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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conduct a cross-disciplinary review of the literature on financial exclusion in order to provide a place where one could have a bird’s eye view of the academic activities that have been happening in the area. Design/methodology/approach – As a literature review, no specific methodology is required. Findings – Researchers in economic geography and urbanization seem to have contributed significantly to the growing literature on financial exclusion. The persistence of the problem despite efforts to combat it calls for innovative thinking on the part of marketing scholars and financial institutions on how to serve the unbanked. Research limitations/implications – The review identifies gaps in the state of current research and provides direction for future research. Practical implications – The study identifies gaps in the literature and provides directions for future research. Social implications – As a literature review, there is only an indirect social implications in the sense that the studies reviewed could be used to impact people’s lives. Originality/value – As a literature review, originality is not an applicable criterion, however, the study provides value to the reader by bringing together disparate studies at one place and by pointing out gaps in the current state of research.

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Purpose This paper aims to examine the connection between restaurant tipping propensity and customers’ susceptibility to emotional contagion (EC) in an effort to shed more light on consumers’ inclination to pay more for a service than they are legally obligated to (that is to pay more than the price by tipping). Design/methodology/approach In this study, two different instruments (Tipping Motivations Scale and Emotional Contagion Scale) were simultaneously administered online to restaurant patrons. The simultaneous administration of the instruments allows the researchers to capture not only tipping propensity but also the linkage between tipping propensity and customers’ susceptibility to EC. Findings The results show that customers’ susceptibility to EC, social compliance and server actions has the most effect on intention to tip in restaurants in Turkey. These findings support the notion that universal human characteristics such as the tendency to reciprocate (Hatfield et al., 1993) influence consumers’ propensity to tip regardless of the culture. Research limitations/implications While the results of this study offer some insight into why restaurant patrons tip, the fact that the study was carried out only in Turkey which has a collectivist culture limits the generalizability of the results to other societies that may be individualistic in orientation. Practical implications The findings of this study can be used by restaurant managers in training their employees and improving their customer patronage, particularly patronage from repeat customers. Similarly, the results could be used by restaurant servers to improve their income. Social implications The results of the study have potential to enhance the mutually beneficial relationship that should exist between restaurants and restaurant patrons. Indirectly, the results of the study could improve collective societal good. Originality/value This study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is one of the first to use the Tipping Motivations Scale (Whaley et al., 2014) in a different culture (Eurasia) and explain consumers’ tipping propensity explicitly using the concept of EC.

The paper investigates empirically the relationships between exchange rates and inflation in Western Balkan countries. The literature on the transition countries has recently focused on exchange rate as a shock absorber and downplayed its costs to macroeconomic stabilization. However, the decision to apply a different exchange rate regime depends on the costs and benefits in giving up an exchange rate instrument. With this in mind, the objective of this study is to determine whether fixed exchange rates play a significant role in inflationary performance or whether flexible exchange rates perform as a better shock-absorbing instrument in the Western Balkans. The result reveals that an exchange rate is still the main source of inflationary pressures in Western Balkan countries. Thus policy makers must weigh the relative costs and benefits associated with introducing a flexible exchange rate in small open economies because such regime is likely to incur more costs than benefits.