Purpose: This article explores how anthropomorphized service robots shape consumer risk perceptions and risk behavior via uncanniness as a function of individual differences in banking.

Methodology: An online between-subjects experiment (N = 293), set in a fictitious bank, featuring four levels of service robot anthropomorphism (low, medium, high, human), measured risk perceptions (psychological, functional, privacy, time), and risk behavior as DVs, uncanniness as mediator, technology readiness, and behavioral inhibition as moderators.

Findings: Risk perceptions are the lowest for medium (vs. high) anthropomorphism and are mediated by uncanniness. Risk behavior remains unaffected by the manipulation. Technology readiness overall attenuates the main effect on time risk perception but amplifies it for high anthropomorphism, whereas high behavioral inhibition increases risk behavior under the exposure of low anthropomorphism.

Implication: Banks who plan to place robots in service functions should be mostly concerned about experiential rather than behavioral consequences and are advised to use medium anthropomorphism robots since they appear to qualify as viable substitutes for human bank tellers.

Value: We contribute to the service robot and anthropomorphism literature by (1) distinguishing between dimensions of risk perceptions, (2) measuring actual risk behavior, and (3) setting our study in a business and marketing relevant context: banking.

Purpose: The article explores changes in the institutional autonomy and accountability resulting from university reforms carried out over a period of 28 years under the influence of the traditional public administration and new public management logic.

Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative study uses rich empirical material, which includes archival documents as well as 16 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with deans, professors, representatives of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, and HEI experts. For analysis, we used the general inductive approach. Institutional logic has been used as the theoretical framework to analyze changes in resource allocation, autonomy, and accountability of HEIs.

Findings: Following the idea of reform as routine, our study shows that the implemented reforms have proven ineffective in comprehensively increasing the autonomy and accountability of HEIs and that they tend to turn into a routine. However, over the past 30 years, a certain increase in autonomy, combined with accountability shifts from input toward output control mechanisms can be observed. An important finding of this research is also the limited understanding of the concept of accountability by the top management of universities and by the ministry’s representatives. Moreover, this illustrates that accountability is understood only as a formal obligation to report to the funding agency and is treated as an integral part of the Polish HE landscape, increasing from reform to reform.

Originality/Value: This article explores the evolution of the Polish state funding systems of universities and analyzes the development from a stable traditional funding model – that was in place before the collapse of the communist system – to a complex multi-tier system and to recent attempts at reforming the HE field, aimed at increasing the autonomy and accountability of Polish universities. More efforts should be made by policymakers to create a sustainable balance between autonomy and accountability in the HE field.

Purpose: Using congruity theory, triangular theory of love, gender schema theory, and generational cohort theory, this study aimed to examine the relationships between congruity types and consumers’ service brand passion, along with the moderation effect of gender (i.e. male vs. female customers) and age (i.e. young vs. older customers) in these relationships.

Design/methodology/approach: A total of N=252 valid responses were collected from the customers of service brands (e.g. bus riders), and the theoretical model was tested using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), structural equation modeling (SEM), and moderation analysis techniques.

Findings: After assessing four types of congruity, we discovered that the influence of brand use image congruity had the greatest impact on service brand passion, followed by brand user image congruity, and actual self-congruity. Our moderation variable of gender revealed that the effect of actual self-congruity is more essential in building service brand passion among male than female customers, whereas the effect of ideal self-congruity is more important among female than male customers. Similarly, the effect of ideal self-congruity is more essential for boosting service brand passion among young than older customers, while brand use image congruity better promotes service brand passion among older but not young customers.

Implications: This study offers strategies for boosting service brand passion among male (vs. female) and young (vs. older) customers in emerging markets.
Originality: This is the first study to look into the effects of congruity types on service brand passion, and it has given marketers a framework for targeting customers based on their gender and age.

Purpose: The 21st century has witnessed an explosive growth of both South Korean popular culture (K-pop) and automobiles (K-car) in Western societies. However, K-pop appears to maintain its success better than K-car. This paper will evaluate the origins of K-pop and K-car and determine the distinguishing factors that led to continued K-pop compared to K-car success.

Design/methodology/approach: Suggested claims of artistic/cultural and social/industrial traditions unique to South Korea as causes of the growth in K-pop and K-car success in literature will be evaluated based on historical growth in sales of both products in the US market. Factors of continued success will be evaluated based on how well both industries have been able to maintain their (perceived) brand authenticity, which emphasizes ‘Korean’ cultural values.

Findings: Unlike claims regarding the importance of traditional culture in shaping business success in emergent states, this paper shows that the success of Korean music and cars is not due to artistic/cultural values. Rather, while optimally identifying progress within industries such as digitization in music, South Korea’s unique ability is to deploy its industrial machinery to transform bolder performances and designs originating elsewhere into inoffensive forms with broad cross-cultural appeal. Especially, K-pop’s continued success can be explained through better attention to perceived authenticity, without distinguishing its products too much from known, Western perspectives. Results
also indicate that Korean products do not perform well when companies attempt to take on a leadership role in the industry or develop bold new designs that deviate strongly from Western principles.

Originality/Value: The paper provides unique insights in the similarity of product design and branding, providing tools for evaluating perceived authenticity of a brand and its potential impact on sales. It shows that attention to traditional cultural values may not be a (sufficiently) appropriate strategy for international success. From a Central European perspective, lessons learned by the Korean car and culture industries may lead to new strategic uses of branding and marketing local products and of different forms of governmental/industrial structures to emerge out of the periphery.

Purpose: Revenue management (RM) practices are well established in the hotel industry. Peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation is a distinctive alternative to hotels, which in its original intention, is managed by non-professionals. The main research question of this study was how the professionalism of P2P accommodation providers relate to their use of RM practices.

Research method: I performed statistical analysis of 479,282 pricing records for 25,827 properties offered through Airbnb in the period of 67 months (August 2015 – February 2021) in Poland. Two indicators of hosts’ professionalism (the number of properties they manage and the possession of superhost status) were tested against three RM practices (cancellation policy, minimum stay, and dynamic pricing).

Findings: This study clearly showed the intensification of P2P hosts’ professionalization in comparison to previous research. Moreover, it proved that professional and non-professional hosts’ behaviors significantly differ when it comes to RM practices application, but the discrepancies are not equally distinctive. The finding that brought a considerably different result in comparison to previous research was the negative relationship between a multi-unit host and minimum stay.

Implications and future research: This study should serve as a warning for hoteliers about the P2P hosts’ professionalization, as they become equal competitors. There are several future extensions to this study, including holiday destinations, testing other than hosts’ professionalism variables, or shedding light on the evolution of RM practices application could reveal valuable insights.

Originality: This study contributes to the existing research by offering the analysis of very recent longitudinal data and covering professional vs. non-professional P2P hosts’ behaviors in terms of three RM practices in Central-Eastern Europe settings.