Search Results (46)

In the increasingly competitive landscape of higher education, student satisfaction and loyalty are recognized as essential components for institutional sustainability and long-term success. This study aims to examine the interrelationships between service quality, technological innovation, student satisfaction, and student loyalty within higher education institutions in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Grounded in relationship marketing theory and the expectancy–disconfirmation paradigm, the research develops and tests a structural model that investigates the impact of perceived service quality on technological innovation, student satisfaction, and loyalty. The data were collected from 448 undergraduate students studying in the faculties of education at five leading private universities in TRNC, selected based on their international academic rankings. The analysis, conducted using structural equation modelling (SEM), reveals that service quality significantly and directly influences technological innovation, student satisfaction, and student loyalty. Additionally, technological innovation has a positive but comparatively weaker effect on student loyalty. Among the variables, student satisfaction emerges as the strongest determinant of loyalty, serving as a key mediator in the relationship between service quality and loyalty. This research contributes to the higher education literature by extending the traditional service quality–loyalty framework with the inclusion of technological innovation. The findings offer practical insights for university administrators, emphasizing the importance of delivering high-quality educational services combined with continuous digital innovation to enhance the student experience and foster long-term student commitment. Full article

Tourist satisfaction of nighttime urban lakes as scenic areas, such as the Daming Lake, is influenced by multiple factors, which are crucial for tourists’ experiences and the sustainable development of these areas. This paper explores the factors impacting nighttime visitor satisfaction at the Daming Lake Scenic Area. Basing our studies on analysis of the literature and questionnaire surveys, the study constructs a visitor satisfaction evaluation index system based on the Expectancy-Disconfirmation Theory. Utilizing the revised importance-performance analysis method, the study identifies several significant influencing factors including the distinctive features of nighttime shopping products, the rich variety of nighttime tourscape and entertainment products, the aesthetically pleasing design of nighttime lighting products, the affordable price of nighttime dining products, and the diverse methods, reasonable pricing, and multimodal transit options of nighttime transportation. Furthermore, it finds the main factors that reduce tourists’ satisfaction in nighttime urban lakes include: premium pricing of nighttime shopping and dining products, transport infrastructure deficiencies, the cultural connotation of tourism products, and the safety of nighttime tourscape and entertainment products. This research provides insights to enhance satisfaction in urban lake scenic areas and expands the application of the tourist satisfaction theory. Full article

The proliferation of digital platforms and interactive technologies has transformed the way service providers engage with their customers, particularly in emerging economies, where digital inclusion is an ongoing process. This study explores the relationship between omnichannel strategies and customer satisfaction, conceptualized here as a proxy for Quality of Experience (QoE), within a smart service station located in a digitally underserved region. Grounded in customer journey theory and the expectancy–disconfirmation paradigm, the study investigates how data integration, digital payment systems, and logistical flexibility—key components of intelligent e-service systems—influence user perceptions and satisfaction. Based on a correlational design with a non-probabilistic sample of 108 customers, the findings reveal a moderate association between overall omnichannel integration and satisfaction (ρ = 0.555, p < 0.01). However, a multiple regression analysis indicates that no individual dimension significantly predicts satisfaction (adjusted R² = 0.002). These results suggest that while users value system integration and interaction flexibility, no single technical feature drives satisfaction independently. The study contributes to the growing field of intelligent human-centric service systems by contextualizing QoE and digital inclusion within emerging markets and by emphasizing the importance of perceptual factors in ICT-enabled environments. Full article

The study investigates how information asymmetry affects customer satisfaction in the tourism industry by examining trust and perceived value as mediating factors. The research implements an integrated model to test and prove information asymmetry’s direct and mediating effects on customer satisfaction by examining the literature gap. The research used a quantitative approach based on opinion polls distributed to 408 customers of hotels, tourism companies, and travel agencies who were in Egypt. SmartPLS 3 software implemented the data analysis process using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Previous studies have developed scales to measure information asymmetry and its related constructs, including customer trust, perceived value, and customer satisfaction. Multiple tests showed that the measurement tools possess both reliability and validity. Results strongly support all hypotheses: information asymmetry demonstrated significant direct negative effects on customer satisfaction (β = −0.187), trust (β = −0.520), and perceived value (β = −0.453). Conversely, customer satisfaction received significant positive direct effects from both trust (β = 0.273) and perceived value (β = 0.263). Importantly, trust (indirect effect β = −0.142) and perceived value (indirect effect β = −0.119) acted as powerful mediators, confirming that information asymmetry diminishes satisfaction largely by eroding these crucial factors. Crucially, the results demonstrate that the negative impact of information asymmetry on customer satisfaction is significantly mediated jointly through two parallel pathways: the erosion of customer trust and the impairment of perceived value. The research adds theoretical support to information asymmetry theory with its findings while also extending trust theory, perceived value theory, and expectancy disconfirmation theory in the field of e-commerce. E-commerce entities must establish clear communication to gain customer trust and create perceived value that helps compensate for information asymmetry to create enhanced customer loyalty and superior market position. Full article

