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Paper aims: The aim was to adapt and apply a SERVQUAL scale to measure the perceived service quality of an e-learning platform provided by the United Nations for Environment Programme (UNEP) focused on sustainability issues. Originality: There is a scarce number of publications using the SERVQUAL for digital services evaluation. This study contributes to filling this gap, generating new insights for the service quality literature by proposing an adaptation of the SERVQUAL scale for online sustainability courses. Research method: The SERVQUAL was carried out with undergraduate and post-graduate students enrolled at a Brazilian higher education institution. A set of 21 questions was set up to evaluate the perceived service quality of the students before/after finishing the online course "Introduction to Life Cycle Thinking (LCT)" provided by UNEP. Main findings: The results showed that the most important features were related to the empathy, assurance and tangibility quality dimensions with emphasis on the high quality of addressing the user doubts and the audio and video resources that helped students in the learning process. In conclusion, the perceived quality was higher than the expectations for many of the SERVQUAL dimensions. Implications for theory and practice: Finally, the step-by-step methodological approach used by this paper should be adopted by other e-learning platforms to investigate quality and service management aspects. Empathy, assurance and tangibility may be seen as key components in the service quality management of e-learning platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Marketing (0354-3471) is the property of SEMA - Srpsko udruzenje za Marketing i Ekonomski fakultet Beograd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) has proposed to introduce the Ultra-High Definition services in three phases: UHD-1 phase 1, UHD-1 phase 2 and UHD-2. The UHD-1 phase 2 specification includes several new features such as High Dynamic Range (HDR) and High Frame-Rate (HFR). It has been shown in several studies that HFR (+100 fps) enhances the perceptual quality and that this quality enhancement is content-dependent. On the other hand, HFR brings several challenges to the transmission chain including codec complexity increase and bit-rate overhead, which may delay or even prevent its deployment in the broadcast echo-system. In this paper, we propose a Variable Frame Rate (VFR) solution to determine the minimum (critical) frame-rate that preserves the perceived video quality of HFR video. The frame-rate determination is modeled as a 3-class classification problem which consists in dynamically and locally selecting one frame-rate among three: 30, 60 and 120 frames per second. Two random forests classifiers are trained with a ground truth carefully built by experts for this purpose. The subjective results conducted on ten HFR video contents, not included in the training set, clearly show the efficiency of the proposed solution enabling to locally determine the lowest possible frame-rate while preserving the quality of the HFR content. Moreover, our VFR solution enables significant bit-rate savings and complexity reductions at both encoder and decoder sides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims at exploring the relations amongst the concepts of customer relationship management (CRM), convenience, trust, perceived service quality, satisfaction, perceived value, loyalty, image and purchase intention in the hotel sector. Design/methodology/approach: The research was conducted using interviews with hospitality managers and guests who had a direct connection with the hotel industry. According to the qualitative study results and literature review, the authors designed a model that was examined via structural equation modelling and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis. Findings: This paper presents a conceptual framework that enhances existing research in the field of study, as it was implemented to measure the antecedent and consequences of perceived service quality. Based on the results from New York and London, the authors found that CRM and convenience have significant impact on perceived service quality. Interestingly, the aggregated data illustrate the negative relationship between image, loyalty and purchase intention. Originality/value: The approach used by this study is partially in line with previous theoretical analyses and shows appealing patterns in international service quality perception. Besides, the paper adds insights into the realm, linking together different dimensions in order to reach an in-depth understanding and complex analysis of each item that affects and is affected by perceived service quality in the hotel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Review of existing research reveals sporadic explorations of the vast concept of perceived Quality of Life (QoL) of elderly. Assessment of QoL of elderly in South Asian countries have been so far based on measurement models developed on western ideologies. The distinctively dissimilar perspectives and philosophies of the elderly living in South Asian countries seeks for development of QoL models from their perspective. The importance of the neighbourhood environment in the lives of the elderly and the preference of the elderly to age-in-place, also necessitates research on improving the QoL of the elderly in the context of their residential environment. This paper, exploring the perspectives of a group of Indian elderly, describes the stages of identification of a set of factors (components) and a broad set of domains (latent constructs which these factors cater to), influencing perceived QoL of Indian elderly to promote ageing-in-place. The methodology combines qualitative and quantitative research techniques, which includes literature review, followed by focus group discussions and close-ended interviews with Indian elderly from varied socio-demographic backgrounds. The present study, using Principal Component Analysis, identifies seven broad domains and 37 QoL factors influencing perceived QoL of Indian and elderly, which can be further validated on a larger sample for the development of a QoL index. The structure of domains and factors, identified for the Indian elderly varies considerably from that identified from literature. The study concludes with an exploration of the prioritisation of the identified domains among different socio-demographic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of Business Schools (BS) and their market share had increased in the last decades. Positioning strategy of BS is crucial in today's competitive and changing environments. Thus, paying attention to student's satisfaction and the factors, which motivate their selection, are relevant for service quality assurance in BS. This paper designs a scale to measure these perceptions as a useful tool for BS managers in the pursuit of excellence. Using a mixed analysis methodology, the most prominent dimensions detected in the literature were validated by BS managers and later by BS graduates. Internal and external dimensions compose the resulting scale, named BS-QUAL. The internal dimensions are related to Academic staff, Services, Facilities, and Sustainability while the external factors are related to Preparation for the future, Internationalization and Notoriety. BS-QUAL could be useful for the top management of BS to