Impacts of residential environment on residents' place attachment, satisfaction, WOM, and pro-environmental behavior: evidence from the Korean housing industry

This study considers seven residential environment elements and examines their effect on residents' place attachment (place dependence and place identity), satisfaction, word-of-mouth behavior, and pro-environmental behavior. The study also examines whether gender moderates the proposed relationships. The data were collected from 603 respondents who owned a condominium in Seoul, South Korea. We analyzed the data using structural equation modeling with SmartPLS 4. The finding shows that all seven elements of the residential environment have a significant impact on either dimension of place attachment, except for the insignificant effect of social environment on place dependence. Both dimensions of place attachment have a significant effect on satisfaction, WOM, and pro-environmental behavior except for the insignificant effect of place dependence on pro-environmental behavior. The interaction effect test of gender shows that males consider eco-friendly materials and green/recreational areas more than females. On the other hand, females are found to weigh and social environments more heavily than males. The finding shows that pro-environmental behavior is influenced by place identity (not by place dependence) and satisfaction, indicating a key role of affective response.

Teleconsultation management in healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic: The impact of Perceived Justice on satisfaction and Word-Of-Mouth

Following the restrictions on movement imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the greater demands placed on physicians and many healthcare infrastructures, a large number of health teleconsultation platforms have emerged around the world. The aim of this paper is to obtain a better understanding of the acceptance of teleconsultation platforms by patients. To this end, a survey of 1273 patients was carried out using a teleconsultation platform during the pandemic period in France (from 9 July to 29 October 2020). The questionnaire mobilized existing scales to measure Satisfaction, Perceived Justice and, finally, the intention to disseminate by Word-Of-Mouth (WOM). Data were analysed using a Partial Least Squares approach. The study confirms the impact of Distributive, Informational and Procedural Justice on Satisfaction and the impact of Distributive and Informational Justice on WOM. The findings emphasize the influence of Satisfaction on WOM. The results detect a mediating effect of Satisfaction on WOM and moderating effects of gender, age and long-standing use. This research contributes to both theoretical and practical COVID-19 research and may be used by healthcare professionals to develop teleconsultation services, one of the means of supporting interaction and satisfying patients’ treatment requirements during the pandemic.

How does platform's fintech level affect its word of mouth from the perspective of user psychology?

Introduction

The rapid development of fintech has brought opportunities for business operations and economic development. Currently, few researches have focused on how fintech level affects word-of-mouth (WOM) from the perspective of user psychology. Therefore, studying the effect of fintech level on WOM is a worthwhile scientific question.

Methods

Based on motivation theory and reinforcement theory, this paper proposes a new psychology-based theoretical framework model to study the relationship between fintech level and WOM and constructs a structural equation model including fintech level, user experience, user trust, user stickiness and WOM through the analysis of 732 questionnaires.

Results

The results indicate that the improvement of fintech level can enhance WOM. More specifically, fintech level has a significantly positive influence on user stickiness through two mediation variables (user experience and user trust), and further, user stickiness has a significantly positive influence on WOM.

Discussion

This paper analyzes the internal mechanism of fintech level's influence on WOM from the micro psychological perspective, which enriches the psychology theoretical research. And, the conclusions provide specific suggestions for marketing and promotion of financial platforms in the future.

A word-of-mouth perspective on consumers of family medicine services: a case study

In an increasingly competitive health care market, family physicians have to elaborate and implement new strategies to attract potential patients. A useful and powerful method is word-of-mouth (WOM) because it shapes the consumers' attitudes and behaviours. Based on the recommendations of actual consumers, potential health care patients choose their family physicians. The aim of this study was to investigate the usefulness of WOM in family medicine and determine the key factors in recommending a certain family physician. The sample consisted of 338 patients under the supervision of a family physician, and the instrument for collecting data was a self-administered questionnaire. The findings revealed that the most important factors in spreading WOM are the communication skills and the expertise of the family physician. In addition, for patients between 27–33 years and 41–47 years, expertise is an absolute skill, whereas, for the health care consumers between 21 and 26 years, communication skills are essential in spreading WOM. Further, WOM becomes relevant in the family physician's activity as it may contribute to the delivery of value and in building sustainable physician-patient relationships.

