Publications

January

• Christos Alexakis, Giulio Anselmi, Giovanni Petrella (2024) Flight to cryptos: Evidence on the use of cryptocurrencies in times of geopolitical tensions. International Review of Economics & Finance, Volume 89, Part A, 2024, pp 498-523

This paper examines trading activity in cryptocurrencies in times of geopolitical crises. Cryptocurrencies represent speculative assets as well as payment methods. This combination of features is not present in securities like stocks and bonds. The empirical analysis is based on a sample of 93 events associated to potential limitations of a fiat currency circulation and considers five cryptos (Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, Dash, and Tether). We find that trading in cryptocurrencies increases with events of geopolitical tensions. The increase in cryptocurrencies trading in times of crises can be motivated by different explanations (e.g., protecting savings as the domestic currency devaluates, making payments as the domestic financial system is no longer available, avoiding sanctions) which are difficult to disentangle. A more specific analysis concerning the EU sanctions established in 2022 on Russia shows that crypto trading slows down when crypto-related services (wallet, account or custody services) are explicitly included in EU financial sanctions packages. A warning about data limitations: the data set only includes trading activities conducted on centralized exchanges (CEXs) and does not include transactions conducted on decentralized exchanges (DEXs). Sanctions are supposed to be more effective on CEXs where the platform acts as a custodian for trader’s asset. We also examine trading activity from the Ukranian Hrvynia to cryptocurrencies and find a strong increase in outflow from Hrvynia since the beginning of the conflict. This finding – which is not affected by donations of cryptos received by Ukraine from abroad – is consistent with the hypothesis that Ukrainians increasingly exchanged their domestic currency for cryptocurrencies.

• Tanveer Ahsan, Bakr Al-Gamrh, Muhammad Azeem Qureshi & Ammar Ali Gull (2024) Does eco-innovation foster or hinder environmental performance? Recent evidence from Europe, International Journal of Green Energy, volume 21 issue 2, pp.205-215

This study investigates the impact of country-level eco-innovation policies on the environmental performance of European firms. As different industries are expected to produce more pollution, the study then explores the impact on the firms operating in sensitive industries. We use fixed effects panel data models to examine 1,098 firms listed in 22 European countries from 2010–2018. Our results indicate that country-level eco-innovative policies provide an encouraging environment for European firms to adopt environment-friendly practices. Eco-innovation policies help firms achieve CO2 targets and mitigate climate change which supports the product stewardship theory. Our results also suggest that larger, more profitable, and low debt-financed European firms have better environmental performances. We also find a moderating impact of industry sensitivity and make an intriguing discovery that country-level eco-innovation policies hinder the environmental efforts of the firms operating in sensitive European industries. These results are robust to different proxies of eco-innovation and endogeneity issues due to reverse causality.

• Muhammad Azeem Qureshi, Ammar Ali Gull, Tanveer Ahsan, Muhammad Ansar Majeed (2024) Do firms walk the talk when economic uncertainty is high? Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 436, 140617

The growing influence of stakeholders and unprecedented emphasis on corporate social responsibility (CSR) have significantly changed the way firms operate. To seek legitimacy from stakeholders, firms might implement CSR measures in true essence while others might turn to CSR decoupling (i.e., higher CSR disclosure than performance), which is detrimental to the firm and stakeholders, specifically when facing high economic uncertainty. Using a large dataset of U.S. firms listed between 2002 and 2019, we examine how economic policy uncertainty (EPU) impacts CSR decoupling. Our findings show that EPU and CSR decoupling are positively and significantly associated, suggesting that firms do not walk the talk when economic uncertainty is high. These results expand legitimacy theory by suggesting that corporations use CSR disclosure as a façade to seek legitimacy from stakeholders when faced with high uncertainty. Interestingly, female directors, who are associated with higher ethicality, acquit themselves well when uncertainty is high: gender-diverse boards play a significant role in moderating policy uncertainty’s adverse impacts on CSR decoupling. These findings are robust to different regression models, subsample analysis, and endogeneity issues.

• Umar Farooq, Bakr Al-Gamrh, Jiapeng Dai (2024) Green drives greenbacks: The impact of sustainable innovation on corporate cash holdings in BRICS nations. Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 436, 140533

This study delves into the impact of sustainable innovation on corporate liquidity, specifically examining its influence on cash holdings among companies listed in BRICS nations. The study also explores the impact of green innovation on cash holdings before and after COVID-spread. Utilizing the system GMM regression technique on data spanning 2010 to 2022, we scrutinize the relationship between green innovation and cash reserves. Our findings reveal a significant correlation, showcasing that companies actively engaged in sustainable practices maintain lower levels of cash. This suggests a tangible reduction in the necessity for large cash reserves among businesses prioritizing green innovation. Notably, this effect persists even in the post-COVID landscape, highlighting the resilience of sustainability efforts on financial strategies. The influence of green innovation on cash holdings remains robust with diverse firm-specific and macroeconomic variables. The implications underscore the dual benefits of sustainable innovation, contributing not only to environmental sustainability but also enhancing financial efficiency by minimizing excess cash holdings. This study accentuates the imperative of integrating sustainability considerations into financial decision-making, offering practical insights for firms seeking to align sustainability goals with effective financial management. It provides valuable insights for policymakers and investors interested in promoting and supporting green initiatives. This study contributes to the evolving discourse on sustainability and corporate finance by shedding light on a relatively unexplored aspect of the association between green innovation and financial strategies

• Guanghui Zhou, Dengyuhui Li, Junsong Bian, Yixiang Zhang (2024) Airfreight forwarder’s shipment planning: Shipment consolidation and containerization. Computers & Operations Research, Volume 161, 106443

This study focuses on an airfreight forwarder’s shipment planning problem, while considering shipment consolidation and containerization in the international supply chain. Items belonging to different shipments from supplier’s manufacturing warehouses are consolidated and loaded into Unit Loading Devices (ULDs) at outbound logistics hubs and to inbound logistics hubs by air transportation, where items are unloaded from the ULDs and distributed to the corresponding retailers by parcel delivery. A three-dimensional multiple bin size bin packing problem is considered, where items are consolidated and orthogonally loaded into ULDs of heterogeneous irregular shapes, where each item has a required latest allowable delivery time. A mixed integer programming model is formulated for the problem, which aims to determine the optimal route planning and feasible packing scheme for the transported items. This study develops a biased random-key genetic algorithm combining a three-dimensional bin packing heuristic to solve the problem. A two-phase greedy heuristic with a chaotic system is designed for the generation of initial population. Additionally, a catastrophe operator and a self-adaptive neighborhood search are put forward to further improve the performance of the algorithm. A numerical experiment is given to demonstrate the feasibility of formulation and effectiveness of algorithm by comparing with ILOG CPLEX, and managerial insights are provided.

• Guanghui Zhou, Dengyuhui Li, Junsong Bian, Yixiang Zhang (2024) Two-echelon time-dependent vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery and satellite synchronization. Computers & Operations Research, Volume 167, 2024, 106600

The multi-echelon distribution strategy has been widely applied in city logistics systems. This study develops a mixed-integer linear programming model for a new variant of vehicle routing problem, namely, a two-echelon time-dependent vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery and satellite synchronization, in which customers are divided into multiple customer regions according to different geographical characteristics. The pickup and delivery activities with hard time windows are performed simultaneously by the same vehicles from depots to satellites in the first echelon and from satellites to customers in different customer regions in the second echelon. A vehicle speed function is developed for each echelon based on traffic conditions. The function depends on commuter traffic and urbanization level. Satellites with storage buffer capacities for split and consolidation are allowed. Thus, demand unloading, storage, and reloading are synchronized. Costs of transportation, loading/unloading, inventory, and environment during one complete distribution process are considered. A memetic algorithm (MA) is proposed including a split algorithm for chromosome decoding and a three-phase construction heuristic for initial population generation. Self-adaptive operators of crossover, mutation, and local search are designed, and a neighborhood route improvement strategy is devised that includes distance-related destroy, route-based destroy, distance-based greedy repair, and time-distance cluster repair operators. Results of different scales of numerical experiments and sensitivity analysis show the effectiveness of the model and MA by comparing it with an exact algorithm, CPLEX, and adaptive large neighborhood search.

• Williams, A., Atwal, G., & Bryson, D. (2024). Entrepreneurial responses to Covid-19: The use of digital brand marketing events in the craft alcohol sector. Strategic Change, 33(1), 23–33

The wide-ranging implications following the Covid-19 pandemic have necessitated research into innovative entrepreneurial responses. The research study incorporates the concept of branded marketing events (BMEs) and considers their effectiveness in craft alcohol digital marketing. An exploratory qualitative study was conducted in Charlotte, North Carolina, and focused on the entrepreneurial responses of craft alcohol producers. Findings indicate that the inter-relationships between the experiential components adapted to a digital environment enhance the engagement consumers experience with craft alcohol producers. The responses of craft alcohol producers to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic provide valuable insights into strategies employed during times when traditional sales and marketing activities face exceptional challenges

• Descubes, I., Hennekam, S. (2024) Why common job demands are challenging for individuals with mental illness: the interaction of personal vulnerability factors and ableist norms. Equality, diversity and inclusion: An international journal. Vol. 43 No. 1, pp. 72-92

Drawing on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, this study aims to examine which job demands individuals with diagnosed mental illness perceive to be most challenging as they navigate the workplace, why this is the case and which resources individuals tend to mobilize to meet these demands. The authors draw on 257 qualitative surveys filled out by individuals with mental illness in various parts of the world. The findings show that job demands that are common in today’s workplace such as a high workload and a stressful environment are considered challenging by individuals with mental illness. Further, the authors show that this is the result of the ideal worker norm consisting of the need to be a steady performer that is confident, resilient and social with which the performer cannot comply on the one hand and the particularities of this population, such as performers’ self-perceived low self-esteem, sensitivity to stress, fluctuating symptoms and difficulties with the social aspects of organizational life on the other hand. The study points to the unique challenges of individuals with mental illness in the workplace and highlights the role human resource management (HRM) can play in providing support to allow this population to meet the demands of one’s job more easily and thrive at work

•  Ronan de Kervenoael, Alexandre Schwob, Rajibul Hasan, Evangelia Psylla (2024) SIoT robots and consumer experiences in retail: Unpacking repeat purchase intention drivers leveraging computers are social actors (CASA) paradigm. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Volume 76, 2024, 103589

This study contributes to knowledge on the so far limited understanding of how to manage collaboration between Social Internet of Things (SIoT) service robots and consumers in the retail context. Embedded in Computers Are Social Actors (CASA) paradigm, we leverage a Partial Least Approach – Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) (n = 356) to show that word of mouth, consumer promotion experience, relationship quality, and inspiration significantly impact consumers’ repeat purchase intention when SIoT robots are used. Noticeably, while relationship quality is significant, it has a negative coefficient indicating that consumers may have high pre-existing anxiety towards SIoT service robots.

• Rabeb Riahi, Amel Bennajma, Abderrahmane Jahmane, Helmi Hammami (2024) Investing in cryptocurrency before and during the COVID-19 crisis: Hedge, diversifier or safe haven? Research in International Business and Finance, Volume 67, Part B, 2024, 102102

This paper examines the safe-haven, diversification, and hedging properties of cryptocurrencies against stock market declines. We use daily data for two sub-periods: pre-Covid-19 and during Covid-19. The sample includes the stock market indices of the 10 countries most affected by the pandemic and the eight most popular cryptocurrencies based on their market capitalization over the study period. We found that Bitcoin, Cardano, Ethereum, and Binance have generated portfolio diversification benefits for investors during the Covid-19 outbreak, while Tether and the USD Coin have acted as safe-haven assets. Additionally, the findings reveal that gold has been an effective diversification tool for investors during the Covid-19 pandemic, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil has positively impacted stock index returns. Our results are of great practical interest to academics and policymakers, as well as investors, and provide relevant information on cryptocurrency variations during times of crisis.

• González-Gómez, H. V., Hudson, S., & Rychalski, A. (2024). Quand la suppression vaut mieux que la réévaluation : le point d’ébullition de la colère dans les rencontres de service. Recherche et Applications En Marketing (French Edition), 39(1), 64-77.

Les recherches sur la manière dont les évaluations cognitives de multiples signaux de défaillance d’un service se combinent pour générer la colère du client et le rôle des stratégies de régulation émotionnelle (suppression et réévaluation) dans l’atténuation de cette émotion sont encore rares. En utilisant une méthode expérimentale de vignettes d’une situation de défaillance de service auprès de 971 participants, nous montrons que les évaluations cognitives du blocage des objectifs, de la responsabilité d’autrui et du faible contrôle agissent conjointement, de manière indifférenciée, pour augmenter la colère de façon non linéaire. Nous démontrons également que la suppression émotionnelle est bénéfique pour faire face à la colère dans des situations où plusieurs signaux provoquent la colère. Inversement, la réévaluation est plus efficace lorsque les signaux déclencheurs de colère sont moins nombreux. Ce résultat remet en question le point de vue dominant selon lequel la réévaluation est préférable à la suppression pour faire face aux émotions négatives.

• Kerr, R., Robinson, S., Sliwa, M. (2024) Organising populism: from symbolic power to symbolic violence. Human Relations, Volume 77, Issue 1, January 2024, Pages 81-110

This article contributes to developing a management and organisation studies perspective on political organising by focusing on: (a) populism; (b) the exercise of political power; and (c) the organisation of politics. We address two questions: in what ways have English populist politicians in the 20th and 21st centuries utilised language along with other aspects of campaign organising to build and enhance their symbolic power? And: how do populist political organisations convert symbolic power into symbolic violence? Drawing on a range of concepts from Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology, most specifically his work on symbolic power, symbolic violence, political ontology and the performativity of language, we conduct a comparative analysis of texts from four waves of right-wing English populism culminating in Brexit. We develop a three-step framework to explain the organisation of right-wing populism via what we term populist political methodology: (1) establishing the symbolic power of the leader and the message; (2) organising power and the division of labour of domination; and (3) reinforcing symbolic violence in targeted sections of society. Understanding how populist politics is organised can support us in resisting, challenging and disrupting right-wing populism, providing lessons for organisations campaigning against racism and xenophobia.

• Hui Lin, T. ., Veerappan , V. A., Warraich , M. A. ., Budi Sulistyo, P. ., & Ranggana Putra , A. . (2024). Facebook’s Influence on the Effectiveness of Digital Advertising among Malaysian Youth. Journal of Communication, Language and Culture, 4(1), 61–83

Customers’ loyalty is considered as an important factor ensuring overall organizational success in the long run. The purpose of this investigation is to determine how customer loyalty in Pakistan’s banking sector affected by perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) practice. To end this, the present study collected data from 378 respondents using convenience sampling technique. To test proposed hypothesis, the study used correlation analysis, regression analysis, and Baron and Kenny method used to test mediation effect of variables together with the Sobel test. The result of the study shows a significant positive association among perceived CSR, bank reputation and customers loyalty and customer satisfaction. This study further shows that bank reputation has a mediating effect between perceived CSR and customer loyalty, but the relationship between CSR practices and customer loyalty has a negative effect on customer satisfaction. It was found that there was no mediating effect of degree. The findings highlight the importance of allocating resources to CSR initiatives and reputation management as a means of increasing customer loyalty. The results provide an important academic addition to the current body of research on the impact of CSR on the development of customer loyalty, with a particular focus on the Pakistani banking industry.

February

• J. Arsenyan and A. Piepenbrink (2024) Artificial Intelligence Research in Management: A Computational Literature Review. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, vol. 71, pp. 5088-5100, 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) spring of the past decade created an increased interest into the topic in business as well as in academia. This resulted in an upward trend in academic publications, not only in computer science but also in management. This article presents a computational literature review with an abstract-based sampling approach to investigate the status of the management literature to take stock of academic research of the past two decades. We analyze 6324 papers from 1990 to 2020 published in five management-related domains and identify 41 distinct topics. We present the evolution of research pre and post AI spring, emerging topics as well as saturated areas. The findings show that the previously disjointed topic network structure is fully connected by early 2010s and the upward trend in management research starts in the period of 2014–2015. The results provide a comprehensive insight into the potential of AI in management versus underdeveloped areas, and presents, formanagement scholars and practitioners, suggestions about effective adoption of AI practices.

• Stéphane Auray, Aurélien Eyquem, Bertrand Garbinti et Jonathan Goupille-Lebret (2024) Inégalités de revenus et de patrimoines : Modèles, données et perspectives croisées, Revue Française d’Economie, n°1/vol XXXIX (2024)pp. 65–108

Pourquoi épargne-t-on ? Pourquoi certains individus sont-ils riches et d’autres pauvres ? Comment les inégalités évoluent-elles ? Quel est l’impact des politiques publiques et des forces de marché sur les inégalités ? Ces questions occupent une place importante dans le débat public et sont au coeur des préoccupations des chercheurs, des décideurs publics et des citoyens. C’est à travers elles que se cristallisent, en effet, les débats relatifs à la méritocratie, l’égalité des chances

• Tekin, K., Bakici, T. , Hazir, O. (2024). Completing Projects on Time and Budget: A Study on the Analysis of Project Monitoring Practices Using Real Data. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, vol. 71, pp. 4051-4062

This article analyzes the relationship between project cost and time performance indicators and monitoring activities, namely, tracking frequency and regularity with real project data. The existing literature on project monitoring and control remains scant, mainly based on self-reported, simulation-based artificial data for a single project, and somewhat inconclusive. Data from 60 projects managed in Belgium between 2011 and 2019 with different project duration and sizes were first used to reveal associations of regular monitoring with project performance with linear probability models; then, to dissect nonlinear associations between monitoring frequency and project performance indicators using random effects models. Earned value management technique with performance indicators is adopted to assess the project performance. Empirical findings indicate that regularly tracked projects are less likely to be late. Tracking frequency displays a Ushaped association with the likelihood of late completion. Moreover, tracking frequency has inverted U-shaped relationships with cost performance and schedule performance indexes. Moving beyond the direct effects, this article is the first to analyze a nonlinear relationship between monitoring and project performance. Our results also validate prior studies’ findings on regular and frequent tracking effects using real-life multiple-project data and assess the EVM metrics and their behavior in project management.

• Tao, F., Zhou, Y., Bian, J., & Lai, K. K. (2024). Agency selling or reselling? Channel selection of green products with consumer environmental awareness. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, vol 27 issue 2, pp. 326-345

Motivated by the growing consumer interest in new energy vehicles, this paper studies a manufacturer’s pricing and channel selection issues when selling green products to environmentally conscious consumers. Three channel structures are examined: (1) a single agency selling channel, (2) a single reselling channel, and (3) dual channels of agency selling and reselling. Agency selling refers to the case in which the manufacturer directly sells products to consumers on the platform by paying a fixed fee. Reselling refers to when the manufacturer wholesales products to the platform, which is then responsible for selling to end consumers. We find that an increase in consumers’ green awareness has a positive impact on green technology levels, retail prices, and the profits of the manufacturer, platform, and retailer. When consumers’ green awareness and the revenue-sharing rate are relatively low, the manufacturer will choose the single reselling channel, which is beneficial for both the manufacturer and retailer. When consumers’ green awareness is moderate, the manufacturer will choose the hybrid channel in which the manufacturer and platform will reach a win-win situation. When consumers’ green awareness is high, the dual channel is simultaneously beneficial for the manufacturer, platform, and retailer, which reveals that Pareto optimisation occurs.

• Cristiane Dias Carneiro, Yann Duzert, Rafael Alves de Almeida (2024) The economic benefits of business mediation in the Brazilian scenario. RAE Revista de Administracao de Empresas, volume 64, issue 3, pp 1-22 | e2023-0132

This study aims to measure the economic benefits of business mediation in Brazil compared to lawsuits, investigating whether choosing mediation to resolve a business conflict is more economically advantageous than filing a lawsuit in the judiciary and whether opting for extrajudicial mediation to settle a business dispute is more economically advantageous than reaching an agreement in judicial mediation. The research, conducted in the Southeast region of Brazil after the implementation of the Brazilian Code of Civil Procedure in 2016, employed quantitative methods, analyzing 397 judicial processes. The results indicated that extrajudicial mediation is the most cost-effective option, while the judicial lawsuit is the most costly. This article provides essential information for businesses to make informed decisions in the resolution of business disputes.

• L. Scaringella, J. Xiong, S. Chakraborty and S. Hao. (2024) The Incupportive Model for Technological Spin-Offs: Insights From Three Research Centers in France. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, vol. 71, pp. 4835-4847

This article examines the relationships between research centers and related spin-offs. We identify a new incupportive model based on 41 interviews of 19 spin-offs from three research centers in Grenoble, France. This model complements the incubator and supportive model in the established literature, fostering knowledge transfer from research institutions (research centers) to business firms (spin-offs) for innovation. It also helps spin-offs identify business opportunities, manage resources, and develop alliances and complementary activities. However, this new model generates potentially unfavorable outcomes, becoming counterproductive and hindering spin-off firms’ knowledge transfer. Our findings regarding the incupportive model’s positive and negative side effects enrich the spin-off literature and provide valuable practical implications for policymakers and entrepreneurs.

March

• Agi Maher, Xinghao Yan, Hazir Oncu (2024) Piling and Discounting Perishable Products: Optimal Replenishment and Discounting Policy for Perishable Products when Demand depends on the Inventory-level and the Price. European Journal of Industrial Engineering Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 225-241

Retail stores often display large quantities of perishable products that they sell at full price over a given period and then at a discount until the end of the inventory cycle. We investigate this common practice by considering a product which is subject to continuous decay through time. The demand is a function of both the price of the product and the inventory level. The retailer may discount the product once during the cycle. Closed-form expressions were provided for the maximum discounting time and cycle time. The conditions under which an optimal discount policy exists were established. The results provide insights to decision-makers on how to design a markdown policy for perishable products.

• Bakr Al-Gamrh, Tareq Rasul (2024) Recession-proof marketing? Unraveling the impact of advertising efficiency on stock volatility. International Review of Financial Analysis, Volume 92, 103087

The current study examines how corporate advertising efficiency (estimated using data envelopment analysis) is impacted during economic recessions. The study then investigates how advertising efficiency affects stock price volatility in recession and non-recession times. Drawing on the resource-based view and contingency theory, this study utilizes generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation to analyze a sample of US listed firms. The findings reveal that advertising efficiency tends to decline during economic downturns. Moreover, the study demonstrates that firms with higher advertising efficiency experience more stable stock prices during normal economic conditions. However, an interesting observation emerges during recessions, as firms with strong advertising efficiency face higher stock price volatility. This suggests that while consumers are attracted to efficient advertisements, investors do not assign the same value to advertising spending during economic contractions. Importantly, these results are robust to endogeneity issues and various measurements of variables.

• Boucekkine, R., Camacho, C., Ruan, W., Zou, B. (2024) How Do Coalitions Break Down? An Alternative View. Dynamic games and applications, volume 14, pp. 157–194

We propose an alternative dynamic theory of coalition breakdown. Motivated by recent coalition-splitting events of unilateral country withdrawals, we assume that: (i) the payoff sharing rule within coalitions is not necessarily set according to any optimality and/or stability criterion and (ii) players initially behave as if the coalition will last forever. If the sharing rule is non-negotiable or if renegotiation is very costly, compliance with these rules may become unbearable for a given member because the rule, being too rigid, would make exit preferable as time passes. We examine this endogenous exit problem in the case of time-invariant sharing rules. Assuming a Nash non-cooperative game after a (potential) split where players play Markovian strategies, we characterize the solutions of the endogenous exit problem in a linear-quadratic frame with endogenous splitting time. We find that splitting countries are precisely those that used to benefit the most from the coalition. Suitable sharing rules should be used to prevent coalition splitting. When initial pollution is high, all shares should be low enough and none of the players should receive a payoff share larger than 1/2. If initial pollution is low, we provide an explicit interval for sharing-rule values to prevent the collapse of the coalition. Finally, we demonstrate that the latter properties are qualitatively consistent with the optimal behaviors and equilibrium outcomes resulting from players anticipating the end of the coalition and acting accordingly.

• Xiong, Jie , Lu Xu, Jie Yan, Shubho Chakraborty, & Yeming Gong (2024) Coexistence Paradigm of The Technological Catching Up Process. Management International, Volume 28, issue, 2, pp. 36-48

Established studies on catching up have mainly overlooked a comprehensive understanding of the process. We examine the Chinese auto parts manufacturing industry’s technological catching up to derive conclusions about the development paradigm. We address this conundrum by employing a process-based case study to extend the theory of technological catching up. This leads us to call this alternative paradigm coexistence. Coexistence encompasses various interactions between new and old generations in the process of catching up. In our findings, we propose three coexistence scenarios, namely: convergent, asymptotic, and intersectional.

• Colombo, L., Labrecciosa, P. (2024) Resource Mobility and Market Performance. Dynamic Games and Applications. Volume 14, pages 78–96

We derive a feedback equilibrium of an infinite-horizon dynamic Cournot game where production requires exploitation of a renewablemobile resource, such as migratory fish, wildlife, and groundwater. We study how a small increase in the resource mobility parameter (starting from a position of no resource mobility) impacts on the equilibrium and the associated consumer’s surplus, firms’ profits and social welfare. We show that consumer’s surplus and social welfare increase in the short run but decrease in the long run, while firms’ profits may either increase or decrease in the short run, depending on initial conditions, and increase in the long run. Over the entire planning horizon, both the discounted consumer’s surplus and the discounted social welfare decrease, whereas the discounted profits increase. This result remains valid also in the presence of a per unit tax on extraction

• D’Avino, C., Shabani, M. (2024) Booking positions in small offshore financial centers: Focus on US global banks. International Journal of Banking, Accounting and Finance Volume: 14, Issue: 1, pp. 28-57

Small offshore centres are home to the leading booking centres of global banks and facilitate their transactions across offices worldwide. This paper investigates the factors driving booking positions in offices located in small offshore centres, with a focus on US global banks. We find that global banks tend to increase their booking positions when liquidity conditions at the global and parent levels deteriorate and when banks’ risk-taking increases through leverage. Our results suggest that lower tax levels and higher secrecy explain booking centres’ localisation in small offshore countries.

• Thomas Conlon, John Cotter, Emmanuel Eyiah-Donkor (2024) Forecasting the price of oil: A cautionary note. Journal of Commodity Markets, Volume 33, 100378

We study the out-of-sample predictability of monthly crude oil prices using forecast combinations constructed from several individual predictor forecasts. Our empirical results indicate that combination forecasts of monthly average oil prices are more accurate than the no-change forecast with statistically significant reductions in mean square forecast errors (MSFE) and significant directional accuracy at every horizon up to 24 months, consistent with earlier evidence that forecast combinations greatly enhance the forecastability of oil prices. In contrast, we find no significant MSFE reductions or directional accuracy for forecasts of end-of-month oil prices at almost all horizons. Furthermore, we document that end-of-month forecasts when used to guide investment and hedging decisions of investors, statistically, do not deliver superior economic value to investors. Overall, the implication of our results is that the statistical and economic significance of forecasts of oil prices is heavily influenced by the construction of the underlying oil price series and provide a cautionary note on which oil price series to use in forecasting.

•  Mansoureh Hasannia Kolaee, Armin Jabbarzadeh, Seyed Mohammad Javad Mirzapour Al-e-hashem (2024) Sustainable group tourist trip planning: An adaptive large neighborhood search algorithm. Expert Systems with applications, Volume 237, Part B, 2024, 121375

This paper examines the safe-haven, diversification, and hedging properties of cryptocurrencies against stock market declines. We use daily data for two sub-periods: pre-Covid-19 and during Covid-19. The sample includes the stock market indices of the 10 countries most affected by the pandemic and the eight most popular cryptocurrencies based on their market capitalization over the study period. We found that Bitcoin, Cardano, Ethereum, and Binance have generated portfolio diversification benefits for investors during the Covid-19 outbreak, while Tether and the USD Coin have acted as safe-haven assets. Additionally, the findings reveal that gold has been an effective diversification tool for investors during the Covid-19 pandemic, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil has positively impacted stock index returns. Our results are of great practical interest to academics and policymakers, as well as investors, and provide relevant information on cryptocurrency variations during times of crisis.

• Bergmann, R, Wall, T, Kjærgaard, A, Elliott, C, Callahan, J, Padan, T, Blasco, M and Robinson, S. (2024) Subtle activism: Heterotopic principles for unsettling contemporary academia from within. Organization, 31(2), 412-424

Research on academic activism tends to foreground vociferous and explicit forms of activism that pursue predefined political agendas. Against this backdrop, this article proposes that academic activism can take more subtle forms. Writing as an academic activist collective, we unpack what subtle activism might look like within the context of contemporary academia. We use Foucault’s concept of heterotopia to argue that subtle activism can expand the space of what is possible in academia today by experimenting with quietly unsettling norms rather than overtly opposing or rejecting them. We offer a set of principles that might underpin a subtle activist agenda, extrapolated from practices from colleagues and from own activist collective. We hope that these principles may serve to inspire other academics wishing to engage in subtle activism by unsettling everyday practices that discreetly challenge the status quo, thereby contributing to gently shifting the agenda for how it is possible to conduct intellectual work in the contemporary neoliberal university context.

• J. Yan, S. Wang, J. Xiong, L. Scaringella and X. Chen (2024) Value Creation Reflecting CVC Strategic Orientations in Internet Platform Business Ecosystems: The Case of Tencent. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, vol. 71, pp. 1531-1541

Through establishing ecosystems around core technologies or products and fostering growth through investments in startups, internet platform companies make substantial contributions to the global economy. These investments often involve corporate venture capital (CVC) initiatives that support value creation. Firms must, therefore, account for the objectives of these initiatives, which aim to ensure value creation for business ecosystems, particularly in emerging markets such as China. This study presents a product-platform-ecosystem model derived from a case study of Tencent, a leading Chinese internet platform company. It analyzes seven strategic objectives of Tencent’s venture capital activities that directly influence value creation in its business ecosystem. The analysis reveals how the strategic objectives underpinning CVC activities contribute to the value creation of platform ecosystems. The proposed value creation paradigm for internet platform ecosystems provides new insights into this rapidly growing market and offers guidelines for business managers and policymakers

• Nishant, R., Schneckenberg, D., & Ravishankar, M. (2024). The formal rationality of artificial intelligence-based algorithms and the problem of bias. Journal of Information Technology, Volume 39, Issue 1, March 2024, Pages 19-40

This paper presents a new perspective on the problem of bias in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven decision-making by examining the fundamental difference between AI and human rationality in making sense of data. Current research has focused primarily on software engineers’ bounded rationality and bias in the data fed to algorithms but has neglected the crucial role of algorithmic rationality in producing bias. Using a Weberian distinction between formal and substantive rationality, we inquire why AI-based algorithms lack the ability to display common sense in data interpretation, leading to flawed decisions. We first conduct a rigorous text analysis to uncover and exemplify contextual nuances within the sampled data. We then combine unsupervised and supervised learning, revealing that algorithmic decision-making characterizes and judges data categories mechanically as it operates through the formal rationality of mathematical optimization procedures. Next, using an AI tool, we demonstrate how formal rationality embedded in AI-based algorithms limits its capacity to perform adequately in complex contexts, thus leading to bias and poor decisions. Finally, we delineate the boundary conditions and limitations of leveraging formal rationality to automatize algorithmic decision-making. Our study provides a deeper understanding of the rationality-based causes of AI’s role in bias and poor decisions, even when data is generated in a largely bias-free context.

April

• Ali, Fayaz , Muhammad Zubair Tauni, Muhammad Ashfaq, Qingyu Zhang, & Tanveer Ahsan (2024) Depressive mood and compulsive social media usage: the mediating roles of contingent self-esteem and social interaction fears.” Information Technology & People, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 1052-1072

The present research examines the role of perceived depressive mood (PDM) in developing compulsive social media use behavior. The authors also identify and hypothesize channels such as contingent self-esteem (CSE), social interaction anxiety (SIA) and fear of negative evaluation (FNE), which may explain how PDM affects compulsive social media use. The research model was empirically tested with a survey of 367 Chinese university students using structural equation modeling by drawing on the escape and self-presentation lenses. The findings indicate that PDM contributes to compulsive social media use behavior both directly and indirectly through CSE. Furthermore, the impact of CSE on compulsive social media use is mediated by the FNE, whereas SIA fails to mediate this effect. The results can advance the authors’ knowledge of the role and process by which depressive mood impacts compulsive social media use. These findings may add insights into psychological treatment and help in, for example, developing counseling programs or coping strategies for depressed people to protect them from using social media excessively. This research identifies the pathway mechanism between PDM and compulsive use of social media. It also increases the understanding of how CSE and social interaction deficiencies contribute to compulsive social media usage (CSMU).

• Gull, A. A., Sarang, A. A. A., Mushtaq, R., & Ahsan, T. (2024). Sustainability committee and environmental decoupling: International evidence. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 31(2), 1268–1287

This paper examines whether sustainability committees curb environmental decoupling. Using a global sample, we document a negatively significant association between sustainability committee and environmental decoupling. These results support the notion that sustainability committees lower the gap between firms actual and reported environmental performance. With regard to the composition of such a committee, we show that size and tenure are positively associated with the level of environmental decoupling. However, more independent and gender-diverse committees lower the level of environmental decoupling. Further analysis shows that documented relationship is not subject to the firms’ corporate governance quality or industry nature. We also document that less engagement of firms with sustainability committee in decoupling practices tend to enhance their financial performance. The results are robust to endogeneity concerns, and several robustness tests. Our findings offer important implications for academic researchers, consultants, stakeholders, and policymakers.

• Espinosa, Romain, et Ricardo Azambuja (2024) Perceived Benefits of Plant-Based Diets. Revue d’économie politique, vol. 134, no. 2, 2024, pp. 285-328

A global shift toward plant-based diets could significantly mitigate the negative impact of the food system on the environment, health, and animal welfare. While information provision has become a popular tool among policy-makers and social scientists to push consumers toward more sustainable diets, little is known about the population’s knowledge about the benefits of adopting a plant-based diet. Using data from a representative sample of the French population (N = 715), we elicit the average knowledge about the relative merits of plant-based diets on the

environment, health, and animal welfare. We show that people have on average a good knowledge of the relatively lower environmental impact of plant-based diets (GHG, land use) but considerably underestimate their health benefits. We also find that people significantly underestimate the prevalence of intensive farming and, therefore, the merits of adopting a plant-based diet for the animals. Our results show that society is predominantly divided into two groups: those who have a positive opinion of plant-based diets on all dimensions, and those who see less benefit in plant-based diets on all dimensions. We discuss the implications of these findings for the role of information campaigns in changing people’s diets.

• Xinquan Zhou, Guillaume Bagnarosa, Michael Dowling, Jagadish Dandu (2024) Media influences on corn futures pricing. European Review of Agricultural Economics, Volume 51, Issue 2, April 2024, Pages 399–435

Understanding agricultural commodity futures is crucial for efficient business operations. This study employs textual machine learning on 290,271 articles (2009–2020) focusing on corn markets, aiming to model the impact of news on corn futures pricing. Our novel approach enables the identification of seven distinct topics within corn news, offering a comprehensive view of the news coverage spectrum. Soybean biofuel news notably influences corn prices, while exports, weather and wheat news significantly impact pricing uncertainty. These insights deepen our understanding of factors shaping corn futures and highlight machine learning’s potential in agricultural economic analysis, enabling more accurate market predictions and policy decisions.

• Mirowska, A. and Bakici, T. (2024) Working in a bubble: techno-isolation as an emerging techno-stressor in teleworkers. Information Technology & People, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 1403-1422

The purpose of this study is to investigate existing and emerging technology-driven stressors using the transactional model of stress and coping (TMSC). In-depth semi-structured interviews with 36 professionals were performed to obtain qualitative data to explore emerging techno-stressors. The findings were validated a year into the pandemic with human resource (HR) professionals. The authors identify a previously unreported techno-stressor, Techno-Isolation (TIS), which arises from a heavy dependence on information communication technologies for professional social interactions. Additionally, several considerations of interaction characteristics are identified that, based on the platform used, affect the experience of TIS, further expanding the TMSC with the addition of medium-interaction compatibility. The authors present a testable model and discuss implications. This study identifies three new information communication technology (ICT)-based antecedents leading to a new techno-stressor, as well as the importance of medium-interaction compatibility in the experiences of stressors as strains. The authors discuss how these elements fit with and extend the existing stress literature.

• M.S. Balaji, Priyanka Sharma, Yangyang Jiang, Xiya Zhang, Steven T. Walsh, Abhishek Behl, Kokil Jain (2024) A contingency-based approach to service robot design: Role of robot capabilities and personalities. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 201, 2024, 123257

The rise of service robots is changing how products and services are delivered, significantly affecting customer outcomes. However, research has yet to specifically examine how the design of a service robot to specific service contexts influences customer engagement and value co-creation. Our study adopts a contingency perspective to investigate how the design of robot capabilities and personalities aligned with specific service contexts impacts customer engagement and value co-creation intentions. We tested this proposition through three experiments carried out in the banking and restaurant service contexts. Our findings revealed the effectiveness of carefully designed robotic capabilities and personalities within a service infrastructure depends on the specific service contexts. The study findings have important implications for service firms in designing service robots through managing robot capabilities and personalities to align with specific service contexts.

• Yangyang Jiang, Yuwei Zan & M. S. Balaji (2024) Generation Z tourists’ experience and delight in rural tourism: the mediating role of customer engagement, Anatolia, 35(2), 392–396

Rural tourism has become more popular following the COVID-19 outbreak because of restrictions on long-distance travel and tourists’ pursuit of wellness (Wen et al., 2020). To sustain the development of rural tourism, improving customer engagement (CE) is vital. CE is critical for rural tourism, as this form of tourism entails tourists’ active interaction with the rural environment (Rosalina et al., 2021). Since urban residents increasingly prefer to take a vacation in rural areas, it is important to understand how to enhance tourist engagement in rural tourism and improve their delight through the design of customer experience. Despite that customer delight is a significant predictor of customer loyalty (Jiang, 2020), the relationship between CE and customer delight remains unexplored. Considering this, the present study examines the relationship between CE, rural tourism customer experience dimensions (education, entertainment, aesthetics, escapism, authenticity, and hedonism), and customer delight. It focuses on Generation Z tourists because this generational cohort represents a promising market for rural tourism, and they may behave differently compared with other generations (Jiang & Hong, 2021). Additionally, research on Generation Z tourists’ behaviour in the rural tourism context is limited.

• Emmanuelle Augeraud-Veron, Raouf Boucekkine, Fausto Gozzi, Alain Venditti, Benteng Zou (2024) Fifty years of mathematical growth theory: Classical topics and new trends, Journal of Mathematical Economics, Volume 111, 102966

We present an overview of selected contributions of the Journal of Mathematical Economics’ authors to growth theory in the last half century. We start with the classical optimal growth theory within a benchmark multisector model and outline the successive developments in the analysis of this model, including the turnpike theory. Different refinements of the benchmark are considered along the way. We then survey the abundant literature on endogenous fluctuations in two-sector models. We conclude with two strong trends in the recent growth literature: green growth and infinite-dimensional growth models

• Morland, K. V., & Breslin, D. (2024). Resolving learning paradoxes within a UK new-build housebuilder. Construction Management and Economics, 42(4), 307–327

The build quality of new UK homes is negatively affected by poor quality management practices during the construction process. By implementing stringent quality management (QM) standards, housebuilders can improve build quality but implementing these organization-wide changes relies on housebuilder staff, designers and sub-contractors learning new working practices. This paper explores the tensions which emerge within housebuilders, as they implement new QM procedures. A longitudinal qualitative case study was conducted, where time was spent with housebuilder staff in three regional offices, two years apart. Methods include participant observation, semi-structured interviews and a review of organizational documentation. The findings highlight several learning paradoxes which arise at different stages of the housebuilding process and show how actors manage (or cope with) these paradoxes through their daily practices. This includes processes of simplifying and applying, improvising and problem-solving and aggregating and analyzing. Whilst these either-or approaches enable staff to resolve the immediate tensions that arise from different organizational processes, they often fail to meet longer-term learning objectives, detrimentally affecting build quality over time. Without structural changes to the way volume housebuilders annually report to both the UK Government and their shareholders, organizations in the UK housebuilding sector face challenges in reconciling different learning processes.

• Jiang, Shiyao, Li, Guiquan, Liu, Haixin, Xiong, Jie and Chakraborty, Shubho (2024) Feeling Right: Regulatory Fit Theory and Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Investment Decisions. Entrepreneurship Research Journal, Volume 14 Issue 2, pp.735-758

Recent advances in entrepreneurial investment decisions research implied that early-stage investment decisions, given their extreme uncertainty and unpredictability, were results of investors’ intuition processes. In other words, investors manage the high risks of early-stage investment decisions by finding justifications of future value against risk in the invested entrepreneurial projects. Although some studies have discussed the decision-making process of mid- and late-stage venture capital, there is still a lack of discussion on the early-stage investment decision-making mechanism. In this paper, we draw on regulatory fit theory to theorize how the fit of regulatory focus between investor and entrepreneur could lead to the investor’s early-stage investment decisions in terms of investment amount and speed. Across three experimental studies, we found empirical support for our proposed model. Specifically, investors who have similar

regulatory focus with the entrepreneurs are more likely to invest a larger amount of funds at a faster speed. We further found that investor’s sense of rightness mediates the relationship between regulatory fit and investment decision, and investor’s previous investment experience plays a moderating role.

• Ronan de Kervenoael, Alexandre Schwob, Rajibul Hasan & Sara Kemari (2024) Food choice and the epistemic value of the consumption of recommender systems: the case of Yuka’s perceived value in France, Behaviour and Information Technology. Volume 43, 2024 – Issue 7, pp. 1381–1400

Food Recommender Systems (RecSys) are innovative knowledge systems that inform consumers of food choices according to criteria, including nutritional content, health concerns, production method, carbon footprint or other social and ethical considerations. They raise important questions at the intersection of technology accuracy and today evolving consumers’ knowledge seeking behaviours, which implies to unpack the epistemic value of food RecSys. This study investigates the drivers of the perceived value of food RSs consumption by proposing a model that establishes via PLS-SEM (n = 253) a positive relationship between the Yuka company’s food RecSys’ epistemic value and its perceived value. The model demonstrates that Yuka RecSys’ epistemic value relies on the disciplinary drivers of compatibility, self-confidence, and consumer innovativeness, and the problematising drivers of memory and learning, which come from using the application. The perceived value of food RecSys is found to relate to RecSys epistemic value beyond the functional accuracy aspects of recommendation algorithms. Results highlight the importance of developing a refined understanding of epistemic value considering the consumption of RecSys. RecSys’ developers, retailers, food manufacturers and policy makers must work on better mapping and adjusting information through consumers socialised RecSys’ usage to shape the design of the next generation RecSys.

• Hu, H. Ma, J. Xiong, P. Gao and P. K. P. Divakaran (2024) Convergence or Divergence: A Computational Text Analysis of Stakeholder Concerns on Manufacturing Upgrading in China. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, vol. 71, pp. 1285-1295, 2024

Stakeholder participation is essential to the reasonable design and smooth implementation of industrial policies. Discourse analysis can be employed as a valuable methodology to decode stakeholder (dis)agreements. Following stakeholder theory, we examine four stakeholder groups, namely the government, enterprises, media, and academia, to analyze the public focus of industrial upgrading in China. We adopt a computational text analysis approach (keyword frequency calculation, word collocation analysis, and theme identification) to understand the divergent and convergent stakeholders’ concerns toward manufacturing upgrading in China from 2015 to 2020, which is widely considered as a manufacturing upgrading policy formulation stage. Our results show that stakeholders mainly focus on innovation capability and digital transformation for China’s manufacturing upgrading. There, industrial planning is the major issue for government and academia. Contradistinctively, enterprises’ main concern is servitization. Enterprise internationalization is more frequently mentioned than manufacturing upgrading in the media industry. Policymakers should engage in various tactics to make the policies endorsed by other stakeholders.Most importantly, the government should fully integrate the views of entrepreneurs in the policy initiation stage. We provide practical implications for the Chinese government to implement better the Made in China 2025 plan

• R. Navarro,. M. Dias, Y. Duzert (2024) Nonmarket Negotiations: Leveraging performance when negotiating with Governments, Influencers, Media, NGOs, Communities and other key stakeholders. British Journal of Multidisciplinary and Advanced Studies: Business and Management Sciences 5(2),90-113

This work highlights the primary effects of externalities on businesses, organizations, and teams. It then discusses the necessity for adapting and complementing traditional concepts, models, and theories of negotiation in this increasingly diverse and complex nonmarket arena. A third topic focuses on strategic negotiations with Governments, one of the most potent components among nonmarket forces. Finally, the work provides a list of practical recommendations for negotiators in the new era of externalities’ impacts and nonmarket prominence

• Michelotti, M., McColl, R., Puncheva,P., Clarke, R., McNamara, T. (2024) The effects of medium and sequence on personality trait assessments in face-to-face and videoconference selection interviews: Implications for HR analytics. Human Resource Management Journal, Volume 34, Issue 2, April 2024, pp.292-310

Adoption of new technology to support selection interviews may distort the validity of source data in HR analytics, with implications for Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms used to assess candidates’ personality traits. Using a field experiment with real selection interviews, we compare two common selection interview modes—Face-to-Face and videoconference, to evaluate their impact on personality trait assessments. Our findings indicate that candidates scored more highly on agreeableness, openness, extroversion, and conscientiousness, but lower on neuroticism, during a Face-to-Face interview compared with videoconference. There was also greater variation in personality ratings when interview sequence commenced with videoconference followed by Face-to-Face, compared with the reverse order. Our results suggest that Face-to-Face followed by videoconference provide a less distorted assessment of personality traits than videoconference followed by Face-to-Face. This study also contributes to practical and academic debates centred on human and AI selection practices and the use of data analytics in HR processes.

• W. Omri, J. -M. Courrent and A. Nemeh (2024) To Go or to Not Go Green for SMEs: Toward the Twinning Effect of Ecodesign Practices and Radical Innovativeness on SME Performance. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management Volume 71 pp. 6370 – 6381

Despite the burgeoning literature on green innovation, the research on how it influences the business performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is relatively scarce. For SMEs, environmental sustainability is becoming an increasingly crucial consideration in the design and conception of their business models. In this article, we explore the determinants of SME performance by investigating the relationship between the ecodesign practices and business performance of SMEs. To further explain and clarify their association, we propose a model for examining the mediating role of radical innovativeness, i.e., firms’ commercialization of an entirely novel idea, new to the firm and its markets. The data are obtained from a relatively heterogeneous sample of 370 SMEs cutting across many industries and regions in France. Structural equation modeling is then employed to analyze the collected data. By applying the concepts from resource-based view theory, we find that the relationship between ecodesign practices and business performance, as measured by financial and nonfinancial indicators, is better understood if the influence of radical innovativeness, as a mediating variable, is considered. By incorporating ecodesign practices and radical innovativeness into the analysis of SME performance, this study provides several important theoretical and practical implications for promoting green innovation for SMEs.

• Esra Paca, Cecile Rozuel (2024) The emergence of mythologies in organisations: A process model. Organization Theory, Volume 5, Issue 2, pp. 1-23

Research on organisational storytelling has shed light on different types of narratives. A specific story type, organisational myths, has caught the interest of some scholars in the field, but has not been theorised in any great detail. While it is rarely disputed that organisational members can and do develop emotional connections to myths and mythical stories in their social context, how and why these myths, or ‘sacred stories’, emerge in organisational settings has remained mostly unaddressed. Therefore, drawing upon a Jungian psychosocial approach, we propose a process model for the emergence of mythologised stories in organisations by situating members’ psychological dynamics within the social context in which they emerge. We propose that a conscious understanding of the conditions that lead to the emergence of mythologised stories in organisations can help clarify and deepen the relationship between different types of stories to support and sustain organisational change and development. The paper contributes to the existing literature on organisational storytelling and myths within organisational studies.

• Mahdi Ghaemi Asl, Muhammad Mahdi Rashidi, Hamid Raza Tavakkoli, Hichem Rezgui (2024) Does Islamic investing modify portfolio performance? Time-varying optimization strategies for conventional and Shariah energy-ESG-utilities portfolio. The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, volume 94, 2024, Pages 37-57

This paper aims to assess the performance of Islamic portfolios vis-`a-vis their conventional counterparts across two distinct periods: the pre-COVID-19 era and the COVID-19 era. Departing from prior studies, this study makes a novel contribution by employing an extensive array of 18 portfolio optimization techniques to construct optimal portfolios for conventional stock indices encompassing energy, utilities, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) dimensions, as well as their Islamic equivalents. Performance comparisons are made utilizing three risk-adjusted performance measures, namely the Sharpe ratio, the Omega ratio, and the Sortino ratio. Our findings reveal that Shariah portfolios outperform conventional portfolios across all performance measures and risk-aversion levels when the most effective optimization methods are employed, both during pre-crisis and crisis periods. Additionally, our analysis highlights certain methods, namely EWMA, GM, DCC, and SHC, which produce portfolios exhibiting superior performance relative to alternative methods, as assessed by risk-adjusted metrics. Furthermore, Islamic portfolios demonstrate higher average returns compared to their conventional counterparts. Notably, incorporating ESG-related stocks into energy and utilities assets significantly enhances average returns, underscoring the potential of ESG investments. Collectively, our findings have noteworthy implications for investors, as they emphasize the role of Islamic stocks as effective diversifiers, yielding favorable resource allocation opportunities during times of crisis as well as stability. However, investors should exercise caution in selecting the optimal portfolio optimization method, as substantial performance disparities exist among different approaches.

• Zhimei Luo, Jinyuan Guo, Jose Benitez, Laurent Scaringella, Jiabao Lin (2024) How do organizations leverage social media to enhance marketing performance? Unveiling the power of social CRM capability and guanxi. Decision Support Systems, Volume 178, 2024, 114123

Drawing on information technology-enabled organizational capabilities theory, we argue that how and when social media use affects marketing performance depending on the mediating role of social customer relationship management (CRM) capability and the moderating role of guanxi. Using a sample of 194 Chinese agricultural firms, we employed a combination of complementary techniques: advanced analysis for composites–structural equation modeling (ADANCO-SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). In ADANCO-SEM analysis, we empirically verify the full mediating role of social CRM capability in the association between social media use and marketing performance and identify the condition for this indirect effect (i.e., when the guanxi levels are high). Moreover, guanxi plays a dual moderating role—it exerts a substitution effect when social media is used to build social CRM capability, and it exerts a complementary effect when social CRM capability is leveraged to improve marketing performance. FsQCA analysis further reveals the different configurations of social media use, guanxi, and social CRM capability that can lead to high marketing performance in different firm sizes. The findings complement those from ADANCO-SEM analysis vis-`a-vis the conditions for the formation of marketing performance. This study contributes to the emerging literature on the business value of social media by theoretically exploring and empirically validating the mechanisms and boundary conditions by which social media affects marketing performance.

May

• Chai Bin-Feng, Sultan Sikandar Mirza, Tanveer Ahsan, Muhammad Azeem Qureshi (2024). How uncertainty can determine corporate ESG performance?. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 31(3), 2290-2310

Using Sino-Securities Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings data, we examine how environmental uncertainty affects the ESG performance of Chinese A-share non-financial listed firms from 2008 to 2020. Our findings show that environmental uncertainty harms corporate ESG performance. In particular, when environmental uncertainty increases, a firm’s ESG score and ESG ratings decline due to factors such as financial constraints and industry competition. We argue that as the environmental risk premium rises, it increases the real options value of postponing sustainable investment for a firm. Consequently, the firms tend to cut down their ESG investment by weighing the long-term benefits and short-term direct costs. The value of real options changes with the investment opportunities available to the firms and the financing constraints and competitive pressure changes the size of investment opportunities. We argue that higher financing constraints and industry competition restrict available investment opportunities and dilute the negative impact of environmental uncertainty on corporate ESG performance. These results add to the existing literature investigating the impact of uncertainty on corporate ESG performance and offer insights to regulators and enterprise managers. These results are robust to alternate proxies of ESG performance and alternate regression techniques.

• Azambuja, Ricardo, Gazi Islam (2024) Middle-Managerial Deviance as a Response to Structural Strain: Rescoping, Reconfiguring and Replacing Norms. Journal of Management Studies. Volume 61, Issue 3, May 2024, pp 994-1035

This paper examines how middle managers subvert organizational norms through diverse forms of deviance. Considering deviance not only in its negative sense, but including elements of adaptability and innovation, we draw on Mertonian theorizing around structural strains to explain deviance as resulting from mismatches between organizational norms and everyday work ‘on-the-ground’, with deviance practices feeding back iteratively into norm formation itself. Drawing upon observations, shadowing and interviews in a Brazilian accounting firm, we explore how deviance follows from incompatible pressures and norms across organizational levels and locations, and is realized in creative practical operationalizations of, and reaction to, conflicting norms. Through thick descriptions of three exemplary cases, we examine middle-managerial deviance at varying level of detachment from, and dialogical relation to, norms. On this basis, we advance a multifaceted conceptualization of deviance – rescoping, reconfiguring and replacing norms – accounting for its conditions of emergence, diversity of mechanisms, and repercussions on middle managers’ agency and organizational functioning and norms. Our findings demonstrate that deviance paves the way for new norm formation, reconciling contradictory constraints while consolidating middle managers’ power over and beyond their official mandates.

Yangyang Jiang, M.S. Balaji, Cenhua Lyu (2024) Cultivating initial trust in ghost kitchens: A mixed-methods investigation of antecedents and consequences, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Volume 119, 103727

This study examines the antecedents and consequences of customer initial trust in ghost kitchens. A sequential mixed-methods approach, consisting of a quantitative survey followed by a qualitative inquiry, was employed to gain an in-depth understanding of the inter-relationships between constructs in the conceptual framework. Through the quantitative study, we found that food safety, economic value, personalization, food authenticity, and multisensory experience each positively influence customers’ initial trust in the ghost kitchen, which in turn, has a positive impact on advocacy and repurchase intentions. Risk attitude moderates the relationship between initial trust and repurchase intention, such that the higher the tendency to take risks, the stronger the relationship between initial trust and repurchase intention. Meta-inferences were then delineated based on the qualitative study to explore plausible reasons behind the results that contradicted the research hypotheses. The study findings offer novel insights into the customer trust-building process in ghost kitchens.

• Giulia Bacci, Sara Viotti, Lara Bertola, Daniela Converso, Barbara Loera (2024) All that glitters is not gold! Job insecurity and Well-being in STEM Research Fellows: a latent profile analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, volume 15 :1347966

Job insecurity is now one of the major stressors affecting well-being at work. In academia, researchers appear to be in the most precarious position. To explore the relationship between job insecurity and well-being at work, we analyzed a sample of research fellows belonging to STEM disciplines in Italy. Using a latent profile approach, we identified three “hidden” subgroups: “Safe & Sound”; “Safe not so Sound” and “Neither Safe or Sound.” Compared to previous studies, our results show that even within a population of STEM researchers that tends to have good levels of employability and mobility, there are subgroups of people characterized by greater job insecurity and low work commitment, who suffer from emotional exhaustion and cynicism at work level, i.e., more exposed to the risk of burnout.

June

• Auray, S., M. Devereux. and A.Eyquem (2024) The Demand for Trade Protection over the Business Cycle. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking Vol. 56, No. 4, pp. 865-898

We build measures of the demand for trade protection, and relate them to permanent productivity and transitory monetary shocks identified from U.S. data. The demand for trade protection is countercyclical conditional on productivity shocks and procyclical conditional on monetary shocks. A two-country dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with trade in intermediate and final goods, sticky prices, and incomplete financial markets is proposed, in which tariffs are determined in a repeated noncooperative policy game. The resulting trade policies are consistent with the empirical evidence about the cyclical pattern of trade protection demand.

• Ahmad, M. F., Aziz, S., Michiels, Y., & Nguyen, D. K. (2024). Tracing environmental sustainability footprints in cross-border M&A activity. European Financial Management, Volume 30, Issue 3, pp. 1165-1195

This study documents the first large-scale empirical evidence on the effects of differences in countries’ environmental sustainability (ES) on cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. Using 34,088 cross-border mergers across 44 countries, we find that greater ES differences between acquirer and target countries stimulate the intensity of cross-border mergers. The acquirer firms experience higher cumulative abnormal returns around merger announcements and pay higher merger premiums. Consistent with the pollution haven hypothesis, results on value effect are more pronounced for M&A deals in highly polluting industries such as petroleum, transportation and mining. The results are robust to a battery of robustness tests.

