Ying Wang

Abusive supervision was traditionally viewed as a unidimensional construct and found detrimental in various fields, while there may be subdimensions associating with different consequences. This study aims to justify two subdimensions of abusive supervision, namely overt abusive supervision and covert abusive supervision, and investigate their effects on subordinates’ voluntary learning behavior, with public self-consciousness as a moderator. Data was acquired from a sample of 443 employees from China through a two-wave survey, and hypotheses were tested by hierarchical regression analysis. The empirical results demonstrated that overt abusive supervision promotes subordinates’ voluntary learning behavior at lower levels of public self-consciousness and hinders it otherwise, while covert abusive supervision promotes subordinates’ voluntary learning behavior homogeneously at different levels of public self-consciousness. The results suggest that supervisors could be mean and critical when encouraging subordinates to improve themselves, with subordinates’ public self-consciousness taken into consideration. However, abusive supervision should never be overused, not only because it is unethical and detrimental in many other fields, but also because the abused subordinates may just be preparing for leaving.

Greenwashing has become a widespread phenomenon and obstructs green products, but literature on how consumers react to misbehaving brands is still scarce. This study aims to investigate the effect of greenwashing on consumers’ brand avoidance, integrating the mediating effect of brand hypocrisy and the moderating effect of CSR–CA belief. Data were acquired from a questionnaire survey of 317 consumers. Hypotheses were tested in a first-stage moderated mediation model with a bootstrapping method using the PROCESS program in SPSS. The empirical results demonstrated that greenwashing has a positive effect on brand avoidance, which is partially mediated by brand hypocrisy. Meanwhile, the positive effects of greenwashing on brand hypocrisy and brand avoidance are both weaker at higher levels of CSR–CA belief. Furthermore, the mediating effect of brand hypocrisy is also weaker at higher levels of CSR–CA belief. Based on these findings, we recommend that brands fulfill their environmental claims and balance their quality control, manufacturing costs and environment protection. Moreover, the government and environmental protection organizations should educate the public that there is not necessarily a tradeoff between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate capability (CA).

Previous studies have found that consumer satisfaction is negatively associated with brand switching intention in the common purchasing context; is this still true in the context of sharing apparel? This study aims to investigate the effect of consumer satisfaction on the brand switching intention of sharing apparel and to reveal the mechanism by exploring the mediating effects of brand trust and platform trust, integrating the moderating effect of variety seeking. Data were acquired from 346 consumers of sharing apparel through an online questionnaire survey. Hypotheses were tested in a moderated mediation model, with the bootstrapping method using the PROCESS program in SPSS. The empirical results demonstrated that the overall impact of consumer satisfaction on brand switching intention was not significant, while the mediating effect of brand trust was significantly negative, and the mediating effect of platform trust was significantly positive. The moderating effect of variety seeking on the relationship between brand trust and brand switching intention was not significant, while the positive effect of platform trust on brand switching intention was stronger at higher levels of variety seeking. In addition, the mediating effect of platform trust on the relationship between consumer satisfaction and brand switching intention was also stronger at higher levels of variety seeking. Therefore, there are dual effects of consumer satisfaction on brand switching intention of sharing apparel through the different mediating effects of brand trust and platform trust. Based on these findings, we recommend that sharing apparel platforms could enlarge their return by fostering emerging brands or private brands, while premium brands should be cautious about fostering potential competitors when cooperating with sharing platforms.