This research demonstrates how confirmation and disconfirmation biases manifest based on individuals’ political affiliations when processing a self-disclosure message in the context of a political crisis. An experiment presented a crisis message in which a politician voluntarily revealed his campaign finance violations. The results revealed that confirmation bias and disconfirmation bias significantly influenced the information processing of participants based on their political affiliations. Democrat participants were significantly more open to and forgiving of the crisis message when it featured a Democrat politician. In contrast, Republican participants showed a strong tendency to be more critical and less forgiving under the same conditions. However, this pattern reversed when a Republican politician was shown in the crisis message. The research also tested moderated mediation hypotheses: the interaction effects between study participants’ political affiliations and politicians’ parties were mediated by perceived attitude toward the politician and crisis responsibility, leading to ethical perceptions about the politician. The study contributes to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying political polarization and the ways in which the biases of confirmation and disconfirmation influence individuals’ processing of political messages. Full article

Children have persistent difficulty with foundational measurement concepts, which may be linked to the instruction they receive. Here, we focus on testing various ways to support their understanding that rulers comprise spatial interval units. We examined whether evidence-based learning tools—disconfirming evidence and/or structural alignment—enhance their understanding of ruler units. Disconfirming evidence, in this context, involves having children count the spatial interval units under an object that is not aligned with the origin of a ruler. Structural alignment, in this context, involves highlighting what a ruler unit is by overlaying plastic unit chips on top of ruler units when an object is aligned with the origin of a ruler. In three experiments employing a pre-test/training/post-test design, a total of 120 second graders were randomly assigned to one of six training conditions (two training conditions per experiment). The training conditions included different evidence-based learning principles or “business-as-usual” instruction (control), with equal allocation to each (N = 20 for each condition). In each experiment, children who did not perform above chance level on the pre-test were selected to continue with training, which resulted in a total of 88 students for the analysis of improvement. The children showed significant improvement in training conditions that included disconfirming evidence, but not in the structural alignment or control conditions. However, an exploratory analysis suggests that improvement occurred more rapidly and was retained better when structural alignment was combined with disconfirming evidence compared to disconfirming evidence alone. Full article

Despite the popularity of AI-oriented e-commerce live-streaming, the service failures that can result from real-time interaction and instant transactions have not been taken seriously. This study aims to assess the failure of AI-oriented live-streaming e-commerce services and help retailers identify various risks. Based on expectancy disconfirmation theory and a stressor–strain–outcome framework, this study identified a comprehensive framework including information, functional, system, interaction, and aesthetic failures. The structural equation modeling (SEM) method is used to further examine its effect on consumers’ discontinuance behavior. Further research reveals the mediating role of consumer disappointment and emotional exhaustion, as well as the moderating role of the live-streaming platform type. These results shed light on the negative influence of AI-oriented live-streaming e-commerce service failures and contribute to the literature on live-streaming commerce, service failure, and virtual streamers. Full article

As firms increasingly engage in both corporate social responsibility (CSR) and irresponsibility (CSIR) activities, this study expands the traditional question “does it pay to do more CSR?” to explore the less-studied question “does it pay to do less CSIR?”. We employ stakeholder theory and expectancy disconfirmation theory to outline three sustainable strategies for firms to financially benefit (enlightened self-interest) from CSR/CSIR activities: proactive strategy (increasing CSR, or doing more good), rectification strategy (reducing CSIR, or doing less bad), and aggressive strategy (increasing CSR while reducing CSIR, or doing more good and less bad). Our research objective is to evaluate the financial viability of different CSR/CSIR strategies. We hypothesize that the rectification strategy will surpass the proactive approach, while anticipating that the aggressive strategy will emerge as the most financially advantageous. Our dataset consists of 12,567 firm-year observations (3422 firms) spanning 1994 to 2013, and we conduct rigorous analyses to evaluate these strategies. The findings reveal that the rectification strategy surpasses the proactive strategy, with the aggressive strategy emerging as the most advantageous. The study contributes theoretically and offers managerial insights into these results. Full article