develop strategies that minimize the distance between student expectations and service provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ESG‐profiled mutual funds (funds incorporating some form of Environmental, Social, or Governance‐related concern) is an increasingly prominent part of the financial services industry. While this category of funds may look homogenous on the surface, the fact is that there is there is considerable variation in how funds choose to account for ESG concern in the investment portfolio. In this paper, we ask whether these strategic choices surrounding the implementation of ESG affect retail investors' perception of sustainable quality, financial quality, and/or perceived overall quality of the ESG‐fund. Through two experiments (n = 261; n = 437), we find that choice of ESG‐strategy (exclusion, inclusion, or engagement) impacts perceived mutual fund quality, with a marked preference for the inclusion strategy. Surprisingly, however, we find that the impact on overall fund quality is mediated by perceived financial quality, not perceived sustainable quality. In a similar fashion, we also find that implementing the strategy through in‐house sustainability experts, as opposed to relying on external sustainability expertise, positively affect perceived quality, through perceived financial quality. In all, these results highlight that the manner in which ESG‐factors are integrated in the investment portfolio can affect perceived quality of mutual funds, as investors consciously or unconsciously assign different financial expectations to the strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the influence of seven social media functionalities (Identity, Conversations, Sharing, Presence, Relationships, Reputation and Groups) on four components of consumer-based brand equity (Brand Awareness, Brand Association, Perceived Quality, and Brand Loyalty) in relation to luxury brands. Casual research design was used to study the relationship between the latent variables using a sample of 336 young luxury brand consumers in two major Indian cities. The research instrument was adopted from the previous studies, and the measurement model was validated by confirmatory factor analysis. The data was analyzed using the structural equation modeling technique, identifying 24 significant relationships out of 28. This means most of the social media functionalities influence the brand equity components. These findings provide valuable guidelines and implications for business managers in relation to branding on social media networks. The findings would also help both marketers and social media website designers in influencing a brand's success using features of such networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the quality level that consumers can discover at various stages, the literature summary divides organic food attributes into three categories: trust, search, and experience. This paper deeply analyzes the internal relationship among the search attribute, trust attribute, and perceived quality and the mechanism of effect on customer trust. After distributing and collecting 310 consumers' valid questionnaires, the research hypotheses were empirically tested utilizing a structural equation model and mediation effect test. The research results indicate that: (1) The food safety attribute and nutritional content attribute in the organic food trust attribute have positive effects on the perceived quality and customer trust. (2) The price and label in the organic food search attribute positively affect the perceived quality, i.e., the price harms customer trust, while the label has no significant effect on customer trust. Perceived quality plays a mediating role between the trust attributes, search attribute, and customer trust, i.e., the price and label indirectly affect customer trust through perceived quality. (3) The perceived quality of organic food positively affects customer trust. The results provide an important theoretical basis for enterprises to implement effective strategies to enhance consumers' trust in organic food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Brazilian Journal of Management / Revista de Administração da UFSM is the property of Brazilian Journal of Management / Revista de Administracao da UFSM and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Accepting defeat in political decision-making is crucial for the health of democracies. At the same time, being a good loser is challenging. How can citizens be motivated to be gracious about various types of political loss? In this paper, we study whether political leaders can play an important role in boosting the perceived quality of decision-making processes among losers in policy conflicts. We propose and test the impact of a simple intervention post-decision: good loser messages delivered by co-partisan leaders that remind citizens about the rules of the game. Three survey experiments on probability samples of the Norwegian and Swedish population (total n = 4700) show that good loser messages can indeed boost the process evaluations of policy losers. These findings emphasize the potential of procedural messaging to build loser's consent between elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the rapid increase in the availability of high-quality video formats such as high definition (HD), ultra HD, and high dynamic range, a huge demand for data rates during their transmission has become inevitable. Consequently, the role of video compression techniques has become crucially important in the process of mitigating the data rate requirements. Even though the latest video codec high efficiency video coding (HEVC) has succeeded in significantly reducing the data rate compared to its immediate predecessor H.264/advanced video coding, the HEVC coded videos in the meantime have become even more vulnerable to network impairments. Therefore, it is equally important to assess the consumers’ perceived quality degradation prior to transmitting HEVC coded videos over an error-prone network, and to include error resilient features so as to minimize the adverse effects of those impairments. To this end, this paper proposes a probabilistic model which accurately predicts the overall distortion of the decoded video at the encoder followed by an accurate QP– $\lambda $ relationship which can be used in the rate-distortion optimization (RDO) process. During the derivation process of the probabilistic model, the impacts from the motion vectors, the pixels in the reference frames, and the clipping operations are accounted, and consequently, the model is capable of minimizing the prediction error to as low as 3.11%, whereas the state-of-the-art methods cannot reach below 20.08%, under identical conditions. Furthermore, the enhanced RDO process has resulted in 21.41%–43.59% improvement in the BD-rate compared to the state-of-the-art error resilient algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synthesis presented in this paper highlights growing recognition of commitment as a predictor of successful long-term relationships between service providers and their clients. This paper explores the concept of commitment, its various components such as service value, investments and alternatives, and determines its potential as a powerful relationship measurement tool. Commitment incorporates and overtakes quality and value as the primary concern of service managers. These developments are