• Abdelkrim R. Yelles-Chaouche, Evgeny Gurevsky, Nadjib Brahimi, Alexandre Dolgui (2024) Optimizing modular equipment in the design of multi-product reconfigurable production lines. Computers & Industrial Engineering, Volume 192, 2024, 110226

This work addresses the problem of the design and balancing of a modular multi-product line in a reconfigurable environment. The study emphasizes the importance of modularity in the reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS), which allows fast, efficient, and cost-effective adaptation to changes by rearranging, moving, or removing modules. The line consists of a fixed number of modular machines arranged linearly and connected by a material handling system. Each machine has a limited number of slots for modules. The line can handle several product types per batch, and each batch requires a specific line configuration to be produced. The objective consists in identifying the minimum number of modules needed and their arrangement in different configurations to produce each product type. To solve this problem, a compact integer linear programming (ILP) formulation is initially investigated. Then an ILP reformulation, based on a decomposition approach, as well as a heuristic that uses this ILP reformulation are developed. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

• Chenchen Yang, Junsong Bian, Xiaolong Guo, Wenwen Jiang (2024) Logistics outsourcing strategy with online freight platforms, Omega, Volume 125, 2024, 103042

Online Freight Platforms (OFPs) are emerging and developing rapidly based on the Internet of Things and big data technologies. They provide professional logistics services by aggregating the scattered transportation capabilities of individual truck drivers. OFPs have become increasingly popular compared to Traditional Logistics Service Providers (TLSPs), and OFPs have integrated more than 20% of the truck drivers in China. In this paper, we study a manufacturer’s production, distribution, and transportation of a product in bulk to a downstream firm via two transportation channels: TLSP and OFP. The two channels offer different operational modes, service levels, and contract prices. We develop a game-theoretical model to analyze the strategic interactions among the manufacturer, transportation service provider, and downstream firm. Our study highlights the implications for the manufacturer’s logistics outsourcing strategy with OFP and TLSP operations. We find that when an OFP is available, differences in transportation service levels and prices significantly affect the equilibrium decisions of the manufacturer and TLSP. Surprisingly, the emergence of OFPs does not necessarily threaten TLSP operations. This study provides guidance to manufacturers about their selection of shipping outsourcing strategies and new guidance for TLSP operations considering the emergence of OFPs.

Chenchen Yang, Junsong Bian, Xiaolong Guo, Wenwen Jiang (2024) Logistics outsourcing strategy with online freight platforms, Omega, Volume 125, 2024, 103042

Online Freight Platforms (OFPs) are emerging and developing rapidly based on the Internet of Things and big data technologies. They provide professional logistics services by aggregating the scattered transportation capabilities of individual truck drivers. OFPs have become increasingly popular compared to Traditional Logistics Service Providers (TLSPs), and OFPs have integrated more than 20% of the truck drivers in China. In this paper, we study a manufacturer’s production, distribution, and transportation of a product in bulk to a downstream firm via two transportation channels: TLSP and OFP. The two channels offer different operational modes, service levels, and contract prices. We develop a game-theoretical model to analyze the strategic interactions among the manufacturer, transportation service provider, and downstream firm. Our study highlights the implications for the manufacturer’s logistics outsourcing strategy with OFP and TLSP operations. We find that when an OFP is available, differences in transportation service levels and prices significantly affect the equilibrium decisions of the manufacturer and TLSP. Surprisingly,

the emergence of OFPs does not necessarily threaten TLSP operations. This study provides guidance to manufacturers about their selection of shipping outsourcing strategies and new guidance for TLSP operations considering the emergence of OFPs.

• R. Boucekkine, F. Prieur, W. Ruan, B. Zou (2024) Uncertainty-driven symmetry-breaking and stochastic stability in a generic differential game of lobbying. Economic Theory. Volume 77 issue 4, pp. 1127–1171

We study a 2-player stochastic differential game of lobbying. Players invest in lobbying activities to alter the legislation in her own benefit. The payoffs are quadratic and uncertainty is driven by a Wiener process. We consider the Nash symmetric game where players face the same cost and extract symmetric payoffs, and we solve for Markov Perfect Equilibria (MPE) in the class of affine functions. First, we prove a general sufficient (catching up) optimality condition for two-player stochastic games with uncertainty driven by Wiener processes. Second, we prove that the number and nature of MPE depend on the extent of uncertainty (i.e. the variance of the Wiener processes). In particular, we prove that while a symmetric MPE always exists, two asymmetric MPE emerge if and only if uncertainty is large enough. Third, we study the stochastic stability of all the equilibria. We notably find, that the state converges to a stationary invariant distribution under asymmetric MPE. Fourth, we study the implications for rent dissipation asymptotically and compare the outcomes of symmetric vs asymmetric MPE in this respect, ultimately enhancing again the role of uncertainty.

• Boucekkine, R., El Ouardighi, F., Kogan, K. (2024) Recycling of multi-source waste in an aggregate circular economy. Central European Journal of Operations Research, Special Issue in honor of Richard Hartl, volume 32 issue 2, pp 357–398

We investigate how the relationship between capital accumulation and pollution is affected by the source of pollution: production or consumption. We are interested in polluting waste that cannot be naturally absorbed, but for which recycling efforts aim to avoid massive pollution accumulation with harmful consequences in the long run. Based on both environmental and social welfare perspectives, we determine how the interaction between growth and polluting waste accumulation is affected by the source of pollution, i.e., either consumption or production, and by the fact that recycling may or may not act as an income generator, i.e., either capital-improving or capital-neutral recycling efforts. Several new results are extracted regarding optimal recycling policy and the shape of the relationship between production and pollution. Beside the latter concern, we show both analytically and numerically that the optimal control of waste through recycling allows to reaching larger (resp., lower) consumption and capital stock levels under consumption-based waste compared to production-based waste while the latter permits to reach lower stocks of waste through lower recycling efforts.

• Timur Narbaev, Öncü Hazir, Balzhan Khamitova & Sayazhan Talgat (2024) A machine learning study to improve the reliability of project cost estimates, International Journal of Production Research, 62:12, 4372-4388

Project managers need reliable predictive analytics tools to make effective project intervention decisions throughout the project life cycle. This study uses Machine learning (ML) to enhance the reliability in project cost forecasting. A XGBoost forecasting model is developed and computational experiments are conducted using real data of 110 projects representing 1268 cost data points. The developed model performs better than some Earned value management (EVM), ML (Random forest, Support vector regression, LightGBM, and CatBoost), and non-linear growth (Gompertz and Logistic) models. The model produces more accurate estimates at the early, middle, and late stages of the project execution, allowing for early warning signals for more effective cost control. In addition, it shows more accurate estimates in most projects tested, suggesting consistency when repeatedly used in practice. Project forecasting studies mainly used ML to estimate the project duration; a few ML studies estimated the project cost at the project’s conceptual stage. This study uses real data and EVM metrics, proposing an effective XGBoost model for forecasting the cost throughout the project life cycle.

• Helena V. González-Gómez, Sarah Hudson (2024) Employee frustration with information systems: appraisals and resources, European Management Journal,

Volume 42, Issue 3, June 2024, pp 425-436

Frustration experiences have important organizational and individual consequences, particularly in today’s workplaces strongly reliant on information systems (IS). However, recent research has neglected the importance of this emotion in organizations. We propose a model of frustration with IS that considers its IS-related antecedents, consequences, and potential moderators.

Drawing arguments from appraisal theory and conservation of resources theory, we propose a characterization of frustration through cognitive appraisals of IS in organizations. We suggest that both positive and negative responses to frustration can occur depending on its degree of activation, as well as individual and contextual factors, thus providing a holistic model of the IS frustration experience.

• Rahman, M. (2024). What induces corporations to engage in controversial marketing and environmental practices? A linguistic perspective. International Marketing Review, Vol. 41 No. 3/4, 2024, pp. 615-641

Linguists classify the world’s languages into two types: futured and futureless. Futured languages (e.g. French) require speakers to grammatically mark future events, a construction that is optional in futureless languages such as German. This treatise examines whether the grammatical structure of the predominant language in a given country explains firms’ propensity to engage in controversial marketing and environmental management practices. This is expected to happen because a speaker’s future time perspective and temporal discounting vary depending on the type of language used. The sample period for this research was from 2001 to 2020. The sample of the study consists of 5,275 firms representing 47 countries. The sample is comprised of firms from 29 countries where the predominant language is a strong future time reference (FTR) language and 18 countries with a weak-FTR language. The maximum number of firm-country-year observations of the study was 39,956. This study employed multi-level mixed effects modelling as well as other relevant estimation techniques such as random effect panel regression, ordinary least square regression and two-stage least square regression. This research empirically demonstrates that firms based in countries where the predominant language requires speakers to grammatically differentiate between the present and the future – known as strong-FTR or futured languages – engage more often in controversial marketing- and environment-related practices than those located in countries where the predominant language does not necessarily require grammatical differentiation between the present and the future (known as weak-FTR or futureless languages). The findings are important for managers of firms with foreign subsidiary operations: top management teams of such firms need to be aware that their foreign subsidiaries’ propensity to engage in controversial marketing and environmental management practices varies depending on the predominant language those subsidiaries use. Also, firms located in countries with weak-FTR languages need to be more rigorous in their selection process when considering forming a joint venture or acquiring a firm in countries with strong-FTR languages.The current research enriches the burgeoning body of literature on the effect of language on corporate decision-making. It extends the body of knowledge on the impact of language structure on firms’ inclination to engage in controversial marketing and environmental management practices.

• Kyriaki Tselika, Maria Tselika, Elias Demetriades (2024) Quantifying the short-term asymmetric effects of renewable energy on the electricity merit-order curve. Energy Economics, Volume 132, 107471

Amidst the growing significance of renewable energy, this paper examines the asymmetric effects of renewable energy on electricity prices and transmission flows in the Nordics using hourly electricity data. Employing a novel panel asymmetric fixed-effects method, we quantify the non-linear impact of renewable generation technologies on the electricity supply curve. Contrary to previous research, our analysis challenges the assumption of wind having symmetric effects in electricity markets. Specifically, we suggest that an increase in renewable energy cannot lead to price reductions of the same magnitude as the price increases caused by a decrease in wind. In addition, we investigate interconnections between regions and explore asymmetries in transmission flows due to wind generation. Our findings reveal the presence of asymmetric effects in the Nordic electricity market, highlighting their significance in achieving a secure electricity system. These results offer valuable insights for governments, policymakers, and market participants for optimizing the electricity generation mix, prioritizing flexible systems, and making informed investment decisions.

• Abdul Waheed, Muhammad Shahid Khan, Muhammad Akib Warraich, Mehwish Asghar Ali (2024) Environmental policy vs. Environmental innovation: An examination of policies disclosure on sustainable development from stakeholder theory perspective. Sustainable Development, Volume 32, Issue 3, pp. 2506-2516

Studying environmental policy (EnP) and environmental innovation (EnI) is a crucial domain for addressing global challenges such as climate change, resource depletion, and pollution. It equips the corporates with the knowledge and tools to develop effective strategies, regulations, and technological advancements that can mitigate environmental impact and promote sustainable practices for the benefit of current and future generations. This study attempts to uncover the influence of both EnP and EnI toward sustainable development (SD) within three dimensions, that

is, social aspect, economic aspect, and environmental aspect from Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs). A total of 723 documents were considered for data analysis using the SEM method and SmartPLS tool. The outcomes of the study are found interesting and fruitful where firstly a positive connection between EnP and SD was affirmed within Chinese MNEs. Second, the study found a positive nexus between EnI and SD, respectively. The findings highlight the insights by demonstrating EnP and EnI can help attain ultimate output and can strengthen SD of the Chinese MNEs. Additionally, this study offers several thought-provoking and useful managerial recommendations as well as implications for both theoretical and managerial issues. Moreover, some possible opportunities are reported for future researchers by assuming the current flaws to carry out more research both within the Chinese market and rest of the regions, worldwide.

• Ismail Abdulrashid, Reza Zanjirani Farahani, Shamkhal Mammadov, Mohamed Khalafalla, Wen-Chyuan Chiang (2024) Explainable artificial intelligence in transport Logistics: Risk analysis for road accidents. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Volume 186, 103563

Automobile traffic accidents represent a significant threat to global public safety, resulting in numerous injuries and fatalities annually. This paper introduces a comprehensive, explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) artifact design, integrating accident data for utilization by diverse stakeholders and decision-makers. It proposes responsible, explanatory, and interpretable models with a systems-level taxonomy categorizing aspects of driver-related behaviors associated with varying injury severity levels, thereby contributing theoretically to explainable analytics. In the initial phase, we employed various advanced techniques such as data missing at random (MAR) with Bayesian dynamic conditional imputation for addressing missing records, synthetic minority oversampling technique for data imbalance issues, and categorical boosting (CatBoost) combined with SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) for determining and analyzing the importance and dependence of risk factors on injury severity. Additionally, exploratory feature analysis was conducted to uncover hidden spatiotemporal elements influencing traffic accidents and injury severity levels. We developed several predictive models in the second phase, including eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), random forest (RF), deep neural networks (DNN), and fine-tuned parameters. Using the SHAP approach, we employed model-agnostic interpretation techniques to separate explanations from models. In the final phase, we provided an analysis and summary of the system-level taxonomy across feature categories. This involved classifying crash data into high-level causal factors using aggregate SHAP scores, illustrating how each risk factor contributes to different injury severity levels.

July

• Qureshi, M.A., Ahsan, T., Gull, A.A. and Umar, Z. (2024) The impact of economic policy uncertainty on sustainability (ESG) performance: the role of the firm life cycle. International Journal of Managerial Finance, Vol. 20 No. 4, pp. 872-891

This study investigates the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on corporate sustainability [environmental, social and governance (ESG)] performance and aims to explore whether uncertainty-induced sustainability performance is influenced by the firm’s life cycle (LC). The study uses data from European non-financial firms listed during the period from 2002 to 2022 to extend the nascent literature regarding EPU and sustainability performance while applying a dynamic panel data regression analysis (Generalized Method of Moments – GMM System) on 11,462 firm-year observations of 1,869 European firms. The authors find overwhelming evidence that policy uncertainty affects the sustainability performance of European firms. The firms restrict their environmental and governance-related activities and address immediate issues to survive during periods of high EPU. Conversely, the firms increase their social engagements to decrease uncertainty-induced information asymmetry. The authors’ results show that the intensity and type of sustainability performance are also influenced by the firm’s LC. The results imply that board gender diversity (BGD) increases while power concentration with the chief executive officer (CEO) decreases sustainability performance. These findings have important implications for policymakers, potential investors, firm management and other stakeholders given the firms’ access to resources and preferences to encounter uncertainty vary across different LC stages. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the role of the firm’s LC in the relationship between policy uncertainty and sustainability performance in the European context.

• Majeed, M. A., Ahsan, T., & Gull, A. A. (2024). Does corruption sand the wheels of sustainable development? Evidence through green innovation. Business Strategy and the Environment, Volume 33, Issue 5, July 2024, pp. 4626-4651

This study investigates the impact of corruption on green innovation, as corruption may impede or foster green innovation in developing economies due to their weak governance systems. We develop a dataset of Chinese non-financial firms listed between 2007 and 2020 and apply static and dynamic regression techniques. The results indicate a highly significant negative association between corruption and green innovation. This supports the notion that corruption culture reduces corporate legitimacy concerns (institutional theory), increases managerial rent-seeking (agency theory), and hinders green innovation, thus impeding sustainable development and supporting the “sand the wheels” hypothesis. Our analysis also reveals that corruption’s negative impact on green innovation is particularly significant for firms with lower media and analyst coverage, non-state-owned firms, and firms in heavy-polluting industries. These results are robust to alternate proxies of green innovation and corruption as well as econometric specifications that account for endogeneity issues and industry, region, and time-fixed effects.

• Jahanshahi, Asghar Afshar and Bakr Ali Al-Gamrh (2024) Beyond external pressures: How work conditions harm employees’ social and environmental responsibilities. Business Strategy and the Environment. Volume 33, Issue 5, July 2024, pp 4292-4309

The political and economic sanctions, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, have made work and life difficult for Iranians. In this adverse external work environment, this study aims to understand how internal adverse working conditions such as workplace bullying and a hostile work climate may affect workers’ emotional exhaustion and socially responsible behaviors, both inside and outside the workplace. Data were collected longitudinally from 304 full-time employees in Iran using four survey waves over 12 months. To deepen our understanding of the variables and context of the study, we conducted supplementary interviews with 12 participants. The results show that overall workplace bullying increases emotional exhaustion, which, in turn, decreases two types of socially responsible behaviors among workers: (a) sustainability-oriented behaviors within the workplace and (b) societal behaviors outside of the workplace. Furthermore, we found that a hostile workplace climate increases workers’ emotional exhaustion, which, in turn, reduces their sustainability-oriented behaviors but not their societal behaviors. We have discussed the managerial implications of these results.

• Alexandre Schwob, Ronan de Kervenoael, Valentina Kirova & Yan San Sim (2024) Understanding and harnessing the potential of front-line employees’ self-governance in technologised museums and theme parks: insights from a qualitative study, Museum Management and Curatorship, Volume 39, 2024 – Issue 4, pp. 433–456

Focusing on highly technologised museums and theme parks as major actors of the cultural and creative industry (CCI), this study investigates and critically discusses how front-line employees’ self-governance dynamics unfold. It underlines the crucial role of employees’ relationship to technology in establishing how, beyond institutional requirements, employees act proactively to foster good governance. Our analysis of museums and theme parks front-line employee narratives (n = 25), across eight organisations in Singapore, reveals that employees engage in self-governance dynamics by articulating three main technological frames, namely acting, internalisation, and reinvention. Self-governance dynamics are found to nurture adaptive behaviours that reduce the disruptive impacts of technologisation at the workplace while favouring a constructive alignment of interests between employees, visitors, and CCI organisations’ goals. The findings reveal how, when being engaged in self-governance, employees act upon technological presence to enhance visitors’ interactive experiences, thus allowing museums and theme parks to remain socially and societally relevant.

• Puncheva Michelotti Petya, Hudson Sarah, Hennekam Sophie (2024) Anticipated chilly climate for women: the development and validation of a measure. Employee Relations. Vol. 46 No. 4, pp. 795-816

This study develops a measure of anticipated chilly climate for women and provides initial evidence of its validity. We draw on three studies. Study 1 consisted of three focus groups to gain deeper insights into the meaning of the concept for prospective female jobseekers and generate scale items. In Study 2, we pre-tested job post vignettes (N = 203), refined the scale items and explored the factor structure (N = 136). Study 3 aimed to determine the convergent and discriminant validity of the new scale (N = 224) by testing its relationships with organisational attractiveness, person-organisation fit perceptions and gendered language.The results show that the anticipated chilly climate is an important concept with implications for applicants’ career decision-making and career growth in the technology industry, where women tend to be underrepresented. Perceptions of anticipated chilly climate comprise expectations of devaluation,

marginalisation and exclusion from the prospective employment. The masculine stereotypes embedded in the language of the job posts signalled a chilly climate for both genders, negatively affecting perceptions of fit and organisational attractiveness.Most previous studies have focussed on the actual experiences of chilly climates in organisations. We extend this body of literature to anticipatory climates and draw on social identity threat theory and signalling theory to highlight that job applicants make inferences about the climate they expect to find based on job ads. Specifically, they may anticipate a chilly climate based on cues from job ads signalling masculine stereotypes. Whilst the literature has emphasised women’s perceptions of chilly climates within organisations, our results show that both genders anticipate chilly climates with detrimental consequences for both organisations and prospective job applications.

• Muhammad Khakim Habibi, Ramzi Hammami, Olga Battaia, Alexandre Dolgui (2024) Simultaneous Pickup-and-Delivery Production-Routing Problem in closed-loop supply chain with remanufacturing and disassembly consideration, International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 273, July 2024, 109290

In a context of Closed-Loop Supply Chain, Production-Routing Problem with Pickup and Delivery is presented. In its basic form, Production-Routing Problem (PRP) attempts to solve jointly Dynamical Lot-Sizing and Inventory-Routing Problems. In this paper, a novel PRP model seeking to minimize the total cost of manufacturing, remanufacturing, disassembly, inventory, and routing by taking into account the remanufacturing and disassembly processes of End-of-Life returned products is provided. Novel hybrid heuristics based on Two-Phase Iterative and Relax-and-Fix heuristics were developed and outperform Branch-and-Cut algorithm for large size instances with a small vehicle capacity. Main insights derived from sensitivity analyses are (i) managers can use the model to trade off the cost saving resulting from the integration of forward and reverse flows, on the one hand, and any additional cost incurred by the organizational changes related to the integration, on the other hand, (ii) a high level of remanufacturing rate for returned products is not necessarily profitable, and managers should develop a return policy that leads to the appropriate level of remanufacturing rate, and (iii) investing in expanding the remanufacturing or the disassembly capacities can significantly reduce the total cost until a threshold level, beyond which any further investment is not beneficial.

• Karim Zkik, Amine Belhadi, Sachin Kamble, Mani Venkatesh, Mustapha Oudani, Anass Sebbar (2024) Cyber resilience framework for online retail using explainable deep learning approaches and blockchain-based consensus protocol. Decision Support Systems, Volume 182, 2024, 114253

Online retail platforms encounter numerous challenges, such as cyber-attacks, data breaches, device failures, and operational disruptions. These challenges have intensified in recent years, underscoring the importance of prioritizing resilience for businesses. Unfortunately, conventional cybersecurity methods have proven insufficient in thwarting sophisticated cybercrime tactics. This paper proposes a novel resilience strategy that leverages Explainable Deep Learning technologies and a Blockchain-based consensus protocol strategy. By combining these two approaches, our strategy enables rapid incident detection, explains the features and related vulnerabilities that are used, and enhances decision-making during cyber incidents. To validate the efficacy of our approach, we conducted experiments using NAB datasets, preprocessed and trained the data, and performed an experimental study on real online retail architectures. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework in supporting business and operation continuity and creating more efficient cyber resilience strategies that will enhance decision-making capabilities.

August

• Ahsan, T., Albitar, K., Gull, A.A., Hussainey, K. (2024) Does climate governance affect waste disclosure? Evidence from the U.S. Applied Economics, 56(43), pp.5146–5162

Traditional corporate governance mechanisms can improve corporate financial and non-financial disclosures. However, how corporate climate governance affects firms’ waste disclosure remains unclear. Contributing to the emerging climate governance concept, this study investigates climate governance’s impact on waste disclosure using a sample of U.S. non-financial firms from 2002 to 2019. This study makes two contributions to the disclosure and governance literature. First, it shows that high-quality climate governance improves firms’ waste disclosure (including hazardous and non-hazardous waste disclosures). It reveals that climate governance quality affects firms’ waste disclosure through several channels. Second, we show that higher waste disclosure and climate governance quality reduce firms’ market performance. Climate governance quality has a significant positive moderating role in the relationship between waste disclosure and firms’ market performance; higher climate governance quality positively impacts firms’ market performance through waste disclosure. The results are robust to alternative proxies for waste disclosure, different regression techniques, and endogeneity issues.

• Junhui Zhang, Yogesh K. Dwivedi, Balaji M S, Subhash Jha, Jun Luo (2024). It’s a Match! The Effect of Regulatory Fit on New Products Recommendations. Psychology & Marketing, Volume 41, Issue 8, August 2024, pp 1882-1899

Online retailers often recommend new products to consumers. The present study examined the influence of regulatory fit on consumers’ click-through intentions of new products recommended by online retailers. We proposed that regulatory fit resulting from aligning the product’s regulatory focus and recommendation message’s regulatory orientation positively influences click-through intention of new product recommendations. In a laboratory study (Study 1), we found that regulatory fit increase consumers’ click-through behaviors of new product recommendations. Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1 in a controlled online experiment and found support for regulatory fit—click-through intentions relationship. Study 3 found that regulatory fit increases click-through intentions for new products but not for existing products. Study 4 supported the mediating role of perceived efficacy and boundary condition of consumer innovativeness in the relationship between regulatory fit and click-through intentions. This study contributes to the literature on new product adoption, regulatory focus, and product recommendation strategies. Furthermore, it helps online retailors develop effective recommendation strategies for new product recommendations.

• Raouf Boucekkine, Shankha Chakraborty, Aditya Goenka, Lin Liu (2024) Economic epidemiological modelling: A progress report. Journal of Mathematical Economics, Volume 113, 2024, 103011

Prior to the Covid-19 crisis, the integration of epidemiology and economics that is, economic epidemiology modelling (epi-econ), was relatively limited. The emergence of the Covid-19 crisis has prompted an unprecedented surge in this literature. This paper identifies and develops the main conceptual and modelling challenges involved in the expanding epi-econ stream, with a particular attention to the mathematical issues due, in particular, to the non-convex nature of epi-econ models. Recent extensions are also examined and a few future areas of research highlighted.

• Y. Boutarfa, A. Senoussi, N. Brahimi, T. Aouam (2024) Integration and substitution in hybrid manufacturing and refurbishing systems. International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 274, , August 2024, 109308

Inspired by a real-work case, this paper introduces a profit maximization model for dynamic lot sizing considering substitution and multiple usage of returns for refurbishing at different levels of quality or for disassembly to extract key parts that will be used in the manufacturing process. This model allows studying the interactions between different types of returns and decisions. To analyze the impact of uncertainty on these interactions, we develop a robust two-stage stochastic program with uncertainty on demands and returns. The resulting problems are mixed-integer linear programs that we solve using an efficient relax-and-fix and fix-and-optimize heuristic. Extensive numerical experiments are conducted to study the different trade-offs when integrating multi-usage of returns with substitution and accordingly derive managerial insights. The experiments have revealed, for example, that: (i) the profit margin of the refurbished items is the main determinant of the total profit and when such margin in high, the total profit becomes more sensitive to different cost variations; (ii) collection efficiency becomes very sensitive to collection cost and much less sensitive to refurbishing cost especially with large profit margins; (iii) when demand and returns are uncertain parameters, substitution becomes the best option as uncertainty and prices increase; (iv) when the gap between prices of different quality levels is high, lost sales occur mainly on the lowest quality product and downgrading decreases together with substitution; and (v) Sharing the production line between refurbishing and manufacturing for low-quality products is highly motivated by small upgrading costs and their substitution level increases with increasing upgrading costs.

September

• Gull, A.A., Abid, A., Rind, A.A., Hussain, D. (2024). Women directors and CSR report assurance: An international examination. Comptabilité – Contrôle – Audit / Tome 30 – Volume 303,pp 1-39

This paper examines whether women directors impact the firm’s likelihood of seeking corporate social responsibility (CSR) report assurance. Using a global dataset for the period 2002–2019, we find robust results that women directors drive the firm’s likelihood of seeking CSR report assurance from external auditors. The results also reveal that women directors impact CSR report assurance when they are in a critical mass. Furthermore, both executive and non-executive women directors impact the firm’s likelihood of seeking CSR report assurance; however, the relationship is more pronounced for executive women directors. We also show that the relationship of women directors with CSR report assurance is only significant for firms operating in environmentally sensitive industries. The cross-sectional analysis also exhibits that our main finding holds only for firms with weak governance and low CSR orientation. Finally, we document that the CSR committee channels the impact of women directors on the firm’s likelihood of seeking CSR report assurance. The results provide interesting insights into the governance-CSR assurance nexus and have important practical implications for stakeholders globally

• Ylva Baeckström, Akanksha Jalan, Roman Matkovskyy (2024) The role of promotion versus prevention-orientation to predict individual cryptocurrency participation, Finance Research Letters, Volume 67, Part A, 2024, 105851

We investigate cryptocurrency participation within the context of Regulatory Focus Theory (RFT) among 1,519 individuals in Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Analysis of survey responses identifies the tendency for promotion-focused investors to gravitate towards the high-risk, high-reward potential of cryptocurrencies, while prevention-focused investors adopt a more cautious approach that prioritizes safer assets. Our results which demonstrate that RFT can be used to predict current and future cryptocurrency participation contribute to understanding the profile of participants in the rapidly growing cryptocurrency market.

• Scaringella, L. (2024) Research centres and universities’ intellectual capital: A quantitative empirical study of Ph.D. holders’ contributions. R&D Management Volume 54, Issue 4: Special issue: IT as a driver of R&D processes and strategic renewal; Intellectual Capital and R&D Management, Sep 2024, pp 683-883

This study investigates the mechanisms of intellectual capital (IC) in knowledge-intensive research centres and universities in the Minalogic cluster of Grenoble, France. We use structural equation modelling to analyse responses from 248 PhD holders. Our results show a positive relationship among human, relational, structural, and intellectual capital outcomes. We first contribute to the early understanding of IC mechanisms in research centres and universities by conducting a quantitative empirical study, which is novel to IC. We support the relation between knowledge-based human capital and relational alliances capital and highlight the importance of employing PhD. holders. Second, unlike past studies, we offer empirical support that (a) relational alliances capital relates to structural innovation capital and (b) knowledge-based human capital relates to structural innovation capital. We suggest that research centres and universities should develop an alliance portfolio for innovations. Third, we uncover that structural innovation capital relates to IC outcomes, contributing to the assessment of the economic and social role of public research centres and universities. This study presents managerial implications for policymakers and practitioners engaged in research centres and universities by highlighting the importance of key components of IC.

• Mehnaz, Jiahua Jin, Azhar Hussain, Muhammad Akib Warraich, Abdul Waheed (2024) Impact of perceived CSR practices on customers loyalty. The mediating role of reputation and customer satisfaction. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, Volume 31, Issue 5, September 2024, pp 3724-3734

Customers’ loyalty is considered as an important factor ensuring overall organizational success in the long run. The purpose of this investigation is to determine how customer loyalty in Pakistan’s banking sector affected by perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) practice. To end this, the present study collected data from 378 respondents using convenience sampling technique. To test proposed hypothesis, the study used correlation analysis, regression analysis, and Baron and Kenny method used to test mediation effect of variables together with the Sobel test. The result of the study shows a significant positive association among perceived CSR, bank reputation and customers loyalty and customer satisfaction. This study further shows that bank reputation has a mediating effect between perceived CSR and customer loyalty, but the relationship between CSR practices and customer loyalty has a negative effect on customer satisfaction. It was found that there was no mediating effect of degree. The findings highlight the importance of allocating resources to CSR initiatives and reputation management as a means of increasing customer loyalty. The results provide an important academic addition to the current body of research on the impact of CSR on the development of customer loyalty, with a particular focus on the Pakistani banking industry.

October

• Rehman, A.u., Yaqub, A., Ahsan, T. and Rao, Z.-u. (2024) Earnings management using classification shifting of revenues: evidence from Chinese-listed firms. Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies, Vol. 14 No. 5, pp. 1061-1083

This study aims to investigate earnings management practice of classification shifting of revenues in Chinese-listed firms. The study employs a dataset of 2,920 A-listed firms from Chinese stock exchanges of Shanghai and Shenzhen for the period of 2003–2019. We apply both univariate and panel regression analysis by using fixed effect estimation with robust standard errors. Our findings reveal that firms misclassify revenues by taking advantage of the flexibility provided by applicable financial reporting standards. The empirical evidence obtained through regression analysis suggest that managers reclassify non-operating revenues as operating revenue to alter the economic reality while seeking the advantage of financial reports users’ vulnerability for valuing the upper half of income statement items more as compared to lower part. The results further indicate that international financial reporting standards adoption inhibits the earnings management practices using classification shifting of revenues. It is also concluded that firms, which are suffering losses or having low growth, are more persistently involved in misclassification of revenues. The study is unique from the point of view that it investigates earnings management from the prospective of revenue’s classification in an emerging market characterized by various market imperfections such as lower investor protection and higher information asymmetry

• M.E. Bruni and Ö. Hazır (2024) A risk-averse distributionally robust project scheduling model to address payment delays. European Journal of Operational Research, Volume 318, Issue 2, 16 October 2024, Pages 398-407

Delays in payments have become a common risk factor for industrial projects, especially in recent years, since the financial position of firms has been threatened by pandemics, wars, inflation, and major supply chain disruptions. These delays create a time lag between expenses and payments, potentially leading to cash shortages that can have significant negative effects on the project success. To address cash shortage issues, project contractors often explore alternative financing options. The amount of money the contractor needs to borrow and when the loan is taken out considerably affects the overall project cost. In this paper, we present a distributionally robust model for effective cash flow management that minimizes the financing cost by accurately estimating the amount and timing of the expenses and revenues throughout the project life cycle. For the proposed model, we develop a heuristic algorithm that solves the problem efficiently. The performance of the heuristic is compared to the best-known solutions generated within a time limit by an off-the-shelf exact solver. Our results show that our algorithm is very competitive and can generate better solutions in substantially less time.

• Fuchs, M. D., Jacob, J., & Kiesel, F. (2024). Where the money is: branch network structure and bank profitability in Switzerland. The European Journal of Finance, 30(15), pp 1785–1816

This paper investigates the impact of the geographic concentration of branch networks on bank profitability in Switzerland. Leveraging Switzerland’s distinctive federalist fiscal structure, where communes set their own income tax rates, we also explore whether the tax burden of branch locations moderates this relationship. Using a hand-collected dataset of branch networks of commercial banks, we find that geographic branch network concentration positively affects bank profitability but only when banks concentrate their branches in low-tax communes. This suggests that the proximity to wealthy clients, who are more likely to reside in low-tax areas, enhances bank profitability.

• Noval, L.J., Stahl, G.K. & Zhong, CB (2024). The Sadder but Nicer Effect: How Incidental Sadness Reduces Morally Questionable Behavior. Journal of Business Ethics Volume 194, pages 351–368, (2024)

This article explores the influence of sadness in ethical decision-making and behavior. In three laboratory studies, we found that an incidental state of sadness reduced individuals’ propensity to engage in morally questionable behavior, including both unethical and selfish acts (Studies 1 to 3). We found this effect to be mediated by the role of sadness in prompting people to pay more attention to the negative consequences of morally questionable acts and perceive those consequences as more problematic (Studies 2 and 3). This effect was consistent using different decision-making contexts and held when rewards to be gained from such behavior were relatively high. Several implications of these findings for business ethics and organizations are discussed.

• Sami Ben Jabeur, Giray Gozgor, Hichem Rezgui, Kamel Si Mohammed (2024) Dynamic dependence between quantum computing stocks and Bitcoin: Portfolio strategies for a new era of asset classes. International Review of Financial Analysis, Volume 95, Part B, 2024, 103478

Quantum computing and digital currencies еmеrgеs as an еssеntial arеa of inquiry within thе rеalms of science, technology, and finance. A pivotal yеt lеss еxplorеd aspect of this area pеrtains to thе dеvеlopmеnt trajеctory of quantum computing rеsеarch in enhancing financial markets trading and as diversification portfolio instrument. This research investigates the different portfolio strategies and the dynamic dependence between quantum computing stocks and Bitcoin using daily data from August 11, 2010, to September 6, 2023. For this purpose, the paper utilises the Wavelet Local Multiple Correlation (WLMC), the Dynamic Conditional Correlation- Generalized AutoRegressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (DCC-GARCH) methods, and portfolio optimisation implications. The results show a strong dependence on the time-scale domain, specifically after 2020. Thе timе еvolution of cumulativе rеturns for thе Minimum Variancе Portfolio (MVP), Minimum Corrеlation Portfolio (MCP), and Minimum Connеctеdnеss Portfolio (MCoP) еvidеnt that MVP еxhibits considеrably lowеr cumulativе rеturns compared to MCP and MCoP, given thе the significant invеstmеnt wеight of Bitcoin, IBM and NVDA markets. The findings are crucial for investors, policymakers, and regulators, providing a detailed understanding of the dynamic interplay between quantum computing stocks and Bitcoin and enabling more informed and strategic investment decisions.

• Amine Ben Amar, Néjib Hachicha, Hichem Rezgui & Shawkat Hammoudeh (2024) How Does the Russian-Ukrainian War Rock Stock and Commodity Markets? Fresh Insights from Joint Network-Connectedness Analysi. Defence and Peace Economics, 35(6), 713–739

The outbreak of the war in Ukraine has had a profound and far-reaching impact on the global economy, with notable repercussions observed in stock markets, and particularly pronounced effects evident in commodities markets. This paper examines the connectedness network among 27 NATO stock markets, Russian stock market and a set of three commodity indices (energy, precious metals, and agricultural commodities) over the period 2017-2023. The empirical strategy consists of time and time-frequency connectedness metrics. The empirical results reveal that the connectedness structure has shifted during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Moreover, hit by a series of Western sanctions, Russia’s stock market appears to be the most isolated of the considered markets during the war period. Furthermore, the energy, agricultural and precious metals commodities seem to be efficient hedging instruments for investors in the stock markets of the NATO countries during the war period.

November

• Bakr Al-Gamrh, Umar Farooq, Tanveer Ahsan (2024) Beyond the balance sheet: Assessing corporate governance through the Lens of debtholders. International Review of Financial Analysis, Volume 96, Part A, 2024, 103625

This study investigates the relationships between economic uncertainty (EU), corporate governance (CG), and the cost of debt (COD). Using an index-based measure of CG, this study investigates how CG influences debtholders’ perspectives during periods of EU. The study utilizes a dataset of nonfinancial firms listed in European countries from 2013 to 2021. We find that EU and COD are positively associated, indicating that EU increases the COD of European firms. Second, while CG has an insignificant direct impact on COD, it has a significant negative moderating impact on the relationship between EU and COD, suggesting that although a strong CG system may not have a significant direct impact on COD, it has the potential to reduce the uncertainty-induced COD of European firms. The results remain consistent with alternative proxies of COD and CG, as well as before and after the COVID-19 period. The results for CG subindices suggest that shareholder rights and compensation serve as reliable indicators for debtholders during periods of EU, while audit quality and board structure do not play any significant role in reducing uncertainty-induced COD. Our findings emphasize the key role that effective CG plays in mitigating EU’s adverse effects on COD. Our results are robust to endogeneity issues such as reverse causality and selection bias, as well as to external factors like time and industry effects

• Romain Menier, Guillaume Bagnarosa, Alexandre Gohin (2024) On the dependence structure of European vegetable oil market. Applied Economics, Volume 56, 2024 – Issue 52

In light of current high and volatile energy and food prices, we examine the daily dynamics of the conditional variance-covariance matrix and price discovery in European vegetable oils. We find that energy prices chiefly influence vegetable oil trends, while stock-to-use ratios significantly impact variance-covariance dynamics when considering their specific cold filter plugging point (CFPP). This technical detail robustly demonstrates interplays among vegetable oils based on economic principles of complementarity and substitutability, even amid the pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Moreover, both marginal distributions and volatility dependence structures relate to distinct economic fundamentals, enhancing our understanding of the market’s complexity.

• Bhattacharyya, J., Balaji, M. S., & Jiang, Y. (2024). Assessing the Effectiveness of Environmental Sustainability Performance Communication in Tourism: Mediation and Moderation Effects. Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 63(8) 1933–1952

This study aims to examine how and when different framings of sustainability performance communication influence travelers’ behavioral intentions. Specifically, it examines (1) the effectiveness of sustainability performance communication framing in shaping traveler’s behavioral intentions, (2) the mediating role of perceived commitment to sustainability, and (3) the moderating effect of the level of sustainability performance communicated. The findings of the four experiments conducted revealed that communicating sustainability performance is more effective than not reporting it in determining travelers’ behavioral intentions. Furthermore, an enhancement framing is more effective when communicating sustainability performance than a reduction framing. We also found that tourism provider’s commitment to sustainability explains the impact of sustainability performance communication framing on behavioral intentions. Furthermore, we found that communicating a moderate level of sustainability performance in enhancement framing and a high level in reduction framing is effective. The study provides implications for theory and practice in developing effective sustainability communication.

• Junsong Bian, Suzhen Liang, Yunchuan Liu, Xuan Zhao (2024) Equilibrium anti-counterfeiting strategies with deceptive counterfeits: Proactive, reactive, or instantaneous? Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Volume 191, 2024, 103721

This papers studies anti-counterfeiting strategies with deceptive counterfeits. We develop a model to study the interactive anti-counterfeiting and counterfeit hiding decisions between the genuine brand company and a deceptive counterfeiter. Facing deceptive counterfeits, the genuine brand company can choose to adopt a proactive, instantaneous, or reactive anti-counterfeit strategy. We first examine these strategies and then characterize the equilibrium outcomes. Surprisingly, we reveal that the genuine brand company does not necessarily benefit from heavier penalty and the counterfeiter is not necessarily worse off with more costly counterfeit hiding efforts. Interestingly, the counterfeiter’s hiding effort decreases with heavier penalty when the genuine brand company’s anti-counterfeit and the counterfeiter’s hiding decisions are sufficiently efficient. Besides, higher levels of counterfeit imitation or penetration can either hurt or benefit the genuine brand company. Whether the counterfeiter is better off with deeper counterfeit penetration depends on the status quo. Furthermore, the counterfeiter exerts fewer counterfeit hiding efforts when the genuine brand company exerts more anti-counterfeit efforts, while the anti-counterfeit effort increases with the counterfeit hiding effort, regardless of the anti-counterfeiting strategies. Finally, for decision makers and policy makers, we discuss the implications for anti-counterfeiting strategies in practice.

• Hamed Zamani, Fereshteh Parvaresh, Navid Izady, Reza Zanjirani Farahani (2024) Admission, discharge, and transfer control in patient flow logistics: Overview and future research. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Volume 191, 2024, 103722

Patient flow logistics involves managing and coordinating the movement of patients within a healthcare system. It aims to optimize the patients’ flow from their arrival to discharge or transfer, ensuring efficient and effective use of resources while minimizing delays and bottlenecks. Key components of patient flow logistics include capacity planning, resource allocation, appointment scheduling, and notably, admission, discharge, and transfer control. Our focus is on admission, discharge, and transfer control policies, which manage and regulate the flow of individual patients into and out of various facilities delivering care. We review a selection of 37 analytical, empirical, and experimental papers in this area published in leading operations research, operations management, and medical journals. These papers are categorized based on the specific department they target and the type of policies they consider. In particular, we identify: (i) four types of policies for intensive care units, (ii) three types of policies for emergency departments, and (iii) four types of policies for general wards. For each paper, we provide an overview of the research questions, formulations, solution methodologies, and results. This comprehensive review culminates in identifying future research directions for academics in this field.

January

• Xuhui Wang, Mohammad Alauddin, Abaid Ullah Zafar, Qilin Zhang, Tanveer Ahsan & Zapan Barua (2023) WeChat Moments Among International Students: Building Guanxi Networks in China, Journal of Global Information Technology Management, Vol 26 Issue 1, pp. 47-76

China is a collectivist nation that varies socially and culturally from most Western countries. Recently, the country has been an attractive destination for international students.  A contemporary digital platform such as WeChat Moments (WMs) is a leading social media platform among locals and international students to communicate and interact in cross-cultural settings for various purposes, including maintaining friendships and establishing new social capital. Prior research has overlooked the beneficial effects of such domestic social media platforms on international students in China, especially for strengthening their existing friendship quality and guanxi network ing.Based on the self-disclosure theory, this study examines the relationship between international students’ WMs use intensity, online self-disclosure, closeness to friends, and guanxi network building using data from 445 international students employing structural equation modeling. This study reveals that WMs use has a substantial effect on the formation of guanxi networks and that online self-disclosure mediates the connection between WMs use and friendship closeness and guanxi network building. Several theoretical and practical recommendations are provided in the context of the guanxi network.

• Kapoor, P.S., Balaji, M.S. and Jiang, Y. (2023) Greenfluencers as agents of social change: the effectiveness of sponsored messages in driving sustainable consumption, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 57 No. 2, 2023, pp. 533-561

This study aims to examine the role of message appeals (concrete vs abstract) posted by greenfluencers in determining their behavioral intention toward the sponsored sustainable product. This study examined the underlying mechanism of message authenticity and product sustainability image in this relationship. This study also investigated the boundary condition of product type (utilitarian vs hedonic) in the effect of sustainability message appeal on purchase intention. Four studies were carried out. One field experiment on Facebook and three scenario-based online experiments were conducted to test the proposed relationships. This study found that a concrete message appeal results in a higher purchase intention of the promoted product than an abstract message appeal. This effect is a result of message authenticity and product sustainability image. Furthermore, product type moderates the impact of message appeal on behavioral intention via message authenticity and product sustainability image. This study contributes to the literature on influencer marketing, sustainability communication and the persuasion process. Practical implications – This study’s findings provide insights  for greenfluencers and firms that leverage greenfluencers to promote their sustainable products on social media. Specifically, it lays out how the sustainability message should be framed to be persuasive. This study findings offer novel insights for greenfluencers and firms in developing effective message strategies to promote sustainable products on social media.

• Yongqing Li, Jie Xiong, Wanqing Ma, Huimin Ma, Mehdi Farajallah (2023) Decomposing manufacturing CO2 emission changes: An improved production-theoretical decomposition analysis based on industrial linkage theory. Journal of Environmental Management, Volume 325, Part A, 2023, 116471

Identifying key drivers of manufacturing CO2 emissions is critical to carbon reduction practices. For manufacturing, CO2 emissions are mainly determined by production capacity and production scale. However, traditional production-theoretical decomposition analysis (PDA) fails to consider production-scale-related drivers. To better support policy development and implementation, this paper improves PDA based on industrial linkage theory. The improved model can identify seven production-capacity-related drivers and five production-scale-related drivers, allowing a comprehensive understanding of CO2 emission drivers. Then this model is implemented to investigate CO2 emission changes in 18 manufacturing sectors in Hubei Province, China, from 2012 to 2017. Results show that manufacturing CO2 reduction efforts in Hubei Province have yielded some achievements, with reduced potential energy intensity and improved CO2 emission technical efficiency in most sectors. Changes in external market demand and final demand structure have contributed to CO2 reduction in most sectors. Results also reveal some problems in manufacturing in Hubei Province, such as the inability to improve CO2 emission technical efficiency and CO2 emission technology strength, the slow improvement of energy utilization technical efficiency and energy utilization technology strength, and the reduction of value-added rate.

• Hennekam, S., Richard, S. & Ozbilgin, M. (2023). How social structures influence the labour market participation of individuals with mental illness: A Bourdieusian perspective. Journal of Management Studies, Volume 60, Issue 1, January 2023, pp 174-203

Adopting a Bourdieusian perspective, this paper examines the social structures that influence the labour market participation of individuals with mental illness. We draw on 57 qualitative surveys completed by individuals with diagnosed mental health conditions in Europe, North America, Oceania, Africa, and Asia. We employed thematic analysis to analyse the data. The findings reveal that the interplay of capital endowments, symbolic violence, habitus and illusion shape the labour market participation of individuals with mental illness. Capital endowments of individuals with mental illness are afforded less value in the labour market and these individuals internalize, legitimize and normalize their disadvantaged position, blaming themselves rather than questioning the social structures leading to the challenges they encounter. We highlight that social structures condition the opinion these individuals have of themselves and how this affects how they navigate the labour market. In sum, we show that Bourdieu’s concepts provide a useful lens to study inequalities in the labour market, as they reveal the social structures that produce, sustain and reinforce the social order that disadvantages individuals with mental illness.

• Hudson, S. and  Liu, Y (2023) Mobile App Users’ Privacy Concerns: Different Heuristics for Privacy Assurance Statements in the EU and China. Information Technology & People. Vol. 36 No. 1, 2023, pp. 245-262

As mobile apps request permissions from users, protecting mobile users’ personal information from being unnecessarily collected and misused becomes critical. Privacy regulations, such as General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union (EU), aim to protect users’ online information privacy. However, one’s understanding of whether these regulations effectively make mobile users less concerned about their privacy is still limited. This work aims to study mobile users’ privacy concerns towards mobile apps by examining the effects of general and specific privacy assurance statements in China and the EU. Drawing on ecological rationality and heuristics theory, an online experiment and a follow-up validation experiment were conducted in the EU and China to examine the effects of privacy assurance statements on mobile users’ privacy concerns. When privacy regulation is presented, the privacy concerns of Chinese mobile users are significantly lowered compared with EU mobile users. This indicates that individuals in the two regions react differently to privacy assurances. However, when a general regulation statement is used, no effect is observed. EU and Chinese respondents remain unaffected by general assurance statements. This study incorporates notions from fast and frugal heuristics end ecological rationality – where seemingly irrational decisions may make sense in different societal contexts.

• Liu, Y., Jiang, Q., and Gleasure, R. (2023). Hitting Net-Zero without Stopping Flying: Increasing Air Travelers’ Likelihood to Opt-in to Voluntary Carbon Offsetting. Journal of Travel Research Vol. 62(1) 21–38

Voluntary carbon offset (VCO) programs give air travelers opportunities to neutralize their carbon footprint. Despite its potential, few existing studies have explained how to present VCOs that can effectively appeal to the sensibilities of travelers in different conditions. We designed three online experiments with strategies to motivate travelers to opt-in. We found travelers who receive concrete messages that emphasize specific actions are more likely to opt-in to VCOs when flying in the near future. In contrast, travelers receiving abstract messages that emphasize general initiatives are more likely to opt-in to VCOs when flying in the distant future. When travelers are allowed to choose their preferred carbon offset method, they are more likely to opt in, especially when they receive concrete messages that indicate specific actions but not general initiatives. These findings contribute to the aviation carbon offset literature and offer useful new insights for airline companies.

• Mahabubur Rahman (2023) The virtuous circle between green product innovation and performance: The role of financial constraint and corporate brand. Journal of Business Research, Volume 154, 2023, 113296

Although the nexus between green product innovation (GPI) and firm performance has been studied, the impact of GPI on firm performance remains little understood and findings have been mixed. These mixed results of prior studies are attributable to failures to incorporate the intervening mechanism in studying the nexus between GPI and firm performance and to examine the impact of closely interlinked pertinent internal boundary conditions. This study attempts to overcome these shortcomings and contributes to the relevant literature in three significant ways. First, the findings indicate that GPI impacts a firm’s financial constraint, which affects its current and anticipated performance. Second, the relationship between GPI and financial constraint is moderated by a firm’s corporate brand equity. Third, GPI is both a predictor and a consequence of financial performance, indicating that the relationship between the two constitutes a virtuous circle. The results are robust to alternative measures of the performance variable and the alternative model estimation method.

• KhanM. H. MushtaqJ. MuhammadB. Ahmed, M.A. Warraich et al. (2022) Global epidemiology of Equine Influenza viruses; “A possible emerging zoonotic threat in future” an extensive systematic review with evidence. Brazilian Journal of Biology , 83 • 2023 , e24659

There are different opinions around the World regarding the zoonotic capability of H3N8 equine influenza viruses. In this report, we have tried to summarize the findings of different research and review articles from Chinese, English, and Mongolian Scientific Literature reporting the evidence for equine influenza virus infections in human beings. Different search engines i.e. CNKI, PubMed, ProQuest, Chongqing Database, Mongol Med, and Web of Knowledge yielded 926 articles, of which 32 articles met the inclusion criteria for this review. Analyzing the epidemiological and Phylogenetic data from these articles, we found a considerable experimental and observational evidence of H3N8 equine influenza viruses infecting human being in different parts of the World in the past. Recently published articles from Pakistan and China have highlighted the emerging threat and capability of equine influenza viruses for an epidemic in human beings in future. In this review article we have summarized the salient scientific reports published on the epidemiology of equine influenza viruses and their zoonotic aspect. Additionally, several recent developments in the start of 21st century, including the transmission and establishment of equine influenza viruses in different animal species i.e. camels and dogs, and presumed encephalopathy associated to influenza viruses in horses, have documented the unpredictable nature of equine influenza viruses. In sum up, several reports has highlighted the unpredictable nature of H3N8 EIVs highlighting the need of continuous surveillance for H3N8 in equines and humans in contact with them for novel and threatening mutations

• Reza Zanjirani Farahani, Rubén Ruiz, Luk N. Van Wassenhove (2023) Introduction to the special issue on the role of operational research in future epidemics/ pandemics, European Journal of Operational Research, Volume 304, Issue 1, 2023, Pages 1-8

In this special issue, 23 research papers are published focusing on COVID-19 and operational research solution techniques. First, we detail the process from advertising the call for papers to the point where the best papers are accepted. Then, we provide a summary of each paper focusing on applications, solution techniques and insights for practitioners and policy makers. To provide a holistic view for readers, we have clustered the papers into different groups: transmission, propagation and forecasting, nonpharmaceutical intervention, healthcare network configuration, healthcare resource allocation, hospital operations, vaccine and testing kits, and production and manufacturing. Then, we introduce other possible subjects that can be considered for future research.

February

• Jishnu Bhattacharyya, M.S. Balaji, Yangyang Jiang (2023) Causal complexity of sustainable consumption: Unveiling the equifinal causes of purchase intentions of plant-based meat alternatives. Journal of Business Research, Volume 156, 113511

Sustainable consumption has received much attention, although its antecedents are not fully elucidated. Existing studies are constrained by the assumption of symmetrical paradigms, emphasizing the net effects of antecedents without considering the complexity of sustainable consumption decision-making. This study draws on the theory of consumption values and the complexity theory to identify the complex combinations of consumption values (health, food safety, ecological, curiosity, novelty, prestige, avoidance of guilt) that explain consumers’ intentions to purchase plant-based meat alternatives (PBMA). An online survey was used to collect data from 252 meat eaters in the United States. Data were analyzed with fsQCA to identify the causal configuration of consumption values that explain meat-eaters’ PBMA purchase intentions. The fsQCA results revealed six heterogeneous combinations of the consumption values that result in high levels of purchase intention toward PBMA. The findings can be used by marketers to develop strategies for promoting sustainable consumption and PBMA.

• Bertola, L., Colombo, L., Fedi, A. and Martini, M. (2023) Are work–life policies fair for a woman’s career? An Italian qualitative study of the backlash phenomenon. Gender in Management,Vol. 38 No. 1, 2023, pp. 1-16

Work–family balance practices available in several work organizations to help employees with children to manage the demands of work and family life can have a negative impact on employees with family commitments, on childless employees and on the organization itself, as Perrigino et al. show in their theoretical review. This is the work–family backlash phenomenon expressed by the four mechanisms of stigma, spillover, inequity and strategic. Even if the stigma mechanism towards working women with children was widely explored, no study until now considered the four backlash mechanisms jointly, in the Italian context. The purpose of this paper is offering a first empirical exploration of these mechanisms in Italian work organizations. For this study, 15 Italian career women with different care burdens were interviewed, and the four mechanisms were analysed from the perspective of women with and without children, and of organizations. Analysis has shown that the backlash phenomenon can trigger a vicious cycle of perceived inequity that leads to job dissatisfaction and low work motivation. Management responsiveness and fairness in dealing with employees’ needs are central to promoting well-being by effectively balancing career paths with personal needs, especially in a cultural context where most responsibility for family needs is still left to women and few public supports are available. This study, in spite of some limitations, offers a first contribution to the analysis of the different facets of the work–family backlash in the Italian context and suggests several possible research and practical developments.

•  Mousa, S., & Bouraoui, T. (2023). The Role of Sustainability and Innovation in Financial Services Business Transformation. Theoretical Economics Letters, Volume 13, issue 1, pp 84-108

Purpose: This study discusses the effects of transformative service in the financial sector. Unlike conventional research, it reports how business transformation can play a vital role in human well-being. The main objective is to reveal how financial services can affect the welfare of people, communities, regions, and worldwide perspectives. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study used Confirmatory factor analysis and Structural Equation Modeling using SPSS (Amos). Findings: While appreciating the role of consumers as agents of service-driven business transformation, the study demonstrates how service transformation can promote an ecosystem that helps to accomplish rising sustainability goals. Originality: The main focus was to explain how social and environmental sustainability, responsible consumption and innovativeness are related to a firm’s attractiveness, value creation and customer satisfaction. Research Limitations: This study uses a cross-sectional survey design and it doesn’t have a holistic approach for all stakeholders. Predominantly, it considers the customer as a change agent in business transformation. Practical Implications: The study discusses a broader customer perspective instead of an extremely narrow and limiting traditional dyadic firm-customer perspective. It can enhance responsible production and consumption. It develops a comprehensive framework to help academicians, service leaders, and policymakers to recognize and solve service systems’ unsustainability. Social Implications: The research contributes to addressing, understanding, upgrading, and integrating the financial service system for business transformation, which can positively influence individuals and collectives.

