Search

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the relationship between psychological empowerment and performance on service quality is moderated by the need for achievement. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected from 94 full-time property managers in Hong Kong using a self-administered survey. Findings - The findings indicate that both empowerment and need for achievement are correlated positively to service quality and that the relationship between empowerment and service quality is moderated by need for achievement such that the strength of the positive relationship between empowerment and service quality decreases as need for achievement increases. Research limitations/implications - All of the data are self-reported, from a single source, and obtained from the same method (i.e. a five-point Likert scale), thereby bringing into question the effect of common method bias. However, a single-component test shows that the majority of the covariance between the constructs is not due to common method variance. Practical implications - Organizations engaged in the provision of services need to emphasize not only empowering employees but also need to recruit employees who are high in need for achievement. The findings indicate that property managers with higher levels of need for achievement require less empowerment from management to provide quality service possibly because they are self-empowered to strive for excellence when performing their duties. Originality/value - This paper contributes to the literature by being the first not only to examine whether the need for achievement moderates the relationship between empowerment and service quality but also the first to examine service quality in the context of the property management industry in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's astonishing economic growth implies a necessity to understand its inflation. The present paper employs threshold nonrecursive structural vector autoregression analysis to explore the asymmetric effects of macro-variables on inflation in low and high inflation regimes. The empirical evidence demonstrates, first, that the reactions of inflation to various shocks are inflation-regime-dependent and asymmetric. Second, monetary policy influences China's high inflation and adjusting the domestic interest rate in China may be an effective way to control inflation in a high inflation regime, but not in a low inflation regime. In a high inflation regime, a high inflation rate may cause the macro-policy authorities to increase the domestic interest rate, in an attempt to stabilize high inflation. Third, contrary to expectations, the world oil price is not a strong cost-push factor in a low inflation regime. Oil price increases may increase inflation in a high inflation regime, but there is no such obvious effect in a low inflation regime. Finally, China's nominal effective exchange rate influences inflation in both low and high inflation regimes. A nominal effective exchange rate appreciation might be effective in controlling domestic inflation in both regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]