illustrated by changes taking place in the legal services market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emphasis on authenticity, everydayness, relatability, ordinariness, and networking on Instagram by the young and ordinary at the expense of their privacy has helped them gain 'micro-celebrity' status. Such celebrification is influential in shaping the attitudes of young female Muslims towards perceived quality and status-seeking behaviours. In Brunei and Malaysia, the staggering growth of luxury retail brand, dUCkscarves had mobilised the hijab as a statute of class through the intersectionality of religion and progressiveness. Its founder, Vivy Yusof, an avid blogger turned micro-celebrity had consistently channelled brand reminders of dUCkscarves across the Southeast Asian region through Instagram. This paper looks into the influence of Vivy's celebrity identification, emotional development, and value development towards ensuing audiences that contributed to her successful celebrification. This paper aims to demonstrate the influence of a hijabi celebrification on hijab consumption in Brunei and Malaysia from the perspectives of Vivy as a micro-celebrity. In so doing, we revealed collectivistic identities, shared voices, a sense of belonging, and overall societal transformation enabled by social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the increasingly competitive international air passenger market, service errors are inevitable in the process of providing services. The most important thing is that when the service fails, it is particularly important to adopt a proactive and appropriate service strategy to calm the customer's dissatisfaction for achieving the purpose of sustainable operation. This paper used structural equation models and sent 300 questionnaires to the consumers in Taiwan, 279 questionnaires were valid returned with a collection rate of 96.33% through a questionnaire survey. The empirical results show that service recovery and customer satisfaction show a significant positive correlation. Politeness, compensation, and response speed of service remediation have a positive and significant impact on satisfaction; brand authenticity and perceived authenticity have a moderator effect. The research results can provide reference for air industry in service recovery and customer satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual viewpoints synthesis is an essential process for many immersive applications including Free-viewpoint TV (FTV). A widely used technique for viewpoints synthesis is Depth-Image-Based-Rendering (DIBR) technique. However, such technique may introduce challenging non-uniform spatial-temporal structure-related distortions. Most of the existing state-of-the-art quality metrics fail to handle these distortions, especially the temporal structure inconsistencies observed during the switch of different viewpoints. To tackle this problem, an elastic metric and multi-scale trajectory based video quality metric (EM-VQM) is proposed in this paper. Dense motion trajectory is first used as a proxy for selecting temporal sensitive regions, where local geometric distortions might significantly diminish the perceived quality. Afterwards, the amount of temporal structure inconsistencies and unsmooth viewpoints transitions are quantified by calculating 1) the amount of motion trajectory deformations with elastic metric and, 2) the spatial-temporal structural dissimilarity. According to the comprehensive experimental results on two FTV video datasets, the proposed metric outperforms the state-of-the-art metrics designed for free-viewpoint videos significantly and achieves a gain of 12.86% and 16.75% in terms of median Pearson linear correlation coefficient values on the two datasets compared to the best one, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standards and validation practices regarding mobile health apps need to be established to ensure their proper use and integration into medical practice. This paper proposes an innovative and integrative approach to examine and compare the quality of a certified health mobile applications set. A double classification framework (verified and perceived quality) is proposed and validated to evaluate the quality of 22 verified health mobile apps, particularly to understand whether these apps provide the service demanded by its users. Evaluation of verified quality was based on a certification public program. To analysis user satisfaction, we used content analysis to examine and extract words and expressions contained in online reviews (1,574 reviews were analyzed). The R language was used to scrape data and to perform all statistical analyses. The results did not confirm a significant relationship between both classifications (p >.05). However, the requirements with the highest degree of compliance ("design and relevance" and "quality and safety") of the app accreditation program were the best rated by the users of the apps in their comments. Reflections derived from this paper represent an important contribution to the knowledge base in the expanding research area of mobile health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economies and livelihoods in the Caribbean strongly depend on the terrestrial and marine natural resource base. There are critical gaps in quantitative data and the contextual and compositional factors affecting perceptions of changes in ecosystems and natural resources. This paper used interview data from 441 households in Belize, Dominican Republic, and Suriname to explore the contextual and compositional determinants of perceptions of change in the quality of the terrestrial, coastal/marine environment and natural resources as a composite variable. The outcome variable comprised changes in fishing effort, marine and coastal environment, forest cover, agricultural land area, and soil fertility, and relationships with predictor variables were explored using univariate, bivariate, and three multivariate models. At the univariate level, most respondents in Belize and Suriname reported perceiving a significant increase in fishing effort (i.e. days and fuel spent at sea) and a decrease in forest cover, quality of the coastal/marine environment, area of agricultural land, and fertility and productivity of soils. Sex, marital status, household size, and years of experience were not significantly associated with the terrestrial variables and fishing effort. Sex was only significantly associated with the quality of the marine environment. At the multivariate level, the elderly, high school education, and household incomes were associated with a lower perception of the outcome variable. It is concluded that policy and interventions should strongly consider ethnicity and community, and improve education and household incomes to enhance perceptions of changes in the quality of the terrestrial and coastal/marine environment in the studied countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Live streaming e-commerce has been booming in recent years. This paper investigates the pricing and live streaming adoption strategies of competitive e-commerce firms. We consider the differences in product quality and consumer heterogeneity and establish a duopoly competitive Hotelling model. Taking into account consumers' uncertain perception of product quality and live streaming costs, the equilibrium outcomes are examined. Our findings indicate that (1) e-commerce firms