• Rezaei Kallaj, M., Hasannia Kolaee, M. & Mirzapour Al-e-hashem, S.M.J.(2023) Integrating bloodmobiles and drones in a post-disaster blood collection problem considering blood groups. Annals of Operations Research 321, 783–811

Providing safe and adequate blood in an emergency to save many lives can be a challenge to the health system. In addition to managing blood collection in crises, delivering  blood to the crisis site in a timely manner is another important problem in decision-making. Hence, in this study, we present a bi-objective mathematical model for determining the routing of bloodmobiles and drones to collect blood from various blood group donors and apply a crossmatch strategy to supply adequate blood in critical situations. The first objective function is to maximize the amount of collected blood while the second objective function is to minimize the maximum arrival time of vehicles to the crisis-stricken city.We also introduce a function that determines the time required for bloodmobiles to stay in one place for the blood-collection process so as to bring the problem closer to real-world conditions. The problem is formulated as a two-stage stochastic problem by considering uncertainty in blood demands and the number of donors. To demonstrate the applicability and the efficiency of the proposed model, the model is tested on data from a real case study and implemented in various sizes viaCPLEX andMOPSO. Finally, the sensitivity analysis is performed on certain parameters. The results show that by adding bloodmobiles, the staying time of bloodmobiles in stations decreases, and the demands are met more rapidly. Also, for each drone added to the system that is responsible for transporting the collected blood to the disaster-stricken area, the amount of collected blood increases by 12% while the arrival-time of the last vehicle decreases by 46%. Therefore, this model can benefit decision-makers in times of crisis and the collection and timely delivery of blood to the crisis area

March

• Ammar Ali Gull, Tanveer Ahsan, Muhammad Azeem Qureshi, Rizwan Mushtaq (2023) Striving to safeguard shareholders or maintain sustainability in periods of high uncertainty: A multi-country evidence. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 188, 2023, 122183

The significance of economic policies and their impact on corporate behavior and ecosystems are increasing in today’s interconnected world. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on waste generation by firms and the impact of gender diversity on corporate boards on the relationship between EPU and waste generation. The study contributes to existing research related to ecological economics by investigating the impact of EPU on the level of waste generated by firms in China, Europe, and the US. Using a dataset of 8007 firm-year observations from 2002 to 2019, we find overwhelming evidence that EPU increases the level of waste produced, both hazardous and non-hazardous. This finding supports the “shareholders’ wealth maximization” theory, which states that firms strive to safeguard shareholders during periods of high uncertainty. However, women directors, being more sensitive to sustainability, perform well on this front even during periods of high uncertainty, as the results show that gender-diverse boards significantly moderate the adverse impact of policy uncertainty on waste generation. However, the moderating impact of gender diversity is significant only for firms operating in environmentally sensitive industries. Our results are robust to different regression models, proxies for waste, and endogeneity issues.

• Ammar Ali Gull, Ammar Abid, Khaled Hussainey, Tanveer Ahsan, Abdul Haque (2023) Corporate governance reforms and risk disclosure quality: evidence from an emerging economy. Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies, Vol. 13 No. 2, 2023, pp. 331-354

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of corporate governance (hereafter, CG) reforms on the risk disclosure quality in an emerging economy, namely Pakistan. The authors also investigate the impact of CG reforms on the relationship between CG practices and risk disclosure quality. The authors use a manual content analysis method to a sample of nonfinancial companies listed on the PSX-100 index for 2009–2015, to examine the impact of CG reforms on risk disclosure quality. The authors use pooled ordinary least squares and the system GMM estimations to test the research hypotheses.
The authors find that CG reforms have a positive impact on risk disclosure quality. The results indicate that certain CG practices such as CEO duality and board independence are associated with risk disclosure quality. Interestingly, the findings also highlight the effectiveness of CG reforms by showing that the revised code positively moderates the CG practices and risk disclosure relationship. The findings of the study have policy implications for regulatory bodies of emerging economies trying to strengthen the CG structures and to introduce risk disclosure regulations to cater the information need of stakeholders.
The authors provide new empirical evidence for the impact of CG reforms on risk disclosure quality using a unique setting of an emerging economy, namely Pakistan.

• Muhammad Farooq Ahmad, Saqib Aziz, Rwan El-Khatib, Oskar Kowalewski (2023) Firm-level political risk and dividend payout, International Review of Financial Analysis, Volume 86, March 2023, 102546

We use a novel measure of firm-level political risk based on a textual search technique on firms’ quarterly earnings conference transcripts to explain dividend payouts in publicly listed U.S. firms. We find a positive and significant effect of firm-level political risk on dividend payouts, particularly in uncertainties related to economics, institutions, technology, trade, and security. The effect is more pronounced in firms with better corporate governance, less analyst follow-up, and higher growth opportunities. These results support the signaling role of dividends rather than the role of agency theory in explaining dividend payouts when firms are associated with higher levels of political risk. We also find the effect to be prominent after controlling for an aggregate measure of economic policy uncertainty and in poor economic conditions and in major political event periods. We address endogeneity concerns by running placebo tests and conducting instrumental variable analysis and we alleviate self-selection bias by performing propensity score matching technique.

• Jishnu Bhattacharyya, M.S. Balaji, Yangyang Jiang (2023) Causal complexity of sustainable consumption: Unveiling the equifinal causes of purchase intentions of plant-based meat alternatives. Journal of Business Research, Volume 156, 113511

Sustainable consumption has received much attention, although its antecedents are not fully elucidated. Existing studies are constrained by the assumption of symmetrical paradigms, emphasizing the net effects of antecedents without considering the complexity of sustainable consumption decision-making. This study draws on the theory of consumption values and the complexity theory to identify the complex combinations of consumption values (health, food safety, ecological, curiosity, novelty, prestige, avoidance of guilt) that explain consumers’ intentions to purchase plant-based meat alternatives (PBMA). An online survey was used to collect data from 252 meat eaters in the United States. Data were analyzed with fsQCA to identify the causal configuration of consumption values that explain meat-eaters’ PBMA purchase intentions. The fsQCA results revealed six heterogeneous combinations of the consumption values that result in high levels of purchase intention toward PBMA. The findings can be used by marketers to develop strategies for promoting sustainable consumption and PBMA.

• Yang, C., Bian, J., Zhang, Y., (2023) Pricing and Quality Decisions in Platform-Based Retailing with Targeted Promotion. International Journal of Technology Management. Special Issue on: Supply Chain Innovation Management in the Uncertain Era, Vol. 92, Nos. 1/2, pp.1–23

This paper considers a platform-based supply chain consisting of a firm launching a new product with a targeted promotion strategy based on innovation on a retailing platform. We examine the firm’s optimal decisions on pricing, product quality design and promotional effort to deal with market uncertainty. First, with exogenous quality, we show that market size has a positive impact on the optimal effort level, which is contrary to the intuition that the optimal effort level decreases with the existing market size due to concave increasing costs. Furthermore, we study the scenario with endogenous quality but with exogenous price and find that the optimal effort level will decrease with market size if the market size is sufficiently large. Finally, with endogenous effort, price, and quality decisions, our result indicates that the firm exerts more efforts in such a platform-based targeted promotion than in the former scenarios when facing strict industry standards

• Carmela D’Avino (2023) Counteracting offshore tax evasion: Evidence from the foreign account tax compliance act. International Review of Law and Economics, Volume 73, 2023, 106126.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) on the deposits held by US global banks through their branches located around the world. Using an unpublished dataset on deposits held by branches of US banks on a geographically unconsolidated basis, we find that the FATCA led to a reduction in deposits held in branches located in tax havens. We find that this effect is more severe in those jurisdictions signing a reciprocal exchange of information agreement. We also advance evidence in support of deposit shifting within the US banking system towards locations without a reciprocal intergovernmental agreement.

• Sohrab Faramarzi-Oghani, Parisa Dolati Neghabadi, El-Ghazali Talbi, Reza Tavakkoli-Moghaddam (2023) Meta-heuristics for sustainable supply chain management: A review. International Journal of Production Research, Volume 61 Issue 6, pp. 1979-2009

Due to the complexity and the magnitude of optimisation models that appeared in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), the use of meta-heuristic algorithms as competent solution approaches is being increased in recent years. Although a massive number of publications exist around SSCM, no extant paper explicitly investigates the role of meta-heuristics in the sustainable (forward) supply chain. To fill this gap, a literature review is provided on meta-heuristic algorithms applied in SSCM by analyzing 160 rigorously selected papers published by the end of 2020. Our statistical analysis ascertains a considerable growth in the number of papers in recent years and reveals the contribution of 50 journals in forming the extant literature. The results also show that in the current literature the use of hybrid meta-heuristics is overtaking pure meta-heuristics, the genetic algorithm (GA) and the non-dominated sorting GA (NSGA-II) are the most-used single- and multi-objective algorithms, the aspects of sustainability are mostly addressed in connection with product distribution and routing of vehicles as pivotal operations in supply chain management, and last but not least, the economic-environmental category of sustainability has been further noticed by the scholars. Finally, a detailed discussion of findings and recommendations for future research are provided.

• Akanksha Jalan, Roman Matkovskyy, Andrew Urquhart, Larisa Yarovaya (2023) The role of interpersonal trust in cryptocurrency adoption. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Volume 83, March 2023, 101715

Despite the impressive adoption of cryptocurrencies since Bitcoin was introduced in 2008, little academic attention has been paid to the role of interpersonal trust in fostering this adoption. In this paper, we quantify the effect of interpersonal trust on the interest in and adoption of the three largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization – Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin using data from the 7th wave of the World Values Survey, Twitter, and Google Trends. Our results indicate a positive and statistically significant effect of trust on interest in and adoption of cryptocurrencies, confirming the importance of trust in the growth of financial markets.

• Schwob, A., de Kervenoael, R., Kirova, V. and Vo-Thanh, T. (2023), Casual selling practice: a qualitative study of non-professional sellers’ involvement on C2C social commerce platforms. Information Technology & People, Vol. 36 No. 2, 2023, pp. 940-965

Recent substantial developments of consumer-to-consumer social commerce platforms (C2C-SCPs) emboldened consumers/users to be involved as sellers. Considering C2C social networks that privilege local reach, this paper aim to explore how the practice-based view informs non-professional sellers’ involvement. Underpinned by data from 29 semi-structured interviews with non-professional sellers on Kaskus, one of the largest local Indonesian C2C-SCPs, the study reveals the emergence of a novel structural practice that we call casual selling. The findings show that casual selling allows non-professional sellers’ involvement in C2C-SCPs through three broad categories of practices: priming oneself, producing commercial operations and valuing others. Within these three categories, non-professional sellers are found to generate both personal and collective involvement along nine situated market practices. This paper adds to previous research by introducing the practice-based view to social commerce literature. In doing so, it deals with the under-investigated seller’s perspective and activities that prevail in C2C-SCPs. In C2C-SCPs, casual selling constitutes a distinct mode of involvement in social commerce in which established professional selling standards are suspended. As a structural practice, it entices non-professional sellers to consider a wider variety of situations in which they are in dialogue with other individuals (buyers and sellers) to shape s-commerce potential. In doing so, C2C-SCP users draw on a dynamic intertwining between digital technology and the socio-cultural environment surrounding s-commerce.

• Mohammad Asghari, Seyed Mohammad Javad Mirzapour Al-e-hashem, Hamid Afshari (2023) Disruption management for the electric vehicle routing problem in a geographically flexible network. Expert Systems with Applications, Volume 214, 2023, 119172

The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in populated cities is increasing in response to reducing the environmental impact of transportation; however, it also brings new problems to be solved that require innovative solutions such as the optimal use of charged vehicles, the location of charging stations, and managing transportation disruptions in a dynamic environment. This study addresses the problem of recovering a pre-established schedule of an EV when an unexpected disruption occurs. The innovative idea for this problem is reconfiguring the road network by skipping one or more customers while locating alternative points for the temporary storage of consignments initially scheduled to be picked up from (or delivered to) skipped destinations. It is allowed to assign lockers to a neighborhood entailing a set of nodes. This paper designs an integrated form of EV routing problem that simultaneously determines the optimal velocity in each assigned route and the battery recharging policy under a partial charging scheme. The paper also proposes an efficient algorithm based on the Crowd- Learning Particle Swarm Optimization (CLPSO) to solve the large-scale problem. The proposed algorithm surpassed a set of widely used algorithms in the literature using a numerical case study. Computational experiments, based on data from a freight company, demonstrate the effectiveness of the model and CLPSO algorithm. The test results confirm that the developed approach can be a useful reference in practice to provide a robust operation of EVs in metropolitans and populated cities. The results also show that applying all of the proposed recovery actions can significantly reduce the cost of the disruption

April

• Mamatzakis, E., Alexakis, C., Yahyaee, K.A., Pappas, V., Mobarek, A. and Mollah, S. (2023) Does corporate governance affect the performance and stability of Islamic banks? Corporate Governance, Vol 23 N. 4 2023, pp. 888-919

This paper aims to investigate the impact of corporate governance practices on cost efficiency and financial stability for a sample of Islamic and conventional banks. In the analysis, the author uses a set of corporate governance variables that include, the board size, board independence, director gender, board meetings, board attendance, board committees, chair independence and CEO characteristics.The author uses corporate governance data of Islamic banks that is unique in this field. In the analysis, the author also uses stochastic frontier analysis and panel vector autoregression models to quantify long-run and short-run statistical relationships between the operational efficiency of Islamic Banks and corporate governance practices.According to the results, Islamic and conventional banks exhibit important differences in the effects of corporate governance practices on cost efficiency and financial stability. Results show that with a blind general adoption of corporate governance practices, Islamic banks may suffer a loss in their value since the adoption of the third layer of binding practices, over and above the already existing ones, imposed by the Sharia Board and the Board of Directors, may lead to cumbersome business operations. This conclusion is of importance to Islamic Banks since they struggle to survive in a very competitive international environment.The author believes that the results may be of a certain value to regulators, policymakers and managers of Islamic banks. Based on the results, the author postulate that Islamic banks should select carefully international corporate governance practices.Islamic banks should not adopt additional third layer of binding practices as that would result lower performance and instability that would be damaging for the economyThis study employs a unique sample of Islamic banks that includes corporate governance data hand collected. Our findings of the corporate governance impact on Islamic banks performance and stability are therefore unique in the literature.

•  Sobhan Razm, Nadjib Brahimi, Ramzi Hammami, Alexandre Dolgui (2023) A production planning model for biorefineries with biomass perishability and biofuel transformation. International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 258, 2023, 108773

We model and solve a production plannign problem over a discrete-time horizon of a biorefinery that treats different types of biomass and transform them either into bioenergy or biofuel. Both biomass and biofuel can be stored. Storage of biofuel serves to match the supply with the demand of both bioenergy and biofuel. Deterioration of biomass, which was rarely studied in the bioenergy production literature, is modeled and its impact on storage decisions is analyzed. The proposed model has two main characteristics: (i) controlling inventory of the perishable biomass while considering different ages for the stored biomass and (ii) biomass can be transformed into either bioenergy or biofuel, which in turn can be stored and then transformed into bioenergy. The applicability of the developed model is shown through several numerical experiments. The results show that first, perishability can lead to profit losses that cannot be neglected. Second, there is a threshold value on the perishability rate above which perishability does not have any longer impact on the profit. Third, storage and transformation of biofuel results in considerable increase in profit and smoother production at the facility even when there is a high fluctuation in price and demand. Fourth, when the decision maker imposes a maximum age on biomass to enhance quality and reduce health risks, the model provides guidelines on how to make this decision with the lowest impact.

• David Tremblet, Abdelkrim R. Yelles-Chaouche, Evgeny Gurevsky, Nadjib Brahimi, Alexandre Dolgui (2023) Optimizing task reassignments for reconfigurable multi-model assembly lines with unknown order of product arrival. Journal of Manufacturing Systems, Volume 67, 2023, pp 190-200

This paper deals with the multi-model assembly line balancing problem (MuMALBP) in a reconfigurable environment. The considered line is composed of a fixed number of workstations and can produce different products in batches. Each product requires an appropriate line configuration. Thus, when the product changes, the line has to be reconfigured to satisfy new requirements related to task precedence and cycle time constraints. Reconfiguring the line consists in reassigning certain tasks between the existing workstations. The objective of this paper is to design a line configuration for each product while minimizing the maximum number of task reassignments whatever the sequence of product arrival. To solve this NP-hard problem, a mixed-integer linear program (MILP) is first formulated. Subsequently, a constructive heuristic and a MILPbased heuristic, named Halt-and-Fix, are developed to solve large-size problem instances. All the approaches are tested and approved on a dataset derived from the well-known instances of the assembly line balancing literature. The numerical results show that the Halt-and-Fix heuristic provides a better trade-off between solution quality and CPU time, compared to the constructive heuristic and the MILP formulation

• Atwal, G. and Bryson, D. (2023) Serving the low-income consumer in a rich economy: Dollar General racks up sales. Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 44, issue. 3 2023, pp. 161-167

The conceptualization of the Base of Pyramid (BOP) proposes that low-income markets can lead to profitable opportunities for businesses. The purpose of this study is to identify key success factors of a BOP business strategy based on a case study of the discount retailer, Dollar General, in the USA. The research design used in this research is an in-depth case study of Dollar General in the USA. Qualitative methods are applied in both the primary and secondary data collection and during the follow-on data analysis of Dollar General.
Dollar General’s strategic profile is achieved through the combination of the following four actions which are tailored to compete effectively at the BOP in the USA: creating the neighborhood discounter, raising aspirational appeal, reducing service and eliminating internationalization. The case is specific to Dollar General in a US cultural context.
The case of Dollar General demonstrates how a discounter retailer should not only follow a low-cost strategy to compete at the BOP. Its ability to craft a distinctive strategy is coherent with meeting the logistical, rational and emotional needs of the low-income consumer in the USA.
Many businesses have neglected rural areas of the USA as being unprofitable. The ability for businesses such as Dollar General to serve the BOP segment can foster the socio-economic well-being of communities.
The overwhelming body of the BOP literature is based on emerging markets. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the few studies to investigate BOP business strategy in the USA.

• D’Avino (2023) C. Money laundering and AML regulatory and judicial system regimes: investigation of FinCEN files. European Journal of Law and Economics. Volume 55 issue 2, pp 195–223

Using a novel dataset, this paper explores the link between cross-border flows of illicit money and anti-money laundering (AML) regulatory and judicial system regimes. To this extent, we explore the information contained in thousands of suspicious activity reports filed by US banks and recently disseminated within the FinCEN files investigation. For a sample of 106 jurisdictions, we relate money laundering (ML) flows as well as the central role of each country’s banks within the international ML network to several variables capturing the AML regulatory stance and ML enforcement. The results point to the crucial role played by judicial system performance variables in explaining the layering phase patterns observed in the underlying data.

• Salehi, F., Mirzapour Al-E-Hashem, S.M.J., Moattar Husseini, S.M. et al. A bi-level multi-follower optimization model for R&D project portfolio: an application to a pharmaceutical holding company. Ann Oper Res 323, 331–360 (2023)

The need for a study of project portfolio optimization in pharmaceutical R&D has become all the more urgent with the outbreak of COVID-19. This study examines a new model for optimizing R&D project portfolios under a decentralized decision-making structure in a pharmaceutical holding company. Specifically, two levels of decision makers hierarchically decide on budget allocation and project portfolio selection-scheduling to maximize their profit, and we formulate the problem as a bi-level multi-follower mixed-integer optimization model. At the upper level, the investment company has complete knowledge of the subsidiaries’ response, acts first, and decides on the best budget allocation. At the lower level, each subsidiary responds to the allocated budget and decides on its portfolio scheduling. Since the lower level represents several mixed-integer programming problems, solving the resulting bi-level model is challenging. Therefore, we propose an efficient hybrid solution approach based on parametric optimization and convert the bi-level model into a single-level mixed-integer model. To validate it, we solve a case and discuss the optimal strategy of each actor. The experimental results show that the planned project portfolio for each subsidiary of the holding company is drastically affected by the allocated budget and its decisions.

• Roth, Steffen , Dirk Schneckenberg, Heiko Kleve, and Vladislav Valentinov (2023) Approaching management and organization paradoxes paradoxically: The case for the tetralemma as an expansive encasement strategy. European Management Journal, Volume 41, Issue 2, April 2023, Pages 191-198

The field of paradox studies keeps struggling to put the notion of paradox into the very centre of organizational life and managerial decision-making, with mixed success. We argue that this research ambition can be realized much more effectively by anchoring the field in three interrelated conceptual approaches which build on paradox as the paradigmatic point of departure. These approaches include Spencer Brown’s form calculus, Niklas Luhmann’s systems and organization theory, and the traditional Indian logical construct of tetralemma. In the proposed argument, paradox constitutes the very identity of organizations as (re-entries of) distinctions drawn in the environment; it is actualized in every act of organizational decision communication, as well as in the process of the continual vanishing and renewal of such acts. In this conception of organizational life, the key challenge is to debunk false distinctions by using tetralemmatization strategies that entail a radical questioning of the problematic observational perspectives.

May

• Fayaz Ali, Qingyu Zhang, Muhammad Zubair Tauni, Asad Hassan Butt & Tanveer Ahsan (2023) Contingent self-esteem, social interaction fears, and compulsive WeChat usage, Behaviour & Information Technology, 42:6, 659-670

This research examines the impact of contingent self-esteem on compulsive usage of social media application WeChat in China. The authors attempt to identify the channels based on selfverification and self-determination theory and propose that fear of negative evaluation (FNE) and fear of missing out (FoMO) transfer the impact of contingent self-esteem (CSE) to compulsive WeChat usage (CWU). Additionally, these relationships were tested with frustration about unavailability (FaU) as a moderator in the framework to explain the phenomenon. By employing a convenience method, 396 samples of Chinese students were analyzed. The analyses indicate that CSE contributes to CWU directly and indirectly through FNE and FoMO. Furthermore, FNE mediates the link between CSE and FoMO, ultimately transferring the effect of CSE to CWU in series. These results can enhance our knowledge of how CSE affects CWU, a growing problem among young people today. Our results may guide psychologists to prepare a counselling programme for compulsive social media users and help them overcome social interaction fears in the real world.

• Sidhu, S.K., Ong, F.S. and Balaji, M.S. (2023). Impact of failure severity levels on satisfaction and behavior: from the perspectives of justice theory and regulatory focus theory. Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 40 No. 4, pp. 535-547

This study aims to investigate the moderating role of low and high failure severity levels on recovery satisfaction and on behavioral intentions through recovery satisfaction. This research adopted justice theory and regulatory focus theory to provide further explanations on the inconsistencies in the extant literature regarding service failure and responses to service recovery. This study applied a scenario-based experimental design of two (perceived justice: low vs hig h) by two (failure severity: low vs high) between-subjects factorial design. Data was collected from 237 mobile phone users recruited via convenience sampling. This study examined the hypothesized relations using Hayes (2018) PROCESS macro version 4.0. Perceived justice had a higher positive effect on recovery satisfaction at a high failure severity level. The direct effect of perceived justice on behavioral intentions was significant and positive only at a high level of failure severity, whereas the indirect effect of perceived justice on consumers’ positive behavior through recovery satisfaction was more positive at a high level of failure severity. Justice theory and regulatory focus theory can be used to explain how a well-implemented  recovery effort can offset losses that are caused by a highly severe service failure leading to satisfaction and positive responses. However, as this study was conducted within a telecommunication service context, this research needs to be replicated in other areas, including the use of other data collection methods and measurement of consumers’ regulatory focus orientation. The findings of this study provide managers with valuable insights into the allocation of service providers’ resources for recovery actions according to consumers’ perceived severity levels to regain consumer satisfaction and continued positive behavioral intentions. Past research on the effect of failure severity levels on recovery satisfaction and consumers’ positive behavioral intentions is scant, and those studies that examined severity levels have shown conflicting results. This study attempted to advance the research by examining the relationship between perceived justice, recovery satisfaction and behavioral intentions at low and high failure severity levels using justice theory and regulatory focus theory. None of the theories have been examined concurrently in the service failure and recovery framework.

• Tao, F., Zhou, Y., Bian, J., & Lai, K. K. (2023) Optimal channel structure for a green supply chain with consumer green-awareness demand. Annals of Operations Research, 324, 1-2, pp 601–628 (2023)

This paper examines the optimal channel structure of a green supply chain consisting of one manufacturer and one retailer. The manufacturer, who is the Stackelberg leader, is responsible for green technology costs. Consumers prefer green products and therefore are green aware. We study four channel structures: a manufacturer’s dual-channel supply chain, a retailer’s dual-channel supply chain, a manufacturer-online and retailer-offline (hybrid I) structure, and a manufacturer-offline and retailer-online (hybrid II) structure. For each structure, we analytically investigate the impact of consumers’ green awareness and proportion of online and offline consumers on the level of green technology, profits, and retail prices. We also examine the effect on the optimal solutions of the manufacturer and retailer when they share the green cost. The results show that the manufacturer’s dual-channel supply chain performs the best in improving the greenness of products and its own profits. Concerning hybrid dualchannel supply chains, the manufacturer will always choose the channel with the majority of consumers to directly sell products through. The retailer, in most cases, also prefers to operate two channels simultaneously. In addition, regardless of the type of channel structure involved, consumers’ green awareness encourages the manufacturer to improve the greenness of its products; however, the proportion of online consumers has a positive effect on the greenness of products in the retailer-offline and manufacturer-online cases but a negative effect in the retailer-online and manufacturer-offline cases

• He, L., Gu, Q., Bian, J., Lai, K. K., & Zhang, X. (2023). To Pool or Not to Pool in Carbon Quotas: Analyses of Emission Regulation and Operations in Supply Chain Supernetwork under Cap-and-Trade Policy. Annals of Operations Research, 324: 1-2, May 2023 pp. 311–353

Carbon emission control and maintaining economic growth drive firms and governments to strike a balance between these two aspects via environmental policies. Inspired by diverse carbon permit trading practices, we study the impact of two variant cap-and-trade schemes on supply chain performance and emission reduction. Focusing on a realistic supply chain supernetwork, we examine the operational decisions and emission mitigations of the system under the carbon caps-pooling and caps-nonpooling schemes which reflect two typical modes of carbon quota in practice.We exploit game theoretical models to characterize the strategic interactions of supernetwork node firms, and then transform them into equivalent variational inequality problems to derive the associated equilibria in different scenarios.We find that the carbon caps-pooling scheme yields a win–win outcome in terms of the environmental and economic performance and the carbon permit sale price affects the decreasing rate of carbon intensity more effectively than the purchasing price. Moreover, the caps-pooling scheme further restrains firms’ opportunistic behaviors of lowering production and selling surplus carbon permits at a high price. Notably, comparing the two carbon schemes implies that under the cap-and-trade policy governments should stimulate firms adopt the caps-pooling scheme with emission permits trading, and accordingly firms have more flexible control over carbon permits. We further conduct computational analysis to validate and illustrate the results, which indicates the robust effect of caps-pooling scheme on the supply chain supernetwork under distinct market structures.

• Andy Dobson, Cristiano Ricci, Raouf Boucekkine, Fausto Gozzi, Giorgio Fabbri, Ted Loch-Temzelides, Mercedes Pascual (2023) Balancing economic and epidemiological interventions in the early stages of pathogen emergence. Science Advances, Volume 9, issue 21, eade6169

The global pandemic of COVID-19 has underlined the need for more coordinated responses to emergent pathogens. These responses need to balance epidemic control in ways that concomitantly minimize hospitalizations and economic damages. We develop a hybrid economic-epidemiological modeling framework that allows us to examine the interaction between economic and health impacts over the first period of pathogen emergence when lockdown, testing, and isolation are the only means of containing the epidemic. This operational mathematical setting allows us to determine the optimal policy interventions under a variety of scenarios that might prevail in the first period of a large-scale epidemic outbreak. Combining testing with isolation emerges as a more effective policy than lockdowns, substantially reducing deaths and the number of infected hosts, at lower economic cost. If a lockdown is put in place early in the course of the epidemic, it always dominates the “laissez-faire” policy of doing nothing.

• R. Boucekkine, W. Ruan, B. Zou (2023) A dynamic programming approach to optimal pollution control under uncertain irreversibility: The Poisson case. Communications in Optimization Theory 2023 (2023) 22

We solve a bimodal optimal control problem with a non-concavity and uncertainty through a Poisson process underlying the transition from a mode to another. We use a dynamic programming approach and are able to uncover the global optimal dynamics (including optimal non-monotonic paths) under a few linear-quadratic assumptions, which do not get rid of the non-concavity of the problem. This is in contrast to the related literature on pollution control under irreversibility which usually explores local dynamics along monotonic solution paths to first-order Pontryagin conditions.

• Lorgeoux, C., DIVAKARAN Pradeep Kumar (2023) The role of foreign social media influencers in shaping another destination country’s tourism image: The case of South Korea’s tourism image in France. Tourism Analysis, Volume 28, Number 2, 2023, pp. 337-347

In the context of tourism, the current study differentiates social media influencers (SMIs) as local SMIs and foreign SMIs. The current study argues that foreign SMIs help to create a positive (or sometimes negative) image of another destination country abroad that they have visited or lived in, unlike local SMIs who mostly help promote touristic places of their own country in their own country. While prior studies have investigated the influence of social media influencers (SMIs) in travel decisions in general, it is not clear whether foreign SMIs can help shape another destination country’s tourism image (DCTI) abroad. The current study fills this gap by investigating French SMIs’ influence in shaping South Korea’s destination country image in France. The leading French SMIs who actively create and share content about South Korea on their social media channels, such as YouTube, Instagram, Tik Tok, and Twitch, are identified and analyzed. Applying the netnographic method to four SMIs’ communities of followers shows that French SMIs directly influence the DCTI of South Korea in France by influencing their cognitive, affective, and conative dimensions, although the effect on each varied. Moreover, the affective route had the highest impact, followed by the cognitive and conative route.

• Ramzi Hammami, Sinan Salman, Moutaz Khouja, Imen Nouira, Suzan Alaswad (2023) Government strategies to secure the supply of medical products in pandemic times. European Journal of Operational Research, Volume 306, Issue 3, 1 May 2023, pp 1364-1387

We investigate how to secure reliable access to personal protective equipment (PPE) in pandemics, which are characterized by random occurrences and durations, at the lowest expected cost. The policymaker’s strategy is based on a mix of (1) holding ready-to-use strategic stockpile that is acquired at regular price but incurs a holding cost, (2) building partnership with PPE manufacturers to relocate offshore production locally, which guarantees some local supply but requires offering subsidies, and (3) buying PPE from the spot market, which is characterized by long supply lead times and high prices.
We model the problem as a Stackelberg game between a policymaker (leader) and a manufacturer (follower). The policymaker decides the PPE stockpile, the subsidy offered to the local manufacturer, and the quantity to buy from the spot market. The manufacturer determines whether to move production onshore. We determine the optimal strategy for each player and study the effect of spot market conditions and pandemic characteristics.
Analytical results show that attracting local manufacturers is less costly for the government when the variability of pandemic duration increases. While it is sub-optimal to rely only on the strategic stockpile, holding some stockpile may be necessary even when the PPE can be obtained from the spot market as soon as the pandemic starts. Results reveal policymaker’s preference for subsidizing onshore production in the following cases: products with low spot prices (counter-intuitively), spot market with long supply lead time, less frequent pandemics, and shorter pandemics.

• Sultan, N., Mohamed, N. and Hussain, D. (2023) Tax amnesty schemes, anti-money laundering regulations and customer due diligence by financial institutes: an evaluation of the implementation issues in Pakistan. Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 534-550

Tax amnesty (TA) schemes are typical in developing countries. Governments’ claims and suppositions are continually heightened; however, this may differ in actuality. This study aims to present an overview of the effectiveness of TA schemes and the problems they raise in implementing anti-money laundering regulations. This study used a qualitative research design. Content analysis was used to analyse research articles, reports, legal documents and news articles. Every amnesty offered in Pakistan from 1956 to 2018 failed to meet government expectations. Instead, the continuity resulted in an irrepressible black economy. The black economy’s uncontrollability undermines tax collection and hinders a robust anti-money laundering regime. Significantly, tax holidays with discrepant legislation strengthen evaders, plunderers and launderers. These policies severely impede the implementation of anti-money laundering policies in the financial institutions of Pakistan. Additionally, Pakistan’s geopolitical location, circumstance and war against terror cannot afford any policy that provides monetary relaxation to offenders. There is no concrete evidence to support long-term economic progress through the implementation of amnesty schemes as a revenue collection policy. This study evaluates previous studies and findings to understand the effect of tax amnesties on the financial industry of Pakistan. The findings have practical implications for tax collection authorities, policymakers and international financial bodies. Previous studies have discussed the advantages and disadvantages of Pakistan’s regular tax amnesties. However, this study discusses the implementation of TA schemes concerning anti-money laundering regulations and customer due diligence by financial institutes and provides suggestions to minimize its negative implications.

• Jalan, A., Matkovskyy, R. (2023) Systemic risks in the cryptocurrency market: Evidence from the FTX collapse. Finance research letters, Volume 53, May 2023, 103670

The crypto market has experienced several serious crises in recent years, the most contemporary being the collapse of Terra and then FTX. Despite common belief that these could imply the end of the crypto era, our analysis highlights no significant increases and decreases in systemic risk and liquidity, respectively.

• Baek, C.H., Kim, S.-Y., Lim, S.U. and Xiong, J. (2023) Quality evaluation model of artificial intelligence service for startups. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 913-940.

This paper aims to develop a quality evaluation model for artificial intelligence (AI)-based products/services that is applicable to startups utilizing AI technology. Although AI-based service has risen dramatically and replaced many service offerings, in reality, startups are rarely to develop and evaluate AI services. The features of AI service are fundamentally different from the properties of existing services and have a great influence on the customer’s service selection. This paper reviews startups’ development process, existing quality evaluation models and characteristics of services utilizing AI technology and develops a quality evaluation model for AI-based services. A detailed analysis of a survey (application of the model) on customer satisfaction for AI speakers is provided. This paper provides seven key features and 24 evaluation items for evaluating AI-based services. This paper contributes to the growing need for methodologies that reflect the new era of AI-based products/services in quality evaluation research.

• Nersesian, L., Hafezalkotob, A. & Reza-Gharehbagh, R. (2023) Alternative governmental carbon policies on populations of green and non-green supply chains in a competitive market. Environment, Development and Sustainability, Vol.  25/5, pp. 4139–4172

As a severe challenge to governments, air pollution threatens many lives annually. This paper develops an evolutionary game theory model for supply chains (SCs) to encourage firms to reduce carbon emissions. A government dictates three carbon policies: carbon cap, carbon tax, and cap and trade. We construct six scenarios according to the carbon regulations and SC functions (i.e., centralized versus decentralized ones). First, the profit function of SCs that are the input of the game matrix is formulated, and optimal final prices and quantities of products are obtained. Then, an evolutionary game-theoretic model is formulated to analyze the behavior of populations by obtaining the evolutionary stable strategy under each scenario. In addition, three models of government intervention are presented, considering the cost associated with environmental pollution and government net revenue. Finally, a case study of motorcycle production dissects the results. The findings demonstrate that cap and trade can be introduced as an incentive policy since it encourages SCs to adopt green strategies and improves their profit. A carbon tax policy also succeeds in pressuring SCs to apply green strategies. However, a carbon cap policy fails in forcing SCs to adopt green strategies. Finally, it is concluded that decentralized supply chains (DSCs) handle high tax rates better than centralized supply chains (CSCs).

• Xia, Fan (2023) Common Institutional Owners and Mergers and Acquisitions Outcomes. Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, volume 60, issue 4, pp. 1429–1449

Institutional owners frequently invest in a diversified portfolio of firms to avoid firm-specific risks. I investigate the particular scenario in which the institutional owners have shares in both the acquiring and the acquired target firms of an M&A deal. Using a quasi-experimental approach, I find that the acquirer pays less premium and performs better after the M&A effectiveness when the ratio between the value owned by common institutional shareholders in the acquirer and the value held by the same shareholders in the target firm is higher. The value paid is higher, and the performance worsens when this ratio is lower. The results suggest the common institutional owners can obtain benefits from promoting and implementing such M&A deals as a secondary compensation for their lack of control, usually at the expense of the controlling shareholders.

June

• Agata Mirowska, Jbid Arsenyan (2023) Sweet escape: The role of empathy in social media engagement with human versus virtual influencers. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Volume 174, June 2023, 103008

Virtual influencers engage in emotional sharing to gain and keep followers. However, given that many people use social media for diversion purposes, this emotional sharing may hinder users’ ability to escape from everyday emotional experiences, particularly for highly empathetic individuals. Using a between subjects, randomised experimental design, we explore how empathy affects reactions to virtual vs. human influencers, showing that those highest on empathy are more likely to follow a virtual influencer, and rate her as more socially attractive, than a comparable human influencer; these results disappear when the influencers’ true nature is unknown to participants. We postulate that these results represent an “escapism effect”, where the virtual influencer is expected to provide greater diversionary benefits from everyday human emotional experiences and require fewer cognitive resources in the form of emotional sense making. We present practical implications and future research opportunities arising from this effect.

• Xinquan Zhou, Guillaume Bagnarosa, Alexandre Gohin, Joost M.E. Pennings, Philippe Debie (2023) Microstructure and high-frequency price discovery in the soybean complex. Journal of Commodity Markets, Volume 30, 100314

We develop a theoretical framework and propose a relevant empirical analysis of the soybean complex prices’ cointegration relationships in a high-frequency setting. We allow for heterogeneous expectations among traders on the multi-asset price dynamics and characterize the resulting market behaviour. We demonstrate that the asset prices’ autoregressive matrix rank and the speed of reversion towards the long-term equilibrium are related to the market realized and potential liquidity, unlike the cointegrating vector. Our empirical application to the soybean complex, where we control for volatility, supports our theoretical results when the price idleness of the different assets is properly accounted for. Our analysis further suggests that the presence of cointegration among assets is related to the time of day and the contract maturities traded at a given time

• Xiaolong Guo, Xiansen Li, Junsong Bian, Chenchen Yang (2023)Deposit or reward: Express packaging recycling for online retailing platforms. Omega, Volume 117, 2023, 102828

To motivate consumers’ participation in recycling, we study two recycling policies for express packaging on an online retailing platform equipped with self-run logistics to collect express packaging from con- sumers. First, under the Deposit-Refund Policy (DRP), when consumers purchase from the platform, they pay a deposit for the express packaging, but the deposit will be refunded if they return the packaging to the platform. The other is the Recycling Reward Policy (RRP), under which the platform provides rewards when consumers return express packaging. The platform decides whether to recycle the express pack- aging and chooses the optimal recycling policy if recycling is economically feasible. To investigate, we first set up an optimization model to analyze these two recycling policies. Using the No Recycling Policy (NRP) as the benchmark, we then derive managerial insights through comparative analysis and numeri- cal studies. Our results indicate that the consumers’ green consciousness plays a critical role in decision making. Specifically, NRP is optimal for the platform when the green consciousness level is low. As the consumers’ green consciousness level increases to a medium range, recycling becomes feasible and RRP is optimal. If the green consciousness level is high, DRP will be the optimal policy. These findings have helpful implications for corresponding decisionmakers (e.g., express industry managers, government de- partments) to cautiously judge whether to recycle express packaging and which recycling policy is best under different circumstances.

• Junsong Bian, Guoqing Zhang, Guanghui Zhou (2023) The strategic impact of vertical integration on non-deceptive counterfeiting. International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 260, 2023, 108863

Counterfeits have been common in practice despite ongoing criticisms and regulations. This paper analyzes the strategic effect of vertical integration on non-deceptive counterfeiting. We find that integration has a less stringent requirement on the efficiency of the brand product’s quality improvement and can serve as an anti-counterfeiting strategy to help the brand firm deter non-deceptive counterfeits. However, integration may also increase the demand of the non-deceptive counterfeit. Integration always increases the brand product’s quality and demand facing non-deceptive counterfeits. Compared to decentralization, the counterfeiter’s profit is lower under integration when the counterfeit imitation is close and brand product’s quality improvement is highly efficient. Besides, our result indicates that with non-deceptive products, the brand firm can benefit from integration, which however may also benefit the counterfeiter. Furthermore, vertical integration always enhances consumer and social welfare. Finally, we also extend the model to other cases including sequential quantity competition and two types of product features.

• Zhang, C., Mirza, S.S., Ahsan, T. and Usman, S.M. (2023) Corporate digitalization, managerial power distance and corporate sustainability performance: evidence from China. Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 1031-1056

This study aims to investigate the impact of managerial power distance on the corporate sustainability performance of Chinese firms and to explore the regulatory role of corporate digitalization in the Chinese capital market. The study collects data from 2,632 A-share Chinese non-financial firms listed on Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges during the period from 2010 to 2020. The authors apply different panel data regression techniques (fixed effects, GMM-System) to investigate the impact of managerial power distance on corporate sustainability performance and to explore the regulatory role of corporate digitalization in the Chinese capital market. The results of the study show a positive relationship between high managerial power distance and the sustainability performance of Chinese non-financial firms. This positive relationship is particularly pronounced in Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The results also show that corporate digitalization increases the sustainability performance of Chinese firms. Further, corporate digitalization weakens the positive relationship between high-power distance and the sustainability performance of Chinese firms. These results are robust to alternate sustainability performance measures and various regression techniques. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the regulating impact of corporate digitalization on the relationship between managerial power distance and corporate sustainability performance in China.

• Zhiming Hu, Jie Xiong, Jie Yan, Zhe Yuan & Shubho Chakraborty (2023) The horizontal and vertical coordination of policy mixes for industrial upgrading in China: an ambidexterity perspective, Regional Studies, Volume 57, issue 6: Place-based industrial and regional strategy – levelling the playing field? pp. 1011-1028

The established literature demonstrates the critical role of the policy mix in the formulation and implementation of government policies for industrial upgrading. However, existing studies mainly examine the policy mix from either a horizontal or a vertical coordination perspective; very few examine both dimensions. To gain further insights, the current study involves an analysis of how China’s central government manages horizontal and vertical coordination to pursue upgrading in manufacturing industries on the basis of an ambidextrous policy mix perspective and a thorough examination of both the external attributes (i.e., policy level) and content (i.e., policy instruments and themes) of policy documents. This analysis reveals several viable policy implications in relation to China’s manufacturing transformation. In particular, it finds that China’s policy mix for achieving manufacturing upgrading is highly coordinated on both horizontal and vertical dimensions. Governments at all levels apply the same set of policy instruments; environmental instruments are the most frequently used, followed by supply- and demand-side instruments. The core policy topics within the manufacturing upgrading structure include innovation, industrial transformation, industrial agglomeration, demonstration projects and service-oriented manufacturing. Therefore, this study establishes recommendations for future policies, which should focus on reinforcing guidance regarding national policies, encouraging local governments to apply innovative policy tools and increasing the use of  demand-side policy instruments

• Anabel Fernández-Mesa, Ronald Clarke, Ana García-Granero, Justo Herrera, Justin J.P. Jansen (2023) Knowledge network structure and middle management involvement as determinants of TMT members’ ambidexterity: A multilevel analysis. Long Range Planning, Volume 56, Issue 3, 2023, 102318

Even though scholars have widely asserted that ambidextrous organizations need ambidextrous managers, we still know relatively little about the emergence of ambidextrous behaviours among top management team (TMT) members. The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding about how TMT networks and middle management involvement in decision-making collectively shape the ability of TMT members to deal successfully with the exploration–exploitation paradox. Through in-depth interviews and a multilevel analysis of internal networks of 123 TMT members in 20 public hospitals, results suggest that leaders’ centrality and the density of TMT networks shape the ability of TMT members to behave ambidextrously. The framework of this paper also incorporates the role of middle management, critical in linking the strategic apex and the operating core, and thereby supporting TMT members’ ambidextrous behaviour. Various theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

• Moutaz Khouja, Ramzi Hammami (2023) Building viable stockpiles of personnel protective equipment. European Journal of Operational Research, Volume 307, Issue 3, 16 June 2023, pp 1206-1224

Many stockpiled personnel protective equipment (PPE) were of no use during COVID-19 because they have expired. The need for rethinking past approaches of building PPE stockpiles without planning for their timely rotation has become clear. We develop a game-theoretic pandemic preparedness model for single and multiple PPE products for a budget-constrained governmental organization (GO) supplied by a manufacturer. The GO maximizes preparedness, measured by the service rate of PPE, whereas the manufacturer maximizes profit. The manufacturer supplies the PPE stockpile in the first year. Thereafter, the manufacturer buys back a quantity of older PPE from the GO annually and sells the GO the same quantity of new PPE. The manufacturer sells older PPE in the market place. We find that this approach induces the manufacturer to rotate inventory in the stockpile. Joint determination of the stockpile size and its rotation results in no waste from expired PPE and is better than separately determining the stockpile size and then determining how to rotate it. Using insights from the single PPE model, we examine the optimal budget allocation among multiple PPE products. We also consider the effect of spot market prices of PPE during a pandemic on the optimal stockpile sizes. We find that spot market prices of PPE can have a significant effect on the optimal stockpile sizes. We examine the performance of the proposed approach in a manufacturers-distributor-GO supply chain and with an option for the GO to invest in the manufacturer’s volume flexibility and show its effectiveness.

• Mohammad Asghari, Mohamad Y. Jaber, S.M.J. Mirzapour Al-e-hashem (2023) Coordinating vessel recovery actions: Analysis of disruption management in a liner shipping service. European Journal of Operational Research, Volume 307, Issue 2, 2023, pp 627-644

Disruptions often occur in liner shipping networks, and they are costly. When they occur, freight companies evaluate their effects on freightage in the pipeline and take the appropriate recovery actions by balancing customer service levels and increases in fuel consumption while accounting for environ- mental impact (greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions). The paper, therefore, develops an integrated mixed- integer programming problem (MIPP) that jointly minimizes the total voyage and transshipment costs and penalty charges for emitting GHG excess amounts beyond what is allowed. It does so by recovering a pre-established schedule of disrupted containerships. The solution to the MIPP suggests how to reconfigure the liner shipping network when skipping one or more call ports and determines the optimal velocity on assigned routes. The paper also develops and proposes a new and efficient algorithm based on the Crowd-Learning Particle Swarm Optimization (CLPSO) to solve this large-scale problem and shows the CLPSO to be superior to the potential ones in the literature. Computational experiments, based on data from a maritime shipping company, demonstrate the effectiveness of both the MIPP and CLPSO using several comparative metrics with suitable assumptions. The numerical results show that the developed MIPP has a potential application in practice.

• Thiago Caliari, Leonardo Costa Ribeiro, Carlo Pietrobelli, Antonio Vezzani (2023) Global value chains and sectoral innovation systems: An analysis of the aerospace industry. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Volume 65, 2023, Pages 36-48

This paper explores the link between a country’s position in the aerospace global value chain (GVC) and the strength of its innovation system. Countries’ participation to different stages of the GVC is proxied using export data at a narrow product level, while innovation system indicators are built from US patents. The analysis covers the 2007–2018 period for 38 countries. Our results highlight a relationship between the strength of the innovation system and a country’s participation and specialization in different stages of the aerospace GVC: varied and pervasive (quality) rather than more intensive (quantity) innovation systems are associated with a stronger presence in higher value-added stages of the value chain. These results highlight the importance of improving an innovation system targeting the development of a differentiated knowledge base and fostering the integration of different actors to sustain the aerospace industry and facilitate upgrading within the value chain.

July

• Ahsan, T., Qureshi, M.A., Gull, A.A. and Muhammad, F. (2023) The relevance of national culture to policy uncertainty and firm performance: European evidence. Journal of Economic Studies, Vol. 50 No. 5, pp. 947-966

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of policy uncertainty on firm performance and to examine how the different cultural societies deal with the policy-induced uncertainty. The authors use data of European non-financial firms to extend the growing literature on policy uncertainty, firm performance and national culture. The authors consider financial as well as market proxies to measure firm performance and use Hofstede’s cultural dimensions as a proxy for national culture. The authors apply the generalized method of moments (GMM-system) regression technique on a dataset of 702 non-financial European firms, listed during the period 2002–2018.
The authors find overwhelming evidence that policy uncertainty reduces the performance of the European firms; however, cultural differences among different European countries moderate the impact of policy uncertainty on the financial as well as the market performance of the firms. The results of this study show that European cultures with high power distance, individualism, masculinity and indulgence efficiently deal with the economic policy uncertainty. While the European societies with high uncertainty avoidance fail to cope with policy-induced uncertainty. The results are robust to different regression models, alternate proxies of firm performance and endogeneity issues.
The authors argue that policy uncertainty increases information asymmetry and decreases firm performance, therefore, the policymakers shall be considerate of the consequences of the policy-induced uncertainty in the society and business arena that would not only adversely affect the firms but also the economy.
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the role of national culture on the relationship between policy uncertainty and firm performance in the European context.

• Christos Alexakis, Antonios Chantziaras, Fotini Economou, Konstantinos  Eleftheriou, Christos Grose (2023) Animal Behavior in Capital markets: Herding formation dynamics, trading volume, and the role of COVID-19 pandemic. The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Volume 67, 2023, 101946

This paper provides new evidence on herding behavior. Using daily frequency data for 336 US listed firms over a five-year period, we investigate three important elements of financial herding behavior. First, trading volume, representing market interest, as a significant variable in capital markets apart from stock prices. Second, herding dynamics since herding formation is a dynamic process. Third, the reaction of possible financial herding to exogenous events-threats, as we use the pandemic event in order to investigate a market under stress. Even though the benchmark herding model used does not provide evidence of herding behavior, our results verify the significance of the above herding elements. We also find that trading volume and positive changes in trading volume result in increased cross-sectional absolute deviation (CSAD). Most importantly, we find that herding behavior is evident during the COVID-19 pandemic confirming that investors tend to herd during major crisis periods.

• Muhammad Farooq Ahmad, Saqib Aziz, Michael Dowling, Oskar Kowalewski (2023) Board reforms and innovation, International Review of Financial Analysis, Volume 88, 2023, 102707

We study the effect of board reforms on firms’ research and development (R&D) investments utilizing a sample of 41 countries. Using a difference-in-differences analysis, we find that firms invest more in R&D following corporate governance reforms. Of these, two legal reforms — having an independent audit committee and board independence — have a greater impact on R&D investment. Additionally, we show that board reforms have a more pronounced effect on R&D investment in hi-tech industries and the health sector.

• Raouf Bouccekine, Weihua Ruan, Benteng Zou (2023) The irreversible pollution game. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. Volume 120, 2023, 102841

Digital-free tourism is an emerging trend that limits tourists’ access to information and communication technologies during vacations. However, how to motivate tourists to engage in digital-free tourism is not yet understood. Anchoring on Construal Level Theory and educational intervention, this study examines the effects of message concreteness and intervention type on tourists’ intention to take digital-free tourism. Experimental data from 249 respondents showed that when factual intervention was provided, tourists were more likely to engage in digital-free tourism when they received abstract messages instead of concrete messages. Our findings can contribute to the design of promotional messages for digital-free tourism.

• Hu, Han-fen; Liu, Yi (2023) Digital-free tourism intention: the effects of message concreteness and intervention. Tourism Analysis, Volume 28, Number 3, 2023, pp. 505-510(6)

Digital-free tourism is an emerging trend that limits tourists’ access to information and communication technologies during vacations. However, how to motivate tourists to engage in digital-free tourism is not yet understood. Anchoring on Construal Level Theory and educational intervention, this study examines the effects of message concreteness and intervention type on tourists’ intention to take digital-free tourism. Experimental data from 249 respondents showed that when factual intervention was provided, tourists were more likely to engage in digital-free tourism when they received abstract messages instead of concrete messages. Our findings can contribute to the design of promotional messages for digital-free tourism.

• Rahman, M., Jang, S. and Ahmed, S. (2023), How Does Selling Capability Impact Firm Value? The Moderating Roles of Relative Strategic Emphasis, Market Volatility, and Technological Volatility. British Journal of Management, Volume 34, Issue 3 Jul 2023 pp 1079-1684

Firms develop and deploy selling capability to create and sustain a competitive advantage. Previous studies have focused predominantly on static, input-based selling capability, paying little attention to dynamic, efficiency-focused selling capability. This treatise econceptualizes selling capability from a dynamic and efficiency (input–output) perspective and investigates the effect of selling capability on firm value with the contingent role of internal [i.e. relative strategic emphasis (SE)] and external (i.e. market volatility and technological volatility) factors. Using data from 341 US-based manufacturing and service firms over the period 2014–2020 and an endogeneity-robust dynamic estimation technique, the authors find that selling capability positively affects firm value, and firms with a relative SE on value appropriation (i.e. advertising) as opposed to value creation (i.e. R&D) reap more rewards from selling capability. That is, relative SE positively moderates the nexus between selling capability and firm value. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the interactive effect of selling capability and relative SE is weaker when an industry experiences higher market volatility but stronger when technological volatility is higher. Overall, this study demonstrates that a firm’s selling capability should be managed dynamically in light of its (internal) relative SE and (external) environmental conditions. The results are robust to several additional sensitivity analyses

• Dirk Schneckenberg, Steffen Roth, Vivek K. Velamuri (2023) Deparadoxification and value focus in sharing ventures: Concealing paradoxes in strategic decision-making. Journal of Business Research, Volume 162, 2023, 113883

This study investigates how sharing ventures address the paradox of doing good versus doing harm in their strategic decision-making. The doing good versus doing harm paradox refers to the difficulty of sharing ventures to balance the aim to benefit society and the environment while minimizing potential adverse effects. Understanding and addressing this paradox is crucial for promoting sustainable and responsible decision-making. Our thematic content analysis of 38 in-depth interviews with founders and senior managers of sharing ventures in four European countries finds that these ventures align along three distinct value focus types in their decision-making and use five mechanisms to conceal paradoxes related to balancing social/environmental and economic contradictions. By surfacing the importance of sharing ventures’ value focus and resultant mechanisms to deparadoxify, our findings provide insights into organisational paradox and the sharing economy, specifically the purposeful concealment of paradox as a counterintuitive choice for remaining actionable in decision contexts.

August

• Jbid Arsenyan, Agata Mirowska, Anke Piepenbrink (2023) Close encounters with the virtual kind: Defining a human-virtual agent coexistence framework. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 193, 2023, 122644

Virtual agent research has evolved into a substantial body of work, albeit one with a fragmented structure and overlapping, and at times inconsistent, definitions and results. The current paper presents a computational literature review of 1865 academic journal publications and conference proceedings from 1995 to 2022 using Latent Dirichlet Allocation to understand the publication trends in the field, its intellectual structure, and how topics within virtual agent research have evolved and relate to each other. Our results point to a model of 16 topics as best representing the current state of the research landscape. We present descriptions of these topics, as well as topic dynamics and networks, in order to provide a clear picture of the current state of the field. We then organise these topics into a Human-Virtual Agent Coexistence Framework, identifying current trends and opportunities for future research.

• M.S. Balaji, Abhishek Behl, Kokil Jain, Abdullah M. Baabdullah, Mihalis Giannakis, Amit Shankar, Yogesh K. Dwivedi (2023) Effectiveness of B2B social media marketing: The effect of message source and message content on social media engagement, Industrial Marketing Management, Volume 113, 2023, Pages 243-257

Social media message strategy is critical in determining how customers will engage with B2B firms on social media platforms. The present study examined the role of message source (i.e., firm-generated vs. employee-generated) and message content (i.e., emojis and objective information) in determining social media engagement. Four experiments were conducted to test the proposed relationships. The study findings revealed that employee-generated content leads to higher social media engagement (i.e., intentions and behaviors) than firm-generated content. Content-based trust and engagement-based trust were found to be the underlying mechanisms by which message source impacts social media engagement. Furthermore, we observed that, for an employee-generated message, including emojis has a greater impact on customer engagement than when they are included in a firm-generated message. Finally, no evidence was found concerning the effectiveness of incorporating objective information in social media messages on customer engagement. These findings have marked implications for B2B marketers in developing effective social media message strategies

• Guan, M., Li, J., Zhang, Y., & Liu, Y. (2023). Coparticipant effect in group buying: How coparticipant response speeds affect consumer postpurchase regret? Decision Support Systems, Vol. 171, 113980

The introduction of consumer-initiated models with small group size has increased the popularity of group buying. With lower size requirements for forming buying groups, more impulsive buying is facilitated while more postpurchase regret is spawned. Consumer postpurchase regret not only poses challenges to the coordination of group buying but may also eventually lead to merchant losses. Therefore, understanding the factors that may affect consumer postpurchase regret in group-buying contexts is crucial. Drawing on observational learning theory and expectancy disconfirmation theory, the present study focuses on how the response speeds of group-buying campaign coparticipants intertwined with publicly available information of group-buying deals (i.e., the deal popularity and expected savings) to affect campaign initiators’ postpurchase regret. Through secondary data analysis and a laboratory experiment, we find that a lower coparticipant response speed is associated with a higher likelihood of the initiator experiencing postpurchase regret. In addition, when deals have a higher level of popularity, this effect is amplified. Our findings demonstrate the potential importance of considering the coparticipant effect to discourage negative consumer behavior in group-buying contexts.