Artificial intelligence products (AIPs) for older adults enhance the functions of traditional products and improve the quality of their lives. However, AIPs are not popular among this population, and limited attempts have been made to investigate these users’ negative tendencies regarding AIPs. This study explores the causes of avoidance and exit behaviors toward AIPs among older people from both a functional and socio-emotional mismatch perspective. Data were collected from 1102 older AIP users to verify the research model and hypotheses. The results indicate that perceived control and expectation disconfirmation affect the functional mismatch, while public stigma has the greatest impact on the socio-emotional mismatch. Furthermore, the results highlight a mixed influence of the functional and socio-emotional mismatches on negative behaviors. This study explores older people’s negative tendencies toward AIPs, comprehensively considering the functions of AIPs and the socio-emotions they evoke. Thus, it provides new empirical evidence for the systematic relationship between the functional mismatch and the socio-emotional mismatch and fills the research gap on the influence on the subsequent behaviors of older adults. Additionally, this study sheds light on the specific methods of designing, developing, and promoting AIPs. Full article

The provision of cultural and tourism public services in tourism destinations exerts a substantial influence on visitor experience and their overall quality of life. The current study applied structural equation modeling to empirically investigate the relationship between perceived cultural and tourism public services of visitors and their quality of life. Additionally, the mediating effects of perceived value, expectancy disconfirmation, and satisfaction in the above-mentioned influence relationship was also explored. In order to collect data, a field survey was conducted in a world heritage site located in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China. A total of 550 questionnaires were delivered, out of which 518 valid questionnaires were retained for subsequent analysis. The results demonstrate that perceived cultural and tourism public services of visitors have significant and positive influence on their perceived value, and visitors’ perceived value has a positive effect on their expectancy disconfirmation. Moreover, there is a strong and positive relationship between visitors’ expectancy disconfirmation and their satisfaction and quality of life. Additionally, the mediating effect of perceived value, expectancy disconfirmation, and satisfaction exist, and these three mediating variables serve as full mediators. The present study addresses the theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and potential areas for further research. Full article

The peak of the coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) in New York City significantly impacted communities that lived in the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). However, these same communities have been historically reported to test positive for lead poisoning due to neglect of proper lead abatement and the removal of lead sources within these buildings. The consequences of these failed actions by NYCHA resulted in multiple generations of lead-poisoned children, which can be argued as a form of mass atrocity and genocide. The long-term neurodevelopmental and socio-economic outcomes of children exposed to lead and COVID-19 remain to be elucidated. This short communication attempts to bring attention to this overlooked matter and draws upon the scarce, but emerging, reports in the literature to start a conversation on the synergistic potential of these looming public health issues. Further, suggestions for providing consistent blood lead screening and COVID-19 testing could serve to clarify whether a “two-hit” hypothesis of a neurotoxicant (lead) and a neuroimmune (COVID-19) virus that produces an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE-19). More work is needed in this area to (dis)confirm the potential for this “two-hit” hypothesis, and only time will tell. Full article

The published 95% uncertainty of the global surface air-temperature anomaly (GSATA) record through 1980 is impossibly less than the 2σ = ±0.25 °C lower limit of laboratory resolution of 1 °C/division liquid-in-glass (LiG) thermometers. The ~0.7 °C/century Joule-drift of lead- and soft-glass thermometer bulbs renders unreliable the entire historical air-temperature record through the 19th century. A circa 1900 Baudin meteorological spirit thermometer bulb exhibited intense Pb X-ray emission lines (10.55, 12.66, and 14.76 keV). Uncorrected LiG thermometer non-linearity leaves 1σ = ±0.27 °C uncertainty in land-surface air temperatures prior to 1981. The 2σ = ±0.43 °C from LiG resolution and non-linearity obscures most of the 20th century GSATA trend. Systematic sensor-measurement errors are highly pair-wise correlated, possibly across hundreds of km. Non-normal distributions of bucket and engine-intake difference SSTs disconfirm the assumption of random measurement error. Semivariogram analysis of ship SST measurements yields half the error difference mean, ±½Δε_1,2, not the error mean. Transfer-function adjustment following a change of land station air-temperature sensor eliminates measurement independence and forward-propagates the antecedent uncertainty. LiG resolution limits, non-linearity, and sensor field calibrations yield GSATA mean ±2σ RMS uncertainties of, 1900–1945, ±1.7 °C; 1946–1980, ±2.1 °C; 1981–2004, ±2.0 °C; and 2005–2010, ±1.6 °C. Finally, the 20th century (1900–1999) GSATA, 0.74 ± 1.94 °C, does not convey any information about rate or magnitude of temperature change. Full article