selling high-quality products should consider adopting live streaming, while others should avoid it if consumers hold moderate product quality expectations. (2) E-commerce firms can be more profitable without live streaming when the market expectation or perceived quality of the products is high. (3) If only the e-commerce firm selling high-quality products utilizes live streaming, the optimal price would be lower, even when the product quality is relatively high, provided that the perceived quality is very high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the influence of service quality dimensions on the satisfaction of personal training studios and gyms' customers in a physical and digital environment through online and offline training sessions. Also, it fills a gap in research concerning the existence of different expectations that trainees may have from the two types of training offerings. Drawing on the service quality literature, SERVQUAL's dimensions were employed to test the six formulated hypotheses. Data were collected from 363 customers of personal training studios in Greece, which have experience in both online and offline training sessions, using the convenience sampling method, both online and offline training sessions. To test the first five hypotheses, regression analysis for both session types was performed, and as for hypothesis 6, the Laplace criterion was used. Findings indicate that for both online and offline training sessions, Perceived Value was the most important dimension, followed by Assurance, Responsiveness and last Reliability, whereas Empathy was insignificantly related. Also, results revealed a different expectation level between the two service offering methods, where trainees seem to expect more from offline than online sessions. The results indicate that among strong service quality dimensions are variables that are within the reach of management. The paper adds to the existing research on service quality in the sports and fitness industry by focusing on personal training studios and gyms, as well as on trainees' quality perception and expectations of the relatively new online channel of service provision in the specific area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to explore the factors influencing Palestinian consumer purchase decision toward online shopping post COVID-19: The moderating role of commitment. An empirical study was conducted using a questionnaire which was answered by 342 Palestinian customers. The findings show a link between the independent variables (i.e. perceived privacy, perceived behavioral control, perceived quality of website, and subjective norms) and the consumer's purchase decision toward online shopping based on various factors discussed in depth in this paper. Furthermore, commitment as a moderating variable strengthens the impact of perceived privacy, perceived behavioral control, perceived quality of website, and subjective norms on consumer purchase decision toward online shopping. This study provides an integrated model from a less developed country that includes the factors that influence consumer's purchase decision toward online shopping post COVID-19 pandemic in Palestine, as well as examining the role of commitment as a moderator variable [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has pointed out the importance of appearance similarity as a special instance of homophily. The current paper introduces body mass index (BMI) similarity as a convenient and powerful proxy of perceived appearance homophily in the context of female advertising models by showing process evidence and boundary conditions for the effect of BMI similarity on marketing‐relevant downstream variables. Study 1 tests how BMI similarity relates to a traditional measure of appearance homophily and perceived reliability of a female advertising model. Study 2 shows that BMI similarity influences perceived product quality and purchase intention. Website vividness negatively moderates the relationship between BMI similarity and product quality. Study 3 tests for alternative explanations and provides support for the mediating effect of appearance homophily for the relationship between BMI similarity and perceived product quality. The findings provide marketing managers with important insights on how to increase their marketing effectiveness by integrating BMI similarity into their marketing communications. Additionally, using BMI similarity serves as an alternative way to promote diversity and inclusion of models with plus‐size body type often sought by societal brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the role of perceived service quality and place attachment in developing place intimacy and revisit intention among foreign tourists visiting Pakistan, by adopting the stimulus–organism–response model. A survey-based, cross-sectional research design was used to collect data from 329 foreign tourists visiting Pakistan. The data were analyzed using SmartPLS. Results supported the conceptualized model and showed there were significant relationships among perceived service quality, place attachment, and tourist revisit intention. Further, there was a significant mediating effect of tourist intimacy in the relationships between service quality and tourist revisit intention, and between place attachment and tourist revisit intention. The findings have vital implications for the tourism industry and for regulatory agencies seeking to boost tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the majority of time people spent indoors, indoor air quality is not only critical to people's health, comfort, but can also significantly influence occupants perception on indoor environment. Air quality is closely related to many factors including thermal parameters, pollutant concentrations, and ventilation performance. However, the current building indoor air quality evaluation method is based the objective measurement of indoor parameters, without considering occupants' subjective perception. This paper is aimed at summarizing a profound review on the PAQ evaluation method. Comparisons among various PAQ evaluating methods with advantages, similarities and differences were conducted. Analysis of literatures about indoor air quality in Chinese residential buildings field is also summarized, and discussion on the subjective influence of temperature and relative humidity, ventilation performance, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) concentration, and particulate matters on perceived air quality is carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper uses MUSA, an MCDA method, to investigate the contribution (perceived importance) of four core aspects that capture guests' experience – i.e. location, cleanliness, service and value – to overall guest satisfaction, indicate, through importance–performance analysis, the weak and strong points of customer satisfaction, explore guests' demanding level and prioritize the service areas where improvement actions will be more effective. To do so, 150,639 attribute and overall satisfaction ratings were retrieved for hotels in four Ionian Sea islands on TripAdvisor. The examined criteria were found to contribute differently to overall guest satisfaction across the destinations. Also, service revealed as the weak point of customer experience for hotels in Corfu and Zakynthos, whilst location and cleanliness for hotels in Cephalonia and Lefkada. The results further suggest