• Hesam Soltani, Seyed Mohammad Javad Mirzapour Al-e-Hashem (2023) Robust maritime disruption management with a combination of speedup, skip, and port swap strategies. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, Volume 153, 104146

A large volume of global transportation is carried out annually by liner shipping companies and it includes a large portion of global trade. Accordingly, due to the countless number of these voyages, precise planning in this field is vital to prevent severe loss. One of the noticeable issues that occur during the voyage can be natural or human disruption which is interpreted as a “delay” in the liner shipping services. Therefore, there is a need to reschedule the pre-established plan to compensate for the delays and reduce the costs including the penalties and exceeding fuel consumption. In this paper, a novel recovery model is proposed for container ship problems. This mixed-integer programming model with the use of speedup, skip, and swap ports strategies not only attempts to mitigate the dire financial consequence of the disruption but also reduces the carbon footprint. Furthermore, to ensure customer satisfaction, the alternative transshipment decision for the skipped ports cargo is considered in the model. The nonlinear model is linearized through the exact techniques, then solved in CPLEX software. As a result, the primary deterministic model could act as a “wait-and-see” solution to reduce disruption losses by up to 66% using simultaneous recovery strategies of speedup, skip and swap. However, a robust optimization approach is proposed owing to the uncertainty in delay time, type, severity, and point of disruption. This approach enables the model to face a wide variety of disruptions (that are predicted under different scenarios each of which is associated with an occurrence probability) and recommends an augmented schedule that guarantees to be feasible, optimal, and resistant. The robust model is applied in a real case from the maritime industry, and the value of robustness is reported. The results demonstrate the superiority of this model compared with others.

• Riadh Aloui, Sami Ben Jabeur, Hichem Rezgui, Wissal Ben Arfi (2023) Geopolitical risk and commodity future returns: Fresh insights from dynamic copula conditional value-at-risk approach. Resources Policy, Volume 85, Part B, 2023, 103873

In this study, we investigated the effects of geopolitical risk (GPR) on commodity future returns by computing the conditional value at risk (CoVaR) and delta CoVaR using time-varying and static bivariate copula models. Our results indicate that there is generally a positive dependence between commodity returns and changes in GPR. Empirical evidence also suggests that there are only upside risk spillovers from GPR to commodity markets. The delta CoVaR results locate the greatest systemic risk in heating oil and maize commodities. Future research avenues, as well as policy and practical implications, are outlined.

• Guo, L., Sun, D., Warraich, M. A., & Waheed, A. (2023) Does industry 5.0 model optimize sustainable performance of Agri‐enterprises? Real‐time investigation from the realm of stakeholder theory and domain. Sustainable Development. Volume 31, Issue 4, August 2023, Pages 2507-2516

The research on Industry 5.0 (i5.0) is relatively new and emerging therefore professionals are still striving to reveal its influence globally. This study investigates the impact of industry 5.0 to comprehend the insights into how it optimizes the sustainable performance (STP) within three core streams, that is, economic, environmental, and social perspectives from the realm of stakeholder theory within the Chinese agricultural industry. The results stated that i5.0 positively affects the STP of Agri-enterprises. The empirical testing additionally affirmed the positive nexus of i5.0 practices toward each dimension of STP such as social, environmental, and economic perspectives based on structural equation modeling. First, it found that i5.0 has a positive correlation with the economic perspective. Second, the findings affirmed the positive linkage between i5.0 and the social perspective. Finally, the study indicated a significant correlation between i5.0 and the environmental perspective. This study provides real-time empirical evidence for the management of Agri-enterprises regarding i5.0 and insights into the embodiment of such capabilities to optimize enterprise STP by incorporating i5.0 model. This study presents several theoretical and managerial enrichments for Agri-enterprises along with future avenues for the researchers to test the i5.0 capabilities toward rest of the sectors across the world.

September

• Jha, S., Balaji, M.S., Peck, J, (2023) Conveying product weight in digital media using a hand image. Journal of Retailing, Volume 99, Issue 3, September 2023, Pages 353-369

The present research examines the role of the image of a hand in an online product evaluation. Through eleven studies (i.e., six in the manuscript and five in the Web Appendix), we show that, when a hand image is depicted in an unsupported holding position (i.e., lifting a product), consumers’ confidence in their judgment of the product’s weight is enhanced. This outcome increases product evaluation, purchase intention, and product choice. The hand image effect is mediated by a mental representation of a haptic experience (i.e., haptic imagery). Additionally, we show that an image of a hand in an unsupported holding position increases consumers’ confidence in the product’s weight, while other hand positions or their absence do not have a similar impact. Online retailers can use our findings to employ hand images to influence the evaluations and purchase intentions of products in which weight is a salient haptic attribute.

• Guo, X., Bian, J., Wu, P., Shi, V., & Chen, H. (2023). Probabilistic product design with regret-anticipated consumers. International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 263, 108917

The present research examines the role of the image of a hand in an online product evaluation. Through eleven studies (i.e., six in the manuscript and five in the Web Appendix), we show that, when a hand image is depicted in an unsupported holding position (i.e., lifting a product), consumers’ confidence in their judgment of the product’s weight is enhanced. This outcome increases product evaluation, purchase intention, and product choice. The hand image effect is mediated by a mental representation of a haptic experience (i.e., haptic imagery). Additionally, we show that an image of a hand in an unsupported holding position increases consumers’ confidence in the product’s weight, while other hand positions or their absence do not have a similar impact. Online retailers can use our findings to employ hand images to influence the evaluations and purchase intentions of products in which weight is a salient haptic attribute.

• Xiong, Jie , Lu Xu, Qian Li, Zhe Yuan, & Shubho Chakraborty (2023) Doing good and/or avoiding bad: The ambidextrous view of managing corporate social activities. Management International 27(5), pp. 1-12.

Our objective is to examine how firms manage corporate social activities across divergent orientations, either pro-CSR (corporate social responsibility) and/or anti-CSiR (corporate social irresponsibility) activities. We investigate two different approaches to managing corporate social activities, namely, balanced and combined, and study their potential impacts on corporate performance from an ambidextrous perspective. In addition, we examine the moderation effects of firm size and financial risk. We tested our hypothesis using a panel of 5,292 firms from KLD and COMPUSTAT between 1998 and 2015.

• Luca Colombo, Paola Labrecciosa, Leo K. Simon (2023) Too many or too few? On the optimal number of firms in the commons. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Volume 121, 102825

In this paper, we consider common-pool non-renewable resource industries and study the socially optimal industry size. Our analysis is conducted in terms of an infinite-horizon differential game (with either open-loop or feedback strategies). We derive two main results. First, we show that there exists a unique state-independent efficiency-inducing industry size, ranging between 1 and infinity, if and only if the elasticity of the price-cost margin (capturing static market power) and the elasticity of the difference between social and private resource rents (capturing the tragedy of the commons) are the same. Second, allowing for entry/exit, we show that the regulator can set a license fee to be paid by firms to get access to the resource such that the endogenous number of firms in the equilibrium with regulated entry is socially optimal.

• John Cotter, Emmanuel Eyiah-Donkor, Valerio Potì (2023) Commodity futures return predictability and intertemporal asset pricing, Journal of Commodity Markets, Volume 31, 2023, 100289

We find out-of-sample predictability of commodity futures excess returns using combination forecasts of 28 potential predictors. Such gains in forecast accuracy translate into economically significant improvements in certainty equivalent returns and Sharpe ratios for a mean–variance investor. Commodity return forecasts are closely linked to the real economy. Return predictability is countercyclical, and the combination forecasts of commodity returns have significant predictive power for future economic activity. Two-factor models featuring the market factor and the innovations in each of the combination forecasts explain a substantial proportion of the cross-sectional variation of both commodity and equity returns. The associated positive risk premiums are consistent with  Merton’s (1973) intertemporal capital asset pricing model (ICAPM), given how the combination forecasts predict an increase in future economic activity and a decline in stock market volatility in the time-series. Overall, combination forecasts act as state variables within the ICAPM, thus resurrecting a central role for macroeconomic risk in determining expected returns on commodities.

• Moutaz Khouja, Ramzi Hammami (2023) Optimizing price, order quantity, and return policy in the presence of consumer opportunistic behavior for online retailers. European Journal of Operational Research, Volume 309, Issue 2, 1 September 2023, Pages 683-703

Product return rates are much higher for online retailers than brick-and-mortar retailers. In this paper, we develop a model for optimizing the retailer’s price, quantity, and terms of the product return policy in the presence of consumer opportunistic behavior (wardrobing). We consider a seasonal product and formulate and solve a newsvendor (e-tailer) model where an in-season price markdown may be used before any remaining inventory is salvaged at the end of the season. We compare a return policy in which refunds for returned products are in cash to one where refunds are in store credit or gift cards (SC/GC). Products sold at the clearance (salvage) price cannot be returned or exchanged. We find that with both cash and SC/GC refunds, consumer product match uncertainty, measured by the probability of the product matching consumers’ expectations, benefits consumers who keep the product more than consumers who return it. Moreover, under realistic conditions, using SC/GC refund increases the profits of the e-tailer and benefits consumers who keep the product by lowering the price. We also find that even when consumers redeem all SC/GC, using SC/GC refunds can still be beneficial to the retailer because SC/GC refunds deter proportionally more wardrobers from buying than consumers from buying. As a result, costly returns are reduced and the e-tailer benefits.

• Anisur R. Faroque, Farhad Uddin Ahmed, Mahabubur Rahman, Mohammad Osman Gani, Sina Mortazavi (2023) Exploring the individual and joint effects of founders’ and managers’ experiential knowledge on international opportunity identification. Asian Business and Management (2023) 22:4, pp 1274–1300

This study aims to examine the individual and interactive effects of the founder’s prior experience and managers’ foreign market knowledge on international opportunity identification by early internationalizing firms (EIFs). We draw on a sample of 332 small and medium-sized EIFs from a South Asian country, viz. from the Bangladeshi apparel industry. This study adopts a survey-based quantitative research approach. A hierarchical regression modeling technique is used to test the contingency hypotheses. The results demonstrate that founding entrepreneurs’ prior experience and managers’ experiential knowledge are strong predictors of international opportunity identification. While we hypothesized for the joint negative effects of founders’ prior experience and managers’ market knowledge on opportunity identification, the results were non-significant, thus partially supporting the assumptions of agency theory. Our study provides valuable empirical insights into and supports the role of founders’ prior experience and managers’ foreign market knowledge in investigating international opportunity identification.

• Sandro Montresor & Antonio Vezzani (2023) Digital technologies and eco-innovation. Evidence of the twin transition from Italian firms, Industry and Innovation, Volume 30 issue 7, pp. 766-800

This paper investigates how the twin transition (digital & green) unfolds within firms by relating investments in digital technologies to the propensity of eco-innovating production processes and models. Drawing on a heterogeneous theoretical background, digital technologies can be hypothesised to enable eco-innovation across the board. However, a greater eco-innovation impact is expected from Artificial Intelligence and from bundling digital investments. Using the new Permanent Census of Firms of the Italian National Statistical Office, these hypotheses are tested on a large sample of more than 150,000 firms. Results confirm that the contribution of digital technologies to a firm’s eco-innovation is mainly driven by investments in AI application areas, while investments in other digital technologies work more selectively. Moreover, new eco-innovative production processes and models benefit from bundling investments in different digital technologies, but with differences among firms of different size.

October

• Azambuja, R., Baudot, L. and Malsch, B. (2023) Navigating multiple accountabilities through managers’ boundary work in professional service firm. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 36 No. 7/8, pp. 1734-1762.

This study explores the professional work of managers in professional service firms (PSFs) by focusing on the relational position of managers as they interface between diverse groups of actors and navigate a multiplicity of accountabilities. Drawing on an ethnographic study of managers in a Brazilian PSF, this study demonstrates through observations, interviews and shadowing how PSF managers address multiple accountabilities in the conduct of professional work. To navigate multiple accountabilities, PSF managers perform several forms of boundary work, which the authors conceptualize as “revamping” and “remolding” operations and “translating” and “transforming” understandings. The form of boundary work performed depends on the configuration of two elements of accountability demands: knowledge orientation and extent of exposure. Although analytically distinct, these elements intertwine, suggesting the need for a dynamic perspective on accountability. The analysis shows that professional work extends beyond fixed or passive views of hierarchical and intrinsic accountability to emphasize that managers exude accountability of an adaptive nature. This study illustrates and theorizes the role of boundary work in PSFs, develops its link to accountability, and identifies its scholarly and practical affordances and limitations for understanding managers’ professional work when navigating multiple accountabilities. The findings reveal perspectives and behaviors of managers embedded in PSFs, illustrating their unstructured and agentic experiences of accountability and boundary work in practice. The insights can be extended to other contexts where managers face multiple accountabilities in conducting professional work.

• Saqib Aziz, Nihat Aktas, Muhammad Farooq Ahmad (2023) Does bilateral trust matter during M&A negotiations? British Journal of Management, Vol. 34, issue 4, pp. 2212–2233 (2023)

We examine the effect of bilateral trust on cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Using a large European M&A sample, we find that bilateral trust facilitates deal announcement and completion. Bidder and target bilateral trusts towards each other are both important for deal announcement, but only bidder trust towards the target firm matters for deal completion. The effect of bilateral trust on deal completion is amplified in more complex transactions and when bidders face severe liability of foreignness. Moreover, bilateral trust between the parties is also associated positively withmerger performance. These results support the importance of bilateral trust as a deal facilitator in negotiation settings characterized by contract incompleteness and liability of foreignness

• Bakici, T., Nemeh, A., Hazir, Ö.(2023) Big Data Adoption in Project Management: Insights from French Organizations IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, vol. 70, no. 10, pp. 3358-3372, Oct. 2023

Big data have the potential to revolutionize the project management, but it is not clear how. Despite the growing interest, there is a paucity of exploratory research to assess the practice and the impact of big data tools and technologies on project management approaches and practices. To address this gap, in this article, we initially embrace the technological–organizational–environmental (TOE) framework as the research basis for the adoption process and conducts in-depth interviews with project managers from French organizations in different sectors. The synthesis of interviews reveals that many organizations are still in the early stage of the adoption process, mainly due to a lack of resources, especially expertise. Besides the factors of the three contexts of TOE, the project-level factors are also found to be critical for the adoption of big data in project management.Most of them adopted big data solutions to support them in the conception, definition, and execution phases of project management. Drawing on the findings, this article also provides guidelines to broaden the understanding of big data applications and their role in project management. Based on these results, we present a model with testable propositions and discuss insights that arise for organizations and project managers regarding how to apply big data tools and technologies to create value and overcome the related challenges

• Sarabjit Kaur Sidhu, Fon Sim Ong & M. S. Balaji (2023) Moderating Role of Consumers’ Attachment Style on Post-Recovery Satisfaction Behavior, Journal of Relationship Marketing, Volume 22 issue 4, pp. 354-380

This study examines the moderating role of consumers’ attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance, on the relationship between recovery satisfaction and their behavior after service recovery. This study analyzes the moderating effect of consumers’ attachment styles to explain the differences in their behavior after service recovery efforts, which has not been explored previously. Primary data was collected from hand-phone users, and the effect of consumers’ attachment styles was examined in the context of the telecommunication sector. Findings indicate that consumers high in attachment anxiety were more likely to repurchase but not to engage in positive word-of-mouth after recovery satisfaction. Attachment avoidance did not impact consumers’ behavioral intentions. In addition, the interaction of anxiety and avoidance positively influenced word-of-mouth intentions upon satisfaction with recovery efforts. However, the interaction did not affect repurchase intentions. This study provides insight into how consumer’s attachment style influences their positive behavioral intentions after recovery satisfaction. We present segment-specific relationship marketing strategies that can aid service providers in managing service recoveries and minimizing the adverse effects of service failures on customer retention

• Das, M., Balaji, M. S., Paul, S., & Saha, V. (2023). Being unconventional: The impact of unconventional packaging messages on impulsive purchases. Psychology & Marketing, Volume 40 issue 10, pp. 1913–1932

The visual and textual elements of packaging significantly impact consumer product evaluations. This study examines how unconventional packaging messages—a textual packaging element—influence impulsive product purchases. We also investigate the mediating role of curiosity and the moderating role of emoji (i.e., a visual packaging element). We conduct five studies to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings reveal that unconventional packaging messages are more effective for impulsive products than for planned purchases. Furthermore, unconventional packaging messages increase both healthy and nonhealthy impulsive product purchases. We find that consumer curiosity explains the enhanced impulsive product purchasing when unconventional packaging messages are used. When unconventional packaging messages are employed for impulsive products, the use of emojis increases customer curiosity. The results extend an understanding of unconventional elements in consumer evaluations of products and inform packaging and marketing strategies regarding how to promote impulsive product purchases in competitive markets.

• Bec, Frédéric, Boucekkine Raouf, Jardet, caroline (2023) Why Are Inflation Forecasts Sticky? Theory and Application to France and Germany. International Journal of Central Banking, Volume 19, issue 4, pp. 215-249

This paper proposes to adapt the model of pricing decisions developed by Alvarez, Lippi, and Paciello (2011) to the decision process of forecasters. The model features both a fixed cost of announcing a revised forecast and a fixed cost of updating the information set and adapting the forecast accordingly. Basically, the former fixed communication costs determine state dependence, which implies that the forecaster changes its forecast only when it is far enough from the optimal forecast, i.e., beyond a fixed threshold; the latter fixed information costs determine time dependence, which implies that the forecaster updates its information set only every other T periods, where T is optimally chosen.We show that survey data of inflation forecast updates as well as the last known monthly inflation rates can be used to estimate the threshold implied by the theoretical model. This threshold estimate is then crucial to uncover the existence of both types of costs as well as an upper bound of the optimal time between two information observations. French and German data suggest that the maximum optimal time to next observation is six months, while the observation cost is at most twice as large as the communication cost.

• Robson, M.J., Chuang, F.-M., Morgan, R.E., Bıçakcıoğlu-Peynirci, N. and Di Benedetto, C.A. (2023), New Product Development Process Execution, Integration Mechanisms, Capabilities and Outcomes: Evidence from Chinese High-Technology Ventures. British Journal of Management, Volume 34, Issue 4, October 2023, pp. 2036-2056

This study examines new product development (NPD) processes in high-technology new product ventures in the emerging market context. Drawing upon the knowledge-based view and the capability-based view, we propose a model that characterizes relationships between NPD process execution stages and product competitive advantage, and accounts for the moderating effects of NPD integration mechanisms on these relationships. Our model also explains how pricing capabilities can become a liability that undermines how product advantage impacts new product performance. We test this framework within an emerging market context that has been notably absent from the literature. Our data are generated from 187 new product projects and a follow-up of 83 projects, from Chinese high-technology ventures.We identify important theoretical interdependencies within our structural model results. Specifically, marketing–technical integration positively moderates the relationship between product development and testing capability and commercialization capability, while new product implementation capability positively moderates the relationship of commercialization capability and product competitive advantage. Yet, penetration pricing capability negatively moderates the link between product competitive advantage and new product performance.

• Duhamel, F., Niess, A., & De Geuser, F. (2023). Imagining aesthetic leadership. Leadership, Volume 19 issue 5, pp. 413-430

The study of aesthetic leadership has recently gained importance in the organizational literature, wherein some authors focused on the perception and manipulation of “beautiful” artifacts and others focused on relational processes, “dwelling in the senses” (Ropo et al., 2017). In contrast to those views, we argue that aesthetic leadership highlights the role of imagination, beyond artifacts and sense perceptions. To give due consideration to imagination in aesthetic leadership, we show how Kant and Arendt’s philosophies can be transposed to organizational studies to formulate three roles for imagination in leadership: 1. Achieve representative thinking in leadership processes; 2. Allow leadership to create social commitment to put those representations into action; and 3. Sustain a capacity of projective agency as the capacity of inventing alternative but feasible futures.

• Andrew Molinsky, Laura Noval (2023) How managers can help employees navigate tough decisions without burning out. Organizational Dynamics, Volume 52, Issue 4, October–November 2023, 100999

This paper examines the dilemma of having to perform a resource-intensive task under conditions of resource depletion. Drawing from data on resource-depleting tasks in multiple contexts, we document three distinct forms of self-management (equipping, conserving, and restoring the self) that individuals use across three distinct phases of the task (preparation, execution, transition) to manage psychological resources, and we detail the particular practices used to serve each of these core resource management functions. We offer a series of practical suggestions for organizations to help employees manage these psychologically difficult tasks.

• Roloff; J (2023) Surviving or Solidarity? Crisis Responses of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility.  Volume 32, Issue S3, Special Issue: Corporate Social Responsibility throughout the COVID‐19 Crisis, October 2023, pp. 243-256

The Covid-19 pandemic posed a serious threat to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This explorative qualitative study of 100 SMEs from 20 industries and 21 countries investigates how entrepreneurs responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and which cognitive frames guided their actions. Observed cognitive frames prioritize either business survival, conversion of business and stakeholder interest, or acceptance of conflicting social and financial goals. These cognitive frames influence the choice of crisis response without determining it. Four response patterns were found: weathering the storm, bricolage, solidarity and support, and social innovation. Strategic innovation creating access to new markets is the most successful response. The findings support a more encompassing definition of the concept of organizational resilience and shed light on motivations for acts of solidarity and social innovation as crisis responses.

• Canan Yildirim, Mouloud Tensaout, Veronika Belousova (2023) Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions by Emerging Country Banks: What do Acquisition Premiums Tell Us? Research in International Business and Finance, Volume 66, October 2023, 102042

Our knowledge of international expansion motives and strategies of emerging country banks (ECBs) is limited. Using a worldwide sample of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (CBMAs) and a mixed model, we explore firm- and country-level determinants of acquisition premiums. We show that the effects of target bank and target country characteristics on premiums are contingent on the acquirer’s home country: emerging vs. advanced. More specifically, compared to advanced country acquirers, ECBs pay lower premiums for targets that are: (i) more efficient; (ii) offering better functional diversification opportunities; and (iii) based in markets with higher growth prospects or better institutional development levels. Furthermore, state-owned ECBs pay higher premiums. Our findings suggest that CBMAs undertaken by ECBs might not be motivated by competence-enhancing strategies while being less sensitive to the target country’s institutional development.

• Canan Yildirim, Adnan Kasman, Mohamed Azzim Gulamhussen (2023) Efficiency of multinational banks: Impacts of geographic and product loci. International Business Review, Volume 32, Issue 5, October 2023, 102162

This paper explores geographic diversification strategies’ impact on multinational banks’ operational performance within the context of research on globalization and regionalization. We employ a sample of the 49 largest banks from 16 European countries from 2011 to 2018 and proxy operational performance by technical efficiency. We find the impact of geographic diversification on operational performance depends on the locus of geographic diversification—home-regional vs. inter-regional—and the interplay between geographic diversification and banks’ functional focus. More specifically, home-regional diversification together with a concentration on non-interest income-generating activities, including fee and commission and trading income, worsens performance, and diversification across regions alongside a focus on non-interest income-generating activities improves performance. Distinct product characteristics’ ability to facilitate different regional dispersions has important managerial implications for enhancing the success of geographic diversification strategies, a central but unresolved issue in global banking.

November

• Ahsan, Tanveer, Sultan Sikandar Mirza, Ammar Ali Gull, and Muhammad Ansar Majeed (2023) How to deal with customer-supplier concentrations to attain sustainable financial growth: Evidence from China. Business Strategy and the Environment, Volume 32, Issue 7, November 2023, pp. 4600-4619

For effective supply chain management, firms should focus on the relationship with their immediate stakeholders in the supply chain, namely, suppliers (upstream) and customers (downstream). This study investigates the impact of customer and supplier concentration as well as business strategy on sustainable financial growth, using financial data of 2021 Chinese non-financial firms listed from 2006 to 2020. Additionally, it explores the moderating effect of business strategy on the relationship between customer and supplier concentration and sustainable financial growth. We find that higher customer and supplier concentration weakens the bargaining power of Chinese firms, which reduces their financial growth. However, an appropriate business strategy can help such firms achieve sustainable financial growth. We find that an aggressive business strategy moderates the negative impact of supplier concentration, while a defensive business strategy moderates the negative impact of customer concentration on financial growth. Finally, our results for the direct impact of customer and supplier concentration as well as business strategy hold for state-owned and non-state-owned firms. However, we find differences regarding the moderating impact of business strategy between state-owned and non-state-owned firms. Our results are robust to time and industry fixed effects, alternate proxies of financial growth and regression techniques

• Azambuja, Ricardo, Gazi Islam, Annick Ancelin-Bourguignon (2023) Walling In and Walling Out: Middle Managers’ Boundary Work. Journal of Management Studies, Volume 60, issue 7, Special Issue: (Re)Conceptualizing Middle Managers’ Roles in Modern Organizations, pp 1819-1854

Literature around middle management has highlighted the importance of intra-organizational boundaries, focusing on the in-betweenness and fluidity of middle-managerial roles and practices. Yet, this literature has largely focused on the crossing of largely stable, monolithic boundaries, placing less emphasis on the plurality of emerging boundaries and the ways in which they are constructed. Focusing on boundaries as the outcomes of, rather than only as constraints upon, everyday practices, we conduct an ethnographic study across multiple sites of a Brazilian audit firm, examining middle managers’ construction, maintenance and adjustment of boundaries. Drawing upon ethnographic fieldnotes and 155 formal interviews, our study reveals how middle managers fluidly manipulate boundaries’ visibility and permeability to achieve specific purposes, and how different configurations of these elements generate various boundary work practices, which we describe as barricade, façade, taboo and phantom boundary work. Moreover, we show the dual orientation of middle managers’ boundary work –both obstructing and facilitating boundary-crossing –demonstrating that, in contrast to prior research, both orientations can be enacted by the same actor according to his or her purposes. By doing so, we contribute to scholarship exploring agency and plasticity as the key issues linking the existing literature on middle management with that on boundary work.

• Lyu, C., Jiang, Y., & Balaji, M. S. (2023). Travelers’ Psychological Ownership: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda. Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 62(8) pp. 1623–1646

Scholarly interest in research on travelers’ psychological ownership has recently increased given its relationship with traveler behavior. This study provides a systematic literature review centered on travelers’ psychological ownership, thus organizing extant work and developing guidelines for future research. We employ bibliometric analysis to reveal current research progress in the domain, acknowledge influential contributions, and identify major research streams. Then we use framework-based thematic analysis and develop a Targets-Antecedents-Consequences-Interventions (TACI) framework to explore the theoretical underpinning of travelers’ psychological ownership, yielding structural insights and knowledge gaps. Based on our review, we develop 18 propositions to guide future research. The findings provide academics with a roadmap to advance research on travelers’ psychological ownership.

• François Le Grand, Xavier Ragot (2023) Optimal policies with heterogeneous agents: Truncation and transitions. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Volume 156, November 2023, 104737

We compare two approaches in their ability to solve for optimal Ramsey policies in heterogeneous-agent models, considering the optimal provision of a public good. First, the “transition” approach makes the problem tractable by assuming a constant path for the planner’s instruments. Second, the “truncation” approach uses a Lagrangian technique, solving the Ramsey problem of a finite state space model that approximates the full model. The truncation approach is shown to compute quantitatively accurate estimates of the actual values of the planner’s instruments, whereas a time-inconsistency issue is found to affect the transition approach.

• Seyed Mohammad Javad Mirzapour Al-e-hashem and Ramzi Hammami (2023) A decentralized production–distribution scheduling problem: Solution and analysis. RAIRO – Operations Research, Volume 57, Number 6, November-December 2023, pp.3093 – 3116

In modern production–distribution supply chains, decentralization has increased significantly, due to increasing production network efficiency. This study investigates a production scheduling and vehicle routing problem in a make-to-order context under a decentralized decision-making structure. Specifically, two different decision makers hierarchically decide the production and distribution schedules to minimize their incurred costs and we formulate the problem as a bi-level mixed-integer optimization model as a static Stackelberg game between manufacturer and distributor. At the upper level, the manufacturer decides its best scheduling under a flexible job-shop manufacturing system, and at the lower level, the distributor decides its distribution scheduling (routing) which influences the upper-level decisions. The model derives the best production–distribution scheduling scheme, with the objective of minimizing the cost of the manufacturer (leader) at the lowest possible cost for the distributor (follower). As the lower level represents a mixed-integer programming problem, it is challenging to solve the resulting bi-level model. Therefore, we extend an efficient decomposition algorithm based on Duplication Method and Column Generation. Finally, to discuss the decentralization value, the results of the presented bi-level model are compared with those of the centralized approach.

• Nemeh, André, Rajibul Hasan, and Öncü HAZIR. (2023) Business School Students’ Motivations and Intentions to Pursue a Project Management Career: An Empirical Analysis. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, Volume 5, Issue 6, pp; 963-975

Project management (PM) career choice is important as millions of new projects will need skilled and motivated project managers. Therefore, the younger generation must be motivated to acquire the necessary skills to deal with project complexities and dynamics. In previous research, the factors that impact students’ perceptions of their learning experiences and their readiness to PM work has been investigated without examining the factors that impact the choice of a PM career. In this study our aim is to describe the intentions and motivations of business school students to pursue a PM career. Our results demonstrate that motivations such as self-development, professional growth, status and power, and technical and human skills are significantly influential in PM career choices.

• Mahabubur Rahman, Anwar Sadat Shimul, Isaac Cheah (2023) Corporate industrial brand equity and firm creditworthiness: The role of climate change commercial risks and opportunities recognition. Industrial Marketing Management, Volume 115, 2023, pp.327-338

Whilst a multitude of studies explored the financial implications of corporate brand equity in a B2C context, little is known as to the financial impact of B2B brand equity. Furthermore, no study, to our knowledge, has examined how climate change-related corporate practices affect the nexus between B2B brand equity and financial aspects (i.e., creditworthiness) of B2B firms. Drawing propositions from the resource dependence theory (RDT) and the natural resource-based view of the firm (NRBV), this study develops a parsimonious conceptual model to investigate the relationship between B2B brand equity and a firm’s long-term creditworthiness. Given B2B firms’ increasing engagement in pro-environmental initiatives, the model also incorporates a firm’s ability to recognize climate change-related commercial risks and opportunities as a moderator. Drawing samples from USA-based B2B firms, the conceptual model is tested through robust econometric modelling techniques. The results demonstrate that higher B2B brand equity leads to higher long-term creditworthiness of a firm. Further, the positive association between B2B brand equity and creditworthiness is accentuated by climate change commercial risks and opportunities recognition (CCCROR). That is, a firm’s capacity to identify challenges and opportunities emanating from the inexorable global climate change further bolsters the positive link between industrial brand equity and long-term creditworthiness. These findings are robust to a battery of sensitivity analyses, including multi-level mixed effect and endogeneity-robust modelling techniques.

• Vichiengior, T., Ackermann, C.-L., Palmer, A. (2023) Consumer anticipation as a performative experience. European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 57 No. 11, pp. 3005-3039.

The purpose of this study is to explore consumer anticipation processes that occur after commitment to a purchase has been made, but before consumption occurs. The authors add to the knowledge and theory building about anticipation that occurs in this liminal phase by investigating the cognitive, emotional and behavioural processes that interact to influence post- consumption evaluations. An abductive research approach used a phase-based research design using semi-structured interviews. The authors identify interactions between cognitive, emotional and behavioural processes that occur during anticipation and associate these with post-consumption outcomes. Anticipation of a consumption experience, enacted through thoughts, emotions and actions, and undertaken with peers, is an experience per se, independent from and interdependent with the substantive experience, and contributes to performance of the substantive experience. The authors propose a framework in which anticipation – as a performative phenomenon – influences the overall evaluations of the substantive consumption experience in contexts of delayed consumption. The theoretical grounding of performativity makes a useful contribution through its linkage of thought processes to outcomes. The authors further locate their findings within the literature on attribution theory. By engaging in anticipation, informants perceived the locus of causality to be internal, and expressed pride in having anticipated if the subsequent experience was successful. By anticipating, informants perceived an ability to exert control over future events and felt ashamed of not having adequately anticipated if an experience was subsequently unsuccessful. The theoretical grounding of performativity makes a useful contribution through its linkage of thought processes to outcomes. The authors further locate their findings within the literature on attribution theory. By engaging in anticipation, informants perceived the locus of causality to be internal and expressed pride in having anticipated if the subsequent experience was successful. By anticipating, informants perceived an ability to exert control over future events and felt ashamed of not having adequately anticipated if an experience was subsequently unsuccessful. Practical implications – The authors discuss the trade-off service providers face between encouraging anticipation, which raises expectations that might not be met, and facilitating anticipatory preparations, which may reduce the risk of service failure. The authors provide a new lens by conceptualising anticipation as a performative process and identifying mechanisms by which anticipation is embedded in total consumption experience. This study has important generalisable implications for contexts where mechanisms of performative anticipation may be a means for ameliorating uncertainty about future consumption experiences.

December

• Bonanni, C., Jie Xiong; Jie Yan; Peiran Su and Qian Li (2023) Knowledge management practices by middle managers to attain organizational ambidexterity. Technology Analysis and Strategic Management, Volume 35, 2023 – Issue 12 pp. 1635-1648

This study explores how middle managers deal with knowledge inflows whilst striving to achieve ambidexterity. This is enabled through a two dimensional conceptual framework involving knowledge sources (vertical or horizontal) and acquisition activities (structural and contextual). We based our study upon interviews conducted with 64 managers from hypermarket retailers in China, in addition to field observations and secondary data. Our findings reveal that these middle managers leverage different combinations of structural and contextual mechanisms to govern the vertical (top-down and bottom-up) knowledge inflows within their business units. Structural mechanisms comprise differentiation and integration. For their part, contextual mechanisms consist of a combination of discipline, stretch, support and trust. These combinations also enable horizontal knowledge inflows to be managed from outside the business unit. These also enable middle managers’ ambidexterity, first at the business unit level and second at the organization level. Our findings offer managerial guidelines for handling knowledge inflows from various sources and with different patterns. They also assist middle managers with their contribution to their firms’ pursuit of organizational ambidexterity.

• R. Boucekkine, C.Camacho, W. Ruan, B. Zou (2023) On optimal coalition splitting with heterogenous strategies. Fulbright Review of Economics and Policy (Special Issue in honor of Ngo Van Long) Vol. 3 No. 2, 2023 pp. 184-202

The authors characterize the conditions under which a country may eventually split and when it splits within an infinite horizon multi-stage differential game. In contrast to the existing literature, the authors do not assume that after splitting, players will adopt Markovian strategies. Instead, the authors assume that while the splitting country plays Markovian, the remaining coalition remains committed to the collective control of pollution and plays open-loop. Within a full linear-quadratic model, the authors characterize the optimal strategies. The authors later compare with the outcomes of the case where the splitting country and the remaining coalition play both Markovian. The authors highlight several interesting results in terms of the implications for long-term pollution levels and the duration of coalitions under heterogenous strategies as compared to Markovian behavior. In this paper, the authors have illustrated the richness of the simplications of enlarging the set of strategies in terms of the emergence of coalitions, their duration and the implied welfare levels per player. Varying only three parameters (the technological gap, pollution damage and coalition payoff share distribution across players), the authors have been able to generate, among other findings, quite different rankings of welfare per player depending on whether the remaining coalitions after split play Markovian or stay precommited to the pre-splitting period decisions.

• Jia LI, Bouraoui, Taoufik, Magdalena Radulescu (2023) On the drivers of sustainable development: empirical evidence from developed and emerging markets. Applied Economics, Volume 55, Issue 57, pp. 6809-6821

Why do firms’ sustainability disclosure performance differ so much between firms and across countries? Which factors drive firm’s awareness of sustainable development and do these factors have different driving mechanisms between developed and emerging countries? We answer these questions using a panel data regression model on around 1500 companies from 20 developed countries and 20 emerging countries during the period from 2009 to 2019. Our empirical results reveal that both firm-level and country-level variables are important predictors for sustainable disclosure performance. In developed countries, most firm-level indicators show a significant and positive effect on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosure scores. In emerging countries, only operating performance, measured by total revenues, and firm size have a positive impact on ESG disclosure, while high level of profitability is associated with low ESG score. On the country level, we find a significant relationship between all drivers and ESG scores in developed countries. However, in emerging markets, only economic, cultural (excepting uncertainty avoidance index) and technological factors are shown to impact significantly sustainable development

• Farnaz Khoshgehbari, S. Mohammad J. Mirzapour Al-e-Hashem (2023) Ambulance location routing problem considering all sources of uncertainty: Progressive estimating algorithm. Computers & Operations Research, Volume 160, 106400

The main concern of any emergency medical services (EMS) in the world is to provide quality services to emergency calls in the shortest possible time. In this paper, the Ambulance Location Routing problem (ALRP) is proposed that is a mathematical attempt to obtain optimal cost-oriented strategic decisions (locating EMS centers and allocating ambulance fleet) in a way that guarantees service quality factors like response time, service level, and definite treatment time through optimal ambulance routing. In response to the concerns that emergency medical services deal with, in this research, a novel mixed-integer two-stage stochastic programming model is developed that can consider the uncertain nature of parameters like emergency calls, travel times, and pathways, simultaneously. Considering a heterogeneous fleet of ambulances to provide specialized out-of-hospital services and to use the treatment golden time, and considering different types of patients in terms of the need to be transferred to the hospital, are among the most vital innovations of the proposed ALRP. To tackle the computational complexity, a new decomposition-based heuristic method called the Progressive Estimating Algorithm (PEA) is developed. PEA is a modified version of the classic PHA and solves its drawbacks, like the possibility of being placed in a loop or prolonging the solution time by changing the method of calculating the first stage variables in each iteration. Therefore, by considering a large number of scenarios, PEA can reach feasible near-optimal solutions more efficiently. We have employed the actual data of a city with nearly 800.000 population, as a case study to validate the proposed ALRP model and the PEA method. The obtained results demonstrate that the proposed ALRP solution is valid, and the PEA can reach the near-optimal solution, in a very reasonable time, and with no exception, outperform the PHA. The results also show that the ALRP model reduces costs on average by 30% compared to a benchmark model. In addition, it is found that the solution obtained for the case study can reduce costs by 58% compared to the current state of the EMS in this city while guaranteeing the quality of services. Furthermore, the need to use a heterogeneous fleet of ambulances and scattered stations in the region is recommended to improve the performance of EM services. Finally, the unique way of looking at the integrated problem of location, allocation, and routing in the proposed ALRP and the idea of PEA are attractive for further studies in the field of EMS planning and other optimization problems, and several suggestions for future studies are mentioned in Conclusion Section

• Veetikazhi, R., Kamalanabhan, T. J., Noval, L. J., Jaiswal, A., & Mueller, A. (2023). Business Goal Difficulty and Socially Irresponsible Executive Behavior: The Mediating Role of Focalism. Group & Organization Management.  Vol. 48(6) 1630–1665

Executive social irresponsibility has received increasing research attention in recent years, following the consensus for a broader stakeholder approach to managerial decision making. Despite the importance of the subject, there remains insufficient research on contextual factors that mold executives’ orientation toward social responsibility. Through three studies, we demonstrate that difficult business goals can reduce executives’ tendency to consider social responsibility in their decision making. Further, we find that focalism—a cognitive bias based on affective forecasting theory—can mediate positive relationships between business goal difficulty and socially irresponsible executive behavior. Our findings also suggest that, expanding executives’ thought processes beyond the narrow focus of a business goal achievement can be a good strategy in reducing socially irresponsible executive behavior, even in the presence of difficult goals.

• Rahman, M., Rodríguez-Serrano, M. Á., Shimul, A. S., & Faroque, A. R. (2023). The Role of Corporate Workplace Inclusivity Policies, Brand Equity, and Innovation Intensity in Firm Profitability: A Moderated Mediational Approach. Journal of Macromarketing, 43(4), 460-475

Firms are increasingly adopting pro-lesbian, -gay, -bisexual, -transgender, inclusivity and diversity (LGBT-ID) policies for workforce management. This study develops a parsimonious, albeit complex, moderated-mediated framework by employing a panel dataset combining data from archival sources and involving a sample of predominantly large and publicly held firms from the USA between 2002 and 2018. The number of observations varied across variables with a minimum of 414 observations (corporate brand equity) and a maximum of 3,566 observations (self-reported LGBT-ID policy). This treatise demonstrates that adopting LGBT-ID policies positively impacts firms’ profitability. Moreover, pro-LGBT-ID policies during this specific period have a positive effect on corporate brand equity, which in turn affects firm profitability, indicating that brand equity plays a mediating role in the nexus between pro-LGBT-ID policies and firms’ financial performance. Furthermore, innovation intensity strengthens the relationship between pro-LGBT-ID policies and brand equity during the sample period of the study.

• Reza-Gharehbagh, R., Arisian, S., Hafezalkotob, A., Makui, A.(2023) Sustainable supply chain finance through digital platforms: a pathway to green entrepreneurship. Annals of Operations Research, volume 331, issue 1, Special issue: Advanced Models for Supply Chain Finance, pages 285–319

This paper studies the green new product development (GNPD) problem of a risk-averse capital constrained supply chain (SC). The SC is managed by an SME entrepreneur, seeking financial support from a multi-sided FinTech platform (MSP) to develop a portfolio of green and non-green products. The MSP offers the SC a combination of equity financing (EF) and debt financing (DF) facilities and must decide on the interest rate of its DF facility. Using a benchmark model, we first characterize the SC’s production and the MSP’s financing decisions under a deregulated scenario. Focusing on an alternative case with government intervention (i.e., hybrid environmental-green entrepreneurship policy), we next develop a three-level game theoretical model and sequentially characterize the decision-making behavior of government,MSP, and SC. The model outcomes are analyzed by considering the policy approach (i.e., economic influence vs. social welfare) and the platform’s risk attitude. The results reveal that, when coupled with an appropriate government intervention policy, a regulated scenario leads to a better outcome, particularly when the MSP is risk-neutral and strikes a right balance between the EF and DF. The win–win situation may not be realized when the MSP is risk-averse and the host government is merely focused on its economic influence. To successfully promote sustainable supply chain finance (SSCF) through digital platforms, policy makers are urged to leverage their legislative power and prioritize green entrepreneurship and social welfare over their financial maximization agenda.

January

• Xuhui Wang, Fayaz Ali, Muhammad Zubair Tauni, Qilin Zhang & Tanveer Ahsan (2022) Effects of hedonic shopping motivations and gender differences on compulsive online buyers, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Volume 30, issue 1, pp. 120-135

Online shopping addiction has become a worsening problem in China for males and females. Based on 904 shoppers, this study examines the relationship between hedonic shopping motivations and compulsive online buying and investigates gender differences using gender theories. This study finds that different hedonic motivations contribute to compulsive online buying. Gratification seeking and idea shopping are key motivations for compulsive online buyers (females are mostly gratification seekers, while males are mostly information seekers). Conversely, value and role-play shopping reduce compulsive online buying, with a stronger effect on females; however, role-play shopping was unrelated to compulsive online buying for males.

• Guillaume Bagnarosa, Mark Cummins, Michael Dowling, Fearghal Kearney (2022) Commodity risk in European dairy firms, European Review of Agricultural Economics, Volume 49, Issue 1, January 2022, Pages 151–181

We apply a multivariate mixed-data sampling (MIDAS) conditional quantile regression technique to understand the dairy commodity exposure of European dairy firms. Leveraging a theoretically sound hedonic dairy pricing framework, we show that our approach is able to identify both market and operational risk. Profit margins for butter and milk price are particularly important for operational performance. Additional tests are provided, including an application of MIDAS quantile on a period of amplified dairy market risk. Our approach thus allows dairy firms to gain new perspectives on the significant risks posed by the current structure of dairy production in Europe.

• Raouf Boucekkine, Giorgio Fabbri, Salvatore Federico, Fausto Gozzi (2022) Managing spatial linkages and geographic heterogeneity in dynamic models with transboundary pollution, Journal of Mathematical Economics, Volume 98, January 2022, 102577

We construct a spatiotemporal frame for the study of spatial economic and ecological patterns generated by transboundary pollution. Space is continuous and polluting emissions originate in the intensity of use of the production input. Pollution flows across locations following a diffusion process. The objective functional of the economy is to set the optimal production policy over time and space to maximize welfare from consumption, taking into account a negative local pollution externality and the diffusive nature of pollution. Our framework allows for space and time dependent preferences and productivity, and does not restrict diffusion speed to be space-independent.  Accordingly, we develop a methodology to investigate the environmental and economic implications of spatiotemporal heterogeneity. We propose a method for an analytical characterization of the optimal paths. An application to technological spillovers is proposed for illustration. We focus on the determination of the optimal short-term spatiotemporal dynamics induced by the resulting non-autonomous problems

•  Atwal, G., Bryson, D. and Kaiser, M. (2022). The chopsticks debacle: how brand hate flattened Dolce & Gabbana in China. Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 34 No. 1 2022, pp. 37-43

The purpose of this study is to investigate the development of brand hate based on the case of Italian luxury fashion house Dolce & Gabbana in China. The strategy adopted in this study is a single in-depth case study. Qualitative methods are applied in both the data collection and analysis. The findings identified six distinct stages through which brand hate can develop: awareness, anger, amplification, antagonism, action and apathy. The case is specific to a luxury brand and the Chinese cultural context. Practitioners need to consider how business strategies can be adapted to manage the six stages of the manifestation of brand hate. A “proactive” approach is needed to avoid arousing brand hate, while a “reactive” approach is needed to manage its potential ramifications. There has been a paucity of anti-consumption research within the business strategy literature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the focus on China makes this the first study to investigate brand hate within a Chinese cultural contex.

• Thomas Conlon, John Cotter, Emmanuel Eyiah-Donkor (2022) The illusion of oil return predictability: The choice of data matters! Journal of Banking & Finance, Volume 134, 2022, 106331

Previous studies document statistically significant evidence of crude oil return predictability by several forecasting variables. We suggest that this evidence is misleading and follows from the common use of within-month averages of daily oil prices in calculating returns used in predictive regressions. Averaging introduces a bias in the estimates of the first-order autocorrelation coefficient and variance of returns. Consequently, estimates of regression coefficients are inefficient and associated t-statistics are overstated, leading to false inference about the true extent of in-sample and out-of-sample return predictability. On the contrary, using end-of-month data, we do not find convincing evidence for the predictability of oil returns. Our results highlight and provide a cautionary tale on how the choice of data could influence hypothesis testing for return predictability.

• Ramzi Hammami, Yannick Frein, Imen Nouira, Abduh-Sayid Albana (2022) On the interplay between local lead times, overall lead time, prices, and profits in decentralized supply chains. International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 243, 2022, 108324

A two-stage decentralized supply chain operates in make-to-order under a stochastic environment. Each stage represents an independent firm that quotes a price and a delivery time to its downstream while satisfying a minimum service level. The mean demand depends on the final price and the overall delivery time quoted to the customers by the whole supply chain. We study three settings. First, the downstream, as a Stackelberg leader, decides its price and controls both delivery times, and the upstream, as a follower, reacts by deciding its own price. Second, the downstream decides its delivery time and controls prices, and the upstream reacts by quoting its own delivery time. Third, the upstream, as a leader, decides its price and controls both delivery times, and the downstream, as a follower, decides its own price. This is the first study to investigate the delivery time quotation and pricing in decentralized supply chains where each firm performs operations and has a delivery time, and the demand is function of both upstream and downstream delivery times in addition to final price. We characterize analytically the optimal strategy under each setting and derive insights into the interplay between local delivery times, overall delivery time, prices, demand, and profits. We investigate how delivery times can be used to coordinate the supply chain and the impact of firms’ capacities.

• Larisa Yarovaya, Roman Matkovsky, Akanksha Jalan (2022) The COVID-19 black swan crisis: Reaction and recovery of various financial markets. Research in International Business and Finance, Volume 59, 2022, 101521

This paper examines and compares financial market reaction and recovery of four broad classes of financial assets – equity indexes, precious metals, 10-year benchmark bonds and cryptocurrencies, to the COVID-19 pandemic. The data set comprises daily observations of close prices in the selected markets from 17-04-2018 to 20-06-2021. Using the Yang and Zhao (2020) and Koenker and Xiao (2004) quantile unit-root tests for return persistence, we find heterogeneity in reactions and recovery patterns not only across asset classes, but also within them. Specifically, we find strong potential for mean reversion in equity markets even at high levels of shocks. While gold offers limited mean reversion, platinum shows very strong resistance to the COVID. Government bonds show small declines in value to the COVID in addition to high persistence. Cryptocurrencies, as a group, turn out to be the riskiest in the long-term, with more than a 50% decline in value coupled with high degrees of persistence. Our results raise questions as to the safe haven characteristics of the newly-popular Bitcoin. Our findings are useful for policy makers and investors through a better understanding of differences in the potential for mean reversion provided by different asset classes.

• Ali Majidi, Pedram Farghadani-Chaharsooghi, S. Mohammad J. Mirzapour Al-e-Hashem (2022) Sustainable Pricing-Production-Workforce-Routing Problem for Perishable Products by Considering Demand Uncertainty; A Case Study from the Dairy Industry. Transportation Journal 1 January 2022; 61 (1): 60–102

The production routing problem seeks to simultaneously optimize production, routing, and inventory decisions for the plant and the suppliers. In this article an integrated multi-objective sustainable pricing-production-workforce- routing problem is presented for perishable products. Total profit, workforce planning, and vehicle fuel consumption are considered as objective functions due to the importance of operational performance, social, and environmental concerns. The application of the proposed approach is investigated using real case data from a dairy product supply chain. Furthermore, a new solution approach, called Fuzzy Domination Self- Learning Non-Dominated Sorting Algorithm (FDSL-NSGA-II), is developed to solve the problem. The results show that the Pareto solutions of FDSLNSGA- II outperform those of the classic NSGA-II. Moreover, the findings show that the proposed model can create a surpassing tradeoff between the various aspects of a supply chain, including production, distribution, and workforce planning. In addition, it concurrently optimizes the selling price and protects the environment from the negative impacts of greenhouse gas.

• Purcarea, Theodor , Valeriu-Ioan Franc, Stefan-Alexandru Ionescu, Ioan-Matei Purcarea, Victor Lorin Purcarea, Irina Purcarea, Maria Cristina Mateescu-Soare Otilia-Elena Platon Anca-Olguta Orzan, “Major Shifts in Sustainable Consumer Behavior in Romania and Retailers’ Priorities in Agilely Adapting to It.” Sustainability (2022), vol. 14, issue 3, 1-51; 1627

The sustainable consumption and integration of digital solutions with respect to sustainable consumption have been encouraged by the new European circular economy action plan. Digital adoption has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic; companies have been challenged to rapidly adapt to the constant evolution of consumer needs and expectations, leading to valuable insights into the advancement of green business practices and a consequent rethinking of their business model. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the major shifts in sustainable consumer behavior on the Romanian retail market within the context of the Green European Deal, and retailers’ priorities in agilely adapting to these significant evolutions. Based on a comprehensive literature review on these major shifts and significant evolutions at the national and international levels, a quantitative study was carried out to evaluate the Romanian retail market and identify the major challenges faced by retailers in dealing with the new set of priorities. The data collection was conducted via a survey used in the retail environment, applied within a Romanian supermarket chain. The Romanian retail sector has a particular configuration, which may have an impact upon the study’s generalizability. Located in Central and Eastern Europe at the crossroads of the EU, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and the Middle East, Romania is a leading destination for foreign direct investment, and it is recognized for the similarities of its distribution and sales channels, the range of its retail outlets, and the local retail market dominance on the Big Box segment by reputed major retailers. A spectacular evolution is recorded in Romania’s e-commerce market, including from the point of view of the long-standing and memorable traditional relationship between Romania and China which was confirmed more recently by Romanian consumers who prefer to buy online from stores in China. Our consumer research provides retailers with deep consumer insights with regard to their priorities in their agile adaptation. According to our research, Romanian consumers are environmentally concerned consumers, displaying an increased awareness about the important role they play with respect to impacting sustainable production and consumption by adopting green purchase behavior. Our study also points to the fact that retailers, although faced with challenges in targeting consumers with customized messages to reinforce their brand perception on sustainability issues, do pay considerable attention to sustainability as a personal value embraced by consumers and are willing to focus on digitizing their business processes to enable new, sustainable business models

• Mahabubur Rahman, Anisur R. Faroque, Georgia Sakka, Zafar U. Ahmed (2022) The impact of negative customer engagement on market-based assets and financial performance. Journal of Business Research, Volume 138, 2022, Pages 422-435

Negative customer engagement (NCE) has received little research attention. The effect of NCE on market-based assets (i.e. brand equity) and firm performance remains a particularly underexplored topic despite the increasing rates of NCE with brands across a multitude of service industries. This study develops a comprehensive and parsimonious model of the causes and consequences of NCE. In this study, time-series cross-sectional data from the US airline industry and a simultaneous equation modelling technique were used to provide evidence for why some firms experience more NCE than others. The results indicate that airlines with a higher relative marketing capability (RMC) experience fewer NCE incidents in the form of customer complaints. A firm’s relative marketing capability determines the extent to which its customers engage negatively with it. Furthermore, deviating from earlier studies which explored the direct and immediate relationships between the focal variables, this study theoretically argued and empirically demonstrated that brand equity mediates the nexus between NCE and financial performance. That is, the number of NCE incidents a firm experiences affects its brand equity, which in turn impacts its financial performance, as measured by Tobin’s q and market value added (MVA).

• Laurent Scaringella, Anna Górska, Dennis Calderon, Jose Benitez (2022) Should we teach in hybrid mode or fully online? A theory and empirical investigation on the service–profit chain in MBAs. Information & Management, Volume 59, Issue 1, 2022, 103573

Should we teach in hybrid mode or fully online? We examine the teaching model’s role (hybrid versus fully online) in the service–profit chain in higher education institutions using survey data from 93 faculty members and 366 students from three American universities. We find that faculty members’ satisfaction and the MBA program expectations improve MBA word-of-mouth by enhancing the MBA quality, MBA value, class satisfaction, and MBA loyalty. Additionally, we discover that the hybrid teaching model more strongly reinforces this chain of effects than the fully online model. IT creates the integration of differential value into a hybrid teaching style.

• Jabbouri, Rachid , Dirk Schneckenberg, and Yann Truong (2022) From Policy-Practice to Means-Ends Decoupling in Organisations: A Systematic Review and Paths for Future Research. Management International 26 (1)  (2022) pp 123-148

Recent developments in the innovation literature suggest that even when an organization truthfully implements the adopted R&D policy, it may still fail to achieve its intended goals, a phenomenon called means-ends decoupling. We employ a systematic literature review to answer the question of “what is the current state of knowledge in the phenomenon of means-ends decoupling in the literature” and “where it can move in the future.” Our paper provides a framework that delineates means-ends decoupling from policy-practice decoupling and identifies the underlying mechanisms that explain when and how means-ends decoupling may occur within an organization’s activities.

• Canan Yildirim & Belma Öztürkkal (2022) Regional Expansion of Emerging Market Banks: Evidence from the Middle East, Journal of East-West Business, 28:1, 30-60

This study investigates challenges and opportunities that regionally expanding emerging market banks face. We focus on four leading Middle Eastern banks’ internationalization trajectories and performances by employing a case study approach. We first examine the four banks’ choices of target markets, entry sequencing, and  entry modes over time and then analyze their entry strategies and post-entry financial performances in one of their key markets, Turkey. We show that the success of regional expansion strategies depends on parent bank characteristics such as scale and capital strength, strategic decisions regarding entry mode and timing, and host market structure and competitiveness.