Impact of Service Quality on In-Patients' Satisfaction, Perceived Value, and Customer Loyalty: A Mixed-Methods Study from a Developing Country

PURPOSE

Recent literature on healthcare quality demands more contextualized and patient-perspective research, as models from developed countries are not suitable for developing countries. Moreover, research on private healthcare services in Vietnam has long been underestimated by academia, but it has significant economic and commercial value. Hence, this study explores the dimensions of service quality in private healthcare and how they impact in-patient satisfaction, perceived value, and customer loyalty in Vietnam.

METHODS

This mixed-method study had a sample size of five inpatients for the qualitative phase and 368 inpatients for the quantitative phase from hospitals in Vietnam. The qualitative analysis explores service quality dimensions in private healthcare and incorporates them with the literature to develop a conceptual model. The quantitative phase tests the relationship between each construct in the conceptual model via structural equation modeling.

RESULTS

The four dimensions of service quality were emotion, function, social influence, and trust. Most of these dimensions have a significant impact on customer perceived value and satisfaction. However, emotion does not significantly influence customer perceived value, and function does not considerably impact customer satisfaction. In addition, social influence is an underrepresented variable in the service quality literature, but it has the most substantial impact on customer perceived value and customer satisfaction. The quantitative results also confirm that customer satisfaction and customer perceived value significantly impact customer loyalty (word-of-mouth and revisit intention); however, customer perceived value does not significantly impact customer satisfaction.

CONCLUSION

The study suggests that private healthcare providers and the government in Vietnam should allocate resources to improve service quality. Practitioners should invest in social branding and e-services to reach out to their customers. Future research should focus on a cost-benefit analysis and compare the effectiveness of service quality dimensions on customer behavioral intention.

Nationwide Lockdown, Population Density, and Financial Distress Brings Inadequacy to Manage COVID-19: Leading the Services Sector into the Trajectory of Global Depression

The service industry provides distributive services, producer services, personal services, and social services. These services largely breakdowns due to restrictions on border movements, confined travel and transportation services, a decline in international tourists' visitation, nationwide lockdowns, and maintaining social distancing in the population. Although these measures are highly needed to contain coronavirus, it decreases economic and financial activities in a country, which requires smart solutions to globally subsidize the services sector. The study used different COVID-19 measures, and its resulting impact on the services industry by using world aggregated data from 1975 through 2020. The study benefited from the Keynesian theory of aggregate demand that remains provided a solution to minimize economic shocks through stringent or liberalizing economic policies. The COVID-19 pandemic is more severe than the financial shocks of 2018 that affected almost all sectors of the globalized world, particularly the services sector, which has been severally affected by COVID-19; it is a high time to revisit economic policies to control pandemic recession. The study used quantiles regression and innovation accounting matrix to obtain ex-ante and ex-post analysis. The quantile regression estimates show that causes of death by communicable diseases, including COVID-19, mainly decline the share of services value added to the global GDP at different quantiles distribution. In contrast, word-of-mouth helps to prevent it from the transmission channel of coronavirus plague through information sharing among the general masses. The control of food prices and managing physical distancing reduces suspected coronavirus cases; however, it negatively affects the services sector's value share. The smart lockdown and sound economic activities do not decrease coronavirus cases, while they support increasing the percentage of the services sector to the global GDP. The innovation accounting matrix suggested that smart lockdown, managing physical distancing, effective price control, and sound financial activities will help to reduce coronavirus cases that will further translate into increased services value-added for the next ten years. The social distancing will exert a more considerable variance error shock to the services industry, which indicates the viability of these measures to contained novel coronavirus over a time horizon. The study used the number of proxies to the COVID-19 measures on the service sector that can be continued with real-time variables to obtain more inferences.

