Yu-Qian Zhu

Service fairness and customer satisfaction in internet banking: Exploring the mediating effects of trust and customer value

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore and empirically test fairness in predicting online customer satisfaction in the internet banking context. The paper also aims to further explore the mechanism through which fairness influences customer satisfaction online, i.e. identifying the mediators.Design/methodology/approach – A survey is used to validate a research model based on equity theory and relationship marketing theory that incorporates fairness, trust, perceived value and customer satisfaction. A total of 331 surveys were analyzed using Partial Least Square.Findings – In internet banking, fairness that includes distributive fairness, procedural fairness and informational fairness is positively related to customer satisfaction. Trust is identified as the key mediator of fairness to customer satisfaction.Research limitations/implications – In an online context, where human interactions are replaced by graphic user interfaces, fairness still plays an important role in customer satisfaction. Fu...

Relationships Between Work Team Climate, Individual Motivation, and Creativity

Creativity of employees is a major focus of research in the organization sciences. In this study we examine the relationships between both micro (intrinsic and extrinsic motivation) and molar (team climate) variables with manager-rated creativity of R&D employees. Specifically, we hypothesize that (a) extrinsic motivation has a direct relationship with creativity, (b) intrinsic motivation is more strongly related to creativity when extrinsic motivation is low compared to when it is high, (c) team collaborative and competitive climates have direct effects on creativity as well as indirect effects through individual motivation, and (d) intrinsic motivation mediates relationships of the climate variables with creativity, which in turn is moderated by extrinsic motivation. Data were collected from R&D engineers and their managers at a large high-tech company headquartered in Taiwan. Results indicate that a collaborative team climate has a direct positive relationship with creativity as well as one that operates through intrinsic motivation, which in turn was moderated by employee’s extrinsic motivation level. A competitive team climate positively related to extrinsic motivation, but extrinsic motivation did not directly relate to creativity. However, extrinsic motivation did have strong relationships with creativity when intrinsic motivation was low. Results suggest that perhaps the different types of motivation relate to different types of creativity (incremental versus radical). Managerial and theoretical implications of results are discussed as are the study’s limitations.

Consumer's acceptance of high-tech products: the case of RFID credit cards in Taiwan

Risk and uncertainty are inherent in the nature of high-tech innovation (Branscomb and Auerswald, 2003). This research sets out to explore the role of perceived risk in the adoption of RFID credit cards and the interaction of perceived risks with other important factors in technology adoption using a model integrating perceived risk, the technology acceptance model, and technology readiness. We have found that perceived risks are directly and negatively related to both perceived usefulness and use intentions; however, most of the influences on use intentions are mediated through perceived usefulness. We also explored the relationship between perceived risk, technology readiness and perceived usefulness. Results show that technology readiness may mitigate risk perception and leads to higher intentions to adopt. Technology readiness can also directly and indirectly influence behaviour intentions. We discuss theoretical and managerial implications for the marketing of high-tech products that embody certain levels of risk.

Empowering Leadership in R&D Teams: A Closer Look at its Components, Process, and Outcomes

Empowering leadership in R&D teams has gained increasing popularity as it provides a balance between autonomy and control, encourages member participation and self‐leadership, and benefits creativity and innovation. This research examined the unique influences of two behavior components of empowering leadership: group‐focused empowering leadership and differentiated individual‐focused empowering leadership on R&D teams processes and team effectiveness. Using data from 54 R&D teams, we found that group‐focused empowering leadership is strongly related to intra‐team collaboration, which in turn is positively related to both team innovativeness and performance. Differentiated individual‐focused empowering leadership, however, is positively related to intra‐team competition.

Empowering Leadership in R&D Teams: A Closer Look at the Process and Outcomes

Recent research suggests that there are two distinct behavioral components of leadership: (1) those targeted at influencing the group as a whole (group-focused); and (2) those aimed at individual group members (individual-focused). Differentiated individual-focused leadership occurs when leader exhibits varying levels of individual-focused leadership behavior across different group members. This research examines the unique influences of group-focused empowering leadership and differentiated individual-focused empowering leadership on R&D team’s processes and team effectiveness.

Group-Focused and Differentiated Individual-Focused Empowering Leadership in R&D teams

Recent research suggests that there are two distinct behavioral components of leadership: 1) those targeted at influencing the group as a whole(group-focused); and 2) those aimed at individual grou...