• Sushil Gupta, Martin K. Starr, Reza Zanjirani Farahani, Nasrin Asgari (2022) Pandemics/Epidemics: Challenges and Opportunities for Operations Management Research. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 24(1):1-23

We reviewed research papers related to pandemics/epidemics (disease outbreaks of a global/regional scope) published in major operations management, operations research, and management science journals through the end of 2019.We evaluate and categorize these papers. We study research trends, explore research gaps, and provide directions for more efficient and effective research in the future. In addition, our recommendations include the lessons learned from the ongoing pandemic, COVID-19. We discuss papers in the following categories: (a) warning signals/surveillance, (b) disease propagation leading to pandemic conditions, (c) mitigation, (d) vaccines and therapeutics development, (e) resource management, (f) supply chain configuration, (g) decision support systems for managing pandemics/epidemics, and (h) risk assessment

February

• Jie Xiong, Shuyan Zhao, Yan Meng, Lu Xu, Seong-Young Kim (2022) How latecomers catch up to build an energy-saving industry: The case of the Chinese electric vehicle industry 1995–2018, Energy Policy, Volume 161, 2022, 112725

This research identifies how windows of opportunity (WOP) emerge and influence the catching up process of the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) industry between 1995 and 2018 by analyzing technological, institutional, and market demand elements of the WOP. Our case study indicates that government policies play a vital role. Along with the development of Chinese EV industry, government policies evolve from initiation to consolidation and finally reposition. Meanwhile, WOP emerge but diverge in their patterns; from institutional to technological and finally to the market demand WOP. Our study further elaborates the interplay of the above-mentioned three kinds of WOP, which provide feedback to the government authorities and work jointly to facilitate the catching up of Chinese EV industry. Based on the evidence of the Chinese EV industry, we continue the discussion of the emergence and interplays of WOP during the industrial catching up in latecomer countries like China, who is eager to build an energy-saving industry. Our case study provides a fine-grained analysis of policy evolution and its role in opening the different kinds of WOP, which eventually contribute to the successful catching up of a latecomer industry. It also offers new insights for policymakers when building a sustainable system

• Oscar Llopis, Pablo D’Este, Maureen McKelvey, Alfredo Yegros (2022) Navigating multiple logics: Legitimacy and the quest for societal impact in science, Technovation, Volume 110, 2022, 102367

Academic scientists are encouraged to pursue research that delivers both scientific and societal impact. This may involve a search for alternative mechanisms of social approval which lead to endorsement of scientists’ research goals. We explore how scientists mobilise and accumulate different forms of legitimacy, which might favour their participation in practices related to innovation and societal impact. We propose three specific sources of scientific legitimacy: i) scientists’ social networks (research-related legitimacy ties), ii) prominence in the relevant academic community (reputation-based legitimacy); and direct contact with the primary beneficiaries of the research (beneficiary-based legitimacy). To explain scientists’ participation in activities oriented towards innovation and societal impact, we test the significance of each of these sources of legitimacy and their potential interplay empirically, using a large sample of Spanish biomedical scientists

• Mcnamara, Tom; Meloso, Debrah; Michelotti, Marco; Puncheva-Michelotti, Petya (2022) You are free to choose…are you? Organisational punishment as a productivity incentive in the social science literature. Human Relations, Vol. 75(2) 322–348

This article investigates the theoretical and empirical relationships between organisational punishment and productivity. We do so by highlighting the contributions of two academic fields to this topic: management and economics. We underscore the many common theoretical and empirical grounds across management and economics. We heighten, in particular, how motivation and learning theories have contributed to the development of both theoretical and empirical research on this topic. This article also argues that this debate could be significantly advanced if insights stemming from industrial relations and labour process theory were also considered, as these disciplines have traditionally focused on macro-issues such as how changes in the economic/institutional contexts may affect the likelihood that organisations will resort to unishment. In order to foster future research on this topic, three research themes were developed: (a) freedom of choice and the role of contract completeness; (b) perception of punishment, monitoring and productivity; and (c) punishment, productivity and exogenous variables.

• Anisur R. Faroque, Lasse Torkkeli, Hafiza Sultana, Mahabubur Rahman (2022) Network exploration and exploitation capabilities and foreign market knowledge: The enabling and disenabling boundary conditions for international performance. Industrial Marketing Management, Volume 101, 2022, Pages 258-271

This empirical study analyzes how strategic orientations influence the relationships between exploration and exploitation-related networking capabilities, foreign market knowledge, and market performance of 198 internationally operating firms in Bangladesh. The results of hierarchical regression showed that a higher level of network exploration capability and network exploitation capability individually generate greater foreign market knowledge. In addition, our results show that international entrepreneurial orientation reinforces the positive effect of network exploration capability. The positive association between market knowledge and performance, in turn, is accentuated by a proactive export market orientation but attenuated by a responsive export market orientation. These findings suggest that, while both types of networking capabilities are beneficial to develop stocks of foreign market knowledge, firms can acquire and create greater knowledge if they strategically align entrepreneurial orientation with network exploration capability. Further, to use this market knowledge with the goal of improving their position in international markets, firms need to develop a proactive rather than a responsive export market orientation. The current study contributes to the literature on networking capabilities by analyzing firms’ networking capabilities with the lens of exploration-exploitation typologies and incorporating strategic orientations as the contextual factors of such capabilities

• Amirhossein Sadoghi, Jan Vecer (2021) Optimal liquidation problem in illiquid markets. European Journal of Operational Research, Volume 296, Issue 3, 2022, pp 1050-1066

In this research, we develop a trading strategy for the optimal liquidation problem of large-order trading, with different market microstructures, in an illiquid market. We formulate the liquidation problem as a discrete-time Markov decision process. In this market, the flow of liquidity events can be viewed as a point process with stochastic intensity. Based on this fact, we model the price impact as a linear function of a self-exciting dynamic process. Our trading algorithm is designed in such a way that when no favourite orders arrive in the Limit Order Book (LOB), the optimal solution takes offers from the lower levels of the LOB. This solution might contradict conventional optimal execution methods, which only trade with the best available limit orders; however, our findings show that the proposed strategy may reduce final inventory costs by preventing orders not being filled at earlier trading times. Furthermore, the results indicate that an optimal trading strategy is dependent on characteristics of the market microstructure.

March

• Feng, Chai, Mirza, Sultan Sikandar, Ahsan, Tanveer, Gull, Ammar Ali (2021) The impact of financial flexibility and directors’ academic experience on corporate R&D investments: a quantile regression approach. Applied Economics R&D investments: a quantile regression approach. Applied Economics, 54:17, 1974-1988

This study investigates the impact of financial flexibility and academic experience of a firm’s board on corporate R&D investments in China. It also explores the moderating role of directors’ academic experience on the relationship between financial flexibility and R&D investments. We apply ordinary least square, fixed effects and quantile regression analysis using panel data of 2,195 A-share firms listed on Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges during the period from 2011 to 2018. We find that both financial flexibility and directors’ academic experience promote R&D investments of Chinese non-financial firms. We also observe that directors’ academic experience weakens the positive impact of financial flexibility on R&D investments for firms operating in underdeveloped financial regions, whereas it strengthens the positive impact of financial flexibility on R&D investments for firms operating in developed financial regions. Our quantile regression results suggest that academic experience has a highly significant positive moderating impact on the financial flexibility of lower R&D investment firms relative to high R&D investment firms. These results are robust to alternate proxy of financial flexibility and endogeneity issues due to reverse causality.

• Tanveer Ahsan, Bakr Al-Gamrh, Sultan Sikandar (2021) Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm-Value: The Role of Sensitive Industries and CEOs Power in China. Applied Economics, 54:16, 1844-1863

Using a large panel dataset of 861 listed Chinese firms, the present study investigates whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects firm-value. It examines the influence of five CSR dimensions on firm-value. Then, it pinpoints the moderating impact of industry-sensitivity and power concentration of the CEO. In contrast to developed economy’s evidence, the results show an overall negative impact of CSR on firm-value. Looking closer at the dimensions separately, we find a negative impact of most of the CSR dimensions and a positive impact of some other CSR dimensions on firm-value. However, we observe that CSR enhances the value of firms operating in sensitive industries. Similarly, we find that a powerful CEO can also create firm-value through CSR by aligning CSR practices with the firms’ objectives. Our results are sufficiently rigorous to alternate proxies of CSR.

• Canhilal, K., Bakici, T., Canboy, B. (2022) Social Support through Virtual Platforms for Self-Initiated Expatriates: Exploring the Role of Online and Offline Participation. International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol.33, issue 5, pages: 1005-1036

By combining expatriate social support and online community literature, we explore the role Internet-based expat platforms can play in creating complementary opportunities of interaction leading to informational, emotional and instrumental support for expatriates in the host country. For this purpose, two studies were conducted: 1) a text analysis using computational linguistic methods for 13 500 posts from 45 expat platforms to find evidence of different kinds of social support based on the type of platform; 2) an online survey distributed to gather insights on expatriates’ types of participation and the types of social support they receive. We find that relations generated through virtual platforms – which we call platform contacts – are complementary sources for expatriates to obtain informational, emotional, and instrumental support, the latter two being higher for hybrid participants, i.e. for those who use online and offline features of the platform. This study further presents that expatriates who receive social support from platform contacts also show higher sustained participation, especially if they are hybrid participants. Based on these results, we present a dynamic model with testable propositions and discuss implications.

• Yashar Bashirzadeh, Robert Mai, Corinne Faure (2021) How Rich is Too Rich? Visual Design Elements in Digital Marketing Communications. International Journal of Research in Marketing, Issue #1 Vol 39 (March 2022) pp 58 -76

Companies are increasingly including innovative visual design elements such as animations and pictographs in digital communication. While both elements can be beneficial in exchanges with their customers, we propose that combining them can have negative effects on communication effectiveness. Animations and pictographs enhance digital communication, essentially through increased perceptions of enrichment, but these elements also raise perceptions of clutter. As they enrich a message in unique ways, processing these different types of visual design elements requires distinct cognitive resources such that, when combined, clutter perceptions dominate the recipient’s perceptions and behaviors, thus paradoxically offsetting their positive effects. This interplay may not only undermine message outcomes but even spill over to downstream behavioral outcomes. In a large-scale randomized field experiment in cooperation with a mobile app company, we find that including animations (GIFs) and pictographs (emojis) together damages message outcomes (increasing unsubscriptions) and downstream outcomes (reducing in-app time) compared with what happens when these elements are deployed separately.We elaborate on the processing of the text and visual elements from this field experiment in two lab experiments, including an eye-tracking study. Finally, in two further online studies, we seek to establish whether the proposed mechanisms depend on the number of visuals or the types of pictographs employed.

• Raouf Boucekkine, Giorgio Fabbri, Salvatore Federico, Fausto Gozzi (2022) A dynamic theory of spatial externalities. Games and Economic Behavior, Volume 132, March 2022, Pages 133-165

We characterize the shape of spatial externalities in a continuous time and space differential game with transboundary pollution. We posit a realistic spatiotemporal law of motion for pollution (diffusion and advection), and tackle spatiotemporal non-cooperative (and cooperative) differential games. Precisely, we consider a circle partitioned into several states where a local authority decides autonomously about its investment, production and depollution strategies over time knowing that investment/production generates pollution, and pollution is transboundary. The time horizon is infinite. We allow for a rich set of geographic heterogeneities across states. We solveanalyticallythe induced non-cooperative differential game and characterize its long-term spatial distributions. In particular, we prove that there exist a Perfect Markov Equilibrium, unique among the class of the affine feedbacks. We further provide with a full exploration of the free riding problem and the associated border effect

• Jalan, A., Matkovskyy, R., Poti, V., (2022) Shall the winning last? A study of recent bubbles and persistence. Finance Research Letters, Volume 45, 102162

In this study, we analyze stock market performance of 43 firms that show very large price rises in COVID-19 times for the period 21/11/2019 – 20/1/2021. These cover 6 industries – work-from-home companies, stay-at-home companies, Cryptocurrency companies, Bitcoin companies, Coronavirus Vaccine companies and Coronavirus therapeutics companies. Our results demonstrate the presence of bubbles and persistence patterns

• Chen, Y., Bredin, D., Potì, V., & Matkovskyy, R. (2022). COVID risk narratives: a computational linguistic approach to the econometric identification of narrative risk during a pandemic. Digital Finance, 4: 1; pp 17–61

In this paper, we study the role of narratives in stock markets with a particular focus on the relationship with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic represents a natural setting for the development of viral financial market narratives. We thus treat the pandemic as a natural experiment on the relation between prevailing narratives and financial markets. We adopt natural language processing (NLP) on financial news to characterize the evolution of important narratives. Doing so, we reduce the high-dimensional narrative information to few interpretable and important features while avoiding over-fitting. In addition to the common features, we consider virality as a novel feature of narratives, inspired by Shiller (Am Econ Rev 107:967–1004, 2017). Our aim is to establish whether the prevailing narratives drive or are driven by stock market conditions. Focusing on the coronavirus narratives, we document some stylized facts about its evolution around a severe event-driven stock market decline. We find the pandemic-relevant narratives are influenced by stock market conditions and act as a cellar for brewing a perennial economic narrative. We successfully identified a perennial risk narrative, whose shock is followed by a severe market drop and a long-term increase of market volatility. In the out-of-sample test, this narrative went viral since the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, when the pandemic-relevant narratives dominate news media, show negative sentiment and were more linked to “crisis” context. Our findings encourage the use of narratives to evaluate long-term market conditions and to early warn event-driven severe market declines.

• Zanjirani Farahani, R., Asgari, N. and Van Wassenhove, L.N. (2022) Fast Fashion, Charities, and the Circular Economy: Challenges for Operations Management. Production and Operations Management, Volume31, Issue 3, March 2022, pp 1089-1114

Textile waste is one of the most pollutant items globally, being strongly affected by fast fashion (FF) products. Public pressure has made many FF firms voluntarily collect a small fraction of their preowned items and export them to developing countries for reuse. However, some developing countries are launching import bans on second-hand clothes. In addition, FF firms may soon be forced by extended producer responsibility legislation to collect more preowned items for reuse and recycling. To date, they do not have sufficient capacity to deal with this. Charities have been the key collectors and recyclers of unwanted clothes. Therefore, charities could help FF firms increase their capacity in this reverse supply chain (SC). However, we hardly witness such a collaboration for two main reasons: (i) charities prefer to sell high-quality preowned items in the primary market to generate the highest possible revenue and FF firms may fear cannibalization, (ii) many charities believe that FF firms generate quantities of low-quality items that require collection and sorting while being difficult to sell in the primary market. Charities also face competition from many small for-profit organizations selling FF preowned items. While charities have the support of volunteers, they tend to be less efficient. This work urges Operations Management (OM) researchers to suggest innovative business models to help (i) FF firms and charities collaborate to solve the abovementioned issues, and (ii) charities to improve their traditional practices for competitiveness. This study is primarily a position paper highlighting some challenges and introducing interesting research problems. Although the paper is not a research paper, it follows a qualitative research method to collect and analyze the required supporting documents to justify arguments and statements. We collected primary and secondary data from the textile reverse SC members to familiarize the OM community with this context. The current changes in the textile reverse SC offer many great opportunities for impactful OM research.

April

• Faheem Aslam, Khurrum S. Mughal, Saqib Aziz, Muhammad Farooq Ahmad & Dhoha Trabelsi (2022) COVID-19 pandemic and the dependence structure of global stock markets.  Applied Economics, 54:18, 2013-2031

In this paper, we examine the changes in the dependence structure of global stock markets amid the outbreak of COVID-19. We divide 56 stock markets into developed, emerging, and frontier markets and study their daily price data from 15 October 2019 to 17 August 2020 using the canonical vine (C-vine) copula approach. We observed significant changes in the dependence structure, the selection of the pair copula families, and the associated parameter estimates in the tree. In developed markets, during the COVID-19, the dependence of markets shifted from the Netherlands to France while the root node position of Hungary replaced the market of Poland. The frontier markets showed strong dependence signs with Mauritius before COVID-19 and Slovenia during the outbreak. Our findings are of interest to regulators and practitioners, particularly in monitoring the value at risk of portfolios and adopting appropriate strategies in light of the varying dynamics of stock markets during extreme events, such as COVID-19.

• Ahmad, Muhammad Farooq , Saqib Aziz, and Michael Dowling (2022) Does target country cultural orientation influence M&A?” British Journal of Management, Volume 33 Issue 2, April 2022 pp 906-938

We examine whether the cultural orientation of target firms influences the outcomes of international mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Prior research shows that the national culture of the acquiring firm country influences M&As, as well as the distance between the acquiring and target country cultures. Not previously studied from a cultural perspective of M&As has been the target country culture, despite estimates that about 40% of M&As are target-initiated. Our focus is on target firm cultural orientation, including how cultural orientation affects the likelihood of, and returns from, M&As. Our testing applies three cultural orientation factors (results, tradition and people orientation) extracted from a GLOBE cultural framework to a dataset of firm-level M&A data across 39 countries, in 1990–2016. We find that firms from cultures with a results orientation are less likely to become M&A targets and also experience higher cumulative abnormal returns if acquired, while firms from countries with cultures with a tradition orientation or a people orientation are more likely to become targets but experience lower cumulative abnormal returns if acquired. These results are robust to a comprehensive range of robustness tests. Our findings suggest that understanding the cultural orientation of target firms is important to understanding M&A outcomes.

• Gao, S., Bagnarosa, G., Dowling, M. Matkovskyy, R. & Tawil, D. (2022) Price transmission in European fish markets. Applied Economics 54:19, 2194-2213

We investigate price transmission in European fisheries markets. To start, we identify clusters of fish species both cross-regionally and within countries. A major issue in the clustering exercise is missing data due to reporting issues and seasonality in landed fish catches. To handle this we implement k-POD clustering which unlike traditional k-means clustering is able to account for missing data in clustering. Next, we move on to our primary goal of investigating price transmission through modelling price volatility spillovers. A missing value VAR framework is applied to identify directional spillovers among fish prices within clusters. We show that the directional volatility spillover effect is more prominent within each country for different species clusters than that for species cross-regionally. This suggests price transmission within localized markets for fish, rather than cross-regional markets for individual species. Although there are some neighbour country effects and some species that appear to be priced cross-regionally. Our  study is the first to explore these multiple fish pricing dynamics, particularly taking account of the important issue of missing data which is a notable feature of fish pricing data

• Gatti Junior, Wilian , Alceu Salles Camargo Junior, and Paul Varella.(2022)  Intergenerational hybrid products in periods of discontinuous change. European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 25 No. 3, 2022, pp. 860-880

This study examines the role of hybrid products employed in companies’ innovation strategy within three American industrial sectors: tires, typewriters and photography cameras. Design/methodology/approach – The authors selected historical cases that enabled us to present the role of hybrid products in periods of discontinuous change. Different sources are employed in this study: papers, books, cases, working papers, videos, manuals and product catalogues, companies’ annual reports, company websites, advertising, collectors’ websites and museums, in addition to press and other media reports. Findings – The authors’ historical case analysis points to two forms of hybrid products. (1) Exploitation hybrid, which incorporates significant elements from the existing dominant design and aims at extending the revenue-generating opportunities of the existing products. (2) Exploration-hybrid, which works as an offensive strategy, as the firm uses the exploration-hybrid to promote a gradual and controlled adoption of new technology by reducing risks and the cost of change for the customer. Research limitations/implications – The authors’ proposed definitions strengthen the idea that hybrids are not only a reflection of organizational inertia (exploitation-hybrid). Hybrids can also mean a more proactive stance in the strategy of developing and adopting new technology (exploration-hybrid). Originality/value – This study acknowledged hybrid products as a learning instrument that materialized the organizational ambidexterity, favoring at the same time exploitation, generally attributed to organizational inertia, and the exploration of new segments of customers or the use of new technologies.

• Marko Grünhagen, Manuel González-Díaz, Dildar Hussain & Haroldo Monteiro da Silva Filho (2022) Multibrand, multisystem and multirole franchising: A qualitative exploration and framework development in Brazil, Journal of Small Business Management, Volume 60, 2022 – Issue 2, pp 253-288

We investigate franchisees’ rationales for ownership constellations beyond single brands or systems. Through exploratory interviews with Brazilian franchisees, reasoning and process of how franchisees develop their multibrand, multisystem and multirole portfolio is elucidated. Franchisees in Brazil with ownership stakes in more than one brand/system aim to keep units within their monitoring range, while diversifying to mitigate risk of their portfolios. Brazilian franchisees have created an active marketplace in which franchises are traded akin to commodities and franchises serve as schools or entrepreneurial “internships” for franchisees who seek new skills. A new framework of laddered diversification options in franchising is developed.

• Hammami, H., Ngo, T., Tripe, D., Dinh-Tri Vo (2022) Ranking with a Euclidean common set of weights in data envelopment analysis: with application to the Eurozone banking sector. Annals of Operations Research, 311:2, pp 611–639

This paper provides a new method to define a Euclidean common set of weights (ECSW) in data development analysis (DEA) that (1) allows ranking both efficient and inefficient firms, (2) is more realistic in terms of determination of weights, and (3) generates rankings for banks consistent with their credit ratings. We first use DEA to determine the efficient frontier and then estimate a common set of weights that can minimize the Euclidean distance between the firms and that frontier. This process is illustrated by a simple numerical example and is extended to a real-life situation using the Eurozone banking sector. Our ECSW approach outperforms other common set of weights approaches in both numerical and real-life examples, and in terms of providing rankings consistent with banks’ credit ratings.

• Boubaker. S, Trung. D.D, Hammami. H, Cung. K.L, (Forthcoming), “The role of bank affiliation in bank efficiency: a fuzzy multi-objective data envelopment analysis approach” Annals of Operations Research.  311:2, pp. 675–694

This paper examines differences in bank efficiency between banks affiliated with single bank holding companies and those affiliated with multi-bank holding companies by applying a fuzzy multi-objective two-stage data envelopment analysis technique. Using a sample of U.S. commercial banks covering 1994–2018, the results show that banks affiliated with multi-bank holding companies are more efficient than those affiliated with single-bank holding companies, suggesting that the former takes advantage of their parents’ resources to enhance their efficiency, consistent with the internal capital market theory. They also show that banks with a powerful CEO exhibit lower efficiency than others. Moreover, there is an inverted U shape relationship between multi-bank holding company structure and bank efficiency, suggesting the presence of an optimal number of multi-bank holding subsidiaries that maximizes efficiency.

• José Luis Ferreras-Méndez, Oscar Llopis, Joaquín Alegre (2022) Speeding up new product development through entrepreneurial orientation in SMEs: The moderating role of ambidexterity. Industrial Marketing Management, Volume 102, 2022, Pages 240-251

This paper analyzes the influence of small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on its capacity to quickly introduce new products to the market (namely, speed to market). Specifically, we suggest that firms will exhibit greater speed to market when displaying either low or high levels of EO. We also suggest that the EO – speed to market relationship will be contingent on firms’ ambidexterity, or its capacity to simultaneously embrace exploratory and exploitative strategies. To test our hypotheses, we collected survey data from 384 SMEs belonging to four sectors in Spain: biotechnology, ceramic tiles, toys and footwear. Our findings confirm the existence of a U-shaped connection between EO and speed to market, and evidence that this curvilinear relationship is accentuated when SMEs exhibit greater ambidexterity.

• Hammami, H., Ngo, T., Tripe, D., Dinh-Tri Vo (2022) Ranking with a Euclidean common set of weights in data envelopment analysis: with application to the Eurozone banking sector. Annals of Operations Research, 311:2, pp 611–639

This paper provides a new method to define a Euclidean common set of weights (ECSW) in data development analysis (DEA) that (1) allows ranking both efficient and inefficient firms, (2) is more realistic in terms of determination of weights, and (3) generates rankings for banks consistent with their credit ratings. We first use DEA to determine the efficient frontier and then estimate a common set of weights that can minimize the Euclidean distance between the firms and that frontier. This process is illustrated by a simple numerical example and is extended to a real-life situation using the Eurozone banking sector. Our ECSW approach outperforms other common set of weights approaches in both numerical and real-life examples, and in terms of providing rankings consistent with banks’ credit ratings.

• Boubaker. S, Trung. D.D, Hammami. H, Cung. K.L, (Forthcoming), “The role of bank affiliation in bank efficiency: a fuzzy multi-objective data envelopment analysis approach” Annals of Operations Research.  311:2, pp. 675–694

This paper examines differences in bank efficiency between banks affiliated with single bank holding companies and those affiliated with multi-bank holding companies by applying a fuzzy multi-objective two-stage data envelopment analysis technique. Using a sample of U.S. commercial banks covering 1994–2018, the results show that banks affiliated with multi-bank holding companies are more efficient than those affiliated with single-bank holding companies, suggesting that the former takes advantage of their parents’ resources to enhance their efficiency, consistent with the internal capital market theory. They also show that banks with a powerful CEO exhibit lower efficiency than others. Moreover, there is an inverted U shape relationship between multi-bank holding company structure and bank efficiency, suggesting the presence of an optimal number of multi-bank holding subsidiaries that maximizes efficiency.

• Faroque, A.R., Sultana, H., Ahmed, J.U., Ahmed, F.U. and Rahman, M. (2021), “The standalone and resource-bundling effects of government and nongovernment institutional support on early internationalizing firms’ performance”, critical perspectives on international business, Vol. 18 No. 3, 2022, pp. 411-442

This study aims to analyze the individual and joint effects of institutional support by government and nongovernment institutions on early internationalizing firms’ (EIFs) performance. It also investigated the moderating impact of firm age and size on the institutional support-firms’ export performance relationships. Data were collected from 705 EIFs in the apparel industry of Bangladesh and analyzed with hierarchical regression. The positive influence of institutional support on exporting firms’ financial performance is stronger for the joint effect of government and nongovernment assistance than the individual impact. Firms’ size positively moderates the impact of individual government and nongovernment assistance, while age positively moderates their resource-bundling effect. The findings suggest the necessity of integrating resources from diverse but complementary sources of institutional support for superior export performance. The findings also show the presence of the liability of smallness and liability of newness in the standalone and joint influence of institutional support, respectively. Firms need to bundle resources obtained from the government (unrequited) and nongovernment (reciprocal) institutional support to overcome the liability of smallness they might encounter while availing of support fromonly one source.

• Khan A, Mushtaq MH, Muhammad J, Sule A, Akbar A, Junaid K, M. A. Warraich et al. (2022) Household COVID-19 secondary attack rate and associated determinants in Pakistan; A retrospective cohort study. PLoS ONE 17(4): e0266277. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266277

COVID-19 household transmissibility remains unclear in Pakistan. To understand the dynamics of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus disease epidemiology, this study estimated Secondary Attack Rate (SAR) among household and close contacts of index cases in Pakistan using a statistical transmission model. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using an inclusive contact tracing dataset from the provinces of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to estimate SAR. We considered the probability of an infected person transmitting the infection to close contacts regardless of residential addresses. This means that close contacts were identified irrespective of their relationship with the index case. We assessed demographic determinants of COVID-19 infectivity and transmissibility. For this purpose based on evolving evidence, and as CDC recommends fully vaccinated people get tested 5–7 days after close contact with a person with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. Therefore we followed the same procedure in the close contacts for secondary infection. During the study period from 15th May 2020 to 15th Jan 2021, a total of 339 (33.9%) index cases were studied from 1000 cases initially notified. Among close contact groups (n = 739), households were identified with an assumed mean incubation period of 8.2+4.3 days and a maximum incubation period of 15 days. SAR estimated here is among the household contacts. 117 secondary cases from 739 household contacts, with SAR 11.1% (95% CI 9.0– 13.6). All together (240) SAR achieved was 32.48% (95% CI; 29.12–37.87) for symptomatic and confirmed cases. The potential risk factors for SAR identified here included; old age group (>45 years of age), male (gender), household members >5, and residency in urban areas and for index cases high age group. Overall local reproductive number (R) based on the observed household contact frequencies for index/primary cases was 0.9 (95% CI 0.47– 1.21) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 1.3 (95% CI 0.73–1.56) in Punjab. SAR estimated here was high especially in the second phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan. The results highlight the need to adopt rigorous preventive measures to cut the chain of viral transmission and prevent another wave of COVID-19

May

• Maher A.N. Agi, Ashish Kumar Jha (2022) Blockchain technology for supply chain management: An integrated theoretical perspective of organizational adoption. International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 247, May 2022, 108458

Blockchain technology has been growing in importance and acceptability over the past few years. Yet, there is limited empirical research on the organizational and technology specific factors that play a critical role in driving its adoption in the supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive framework for blockchain adoption in the supply chain by identifying the enablers and empirically evaluating their interdependencies and impact on adoption. 20 enablers of blockchain adoption in the supply chain are identified using an extensive literature review and theoretical lenses from the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory and the business technology adoption model developed by Iacovou, Benbassat and Dexter (1995). In the confirmatory phase, we employ the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method to extract logic from data collected from 37 French experts about the impact of the enablers and their interdependencies. Our paper extends the multi-theoretic empirical studies to blockchain technology and identifies the enablers of blockchain adoption from technological, organizational, supply chain and external environment perspectives. Regarding the importance of the categories of enablers, we find that the relative advantage of the technology and the external pressure are the most prominent categories of enablers that impact blockchain adoption in the supply chain. Our analysis also shows the important causal role on adoption of the potential of blockchain to reduce transaction cost, the consumer interest in traceability data and the establishment of a regulatory framework for blockchain usage.

• Aziz, S., Jalan, A., Matkovskyy, R. and Bouraoui, T. (2022) Does Shariah compliance affect investor behaviour in the COVID-19 times: Evidence from herding in the global energy market. Applied Economics 54:24, 2825-2836

This paper investigates whether the Shariah compliance matters in determining investor behaviour in herding across firms in the global energy market. Our sample comprises 2501 globally listed energy equities from 10 April 2019 to 8 April 2020 from the Refinitv Eikon database, which also flags firms as compliant or otherwise with Shariah or Islamic law. Using closing price data for the selected firms, we analyse herding behaviour across the two groups, in addition to various firm and market characteristics such as size, profitability, analyst recommendations about future performance and up and down market days. Our results suggest herding in both Shariah and non-Shariah-compliant energy firms, and on down market days in particular. Cross-sectional tests indicate higher herding in larger and more-profitable Shariah firms, and those with positive analyst forecasts for the future, which is consistent with pressure-driven behaviour to maintain performance. In particular, we find that the COVID-19 pandemic does not significantly alter herding behaviour for the sample firms.

• Ahsan, Tanveer and Muhammad Azeem Qureshi (2022) The impact of Islamic banking model and Islamic financial development on bank performance: evidence from dual banking economies. International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management, Vol. 15 No. 3, 2022, pp. 602-625

The purpose of this study is to develop an Islamic Banking Index representing the Islamic banking model and to investigate its impact on the performance of Islamic and conventional banks. This study also analyzes the impact of Islamic financial development on bank performance. The authors collected the data from 23 countries for the period from 2010 to 2018 and developed a composite Islamic Banking Index. The authors applied the generalized method of moments on 3,542 bank-year observations for both Islamic and conventional banks to analyze the impact of the Islamic Banking Index on bank performance. The results of the study are robust to time-fixed effects, country-level time-varying factors and endogeneity issues. The authors found that Islamic Banking Index positively contributes to the return on assets (ROAit) of Islamic banks only. This impact becomes highly significant in countries with comparatively higher Islamic financial development. This finding suggests that the Islamic financial development in a country provides a supportive operating environment to Islamic banks and increases their performance. The authors also found that Islamic Banking Index positively contributes to the return on equity (ROEit) of both types of banks. The authors argue that moving away from interest-based products and focusing more on diversified portfolios can boost the performance of both types of banks without increasing their risk levels. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that develops a composite Islamic Banking Index based on differentiating factors of the Islamic banking model and investigates the impact of Islamic Banking Index and Islamic financial development on bank performance.

• Tanveer Ahsan, Bakr Al-Gamrh, Sultan Sikandar Mirza (2021) Economic policy uncertainty and sustainable financial growth: Does business strategy matter? Finance Research Letters, Volume 46, Part B, May 2022, 102381

Using a data of 975 Chinese non-financial listed firms, this study investigates the impact of firm business strategy on sustainable financial growth during economic policy uncertainty. We use index-based measures of economic policy uncertainty, sustainable financial growth and business strategy and observe that economic policy uncertainty hurts the sustainable financial growth of Chinese firms. However, we find that a defensive business strategy positively moderates the negative impact of policy uncertainty, whereas an analytical business strategy mitigates the negative impact of policy uncertainty on sustainable financial growth. The results of the study provide guidance to corporations regarding strategy formulation to effectively deal with policy uncertainties. Our results are robust to different proxies of policy uncertainty and endogeneity issues.

• Yasir Shahab, Ammar Ali Gull, Asad Ali Rind, Aitzaz Ahsan Alias Sarang, Tanveer Ahsan (2022) Do corporate governance mechanisms curb the anti-environmental behavior of firms worldwide? An illustration through waste management. Journal of Environmental Management, Volume 310, May 2022, 114707

This study investigates whether waste management, including waste generation and recycling, affects firm performance. Using a panel of 14,601 firm-year observations from 41 countries from 2002 to 2019, we find a significantly negative (positive) relationship between waste generation (recycling) and firm performance. Our findings are robust to alternative measures of waste management and firm performance, sub-sample analysis, and alternative econometric specifications. Further, our results are robust to different identification strategies. Finally, our channel analysis shows that the negative (positive) relationship between waste generation (recycling) and firm performance is stronger in firms offering no environmental, social, and governance (ESG) based compensation. However, the relationship varies with the level of firms’ environmental orientation, and we observe insensitivity of the relationship regardless of firm-level governance quality. Our study presents important policy implications for regulators and firms.

• Xusen Cheng , Linlin Su , Xin (Robert) Luo , Jose Benitez & Shun Cai (2022) The good, the bad, and the ugly: impact of analytics and artificial intelligence-enabled personal information collection on privacy and participation in ridesharing, European Journal of Information Systems, 31:3, 339-363

Big data analytics (BDA) and artificial intelligence (AI) may provide both bright and dark sides that may affect user participation in ridesharing. We do not know whether the juxtaposed sides of these IT artefacts influence users’ cognitive appraisals, and if so, to what extent will their participative behaviour be affected. This paper contributes to the IS research by uncovering the interplay between the dark and bright sides of BDA and AI and the underlying mechanisms of cognitive appraisals for user behaviour in ridesharing. We performed two phases of the study using mixed-methods. In the first study, we conduct 21 semi-structured interviews to develop the research model. The second study empirically validated the research model using survey data of 332 passengers. We find that the usage of BDA and AI on ridesharing platforms have a bright side (usefulness, “the good”) but also a dark side (uncertainty and invasion of privacy, “the bad and the ugly”). The bright side generates perceived benefits, and the dark side shape perceived risks in users, which discount the risks from the benefits of using the ridesharing platform. Privacy control exerts a positive effect on the perceived benefits to encourage individuals to use the ridesharing platform

• Swain, S. and Brahimi, N. (2022). Surviving disruption: nature inspired solutions. Journal of Organizational Change Management,Vol. 35 No. 3, pp. 682-695

Decision-makers in companies increasingly face unprecedented natural disasters. When business continuity is at risk, managers need a framework to imminently react. A literature review and analysis of survival responses in nature and business case examples of company responses to the Covid-19 pandemic was the approach used. There are direct parallels between the physiological stress response when a living individual perceives a threat to its survival, and the immediate reactions that occur when companies are faced with a disruptive event. This article is meant to be used by decision-makers in companies to better react to disruptive events. While nature-inspired methods have inspired inventions and algorithms, Hans Selye’s general adaptation theory has not been used in parallel with business scenarios. We correlate fundamental organism survival mechanisms with a risk response framework to improve the probability of business survival during external threats.

• Castillo, J. A., Douglas, B., Divakaran, P. K. P. & Xiong, J. (2022). Using employee-generated content from digital platforms to understand the luxury culture. Strategic Change, Volume 31, Issue 3, Special Issue: Luxury, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation, Part I May 2022, pp 295-303

As perceived by company employees, luxury culture is best understood by collecting and analyzing anonymous genuine current or past employee-generated comments (EGCs) about their experience of specific work culture, without fear of retaliation by using digital platforms. This paper focuses on luxury culture, including organizational culture, founder culture, and country-of-origin culture. It examines the employee perception of organizational culture in the case of L’Oréal, a luxury cosmetics company, by analyzing EGCs collected from a digital platform. This study demonstrates that sentiment analysis methodology is a valuable technique in understanding how employees’ perceptions of luxury companies’ cultures and significantly that changes happening in luxury brands’ dynamic organizational cultures may well be known relatively early by analyzing the EGCs. This study adds a new factor to the luxury organizational culture called “digital culture,” in addition to the previously identified cultural determinants, including collective, emotional, historical, symbolic, dynamic, and diffuse dimensions

• Duzert, Yann , Cris Carneiro, and Rafael Almeida. Culture of alternative dispute resolution in Brazil: an exploratory study of business mediation from the theory, law and perception of lawyers. Beijing Law Review. Vol 13. (2022): 100

The purpose of this paper is to examine the current Brazilian scenario for resolving queries, the laws enacted and the participation of lawyers, including the studies they undertake in Brazilian law schools. This paper will focus on the extent of an ADR culture in Brazil analyzing the context of ADR’s in Southeastern Brazil (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais) after the period of the validity in 2016 of the Brazilian Civil Procedure Code (Law No. 13.105/2015) calling for judicial1 mediation and stimulating ADR in Brazil up to 2017 (the year of data collection). An exploratory research was done. This study also seeks to 1) present the Southeastern Brazil data on the number of mediation sessions in order to identify the growth in the use of this method and 2) check the knowledge of Brazilian lawyers on the topic of ADR’s. A bibliographic and an archival research were carried out followed by three field researches using quantitative methods. The first research was implemented on a total of 621 lawyers who responded through a questionnaire with: two variables focused on individual characteristics of the respondent, five variables on the lawyer’s studies in negotiation/ADR, and ten variables on his/her professional activities. This questionnaire was designed to identify how lawyers actually negotiate and should serve to shatter the myth that adversarial bargaining is more effective and less risky than problem-solving. It is important to mention that some elements were adapted to the Brazilian culture. The second inquiry was conducted on a total of 397 lawsuits forwarded to business mediation in Rio de Janeiro court from 2016 (91 lawsuits) through 2017 (306 lawsuits). The variables of this research were completely different from the lawyers’ questionnaire. In this one, there were 6 variables on the characteristics of lawsuits and 8 variables on the agreement settled. The third study was also done in this court on a total of 270 lawsuits. This sampling was obtained at the center dedicated to the study of the judiciary at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) that is responsible for doing CNJ’s (National Counsel of Justice) reports, such as Supreme in Numbers—this report analyzes the processes in Brazilian Superior Court and Justice in Numbers. The research focused on agreements settled directly by parties without mediation. However, in this group, the data is compiled by sampling. During the study period of this thesis, 2700 lawsuits were initiated. FGV, using the software language MySQL, randomized 270 lawsuits (10%) which were analyzed by the author of this thesis based on the same elements and the previous inquiry. The analysis provided results on how ADR has been developed in Brazil. The possibility for generalizations has been confirmed for both inside and outside the courts. There is a movement for culture change and greater adoption of ADRs in Brazil. However, the paradigm shift has not yet been fully realized. The Brazilian Civil Procedure Code (Law No. 13.105/2015) calling for judicial mediation and stimulating ADR in Brazil increased the number of judicial mediation sessions. Lawyers are not familiar with the adoption of ADR as problem-solving and their acting is not seen as collaborative. This generalized performance measurement can be used in future research and for professional purposes in the ADR environment. The study also presents a comparison of business mediation done inside and outside courts

• Mansoureh Hasannia Kolaee, Seyed Mohammad Javad Mirzapour Al-e-Hashem (2022) Stochastic medical tourism problem with variable residence time considering gravity function. RAIRO-Operations Research, 56 3 (2022) 1685-1716.

Medical tourism is a recent term in healthcare logistics referring to travel of patients to receive health services and spending leisure time in a destination country. This transferring of patients leads to access high-quality health services which are cheaper than the original country of patients. During this travel, passengers who are the patients from another country, have this opportunity for complimentary entertainment packages (e.g., pleasure tours) in the aftercare period. As far as we know, the term of medical tourism is rarely studied in healthcare logistics and such services are highly important for developing countries. Such facts motivate us to develop a practical optimization model for the Medical Tour Centers (MTCs) for allocation of patients to hospitals in proper time and creation of memorable aftercare time for them. In this regard, the main aim of the proposed model is to maximize the total profit of MTCs through optimal allocation of patients to hospitals while considering an aftercare tour for the passengers. To make the proposed model more realistic, the optimal residence time in attractive places is simulated by a time-dependent gravity function. To address the uncertainty of medical tourism problem, a scenario-based two-stage stochastic optimization approach is extended to encounter different sources of uncertainty existing in surgical success, medical time, restoration restrictions, and the attraction of tourist places. Another novelty of this work is to propose an innovative hybrid meta-heuristic for large-scale instances, which is a combination of Progressive Hedging Algorithm (PHA) and Genetic Algorithm (GA). The model is analyzed by different test problems for small, medium, and large-scale instances where the hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm could solve them with an average gap of 3.4% in comparison with the commercial solver. The results revealed the importance of tourist opinion and public preferences in medical and pleasure tours, respectively, to improve the economic growth in this sector in developing countries

• Imen Nouira, Ramzi Hammami, Alina Fernandez Arias, Natacha Gondran, Yannick Frein (2022) Olive oil supply chain design with organic and conventional market segments and consumers’ preference to local products. International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 247, May 2022, 108456

Recent market studies showed that the demand for organic and local agrifood products is increasing despite their higher prices. The agribusiness actors should therefore rethink the supply chain configuration to cope with new market trends characterized by the rise of the organic segment and the increase of consumers’ preference to more local products. This study focuses on the olive oil sector and proposes a mixed-integer non-linear optimization model for the design of olive oil supply chains while incorporating organic and conventional market segments and considering, for each segment, a supply chain proximity- and price-sensitive demand. The model is developed with the collaboration of olive oil producers in the Mediterranean area. Thanks to this industrial collaboration, we account for real-world practices and constraints and apply the model to a realistic case study. We first linearize the model and show that it can be efficiently solved with commercial optimization softwares. Based on numerical experiments, we derive a series of managerial insights that are applicable to the considered case study, some of them are not intuitive. For instance, we show that an increase in consumers’ preference to more local products may lead the producer to offer products with a more global supply chain. The conventional product variety may be produced with a more local supply chain than the organic (premium) variety. Finally, offering a mix of organic and conventional varieties instead of only one variety would lead to implementing a more local supply chain.

• Perrigot, R. (2022) Social relationships and communication as key characteristics of social franchising in Africa. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 50 No. 5, 2022, pp. 619-637

This paper, using a case study on Jibu, a water distribution chain that distributes bottled water in Africa, aims to underline the importance of social relationships and communication within franchise chains operating in the social sector in developing countries and their contribution to the clarification of the concept of social franchising. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on a case study of Jibu, a water distribution chain composed of 122 franchised units and 2,100 independent retailers. The primary data were gathered through an analysis of in-depth interviews with 67 people (Jibu co-founder, headquarters staff, franchisees, micro-franchisees and customers) in Uganda and Rwanda. Findings – The findings showed that the extent and richness of social relationships and communication existing within the Jibu chain are not limited to top-down and build a feeling of belonging to a family. These social relationships and communication are key characteristics of social franchising. Practical implications – This research can assist franchise experts, franchisors and franchisees to better assess the importance of social relationships and communication in social franchise chains in developing countries and help national and local governments better understand how franchising works in the social sector. Social implications – Franchising is not limited to hotels, restaurants and retail businesses. Franchising can be applied to businesses that have social goals, in addition to profit goals. For example, the Jibu franchise is a relevant and efficient solution to providing the African people with access to drinking water at an affordable resale price. This paper, thus, contributes to increasing the awareness of this franchising phenomenon in social sectors in developing countries and in Africa, in particular. Originality/value – Access to drinking water is an important issue in many developing countries, above all in African countries. Franchised water services are an innovation in terms of a business model in developing countries with micro-treatment plants run by franchisees and small units run by micro-franchisees or retailers, both franchisees and micro-franchisees being local entrepreneurs.

• Corentin Le Bot, Rozenn Perrigot, Frédérique Déjean, Bruno Oxibar (2022) Corporate Social Responsibility in franchise chains: Specificities, insights from French franchise chains’ CSD, and avenues for future research. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Volume 66, 2022, 102945

Although franchise chains are increasingly committed to environmental, social, and societal transitions, only a few researchers have focused on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the specific case of franchising. The aim of our paper is to discuss the specificities and challenges of CSR in franchising, explore how franchisors report on their sustainable practices, and emphasize subsequent directions for future research. In order to do so, we focus on the Corporate Social Disclosure (CSD) practices of twenty-two retail and service franchisors operating in the French market where regulations of non-financial information disclosures exist for large companies. Our findings show that these franchisors disclose rich and diversified information about their CSR activities. However, franchisors’ disclosures can vary significantly, especially depending on their chain size and whether they are subject to reporting regulations. Our research contributes to the literature on CSR in franchise chains, as well as the practice.

• Raziyeh Reza-Gharehbagh, Ashkan Hafezalkotob, Ahmad Makui, Mohammad Kazem Sayadi (2022) Financing green technology development and role of digital platforms: Insourcing vs. outsourcing, Technology in Society, Volume 69, 2022, 101967

This paper investigates the green technology development (GTD) problem of a capital-constrained manufacturing entrepreneur who seeks financial support from external and internal multi-sided platforms (MSPs). Following the government’s environmental policies, MSPs (i.e., outsourcing and insourcing alternatives) determine their strategies and offer platform-driven solutions to the manufacturing entrepreneur pursuing green innovation. Using benchmark models, we first analyze decisions made by the manufacturing entrepreneur and the MSP under the deregulated scenarios. We then develop a three-level game-theoretical model and sequentially characterize the decision-making behavior of players under three platform power structures. The model outcomes are compared by considering the government’s policymaking approach and platforms’ power structure. Results reveal that, when coupled with appropriately designed trade-credit and revenue-sharing mechanisms and the government’s innovation-based social welfare approach, the internal MSP system always outperforms the external alternative. Our study demonstrates that a win-win agreement among GTD players can only be achieved if the MSPs take the balance of power and remain committed to empowering the initiated sustainable ecosystem. In power struggle scenarios, however, GTD players prioritize the internal MSP over the external MSP. To fulfill the GTD goals, players are encouraged to use their structural and legislative power and adjust their strategies, investment decisions, and power preferences accordingly.

June

• Ackermann, C.L., Matson Barkat, S., Truong, Y. (2022)  A Legitimacy Perspective on Sharing Economy Consumption in the Accommodation Sector. Current Issues in Tourism, 25:12, 1947-1967

This research adopts a consumer focus in examining the impact of perceived legitimacy of sharing economy platforms on attitude and behavioural intention in the accommodation sector. By investigating tourist adoption of sharing economy platforms from a legitimacy perspective, this research differs from past studies which focused on characteristics of new services to predict adoption. Results show that (1) tourists evaluate legitimacy through comparisons with traditional offers in the accommodation sector rather than with other sharing economy offers, (2) lack of legitimacy has a negative effect on guest behavioural intentions and (3) this effect is moderated by relativism. Even though sharing economy platforms’ commercial success may imply that they are enjoying a high level of legitimacy in the eyes of tourists, our results suggest that tourists act as societal actors and that the legitimacy issues raised by the sharing economy are relevant to them and inform their decisions.

• Aziz, Saqib , Michael Dowling, Helmi Hammami, and Anke Piepenbrink (2022) Machine learning in finance: A topic modeling approach. European Financial Management, Volume28, Issue3, June 2022, Pages 744-770

We identify the core topics of research applying machine learning to finance. We use a probabilistic topic modeling approach to make sense of this diverse body of research spanning across multiple disciplines. Through a latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling technique, we extract 15 coherent research topics that are the focus of 5942 academic studies from 1990 to 2020. We find that these topics can be grouped into four categories: Priceforecasting techniques, financial markets analysis, risk forecasting and financial perspectives. We first describe and structure these topics and then further show how the topic focus has evolved over the last three decades. A notable trend we find is the emergence of text‐based machine learning, for example, for sentiment analysis, in recent years. Our study thus provides a structured topography for finance researchers seeking to integrate machine learning research approaches in their exploration of finance phenomena. We also showcase the benefits to finance researchers of the method of probabilistic modeling of topics for deep comprehension of a body of literature.

• Macpherson A, Breslin D, Akinci C. (2022) Organizational Learning From Hidden Improvisation. Organization Studies. Vol. 43(6) 861–883

Research has identified improvisation as a creative and open activity that can be harnessed to encourage innovation and learning within the organization. In this paper, we present improvisation as a covert phenomenon, occurring in a climate of mistrust and fear of censure, and disconnected with wider organizational learning. Drawing on qualitative evidence of a Fire Service in the United Kingdom, we explore hidden improvisation, and identify the conditions and processes that can connect these local deviations to wider processes of learning. We show that while most improvisations remain hidden and contained to avoid wider scrutiny, certain conditions of frequency, connectedness and scale escalate events to become more visible to supervisors and managers. The learning outcomes from these visible improvisations will then depend on management’s interpretation, evaluation and translation of improvising behaviours. Dependent on prior relationships of trust and credibility, middle management perform a key brokering role in this process, connecting previously hidden improvisation to wider organizational systems and structures

• Clarke, R., Richter, A. W., & Kilduff, M. (2022). One tie to capture advice and friendship: Leader multiplex centrality effects on team performance change. Journal of Applied Psychology. 107(6), 968–986

Because leaders’ authority is often insufficient to change team performance, formal team leaders seek informal influence through the occupation of central positions in social networks. Prior research focuses on leader centrality involving simplex ties, that is, either friendship or advice, to the neglect of multiplex ties that involve the overlap of friendship and advice. Friendship and advice ties offer different but complementary resources, so leader centrality in one but not the other network limits leader influence. We provide theory and evidence concerning how leader multiplex centrality affects team performance improvement, particularly if leaders are embedded in team social contexts with sparse friendship and numerous adversarial ties. The research context involved 84 ongoing public university service teams headed by formal leaders. Our results show the importance of leader multiplex centrality relative to leader simplex centrality. First, leader multiplex centrality predicted team performance change over a 2-year period more strongly than leader centrality in either the advice or the friendship team network. Second, leader multiplex centrality positively predicted team performance change for teams featuring dense adversarial networks or sparse friendship networks. It is not sufficient, therefore, for leaders to be either liked or regarded as expert. It is the integration of both advice and friendship in one tie between the leader and followers that facilitates performance change.

• Yanze Liang, Axèle Giroud, Asmund Rygh (2022) Strategic asset-seeking acquisitions, technological gaps, and innovation performance of Chinese multinationals. Journal of World Business, Volume 57, Issue 4, 2022, 101325

We investigate the impact of acquiring similar or complementary technologies on the innovation performance of Chinese multinationals’ strategic asset-seeking M&As in the EU, and whether such impact is contingent upon firm-level and region-level technological gaps. Results show that technological complementarity enhances Chinese multinationals’ innovation performance. Firm-level technological gaps have a positive moderating effect for both complementary and similar technologies. Region-level gaps enhance innovation when Chinese firms acquire similar technologies, but they undermine the positive impact of technological complementarity on innovation performance. We advance understanding of Chinese MNEs’ learning scope and strategic intents in their strategic asset-seeking M&As.

• Mohammad Asghari, Seyed Mohammad Javad Mirzapour Al-e-hashem, Yacine Rekik (2022) Environmental and social implications of incorporating carpooling service on a customized bus system. Computers & Operations Research, Volume 142, 2022, 105724

This study addresses one of the most challenging issues in designing a sustainable and efficient ride-sharing service. This paper uses an extensive computational study to quantify the behavior of carpooling in customized bus routing problems. This mechanism allows organizations to draw on the potential of their employees’ private cars to provide convenient alternative rides for other employees, thereby reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions as well as increasing overall satisfaction with the transportation system offered. The objective functions minimize: (i) total transportation costs and incentives paid to drivers of private cars, (ii) dissatisfaction as determined by staff walking distance, travel time, and delays in arriving at work, and (iii) total carbon emissions generated by commuting. We propose a resolution algorithm based on Pareto Strength Ant Colony Optimization (PSACO) as an effective meta-heuristic method for solving the multi-objective mathematical model and compare it with the results obtained by an exact method. The effectiveness and applicability of the proposed problem have been evaluated by performing computational experiments on a real case study in Paris using a number of comparative metrics with appropriate assumptions. Different parameters affecting the performance of the algorithm are also investigated. The concluding section presents a comparison of the results achieved. The test outcomes confirm that the formulation and the solution methods can be useful references for practice. The insights obtained from the research could provide the basis for designing incentive schemes and information campaigns aimed at making ride-sharing systems more successful and improving their performance.

• Amina Chelly, Imen Nouira, Atidel B. Hadj-Alouane & Yannick Frein (2021) A comparative study of progressive carbon taxation strategies: impact on firms’ economic and environmental performances, International Journal of Production Research, 60:11, 3476-3500

Governments all over the world adopted different forms of progressive carbon taxation strategies (for example concave, convex and linear for respectively Swedish, French, and Canadian government). These progressive strategies provide companies with different degrees of flexibility to adapt their decisions to the new environmental regulations and reduce their carbon emissions without compromising their profit. However, no existing work has compared the impact of each progressive legislation on the optimal decisions of the supply chain, its profit, and its environmental performances. In this paper, we contribute to the literature by developing four multi-period technology selection models under different forms of progressive carbon taxes. We analytically determine the optimal strategic investment timing decision under each taxation strategy. We then develop a carbon tax assessment method using multi-criteria analysis techniques to compare the efficiency of each carbon taxation form in reducing carbon emission and maximising the Supply Chain (SC) profit. We prove that the earliest green investment decision and the decision of not investing in green depend on the target carbon tax rather than the taxation form. We show that government decision about the suitable taxation form should be based on the performance of the available green technologies.

• Schneckenberg, Dirk, Kurt Matzler, and Patrick Spieth (2022) Theorizing Business Model Innovation: An Organizing Framework of Research Dimensions and Future Perspectives. R & D Management  52:3 pp 593-609.

In this perspective piece, we aim to broaden understanding of business model innovation (BMI) by expanding and deepening extant theoretical dimensions and positions in the literature. While a significant amount of research has been carried out on the phenomenon of BMI, the current theory does not fully capture the broad diversity and inherent implications of the various approaches taken. We address this lack of common ground by developing an organizing framework for BMI research. To do so, we first delineate the business model (BM) concept’s multifaceted properties that provide the foundation for theorizing BMI. Using topical identification, we then situate and substantiate a range of theoretical lenses within strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship, as three central research axes informing studies on BMI. By revealing the relevant research perspectives, theoretical lenses, and positioning choices in the framework, our work expands and further details the conceptualization of BMI and provides orientation for future studies in the field.