Knowledge Learning of Replacement Judgment Using Word-of-mouth Data

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has also affected the camera industry, and various events have been cancelled. In addition, the recent improvement in the performance of cameras installed in smartphones has reduced the demand for replacement cameras, as it is easy to take pictures without carrying a camera. For customers, online word-of-mouth is what they refer to when purchasing a product. This data is important not only for customers, but also for companies. In this research, we will use online word-of-mouth data and focus not only on numerical data but also on textual data and use text mining to learn knowledge about the decision to replace a camera.

How to Form Wellbeing Perception and Its Outcomes in the Context of Elderly Tourism: Moderating Role of Tour Guide Services

Many people travel to improve their wellbeing perception (WBP), and senior tourists in South Korea are no exception in that they hope to enhance their quality of life through tourism. As such, this study explored the significance of WBP in the senior tourism industry in South Korea. The current paper collected samples from 349 senior tourists. Analysis of data indicated that brand prestige contributes to increasing WBP among seniors and improving consumer attitude. In addition, it was found that WBP positively affects both consumer attitude and word-of-mouth (WOM). Lastly, tour guide services moderated the relationship between (1) brand prestige and WBP and (2) consumer attitude and WOM. The current paper then presents theoretical and practical implications of the statistical results.

The Antecedents and Consequences of Travelers' Well-Being Perceptions: Focusing on Chinese Tourist Shopping at a Duty Free

The purpose of this study was to explore the antecedents and consequences of travelers’ well-being perceptions in the context of a duty-free shop. For this, data were collected from 742 Chinese tourists who purchased goods at duty free shops while traveling in Korea within the past year using an online survey company’s system in China. The results indicated that pragmatic, hedonic, and sociability experiences have a positive influence on travelers’ well-being perceptions. In addition, travelers’ well-being perceptions aided the enhancement of brand attitude and brand preference, which in turn positively affected word-of-mouth. Novelty is the originality of this study as very few studies on this topic are presented in the extant literature and practical implications are also discussed.

Social Exclusion Shifts Personal Network Scope

Social exclusion has the potential to alter subsequent social interactions with the members of personal networks, especially given their online availability in contemporary life. Nonetheless, there is minimal research examining how social challenges such as exclusion alter ensuing interactions with personal ties. Here, we tested whether being excluded during a social interaction changed which relationships are most salient in an ostensibly unrelated, online news sharing task. Across three operationalizations of tie strength, exclusion (vs. inclusion) increased sharing to close friends, but (unexpectedly) decreased sharing to close family members. The findings provide preliminary evidence that negative encounters may shift attention toward certain types of network ties and away from others. Future work is needed to examine how social experiences influence personal network scope – i.e., who comes to mind – in the background of daily life.

Enhanced Self-Efficacy and Behavioral Changes Among Patients With Diabetes: Cloud-Based Mobile Health Platform and Mobile App Service

Background

The prevalence of chronic disease is increasing rapidly. Health promotion models have shifted toward patient-centered care and self-efficacy. Devices and mobile app in the Internet of Things (IoT) have become critical self-management tools for collecting and analyzing personal data to improve individual health outcomes. However, the precise effects of Web-based interventions on self-efficacy and the related motivation factors behind individuals’ behavioral changes have not been determined.

Objective

The objective of this study was to gain insight into patients' self-efficacy with newly diagnosed diabetes (type 2 diabetes mellitus) and analyze the association of patient-centered health promotion behavior and to examine the implications of the results for IoT and mobile health mobile app features.

Methods

The study used data from the electronic health database (n=3128). An experimental design (n=121) and randomized controlled trials were employed to determine patient preferences in the health promotion program (n=62) and mobile self-management education (n=28). The transtheoretical model was used as a framework for observing self-management behavior for the improvement of individual health, and the theory of planned behavior was used to evaluate personal goals, execution, outcome, and personal preferences. A mobile app was used to determine individualized health promotion interventions and to apply these interventions to improve patients’ self-management and self-efficacy.