The problem of evil seems to have been the patent of theism for a long time. However, some philosophers notice that this is not necessarily the case and raise arguments from evil against atheism. In this paper, I follow this insight and raise the evidential argument from evil against naturalism. I argue that some human behaviors that cause evil and suffering contradict the principles of evolution and should not exist in a naturalistic world. Nevertheless, they do exist, and they accordingly disconfirm naturalism. To attain this conclusion, I first establish that psychological mechanisms as evolutionary causes are the ultimate causes of human behaviors if naturalism is true. Then, I argue that cases of rape with murder and suicide have contravened their relevant psychological mechanisms’ adaptive functions and should not exist. Therefore, cases of these behaviors make it reasonable to believe that naturalism is not true. Both naturalists and theists now have to raise plausible explanations for various evils in the world. It is possible for theism to outcompete naturalism with respect to evil as a result. Full article

The dual-continua model of mental health suggests that psychological distress and mental wellbeing operate on two distinct yet related continua, both uniquely contributing to overall mental health. Previous literature provides support for the dual-continua model; however, inconsistent methodologies lacking a common theoretical underpinning have led to findings that are difficult to compare across studies. Using archival data, this study aimed to test the following three theoretically derived criteria proposed to accurately examine the dual-continua model: (1) confirming independent existence, (2) disconfirming bipolarity, and (3) quantifying functional independence. Method: In total, 2065 participants (female n = 1193; 57.8%) completed two online assessments (minimum 30 days apart) measuring psychological distress, mental wellbeing, and demographic information. Results: In total, 1.1% of participants experienced high distress as well as mental wellbeing confirming that psychological distress and mental wellbeing exist independently (Criterion 1). Bipolarity (Criterion 2) was partly disconfirmed: mental wellbeing consistently decreased as symptom severity increased for depression; however, anxiety and stress did not meet bipolarity requirements. Functional independence (Criterion 3) was established: longitudinal analysis found that participants reliably and simultaneously increased (2.7%) or decreased (4.2%) in distress and mental wellbeing, while cross-sectional analysis showed that psychological distress only explained 38% of the variance in mental wellbeing. Discussion: Findings provide further support for the dual-continua model through analysis of the proposed assessment criteria, suggesting a further need to measure the dual-continua model at the subdomain level, e.g., depression, anxiety, and stress, as opposed to global psychological distress. Validation for the proposed assessment criteria provides important methodological foundations for future studies. Full article

Enterprises seeking to enhance their innovation capabilities are increasingly turning to open innovation communities (OICs), which allow them to leverage the collective knowledge and collaborative potential of external users, providing a powerful source of new and innovative ideas. Despite their potential for value co-creation, recent research suggests that value co-destruction can also occur within OICs. However, the mechanisms underlying value co-destruction in OICs have not yet been fully explored or empirically examined. To address this gap, this study employs expectancy disconfirmation theory and psychological contract theory to investigate the relationship between user expectancy disconfirmation and value co-destruction in OICs. Drawing upon data collected from a questionnaire survey of business analytics OICs, this study reveals that self-interest expectancy disconfirmation has a positive effect on value co-destruction, which is mediated by the transactional psychological contract breach. In addition, social interaction expectancy disconfirmation is found to have a positive impact on value co-destruction, which is mediated by the relational psychological contract breach. The study further reveals that self-worth expectancy disconfirmation of community users positively influences value co-destruction, which is mediated by the ideological psychological contract breach. Moreover, the study demonstrates the crucial role of perceived organizational status in moderating the ideological psychological contract breach resulting from self-worth expectancy disconfirmation. Collectively, these findings contribute valuable insights into the phenomenon of value co-destruction in OICs, and provide practical guidance for enterprises seeking to enhance the development and performance of these innovation paradigms. Full article