that Ionian Sea islands' hotel customers are non-demanding and that quality improvement investments/actions in value and service would be more effective in delighting customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a statistic study on the perceived quality of safety training. The study is based on respondents from the Swedish register of seafarers. The results show that the experience of safety training is generally positive among the seafarers. The level of positivity is influenced by personal circumstances (such as onboard position and age) and by external factors in the work environment (such as ship type, trade area and flag state). However, the effect of onboard position diminishes when age and external factors are controlled for. In this situation, only the positive effects for cabin crew and age remain with strength and significance. Most ship types show strong positive effect, except for road ferries and vessels for max 12 passengers. When it comes to trade area it is only sheltered trade that shows a significant positive effect. Moreover, a homeland flag in the stern leads to a significant increase in the perceived quality of the safety training. These findings are discussed in the concluding part of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern telecommunications networks, despite their ever increasing capacity, mostly attributed to optical fiber technologies, still fail to provide ideal channels for transmitting information. Disruptions in ensuring data throughput or the continuous flow of data required by applications remain as major unresolved problems. Most network mechanisms, protocols and applications feature adaptations that allow them to change the parameters of the transmission channel and try to minimize the negative impact of the network on the perceived quality, for example by temporarily changing the modulation scheme, or coding scheme, or by re-transmitting lost packets, or buffering to compensate for the interruptions in transmission. To respond appropriately, network operators are interested in knowing how well these adaptations are performing in order to assess the ultimate quality of their networks from the user perspective, i.e., Quality of Experience (QoE). Due to the huge amount of data associated with the collection of various parameters of the telecommunications network, machine learning methods are often needed to discover the relationships between various parameters and to identify the root cause of the observed network quality. In this paper, we present a Multi-layer QoE learning system implemented by Fiberhost for QoE analysis with a multi-layer approach based on machine learning tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of web applications in all fields for different types of use incites developers and researchers to enhance the web applications as well as the network conditions to satisfy the final user. That's why the estimation of the Quality of Experience for web applications (web QoE) remains necessary. The web QoE gives service and content providers an idea about the perceived quality by users as it helps them to determine issues for improvement. Waiting time influences user satisfaction. For this reason, we found many studies in web QoE interested in the first part of the browsing operation, such as the waiting time until the first page is completely loaded. However, these measures do not include the interactions of the user with the web application lately. We measured the interactions of the user with the web application via the user engagement metrics. This new field of research has attracted many researchers these last years due to its efficacity in determining the satisfaction level of the user. The contribution of our study is the research and use of user engagement metrics for QoE prediction. We have noticed that user engagement metrics (generally used to evaluate a user's commitment in social media) are more precise in expressing the QoE of the user. For this reason, we used user engagement metrics to predict user web QoE that is the novelty of our work. In this study, we elaborated our dataset, which contains the three types of measurements; Quality of Service (QoS), QoE, and user engagement metrics. The obtained dataset reflects the user experience from several perspectives (the network quality, the loading process, and the interaction of the user with the web application). This reflection makes our dataset an exhaustive one. After collecting the data, we visualized our different metrics. Besides, we tried to predict the Mean Opinion Score (MOS) with Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, but we obtained low accuracy due to the small number of lines in our dataset. Finally, we tried to profile the users using the K-means clustering algorithm. In this clustering, we recuperated three user information metrics (age, gender, and study level). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses to what extent British councils have addressed onshore wind energy, and the attitudes of councillors and staff about wind farms. Websites of 400 British councils were reviewed regarding assessment of landscapes and policies towards wind energy. An Internet survey of 800 councillors and staff from 275 councils quantified their attitudes towards wind farms, their visual impacts and the acceptability of existing wind farms in Britain. Wind farms reduced perceived scenic quality. Staff opposed wind energy but councillors were more accommodating. Most participants in England found wind farms acceptable, but less than half in Wales and one third in Scotland. Scotland may have reached the limit for acceptability of wind farms. Wales may be approaching that point. Overall, the survey indicated that it is unlikely that there will be widespread installation of additional onshore wind farms across Britain. Expansion of renewable energy may be sought through re-powering of existing sites with larger but fewer turbines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile-augmented-reality (MAR) applications extended into the metaverse could provide mixed and immersive experiences by amalgamating the virtual and physical worlds. However, the consideration of joining MAR and the metaverse requires reliable and high-quality support for foreground interactions and rich background content from these applications, which intensifies their consumption of energy, caching and computing resources. To tackle these challenges, a more flexible request assignment and resource allocation framework with more efficient processing are proposed in this paper through anchoring decomposed metaverse AR services at different edge nodes and proactively caching background metaverse region models embedded with target augmented-reality objects (AROs). Advanced terminals are also considered to further reduce service delays at an acceptable energy-consumption cost. We, then, propose and solve a joint-optimization problem which explicitly considers the balance between service delay and energy consumption under the constraints of perceived user quality in a mobility event. By also explicitly taking into account the capabilities of user terminals, the proposed optimized scheme is compared to a terminal-oblivious scheme. According to a wide set of numerical investigations, the proposed scheme has wide-ranging advantages in service latency and energy efficiency over other nominal baseline schemes which neglect the capabilities of