This study examines the indirect effect of employee empathy on service loyalty through the intervening effect of trust in and satisfaction with service employees during service interactions. Data were obtained through a self-administered questionnaire from university students. A total of 410 useable responses were used to perform data analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping for indirect effects were conducted to test the hypotheses. The results show a significant effect of employee empathy on trust in service employee and satisfaction with service employee during customer–employee interactions. Also, satisfaction with a service employee showed a significant effect on service loyalty during service interactions. The study enhances the understanding of empathy within banking services during interactions between service employees and customers. It also provides insights for service managers and frontline service employees on how empathy develops customer’s trust and satisfaction with service employee.

As an emerging economy, China modernized its economy via split-share structure reform. This reform changed the nature of ownership in state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Following this reform, we investigated the research question concerning how reductions in state ownership affect the corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance of listed firms. This study tests the hypotheses using data of Chinese listed firms between 2010 and 2015. Applying multiple regressions, we found a negative association between state reductions and CSR performance. We contribute to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence that those firms which reduce state holdings are not taking CSR activities seriously. Our study also sheds light on the worthiness and prominent status of large state owners of SOEs, as they are more likely to engage in social activities. This study provides fruitful implications for policy-makers and practitioners about state holdings, which may either hinder or enhance the corporate social performance.

Crowdfunding is an innovative concept for a new start-ups seeking financial support for their distinctive and novel projects. Despite their popularity, crowdfunding platforms face several key challenges amongst which is information asymmetry between entrepreneurs and influential backers, where credible information must be disclosed by the founders (entrepreneurs) to the potential “backers” in order to assess the potentiality of the project. In order to fill this gap, we developed and tested a model that examines the signaling interaction between the founder and a potential backer through media and the founders’ past success. This model also examines how these two signals (i.e., media and past success) interact so as to mitigate the problem of information asymmetry and to make the project successful. A total of 14,887 projects were extracted from a reward-based platform named Crowdfunder. The data was analyzed by performing Tobit and logistic regression and the model was validated by using the robustness technique. The results strongly mitigate the problem of information asymmetry which improves the rate of success in projects floated on the Crowdfunder platform. We believe that our study will significantly contribute to this nascent yet developing research area by probing for information mechanisms to succeed in crowdfunding.

This study investigates the relationship between sub-national institutional contingencies and corporate social responsibility performance (CSRP). Sub-national institutional contingencies (SNICs) play a moderating role in the link between CSRP and corporate financial performance (CFP). Using data from all A-share Chinese companies listed on the Shenzhen and Shanghai exchanges for the period 2010 to 2015, ordinary least square (OLS) regression was used as a baseline methodology to draw inferences from the data. The study uses propensity score matching (PSM) to confirm the robustness and to tackle the possible issue of endogeneity. We find reliable evidence that SNICs have a positive and significant effect on CSRP. This positive relationship is more pronounced in cross-listed companies as compared to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and in companies located in the more developed region. Moreover, SNICs moderate the positive relationship between CSRP and CFP. The relationship is stronger in firms that are non-SOEs, are non-cross-listed, and are from less-developed regions as compared to their counterparts. The findings provide implications for regulators and individual companies. Investment in corporate social responsibility (CSR) helps companies to achieve their primary objective (i.e., financial performance). With respect to practical implications, the study indicates that policymakers, executives, and managers should refrain from “one size fits all” CSR policies. Instead, they need to simultaneously evaluate the effects of regional development, cross-listing, and ownership characteristics. Considering weak social performance by firms that are from less developed regions, are non-cross-listed, and that are non-SOEs, policymakers and the government should improve information transparency and the regulatory framework, and provide these firms with incentives. This study also provides insights for other emerging economies, especially those going through extraordinary government interventions.