July

• Bin-Feng, C., Mirza, S. S., Ahsan, T., Gull, A. A., & Al-Gamrh, B. (2022). Institutional environment, the ultimate controller’s characteristics and CSR disclosure in China. Managerial and Decision Economics, Vol. 43, Issue No. 05, Pages: 1515-1527

Using a dataset of Chinese listed companies from 2009 to 2018, this study empirically examines the relationship between a company’s institutional environment, the ultimate controller’s characteristics and its level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in China. The results show that Chinese companies operating in better institutional environments have higher CSR disclosure. Moreover, the type of the ultimate controller of a company is significantly related to the level of CSR disclosure, which is higher in state-controlled companies than in nonstate-controlled companies. The results are robust to different proxies of CSR disclosure

• Al-Dhamari, Redhwan, Abdulsalam Alquhaif, and Bakr Ali Al-Gamrh (2022) Modelling the impact of audit/remuneration committee overlap on debtholders’ perceptions of accounting information quality: The role of CEO power. International Journal of Finance & Economics, vol 27 issue 3, pp. 2898-2920

This study examines how debtholders perceive accounting information quality of firms with audit committee members who are also on the remuneration committee, and whether strong CEO power enhances or undermines the governance role of overlapping committees. Using 841 observations of Malaysian firms over the period 2013–2015, we find that firms with overlapping audit and remuneration committees are perceived by debtholders to be transparent and of lower operating risk and, consequently, be associated with lower cost of debt. We also find that the beneficial effect of the presence of overlapping committees is weakened by the level of CEO power. Our results are robust to concerns of endogeneity and alternative measurers of the key variables. This study is timely in light of recently increasing call for the broadening of audit committee members’ understanding of business strategies, risks and incentives provided by firms’ executive compensation structures. Our study also contributes to the ongoing debate surrounding CEO power by suggesting that debtholders perceive potent CEO power as detrimental to their investments and thus charge higher interest rates from firms with powerful CEOs and overlapping directors

• Sales, Augusto, Roth, Steffen, Grothe-Hammer, Michael, Azambuja, Ricardo (2022) From play to pay: A multifunctional approach to the role of culture in post-merger integration. Management Decision, vol 60, issue 7, pp. 1922-1946

The literature on Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), cultural differences between organizations have frequently been identified as one of the main challenges in the process of post-merger integration (PMI). Existing research has explored a broad variety of cultural differences in perceptions, such as those relating to expectations, norms, values and beliefs within the respective organizations, and how these affect the process and success of PMI. However, less attention has been paid to the relevance of the macro-societal context to PMI. The ambition of this article is, therefore, to advance our understanding of how macro-level societal factors define organizational cultures and affect the success of PMI. We draw on social systems theory as devised by Niklas Luhmann, assuming that organizations are always embedded in the macro-level societal context of distinctive realms of social reality—such as the economy, politics, religion and the arts—that make up the so-called “function systems”. Looking at the case of the integration of a Brazilian technology start-up into a market-leading corporation, we analyze the dominant orientations towards these function systems, and the changes in these orientations over time. The results suggest that differences in organizational culture in PMI can be partly explained by differences in orientations to the function systems. Moreover, forcing dramatic changes of orientations towards the function systems within a merged entity can severely damage its raison d’etre in the first place, potentially leading to, in some sense, an account of “culture murder”. This article is unique in demonstrating that organizations are multifunctional systems whose culture is defined by the highly specific and potentially varying degrees of importance they place on individual function systems and that knowledge or neglect of these functional profiles may seriously affect the success of post-merger integration. Against this backdrop, the article presents a multifunctional profiling method that may easily translate into PMI management tools

• Peukert, Christian and Bechtold, Stefan and Batikas, Michail and Kretschmer, Tobias (2022) Regulatory Spillovers and Data Governance: Evidence from the GDPR. Marketing Science, Vol. 41, No. 4, July–August 2022, pp. 318–340

We document short-run changes in websites and the web technology industry with the introduction of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).We follow more than 110,000 websites and their third-party HTTP requests for 12 months before and 6 months after the GDPR became effective and show that websites substantially reduced their interactions with web technology providers. Importantly, this also holds for websites not legally bound by the GDPR. These changes are especially pronounced among less popular websites and regarding the collection of personal data. We document an increase in market concentration in web technology services after the introduction of the GDPR: Although all firms suffer losses, the largest vendor—Google—loses relatively less and significantly increases market share in important markets such as advertising and analytics. Our findings contribute to the discussion on how regulating privacy, artificial intelligence and other areas of data governance relate to data minimization, regulatory competition, and market structure

• Llopis, O. and D’Este, P. (2022), Brokerage that works: innovation and the decoupling of brokerage roles from open triadic structures. Journal of Product Innovation  Management, Volume 39, Issue 4, July 2022,  Pages 492-514

A key premise in innovation literature suggests that individuals enabling contact between pairs of otherwise disconnected others (i.e., holding open triads) are more innovative, as they benefit from more opportunities for knowledge recombination. Such benefits also come with a cost, as conducting innovative action from open triads requires finding common ground to coordinate and integrate disparate knowledge and efforts from unconnected others. However, it is yet unclear which specific open triadic structures offer the greatest net value to facilitate individual innovativeness. We contribute to this debate by going beyond a homogeneous conceptualization of open triads, examining the relation between different brokerage roles and individual innovativeness. We theorize that some roles are more balanced than others in terms of access to knowledge novelty and integration costs. Specifically, we find that balanced open triads (gatekeepers and itinerant roles) are crucial to facilitate individual innovativeness, as compared to unbalanced open triads (coordinator and liaison roles). We also propose that brokers obtain the greatest innovation benefits from balanced open triads when they are embedded in institutional settings that are distant from knowledge applicability. We test our ideas through a large-scale study of 1,010 biomedical scientists

• Sheila Matson-Barkat, Philippe Robert-Demontrond & Cele Otnes (2022) From plate to place: the role of restaurant servicescapes in the development of tourists’ place meanings in Brittany, France, Tourism Recreation Research, Volume 47, 2022 – Issue 3, pp 316-331

Taking an inductive approach, this paper explores a key question with respect to tourists’ meaning creation: What is the role of servicescapes in the development of place meanings for tourists? The research is situated in place and appropriation theory and leverages a large two-phase qualitative study on tourists’ restaurant experiences in Brittany, an important tourism destination in the North-West of France. Analysis of the narrative data uncovers four dimensions of restaurant servicescapes that contribute to place meaning. These are: The Interior Environment; The Service Offer; The Social Environment, and the Restaurant Exterior. Furthermore, the research provides insights into the ways tourists connect servicescapes to destinations through physical and sensorial immersion, investigation, and learning. This research can help practioners in creating more meaningful holiday experiences and in branding and promoting tourism destinations. It opens the way for the exploration of the role other tourism services in the development of meaningful tourism experiences.

August

• Qureshi, M.A., Ahsan, T. (2022) Do investors penalize the firms disclosing higher environmental performance? a cross cultural evidence. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 29, 55147–55160

Climate change discourse integrates 3Ps – people, planet, and profit. However, we do not find any empirical study that integrates 3Ps. Therefore, using a large global panel dataset from 46 countries, this study intends to fill this gap by providing empirical evidence about investors’ value proposition of corporate climate performance in different cultural environments. The results show that Hofstede’s cultural dimensions affect corporate climate performance and its market pricing. We find that in cultures with high power distance, low individualism, high masculinity, high uncertainty avoidance, high long-term orientation, and high restraint, the investors generally penalize the firms disclosing higher environmental performance. Strangely enough, corporate waste production is universally value irrelevant. Our results indicate some policy implications.

• Divakaran, P.K.P and Xiong, J (2022). Eliciting Brand Association Networks: A New Method using Online Community Data. Technological Forecasting & Social Change.Volume 181, August 2022, 121769

This study explores a new methodology called community-aided brand concept map (CA-BCM) for eliciting brand association networks using data collected from technology-enabled online communities. NVivo software is used to qualitatively code these data to 1) uncover how users associate themselves with a brand and 2) use content analysis to quantify each of these associations, leading to the elicitation of a comprehensive network of brand associations and their relationships. Using the example of a movie brand, the new tool CA-BCM effectively uncovers 1) the core, secondary, and tertiary brand associations and 2) classifies the brand associations into strong, favorable, and unique associations. Finally, 3) using these brand association classification data and the brand awareness level, customer brand equity is measured. Pearson correlation is used to provide external validity to the CA-BCM technique, which shows a significant and positive relationship between customer brand equity and market performance. The implications and limitations of this study are presented

• Yongqing Li, Huimin Ma, Jie Xiong, Jinlong Zhang, Pradeep Kumar Ponnamma Divakaran (2022) Manufacturing structure, transformation path, and performance evolution: An industrial network perspective, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Volume 82, Part A, August 2022, 101230

To promote manufacturing transformation and upgrading, this paper proposes a comprehensive analytical framework for manufacturing development from an industrial network perspective. We explore the organizational structure of the manufacturing association network based on the industrial network analysis technique and the modern network analysis technique. A new data envelopment analysis (DEA) model, which considers the interrelated and interactive characteristics of various sectors, is used to evaluate the static and dynamic performance of manufacturing sectors combining the Malmquist productivity index (MLI). We adopt this framework to analyze the development of 18 manufacturing sectors in Hubei Province, China, during the 2012–2017 period. Key development sectors play a critical role in the stability and development of the manufacturing system, yet their performance did not show significant improvement during this timeframe. During the implementation of the Made in China 2025 strategy, most sectors followed the transformation path by enhancing technological strength first and technological application capabilities later. The manufacturing industry in Hubei Province suffers from insufficient informatization construction and slow productivity improvement.

• Wang. J, Hamammi. H, Anaam. O (2022) “Does the power of negotiation influence audit fees? Evidence from the Chinese context” International Journal of Economics and Accounting, Vol 11, N1, pp 1-19.

This paper aims to test the impact of negotiation power between auditors and audited companies, in relation to audit fees. The study found that there is a significant positive relationship between auditors’ power of negotiation and the audit fees. In addition, it found that there is a significant negative relationship between the size of the audited companies, their negotiating power and the audit fees. These findings indicate that when companies negotiate with Big4 audit firms, their bargaining power does not have a significant effect on the audit fees. Nevertheless, if the auditor is not one of the Big4, there is a significantly negative relationship between the company’s bargaining power and audit fees. The relationship therefore changes according to the size of a company. If a company is large, there will be a negative relationship with the audit fees. However, if it is a small company, the relationship is not significant.

• Ramzi Hammami, Erfan Asgari, Yannick Frein, Imen Nouira (2022) Time- and price-based product differentiation in hybrid distribution with stockout-based substitution. European Journal of  Operational Research, Volume 300, Issue 3, 1 August 2022, Pages 884-901

A delivery mix that includes delivery from stock and drop-shipping is of interest to many internet re- tailers. We consider a retailer serving a time- and price-sensitive market with two substitutable products that differ in the guaranteed delivery time and price, an express product (delivered from the stock) and a regular product (drop-shipped). In case of stockout, customers may switch from the express product to the regular product. We study how to differentiate the products in terms of delivery times and prices and how to determine the stock level to maximize the retailer’s expected profit while satisfying ser- vice constraints. We solve different variants of the problem and derive insights into the optimal retailer’s strategy. In addition, we study the impact of stockout-based substitution. This paper is the first to investigate time- and price-based differentiation along with inventory decisions for a retailer who relies on a hybrid distribution to satisfy a time- and price-sensitive demand subject to stockout-based substitution. When prices and stock are fixed, in addition to minimum and maximum time differentiations, a medium differentiation strategy may be optimal but depends on the stock level. When only prices are fixed, there exists a price differentiation limit below which a minimum time differentiation is optimal, and above which only the express product should be offered. For the general model, numerical experiments show that a higher stockout-based substitution leads to greater time differentiation (which is consistent with the results of previous models) and more stock. However, this would not impact the price differentiation

• Bellone, Flora, Cilem S. Hazir, and Toshiyuki Matsuura. (2021). Adjusting to China competition: Evidence from Japanese plant-product-level data.Review of International Economics, Volume30, Issue3, Special Issue: Globalisation: Implications for workers, firms and markets, August 2022, Pages 732-763

This study examines how the product mixes of Japanese manufacturing plants have been impacted by the rise of China imports over the period 1997– 2014. It focuses on the way plants are embedded in their local environment mitigates this causal relationship. We find evidence that China import competition induced both product down-sizing and product exit within Japanese manufacturing plants. Moreover, we find that those negative effects dif-fer across plants according to various plant character-istics including the spatial organization of their parent firm, and the degree of their exposure to external ag-glomeration economies.

• Roessler, M., Schneckenberg, D., Velamuri, V. (2022) Situated entrepreneurial cognition in corporate incubators and accelerators: The business model as a boundary object.. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management , Volume: 69, Issue: 4, Aug. 2022, pp;1696 – 1711

The cognitive perspective in entrepreneurship research has predominantly evolved around the static conceptions of cognition at the level of individual reasoning. Recently, the emerging stream of situated entrepreneurial cognition asserts that the environment substantially influences the inherent knowledge structures of entrepreneurial reasoning. It claims that the context indoctrinates the perceptions and beliefs underlying decision making, thus authoring entrepreneurial cognition to derive from the recursive interaction between the mind and the respective environment. Drawing on this perspective, this article follows a narrative approach investigating the unfolding dynamics between the entrepreneurial cognition and contextual factors in a business model design. Using textual accounts from 34 episodic interviews with entrepreneurs from corporate entrepreneurship initiatives, we applied a constant comparative method identifying main themes in the data. Our findings show that entrepreneurial cognition is embedded, grounded, and distributed. We provide evidence that the situated entrepreneurial cognition results from the recursive interplay of material objects, bodily interactions, and agents spanning a social system. Our findings suggest that the unilateral consideration of authored cognitive systems falls short in capturing the holistic nature of entrepreneurial cognition. Thus, our findings further empirically ground situated entrepreneurial cognition by placing the entrepreneur at the nexus of individual and context. Finally, this article reveals the business model as a central boundary object connecting and focalizing a variety of influences on the situated entrepreneurial cognition in its social context.

September

• Ammar Ali Gull, Muhammad Atif, Tanveer Ahsan, Imen Derouiche (2022) Does waste management affect firm performance? International evidence. Economic Modelling, volume 114, 105932

This study examines an important yet underexplored aspect of firms’ sustainability practices, i.e., waste management, in order to analyze its impact on financial performance. Although the extant literature has focused on various aspects of sustainability, the impact of waste management, which has disastrous consequences for the climate and firm performance, remains largely unexplored. Thus, using the 2002–2019 data of listed firms from 41 countries, we found a significantly negative (positive) relationship between waste generation (recycling) and financial performance. Our findings are robust to alternative variables, sub-sample analysis, and identification strategies. Moreover, a channel analysis showed that this relationship is influenced by operating costs, ESG performance-based compensation, industry nature, the Paris agreement on climate change, and the global financial crisis. Overall, the findings suggest that environmental initiatives are beneficial for firms and present important policy implications for regulators and firms.

• Chai Bin-Feng, Sultan Sikandar Mirza, Tanveer Ahsan, Raheel Safdar, Amjad Iqbal & Mustansar Hayat (2021) Family control and corporate risk-taking in China: Does working capital strategy matter?, Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja Volume 35, 2022 – Issue 1, Pages 4280-4299

This study uses the data of A-share listed family firms during the period 2010-18 and employs multiple regression analysis to verify the role of family control and working capital strategy for corporate risk-taking in China. This study also explores the regulatory role of family control in the relationship between working capital strategy and corporate risk-taking of Chinese listed family firms. Results show that greater family control encourages risk-taking behavior in Chinese firms whereas conservative working capital strategy diminishes corporate risk-taking. The results also suggest a regulatory role for family control on the effects of working capital strategy for family firms’ risk-taking behavior. Strong family control weakens the negative association between working capital conservatism and corporate risk-taking. This study’s findings may help managers of family firms to adjust risk-taking behavior in response to changing working capital strategy. The results are robust to different measures of corporate risk-taking and working capital strategy.

• Bryson, D., Atwal, G., & Crespi, R. (2022). Antecedents of intentions to crowdfund luxury brands and projects: Evidence from French consumers. Strategic Change, Volume31, Issue5, Special Issue: Luxury, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation, Part II, September 2022, pp 497-503

Luxury firms, including high-end watch manufacturers, use crowdfunding as an alternative source of entrepreneurial finance. Respondents indicated that intention to crowdfund luxury brand start-ups have both external and internal antecedents with the slight majority focusing on the extrinsic factors. The “luxury” proposition exhibits integrated motivation, which is conceptualized and personalized to the tastes of each investor.

• de Kervenoael, R., Schwob, A., Manson, I.T. et al. (2022) Business-to-business and self-governance practice in the digital knowledge economy: learning from pharmaceutical e-detailing in Thailand. Asian Business and Management, 21, 598–622

This study investigates self-governance within business-to-business (B2B) in the digital knowledge economy. To do so, we elicit the engagement of healthcare professionals (HCPs) and medical science liaisons (MSLs) with “for-profit social media technology” (FPSMT) in e-detailing. Using data from 23 in-depth interviews with HCPs (physicians and pharmacists) and MSLs in Thailand, we show that e-detailing fosters self-governance as a practice. The data identify how FPSMT, as privatized social media managed by large firms, represents a tool for self-governance that is articulated by expert professionals along three cognitive frames: aspiration, regulation, and responsibilisation. Through FPSMT, professionals in highly regulated B2B ecosystems engage in self-governance practice to develop pooled views that are influenced by personal and collective rules. The perspective on self-governance as a practice that is offered allows to understand how B2B network governance rely on professionals’ engagement to foster aspirations for the collective agenda, beyond the narrow pursuit of sales’ objectives.

• Mohammad Asghari, Hamid Afshari, S.M.J. Mirzapour Al-e-hashem, Amir M. Fathollahi-Fard, Maxim A. Dulebenets (2022) Pricing and advertising decisions in a direct-sales closed-loop supply chain. Computers & Industrial Engineering, Volume 171, 108439

This study addresses one of the most challenging issues in designing a sustainable and efficient ride-sharing service. This paper uses an extensive computational study to quantify the behavior of carpooling in customized bus routing problems. This mechanism allows organizations to draw on the potential of their employees’ private cars to provide convenient alternative rides for other employees, thereby reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions as well as increasing overall satisfaction with the transportation system offered. The objective functions minimize: (i) total transportation costs and incentives paid to drivers of private cars, (ii) dissatisfaction as determined by staff walking distance, travel time, and delays in arriving at work, and (iii) total carbon emissions generated by commuting. We propose a resolution algorithm based on Pareto Strength Ant Colony Optimization (PSACO) as an effective meta-heuristic method for solving the multi-objective mathematical model and compare it with the results obtained by an exact method. The effectiveness and applicability of the proposed problem have been evaluated by performing computational experiments on a real case study in Paris using a number of comparative metrics with appropriate assumptions. Different parameters affecting the performance of the algorithm are also investigated. The concluding section presents a comparison of the results achieved. The test outcomes confirm that the formulation and the solution methods can be useful references for practice. The insights obtained from the research could provide the basis for designing incentive schemes and information campaigns aimed at making ride-sharing systems more successful and improving their performance

October

• Azémar, C., Desbordes, R., Melindi-Ghidi, P., & Nicolaï, J.-P. (2022). Winners and losers of the COVID-19 pandemic: An excess profits tax proposal. Journal of Public Economic Theory, Volume 24, Issue 5, New insights into economic epidemiology: Theory and policy, October 2022, Pages 1016-1038

In this paper, we study the gains and losses incurred during the COVID‐19 pandemic. We distinguish between the effects of the pandemic and those of the health measures implemented to reduce the death toll, notably “the lockdown.” Our theoretical model is focused on within‐sector firm heterogeneity and involves imperfect competition in a partial equilibrium setting. A comparison between the gains and losses triggered by both the pandemic and the lockdown indicates that an excess profits tax imposed on the “winners” could partly compensate the “losers” of the same sector.

• Scott-Kennel, J., Giroud, A. and Saittakari, I. (2022), “Foreign and domestic multinationals’ linkages in advanced, small open economies: do foreignness, regional origin and technological capability matter?”, Multinational Business Review, Vol. 30 No. 4, pp. 573-598

International business theory suggests that multinational enterprises (MNEs) seek to internalize resources embedded in local firms to complement their own through inter-organisational relationships, yet little is known about whether and how these business linkages differ between foreign (F)MNEs and domestic (D)MNEs. This paper aims to explore the linkage differential between DMNEs and FMNEs operating in the same single country contexts and to examine whether foreignness, regional origin and technological capability make a difference. This study is based on a unique firm-level data set of 292 MNEs located in five advanced, small open economies (SMOPECs). This study analyses the benefit received – in the form of technical and organisational resources and knowledge – by DMNEs and FMNEs via backward, forward and collaborative linkages with local business partners. Our research finds FMNEs benefit less from linkages than DMNEs; and FMNEs originating from outside the region especially so. However,  the results also show technological capability mitigates this difference and is thus a game changer for FMNEs from outside the region. This paper differentiates between  FMNEs and DMNEs in their propensity to benefit from resources received from different local partners and explores the influence of regional origin and technological capability. Despite the advanced and internationally oriented nature of SMOPECs, DMNEs still gain more benefit, suggesting either liabilities of foreignness and outsidership persist, or FMNEs do not desire, need or nurture local linkages.

• Shamima Ahmed, Muneer M. Alshater, Anis El Ammari, Helmi Hammami (2022) Artificial intelligence and machine learning in finance: A bibliometric review. Research in International Business and Finance, Volume 61, 2022, 101646

This study reviewed the artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) literature in the finance field. Using a bibliometric approach, we collected 348 articles published in 2011–2021 from journals indexed in the Scopus database. Multiple software (RStudio, VOSviewer, and Excel) were employed to analyze the data and depict the most active scientific actors in terms of countries, institutions, sources, documents, and authors. Our review revealed an upward trajectory in the publication trend starting from 2015 and found the application of AI and ML in bankruptcy prediction, stock price prediction, portfolio management, oil price prediction, anti-money laundering, behavioral finance, big data analytics, and blockchain. Moreover, the United States, China, and the United Kingdom were the top three contributors to the literature. Our results provide practical guidance to market participants, especially, fintech and finance companies, on how AI and ML can be used in their decision-making

• Sheila Matson-Barkat, Petya Puncheva-Michelotti, Clara Koetz, Sophie Hennekam (2022) Destigmatisation through social sharing of emotions and empowerment: The case of disabled athletes and consumers of disability sports. Journal of Business Research, Volume 149, pp 77-84

This study examines the role of emotions and empowerment in the destigmatisation of disability. We draw on 12 in-depth interviews with professional disabled athletes and a netnography study of 221 YouTube comments from consumers of disability sport advertising. The findings show that both athletes and consumers share their own emotions or report on their perception of others’ emotions to mutually empower themselves and each other, which reduces stigma related to disability. By integrating the literatures on stigma, emotions and empowerment, we reveal how consumers of advertising contribute to the destigmatisation of others’ devalued social identities. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings related to advertising and inclusion are discussed.

• McColl, R., Mattsson, J. and Charters, K. (2022) Memoryscape: how managers can create lasting customer experiences. Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 43 No. 6, pp. 397-405

A detailed conceptualization of how service experiences are transformed into a memory and the circumstances surrounding a memorable experience is not available in the customer experience literature. This paper aims to address this gap using a multi-dimensional framework (memoryscape) to explain memory processes for service experiences. The paper integrates psychology research, and particularly autobiographical memory, within customer experience management. The paper proposes a comprehensive, multi-dimensional framework (memoryscape) of memory and highlights managerial implications. Marketers have yet to fully understand the role of memory in service experience consumption. In today’s service-dominant economy, understanding more about the memoryscape should be a managerial and research priority. The authors present four managerial priorities for managing customer experience memories. The authors assimilate theories and empirical research in psychology, particularly autobiographical memory, to propose an integrated conceptual framework of the service memory process (memoryscape), to provide insights for managers looking to create memorable customer experiences.

• Pedram Farghadani-Chaharsooghi, Pooria Kamranfar, Mohammad Seyed Mirzapour Al-e-Hashem & Yacine Rekik (2022) A joint production-workforce-delivery stochastic planning problem for perishable items, International Journal of Production Research, 60:20, 6148-6172

Despite the existence of a rich literature on Production Routing Problem (PRP), the lack of investigations on the workforce planning, and its impact on costs and productivity of the organisation caught our attention. This paper aims to fill this gap by designing a novel framework to integrate inventory, production, distribution, routing, and workforce planning decisions simultaneously. Because of the potential long distances between the main plant and the retailers spread throughout the country and also the perishability nature of the products, considering travelling time uncertainty for delivering products is necessary to have feasible decisions. The application of the proposed approach is investigated by being inspired from a supply chain structure from a knowledge-based company. We derive managerial insights on the benefit of an integrated decision. Besides, given the size and complexity of the proposed problem, we were challenged by exactly solving it in a reasonable time. We succeeded to reach this target by designing an innovative hybrid algorithm. Computational experiments on several numerical examples applied on both the studied real case and on PRP literature instances reveal the effectiveness and efficiency of our new hybrid method and permits to derive interesting managerial insights on the joint decisions.

• Ozkok O, Vaulont MJ, Zyphur MJ, et al.(2022) Interaction Effects in Cross-Lagged Panel Models: SEM with Latent Interactions Applied to Work-Family Conflict, Job Satisfaction, and Gender. Organizational Research Methods. Volume 25, Issue 4, pp 815 – 816

Researchers often combine longitudinal panel data analysis with tests of interactions (i.e., moderation). A popular example is the cross-lagged panel model (CLPM). However, interaction tests in CLPMs and related models require caution because stable (i.e., between-level, B) and dynamic (i.e., within-level, W) sources of variation are present in longitudinal data, which can conflate estimates of interaction effects. We address this by integrating literature on CLPMs, multilevel moderation, and latent interactions. Distinguishing stable B and dynamic W parts, we describe three types of interactions that are of interest to researchers: 1) purely dynamic or WxW; 2) cross-level or BxW; and 3) purely stable or BxB. We demonstrate estimating latent interaction effects in a CLPM using a Bayesian SEM in Mplus to apply relationships among work-family conflict and job satisfaction, using gender as a stable B variable. We support our approach via simulations, demonstrating that our proposed CLPM approach is superior to a traditional CLPMs that conflate B and W sources of variation.We describe higher-order nonlinearities as a possible extension, and we discuss limitations and future research direction.

• Dacin, M.T., Harrison, J.S., Hess, D., Killian, S, Roloff, J. (2022). Business Versus Ethics? Thoughts on the Future of Business Ethics. Journal of Business Ethics; 180(3): 879 – 902

To commemorate 40 years since the founding of the Journal of Business Ethics, the editors in chief of the journal have invited the editors to provide commentaries on the future of business ethics. This essay comprises a selection of commentaries aimed at creating dialogue around the theme Business versus Ethics? (inspired by the title of the commentary by Jeffrey Harrison). The authors of these commentaries seek to transcend the age-old separation fallacy (Freeman in Bus Ethics Q 4(4):409–421, 1994) that juxtaposes business and ethics/society, posing a forced choice or trade off. Providing a contemporary take on the classical question “if it’s legal is it ethical?”, David Hess explores the role of the law in promoting or hindering stakeholder oriented purpose and governance structure. Jeffrey Harrison encourages scholars to move beyond the presupposition that businesses are either strategic or ethical and explore important questions at the intersection of strategy and ethics. The proposition that business models might be inherently ethical or inherently unethical in their design is developed by Sheila Killian, who examines business systems, their morality, and who they serve. However, the conundrum that entrepreneurs are either lauded for their self-belief and risk-taking, or loathed for their self-belief and risk-taking, is discussed by M. Tina Dacin and Julia Roloff using the metaphor of taboos and totems. These commentaries seek to explore positions that advocate multiplicity and tensions in which business ethics is not either/or but both.

November

• Yasir Shahab, Ammar Ali Gull, Tanveer Ahsan & Rizwan Mushtaq (2022) CEO power and corporate social responsibility decoupling, Applied Economics Letters, Volume 29 Issue 21, pp 1965-1968

While extending the scarce literature on determinants of corporate social responsibility (CSR) decoupling, we examine the impact of CEO power on CSR decoupling. Using panel data of US firms for 2002–2017, we find that CEO power increases CSR decoupling. Our results remain consistent after controlling for the endogeneity problem. Aligned with the managerial power theory, our results suggest that firms with powerful CEOs are more likely to manage CSR performance through decoupling.

• Nagula, P.K., Alexakis, C. (2022) A Novel Machine Learning Approach for Predicting the NIFTY50 Index in India. International Advances in Economic Research  Volume 28, issue 3-4, pp 155–170

Over the past decade, extensive research on stock market prediction using machine learning models has been conducted. In this framework, different approaches for data  standardisation methods have been used for financial time series analysis and to assess the impact of data standardisation on the final prediction outcome. The paper uses the feature-level optimal rolling-window batch data standardisation method to improve the machine learning model’s predictive power significantly. Along with the standardisation method, the paper explores the performance of the automated feature interactions learner (Deep Cross Networks) effect on a plethora of technical indicators aiming at predicting the movements of the NIFTY50 index in India, as these predicted changes are reflected in options contracts. Feature-level optimal rolling window data standardisation can identify the optimal window of time such that the correlation between features and the response variable is maximized, with most features correlating at 0.7. In the experiment, 48% of important technical indicators negatively correlated with the response variable. The Deep Cross Network regression model combined with the optimal rolling window batch data standardisation method outperformed all other model configurations at weekly and monthly data frequency. It achieved a directional hit rate of 69.52% (weekly) and 79.17% (monthly) and root mean square error of 2.82 (weekly) and 5.01 (monthly), generating a profit 5.5 times (weekly) and 2.85 times (monthly) greater than the benchmark buy-and-hold strategy providing opposing evidence to the sub-martingale model.

• Al-Dhamari, R., Al-Gamrh, B., Farooque, O.A. and Moses, E. (2022) Corporate social responsibility and firm market performance: the role of product market competition and firm life cycle. Asian Review of Accounting, Vol. 30 No. 5, pp. 713-745

This study empirically investigates the role of product market competition and mature-stage firm life cycle on the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and market performance in an emerging market context – Malaysia. The authors construct a comprehensive CSR index toward the economy, environment and society (EES) and apply both Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) instrumental variables (IV) approaches to test the hypotheses of the study. The authors find that EES-based CSR generally enhances firms’ market performance; however, the level of product market competition undermines the market performance of socially and economically responsible firms. In addition, the study results indicate that mature-stage firm life cycle with more involvement in CSR activities shows better market performance. However, the endogeneity check of CSR suggests that both CSR and mature-stage firms are mutually exclusive in influencing market performance. The study findings are robust to alternative measures and different identifications of high and low default risk situations of sample firms. This study carries practical policy implications for the listed firms, regulators and stakeholders in general. For example, regulatory bodies may promote greater involvement in CSR activities by listed companies in the Malaysian stock market. Investors and other market participants should be aware of factors influencing socially responsible firms’ market performance such as the corporate life cycle and the level of competition in product markets. This research work responds to the call of regulatory bodies in Malaysia at a time when the Malaysian economy is under threat of environmental distraction practices by the palm oil industry and import ban by the largest export market, i.e. the European Union by 2030. The study also  contributes to the theoretical literature by refining the moderating role of product market competition and mature-stage life cycle.

• Sarkar, J. G., Sarkar, A., Dwivedi, Y. K., & Balaji, M. S. (2022). Sweat it for sustainability: Impact of physical activity/exercise on sustainable consumption. Psychology & Marketing, Volume39, Issue11, November 2022, Pages 2184-2199

What would make the “elusive” green consumer actually choose sustainable products? This research draws from “dopamine hypothesis of reward” to demonstrate that  physical activity/exercise (regular and immediate) is a vital factor in determining consumers’ sustainable behaviors. More specifically, it examines the role of physical activity/exercise on sustainable consumption behaviors as well as the role of emotional intelligence and sustainability claims. Five studies were conducted to test the hypothesized relationships. The findings from Study 1a and 1b establish direct causal link between physical activity/exercise and customers’ sustainable consumption behaviors. Studies 2a and 2b show that emotional intelligence (trait‐based and ability‐based) may explain the effect of physical activity/exercise (regular and immediate) on sustainable consumption behaviors. Finally, the findings from Study 3 demonstrate that sustainability claims moderate the effect of emotional intelligence on sustainable consumption behaviors. These findings offer significant implications for retailers and marketers to use physical activity/exercise as a strategic intervention to positively influence consumers’ evaluation and behaviors toward sustainable product.

• Lu Wang, Xin Robert Luo, Frank Lee, Jose Benitez (2022) Value Creation in Blockchain-driven Supply Chain Finance Value Creation in Blockchain-driven Supply Chain Finance. Information & Management, Volume 59, Issue 7, November 2022, 103510

The objective of this study is to explore the blockchain-enabled value creation process in supply chain finance (SCF). We analyze the roles of participants (who?), motives (why?), resources (what?), and practices (how?) through the lens of service-dominant logic and social exchange theory. We conducted an exploratory case study of a blockchain-based platform that offers SCF solutions for supply chain partners and interpreted the results through a series of qualitative analyses. The results prove that the blockchain-driven SCF solution provides services to its customers by applying key resources and conducting corresponding practices, which create value for the participants through meeting their motives.

• Guo, X., Zhou., Q., Bian, J. (2022). Online retailers’ platform-based Worry-Free-Shopping: Retailing strategy considering consumer valuation bias. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 167, 102902.

Platform-based Worry-Free Shopping (WFS) is an emerging retail service system developed by online platforms. Online retailers on such platforms can actively decide whether to provide WFS services for consumers. If WFS service is offered, a WFS logo will be displayed on the product information page by the platform. Although WFS can enhance consumers’ willingness to pay, it incurs cost for online retailers and may cause more product returns due to valuation bias. This paper investigates when an online retailer on a platform should offer customers WFS, and it explores the detailed effects of WFS on the retailer, platform, customers, and society. We find that both the retailer and platform do not necessarily benefit from WFS. Although the platform can take a ‘‘hands-off” attitude towards the retailer in most cases, they may have conflicting interests while providing WFS, so we have developed a mechanism to coordinate their benefits. Our results explain why the platform develops such a WFS service system, and when it should incentivize the online retailer to offer WFS to customers. Furthermore, WFS always hurts customers when the valuation bias is small, while it may favor the society when he WFS cost is low. In extensions, we verify the robustness of our results and also get new insights. First, a small product salvage value motivates the platform to encourage the retailer to offer WFS. Second, though a larger proportion of overestimating customers always benefits the platform, it may hurt the retailer when it is less than a threshold. Finally, a larger heterogeneity in valuation increment allows the retailer to charge higher price and benefits the platform.

• Narjes Kandil, Ramzi Hammami, Olga Battaïa (2022) Insourcing versus outsourcing decision under environmental considerations and different contract arrangements, International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 253, 2022, 108589

We investigate the insourcing versus outsourcing decision for a manufacturer, facing a price- and carbon emission-sensitive demand and an environmental regulation in the form of a carbon tax. We consider the carbon emissions generated during the production phase. In case of outsourcing, the transportation emissions are also considered, and we investigate the outcomes of revenue sharing and cost sharing contracts between the manufacturer and the supplier. We study the impacts of customers’ environmental  awareness, carbon tax, price sensitivity, market potential, and supplier’s location on the insourcing vs. outsourcing decision, the environmental performance and the selling price. Our results show that a higher customers’ environmental awareness, a larger market potential and a longer distance between the supplier and the manufacturer favor insourcing over outsourcing, whereas a higher carbon tax and a higher price sensitivity favor outsourcing.

• Timur Narbaev, Oncu Hazir, Maher Agi (2022) A Review of the Use of Game Theory in Project Management. Journal of Management in Engineering, Volume 38 Issue 6 – November 2022, 03122002

The growing literature on game theory models in project management is reviewed in this paper. A systematic study that includes collecting materials, defining the structural dimensions and categories, presenting a descriptive analysis, and evaluating the results has been carried out. Application areas of game theory in project management were explored and the research gaps were identified. The literature review revealed the need for studying knowledge-sharing mechanisms to enhance project governance and cooperation, developing dynamic models to integrate various sources of uncertainty, optimizing different financial objective functions to improve the project’s capital structure, developing integrated scheduling techniques to facilitate project planning and control, and formulating strategies to improve bidding under fierce competition. These findings contribute to identifying the promising directions in the management in engineering research.

• Akanksha Jalan, Roman Matkovskyy, Andrew Urquhart (2022) Demand elasticities of Bitcoin and Ethereum, Economics Letters, Volume 220, November 2022, 110877

In this paper we analyze dynamic demand elasticity for Bitcoin and Ethereum in terms of price, transaction fees, and energy usage. We find that while both BTC and ETH have  significantly positive price elasticities, transaction fee elasticity is negative and positive for BTC and ETH respectively, indicating differences in potential uses for these cryptocurrencies.

• Zeinab Vosooghi, S.M.J. Mirzapour Al-e-hashem, Behshad Lahijanian (2022) Scenario-based redesigning of a relief supply-chain network by considering humanitarian constraints, triage, and volunteers’ help. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Volume 84, 2022, 101399

In disaster management problems, supply and distribution chains of relief commodities have been one of the most critical parts of planning for both pre- and post-disaster phases. Providing relief items (medical supplies) for injured people can directly affect the vitality rate, and this would perfectly explain the necessity of implementing such practical studies in this field. Thus, a scenario-based, multi-period, multi-objective, two-stage, location-allocation model for providing relief commodities to demand points in an uncertain environment is proposed in this study. Humanitarian constraints (equitizing the number of distributed items and the service time as well as prioritizing areas in receiving the commodities) are also considered in the model to make it closer to reality. Such other practical contributions as redesigning the supply chain and addressing volunteers’ help in the supply and distribution processes are formulated as well. Moreover, using the triage concept for distributing vital items is presented for the first time in this study. The proposed non-linear model is initially linearized and then solved by applying the epsilon-constraint technique. Due to the NP-Hardness property of the model, an NSGA-II and a hybrid algorithm are also presented to solve larger-sized instances. Solving numerical examples and conducting sensitivity analysis verify the applicability and efficiency of the proposed model as well as the solution algorithms and provide some managerial insights to improve the performance of the relief logistics.

• Jean-Christian Tisserand, Astrid Hopfensitz, Serge Blondel, Youenn Loheac, César Mantilla, Guillermo Mateu, Julie Rosaz, Anne Rozan, Marc Willinger, Angela Sutan (2022) Management of common pool resources in a nation-wide experiment, Ecological Economics, Volume 201, 2022, 107566

Dilemmas related to the use of environmental resources concern diverse populations at local or global scales. Frequently, individuals are unable to visualize the consequences of their actions, where they belong in the decision-making line, and have no information about past choices or the time horizon. We design a new one-shot extraction game to capture these dynamic decisions. We present results from a nationwide common pool resource experiment, conducted simultaneously in eleven French cities, involving a total of 2813 participants. We examine, for the first time, the simultaneous impact of several variables on the amount of resource extracted: the local vs. the national scale of the resource, the size of the group (small vs. big), the low vs. high recovery rate of the resource, and the available information. We show that individuals significantly reduce extraction levels in local as compared to national level dilemmas and that providing recommendations on sustainable extraction amounts significantly improves the sustainability of the resource. Overall, women extract significantly less, but care more about preserving the local resource; older participants extract significantly more resources but extract less from the national resource. Our experiment also fulfills a science popularization pedagogical aim, which we discuss.

• Hamed Soleimani, Prem Chhetri, Amir M. Fathollahi-Fard, S. M. J. Mirzapour Al-e-Hashem, Shahrooz Shahparvari (2022) Sustainable closed-loop supply chain with energy efficiency: Lagrangian relaxation, reformulations and heuristics. Annals of Operations Research (2022) volume 318 issue 1 pp 531–556

Research on the development of sustainable supply chain models is highly active nowadays. Merging the concept of supply chain management with sustainable development  goals, leads to simultaneous consideration of all economic, environmental and social factors. This paper addresses the design of a sustainable closed-loop supply chain including suppliers, manufacturers, distribution centers, customer zones, and disposal centers considering the consumption of energy. In addition, the distribution centers play the roles of warehouse and collection centers. The problem involves three choices of remanufacturing, recycling, and disposing the returned items. The objectives are including the total profit, energy consumption and the number of created job opportunities. As far as we know, these objectives are rarely considered in a sustainable closed-loop supply chain model. The proposed model also responds to the customer demand and also addresses the real-life constraints for location, allocation and inventory decisions in a closed-loop supply chain framework. Another novelty of this research is to develop a set of efficient Lagrangian relaxation reformulations and fast heuristics for solving a real-world numerical example. The results have revealed that the obtained solution is feasible and the developed solution algorithm is highly efficient for solving supply chain models. Finally, a comprehensive discussion is provided to highlight our findings and managerial insights from our results.

• Dakroub, R., Roloff, J., & Issa, H. (2022). Athletes’ self-representation on Instagram and the implications of nudity on their brand image. The International Journal of Sport and Society. 14 (1): 173-192

Athletes must decide which online self-representation strategy best serves them, including the decision to posting nudity. This study investigates whether male athletes’ experiences differ from those of female athletes and how sponsors, social, and cultural expectations influence their strategies. Guided by impression management and  objectification theories, this study compares online impression management practices of sixteen competitive male and female athletes representing eleven nations. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with all athletes, and their responses were compared to their practices based on observation of their Instagram posts. Athletes of both genders face objectification dilemmas when managing their online image. Fear of homophobia is influencing online impressions of male athletes with nude content, while females feel pressured to use nudity to draw more engagement

December

• Muhammad Azeem Qureshi, Tanveer Ahsan, Ammar Ali Gull (2022) Does country-level eco-innovation help reduce corporate CO2 emissions? Evidence from Europe. Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 379, Part 1, 15 December 2022, 134732

Climate change and CO2 emissions intertwine corporations and society in current political, social, environmental, and economic debates, specifically in Europe. The climate action plan formulated by the European Commission aims to achieve net zero emissions through eco-innovation by 2050. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of the European eco-innovation index on CO2 emissions produced by European firms. Using a dataset of 735 firms from 17 European countries listed during 2010–2018, we found a significant negative association between the country-level eco-innovation index and CO2 emissions directly produced by the European firms. We also found a significant negative association between the eco-innovation index and indirect CO2 emissions produced by the value chain of these firms. The results provide evidence that via eco-innovation, supportive steps taken by European countries provide a conducive environment for the European firms to adopt eco-innovative strategies that significantly reduce their direct and indirect CO2 emissions per dollar of their corporate assets and make their value chains eco-friendly. The results also reveal that financial development brings in some environmental monitoring that cultivates a supportive culture for the corporations to promote corporate efforts to reduce CO2 emissions.

• Pavan Kumar Nagula, Christos Alexakis (2022) A new hybrid machine learning model for predicting the bitcoin (BTC-USD) price. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Volume 36, 2022, 100741

Several machine learning techniques and hybrid architectures for predicting bitcoin price movement have been presented in the past. Our paper proposes a hybrid model encompassing classification and regression models for predicting bitcoin prices. Our analysis found that the automated feature interactions learner (deep cross networks) error performance using a plethora of technical indicators, including crypto-specific technical indicator difficulty ribbon compression and control variables such as Metcalfe’s value of bitcoin, number of unique active addresses, bitcoin network hash rate, and S&P 500 log returns, in a hybrid architecture is better than the single-stage architecture. The hybrid model predicted a 100% directional hit rate and maintained steady volatility in returns for the out-of-sample period. Our paper concludes that in terms of risk (Sharpe ratio 1.03) and profitability (260% and 82%), the hybrid model’s bitcoin futures strategy performed better than the deep cross network regression and buy-and-hold benchmark strategies.

• S. Ozcan, D. Boye, J. Arsenyan and P. Trott (2022) A Scientometric Exploration of Crowdsourcing: Research Clusters and Applications. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, vol. 69, no. 6, pp. 3023-3037, Dec. 2022.

Crowdsourcing is a multidisciplinary research area that represents a rapidly expanding field where new applications are constantly emerging. Research in this area has investigated its use for citizen science in data gathering for research and crowdsourcing for industrial innovation. Previous studies have reviewed and categorized crowdsourcing research using qualitativemethods. This has led to the limited coverage of the entire field, using smaller discrete parts of the literature and mostly reviewing the industrial aspects of crowdsourcing.This study uses a scientometric analysis of 7059 publications over the period 2006–2019 to map crowdsourcing research to identify clusters and applications. Our results are the first in the literature to map crowdsourcing research holistically. In this article, we classify its usage in the three domains of innovation, engineering, and science, where 11 categories and 26 subcategories are further developed. The results of this article reveal that the most active scientific clusters where crowdsourcing is used are environmental sciences and ecology. For the engineering domain, it is computer science, telecommunication, and operations research. In innovation, idea crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, and crowd creation are the most frequent areas. The findings of this study map crowdsourcing usage across different fields and illustrate emerging crowdsourcing applications.

• Haiying Liu, Majed Alharthi, Ahmed Atil, Muhammad Wasif Zafar, Irfan Khan (2022) A non-linear analysis of the impacts of natural resources and education on environmental quality: Green energy and its role in the future. Resources Policy, Volume 79, 2022, 102940

Human accomplishments have increased the complexity and interconnectedness of environmental threats, resulting in widespread effects on people, ecosystems, and economies worldwide. In addition to overpopulation, pollution, burning fossil fuels, and deforestation, humans also impact the physical environment in many ways. These changes have contributed to climate change, soil erosion, poor air quality, and undrinkable water. We investigate the linear and non-linear effects of natural resources and education on CO2 emissions in the Latin American (LA) group of nations considering the roles of green energy, foreign remittances, and economic growth from 1990 to 2020. We have developed a comprehensive empirical analysis that applied second-generation advanced econometric methodologies in this study. The results of this research disclosed that natural resources pose a non-linear impact on environmental quality. The low level of natural resources benefits the environment in the LA panel, but higher use of natural resources ultimately intensifies CO2 emissions. Hence, a U-shaped association between natural resources and CO2 emissions is found in the LA panel. In the linear model, natural resources also boost CO2 emissions. Alongside this, education also intensifies CO2 emissions in the selected sample. Green energy and remittances mitigate CO2 emissions and thereby improve environmental quality.

• Junhui Zhang, M.S. Balaji, Jun Luo, Subhash Jha (2022) Effectiveness of product recommendation framing on online retail platforms. Journal of Business Research, Volume 153, 2022, pp 185-197

Online retailers often display product recommendations using recommendation framing or signage. Recommendation framing—such as customers who viewed this also viewed or compared similar items—reflects user- or product-related inputs used by the algorithmic product recommender system to identify products for a target customer. The current study examined the effectiveness of norm-based recommendation framing and comparison-based recommendation framing on customers’ click-through intention of the products recommended by online retailers. Four studies were conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings revealed that norm-based recommendation framing is more effective than comparison-based recommendation framing and that the perceived value of the recommendations is the underlying mechanism engendering this result. Furthermore, we observed that the effectiveness of norm-based recommendation framing was only apparent when fewer products were recommended and when the recommended products were highly substitutable for the focal product. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed regarding online retailers’ efforts to manage improved recommendation-framing strategies.

• Jiang, Yangyang; Zhang, Xiya; Balaji, M. S. (2022) Customer-Perceived Value Influence on Luxury Hotel Purchase Intention Among Potential Customers. Tourism Analysis, Volume 27, Number 4, 2022, pp. 559-566(8)

The purpose of this study is to investigate five dimensions of customer-perceived value that may affect potential customers’ intention to stay at luxury hotels. An online survey was conducted in August 2021 to collect data from 252 potential customers of luxury hotels in China. Partial least squares-based structural equation modeling was used to analyze data. The results show that financial value, hedonic value, and green value, respectively, have a positive impact on potential customers’ intention to stay at luxury hotels. Neither functional value nor symbolic/expressive value is significantly associated with the potential customer’s intention to stay at luxury hotel.

• Simon Thevenin, Oussama Ben-Ammar, Nadjib Brahimi (2022) Robust optimization approaches for purchase planning with supplier selection under lead time uncertainty. European Journal of Operational Research Volume 303, Issue 3, 16 December 2022, Pages 1199-1215

Supplier reliability is a critical issue for manufacturing companies. Delivery delays from suppliers create backlog and firefighting on the shop floors. To avoid disruption and hedge against supplier lead time un- certainty, companies rely on diversification, multi-sourcing, and safety lead times. In multi-sourcing, the buyer might order the same product (raw material) from different suppliers. The design of a robust and cost-efficient purchasing/ordering plan in multi-sourcing is a complex task which has a strong impact on the performance of the company. In this study, we investigate the use of robust optimization for the integrated lot-sizing and supplier selection problem under lead time uncertainty. More specifically, we use polyhedral budgeted uncertainty sets. The resulting model determines the ideal lot sizes to minimize the total costs taking into consideration suppliers’ reliability and prices. To solve this problem, a row and column generation approach is proposed. To alleviate scalability issues, we enhance the row and column generation through a robust counterpart formulation, and we propose an efficient fix-and-optimize ap- proach. Our extensive computational experiments show that the fix-and-optimize approach yields good quality solutions within a reasonable amount of computational time. We provide insights into supplier diversification based on the risk profile of the decision-maker. One of the conclusions is that an extremely risk-averse decision-maker selects a single supplier, namely the most reliable one even if it does not offer the lowest price.

• Breslin, Dermot (2022) When Relationships Get in the Way: The Emergence and Persistence of Care Routines. Organization Studies, 2022, Vol. 43(12) 1869–1890

Past research has shown that routines can be a vehicle for both stability and change in organizations. It is unclear however how this relationship alters and solidifies over time. In this paper, the changing behaviours of three newly formed teams within a domiciliary care organization are tracked over a period of two years. It was seen that self-reinforcing processes shaped the emergence and persistence of action patterns within these groups. The first process achieved coordination benefits which drove the emergence of routines, as ‘action patterns’ were first negotiated and then assigned to members of the care team. The second selfreinforcing process involved sets of expectations which deepened interpersonal relationships between the care worker and client. The impact of both these processes, altered the ostensive-performative duality, as routines emerged and persisted over time. This study therefore highlights the changing dynamics of stability and change within routines, and the key role played by social relations in this process.

• Hudson, S., Gonzalez-Gomez, H.V., Claasen C. (2022).Societal inequality, corruption and relation-based inequality in organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 181, issue 3, pp 789–809

Our paper contributes to emerging management research on the effects of societal inequality. It aims to study the relationship between societal-level inequality and perceived unequal HR practices within organizations based on relationships which we term “relation-based inequality” (RBI). We further examine the moderating effect of  country corruption on the RBI employee commitment link. Thus, whereas previous research has looked at single countries, there is still much to know about societal effects of inequality and corruption on employee perceptions and attitudes at work across countries. By surveying 691employees from five countries and using country-level indicators we take a first step in this direction, and establish that inequality (income, health and education) is linked to higher levels of relation-based HR practices. We also show that the effect of RBI is different for continuance, affective and normative commitment, and contingent on country corruption levels.

• Faraz Salehi, S. Mohammad J. Mirzapour Al-e-Hashem, S. Mohammad Moattar Husseini (2022) A 2-phase interdependent methodology for sustainable project portfolio planning in the pharmaceutical industry. Computers & Industrial Engineering, Volume 174, 2022, 108794

In response to the increasing awareness of sustainability issues, companies have reevaluated their approach to research and development (R&D). Taking into account the long-term effects and consequences of R&D projects on social, economic, and environmental conditions, this research has presented a comprehensive methodology for planning pharmaceutical holding company project portfolios by considering both sustainability dimensions and profitability objectives. The first phase of the developed methodology consists of a new combined MCDM method that is used to determine the sustainability score of each project. The following phase focuses on developing a bi-level bi-objective optimization model that is designed to take into account the decentralized structure of pharmaceutical holdings to optimize the budgeting, selection, and scheduling of projects. This optimization model proposes that the head office of the holding company as leader allocates R&D budgets between subsidiaries as followers to maximize the holding company’s profit and sustainability. In contrast, the followers are responsible for selecting and scheduling research projects. We examine the optimal strategy of each actor using an illustrative case to validate the methodology. Based on experimental results, an approach focusing on sustainability versus profitability (or vice versa) has a significant impact on decisions made at each level of operation. The results reveal that the proposed approach can be adopted by the holding companies to improve the performance of portfolio planning from the sustainability perspective.

January

• Mohammad Asghari, S. Mohammad J. Mirzapour Al-e-hashem (2021) Green vehicle routing problem: A state-of-the-art review. International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 231, January 2021, 107899

As energy overuse and generated pollution have a potential threat to our environmental and ecological conditions, many researchers have taken the initiative way to join the green campaign to prevent more damage to the environment. This paper investigates the main contributions related to the green vehicle routing problem (Green- VRP) and presents a classification scheme based on its variants considered in scientific literature, in particular, three major and applicable streams including internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs), alternative-fuel powered vehicles (AFVs), and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and also several sub-categories for each of them. This systematic literature review intends to provide a comprehensive and structured survey of the state of knowledge and discuss the most important characteristics of the problems, including techniques of formulation, solution methodologies, and areas of application. This paper presents different analytical summary tables for each variant to emphasize some main features that provide the direction of the development of researches. Finally, to spot future avenues, gaps in the literature are distinguished to illustrate how new contributions are different from traditional problems

• Ahsan, Tanveer and Muhammad A. Qureshi. (2021) The nexus between policy uncertainty, sustainability disclosure and firm performance. Applied Economics, Volume 53, Issue 4, pp. 441-453

Policy uncertainty (PU), and sustainability disclosure, influence the performance of the firms. We use European data to extend the nascent literature on sustainability disclosure, and economic policy uncertainty by investigating the moderating impact of sustainability disclosure on the relationship between economic policy uncertainty and firm performance. We find overwhelming evidence that policy uncertainty reduces firm performance; however, sustainability disclosure moderates this destructing impact of policy uncertainty on firm performance. Our results show that environmental and social disclosure by the European firms enhances their reputation and help these firms in reducing the policy-induced uncertainty. A higher governance disclosure representing efficient corporate governance also help European firms to moderate the negative effect of policy uncertainty on their performance. Our results are robust to alternate proxies of firm performance as well as endogeneity issues.

• Öncü Hazır, Maher A. N. Agi & Jérémy Guérin (2021) An efficient branch and bound algorithm for smoothing the workloads on simple assembly lines, International Journal of Production Research, Volume 59, Issue 2, pp. 617-634

In this study, we develop a branch and bound solution algorithm to solve the workload smoothing problem. Our algorithm incorporates new formulas for dynamically computing a lower bound on the optimal value of the objective function and for determining the earliest workstations for tasks. It also uses a fast heuristic for computing a good initial upper bound. A comprehensive experimental analysis is conducted in this study. The analysis demonstrates the outstanding performance of the algorithm and its efficiency in solving medium-sized workload smoothing problems.

• Yann Truong, Hamid Mazloomi, Pascual Berrone.(2021) Understanding the Impact of Symbolic and Substantive Environmental Actions on Organizational Reputation. Industrial Marketing Management. 92 (2021) 307–320

Research in corporate environmental practices has shown that stakeholders impose coercive and normative forces that drive firms to perform environmental protection actions. However, limited attention has been placed on how different constituents of stakeholders value the firm’s environmental actions. By focusing on industry peers as a constituent of stakeholders, we examine how the firm’s environmental actions impact its reputation. Based on institutional theory and signaling theory we propose that symbolic environmental actions negatively affect reputation, whereas substantive actions improve firm’s reputation among its peers. Building on the notion of signaling process, the authors also observe that a firm’s reporting practices moderate positively the negative effect of symbolic actions. Data from a sample of 213 publicly traded firms operating in polluting industries from 2006 to 2013 support these results. The findings emphasize the danger of using symbolic actions to signal environmental commitment in a context of high-involvement information search and opportunistic behaviors.

• C. Alexakis, M. Dowling, K. Eelefteriou and M. Polemis. Textual machine learning: An application to computational economics research. Computational Economics, 57 (1), pp. 369–385 (2021)

We demonstrate the benefit to economics of machine learning approaches for textual analysis. Our use case is a machine learning based structuring of research on computational economics based on 1160 articles published in the Computational Economics journal from 1993 to 2019. Our Latent Dirichlet Allocation approach, popular in the computer sciences, use a probabilistic approach to identify shared topics across a body of documents. This combines natural language processing of article content with probabilistic learning of the latent (hidden) topics that link groups of articles. We show that this body of research can be well-described by 18 overall topics and provide a structure for computational economists to adopt this approach in other avenues.

• Rahman, M., Lambkin, M., Shams, S.M.R. (2021). Cross-border mergers and acquisitions: Impact on marketing capability and firm performance. Journal of General Management, Volume 46, Issue 2, pp. 129-143

Emerging country firms have been increasingly engaging in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and these acquirers predominantly acquire firms from developed countries. The motivation for such acquisitions is to achieve market access but also to benefit from transfers of cross-border managerial skills and knowledge. The performance of such acquisitions has started to receive some research attention, particularly financial performance, but the transfers to other areas such as marketing have not yet been explored. This article addresses this gap by studying the experience of 34 acquirers from emerging countries which acquired firms in developed countries. This study uses two-stage window data envelopment analysis (DEA) and Tobit regression to investigate the impact of these acquisitions on the marketing capability and overall firm performance of the acquiring firms. The results show that the marketing capability of the acquiring firms did improve in the post-merger years and this improvement can be partly attributed to the acquisition. The findings also show that the overall performance of the acquiring firms improved following acquisition, but this is a continuation of superior performance from the pre-merger years rather than a synergistic gain from the acquisitions.

• Zou, Z, Farnoosh, A, McNamara, T. (2021) Risk analysis in the management of a green supply chain. Strategic Change. 2021; 30: 5– 17.

In order to implement or maintain a green supply chain (GSC) that produces goods and services responsibly and sustainably, supply chain managers should use tools that allow for the efficient identification, quantification, and mitigation of the ever-present risks. The objective of the present research is to identify the risk factors associated with the processes involved in GSC management. Based on an analysis of the characteristics of GSC risk, the authors put forward a list of risk design principles and a risk criteria evaluation system for a GSC. Gray relation analysis method was then used to clarify the degree of connection between certain supply chain risk factors and select key risk factors. Finally, Back Propagation Artificial Neural Network (BP-ANN) method was used to determine the risk level associated with a GSC. The determination of risk level will help companies to develop effective strategic management initiatives in a GSC environment.

• Matkovskyy, R., Jalan, A., Dowling, M., Bouraoui, T. (2021) From bottom ten to top ten: the role of cryptocurrencies in enhancing portfolio return of poorly performing stocks. Finance Research Letters, Volume 38, January 2021, 101405

This study attempts to analyze the ability of the top 10 cryptocurrencies in enhancing portfolio returns of the 10 worst-performing stocks in the S&P600, S&P400 and S&P100 indexes, to match those of the 10 best-performing stocks therein. Applying probabilistic utility approach with different algorithms and time horizons, we find that addition of cryptocurrencies to traditional stock portfolios adds value in terms of enhancing returns. This is consistent with the growing literature on the hedging properties of cryptocurrencies against traditional financial assets.