terminals, user physical mobility, service decomposition and the inherent multimodality of the metaverse MAR service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Consumer Behavior Review (CBR) is the property of Consumer Behavior Review and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: This study aims to investigate how brand innovativeness and national traditions influence perceived brand globalness and brand competence by affecting Brand-Nation Connection (BNC) in the changing world. Design/methodology/approach: Besides the study of the development and validation of the BNC construct, this paper conducts two studies that use eight global brands from different categories to test hypotheses. Findings: Two empirical studies show that brand innovativeness and national traditions have positive effects on BNC. Furthermore, technological turbulence moderates the impact of brand innovativeness on BNC, and cultural change moderates the relationship between national traditions and BNC. Meanwhile, BNC is an important determinant of perceived brand globalness, and both BNC and perceived brand globalness positively influence brand competence, with the former exerting a stronger effect. Practical implications: The findings highlight that in the changing world, the coexistence of brand innovation and cultural traditions through strategic management is essential for brand competence. They also provide guidelines for emerging global brands to incorporate nation-related cues and global signals in their brand positioning to reinforce brand competence. Originality/value: This study contributes to understanding how brand innovation and cultural traditions create value for emerging global brands in a rapidly changing environment. It also provides implications regarding how BNC helps emerging market brands to go global, and it presents a new understanding that both nation-level brand status and perceived brand globalness are signals that convey brand competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to increasing competition, creating and enhancing franchisee patronage behaviors are critical elements in the food franchise industry. Franchise brand-related characteristics are known to influence franchisees' evaluations. Thus, this paper examines the antecedents of franchisees' perceived value, which leads to positive behaviors in the food franchise sector. A research model is proposed to describe relationships among different types of functional company characteristics (i.e. quality, innovation, and price) on perceived value and behavioral intentions, and impact of operational involvement in the context of franchisees. A quantitative approach was leveraged to collect 266 usable online questionnaires, together with SmartPLS to analyze the measurement model and proposed hypotheses. Results show that perceived quality on the part of franchisees is the most significant determinant of perceived value, followed by perceived innovation and price. Also, the impact of perceived value on franchisees' intentions – including continuous and word-of-mouth intentions – is supported. Last, the role of operational involvement (i.e. duration and number of food franchise operations) in perceived value is examined. To add to the limited research in the behaviors of franchisees, this study provides useful insights to achieve sustainable growth in the franchise brand context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile banking is nowadays a standard service provided by banks worldwide because it adds convenience for people. There is no more rushing to a bank or waiting in lines for a simple transaction that can be conducted from anywhere and at any time in the blink of an eye. To be consumed by a respective amount of bank clients regularly, mobile banking applications are required to be continuously improved and updated, be in line with recent security standards, and meet quality requirements. This paper tackles the perceived quality of mobile banking applications that are most commonly used in Croatia and has three objectives in that respect. The first one is to identify the extent to which pragmatic and hedonic dimensions of quality contribute to customers' satisfaction and their behavioral intentions related to the continuous use of mobile banking applications. The second one is to determine if there are significant differences in the perceived quality between users of diverse mobile banking applications as well as between users who belong to different age groups. The last one is to uncover the advantages and disadvantages of evaluated mobile banking applications. For this purpose, an empirical study was carried out, during which data were collected with an online questionnaire. The sample was composed of 130 participants who are representative and regular users of mobile banking applications. The psychometric features of the proposed research model, which represents an interplay of perceived quality attributes, were tested using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method. Differences in the perceived quality among different mobile banking applications and customers of various age groups were explored with Kruskal–Wallis tests. Pros and cons of mobile banking applications were identified with the help of descriptive statistics. Study findings indicate that, in the context of mobile banking applications used in Croatia, feedback quality and responsiveness contribute to the ease of use, usefulness is affected by both ease of use and efficiency, responsiveness has a significant impact on efficiency while ease of use, usefulness, and security of personal data are predictors of customers' satisfaction which in turn influences their behavioral intentions. While no significant difference exists in the perceived quality of four examined mobile banking applications, we found a significant difference in the perceived quality among three age groups of users of mobile banking applications. The most commonly reported advantages of mobile banking applications were related to facets of their efficiency and usefulness, whereas their main drawback appeared to be the lack of features dealing with the personalization of offered services. The reported and discussed results of an empirical study can be used as a set of guidelines for future advances in the evaluation and design of mobile banking applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper aims: The first aim is methodological, by developing a conceptual model to describe the internal relationship environment (IRE), the critical factors that impact this environment, the characterization of the parties involved, and their relationships. The second is practical and instrumentalizes the model to measure the effect of differences perceived by internal customers. Originality: Distinct works focus on the formulation of management systems, successful implementation, or external and market environmental factors, although there is a lack of studies that relate organizational performance to differences in perceived quality between the parties. Research method: The methodology followed a flow of collection/analysis, of the informational data of the company, sketch of the model and flow of information, exploratory focus group, thematic analysis of content, and confirmatory focus group. Then, the procedure of operationalization of the model. Main findings: The conceptual model and its instrumentalization describe the apparent relationships between