Effects of Internal and External CSR on Supportive and Harmful Employee Attitudes

Prior studies have suggested that corporate social responsibility (CSR) contributes to a hospitality organization’s competitive advantage by influencing employee attitudes. However, the mechanisms driving employees’ responses to different types of CSR activities remain largely unexplored. Based on social exchange and social identity theories, we examined the mechanisms through which external and internal CSR activities influence employees’ perceived organizational justice and identification, and their subsequent outcomes (i.e., organizational commitment and turnover intention). We collected data from the employees of a hospitality company operating in the United States and used confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling for data analysis. The results showed that internal CSR activities had significant sequential effects on organizational justice, organizational identification, and organizational commitment as well as turnover intention. External CSR activities had significant indirect effects on organizational commitment via organizational identification. These findings reinforce the notion that external and internal CSR operate through different mediating mechanisms. We discussed the main findings of this study in terms of their theoretical implications for our understanding of the psychology behind CSR, as well as social exchange and social identity theories. The results suggest that both external and internal CSR have particular importance as a means of supporting a hospitality company’s efforts to foster employee identification with the company, and thereby improve employee attitudes at work. We closed by discussing the practical implications of our results, including recommendations for hospitality operators.

Sequential dependency for affective appraisal of food images

How we perceive the world is not solely determined by our experiences at a given moment in time, but also by what we have experienced in our immediate past. Here, we investigated whether such sequential effects influence the affective appraisal of food images. Participants from 16 different countries (N = 1278) watched a randomly presented sequence of 60 different food images and reported their affective appraisal of each image in terms of valence and arousal. For both measures, we conducted an inter-trial analysis, based on whether the rating on the preceding trial(s) was low or high. The analyses showed that valence and arousal ratings for a given food image are both assimilated towards the ratings on the previous trial (i.e., a positive serial dependence). For a given trial, the arousal rating depends on the arousal ratings up to three trials back. For valence, we observed a positive dependence for the immediately preceding trial only, while a negative (repulsive) dependence was present up to four trials back. These inter-trial effects were larger for males than for females, but independent of the participants’ BMI, age, and cultural background. The results of this exploratory study may be relevant for the design of websites of food delivery services and restaurant menus.

Resveratrol facilitates bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) differentiation to prevent osteoporosis via restraining of secreted frizzled-related protein 1 expression

Secreted frizzled-related protein 1 (SFRP1) is associated with cell differentiation, and its expression can be modulated by resveratrol. However, their impacts on bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs)-induced osteogenesis and ovariectomy-triggered bone loss remain unclear. Therefore, we in this study aimed to dissect the regulation of resveratrol on SFRP1, along with its sequential effects on differentiation and osteoporosis prevention of BMSCs. The SFRP1 expression in the ovariectomized (OVX) mice-originated bone tissues, BMSCs and bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs), during their differentiation towards osteoblasts and chondrocytes, was quantified by qRT-PCR and Western-blot. SFRP1-siRNA was applied for studying its influence on osteogenesis of BMSCs. Additionally, we evaluated the impacts of resveratrol on OVX mice and SFRP1 expression. SFRP1 was significantly up-regulated in the OVX mice-derived bone tissues and BMSCs, but gradually decreased during osteogenesis. Its expression was not significantly changed in BMSCs during their differentiation towards osteoclasts or in BMMs. The knockout of SFRP1 significantly improved mineralization potentiality, alkaline phosphatase activity and expression of several osteoblast-specific genes. Moreover, the bone loss was ameliorated in OVX mice treated with resveratrol, whose therapeutic effects were achieved by facilitating the expression of osteogenesis-associated genes while suppressing the SFRP1 expression. We also observed that the SFRP1 exerted a negative effect on osteogenesis of BMSCs and estrogen deficiency-induced osteoporosis, enabling itself to be an indicator of osteogenesis and also a molecular target for PMOP treatment. Resveratrol is a suppressor of SFRP1that can be applied as an active ingredient for treating PMOP.

