This study investigates whether cultural and institutional distance impact financial institutions’ lending decisions and whether there is an interaction effect between key parties’ creditworthiness and cultural and institutional distance. This study performs an empirical analysis applying a logistic regression model based on 4,928 lending judgment observations of 176 financial institutions that made lending decisions on 28 liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects. We found that financial institutions make lending decisions under the influence of not only economic rationality but normative rationality. However, there is little empirical research on lending decisions based on normative rationality. This study proposes an alternative approach to considering the determinants of financial institutions’ lending decisions.

The research limitation is that the explained variable is a binary value equal to 1 for lending and 0 otherwise. If the loan amount, which is a continuous variable, can be used as the explained variable, it will be possible to estimate the magnitude of the impact of each explanatory variable. The results of this study include recommendations for practitioners, especially those seeking to raise funds. This study proposes that borrowers will find it easier to raise funds if they pay more attention to factors related to institutions and culture.

This study aims to identify the components of the in-store experience that are valuable to customers during in-store events. This study investigates the relative impact of the physical environment and employee behavior on the customer experience and their evaluation of the in-store experience at a Japanese luxury fashion brand store. Prior research has described the relationship between the perceived value of the physical environment and employee factors in the in-store customer experience. Although it has been noted that East Asians and Westerners perceive and think differently, most prior studies on luxury have surveyed Westerners. Further, aesthetics depends on the perceiver’s processing experience, not on the characteristics of the object. Therefore, this study investigated what was perceived in the store experience of 4268 qualitative answers using 180 representative samples with multiple experiences with luxury purchases. A mixed-methods approach was employed, analyzing quantitative and qualitative data. The results revealed that the physical environment did not directly influence customers’ revisit intentions. However, physical cues influenced the evaluation of employee-related factors, which directly impacted customers’ revisit intentions. These results suggest that aesthetics and luxury environments enhance the processing of service quality, and customers value employees who understand the emotions and circumstances behind their purchases.