the support team and the operations teams, the underlying relationships of the ERI with the company's management model, and organizational performance. Implications for theory and practice: In practice, the proposed measurement instrument allows evaluation of the effects of differences in the perceived quality of internal customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a trend for big content providers such as Netflix and YouTube to give grades to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), to incentivize those ISPs to improve at least the quality offered to their service. We design in this paper a model analyzing ISPs' optimal allocation strategies in a competitive context and in front of quality-sensitive users. We show that the optimal strategy is non-neutral, that is, it does not allocate bandwidth proportionally to the traffic share of content providers. On the other hand, we show that non-neutrality does not benefit ISPs but is surprisingly favorable to the perceived quality for users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inglehart's theory of postmaterialism outlines the influence of intergenerational value change on social change. While the sense of security during a formative period is an essential context for postmaterialist values to be bred among the younger generation in democratic states, social protests and political instability are common in some hybrid regimes. Yet how social protests in a hybrid regime interfere in the building of postmaterialism and its association with other value has been underresearched. Based on the data collected from the seventh wave of the World Value Survey in Hong Kong in 2018 (N = 1,031), this paper investigates the role of a critical event—the Umbrella Movement in 2014—in moderating the relationship between a postmaterialist orientation and perceived quality of elections in Hong Kong. It reveals that the negative relationship between a postmaterialist orientation and perceived quality of Hong Kong's election was stronger among the people who supported and participated in the Umbrella Movement. Moreover, the moderation effect of the Umbrella Movement was stronger among young people. This paper underscores the context of socialisation in influencing both a postmaterialist orientation and intergenerational change occurring during a critical event, which sheds light on the relationship between value change and authoritarian resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High Dynamic Range (HDR) television promises to display higher brightness and deeper black levels and thus more vivid and realistic images. However, home video distribution and video broadcasting were historically designed for what we now call standard dynamic range screens (SDR). In order to display SDR content on an HDR screen, it is explicitly or implicitly converted, in a process called inverse tone mapping (iTMO). This paper's goal is to assess the perceived quality of converted SDR content in comparison to natively graded HDR content. In doing so, this paper aims to enable content creators/distributors to make informed choices between creating/broadcasting HDR content or relying on conversion. To this end, a psychophysical experiment was performed to tests how viewers evaluate the difference between natively graded HDR and a set of SDR to HDR conversion options in a television setup. Results indicate that viewers prefer natively graded HDR content, followed by inverse tone mapping algorithms starting from videos with a compressed dynamic range. When comparing conversion options, users clearly prefer conversion from 'compressed dynamic range' SDR over 'clipped dynamic range' SDR. Users disliked videos that were naively stretched from standard SDR. In addition, a significant effect of type of sequence was found, with a preference for light scenes with low contrast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is commonly accepted that positive corporate social responsibility (CSR) image brings desirable outcomes, for instance, brand loyalty, improved brand image, enhanced store image, as well as increased visit intention; suggesting there are various direct outcomes of CSR image. Underpinned by the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM), this paper proposes that these outcomes are presented in a sequential manner, where there is a core mechanism that relates CSR image to store image and brand awareness, and in turn associate with consumers' visit intention. A quantitative research methodology has been used where a structured questionnaire was distributed to consumers in selected states in Malaysia using the mall intercept method. Structural equation modelling was applied to examine the proposed model. The discoveries of the current study offer the observed evidence for the correlation between perceived CSR image and hypermarket visit intention, mediated by overall store image and brand awareness. The study emphasises a prominent role of CSR schemes, bringing together the overall hypermarket store image and the hypermarket brand awareness, which will enable hypermarket management to further boost visit intention from consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the relationships between brand equity, customer satisfaction and cultural distance for a tourism destination. The mediating role of customer satisfaction and the moderating effect of cultural distance in these relationships are assessed. Design/methodology/approach: The direct–indirect–moderating relationships were assessed by applying covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM), mediating and multi-group analysis. A paper survey was used to collect data from 618 tourists (domestic and international tourists) visiting a destination in Vietnam. Findings: The findings support direct positive links between the dimensions of brand equity and customer satisfaction, except for the effect of destination brand awareness on destination brand loyalty. This work further demonstrates the mediating effect of customer satisfaction on the indirect relationships between the dimensions of brand equity. Cultural distance was found to moderate the connections between the research concepts. Research limitations/implications: Future research should explore the model's relationships based on comparisons in different destinations, to better understand the impact of cultural factors. Originality/value: This study identifies specific factors to increase branding efficiency by developing and testing the relationship between brand equity and customer satisfaction. Using moderating variables through the lens of cultural distance, it proposes a mediated model. This work contributes to practice by informing destination managers on how to improve brand equity and satisfaction based on the cultural characteristics of international and domestic visitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Examines how perceived knowledge quality influences researchers' satisfaction with academic social media (ASM) site use, perceived learning from use, and loyalty toward the site. Design/methodology/approach: Built upon the theoretical grounding of the information system success framework, it was hypothesized that satisfaction, perceived learning, and loyal behavior toward an ASM site are all functions of the perceived quality of knowledge obtained. Data were collected by online survey from 348 researchers registered on ResearchGate and subjected to SmartPLS