term sustainability.

Originality: Very little is known about the importance of SRHRM in fostering employees’ voluntary environmental behavior, so this study will be one of the first to examine the topic. Moreover, the moderating effect of EL posits that its interaction effect is not substantial in stimulating voluntary environmental behavior if organizations can institutionalize SRHRM.

Purpose: The present study aims to identify the critical factors of supply chain finance and the interrelationship between the factors using interpretive structural modeling.

Methodology: Factors of supply chain finance were identified from the literature and experts from both industry and academia were consulted to assess the contextual relationships between the factors. Then, we applied interpretive structural modeling to examine the interrelationships between these factors and find out the critical factors.

Findings: The model outcome indicates information sharing and workforce to be the most influential factors, followed by the automation of trade and financial attractiveness.

Originality/value: Previous literature identified various factors that influence supply chain finance. However, studies showing interrelationships between these factors are lacking. This study is unique in the field as it applies total interpretive structural modeling for assessing the factors that affect supply chain finance. Our model will aid practitioners’ decision-making and the adoption of supply chain finance by providing a necessary framework.

Purpose: Drawing from attachment theory and categorization theory, the present study aims to investigate the effects of brand attachment and brand passion on consumer purchase intention, and to explore the moderation effect of product involvement (i.e.a low-involvement convenience product vs. a high-involvement shopping product) in these relationships.

Design/methodology/approach: To bridge this gap, we recruited n = 205 young consumers to test the hypotheses using AMOS 24.0 and SPSS 24.0. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and moderation analysis techniques were used as data analysis methods.

Findings: Results show that when brand attachment and brand passion were assessed, the brand passion has the highest effect on purchase intention. Moreover, our data reveal that brand attachment is more likely to lead to consumer purchase intention for convenience products, while brand passion is more promising for increasing consumer purchase intention for high-involvement shopping products. Finally, we provide a detailed discussion of how these results can be applied to both research and practice.

Implications: This study offers recommendations for how practitioners can strengthen purchase intentions of convenience and shopping brands in emerging markets.

Originality/value: This study is the first to prove that brand attachment is a driver of purchase intention of low-involvement convenience brands, whereas brand passion is a more prominent predictor of the purchase intention of high-involvement shopping brands.

Purpose: The aim of the article is to examine the selected determinants of the expected rate of return on human capital.
Methodology: We conducted an anonymous survey of expected salaries among the Accounting and Controlling students at the Cracow University of Economics, which provided a unique setting for the analysis. On the basis of collected data for the cost of living and the cost of professional education for every participant, we used the human capital model developed by Dobija to compute the perceived level of the human capital of each individual. Then, we compared the expected salaries with the perceived levels of human capital and computed expected rates of return on human capital. The following research methods are used: literature review, statistical tests, econometric modeling.
Findings: On the sample of 754 respondents, we found that male students expect a higher rate of return on their human capital than female students, while older students expect a lower rate of return on human capital than younger students.
Research limitations: Only one field of study was used to measure the determinants of the expected rate of return on human capital.
Originality: We contribute to the salary expectations and human capital literature by identifying a significant gender salary expectations gap that holds even after considering individually assessed costs of living and professional education. Our findings are consistent with the well-known observation that women tend to expect lower salaries than men.

Purpose: Although social capital and positive reputation in organizations are essential for career success, there is a limited perspective in the literature on the political characteristics (motivation and ability) that enable one to acquire and develop the two elements. This study seeks to investigate the sequential role of political skill and network resources as serial mediators of the political will–personal reputation relationship.

Methodology: In total, what provided data for the study were 457 sales executives from 13 different sectors in the cities of İstanbul, Kocaeli, and Bursa, which is an economically leading region of western Turkey. Executives rated their political will, political skill network resources, and personal reputation. Based on the complementary theories of political influence, social network, and signaling, we analyzed the relationships between constructs with structural equation modeling.

Findings: Political skill mediated the relationship between political will and network resources,
network resources mediated the relationship between political skill and personal reputation, while political skill and network resources sequentially mediated the relationship between political will and personal reputation.

Implications: The data were collected from a single source.

Practical Implications: Political will, political skill training, and social networks may help individuals manage their personal reputation at work, thus benefiting their careers.

Originality/Value: This is one of the first studies to sequentially investigate how individuals’ characteristics (motivation and ability) develop their social network and personal reputation at work. Moreover, theories of political influence, social capital, and signaling were jointly used for the first time ever.

Purpose: Drawing on self-determination theory (SDT), this article aims to examine the impact of customers’ intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity on purchase intentions for luxury brands. Moreover, this study delves into the moderating effect of customer brand loyalty in these relationships.

