Francisco Limcaoco Roman’s research while affiliated with Asian Institute of Management and other places

This research assesses the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as it affects the perception of millennials regarding the socially responsible corporation that, in turn may influence their intention to purchase. The findings show that loyalty and trust appear stronger among older-age consumers than among the younger-age consumers, but both loyalty and authenticity are strong indicators of continuance intention. Younger-age consumers clearly analyzed authenticity to build trust and advocacy, whereas older-age consumer built trust with clearly communicated awareness of CSR initiatives. The managerial implications clearly highlight the importance of awareness for older-age consumers while authenticity was important for younger-age consumers. This offers opportunities for further development on the behavior of the two categoriews of consumers as well as strategies for practitioners to employ CSR to influence continuous purchases.

A 2019 Pew study of emerging economies revealed citizen concerns over smartphone use as risky behavior and their ill effects, such as addiction and overdependency, among many factors. In response, the authors developed a smartphone dependency scale (SDS) of factors that contribute to smartphone addiction, particularly for emerging economies like the Philippines. The instrument was developed from previously validated constructs. They propose that social influence, convenience, affective (anxiety), physiological (maladjustment), and cognitive (mindfulness) factors separately drive smartphone dependency. To test the SDS, the authors surveyed 901 Philippine participants. The scales showed excellent internal consistency and reliability and adequate concurrent and criterion-related validities. A confirmatory factor analysis showed that SDS factors had good data fit. This instrument is a first step in (1) exploring why individuals become dependent (addicted) on mobile devices and (2) stimulating further research concerning smartphone dependency for emerging market settings.

The authors build on the literature on reciprocity by exploring a prevalent social and economic phenomenon in the Philippines where individuals with positive mobile phone balances can SMS loads to acquaintances. This practice is known as “pasaload”—an abbreviation of Pass-A-Load. The research was designed based on the literature review that in turn resulted in a research model that focused on six constructs: reciprocity, loyalty, habit, switching costs, trust, and future repurchase. Hypotheses were developed as the basis for a scaled survey of 1050 Philippine smartphone users, with the questions adapted from but adhering closely to the original questions from appropriate articles in the literature review. Overall the mediating effects from the two models are consistent with the expectations from the literature and analysis. In the Philippine context, habit might be a strong mediator even if the true financial and convenience costs to switch is low.

This research assesses the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as it affects the perception of millennials regarding the socially responsible corporation that, in turn may influence their intention to purchase. The findings show that loyalty and trust appear stronger among olderage consumers than among the younger-age consumers, but both loyalty and authenticity are strong indicators of continuance intention. Younger-age consumers clearly analyzed authenticity to build trust and advocacy, whereas older-age consumer built trust with clearly communicated awareness of CSR initiatives. The managerial implications clearly highlight the importance of awareness for older-age consumers while authenticity was important for younger-age consumers. This offers opportunities for further development on the behavior of the two categoriews of consumers as well as strategies for practitioners to employ CSR to influence continuous purchases.