An integrative model of destination image, self-congruity, and travel behavior is described in this article. In particular, the model postulates relationships between destination environment, destination visitor image, tourists’ self-concept, self-congruity, functional congruity, and travel behavior. Travel behavior is hypothesized to be influenced significantly by both self-congruity and functional congruity. Self-congruity is the match between the destination visitor image and tourists’ self-concept (actual, ideal, social, and ideal social self-image). Functional congruity is the match between the utilitarian attributes of the destination and the tourist’s ideal expectations related to those attributes. Self-congruity is hypothesized to influence functional congruity. It is argued that the destination environment influences the formation and change of the destination visitor image and the tourist-perceived utilitarian destination attributes.
This article explores the effects of two cultural dimensions, face consciousness and risk aversion, on consumers' decision-making styles. Data from China and the United States show that consumers in the United States differ from their counterparts in China in decision-making styles. Face consciousness and risk aversion appear to contribute to such divergence. Implications for future research are discussed. ᭧
This article examines the processes by which market orientation (MO) affects performance using a cross-level approach. The results of a survey of 2,754 employees from 180 firms in China show that organization-level MO culture leads to unit-level MO behavior, which improves employeelevel job satisfaction and then product quality, which in turn fosters organizational performance. In particular, MO behavior fully mediates the effects of MO culture on employee satisfaction, product quality, and organizational performance. Leadership quality strengthens the effect of MO culture on unit-level MO behavior. Moreover, MO behavior enhances firm performance indirectly through employee job satisfaction and product quality. Tse, 2005). Despite the strong appeal of MO, a series of debates has appeared in the Strategic Management Journal centering around how MO contributes to performance (for a brief review, see Hult, Ketchen, and Slater, 2005; most recently, see Connor, 2007;Ketchen, Hult, and Slater, 2007). As Hult et al. (2005Hult et al. ( : 1173 posit, simply assessing the direct link between MO and performance is not fruitful; rather, the key question must be what are the processes by which MO affects performance?In their meta-analysis of received literature, Kirca et al. (2005) identify innovativeness and customer-related outcomes such as customer loyalty, as the most researched process variables. Less examined, however, are the processes internal to organizations through which MO enhances
Firms doing business in foreign institutional environments face pressures to gain social acceptance (commonly referred to as legitimacy) and difficulty in evaluating market information, both of which undercut firm performance. In this article, the authors argue that firms can design governance strategies to deal with foreign institutions to secure both social acceptance and firm performance. Using a Chinese sample of manufacturers that export products to various foreign markets through local distributors, the authors develop and test a model that bridges the effects of institutional environments and governance strategy on channel performance. Specifically, they find that firms can use two governance strategies, contract customization and relational governance, to deal with both legitimacy and efficiency issues and to safeguard channel performance. Thus, international channel managers are advised to maintain an integrated management of legitimacy and efficiency in foreign marketing channels.
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