Methodology: To this end, we tested our hypotheses with a student sample (N = 169) from Pakistan. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), structural equation modeling (SEM), and moderation analysis techniques were used to analyze the data using SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 24.0.

Findings: The results of data analysis indicated that a customer’s purchase intention for luxury brands is significantly influenced by extrinsic religiosity, while intrinsic religiosity has trivial influence in boosting purchase intention for a luxury brand. Our results for moderation analysis further show that customer purchase intention for a luxury brand is reinforced by intrinsic religiosity when customer brand loyalty is high but not when customer brand loyalty is low, whereas purchase intention for a luxury brand is fortified more by extrinsic religiosity when customer brand loyalty is low than when customer brand loyalty is high.

Research Limitations: As with any set of cross-sectional studies, our research is not without limitations. For instance, the sample size in the current study is purposefully small. This limits the generalizability of findings across a wider population.

Implications/originality/value: This study has provided a framework to explain how customers’ intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity affected the purchase intentions of luxury brands in the emerging market.

Purpose: This paper focuses on the effects of positive and negative online reviews (eWOM) on the metrics of consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) in the context of the Polish restaurant sector.
Methodology: The dedicated online survey was completed by 777 consumers, which we then analyzed with structural equation modeling. Each catering outlet was to allow to order meals online. We used descriptive analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and path analysis to test the hypotheses.
Findings: The findings suggest that positive online reviews affect each CBBE variable in the online catering outlet’s context. In the case of known catering establishment’s offering in the option of placing orders via online platforms, negative eWOM only affects the perceived quality and brand loyalty. However, it does not change brand awareness and brand association.
Implications: This paper contributes to the body of literature on eWOM, which to date offers very little understanding of the topic of positive and negative online reviews and CBBE dimensions. Moreover, in terms of practical and managerial applications, this study can be used to delineate strategy in terms of management of eWOM to optimize brand strategies.

Purpose: Entrepreneurship is a vital tool for the economic development of any country. As a fiel of research, entrepreneurship has become a diversified area of study. A plethora of studies appeared that investigate the antecedents of entrepreneurial intention, most of them focus on personality traits and other psychological factors. However, the studies focus less on practical entrepreneurial education such as internship and business incubation. Thus, the current study seeks to fill this gap by empirically investigating the impact of business incubators and internship programs on student’s entrepreneurial intention in the Pakistani context.

Methodology: The authors collected data through a structured questionnaire from students and ran partial least square structural equation modeling technique by SmartPLS software. Findings: The results show that business incubators and internship programs have a strong and positive statistically significant impact on entrepreneurial intentions.

Implication: The current study can help policy-makers get a better insight on entrepreneurship so as to improve its innovation, proactivity, and risk-taking ability and how these factors can amend the lack of entrepreneurial awareness among business students.

Purpose: Summarize the experience of using modern methods in the business plan with the application of economic and mathematical modeling.

Methodology: Theoretical and methodological basis of the study is the basic principles of economic theory, agricultural economics and scientific research of leading home and foreign scholars on the theory of planning.

Originality: This further justifies business planning processes in agriculture from the standpoint of raising economic protection of farmers. The methodology for assessing farm income for planned indicators through the application of fuzzy numbers method in business planning is improved.

behavior of investors and government in the process of decision-making related to financing designed
to reduce risks in investment activity.

Methodology: Considering the interdependent type (nature) of interactions between related parties,
game theory tools were used to model such interactions. Much attention was directed to search for
parameters of interaction leading to certain Nash equilibriums in pure strategies. The formal results
obtained with the model were verified by statistical analysis.
Findings: Analysis showed that the rational behavior of related parties can lead to unexpected
results. Powerful investors will aim to work in socially-oriented economies, whereas primarily
small investors will operate in most liberal economies with a minimum tax burden but with a higher
level of risk. As for governments’ behaviors, the images are the same: small economies tend to
liberalize their tax systems and to secure investment faster than powerful ones. Empirical verification
based on statistical data of groups of countries generally confirmed the conclusions. These
formal and logical conclusions were from statistical analysis of 124 countries divided into 5 groups:
OECD countries, post-socialist countries, Latin American countries, APAC countries and ACP
countries. Provided that the more powerful ones are covered economies, there was stronger interdependence
between the size of economies and tax burden and also between total investment and
tax burden, where this dependence is positive.

Originality: The results obtained used Nash equilibriums in pure strategies as models of behavioral
norms to define behaviors of related parties and also to explain assumptions concerning the
behaviors of investors and government.