The influence of customer trust and artificial intelligence on customer engagement and loyalty - The case of the home-sharing industry.

Trust is an essential factor in online and offline transactions. However, the role of customer trust has received limited attention in the home-sharing economy. Drawing on the revised stimulus organism response model and trust transfer theory, this paper examines how customer trust in home-sharing hosts and platforms affects customer relationships, manifested in customer engagement and loyalty. As artificial intelligence (AI) is extensively utilized within home-sharing platforms to facilitate business operations and enhance the customer experience, this study also examines the influence of AI on customer trust and other related outcomes. The research was undertaken in China, with respondents who had used home-sharing platforms. Results from structural equation modeling show that customer trust had a significant positive relationship with customer engagement and loyalty. Customer engagement mediates the relationship between trust and loyalty, while AI may have a negative moderating effect between host trust and customer engagement and customer engagement and loyalty. The paper contributes to marketing, sharing economy and AI research. The work has implications for practitioners offering suggestions to develop marketing strategies for business growth and sustainability.

Beliefs about the factors that motivate prosocial sentiments among people in the privileged class of Pakistan during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Drawing upon the theories of empathy-altruism and planned behavior, this study investigated beliefs about the factors that motivate prosocial sentiments among people in the privileged class of Pakistan during the COVID-19 pandemic. In-depth interviews were conducted with 31 participants who were deemed to be members of the privileged class within the class system of Pakistan. The results revealed nine themes including social interaction, peer influence, role models, collectivism, vicarious emotions, religiosity, capability, volition, and education.

Personality, trait EI and coping with COVID 19 measures.

The study views the preventive measures undertaken by government to combat COVID 19 as stressor for individuals, and examines how individuals' personal traits including emotional intelligence and personality factors influence their coping strategies. The concept of trait EI is used in this study to understand its relationship with personality factors and their respective effects on the opted outcomes. Coping strategies in this study are categorised into task, emotion and avoidance-oriented coping. The results show that emotional intelligence is significantly related to all coping strategies whereas only certain personality factors make unique variances. When both emotional intelligence and personality are in the same equation, with the latter being controlled, the former shows incremental variance and the influence of personality factors is reduced. Detailed discussion of these findings and implications for policy makers and researchers are highlighted and conclude the paper.