Results

Mobile questionnaires were administered for pre- and postintervention assessment through mobile app. A dynamic questionnaire allocation method was used to follow up and monitor patient behavioral changes in the subsequent 6 to 18 months. Participants at a high risk of problems related to blood pressure (systolic blood pressure ≥120 mm Hg) and body mass index (≥23 kg/m²) indicated high motivation to change and to achieve high scores in the self-care knowledge assessment (n=49, 95% CI −0.26% to −0.24%, P=.052). The associated clinical outcomes in the case group with the mobile-based intervention were slightly better than in the control group (glycated hemoglobin mean −1.25%, 95% CI 6.36 to 7.47, P=.002). In addition, 86% (42/49) of the participants improved their health knowledge through the mobile-based app and information and communications technology. The behavior-change compliance rate was higher among the women than among the men. In addition, the personal characteristics of steadiness and dominance corresponded with a higher compliance rate in the dietary and wellness intervention (83%, 81/98). Most participants (71%, 70/98) also increased their attention to healthy eating, being active, and monitoring their condition (30% 21/70, 21% 15/70, and 20% 14/70, respectively).

Conclusions

The overall compliance rate was discovered to be higher after the mobile app–based health intervention. Various intervention strategies based on patient characteristics, health care–related word-of-mouth communication, and social media may be used to increase self-efficacy and improve clinical outcomes. Additional research should be conducted to determine the most influential factors and the most effective adherence management techniques.

The Relative Power of Negativity: The Influence of Language Intensity on Perceived Strength

Negative utterances and words have been found to be stronger than positive utterances and words, but what happens if positive and negative utterances are intensified? Two online experiments were carried out in which participants judged the strength of (un)intensified positive and negative evaluations in written dialogues. Both studies showed intensified language was perceived as stronger than unmarked language (i.e., language that was not intensified), and negative evaluations were stronger than positive evaluations. What is more, intensification and polarity interact; the increment of perceived strength for intensified positive adjectives (Study 1) and purely intensified adverbs (really, very; Study 2) was bigger than the increment in perceived strength of intensified negative adjective and adverbs. When a meaningful intensifier (deliciously, disgustingly) was used, the negativity effect remained. The findings were discussed within cognitive frameworks such as relevance theory, theory of mind, and theory on verbal aggression.

Integrating self-determined needs into the relationship among product design, willingness-to-pay a premium, and word-of-mouth: a cross-cultural gender-specific study

Background

The present study integrates self-determined needs satisfaction into a relationship between product design (eg, aesthetic, functional, and symbolic design) and consumer behavior (eg, willingness-to-pay [WTP] a premium and negative word-of-mouth [WOM]) and to explore whether gender can differentiate the effects of aesthetic, functional, and symbolic product designs on self-determined needs satisfaction.

Methods

To this end, participants from Pakistan and China were recruited, and the hypotheses for this study were tested using structural equation modeling and SPSS-PROCESS.

Results

The effects of three product designs on self-determined needs satisfaction were significantly positive across samples. The results further show that self-determined needs satisfaction had the strongest positive effect on WTP a premium and the strongest negative effect on vindictive WOM for Pakistanis. Self-determined needs frustration had the strongest negative effect on the WTP a premium for Chinese participants and an equivalent magnitude effect on vindictive WOM for Pakistani and Chinese participants. The cross-cultural gender-specific findings revealed that Pakistani men are more aesthetic and hedonic than women in Pakistan. Surprisingly, Chinese women resemble Pakistani men in the sense that they prefer aesthetically pleasing products. Chinese men resemble Pakistani women in terms of little interest in symbolic products, whereas Chinese women and Pakistani men respond similarly regarding their decisions to choose symbolic products.

Conclusion

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is one of the initial attempts to integrate self-determined needs into the relationship between product design and consumer WTP a premium and WOM, and further explore cross-cultural gender-specific differences across Pakistan and China. The findings of the present study may help international marketers in terms of segmenting, targeting, and positioning their markets.