structural equation modeling, bootstrapping, and blindfolding. Findings: The hypothesized relationships were supported. Perceived knowledge quality significantly influences researchers' satisfaction with ASM site use, and satisfaction affects perceived learning and researchers' loyalty with the ASM site. Research limitations/implications: Identification of the relationship between perceived knowledge quality and ASM site success extends the study of ASM sites from description of usage patterns to understanding the effect of content quality on important outcomes of use. Practical implications: ASM sites rely on the quality of knowledge contributed by their members for satisfaction, loyalty, and perceptions of value. The ongoing success of an ASM requires directed attention to quality knowledge provision. Originality/value: This paper contributes a simplified DeLone & McLean information system success framework for studies of content quality. It also provides fresh insights into ASM site usage through a focus on the role of perceived knowledge quality in forming satisfaction, learning, and loyalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Although research demonstrates the importance of ethical product attributes for consumers, a prior study has not examined the role of consumption target (i.e. self-purchases vs gift-giving) on consumers' preference for products with ethical attributes. Notably, consumers' preference for quality can differ between self-purchases and gifts, and the presence of ethical attributes can impact product quality perceptions. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the presence of ethical attributes alters decision-making in a gift-giving context using perceptions of product quality as an explanatory variable for these differences. Design/methodology/approach: One field study and two controlled experiments test the proposed hypotheses. The experiments were conducted across different product categories and samples. Findings: Results showed that the presence of an ethical attribute leads to higher purchase intentions for products in a gift-giving context compared to self-purchase. Perceived quality mediates this effect. Further process evidence through moderation, including resource synergy beliefs, support the findings. This paper discusses the theoretical, managerial and societal implications of these results. Research limitations/implications: Although care was taken to select products to enhance generalizability, the studies presented here are limited to two products. Further, although the present research includes a field study with actual charity-related purchases, the role of time pressures is not explicitly explored. Finally, the role of brand-self connections is not explored in the current research. The ability for a donor to integrate the mission of a charity into their self-perception or the potential for social normative influences to impact behaviors remains open for exploration. Practical implications: Charities are facing increasing pressures to raise sustainable funds to support their missions. The research provides guidance to marketers and fundraisers in the non-profit sector that allows them to direct more focused fundraising appeals to donors and adapt their fundraising efforts to create a fit between their audience and fundraising appeals. Originality/value: This research demonstrates that consumption target (purchasing for the self versus purchasing for others) is a vital contextual factor that influences customer preference for ethical attributes. These results complement the extant literature by exploring the underlying mechanism behind consumers' responses to the ethical attributes in the case of self-purchase and other-purchase. The underlying effect is supported theoretically by resource synergy beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring and maintaining acceptable Quality of Experience is of great importance to video service providers. Perceived visual quality of transmitted video via wireless networks can be degraded by transmission errors. This paper presents a reduced-reference video quality metric of very low complexity and overhead that makes use of frame based spatial (SI) and temporal (TI) activity levels to monitor the effect of channel errors on video transmitted over error prone networks. The performance of the metric is evaluated relative to that of a number of full and reduced reference metrics. The proposed metric outperforms some of the most popular full reference metrics whilst requiring very little overhead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationships among variables and determines the influences of dimensions (i.e., municipal satisfaction, organizational performance, perceived quality, contestations and complaints of the municipal executive) on the notoriety, image, and reputation (NIR) of municipal executives. We attempted to understand if citizens' opinions influenced the evaluations, recommendations, and contestations based on NIR. Parishes in the municipality of Valongo were selected and analysed, namely Alfena, Campo e Sobrado, Valongo, and Ermesinde; a total of 998 questionnaires were collected. It was concluded that all of the studied dimensions were statistically significant in the final structural estimated model. The structural results point to municipal satisfaction and contestations and complaints of municipal executives as having directly positive and statistically significant influences on NIR. Organizational performance and perceived quality have directly positive but not statistically significant influences on NIR. The results of this research suggest that obtaining the personal opinions of citizens (e.g., regarding the work performances of their mayors) allows citizens to feel heard and active in their municipalities. From the point of view of public executives, the results of this type of study could provide valid information that allows stakeholders to make political decisions that are appropriate for the interests of their communities (e.g., by listening to their citizens). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study examined the impacts of tourists' perceptions of quality, image, value, and experience on their loyalty with the mediating role of overall satisfaction and trust in one of the rural tourism destinations. A survey of 540 respondents was conducted across Javaherdeh, one of the main rural destinations in Ramsar, Iran. The structural, convergent, divergent, and diagnostic validity was performed to confirm the validity of the questionnaire, and the reliability was confirmed by composite reliability and Cronbach's alpha test. Analyzing data using SPSS22 and SmartPLS3, supported the conceptual model and indicated that perceived quality can positively affect the perceived image, which has a significant and positive impact on perceived value and overall satisfaction. Additionally, it was revealed that perceived value positively influences the perceived experience and perceived quality and overall satisfaction have a significant and positive impact on trust. Finally, the perceived experience and overall satisfaction were found to positively affect loyalty. Based on all the results, "Creating an integrated network of rural tourism services to facilitate marketing communication and informing tourists" was presented as the main aspect of the study. The paper includes discussions of the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]