• Ahsan, T., Mirza, S.S., Al-Gamrh, B., Bin-Feng, C. and Rao, Z.-U. (2021) How to deal with policy uncertainty to attain sustainable growth: the role of corporate governance. Corporate Governance, The International Journal Of Business In Society. Vol. 21 N. 1 2021, pp. 78-91

The purpose of this study is to investigate themoderating impact of corporate governance (CG) on the relationship between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and the sustainable growth (SG) ofChinese firms. The study collects data of 975 Chinese non-financial listed firms for the period from 2010 to 2017. The study measures SG using a comprehensive index based on nine financial indicators and applies industry and year fixed effects regression to investigate the direct and moderating impact ofCG on the relationship between EPU and SG of Chinese firms. The results of the study explain that EPU negatively affects SG, while concentrated ownership, board independence and board gender diversity (BGD) positively contribute to the SG of the Chinese firms. The results also explain that concentrated ownership and BGD reduce the negative impact of EPU on the SG of the Chinese firms. The study considers only non-financial firms; therefore, the results of this study cannot be generalized for financial firms. Future research can be carried out while considering financial firms as a unit of analysis. The investigation of the negative impact of policy uncertainty on SG is essential for the government and policymakers to devise policies to reduce uncertainty. The investigation of the moderating effect of CG enriches the literature on corporates’ response to policy uncertainty. It provides valuable insights for corporates regarding CGmechanisms to attain SG. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the moderating impact ofCG on the SG of Chinese firms using an index-basedmeasurement of SG.

• McNamara, T., Shaaban, S., Sbihi, A. and Laarraf, Z. (2021) The Operating Behaviour of Unbalanced, Unpaced Merging Assembly Lines, RAIRO – Operations Research, Vol 55, N° 1, pp 99-113.

Unbalanced assembly line research has grown in importance because of its increasing applications in emerging economies, reverse logistics and remanufacturing. This paper examines the performance of numerous simulated patterns for reliable unbalanced manual merging assembly lines. The contribution of this study to the literature is that imbalance does not always negatively impact efficiency and that it can improve merging line performance when compared to a corresponding balanced merging line. The best performance was found to be a balanced line configuration and a monotone decreasing order for both parallel merging lines, with the former generally resulting in a lower throughput and the latter resulting in a lower average buffer level than that of a balanced line.

• Md Akhtaruzzaman, Waleed Abdel-Qader, Helmi Hammami, Syed Shams (2021) Is China a source of financial contagion? Finance Research Letters, Volume 38, 2021, 101393

The study examines the role China plays compared with the US in transmitting contagion to South Asia. Trade intensity, economic downturns, and negative net equity capital outflows positively influence dynamic conditional correlations between South Asian and US/Chinese financial stock returns. Chinese and US financial firms transmitted more spillovers than they received during the global financial crisis. Results are robust to the use of USD or local currency returns, and the alternative specification of the Diebold–Yilmaz model. The role of Chinese financial firms in transmitting shocks to South Asia may be of interest to policymakers, regulators, and other market participants.

• Bryson D, Atwal G, Hultén P, Heine K. (2021) Antecedents of luxury brand hate: A quantitative study. Strategic Change, Volume 30, Issue 1, Special Issue: Anti‐consumption and brand hate, January 2021, pp 35-43

This study analyses the relationships of the antecedents of “extreme negative affect” toward luxury brands. The results show that the first-order predictors of luxury brand hate were negative stereotypes of people who use the luxury brand, consumer dissatisfaction with the brand, and negative word-of-mouth. The following three strategic approaches: (a) proactive, (b) neutral, and (c) reactive can be considered as a template to address the causes and implications of brand hate

February

• Jang, S., Farajallah, M., Kevin Kam Fung So (2020) The effect of quality cues on Travelers’ demand for Peer to Peer ridesharing: a neglected area of the sharing economy . Journal of Travel Research, Volume: 60 issue: 2, page(s): 446-461

The emergence of the sharing economy has had a tremendous impact on the tourism industry; however, few quality management mechanisms exist for shared tourism services. Based on unique data of 52,248 transactions collected from BlaBlaCar, the world’s leading ridesharing platform, this study examines the independent and combined effects of quality cues on travelers’ demand for peer-to-peer ridesharing services. The findings suggest that intrinsic cues (product reputation and seller reputation) and extrinsic cues (relative price and offer duration) are decisive in increasing demand, and their combined effects can be positive or negative. In addition, analyses of the heterogeneous effects of intrinsic and extrinsic cues across seller segments clarify how consumers evaluate product quality using information from multiple cues. These findings contribute to the literature on tourism and marketing by providing new insights into the design of competitive product offers in the sharing economy.

• Pankov, S., Velamuri, V.K. & Schneckenberg, D. (2021) Towards sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems: examining the effect of contextual factors on sustainable entrepreneurial activities in the sharing economy. Small Business Economics, 56 (3), pages1073–1095

This paper seeks to expand our understanding of sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems by investigating the interrelation between contextual factors and sustainable entrepreneurial activities of sharing ventures. While the sharing economy is considered as a potential pathway to a more sustainable society,; ambiguous activities of some sharing ventures call the credibility of sharing as a sustainable concept into question. In order to shed light on the underlying cause of the ambiguity, we conducted 37 in-depth interviews with founders and senior managers of sharing ventures. Our comparative analysis identifies two distinct sets of contextual factors, which influence their sustainable activities. The first set of contextual factors enhances sustainable activities by enforcing the adaptation of behavioral rules and by enabling the development of organizational capabilities. The second set of contextual factors restricts sustainable activities by impeding market penetration and by suppressing growth. We contribute to theorizing about sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems by delineating the conjoint effect of contextual factors on sustainable activities. Furthermore, our results add insights into the controversial academic debate about the sustainability dimension in the sharing economy.

• Liu, Y., and Hu, H. 2021. Online Review Helpfulness: The Moderating Effects of Review Comprehensiveness. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management Volume 33 Issue 2 pp. 534-556

Consumers’ evaluation of online review helpfulness has been widely examined. The extant literature suggests that the attributes of review content (e.g. review length and extremity) influence review helpfulness. However, review length cannot fully reflect the richness of the review content. Anchoring on information diagnosticity and extremity bias, this study aims to explore the effect of review comprehensiveness on its helpfulness. Field observations were obtained from 11,812 online restaurant reviews on a popular restaurant review platform. A controlled experiment was conducted to further delineate the effect of review comprehensiveness. Review comprehensiveness moderates the effects of review length and an extremely negative review on helpfulness. It also confirms that for reviews of the same length, one covering more aspects is perceived by consumers as more helpful. Different aspects of information in a review can efficiently assist decision making. The results suggest that review platforms can better design their interface by providing separate areas for different product aspects. The platform can then receive more comprehensive and helpful reviews and increase the diagnosticity of these. The study enriches the literature by introducing review comprehensiveness and examining the joint effects of review length and comprehensiveness on helpfulness. It also contributes to the literature by indicating how to reduce the effect of review extremity.

• La Rocca, A., & Snehota, I. (2021). Mobilizing suppliers when starting up a new business venture. Industrial Marketing Management, Volume 93, February 2021, Pages 401-412

Prior research has shown that new ventures can complement their capabilities and extend their limited internal resources by drawing on suppliers. Yet, our knowledge of the supplier mobilization process in new ventures is limited. In this paper, we take a relational perspective on the mobilizing process, which entails investigating the scope for mobilizing suppliers in new ventures and new ventures’ attractiveness to suppliers. Drawing on three new venture cases, we posit that for new ventures the scope for mobilizing suppliers: 1) ranges from the use of suppliers for the procurement of well-defined existing inputs to the co-development of various resources and capabilities with suppliers; 2) varies across ventures, reflecting the new venture’s distance to market; and 3) depends on the supplier’s assessment of the new venture’s attractiveness as a customer. We also argue that the attractiveness of new ventures as customers to the suppliers is based on elements that differ from those found in studies of ongoing businesses, and include: 1) stimuli to innovate and develop new competencies, 2) reputational benefits and prestige, and 3) personal satisfaction.

• Razm, S., Dolgui, A., Hammami, R., Brahimi, N., Nickel, S., Sahebi, H.(2021) A Two-Phase Sequential Approach to Design of Bioenergy Supply Chains under Uncertainty and Social Concerns. Computers & Chemical Engineering, Volume 145, February 2021, 107131

The use of renewable energies has become very attractive, because it protects the environment and boosts regional development. In this paper, a sustainable two-phase sequential approach is proposed for the design of bioenergy SCs under uncertainties. The first phase, integrating geographical information, social aspects, and multi-criteria decision-making techniques, helps find appropriate locations for the bio-refineries. High rates of unemployment, and high vulnerability to the variation in the markets in an economic crisis are considered as social concerns. Integrating these factors filters the areas for the second phase. The first phase reduces complexity in the computation of the problem and helps set up sustainable development in the supply chain. In the second phase, to cope with the uncertainties in the bioenergy supply network, a robust model is introduced. It reduces the sensitivity to inaccurate input data, and the obtained solutions stay optimal when the parameters change slightly. In order to validate this two-phase sequential approach, a case study is investigated. The results of tests show that integrating the concepts of uncertainties and sustainability with geographical information of the area in a two-phase sequential approach outperforms the traditional models and leads to the creation of 262 jobs. The jobs have a high impact on the surrounding area.

March

• Lin, W., Shao, Y., Li, Guiquan., Guo, Y., & Zhan, X. (2021). The psychological implications of COVID-19 on employee job insecurity and its consequences: The mitigating role of organization adaptive practices. Journal of Applied Psychology, 106(3), 317–329.

The current study aims to understand the detrimental effects of COVID-19 pandemic on employee job insecurity and its downstream outcomes, as well as how organizations could help alleviate such harmful effects. Drawing on event system theory and literature on job insecurity, we conceptualize COVID-19 as an event relevant to employees’ work, and propose that event strength (i.e., novelty, disruption, and criticality) of COVID-19 influences employee job insecurity, which in turn affects employee work and non-work outcomes. We also identified important organization adaptive practices responding to COVID-19 based on a preliminary interview study, and examined its role in mitigating the undesired effects of COVID-19 event strength. Results from a two-wave lagged survey study indicated that employees’ perceived COVID-19 event novelty and disruption (but not criticality) were positively related to their job insecurity, which in turn was positively related to their emotional exhaustion, organizational deviance, and saving behavior. Moreover, organization adaptive practices mitigated the effects of COVID-19 event novelty and criticality (but not disruption) on job insecurity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

• Romain Espinosa, Gregory DeAngelo, Bruno Deffains, Murat Mungan, Rustam Romaniuc (2021) The price of expungements. International Review of Law and Economics, Volume 65, March 2021, 105976

Expungement mechanisms allow first-time offenders to seal their criminal record. Theory predicts that the stigma of a criminal record can hinder the reintegration of criminals for whom legal activities are less lucrative. In theory, expungements priced at the reservation level can facilitate the reintegration of criminals without making first-time crime more attractive. This paper considers a behavioral perspective and offers experimental evidence about the impact of expungements priced at different levels. To do this, we set up a laboratory experiment where subjects repeatedly face opportunities to commit crime (takemoney from another subject). In addition to stochastic formal sanctions – imposed by the experimenter– we introduce endogenously determined social sanctions. In our main treatments of interest, subjects who choose the wrongful action have the opportunity to expunge their record prior to the second stage, thus avoiding social sanctions as long as they do not recidivate. Overall, our experiment shows that, from a general deterrence perspective, it is better to implement expungements at very high prices. We offer an explanation for this result based on the idea that the price of expungements may signal the moral reprehensibility of the offense.

• Picot Coupey, K., Krey, N., Huré E., Ackermann, C.-L. (2021) Still work and/or fun? Corroboration of the hedonic and utilitarian shopping value scale. Journal of Business Research, Volume 126, March 2021, Pages 578-590

One of the most applied value scales in research is personal shopping value (PSV) by Babin, Darden, and Griffin (1994). PSV assesses consumers’ shopping experiences along hedonic and utilitarian value. The purpose of this research is the corroboration of the original article and the PSV scale to investigate the impact of the past 25 years on the scale’s dimensionality and item composition. The corroboration mirrors the original store environment, while an extension additionally considers two contemporary shopping environments: online websites and mobile apps. Results across six studies confirm shopping value’s two-dimensional structure of work and fun. However, individual items capturing hedonic and utilitarian value deviate from original PSV scale items in number and nature for current stores, online, and mobile apps environments. Researchers and practitioners should exhibit caution to blindly administer or adapt measures without considering temporal or contextual aspects of the scale that limit its applicability.

• Alexakis, C., Vasilis Pappas, Manolis Skarmeas (2021) Market abuse under different close price determination mechanisms: A European case. International Review of Financial Analysis 74 (March 2021) 101707

We examine the presence and the severity of closing price manipulation across two regulatory shifts in the close price determination mechanism in the Athens stock exchange. First, we assess the transition from a value-weighted average price (VWAP) method to a plain-vanilla closing call auction method (CCAM). Second, we examine the effectiveness of additional features of CCAMs in deterring closing price manipulation. We use tick level data with full investor details for a group of highly traded stocks. Our results suggest that the CCAM managed to reduce – but not eliminate – closing price manipulation. CCAMs with additional anti-manipulation features are not effective in eliminating closing price manipulation either. Manipulation is dynamic and investors quickly adapt to new circumstances and opportunities; post-CCAM implementation sell-based closing price manipulation has increased, while part of the manipulation activity has shifted to the reference price formation.

• Jalan, A., Matkovskyy, R., Aziz, S.. (2021) The Bitcoin options market: A first look at pricing and risk. Applied Economics, Volume 53, Issue 17, pp. 2026-2041

This paper offers the first-ever look at Bitcoin options by investigating the wedge between optimum Bitcoin option prices based on classical option valuation models (Black-Scholes-Merton and the Heston-Nandi GARCH (1,1)) and actual premiums at which these options are trading. For this purpose, we use near-the-money call and put options traded on Deribit platform as on 27.01.2020, with the maturities ranging from January 31 to 25 September 2020. In addition, we analyse the risk inherent in Bitcoin options by calculating their Greeks and comparing them to those of traditional commodity options. Pricing results suggest slight overpricing and underpricing for Bitcoin call options with the strike $8,000 maturing on 30.01.2020 and 28.02.2020, respectively. We also find that the Bitcoin options provide much stable deltas over time compared to the other commodity options. This result implies higher insulation from undue price rises with the passage of time for investors in Bitcoin options. Our results are useful to regulators, investors and market managers in better understanding the nuances of the Bitcoin options market in addition to making more informed investment choices.

• C. Alexakis, K. Eleftheriou and M. Polemis (2021) COVID-19 containment measures and stock market returns: An international spatial econometrics investigation. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance. Volume 29 (March 2021) 100428

We investigate the impact of governments’ social distancing measures against the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as this was reflected on 45 major stock market indices. We find evidence of negative direct and indirect (spillover) effects for the initial period of containment measures (lockdown).

• Franssens, Botchway, de Swart and Dewitte (2021) Nudging commuters to increase public transport use: a field experiment in Rotterdam. Frontiers in Psychology. Volume 12, 633865

A large-scale field experiment in Rotterdam, Netherlands, tested whether nudging could increase public transport use. During one work week, 4000 commuters on six bus lines, received a free travel card holder. On the three bus lines in the experimental condition, the card holders displayed a social label that branded bus passengers as sustainable travelers because of their bus use. On the three bus lines in the control condition, there was no such message on the card holders. Analysis of the number of rides per hour showed that the intervention led to a change from pre-intervention (619 days) to postintervention period (176 days) that was estimated to be 1.18 rides per day greater on experimental lines than on control lines. This experiment shows that public transport operators can increase public transport use by incorporating messages that positively label passengers as sustainable travelers in their communication strategies.

April

• Wu, Jiang , Jingxuan Cai, Robert Luo, and Jose Benitez (2021) How to increase customer repeated bookings in the short-term room rental market? A large-scale granular data investigation. Decision Support Systems and Electronic Commerce 143 (April 2021) 113495

The short-term room rental online platforms have boomed in the era of digital business acceleration, as they offer excellent opportunities for interactive behavior between host and guests. However, pursuing customer repeated bookings is a challenge on these platforms. How to increase customer repeated bookings in the short-term room rental market? We examine theoretically and empirically this crucial research question. Drawing on the theoretical foundations of the social interaction theory, we identify and study three host-guest interactions that can affect customer repeated bookings: overall interaction, individual interaction, and offline interaction. We conduct a combination of empirical methods, including text mining and econometrics, using longitudinal data of 36,072 order records and review contents from 5002 listings and 2181 hosts in six cities Xiaozhu.com, which is a prevalent short-term room rental services provider in China. We find that overall host-guest interaction (online reply rate, acceptance rate, confirmation time) and individual host-guest interaction (the existence of individual interaction, absolute text length, and text similarity) increase customer repeated bookings. We also discover that offline host-guest interaction is a substitute for the effect of individual interaction (existence, text length, and similarity) on customer repeated bookings.

• Erfan Asgari, Ramzi Hammami, Yannick Frein, Imen Nouira (2021) The effect of greenness- and price-based competition on a product’s environmental performance. International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 234, April 2021, 108062

This study considers two retailers that offer substitutable products and compete in a greenness- and price-sensitive market. The retailers rely on supply chains that have different costs, replenishment times and carbon intensities. The demand is stochastic, and the inventory replenishment time is also stochastic. Each retailer decides the greenness of its product (carbon intensity), the price and the order size to maximize its expected profit under a service level constraint. The mean demand for each retailer decreases in its price and carbon intensity and increases in other retailer’s price and carbon intensity. The customers’ switchovers are, thus, governed by disparities in carbon intensity and price. The retailers may have different market powers since the total demand is not necessarily equally shared between them when they offer the same price and greenness level. We derive analytically the best response of each retailer to other retailer’s decisions at the Nash equilibrium. We determine the market conditions that lead the competing retailer to offering a greener or a dirtier product than the product it would have offered in a monopolistic situation. We explain how the retailer’s market power impacts on its greenness strategy under different market conditions. We also investigate insights into the impact of disparities in transportation carbon emissions, the order size decisions, and the retailers’ optimal profit under the different competition scenarios.

• Espinosa, R., Treich, N. (2021) Animal welfare: antispeciesism, veganism and a “life worth living”. Social Choice and Welfare, Volume 56, Issue 3, pp 531–548

While antispeciesism is an ethical notion, veganism is behavioral. In this paper, we examine the links between the two. Building on Blackorby and Donaldson (EconJ 102:1345–1369, 1992), we consider a two-species model in which humans consume animals. The level of antispeciesism is conceived as the weight on animals’ welfare in the utilitarian social welfare function. We show that more antispeciesism increases meat consumption if and only if animals’ utility is positive. That is, the critical condition is whether farm animals’ lives are worth living. We then empirically explore this condition using a survey. We find that farm-animal experts and frequent meat eaters are more likely to believe that the lives of farm animals are worth living. We finally discuss some issues in the study of animal welfare in economics and social choice.

• Hudson S. and Descubes I. (2021) Ten years on: National context and legitimacy changes in French managers’ perceptions of CSR 2007-2017. Management International, Volume 25, Issue 2, pp. 1-16

We investigate how managers in French companies report their engagements and motivations regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR) in 2007 and 2017. We conducted and analysed 14 in-depth structured interviews with managers in 2007 and again in 2017. Thematic analysis shows that in 2007, managers focused on instrumental motivations for CSR, citing economically driven artefacts and pro-environmental efforts. In 2017, most managers reported increased and reinforced environmental and social engagements with a parallel shift in the expression of their motivations, seeing CSR as a responsibility to society and future generations, or as a normal, natural activity.

• Shen Li Hong, Khan H, Hammami. H (2021) An Empirical Study of Lenders’ Perception of Chinese Online P2P Lending Platforms. Journal of Alternative Investments, Volume 23 Issue 4 Spring 2021, pp 152-175

Online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending volume has rapidly increased in China because of high financing and investment demands. However, high borrowing default and fraud rates have negatively affected Chinese online P2P lending because of its unique financial and unde¬veloped credit systems. They have prompted the Chinese government to issue regulations on Internet finance behavior to support online P2P lending. This research investigates online P2P lenders’ investment perceptions to understand investment intention related to online P2P lending. The research model is based on planned behavior theory. A ques¬tionnaire on attitudes collected data from voluntary participants; the data were analyzed with confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The findings show that lenders’ attitudes, behavioral controls, and subjective norms—and those three constructs’ antecedents, except relative advantages—have a positive and significant influence on lend¬ers’ online P2P lending intentions.

• Jad H. Bazih, Dieter Vanwalleghem (2021) Deriving value or risk? Determinants and the impact of emerging market banks’ derivative usage. Research in International Business and Finance, Volume 56, Issue 1, April 2021, 101379

This paper examines the determinants of the emerging market banks’ derivative usage and the impact of derivative usage on bank value, total risk and bank stability. Our empirical evidence first suggests that derivative usage is driven primarily by net interest margin, bank concentration and institutional strength. In addition, although derivative usage appears to reduce emerging market bank value, it does not affect total risk. Moreover, emerging market banks can reduce bank instability using derivatives. Our findings have important implications for investors and policy makers focusing on emerging derivatives markets.

• Teichert, T., Wörfel, P. and Ackermann, C.-L. (2021). Casual snacking as an automatic process: a grounded cognition framework. British Food Journal, Vol. 123 No. 5, pp. 1705-1721.

Snacking typically occurs as an automatic, consciously uncontrolled process which can lead to unintended health consequences. Grounded cognition informs about the multifaceted drivers of such automatic consumption processes. By integrating situation-, stimulus-, and person-specific factors, this study provides a holistic account of snacking. A combined psychophysiological and behavioral experiment is conducted wherein participants can casually snack chocolate while participating in a survey setting. Implicit cognitions are assessed with the Implicit Association Test. The percentage of consumed chocolate serves as dependent variable in a Tobit regression with predictors at situation, stimulus and person level. Findings – Chocolate snacking is positively influenced by personal craving tendencies, implicit food associations and situational contingency. We condense the results into an overarching framework in line with grounded cognition literature. The multidimensional framework can guide consumer protection efforts to reduce excessive snacking habits based on situation, stimulus and person. This study integrates theory from social cognition, consumer research, and behavioral food research and, thereby, extends the existing body of knowledge on grounded cognitions underlying snacking consumption.

May

• Oscar Llopis, Pablo D’Este, Adrián A. Díaz-Faes (2021) Connecting others: Does a tertius iungens orientation shape the relationship between research networks and innovation? Research Policy, Volume 50, Issue 4, 104175

Research on social networks and innovation emphasizes that individuals spanning structural holes and crossing institutional boundaries have more opportunities for knowledge recombination and innovation involvement. However, transforming the potential knowledge and resources available through personal networks to attain innovation can be difficult for the focal individual. Using an ego-network approach, this study examines whether and to what extent an individual strategic orientation to cooperation (i.e. tertius iungens) contributes to strengthening the relation between two personal network properties (structural and institutional separation) and involvement in innovation. Our analysis is conducted in the context of biomedicine, where research networks are particularly relevant for science and innovation achievements. Our findings advance social network theory by decoupling social network mechanisms from individual strategic networking behavior as factors influencing knowledge generation processes. Results also provide original evidence on an overlooked phenomenon: the moderating role of a tertius iungens orientation in the relationship between multiple social network properties and innovation. Finally, our research sheds new light on the distinct sources of knowledge recombination in networks and the role of individual networking strategies to facilitate mobilization of resources for innovation.

• Dowling, M., Hammami, H., Tawil, D., Zreik, O. (2021) Structuring energy economics research for impact. Energy Journal, The, Vol. 42, May 2021, No. 3., pp 29-52

We explore the drivers of impact for energy economics research based on an anal¬ysis of citations generated by The Energy Journal articles. The focus is on non-topic generators of impact. Our regression analysis shows that these non-topic measures can explain a substantial proportion (about 20%) of variation in future citations. We apply these findings, integrated with prior research on effective economics writing style, to recommend how energy economics articles should be written to increase their impact. These recommendations center particularly around the importance of initial article information provided to the reader and article structure.

• Ruixue Zhang, Anran Li, Yaping Gong (2021). Too much of a good thing: Examining the curvilinear relationship between team‐level proactive personality and team performance. Personnel Psychology. Volume 74, Issue 2, Summer 2021, pp.295–321

Research has largely shown a positive linear relationship between proactive personality and job performance at the individual level. However, it remains unknown whether the same relationship holds at the team level. In this research, we propose and test a curvilinear relationship between team mean level of proactive personality and team performance. We also examine team potency and team cohesion as the explanatory mechanisms and the dispersion of proactive personality as a boundary condition for the relationship. We conducted two studies to test these ideas. In Study 1, we collected data from 93 teams in four companies from different industries. In Study 2, we collected data from 101 nursing teams in three hospitals. We found a curvilinear relationship between team mean level of proactive personality and team performance in Study 1 and replicated it in Study 2. We further demonstrated in Study 2 the moderating role of dispersion of proactive personality and the mediating role of team potency and team cohesion, respectively, in this curvilinear relationship. The positive trend of the curvilinear relationship is strengthened (weakened) when the dispersion of proactive personality is high (low). The negative trend is mitigated under high dispersion of proactive personality but is not significant under low dispersion of proactive personality. Practically, managers must be aware that team mean level of proactive personality benefits team performance only up to a certain point

• Pankov, S., D. Schneckenberg, D. & V.K. Velamuri (2021). Advocating sustainability in entrepreneurial ecosystems: Micro-level practices of sharing ventures. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 166, 120654

While extant research on entrepreneurial ecosystems has focused on macro-level factors influencing the ecosystem’s development, the role and impact of entrepreneurial practices have been neglected. The objective of this study is to address this research gap and to shed light on the micro-level practices of entrepreneurs who support sustainability transitions in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Our inductive study looks at these micro-level practices from the perspective of sustainable ventures situated in the sharing economy. We conducted 31 in-depth interviews with the founders and senior managers of sustainable ventures to investigate how they advocate the sustainability cause in their ecosystem. Our findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs rely on three distinct sets of micro-level practices: building a supportive environment, disrupting normative standards, and reframing the sustainability paradigm. Also, sustainable entrepreneurs engage in political work to strengthen their position and credibility in the sharing economy, which is being increasingly dominated by profit-oriented players and business practices. By substantiating the central role and micro-level practices that sustainable entrepreneurs enact to advocate sustainability, our study contributes to theorizing the sharing economy. Furthermore, our resultant framework provides a detailed overview of the distinct micro-level practices that help ventures to support the sustainability transition in entrepreneurial ecosystems.

• Nicolas Lenoble, Ramzi Hammami and Yannick Frein (2021) Fixed and Rolling Batching for Order Picking from Multiple Carousels. Production Planning and Control, Volume 32, 2021 – Issue 8, pp 652-659

The carousel is an important automated storage and retrieval system. Customer orders to be collected from carousels are grouped into batches and the orders of a batch are collected simultaneously. We study two batching methods for picking from multiple carousels: (i) fixed batching, where all orders belonging to a batch are collected before the next batch is started, and (ii) rolling batching, where each time an order belonging to the current batch is completed, it is immediately replaced by a new order. For these methods, the main decision is respectively to allocate orders to different batches and to define a sequence for adding orders into batches. With the objective of minimising the total completion time, we develop models for fixed and rolling batching. Thanks to our collaboration with the company KLS Logistic Systems, we use real data to test and prove the efficiency of our models. With comparison to current batching strategies of real companies and to benchmark heuristics, our models yield a considerable time saving. Our findings also indicate that an increase in order size favours the rolling batching over the fixed batching. The models developed in this paper have been implemented and are currently being used in practice

• Md Abubakar Siddique, Md Akhtaruzzaman, Afzalur Rashid, Helmi Hammami (2021) Carbon disclosure, carbon performance and financial performance: International evidence, International Review of Financial Analysis, Volume 75, 2021, 101734

This study examines how carbon performance affects carbon disclosure and how carbon disclosure affects financial performance. With a sample of global firms, the study analyses how relationships between carbon disclosure, carbon performance and financial performance vary in institutional contexts. Our results show that carbon disclosure positively affects carbon performance, consistent with the signalling theory. We find that carbon disclosure negatively (positively) affects financial performance in the short-term (long-term). Our findings have significant implications for investors as some firms use carbon disclosure as part of impression management. Our results help regulators to monitor carbon disclosure and assist investors with investment decisions.

• de Kervenoael, R, Schwob, A, Hasan, R, Ting, YS (2021) Consumers’ perceived value of healthier eating: A SEM analysis of the internalisation of dietary norms considering perceived usefulness, subjective norms, and intrinsic motivations in Singapore. Journal of Consumer Behavior, Volume 20, Issue 3, pp.550–563

Consumers’ internalisation of social norms is at work when they make routine, healthier food choices in everyday contexts. We investigate the dynamics of this phenomenon in Singapore, where over 98% of consumer food products are imported. To study this, we propose, through a consumer perspective (n = 316) via Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), a model that establishes a positive relationship between perceived usefulness, subjective norms, and intrinsic motivations and the perceived value of healthier food. Subjective norms are themselves found to be a function of perceived barriers, facilitating conditions and personal innovativeness. Our framework contributes to establish a shift in the drivers of healthier food choices toward a more socio-culturally grounded decision-making approach that is particularly relevant to understand food consumption. We show that daily food routines (opposing the exceptional healthy food item) are encapsulated in perceived value of healthier eating. The data indicates further that to support healthier food product consumption, both policy makers and food providers must facilitate imported foods that meet quickly changing lifestyle requirements.

• Atwal G, Bryson D (2021) Antecedents of Intention to Adopt Artificial Intelligence Services by Consumers in Personal Financial Investing. Strategic Change, Special Issue: Artificial intelligence in finance, Volume 30, issue 3, May 2021, pp 293-298

Antecedents of intention to adopt artificial intelligence and robo-advisory services from the German private investors’ perspective may guide future adoption behavior. This paper raises the question to what extent German investors’ is willing to use robo-advisory services instead of a human advisor to manage their investments. The exploratory study identified the following constructs that impact the intention to use artificial intelligence to invest: perceived risk, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influences, and intention to use. Findings from this study can help inform marketers when developing strategies to foster awareness and the adoption of roboadvisors.

• Glyn Atwal, Douglas Bryson, Alistair Williams (2021) An Exploratory Study of the Adoption of Artificial Intelligence in Burgundy’s Wine Industry. Strategic Change, Special Issue: Artificial intelligence in finance, Volume 30, issue 3, May 2021, pp 299-306

The objective of this exploratory study is to identify which factors enable or inhibit artificial intelligence adoption within the wine sector and specifically for the Burgundy region. Findings revealed that the winegrower’s adoption intention could be assessed according to (a) perceived benefits, (b) organizational readiness, and (c) external pressure

June

• Castillo, A., Benitez,J., Llorens, J., Luo Xin (2021) Social media-driven customer engagement and movie performance: Theory and empirical evidence. Decision Support Systems, Volume 145, Issue 1, 113516

Can social media-driven customer engagement help movie producers to increase movie sales? Movie producers use social media to boost customer engagement; however, our understanding of whether there is a relationship between pre-consumption customer engagement and movie sales is limited. This research explores what drives the success of movies on the opening-weekend. We examine the relationship between pre-consumption customer engagement driven by social media (i.e., personal and interactive engagement) and movie performance (i.e., opening-weekend box office revenues). Driven by the debate about the potential capacity of social media-driven customer engagement to improve movie performance and the limited understanding of the association of pre-consumption customer engagement and movie performance, this research suggests that social media-enabled customer engagement (i.e., personal and interactive engagement) has the potential to improve movie performance, and these two types of engagement can interact to make this effect stronger. We analyze these relationships drawing from the uses and gratifications theory and the social media affordances perspective that motivate customers to interact in social media. The theoretical model evaluation was tested on a unique and original dataset composed of 966 movies released in the U.K. and Spain. The empirical analysis suggests that personal and interactive engagement are positively related to movie performance, and the positive effects of personal and interactive engagement on movie performance are mutually reinforcing. This research contributes to Information Systems (IS) research by theorizing and empirically showing how customer engagement driven by social media creates business value by improving movie performance.

• Dirk Schneckenberg, Jose Benitez, Christoph Klos, Vivek K. Velamuri, Patrick Spieth (2021) Value creation and appropriation of software vendors: A digital innovation model for cloud computing, Information & Management, Volume 58, Issue 4, June 2021, 103463

Do software vendors propose, create, and capture value in the era of digital transformation? Drawn on the literature of business models, digital innovation, and firms’ capabilities, we examine this cutting-edge research question. We conducted a multiple case research of 10 software vendors operating in Germany and Austria. The thematic analysis yields a conceptual model that explains whether and how software vendors leverage cloud computing-enabled innovation for the digital boost, which is this study’s primary contribution to information systems research. Software vendors use a complementary portfolio of information technology and organizational capabilities to innovate in their value proposition, creation, and capture.

• Hammami, R., Frein, Y., Albana, A.S. (2021) Customer rejection to guide lead time quotation and pricing decisions. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 72(6), 1358-1372

The lead time (LT) quotation and pricing models in make-to-order environments usually assume that all arriving orders are accepted. Hence, despite the loss of demand, the firm must quote a relatively long LT to tackle the situations where there are too many waiting orders. This paper investigates the policy of accepting orders based on the state of the system and, consequently, rejecting customers when the number of waiting orders is larger than a given threshold value. Indeed, if there are less than K jobs in the system (K fixed), then the new order is accepted and a pair of LT and price are quoted to the customer. Otherwise, the order is rejected. Thus, we model the firm’s operations as a M/M/1/K queue instead of the commonly-used M/M/1 queue. We determine the optimal solution for K = 1 and solve the problem numerically for K ≥ 2. We show that our policy can be more profitable than the all-orders acceptance policy. We provide insights into when should a K be imposed and how such a K should be chosen. We find that the higher the sensitivity of demand to price or to LT is, the lower the optimal value of K.

July

• Agi, M., Faramarzi-Oghani, S., Hazir, O. (2021) Game theory-based models in green supply chain management: a review of the literature. International Journal of Production Research, 59:15, pp 4736-4755

This paper provides a systematic review and analysis of the game-theroy-based research in Green Supply Chains Management (GSCM). Based on a rigorous content analysis of 108 papers carefully selected from the literature, we present a detailed picture of the current state of this research and point to the promising future directions. Our analysis shows a rapid increase in the number of publications during the last three years, with an imbalance in the contribution of the publishing outlets, as nearly two third of the reviewed papers are published by only four journals. Results also show the dominance of deterministic static models and simple two-level SC structures. Developing stochastic models, considering the risk and the evolutionary nature that inherently characterise the business environment and investigating more complex multi-level SC structures are among the promising future research opportunities.

• Matkovskyy Roman and Jalan Akanksha (2020) Can Bitcoin be an inflation hedge? Evidence from a quantile-on-quantile model., pp. 1021-1041 Revue Economique (Economic Review), Volume 2021/07, pp. 1021-1041

In this study we quantify and analyze the dynamic dependence between US, eurozone, UK and Japan Bitcoin market returns and realized and unexpected inflation, conditional on different market states and various nuances of inflation. Using a Quantile-on-Quantile regression, we investigate the hedging properties of Bitcoin against inflation, thereby offering a fresh look at the return-inflation puzzle from the point of view of alternative investments. We find that while bullish UK, Euro and Japanese Bitcoin markets facilitate hedging against inflation by offering higher returns, the USD Bitcoin market performs worse with inflation. In general, our results indicate an asymmetric relationship between inflation, both realized and unexpected, and alternative investments such as the Bitcoin market.

• Belboula, I., Ackermann, C.-L. (2021) Consumer response to service brand physical elements: Using a semantic priming task to explore implicit understanding of service brand meaning. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Volume 61, July 2021, 102019

Consumers’ responses to design features involve both conscious and non-conscious information processing. The current research therefore argues that a combination of explicit and implicit measures should be used to assess consumer understanding of service brand meaning conveyed by a service brand’s physical elements. However, most methods traditionally used to evaluate design meaning are explicit methods, based on conscious cognitive processes. The current research addresses this gap by documenting how understanding of service brand meaning conveyed by a service brand’s physical elements can be tapped by an implicit measure. More specifically, it aims to investigate the extent to which a greater ability to decode meaning conveyed by design features results in differences in implicit understanding of service brand meaning. This research uses a Semantic Priming Task to assess associative strength between brand meaning and a service brand’s physical elements. Results (N ¼ 157) show that command of the design language, captured by design acumen and involvement in the product category, results in greater ability to implicitly understand brand meaning conveyed by a service brand’s physical elements, and moderates the implicit-explicit relationship. Results suggest that combining implicit and explicit measures may help practitioners in charge of creating brand’s physical elements, especially when associations between design types and brand impressions are not constant across product categories.

• Zhang, Y., Li, J., Liu, C.-H., Shen, Y. and Li, G. (2021) The effect of novelty on travel intention: the mediating effect of brand equity and travel motivation. Management Decision, Vol. 59 No. 6, pp. 1271-1290

Research on the relationship between novelty and travel intention is lacking. This study attempts to fill this gap by developing a theoretical model to explain how novelty influences travel intention through two mediating paths: brand equity and tourist motivation. In this study, data were collected from 466 foreign visitors to Taiwanese night markets. To test the model, the authors applied structural equation modeling (SEM) to identify the critical attributes that predicted foreign tourists’ travel intentions. The SEM analysis indicated that novelty in tourism management was related to brand equity and intrinsic motivation, which increased foreign tourists’ travel intentions and offered advantages for highly competitive, high-density night markets in Taiwan. In addition, brand equity was an important mediator that connected novelty and tourists’ travel intentions. Finally, novelty indirectly affected travel intention and intrinsic motivation through brand equity. There may exist potential moderators in the relationships among the brand equity and travel intention categories. Future research studies could explore whether any moderators influence the relationship mechanisms examined in this study. This research expands on previous research studies that have focused on the value of travel intention. Furthermore, the study uses brand equity theory (BET) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to examine the mediating effect of intrinsic motivation on the relationship between novelty and travel intention.

• Abdulsalam Alquhaif, Bakr Al-Gamrh, Rohaida Abdul Latif, Sitraselvi Chandren (2021) Board independence tenure and real earnings management: accretive share buyback activities in Malaysia. International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics. Vol. 15, No. 3, 2021, pp 266-284

This study examines the impact of tenure in independent directors and audit committees on accretive share buybacks for real earnings management. Taking a sample of 601 non-financial firms listed on Bursa Malaysia from 2010 to 2015, we use a tobit model to test our hypotheses, where real earnings management is proxied by accretive share buyback. We find a significant effect of the tenure of outside directors on accretive share buyback. Firms with long-serving independent board directors are more likely to undertake real earnings management through accretive share buyback. Evidence is also found that firms with audit committees including long-serving members are more likely to engage in share buyback to maximise reported earnings per share (EPS) for earnings management. Finally, a high percentage of independent directors on audit committees restrain managers from utilising accretive share buyback to manage reported EPS.

• M. Hemmati, S.M.J. Mirzapour Al-e-Hashem, S.M.T. Fatemi Ghomi (2021) Heuristic analyses of separate and bundling sales for complimentary products under consignment stock policy, Computers & Industrial Engineering, Volume 157, 2021, 107297

In the real world, various products are displayed simultaneously on the shelf; therefore, their demands/prices affect each other. This paper aims at studying a joint economic lot-sizing model with two complementary products in a supply chain consisting of a vendor and a buyer. The vendor sends items to the buyer’s warehouse in equal-size batches applying vendor-managed inventory with consignment stock policy. The buyer stocks items at the warehouse and on the shelf. Two mixed-integer nonlinear models that consider bundling and separate sales have been proposed and solved through different solution algorithms such that the profit is maximized. The concavity of both models’ objective functions is investigated and the effect of considering complementation between products and bundling strategy is studied. Numerical experiments indicate that the bundle’s marginal profit is greater than a single product’s marginal profit. Moreover, the supply chain members can also take advantage of economies of scale in bundling sales.

• Fayaz Ali, Muhammad Z. Tauni, Ayaz Ali, Tanveer Ahsan (2021) Do buyer–seller personality similarities impact compulsive buying behaviour? Journal of Consumer Behavior, Special Issue: Contemporary Personality Perspectives in Consumer Behaviour, Volume 20, Issue 4, July/August 2021, pp. 996-1011

This study investigates the influence of buyer–seller personality similarities on compulsive buying behaviour in a dyadic setting. To provide insights into the gaps in previous research, we collected both buyer and corresponding seller data, and considered sellers’ personalities. Specifically, using difference score analyses and variance-based structural equation modelling, we analysed 1038 buyer–seller dyads in service encounters. Compared with the effects of individual buyers’ personalities on compulsive buying, the combined personality results showed that buyer–seller agreeableness similarities increase the compulsive buying behaviour of agreeable buyers. On the other hand, buyer–seller similarities in openness and neuroticism reduce compulsive buying. A further analysis showed that buyer–seller interactions mediate the effect of their extraversion and openness similarities on compulsive buying, while buyers’ shopping enjoyment mediates the effect of their extraversion and neuroticism similarities on compulsive buying. Overall, compulsive buyers have interpersonally different buying behaviours when their personalities match (differ) with their corresponding sellers’. Thus, marketers can match agreeable buyers with similar sellers to promote sales, while dissimilar sellers should be complemented with openminded and neurotic buyers, in particular, to reduce losses.

• Xie, Y., Meng, Y., Xiong, J., Xu, L. and Yan, J. (2021). Non-profits and the environment in China: struggling to expand their franchise. Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 42 No. 4, pp. 257-267

Environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs), one of the major forces in environmental protection, have developed rapidly in the past few years, especially in developing countries such as China. This paper aims to reveal how the ENGOs select their focuses, specifically if they only concentrate on one focus or on contexts in which they obtain various focuses and the motivations behind their choosing strategies. The current research interviewed 103 leaders of ENGOs covering every province in mainland China and adopts existing theories of NGOs alongside diversification strategy from a management perspective. The results showed that most Chinese ENGOs now tend to be diversified but face different challenges. This research highlights the importance of ENGOs’ resources and capacities in facing current challenges and suggests directions to improve their diversification strategy. This research adds value to the research of environmental NGOs and gives suggestions to environmental NGO practitioners, in particular to those in emerging markets.

August

• Hudson, S. and Gonzalez-Gomez, H.V. (2021). Can imposters thrive at work? The imposter phenomenon’s role in work and career outcomes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, Volume 128, August 2021, 103601

This paper examines the effect the impostor phenomenon (IP) on short-term emotions (shame) and performance (creativity and organizational citizenship behavior- OCB) at work, and on career outcomes. Previous research shows direct detrimental effects of IP on some short-term performance measures, but effects on creativity and OCB remain under-researched, and no work has investigated any career effects. Through an experimental approach (Studies 1 and 3) and an online vignette (Study 2) using working populations, we find that IP is expressed as shame in response to simulated and recalled real work events. Shame mediates the negative effect of IP on creativity, and its positive effect on OCB, and mechanistic organizational structure exacerbates the negative shame-creativity relationship. Furthermore, Study 4 uses a survey design to reveal that IP relates negatively to external employability and career success. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we suggest that IP and shame deplete resources such that impostors suffer reduced ability to perform well at work in the short-term, with negative consequences for career success.

• Espinosa, R. and Treich, N. (2021). Moderate Versus Radical NGOs†. American Journal of Agricultural Economics.Volume103, Issue 4, August 2021, pp 1478-1501

NGOs often vary in terms of how radical they are. In this paper, we explore the effectiveness of NGO discourses in bringing about social change. We focus on animal advocacy: welfarist NGOs primarily seek to improve the conditions in which animals are raised and reduce meat consumption, whereas abolitionist NGOs categorically reject animal use and call for a vegan society. We design an experiment to study the respective impact of welfarist and abolitionist discourses on participants’ beliefs regarding pro-meat justifications and their actions, namely their propensity to engage in the short run in animal welfare (charity donation, petition against intensive farming) and plant-based diets (subscription to a newsletter promoting plant-based diets, petition supporting vegetarian meals). We first show that both welfarist and abolitionist discourses significantly undermine participants’ pro-meat justifications. Second, the welfarist discourse does not significantly affect participants’ actions, although we detect a potential backlash effect of the abolitionist discourse. We show that the NGOs’ positive standard effect on actions through the change in beliefs is outweighed by a negative behavioral response to the discourses (reactance effect). Last, greater public-good contributions are associated with greater engagement in animal welfare in the presence of an NGO discourse.

• Hunjra. A, Kijkasiwat. P, Arunachalam. M, Hammami. H (2021) Covid-19 health policy intervention and volatility of Asian capital markets. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 169, 120169

The Covid-19 pandemic continues to disturb the global economy and capital markets. Governments across the globe relentlessly enact health policy measures to contain coronavirus and undertake economic relief programs to reduce the impacts on their economies. This paper examines the effects of Covid-19 government health measures on the volatility of capital markets in East Asian economies. The study applies Monte Carlo type simulations to determine stock price volatility over the period when health policy measures were implemented. The findings indicate that different health policy measures have affected investors’ behavior and caused volatility of stock markets. However, there are country-different impacts on the volatility of these capital markets. The findings provide important insights that are useful when reviewing Covid-19 health policy measures to mitigate the impacts on stock markets.

• Zhao, S., Xiong, J., Kim, S.-Y., Xu, L. and Yan, J. (2021) When bike-sharing crashed in China: a bumpy ride. Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 42 No. 5, pp. 295-303

Buoyed by the desire to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and develop sustainable urban transportation, the dockless bike-sharing industry boomed in China during 2017–2018. To the surprise of the stakeholders, this industry dramatically ebbed in 2019. The dockless bike-sharing system deviated from a problem-solver to a troublemaker in a very short period. The oversupplied and excessively discarded shared bikes caused a big waste of resources and serious pollution to the environment. In this paper, the decision-making of the key players of the industry, i.e. business operators, investors, customers and government, is analyzed through the lens of the cognitive bias. This paper aims to illuminate the process of how this innovative transport solution turned to a disastrous ending, which caused damage to urban environment and financial loss to investors. In this study, a qualitative analysis based on the rich secondary data sources is conducted. A rich amount of qualitative data including news reports, government policies, consulting reports and companies’ annual reports etc. were collected. The study shows, in the product introduction period, the government, business operators, investors and consumers fell into the cognitive bias. They over focused on the positive side such as high-tech, eco-friendly, convenient image of the dockless bike-sharing solution. Thereby, the key stakeholders made irrational decisions in product adoption and management. This study moves toward increasing key stakeholders’ awareness of the imperative to reduce these biases when promoting eco-innovations. This study also recommends a prudent attitude with a rational and comprehensive thinking style in dealing with eco-innovation and the emerging sharing economy. To solve the cognitive biases, this study recommends that people use rational decision-making style to examine and adopt the dockless bike-sharing solutions. Practical recommendations to tackle the existing recycling crisis of the dockless bike-sharing industry are also discussed.

• Jiang, R.J., Xiong, J., Ding, Y. and Parameswaran, R. (2021) To wait or not to wait: pacing international expansion in China for best results. Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 42 No. 5, pp. 343-350

How to enter and expand in a newly emerged foreign market is less understood. Should multinational enterprises move fast or slowly? In this study, the authors take China as the context to investigate what factors will lead to a fast expansion strategy in a foreign market. The purpose of this paper is to understand whether fast expansion benefits firms’ performance in a rapidly emerging market. Based on insights from field interviews, the authors developed a theoretical framework. Then, the authors collected data from surveys of managers of multinational enterprises from Western countries to test their hypothesis. This research context is based on the experience of multinational enterprises in China which opened up to foreign direct investment in 1979. This study shows that internally, strategic long-term investment goals, top management team commitment and externally switching costs and the growth in the demand market which will push firms to expand fast in the newly emerged China market. Faster pace of expansion benefits the performance of multinational enterprises in a newly emerged market. Based on the onsite interviews followed by the survey of top managers of multinational enterprises located in China, this study provides a fine-grained analysis of the importance of pace and its key antecedents. Thus, the results provide new insights to decision-makers of multinational enterprises when considering expanding in an emerging market at its early stages of growth.

• Iwasaki, S.; Franssens, S.; Dewitte, S.; Lange, F.(2021) Evaluating the Effect of Framing Energy Consumption in Terms of Losses versus Gains on Air-Conditioner Use: A Field Experiment in a Student Dormitory in Japan. Sustainability 2021, 13, 4380

Promoting energy conservation in university dormitories is challenging because student residents are typically charged a flat utility fee. One possibility to curb excessive energy use in the absence of monetary incentives is to highlight the environmental consequences of energy use. However, it is still largely unknown how these consequences should be communicated to effectively change people’s behavior. In the present study, we analyzed the effect of framing the environmental consequences of energy use in terms of losses versus gains on the air-conditioner use of student residents of a Japanese university dormitory. A total of 330 students were provided with stickers to attach to the air-conditioner remote control in their dormitory room during the winter term. The stickers conveyed that increasing the temperature will hurt the environment (loss frame), that reducing the temperature will protect the environment (gain frame), or that changing the temperature will affect the environment (neutral frame). Day-to-day variations in objective air-conditioner use data were analyzed as a function of experimental condition to examine the effect of message framing. The change in air-conditioner use from pre-intervention to intervention period did not differ between experimental groups and neither did the change from pre-intervention period to a period after the intervention

September

• Christos Alexakis, Michael Dowling, Vasileios Pappas, Manimozhi Ramachandiran, Favianos Skalvos (2021) Do hotel financial factors influence satisfaction? Annals of Tourism Research, Volume 90, 2021, 103128

We investigated how hotel customers’ satisfaction is influence by the financial performance of the hotels. We extracted the satisfaction ratings from Trip Advisor for 3,4 and 5 star hotels in Greece. Financials wee extracted from hotels’ financial statements. Our findings show that the hotels in each star category have different financial profiles and attract different customer satisfaction ratings. 5-star hotels attract the highest customer satisfaction score and also have greater asset investment, more beds, and higher revenue/bed. In terms of expenses, the 5-star hotels have higher cost of goods sold, and lower administration and selling expenses as a proportion of revenue. Lastly, there is a lower prevalence of swimming pools in 5-star hotels, perhaps partially reflecting the business focus as opposed to tourism focus of these hotels.

• Jalan, A., Matkovskyy, R., Urquhart, A. (2021) What effect did the introduction of Bitcoin futures have on the Bitcoin spot market? The European Journal of Finance, Volume 27 issue 13, pp. 1251-1281

Bitcoin futures were introduced in December 2017 and this was seen by some as a sign of the most popular cryptocurrency finally being accepted by the financial community. In this paper, we examine the impact of the introduction of Bitcoin futures on the Bitcoin spot market in terms of five characteristics – returns, volatility, skewness, kurtosis and liquidity, using a Bayesian diffusion-regression (state-space) structural time-series model. Our results indicate that the introduction of bitcoin futures potentially exerted a downward impact on the USD bitcoin spot market return and skewness and an upward one on volatility, kurtosis and liquidity, which became higher after futures were introduced. Therefore, our paper offers important insights for investors and regulators, while providing some guidance as to the potential impact of futures markets on other cryptocurrencies.

• Gonzalez-Gomez, Helena V., Hudson S. and Aude Rychalski (2021) The psychology of frustration: Appraisals, outcomes and service recovery. Psychology and Marketing 38(9), 1550-1575

This study fills a gap in the consumer emotions literature regarding customer frustration in a customer service setting. Most research on customer emotions has examined anger, happiness or affect in general, largely ignoring the particularities of frustration. Consistent with appraisal theory, we use five experiments to explore the different appraisal dimensions that define frustration and its relation to customer loyalty and satisfaction. Contrary to common belief, we show that frustration is not simply the result of goal‐blocking, but rather of a more complex combination of appraisals which differentiate it from anger and lead to distinct effects on satisfaction and loyalty. We also examine how the effects of frustration on loyalty and satisfaction are mitigated by service recovery in a further experiment and an event reconstructive method. Our results test appraisal theory, inform theory on customer emotions and have important implications for our understanding of customer satisfaction and loyalty following frustrating customer service encounters

• Saqib Aziz, Dawood Ashraf, Rwan El-Khatib (2021) Societal trust and Sukuk activity. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Volume 74, sept 2021, 101384

Sukuk investments require investors and issuers to adhere to subtle moral and ethical standards beyond following mere profit maximization objectives. Investor trust manifested through the level of societal trust could be vital in the global Sukuk investment surge. This study investigates the relationship between the societal trust level and Sukuk activity. It employs a global sample of Sukuk issuances spanning over 2001–2019 and finds that a country’s societal trust level significantly and positively influences the amount of Sukuk issued. Moreover, this positive effect supersedes the negative effects of higher information asymmetry associated with equity-based Sukuk or Sukuk issued by risky firms. Ultimately, trust is both a deterrent and critical for Islamic finance success.

• Ezzedine Ghlamallah, Christos Alexakis, Michael Dowling, Anke Piepenbrink (2021) The topics of Islamic economics and finance research. International Review of Economics & Finance, Volume 75, September 2021, Pages 145-160

We provide a comprehensive structuring of research on Islamic economics and finance into the core topics of the area, for the period 1979 to 2018. This is carried out through a probabilistic topic modeling approach that allows statistical learning of the connection between research articles as well as their shared topics. This approach, which blends machine learning and natural language processing, helps provide a comprehensive structure to the literature. Our topic modeling analysis is conducted on approximately 1500 articles and suggests the Islamic economics and finance literature can be well-described by 11 topics. These topics cover economic, finance, and morality issues. Our research can be applied to provide a clear structure for ongoing research agendas in Islamic economics and finance as well as a framework for understanding research development in this area. We also note the differences between Islamic and conventional approaches to economics and finance research in order to highlight the inherent new contributions of this maturing area of research.

• Z. Umar, S. Aziz and D. Tawil (2021) The impact of COVID-19 induced panic on the return and volatility of precious metals. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance. Volume 31, September 2021, 100525

We use TVP-VAR approach to analyze the connectedness between the COVID-19 induced global panic index (GPI) and precious metals return and volatility. We find evidence of positive connectedness between the GPI and precious metals with GPI being a shock transmitter and precious metals, especially gold, being net receivers. While silver shows the highest resistance to shocks, platinum and palladium present a time varying transmission pattern. Our results refute the safe-haven property of precious metals during the COVID-19 outbreak, with the exception of silver.

October

• Dermot Breslin, Johan Kask, Michael Schlaile, Gianpaolo Abatecola (2021) Developing a coevolutionary account of innovation ecosystems. Industrial Marketing Management, Volume 98, 2021, pp 59-68

Whilst research in innovation ecosystems has focused on the connectivity, interdependence, and coevolution of actors, technologies, and institutions, there has been a gap in the study of these relationships between actors, with little explanation given on how mutually interdependent parties adapt. In this paper, we draw further on the ecological metaphor to present a view of innovation ecosystems as complex adaptive systems, where patterns of change emerge from microlevel coevolutionary interactions between actors. Drawing on this view, we explore related implications for our understanding of ecosystem boundaries, coevolutionary rules of interaction, and how ecosystems are energized through innovation. Specifically, we contribute to the literature by developing a novel account of innovation ecosystems where actors are bound together through changing modes of coevolution. Drawing on this account, we explore key theoretical and practical implications for our understanding of ecosystem actors, rules of interaction, and the wider innovation ecosystem. We conclude that innovation both maintains and drives change within the innovation ecosystem, by altering the microlevel rules of interaction and coevolutionary relationships between actors.

• Michiel De Bauw, Christophe Matthys, Veerle Poppe, Samuel Franssens, Liesbet Vranken (2021) A combined Nutri-Score and ‘Eco-Score’ approach for more nutritious and more environmentally friendly food choices? Evidence from a consumer experiment in Belgium. Food Quality and Preference, Volume 93, 2021, 104276

The application of Nutri-Score on food products is ubiquitous throughout Europe and studies demonstrating its potential to stimulate healthier food choices are accumulating. At the same time, a strong need exists to evenly harmonize and activate the communication of environmental impacts on food products, in synergy with the Nutri-Score. This raises the question of whether the Nutri-Score could be expanded to an ‘Eco-Score’ that would similarly encourage environmentally friendly food choices. This paper reports a randomized control trial, in which a representative sample of 805 Belgian consumers was asked to hypothetically buy ingredients for a meal in a small-scale mock-up E-grocery environment. The experiment tested whether a combined Nutri-Score and Eco-Score affected the nutritional quality and environmental impact of consumers’ food choices. This effect was compared to general and specific dietary recommendations on the one hand, and to detailed impact tables on the other hand. Since visual distraction often plays a role in informative persuasion, the treatments were evaluated subject to different levels of distraction caused by product images. The average nutritional quality index (NQI) and environmental impact index (EII) of the selected baskets were calculated to evaluate the effects of the manipulations. We find that a joint Nutri-Score and Eco-Score label improves the NQI but not the EII. The general- and specific recommendation as well as the detailed information also improved the NQI. However, the specific recommendation was the only treatment that also improved the EII. The improvements in NQI due to the scores could be explained by a reduced consumption of pork. The improvements in EII induced by the specific recommendation could mainly be explained by a reduction in beef consumption. Only very mild indications were found that product images interfered with the effect of the scores. This study provides some initial evidence and support for the use of dual Nutri-Score – Eco-Score label to induce transitions towards healthier and more sustainable diets. We also find that recommendations outside the classic Front-Of-Package label framework could be a promising way to realize such a transition. However, it remains to be tested whether similar effects occur in real E-groceries and on a longer time scale.