Linking product design to consumer behavior: the moderating role of consumption experience

Background

Previous investigations of product design broadly link aesthetic, functional, and symbolic designs to sales growth, high turnover, and market share. However, the effect of product design dimensions on consumer willingness-to-buy (WTB) and word-of-mouth (WOM) is virtually ignored by consumer researchers. Similarly, whether the consumption experience can differentiate the effect of the three product design dimensions on WTB and WOM is completely unknown. Using categorization theory as a lens, our study aims to explore the effect of product design dimensions on consumer WTB and WOM directly and indirectly through the moderation of the consumption experience.

Methods

A convenience sample of (n=357) Chinese and (n=277) Korean shoppers was utilized to test the hypotheses in the fashion apparel industry.

Results

Our results showed that the aesthetic design was more prominent in capturing consumer WTB for both Chinese and Koreans. Similarly, the aesthetic design was more salient in enhancing WOM for Chinese, whereas the symbolic design was more promising in terms of improving WOM for Koreans. Further, our moderation results demonstrated that the consumption experience could differentiate the effects of the three product design dimensions on consumer WTB and WOM for Chinese. By contrast, the consumption experience could only interact with the aesthetic design to improve WOM for South Koreans.

Conclusion

To the best of authors' knowledge, the present study is one of the initial attempts to link three product design dimensions with consumer WTB and WOM in the fashion apparel context and explored whether consumption experience competes or complement with three product design dimensions to shape consumer WTB and WOM for Chinese and Koreans.

Factors affecting use of word-of-mouth by dental patients

OBJECTIVES

Word-of-mouth (WOM) refers to communication among consumers, which greatly influences the marketing strategies of dental clinics. This study aimed to explore factors that affect use of WOM by dental patients and to analyse their pathways.

METHODS

The participants were 520 outpatients from four private dental clinics. Data were obtained from a survey using self-reported questionnaires, which included questions regarding seven latent variables: five exogenous variables, including medical service quality (physical environment, customer service, patient relationship quality) and individual characteristic variables (opinion leader tendency, social hub tendency); and two endogenous variables (intention to recommend, WOM experience). Statistical analysis was performed using structural equation modelling.

RESULTS

Significant associations were found in the pathways between relationship quality and intention to recommend, intention to recommend and WOM, and opinion leader tendency and WOM (P < 0.001). Higher patient relationship quality and higher intention to recommend were related to positive WOM, as was higher opinion leader tendency.

CONCLUSIONS

Improving patient relationship quality can promote positive WOM for dental clinics. Strategies are needed to promote a positive perception of dental clinics by effectively responding to the views of patients with strong opinion leader tendencies.

Getting the word out: neural correlates of enthusiastic message propagation

What happens in the mind of a person who first hears a potentially exciting idea?We examined the neural precursors of spreading ideas with enthusiasm, and dissected enthusiasm into component processes that can be identified through automated linguistic analysis, gestalt human ratings of combined linguistic and non-verbal cues, and points of convergence/divergence between the two. We combined tools from natural language processing (NLP) with data gathered using fMRI to link the neurocognitive mechanisms that are set in motion during initial exposure to ideas and subsequent behaviors of these message communicators outside of the scanner. Participants' neural activity was recorded as they reviewed ideas for potential television show pilots. Participants' language from video-taped interviews collected post-scan was transcribed and given to an automated linguistic sentiment analysis (SA) classifier, which returned ratings for evaluative language (evaluative vs. descriptive) and valence (positive vs. negative). Separately, human coders rated the enthusiasm with which participants transmitted each idea. More positive sentiment ratings by the automated classifier were associated with activation in neural regions including medial prefrontal cortex; MPFC, precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex; PC/PCC, and medial temporal lobe; MTL. More evaluative, positive, descriptions were associated exclusively with neural activity in temporal-parietal junction (TPJ). Finally, human ratings indicative of more enthusiastic sentiment were associated with activation across these regions (MPFC, PC/PCC, DMPFC, TPJ, and MTL) as well as in ventral striatum (VS), inferior parietal lobule and premotor cortex. Taken together, these data demonstrate novel links between neural activity during initial idea encoding and the enthusiasm with which the ideas are subsequently delivered. This research lays the groundwork to use machine learning and neuroimaging data to study word of mouth communication and the spread of ideas in both traditional and new media environments.