Sequential Effects of Indirect, Direct, and Virtual Sport Experiences on Consumer Learning

The purpose of this study is to expand the theoretical knowledge of consumer learning by testing both the single and sequential effects of indirect, direct, and virtual sport experiences on sport brand knowledge, attitudes, and choice behavior in two laboratory experiments. Experiment I shows that virtual experience is as effective as direct experience in consumer learning. In Experiment II, designed to explore the impact of sequential combinations of sport experiences on consumer learning, the sequential combination of direct and virtual experiences results in greater brand knowledge than the combination of indirect and direct experiences. Exposure to direct experience proceeding with virtual experience is more effective at influencing brand attitudes than the combination of indirect and direct experiences. Th e results indicate that sport consumers are more likely to select sport brands at choice contexts when exposed to virtual experience in combination with direct experience.

Research on the Decision Mechanism of University-Enterprise Collaborative Innovation Based on Quantum Cognition

The relationship between quantum cognition and decision-making is an important field in the direction of human behavior research. The uncertain and entangled state of quantum cognition has largely explained the decision-making process with limited information and ambiguity. University-enterprise collaborative innovation, a systematic project of joint action by both parties, aims to integrate the resources of enterprises and universities and enhance their innovation capabilities. As the main decision-making parties in collaborative innovation decision-making, the university and enterprise have a state of uncertainty and entanglement in their cognitive preferences before the final decision is formed. A university-enterprise collaborative innovation decision-making model should be constructed from the perspective of enterprise decision-making, taking different innovation schemes as the final choice, and the method of quantum probability theory can be used to perform quantum cognition on the independent and joint decision-making models in the university-enterprise collaborative innovation decision-making. Research shows that the internal mechanism of university-enterprise collaborative decision-making is based on its quantum attributes, university-enterprise collaborative decision-making is more inclined to joint decision-making, joint university-enterprise collaborative decision-making is more inclined to quantum cognition incompatibility expression, and the opinions of innovative members will have sequential effects and interference effects on decision makers.

The spatiotemporal link of temporal expectations: contextual temporal expectation is independent of spatial attention

Temporal expectation is the ability to construct predictions regarding the timing of events, based on previously-experienced temporal regularities of different types. For example, cue-based expectations are constructed when a cue validly indicates when a target is expected to occur. However, in the absence of such cues, expectations can be constructed based on contextual temporal information, including the event's hazard-rate function - its moment-by-moment conditional probability that changes over time; and prior experiences, which provide probabilistic information regarding the event's predicted timing (sequential effects). It was previously suggested that cue-based temporal expectation is exerted via synchronization of spatially-specific neural activity at a target's predictable time, within receptive fields corresponding to the target's expected location. Here, we tested if the same theoretical model holds for contextual temporal effects. Participants (n = 40) performed a speeded spatial-cueing detection task, with two-thirds valid spatial cues. The target's hazard-rate function was modulated by varying the foreperiod - the interval between the spatial cue and the target - among trials, and was manipulated between groups by changing the interval distribution. Reaction times were analyzed using both frequentist and Bayesian generalized linear mixed models, accounting for hazard and sequential effects. Results showed that the effects of contextual temporal structures on reaction times were independent of spatial attention. This suggests that the spatiotemporal mechanisms, thought to account for cue-based expectation, cannot explain other sources of temporal expectations. We conclude that expectations based on contextual structures have different characteristics than cue-based temporal expectation, suggesting reliance on distinct neural mechanisms.

Perceptions of Parent Behavior and Self-Concealment in Emerging Adults

The tendency to conceal personal information from others that an individual perceives as negative or distressing (i.e., self-concealment). The tendency to “keep secrets” has been associated with negative health and emotional outcomes. While parent behaviors have shown to influence the development of self-concealment among children and adolescents, less is known about self-concealment among college-age adults where parental influences are less direct. This study examined perceptions of parenting style and parental relationship quality on the tendency to self-conceal in a sample of 772 college students. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were computed to analyze the sequential effects of parenting variables (relationship quality and parenting style) on self-concealment. Overall, higher levels of self-concealment in males were found. Effects of perceived parenting style on self-concealment showed differential effects by gender. Among male students, more favorable relationship quality with the father was linked to lower levels of self-concealment while a more Permissive maternal parenting style was associated with greater self-concealment. In females, both father and mother relationship quality were inversely related to self-concealment (more positive relationship quality, less self-concealment). Greater paternal Authoritative parenting style and lower maternal Authoritarian parenting style were associated with lower levels of self-concealment among female students. Findings suggest that perceived parenting behaviors may continue to influence important behavioral tendencies (in this study self-concealment) into emerging adulthood.