• Faroque, A.R., Kuivalainen, O., Ahmed, J.U., Rahman, M., Roy, H., Ali, M.Y. and Mostafiz, M.I. (2021) Performance implications of export assistance: the mediating role of export entrepreneurship. International Marketing Review, Vol. 38 No. 6, pp. 1370-1399

Although both institutional export assistance and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) contribute separately and positively to export performance, the interplay between them has received little attention. This study examines the role of international EO in deriving performance benefits from governmental and nongovernmental export assistance. In this longitudinal study, two surveys were administered at two different times: In 2011, 705 Bangladeshi apparel exporters were surveyed, and in 2019, a subsequent survey of 198 firms in multiple industries was conducted. The aim of the surveys was to assess the relationships between governmental and nongovernmental assistance, EO and export performance. The results of the first survey show that, while nongovernmental assistance influences performance directly and via EO, governmental assistance has only direct effects. Furthermore, the negative influence of government assistance on EO reduces the total effects and renders them nonsignificant. The results of the second survey demonstrate that government EPPs have both direct and indirect positive and significant effects on market performance, indicating a partial mediation, whereas quasi-governmental assistance has positive and significant direct effects as well as negative but nonsignificant indirect effects. Nongovernmental EPPs have both direct and indirect significant effects on international performance, indicating a partial mediation. The study has important implications for researchers studying export assistance and its impact on firm performance. Instead of adopting a parochial view of government assistance, this study categorizes such assistance into three types – government, quasi-government and nongovernment. Furthermore, this study bridges the export assistance and international entrepreneurship literature by including EO. Entrepreneurs must emphasize the use of government assistance in order to enhance export performance. However, to promote both entrepreneurship and performance, they must emphasize nongovernment assistance. Exporters should also capitalize on the assistance extended by various quasi-governmental agencies to bolster export performance. Given the performance advantage of export assistance, this study highlights the contribution of the private sector in promoting export entrepreneurship while shedding light on the pernicious role of (quasi-)governmental assistance in export entrepreneurship.

• Rahman, M., Rodríguez-Serrano, M.A., Hughes, M. (2021) Does Advertising Productivity Affect Organizational Performance? Impact of Market Conditions. British Journal of Management,32: 4, pp 1359-1383

Advertising is crucial in influencing customers’ perceptions and purchase intentions, and numerous studies have investigated whether advertising expenditure has any significant impact on financial performance. A thorough understanding remains elusive: while several studies document a positive impact, others report that advertising has either a negative or a statistically insignificant effect. Three flaws among existing studies are responsible for this problem: bundling advertising with other forms of marketing, the inadequacy of expenditure as a measure and a failure to consider contingencies. Deviating from earlier studies, we examine the effect of advertising productivity on firm performance rather than the impact of the absolute amount of advertising expenditure. Moreover, adopting a contingency approach, we evaluate how market conditions of market dynamism, market complexity and market munificence moderate the relationship between advertising productivity and organizational performance. Drawing a multi-industry sample from the USA, this study demonstrates that advertising productivity has a positive impact on capital market-based performance measures, conditional on market conditions. We reveal new insights into when, why and to what extent advertising contributes (or not) to organizations’ financial performance.

• Mahabubur Rahman, M. Ángeles Rodríguez-Serrano & Anisur R. Faroque (2021) Corporate environmentalism and brand value: A natural resource-based perspective, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 29:4, 463-479

Given ever-increasing engagement of firms in corporate environmentalism over the past few decades, a multitude of studies investigated the antecedents and consequences of corporate environmentalism. Extant studies exploring the consequences of corporate environmentalism predominantly measured its effects on firm performance. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study thus far has explored whether or not the key pro-environmental initiatives pertaining to corporate environmentalism carried out by industrial firms have any effect on market-based assets, namely, brand value. This study endeavored to address this gap in the literature. Drawing on natural resource-based view of the firm (NRBV), this study argued that industrial firms committed to corporate environmentalism reap rewards in the form of higher brand value. This study investigated three salient areas of corporate environmentalism, namely, environmental innovation, efficiency in using natural resources and emission reduction. The findings of this research demonstrate that industrial firms that outperform in environmental innovation, use fewer natural resources, and reduce emission have a higher brand value. Interestingly, while environmental innovation and efficiency in using natural resources contribute fairly equally to brand value, ability to reduce emissions contributes the least to brand value creation.

• Yildirim, C. and Kasman, A. (2021) Market power evolution and convergence in European banking: An Empirical note. Bulletin of Economic Research Volume 73 issue 4 pp. 535– 544

This paper undertakes an up-to-date assessment of evolution and convergence in market power over 2013 and 2018 in the Eurozone banking markets in view of the progress towards completing the banking union. The results show that average market power measured by the Lerner index displays an upward trend up until 2016 declining thereafter. Further findings by employing the panel convergence methodology of Philips and Sul (2007) fail to support the hypothesis of integration in the Eurozone banking markets through market power convergence. Furthermore, club clustering tests reveal presence of three sub-clusters of countries with different speeds of convergence.

November

• Ammar Ali Gull, Ayman Issa, Muhammad Atif, Tanveer Ahsan (2021) Gender diversity in boardrooms and corporate financial performance: Evidence from the male-dominated society of Qatar. Question(s) de Management, Vol. 36, Issue No. 06, Pages: 113-127

This study examines the relationship between board gen­der diversity and the corporate financial performance (CFP) of companies listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange. We use the ordinary least square (OLS) regression as the baseline technique along with the system GMM generalized method of moments (GMM) approach to mitigate the possible issue of endogeneity. Our analysis reveals that board gender diversity negatively affects CFP. Our findings are robust to the use of alternate measures of board gender diversity and free from endogeneity concerns as demonstrated by the re­sults of the system GMM regression estimates. Further, we explain the possible reasons of this negative relation, par­ticularly in the context of Qatar. An important implication of our findings is that they identify the factors that inhibit the women in Qatar from making significant contributions to board proceedings as well as to CFP in its male-domina­ted society.

• Saqib Aziz, Mahabubur Rahman, Dildar Hussain, Duc K. Nguyen (2021) Does corporate environmentalism affect corporate insolvency risk? The role of market power and competitive intensity. Ecological Economics, Volume 189, 107182

Little is known about the effects of green performance on corporate insolvency risk. This study examines the relationship between green performance and firm insolvency risk from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Using a panel of 179 US firms included in the Newsweek Green Rankings and a system generalised method of moments estimation which generates endogeneity-robust regression coefficients, we found that firms with higher green performance are at lower risk of insolvency. We further postulate and provide theory-based empirical evidence that the nexus between green performance and insolvency risk is contingent upon other internal and external boundary conditions. Specifically, this research documents that the nexus between green performance and firm insolvency risk is moderated by market power as well as industry competitive intensity. The results of this study are robust across several sensitivity analyses

• Christos Alexakis, Dimitris Kenourgios, Vasileios Pappas, Athina Petropoulou (2021) From dotcom to Covid-19: A convergence analysis of Islamic investments. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Volume 75, 2021, 101423

This paper goes beyond the extant comparisons of Islamic and conventional investments by econometrically assessing their convergence dynamics, in a dataset spanning over 1996–2020, covering ten business sectors and five episodes of crisis. We use a dynamic multivariate framework to estimate time-varying correlations, which we submit to beta and sigma-convergence analysis. Subsequently we examine how convergence dynamics affect portfolio risk management and crisis propagation. Our results show strong convergence of Islamic and conventional investments. During crises conventional convergence rates double, but Islamic ones are less affected. Sectoral diversification works best for conventional investments; Islamic ones behave as a single entity. On average we document a 7% risk diversification benefit from Islamic investments, at a 64 basis points cost. Yet, at the epicentre of the Covid-19 financial crisis this rises to 466 basis points and highlights the resilience of these investments in an exogenous event. Islamic investments reduce volatility spillovers in the financial system, but they are progressively less insulated across time. Our findings withstand a battery of robustness checks and are primarily useful to policy makers and investors

• Jbid Arsenyan, Agata Mirowska (2021) Almost human? A comparative case study on the social media presence of virtual influencers. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Volume 155, 102694

As virtual agents become prevalent in many domains, virtual influencers have gone live on social media platforms, integrating human networks and interacting with users. Building on research on human-computer interactions, the Uncanny Valley hypothesis, and Computers Are Social Actors paradigm, this paper aims to investigate (1) virtual agents’ similarity to humans in terms of behaviour in human networks and (2) reactions to human versus virtual agents in human networks where this interaction is publicly visible. We analyse the posting behaviour of and reactions to one human, one human-like virtual, and one anime-like virtual influencer active on a popular social media platform via text and emoji postings over an 11-month period. We find that, despite the general positive atmosphere of the platform, the human-like virtual influencer receives significantly lower positive reactions, providing evidence for the Uncanny Valley. Additional measures of negative reactions show a similar pattern. We discuss these results within the context of authenticity and social identity on social media, providing recommendations for the implementation of virtual influencers in human social networks.

• Yash Chawla, Agnieszka Radziwon, Laurent Scaringella, Ewa Lazarczyk Carlson, Marco Greco, Paulo Duarte Silveira, Eduardo Pestana de Aguiar, QingYang Shen, Markus Will, Anna Kowalska-Pyzalska (2021) Predictors and outcomes of individual knowledge on early-stage pandemic: Social media, information credibility, public opinion, and behaviour in a large-scale global study, Information Processing & Management, Volume 58, Issue 6, November 2021, 102720

This study explores how individuals obtain knowledge, perceive information sources, behave, and form opinions while facing a pandemic at an early stage. We develop a conceptual model linking the predictors of individuals’ knowledge with people’s behavior and opinions. The model is empirically tested through a large-scale global survey of 15,552 respondents from 126 nationalities. Our results indicate that relying on one source of information does not lead to favourable behavior towards curbing the pandemic. Furthermore, we need to educate people and control misinformation spread on policy and social network platforms to curb emergencies collectively

• R. Boucekkine, M. Laksaci, M. Touati-Tliba (2021) Long-run stability of money demand and monetary policy: The case of Algeria. The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Volume 24, 2021, e00217

Since the start of the oil counter-shock in June 2014, Algeria has experienced unprecedented twin deficits. The excessive monetisation of the public deficit coupled with other deep anomalies in the economy of this country acutely calls for reconsideration of its monetary policy. To this end a prior study of the long-run stability of money demand is needed. We estimate the demand for money for monetary aggregates M1 and M2, and cash in Algeria over the period 1979–2019, and study its long-run stability. We show that the transaction motive is significant for all three aggregates, especially for the demand for cash, reflecting the weight of informal economy “practices”. The elasticity of the scale variable is very close to unity for M2 and M1, and even equal to unity for cash demand (1.006). The elasticity of inflation is also significant for all three aggregates, although its level is higher in the case of cash demand (􀀀 6.474). Despite the persistence of certain financial repression mechanisms, interest rate elasticity is significant for all three aggregates, but higher for M1 and cash. The same observation is made for elasticity of the exchange rate, reflecting the effect of monetary substitution, especially for M1 and cash. Finally, our study concludes that the demand for money in terms of M1 remains stable, the same observation being confirmed for the M2 aggregate. However, the demand for fiat currency proves not to be stable. The consequences for the optimal design of monetary policy in Algeria are clearly stated.

• Nadjib Brahimi, Ali Cheaitou, Pierre Cariou & Dominique Feillet (2021) An exact algorithm for the single liner service design problem with speed optimisation, International Journal of Production Research, Volume 59, Issue 22, pp.6809-6832

This paper models a single liner service design and operations problem. The model selects the ports to be included, their sequence, the sailing speed of vessels, the number of vessels and the amounts of cargo to transport by the service. The objective is to maximise profit. First, a relaxation with a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) formulation is proposed. We show how to obtain the optimal speed value. Once this value is obtained, the mathematical programming formulation becomes a mixed-integer linear program (MILP). Then, a two-step exact algorithm is presented to solve the problem. Using real data, the optimal solution was found in less than 1 min for small-size problems and in few hours for relatively large-size problems. More tests were carried out on randomly generated data sets with up to 25 ports. The results of these tests are rather promising, and they enabled us to identify the performance limits of the algorithm.

• Abdelkrim R. Yelles-Chaouche, Evgeny Gurevsky, Nadjib Brahimi & Alexandre Dolgui (2021) Reconfigurable manufacturing systems from an optimisation perspective: a focused review of literature. International Journal of Production Research, 59:21, pp 6400-6418

The concept of reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs) is a current subject that has attracted intensive research. This latter covers the entire RMS life cycle, from the design to the exploitation phase, and includes several important problems requiring the use of optimisation. The objective of this paper is to survey research publications related to RMS optimisation problems and their solution methods. For this, the types of RMS and their components are described. Subsequently, relevant objective functions and performance indicators of RMS are presented. In addition, an overview of the most used solution approaches and a classification of optimisation problems are proposed. Finally, a detailed analysis, our conclusions, and suggestions for future research are provided.

Nadjib Brahimi, Ali Cheaitou, Pierre Cariou & Dominique Feillet (2021) An exact algorithm for the single liner service design problem with speed optimisation, International Journal of Production Research, Volume 59, Issue 22, pp.6809-6832

This paper models a single liner service design and operations problem. The model selects the ports to be included, their sequence, the sailing speed of vessels, the number of vessels and the amounts of cargo to transport by the service. The objective is to maximise profit. First, a relaxation with a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) formulation is proposed. We show how to obtain the optimal speed value. Once this value is obtained, the mathematical programming formulation becomes a mixed-integer linear program (MILP). Then, a two-step exact algorithm is presented to solve the problem. Using real data, the optimal solution was found in less than 1 min for small-size problems and in few hours for relatively large-size problems. More tests were carried out on randomly generated data sets with up to 25 ports. The results of these tests are rather promising, and they enabled us to identify the performance limits of the algorithm

Abdelkrim R. Yelles-Chaouche, Evgeny Gurevsky, Nadjib Brahimi & Alexandre Dolgui (2021) Reconfigurable manufacturing systems from an optimisation perspective: a focused review of literature. International Journal of Production Research, 59:21, pp 6400-6418

The concept of reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs) is a current subject that has attracted intensive research. This latter covers the entire RMS life cycle, from the design to the exploitation phase, and includes several important problems requiring the use of optimisation. The objective of this paper is to survey research publications related to RMS optimisation problems and their solution methods. For this, the types of RMS and their components are described. Subsequently, relevant objective functions and performance indicators of RMS are presented. In addition, an overview of the most used solution approaches and a classification of optimisation problems are proposed. Finally, a detailed analysis, our conclusions, and suggestions for future research are provided

• Chen, M., Chakraborty, S., Xiong, J., Scaringella, L., & Descubes, I. (2021). Business model renewal and environment changes: Insights of Chinese textile industry. Strategic Change, 30 (6), 573– 580.

Chinese small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in the textile industry adapt and reshape their business models to cope with the environmental changes resulting from increasing labor costs and decreases in profits. Comparing with big firms, SMEs face more challenges when renewing their business operations. Reactions of SMEs are influenced by the extent of changes in the business model renewal process. The renewal of the business model includes resource configuration, updating purchasing and distribution channels, refining market segments, and rebuilding brands.

• Flichy de La Neuville Thomas. Lessons from Applying Sanctions and Blockades. Review of Business and Economics Studies. 2021;9(4):23-31.

From the geo-economic standpoint, a power may avail itself of a spectrum of constraining measures against a hostile or dangerous nation — measures ranging from sanctions, boycotts to embargos and blockades, which last represent the ultimate form of economic pressure to which an adversary may be subjected. Because they are an extreme type of economic banishment, their imposition reveals the physiognomy of the power struggle; and, because they obstruct the free flow of goods, they also appear to be an ephemeral anomaly within the Liberal world order. Yet, their incumbency in the game is a reflection of geo-economic complexity. Whether enacted to great fanfare or not, blockades freeze some transactions while generating business opportunities elsewhere. And while an activity momentarily stilled in one zone may be reshaped to the advantage of another, blockades still allow their instigators to zero in on key sectors of the enemy’s economy without endangering the country’s survival. Thus, we can see blockades as an economic and military measure serving imperial ends. This essay succinctly reviews the history of famous blockades and garners the core economic lessons one may learn from them.

• Akanksha Jalan, Roman Matkovskyy, Larisa Yarovaya (2021) “Shiny” crypto assets: A systemic look at gold-backed cryptocurrencies during the COVID-19 pandemic, International Review of Financial Analysis, Volume 78, Nov 2021, 101958

In this paper, we empirically analyse the performance of five gold-backed stablecoins during the COVID-19 pandemic and compare them to gold, Bitcoin and Tether. In the digital assets’ ecosystem, gold-backed cryptocurrencies have the potential to address regulatory and policy concerns by decreasing volatility of cryptocurrency prices and facilitating broader cryptocurrency adoption. We find that during the COVID-19 pandemic, gold-backed cryptocurrencies were susceptible to volatility transmitted from gold markets. Our results indicate that for the selected gold-backed cryptocurrencies, their volatility, and as a consequence, risks associated with volatility, remained comparable to the Bitcoin. In addition, gold-backed cryptocurrencies did not show safe-haven potential comparable to their underlying precious metal, gold.

• Yarovaya, L., Matkovskyy Roman, Jalan Akanksha (2021). The effects of a “black swan” event (COVID-19) on herding behavior in cryptocurrency markets. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Volume 75, 101321

This paper analyses herding in cryptocurrency markets in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. We employ a combination of quantitative methods to hourly prices of the four most traded cryptocurrency markets – USD, EUR, JPY and KRW – for the period from 1st January 2019 to 13th March 2020. While there are several strong theoretical reasons to observe the ‘‘black swan” effect on cryptocurrency herding, our results suggest that COVID-19 does not amplify herding in cryptocurrency markets. In all markets studied, herding remains contingent on up or down markets days, but does not get stronger during the COVID-19. These results are important for cryptocurrency investors and regulators to enhance their understanding of cryptocurrency markets and the financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Yash Chawla, Agnieszka Radziwon, Laurent Scaringella, Ewa Lazarczyk Carlson, Marco Greco, Paulo Duarte Silveira, Eduardo Pestana de Aguiar, QingYang Shen, Markus Will, Anna Kowalska-Pyzalska (2021) Predictors and outcomes of individual knowledge on early-stage pandemic: Social media, information credibility, public opinion, and behaviour in a large-scale global study, Information Processing & Management, Volume 58, Issue 6, November 2021, 102720

This study explores how individuals obtain knowledge, perceive information sources, behave, and form opinions while facing a pandemic at an early stage. We develop a conceptual model linking the predictors of individuals’ knowledge with people’s behavior and opinions. The model is empirically tested through a large-scale global survey of 15,552 respondents from 126 nationalities. Our results indicate that relying on one source of information does not lead to favourable behavior towards curbing the pandemic. Furthermore, we need to educate people and control misinformation spread on policy and social network platforms to curb emergencies collectively.

December

• Truong, Y, Ackermann, C.-L., Richard Klink (2021) The Role of Legitimacy and Reputation Judgments in Users’ Selection of Service Providers on Sharing Economy Platforms. Information & Management, Volume 58, Issue 8, 2021, 103529

Information systems literature suggests that reputation is the main judgment form that captures user-related information online. Drawing on social judgment literature, we contend that a user’s online characteristics and past actions are not all reputation-based, but also legitimacy-based, and that transaction stake determines whether users will use reputation or legitimacy judgment to evaluate other users. Using Airbnb, we show that level of stake in a transaction determines the judgment form (reputation or legitimacy) that guests resort to when evaluating a host. Moreover, we find that providing extensive information on a host to potential guests in low-stake transactions is counterproductive.

• Jiabao Lin, Zhimei Luo, Jose Benitez, Xin Robert Luo, Aleš Popovič (2021) Why do organizations leverage social media to create business value? An external factor-centric empirical investigation. Decision Support Systems, Volume 151, Dec 2021, 113628

Why do organizations develop and execute social media initiatives to create business value? This study addresses this prominent and critical research question for IS research on the business value of social media. Drawing on the institutional theory, we argue that mimetic, coercive, and normative pressure persuade organizations to use social media to improve marketing performance. We test our core proposition and theory-driven research model using data collected from a sample of leading Chinese agribusinesses. We find that coercive and mimetic pressure play pivotal roles in motivating organizations to use social media. We also discover that social media usage improves marketing performance and that the agribusiness market uncertainty plays a positive reinforcing role in the positive effect of social media usage on marketing performance. Thus, this paper contributes to IS research with an eloquent theoretical explanation and strong empirical evidence on why organizations deploy social media initiatives to improve their marketing activities and performance and the higher business value of social media under greater agribusiness market uncertainty.

• Islam, T., Hussain, D., Ahmed, I., & Sadiq, M. (2021). Ethical leadership and environment specific discretionary behaviour: The mediating role of green human resource management and moderating role of individual green values. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences/Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration, 38( 4), 442– 459

This study examines the mediating role of green human resource management between ethical leadership and employees’ citizenship behavior towards  the environment with the moderating effect of individual green values. We collected data from 589 MBA executive students with one‐year of experience working in various organizations at two different times using a questionnaire based survey method. Applying structural equation modeling to the results confirmed a direct effect of ethical leadership on employees’ citizenship behavior towards the environment and an indirect effect through green human resource management. Further, individual green value strengthened the association between green human resource management and employees’ environmentally conscious citizenship behavior. Our study contributes to social learning and supply value‐fit theory and has implications for management.

• Liu, Yi and Han-fen Hu (2021) Digital-Free Tourism Intention: A Technostress Perspective. Current Issues In Tourism, Vol. 24  No. 23, pp. 3271-3274

Digital-free tourism limits tourists’ access to information and communication technologies during vacation. It is an emerging trend but tourists’ motivation to take digital-free tourism has not been fully understood. Anchoring on technostress literature, this study examines the effects of the exhaustion from workplace information technology and off-work social network services on tourists’ intention to take digital-free tourism. Survey data involving 300 full-time working individuals show that both techno-exhaustion and social-networkservices- exhaustion have positive impacts on tourists’ digital-free tourism intentions. It contributes to the literature by introducing technostress related constructs in understanding tourists’ digital-free tourism intentions.

• Mahdieh Mirzaei, S. Mohammad J. Mirzapour Al-e-hashem, Mohsen Akbarpour Shirazi (2021) A maximum-flow network interdiction problem in an uncertain environment under information asymmetry condition: Application to smuggling goods. Computers & Industrial Engineering, Volume 162, 2021, 107708

We study the interdiction of smuggling network that arranging the activities of the police in order to successfully interdict criminals in smuggling goods. This work contributes to the literature of maximum flow network interdiction problems by addressing asymmetric information, uncertain conditions, multi commodity, and with multiple sources (origins) and sinks (destinations). Information Asymmetry realistically occurs due to incomplete information of interdictor (police) and operator (smuggler) about each other’s performance, which is adapted from the real-world condition. We propose two mixed-integer programming models by reformulating a Min–Max bi-level mathematical model. In the first model, the type of interdiction is discrete (zero and one), while in the second model, the interdiction is assumed continuous, meaning that the partial interdiction is possible. The asymmetry type of the smuggler’s information towards the police have formulated through a linear function while the asymmetry of the police information to the smuggler is formulated using an uncertain parameter through a two-stage stochastic programming framework. To solve the first model, an innovative exact hybrid method is proposed combining of a Decomposition Method and Progressive Hedging Algorithm (DM-PHA). An augmented Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) method is also used to solve the second model. Several sensitivity analyses are then conducted, and the results demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed models as well as the solving approach. It is also shown that the proposed models can be used as a suitable approach in uncertain environment and under asymmetric information to determine the optimal interdiction decisions of police to prevent further smuggling.

• Canan Yildirim, Adnan Kasman, Fazelina Sahul Hamid (2021) Impact of foreign ownership on market power: Do regional banks behave differently in ASEAN countries? Economic Modelling, Volume 105, 2021, 105654

The change in crossborder financial intermediation and rise in regional banking have consequences for competitive conduct in emerging countries’ banking markets. Using data from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries’ banks during 2011–2018, we examine the nexus between foreign ownership and banks’ market power by controlling for the heterogeneity of foreign banks concerning their countries of origin (advanced vs. emerging and regional vs. nonregional). We find that the increasing presence of foreign banks from advanced countries is associated with lower bank market power because of higher marginal costs and lower price–cost margins of the domestic banks. However, the increasing presence of emerging countries’ banks is associated with higher bank market power because of lower marginal costs and prices of domestic lenders. Our findings have implications for policies regarding bank competitiveness and promoting regional banking integration because domestic banks conduct differently under increased participation levels of advanced and emerging country foreign banks.

January

• Mohammadi S., Mirzapour Al-e-Hashem, S.M.J., Rekik, Y. 2020. An integrated production scheduling and delivery route planning with multi-purpose machines: A case study from a furniture manufacturing company. International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 219 (2020), pp. 347–359
• Agi, M., Soni, H. 2020. Joint pricing and inventory decisions for perishable products with age-, stock-, and price-dependent demand rate. Journal of the Operational Research Society, Volume 71, Issue n°1, 2020, pp. 85-99
• Toth, Z., Nieroda, M.E., Koles, B. 2020. Becoming a more attractive supplier by managing references – The case of small and medium-sized enterprises in a digitally enhanced business environment. Industrial Marketing Management, Volume 84 (2020), pp. 312-327
• Wu,X., Hu, B., Xiong, J. 2020. Understanding heterogeneous consumer preferences in Chinese milk markets: A latent class approach. Journal of Agricultural Economics, Volume 71, Issue 1, pp.184-198
• Jang, S., Liu, Y. (2020) Continuance use intention with mobile augmented reality games: Overall and multigroup analyses on Pokémon Go. Information Technology and People, Vol. 33; Issue 1, 2020, pp. 37-55
• Waqas Hanif, Jose Arreola Hernandez, Perry Sadorsky, Seong-Min Yoon (2020) Are the interdependence characteristics of the US and Canadian energy equity sectors nonlinear and asymmetric? The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Volume 51, January 2020, 101065
• Cragg, T., McNamara, T., Descubes, I., Guerin, F. (2020) Manufacturing SMEs, network governance and global supply chains. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 130-147
• Palacios-Arguello, L., Gondran, N., Nouira, I., Girard, M.-A., Gonzalez-Feliu, J. 2020. Which is the relationship between the product’s environmental criteria and the product demand? Evidence from the French food sector. Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 244, 20 January 2020, 118588
• Qureshi, M.A., Ahsan, T., Aziz, S., Yusuf, M. 2020. Technological capabilities and rent eroding battles: Scandinavia centric evidence on firm profitability. International Journal of Economics and Business Research, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp.130–151
• Ousama, A.A., Hammami, H., Abdulkarim, M.  (2020) The Association between Intellectual Capital and Financial Performance in the Islamic Banking Industry: An Analysis of the GCC Banks. International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 75-93

February

• Longondjo Etambakonga, C., Roloff, J. (2020) Protecting environment or people? Pitfalls and merits of informal labor in the Congolese recycling industry. Journal of Business Ethics, Volume 161, pp. 815–834
• Benitez, J., Ruiz, L., Castillo, A., Llorens, J. 2020. How corporate social responsibility activities influence employer reputation: The role of social media capability. Decision Support Systems, Volume 129, Issue 1, 113223
• Mirza, S.S., Ahsan, T. (2020) Corporates’ strategic responses to economic policy uncertainty in China. Business Strategy and the Environment, Vol. 29, Issue 2.  pp. 375-389
• Asghari, M., Mirzapour Al-e-Hashem, S.M.J. (2020) A green delivery-pickup problem for home hemodialysis machines; sharing economy in distributing scarce resources. Transportation Research Part E, Volume 134 (2020), 101815
• Wen Shi, Haohuan Fu, PeinanWang, Changfeng Chen, Jie Xiong (2020) Two Competing Climate Discourses on Twitter with Semantic Network and Temporal Analyses. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Volume 17, Issue 3, 2020, 1062

March

• Tauni, M.Z., Yousaf, S., Ahsan, T. 2020. Investor-advisor Big Five personality similarity and stock trading performance. Journal of Business Research, Volume 109, Issue 3, pp. 49-63
• Qureshi, M.A., Kirkerud, S., Theresa, K., Ahsan, T. (2020) The impact of sustainability (environmental, social, and governance) disclosure and board diversity on firm value: The moderating role of industry sensitivity. Business Strategy and the Environment, Volume 29, Issue 03, pp.1199-1214
• Matthew Ames, Guillaume Bagnarosa, Tomoko Matsui, Gareth W. Peters, Pavel V. Shevchenko. (2020). Which risk factors drive oil futures price curves? Energy Economics, 87 (2020) 104676
• Öncü Hazır, Maher A. N. Agi & Jérémy Guérin (2020) A fast and effective heuristic for smoothing workloads on assembly lines: algorithm design and experimental analysis. Computers and Operations Research 115 (2020) 104857
• McColl, R., MacGilchrist, R., Shuddhasattwa, R. 2020. Estimating cannibalizing effects of sales promotions: The impact of price cuts and store type. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Volume 53, March 2020, 101982
• Vanwalleghem, Dieter, Canan Yildirim, and Anthony Mukanya (2020) Leveraging local knowledge or global advantage: Cross border bank mergers and acquisitions in Africa. Emerging Markets Review, Volume 42, March 2020, 100656
• Mashwania, A.I., Dereepera, S., Dowling, M., Aziz, S. (2020) Learning the wealth effects from equity carve-outs. Finance Research Letters, Volume 33 (2020) 101191
• Xu, L., Kim, S.-Y., Xiong, J., Yan, J., Huang, H. (2020) Playing catch-up: how less developed nations can jump-start technology innovation. Journal of Business Strategy, Volume 41 Issue 2, 2020, pp. 49-57

April

• Parker, O., Mui, R., Titus, V. (2019) Unwelcome Voices: The Gender Bias‐Mitigating Potential of Unconventionality. Strategic Management Journal, Volume 41 (April 2020), pp.738-757
• Detemple, J., Laminou-Abdou, S., Moraux, F. (2020) American step options. European Journal of Operational Research, Volume 282, Issue 1, 1 April 2020, pp. 363-385
• Marowka, M., Peters, G.W., Kantas, N., Bagnarosa, G. (2020) Factor-augmented Bayesian cointegration models: a case-study on the soybean crush spread. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Applied Statistics, Series C, Appl. Statist. (April 2020) 69, Part 2, pp. 483–500
• Liu, Y. (2020) Manipulating Temporal Cues and Message Concreteness for Deal Communication: A Study on Microblogging Site. Journal of Global Information Management, Volume 28, Issue 2, April June 2020, pp. 111-130
• Areola Hernandez, J., Al Janabi, M.A.M. (2020) Forecasting of dependence, market, and investment risks of a global index portfolio. Journal of Forecasting, Volume 39 Issue 3 (April 2020), pp. 512–532
• Helmi Hammami, Moez Hammami, Siriki Coulibaly, Mariem Marzouk (2020) Determinants of FDI attractiveness: A MCI model approach. Economics Bulletin, Volume 40, Issue 2, pages 1033-1048
• Bakr Al-Gamrh; Redhwan Al-Dhamari; Akanksha Jalan; Asghar Ashfar Jahanshahi (2020) The impact of board independence and foreign ownership on financial and social performance of firms: Evidence from the UAE. Journal of Applied Accounting Research, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 201-229.
• Bakr Ali Al-Gamrh, Ku Nor Izah Ku Ismail, Tanveer Ahsan, Abdulsalam Saad Alquhaif. (2020) Investment opportunities, corporate governance quality and firm performance in UAE. Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies, Vol. 10 Issue. 2, April 2020, pp. 261-276
• Mohamad Amin Kaviani, Alireza Peykam, Sharfuddin Ahmed Khan, Nadjib Brahimi, Raziyeh Niknam (2021) A new weighted fuzzy programming model for supplier selection and order allocation in the food industry. Journal of Modelling in Management, Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 381-406

May

• Benitez, J., Henseler, J., Castillo, A., Schuberth, F. (2020) How to perform and report an impactful analysis using partial least squares? Guidelines for confirmatory and explanatory IS research. Information & Management, Volume 57, Issue 2, 2020, 103168
• Maher A.N. Agi, Xinghao Yan (2020) Greening products in a supply chain under market segmentation and different channel power structures. International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 223 (2020) 107523
• Oncü Hazır, Gündüz Ulusoy (2020) A classification and review of approaches and methods for modeling uncertainty in projects. International Journal of Production Economics 223 (2020) 107522
• Klaus Werner Schmidt and Öncü Hazır (2020) A Data Envelopment Analysis Method for Finding Robust and Cost-Efficient Schedules in Multimode Projects. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Vol. 67, Issue 2, May 2020, pp.414-429
• Ronan de Kervenoael, Alexandre Schwob and Careen Chandra (2020) E-retailers and the engagement of delivery workers in urban last-mile delivery for sustainable logistics value creation: Leveraging legitimate concerns under time-based marketing promise. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 54 (2020) 102016
• Bouraoui, Taoufik (2020). The drivers of Bitcoin trading volume in selected emerging countries, The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Volume 76 (2020) pp. 218-229
• Shams, Riad S.M. and Rajibul Hasan (2020) Capacity building for transnationalisation of higher education: Knowledge management for organisational efficacy. European Business Review, Vol. 32 No. 3, 2020, pp. 459-484
• Sang Hoon Kang, Salim Lahmiri, Gazi Salah Uddin, Jose Arreola Hernandez, Seong-Min Yoon (2020) Inflation cycle synchronization in ASEAN countries. Physica A: Statistical mechanics and its Applications, Volume 545, 1 May 2020, 123820
• Akanksha Jalan, S.G. Badrinath and Bakr Al-Gamrh (2020) Women on audit committees and the relationship between related party transactions and earnings management. Strategic Change, Volume 29, Issue 3, pp.389–406
• Rao, Z.U.R, Tauni, M.Z., Ahsan, T. and Umar, M. 2020. Do mutual funds have consistency in their performance?. Portuguese Economic Journal, Volume 19, Issue 2, pp.139–153
• Mirza SS, Ahsan T, Safdar R, Rehman AU.(2020) Competition, Debt Maturity, and Adjustment Speed in China: A Dynamic Fractional Estimation Approach. Journal of Risk and Financial Management. 2020; 13(5):106

June

• Cormac Bryce, Michael Dowling, Brian Lucey (2020) The Journal Quality Impact Gap. Research Policy, Volume 49, Issue 5, June 2020, 103957
• Jouan de Kervenoael, R., Hasan, R., Schwob, A, Goh, E. (2020) Leveraging Human-Robot Interaction in Hospitality Services: Incorporating the Role of Perceived Value, Empathy, and Information Sharing into Visitors’ Intentions to Use Social Robots. Tourism Management, Volume 78, 104042
• Uddin, G.S., Areola Hernandez, J., Shahzad, S.J.H., Kang, S.H. (2020) Characteristics of spillovers between the US stock market and precious metals and oil. Resources Policy, Volume 66 (2020) 101601
• Vanwalleghem, D., Mirowska, A. (2020) The investor that could and would: The effect of proactive personality on sustainable investment choice. Journal of Behavioral and Exprimental Finance, Volume 26, June 2020, 100313.Narjes Kandil, Olga Battaïa, Ramzi Hammami (2020) Globalisation vs. Slowbalisation: A literature review of analytical models for sourcing decisions in Supply Chain Management . Annual Reviews in Control, Volume 49, 2020, Pages 277-287

July

• Rahman, M., Aziz, S., Hughes, M. (2020) The product-market performance benefits of environmental policy: Why customer awareness and firm innovativeness matter. Business Strategy and the Environment. Volume 29, Issue 5, July 2020, pp. 2001-2018
• Stelios Bekiros, Jose Arreola Hernandez, Gazi Salah Uddin, Ahmed Taneem Muzaffar, (2020) On the predictability of crude oil market: a hybrid multi-scale wavelet approach. Journal of Forecasting, Volume 39, Issue 4, pp. 599-614
• Rahman, M. (2020) Dynamic marketing productivity and firm intangible value: insights from airlines industry. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice. Volume 28, Issue 3, pp. 342-355.Alexander Lennart Schmidt, Laurent Scaringella (2020) Uncovering disruptors’ business model innovation activities: evidencing the relationships between dynamic capabilities and value proposition innovation, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, Volume 57, 2020, 101589
• Campos Franco, J., Hussain, D. and McColl, R. (2020). Luxury fashion and sustainability: looking good together. Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 41 No. 4, pp. 55-61
• Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi, Bakr Al‐Gamrh, Behrooz Gharleghi. Sustainable development in Iran post‐sanction: Embracing green innovation by small and medium‐sized enterprises. Sustainable development, 2020; Volume 28, pp. 781– 790

August

• Prashant Palvia, Jose Benitez, Ting-Peng Liang, Patrick Y.K. Chau (2020) Tribute to Professor Edgar H. Sibley and his contributions to the IS discipline. Information & Management, Volume 57, Issue 5, 2020, 103321
• Jiabao Lin, Lei Li, Xin (Robert) Luo, Jose Benitez (2020) How do agribusinesses thrive through complexity? The pivotal role of ecommerce capability and business agility. Decision Support Systems, 135C (2020) 113342
• Blandine Hetet, Claire-Lise Ackermann, Jean-Pierre Mathieu  (2020) The role of brand innovativeness on attitudes towards nex products marketed by the brand. Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 569-581
• Matkovskyy, R., Jalan, A., Dowling, M. (2020) Effects of economic policy uncertainty shocks on the interdependence between Bitcoin and traditional financial markets. Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance 77, 150-155.
• Ahmed Atil, Kishwar Nawaz, Amine Lahiani, David Roubaud (2020) Are natural resources a blessing or a curse for financial development in Pakistan? The importance of oil prices, economic growth and economic globalization. Resources Policy, Volume 67, August 2020, 101683
• Hasan, Rajibul, Shams, Riad, Rahman, Mizan, and Ehsanul, Shamim (2020) Analysing Pro-poor Innovation Acceptance by Income Segments. Management Decision, Vol. 58 No. 8, 2020, pp. 1663-1674
• Jose Arreola Hernandez, Gazi Salah Uddin, Anupam Dutta, Ali Ahmed, Sang Hoon Kang (2020) Are ethanol markets globalized or regionalized?. Physica A: Statistical mechanics and its Applications, Volume 551, 1 August 2020, 124094
• Fernández-Mesa, Anabel, Oscar Llopis, Ana García-Granero, and Julia Olmos-Peñuela (2020). Enhancing Organisational Commitment through Task Significance: The Moderating Role of Openness to Experience. European Management Journal, Volume 38, no. 4 (August 1, 2020), pp 602–612
• Mahabubur Rahman, M. Ángeles Rodríguez-Serrano, Mary Lambkin (2020) Advertising efficiency and profitability: Evidence from the pharmaceutical industry. Industrial Marketing Management 89, 619-629

September

• Bourguinon, A., Azambuja, R., Dorsett, C. (2020) Lost in Translation? Transferring Creativity Insights from Arts into Management. Organization, 2020, Vol. 27(5) pp.717 –741
• Meqdadi, O.A., Johnsen, T.E., Pagell, M.  (2020) Relationship configurations for procuring from social enterprises. International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Vol. 40 No. 6, 2020, pp. 819-845
• Sultan Sikandar Mirza, Muhammad Ansar Majeed, Tanveer Ahsan. (2020) Board gender diversity, competitive pressure and investment efficiency in Chinese private firms. Eurasian Business Review (2020) 10(3) pp.417–440
• Yan J, Xu L, Farajallah M, Zhao S, Xiong J.(2020) Overview of environmental management in an emerging market. Strategic Change. 2020, Volume 29, Issue 5, pp.553–560.
• Zhao, S., Kim, S.-Y., Wu, H., Yan, J. and Xiong, J. (2020). Closing the gap: the Chinese electric vehicle industry owns the road. Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 41 No. 5, pp. 3-14.
• Mirowska, Agata (2020) AI Evaluation in Selection, Effects on Application and Pursuit Intentions. Journal of Personnel Psychology (2020), 19(3), 142–149
• Zhang, Y., Li, G., & Wang, M. 2020. Designing creative teams from creative members: The role of reward interdependence and knowledge sharing. Nankai Business Review International, 2020, vol. 11, issue 4, pp.617-634

October

• Hammami, R., Frein,Y., Albana, A.S.(2020) Delivery Time Quotation and Pricing in Two-Stage Supply Chains: Centralized Decision-making with Global and Local Managerial Approaches. European Journal of Operational Research, Volume 286, Issue 1, 1 October 2020, Pages 164-177
• Bakici, T. (2020) Comparison of Crowdsourcing Platforms from Social-Psychological and Motivational Perspectives. International Journal of Information Management, Volume 54, October 2020, 102121
• Matkovskyy, R (2020) A measurement of affluence and poverty interdependence across countries: evidence from the application of tail copula. Bulletin of Economic Research, 72 (4), p. 404–416
• Dildar Hussain, Marko Grünhagen , Swati Panda & Muhammad I. Hossain (2020) Franchising in South Asia: Past, present, and future developments, Journal of Marketing Channels, 26:4, 227-249

November

• Ashish Kumar Jha, Maher A.N. Agi, Eric W.T.Ngai (2020) A note on big data analytics capability development in supply chain. Decision Support Systems. Volume 138, November 2020, 113382
• Jessica Braojos, Jose Benitez, Javier Llorens, Laura Ruiz. (2020) Impact of IT integration on the firm’s knowledge absorption and desorption. Information & Management, (2020) 57(7), 103290.
• Meqdadi, O.A., Johnsen, T.E., Johnsen, R.E., Salmi, A.  (2020) Monitoring and Mentoring Strategies for Diffusing Sustainability in Supply Networks. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 25/6 (2020) 729–746
• Baraldi, E., La Rocca, A ., Perna, A., Snehota, I. (2020) Connecting IMP and Entrepreneurship Research: Directions for Future Research. Industrial Marketing Management, Volume 91, November, pp. 495-509
• Ahsan, T., Mirza, S.S., Al-Gamrh, B. and Tauni, M.Z. (2020) Split-share reforms and capital structure adjustment in China: a dynamic panel fractional estimation. Journal of Economic Studies, Vol. 47 No. 6, pp. 1265-1280
• Jose Arreola Hernandez, Sang Hoon Kang, Syed Jawad Hussain Shahzad, Seong-Min Yoon (2020) Spillovers and diversification potential of bank equity returns from developed and emerging America. The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Volume 55, Novermber 2020, 101219
• Sasidhar Reddy Bhimavarapu, Seong-Young Kim and Jie Xiong. Strategy execution in public sectors: empirical evidence from Belgium. Journal of Business Strategy. Vol. 41 No. 6 2020, pp. 39-47

December

• Céline Azémar, Rodolphe Desbordes, Ian Wooton (2020) Is international tax competition only about taxes? A market-based perspective. Journal of Comparative Economics, Volume 48 (2020) Issue 4, pp. 891-912
• Faheem Aslam, Saqib Aziz, Duc Khuong Nguyen, Khurrum S. Mughal, Maaz Khan (2020). On the efficiency of foreign exchange markets in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 161, 2020, 120261
• Mohit Goswami, Arijit De, Muhammad Khoirul Khakim Habibi, Yash Daultani (2020) Examining freight performance of third-party logistics providers within the automotive industry in India: an environmental sustainability perspective. International Journal of Production Research, Volume 58 Issue 24, pp. 7565-7592
• Rajibul Hasan, Ben Lowe, Dan Petrovici (2019) Consumer adoption of pro-poor service innovations in subsistence marketplaces. Journal of Business Research, Volume 121, December 2020, Pages 461-475.
• Amir Mohammad Fathollahi-Fard, Abbas Ahmadi, S.M.J. Mirzapour Al-e-Hashem (2020) Sustainable closed-loop supply chain network for an integrated water supply and wastewater collection system under uncertainty. Journal of Environmental Management 275 (2020) 111277
• Yu, X., Li, Y., Su, Z., Tao, Y., Nguyen, B., Xia, F. (2020) Entrepreneurial bricolage and new venture growth in emerging economies: An institutional perspective. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 37, 1141–1163
• Faheem Aslam, Yasir T. Muhammad, Saqib Aziz, Jamal Ouenniche (2020) A complex networks based analysis of jump risk in equity returns: An evidence using intraday movements from Pakistan stock market. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Volume 28, 2020, 100418
• Boubaker, Souhir & Hichem Rezgui (2020) A New Hybrid Wavelet-Neural Network Approach for Forecasting Electricity. Energy Studies Review Vol 24 (1) 2020, 4135
• Abdulsalam Alquhaif, Bakr Al-Gamrh, Rohaida Abdul Latif (2020) An overview of share buybacks: A descriptive case from Malaysia. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Volume 28, 2020, 100415
• Benjamin Noury, Helmi Hammami, A.A. Ousama, Rami Zeitun (2020) The prediction of future cash flows based on operating cash flows, earnings and accruals in the French context. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Volume 28, 2020, 100414

January

• Timajchi, A., Mirzapour Al-e-hashem, S.M.J., Rekik, Y. 2019. Inventory routing problem for hazardous and deteriorating items in the presence of accident risk with transshipment option. International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 209 (2019), pp 302-315
• Hasan, R., Lowe, B., & Petrovici, D. 2019. An Empirical Comparison of Consumer Innovation Adoption Models: Implications for Subsistence Marketplaces. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Volume 38 (1), pp 61–80
• Williams, A., Atwal, G., Bryson, D. 2019. Luxury craftsmanship – the emergent luxury beer market, British Food Journal, Volume 121, Issue 2, pp. 359-370

February

• Mamatzakis, E., Bagntasarian, A. 2019. Testing for the underlying dynamics of bank capital buffer and performance nexus. Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Volume 52, N°2, pp 347-380
• Nemeh, A. and Yami, S. 2019. Orchestrating resources for FMA in coopetitive NPD. R&D Management, Volume 49, Issue 1, pp 64-85
• Braojos, J., Benitez, J., Llorens, J. 2019. How do social commerce-IT capabilities influence firm performance? Theory and empirical evidence. Information & Management, Volume 56, pp 155–171
• Trabelsi, D., Aziz, S., Lilti, J.-J. 2019. A behavioral perspective on corporate dividend policy: evidence from France. Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society, Volume 19 Issue 1, pp 102-119
• Kim, H., Kim, S.-Y. 2019. The bottleneck dilemma at headquarters: new product development for local markets. Journal of Business Strategy, Volume 40 Issue: 1, pp 3-9
• Koetz, C. 2019. Managing the customer experience: a beauty retailer deploys all tactics. Journal of Business Strategy, Volume 40 N° 1, pp 10-17
• Bryson, D., Atwal, G. 2019. Brand Hate: The Case of Starbucks in France, British Food Journal, Volume 121, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 172-182
• Atwal, G., Bryson, D., Tavilla, V. 2019. Posting Photos of Luxury Cuisine Online: An Exploratory Study, British Food Journal, Volume 121, Issue 2, 2019, pp. 454-465

March

• Azambuja, R., Islam, G. 2019. Working at the Boundaries: Middle Managerial Work as a Source of Emancipation and Alienation. Human Relations, Volume 72 (3), pp 534-564
• Mirzapour Al-e-hashem, S.M.J., Rekik, Y., & Hoseinhajlou, E.M. 2019. A hybrid L-shaped method to solve a bi-objective stochastic transshipment-enabled inventory routing problem. International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 209 (2019), pp 381-398
• Vichiengior, T., Ackermann, C.-L., Palmer, A. 2019. Consumer anticipation: antecedents, processes and outcomes. Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 35. Issues 1-2, pp 130-159
• Belboula, I., Ackermann, C.-L., Mathieu, J.-P., Cuny, C. 2019. Consumers’ responses to product design: Using a Semantic Priming Task to assess automatic understanding of product positioning. International Journal of Market Research, Volume 61 (2), pp 140-156
• Shahzad, S.J.H., Hoang, T.H.V., Arreola Hernandez, J. 2019. Risk spillovers between large banks and the financial sector: Asymetric evidence from Europe. Finance Research Letters, Volume 28 (2019), pp 153-159
• Palusuk, N., Koles, B., Hasan, R. 2019. All you need is brand love: a critical review of comprehensive conceptual framework for brand love. Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 35, Issue 1-2, pp 97-129
• Waluszewski, A., Snehota, I., La Rocca, A. 2019. What remains to be discovered? Manifesto for researching the interactive business world. Journal of Business § Industrial Marketing, Volume 34(1), pp. 232-239
• Matkovskyy, R. 2019. Centralized and decentralized bitcoin markets: Euro vs USD vs GBP. Quarterly Review Of Economics and Finance, Volume 71(2019), pp 270-279
• Farouqi, F., Ahsan, T., Mirza, S.S., Rao, Z. 2019. Corporate Governance, Cash Flows, and Bank Performance: Developed and Developing Countries. Multinational Finance Journal, 2019, Volume 23, no. 1/2, pp. 1–36
• Chi, W., Chen, C., Xiong, J., Fu, H. (2019) What Framework Promotes Saliency of Climate Change Issues on Online Public Agenda: A Quantitative Study of Online Knowledge Community Quora. Sustainability, Vol 11(6), 1619, pp. 1-24

April

• Gomez-Mejia, L.R., Neacsu, I., & Martin, G. (2019). CEO risk-taking and socioemotional wealth: the behavioral agency model, family control, and CEO option wealth. Journal of Management, Volume 45, issue 4, April 2019, pp 1713-1738
  Alexakis, C., Izzeldin, M., Johnes, J., Pappas, V. 2019.
• Performance and productivity in Islamic and conventional banks: Evidence from the global financial crisis. Economic Modelling, Volume 79 (2019), pp 1-14
• Martiniello, G., Azambuja, R. (2019) Contracting Sugarcane Farming in Global Agricultural Value Chains in Eastern Africa: Debates, Dynamics and Struggles. Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, 8(1–2) 208–231, 2019.
• Danping Shao, Erhua Zhou, Peiran Gao, Lirong Long and Jie Xiong (2019) The double-edged Effects of Socially Responsible Human Resource Management on Employee Task Performance and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Mediating by Role Ambiguity and Moderating by Prosocial Motivation. Sustainability 2019, 11, 2271; doi:10.3390/su11082271

May

• Hudson, S., Matson-Barkat, S., Pallamin, N., Jegou, G. 2019. With or without you? Interaction and psychological immersion in a virtual reality experience. Journal of Business Research, Volume 100, pp. 459-468.
• Boyd, E., Koles, B. 2019. Virtual reality and its impact on B2B marketing: A value-in-use perspective. Journal of Business Research, Volume 100 (2019) pp. 590-598
• Afshar, M.S., Pourheidari, O., Al-Gamrh, B., Jahanshahi, A.A. 2019. Audit management, need for closure and detection of misstatements. Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies, Volume 9, issue 2, pp 237-250
• Matkovskyy, R., Jalan, A. (2019) From financial markets to Bitcoin markets: A fresh look at the contagion effect. Finance Research Letters, Vol. 31 (2019), pp. 93-97

June

• Hudson, S., Gonzalez, H., Claasen, C. 2019. Legitimacy, particularism and employee commitment and justice. Journal of Business Ethics, Volume 157, N°3, pp. 589-603
• Jha, A.K., Shah, S. 2019. Social Influence on Future Review Sentiments: An Appraisal-Theoretic Perspective. Journal of Management Information Systems, Volume 36:2, 2019, pp. 610-638
• Arreola-Hernandez, J., Al-Yahyaee, K.H., Hammoudeh, S., Mensi, W. 2019. Tail dependence risk exposure and diversification potential of Islamic and conventional banks. Applied Economics, Volume 51, N° 44, pp. 4856–4869
• Arreola-Hernandez, J., Shahzad, S.J.H., Salah Uddin, G., Kang, S.H. 2019. Can agricultural and precious metal commodities diversify and hedge extreme downside and upside oil market risk? An extreme quantile approach. Resources Policy, Volume 62 (2019), pp. 588-601
• Lucey, B., Dowling, M., Vigne, S., Corbet, S., Huang, S., Gao, X. 2019. An analysis of the intellectual structure of research on the financial economics of precious metals. Resources Policy, Volume 63, article ref 101416
• Matkovskyy, R., Bouraoui, T. 2019. Application of neural networks to short time series composite indexes: evidence from the nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous inputs (NARX) model. Journal of Quantitative Economics, Volume 17, Issue 2, June 2019, pp. 433-446

July

• Dowling, M., O’Gorman, C., Puncheva, P., Vanwalleghem, D. 2019. Trust and SME attitudes towards equity financing across Europe. Journal of World Business, Volume 54(6), article ref 101003, pp. 1-16
• Plaksina, Y., Gallagher, L., Dowling, M. 2019. CEO social status and M&A decision making. International Review of Financial Analysis, Volume 64, pp. 282-300
• Liu, Y., Bakici, T. 2019. Enterprise Social Media Usage: The Motives and the Moderating Role of Public Social Media Experience. Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 101C (2019) pp. 163-172
• Jabbouri, R., Schneckenberg, D., Truong, Y., Palmer, M. 2019. Institutional Means-ends Decoupling Work in Industrial R&D Project Implementation. Industrial Marketing Management, Volume 80 (2019), pp. 296-311
• Schneckenberg, D., Velamuri, V., Comberg, C. 2019. The design logic of new business models: unveiling cognitive foundations of managerial reasoning. European Management Review, Volume 16, 2019, pp. 427-447
• La Rocca, A., Perna, A., Sabatini, A., Baraldi, E. 2019. The emergence of the customer relationship portfolio of a new venture: a networking process, Journal of Business § Industrial Marketing, Volume 34/5, pp. 1066 – 1078.
• Siddik, M.N.A., Ahsan, T. and Kabiraj, S., 2019. Does Financial Permeation Promote Economic Growth? Some Econometric Evidence From Asian Countries. SAGE Open, July-September 2019 Volume: 9 issue: 3, pp. 1-13

August

• Farajallah, M., Hammond, R., Pénard, T. 2019. What Drives Pricing Behavior in Peer-to-Peer Markets? Evidence from the Carsharing Platform BlaBlaCar. Information Economics and Policy, Volume 48, (2019), pp. 15-31
• Schmidt, K.W., Hazir, O. 2019. Formulation and solution of an optimal control problem for industrial project control. Annals of Operations Research, Volume 280, (2019), pp. 337–350
• La Rocca, A., Perna, A., Snehota, I., Ciabushi, F. 2019. The role of supplier relationships in the development of new business ventures. Industrial Marketing Management, Volume 80 (2019), pp. 149-159
• Chelly, A., Nouira, I., Frein, Y., Hadj-Alouane, A.B. 2019. On The consideration of carbon emissions in modelling-based supply chain literature: the state of the art, relevant features and research gaps. International Journal of Production Research, Volume 57, Nos. 15–16, pp. 4977–5004
• Merle, R., Al-Gamrh, B, Ahsan, T. 2019. Tax havens and transfer pricing intensity: Evidence from the French CAC-40 listed firms, Cogent Business & Management. (2019), Volume 6: 1647918 pp. 1- 12
• Haitao Li, Jie Xiong , Jianhui Xie, Zhongbao Zho and Jinlong Zhang (2019) A Unified Approach to Efficiency Decomposition for a Two-Stage Network DEA Model with Application of Performance Evaluation in Banks and Sustainable Product Design. Sustainability 2019, 11, 4401; doi:10.3390/su11164401

September

• McColl, R., Truong, Y., La Rocca, A. 2019. Service guarantees as a base for positioning in B2B. Industrial Marketing Management, Volume 81, pp. 78-86
• Roessler, M., Velamuri, V. K., Schneckenberg, D. 2019. Corporate entrepreneurship initiatives: Antagonizing cognitive biases in business model design. R&D Management, Volume 49 (4), (2019), pp. 509-533
• Hasan, R., Liu, Y., Kitchen, P., Rahman, M. 2019. Exploring consumer mobile payment adoption in the bottom-of-the-pyramid context: A qualitative study. Strategic Change, Volume 28 (2019), pp. 345-353
• Matkovskyy, Roman. 2019. Extremal economic (inter)dependence studies: a case of the Eastern European countries, Journal of Quantitative Economics. Volume 17, September 2019, Issue 3, pp 667–698
• Saad, G., Bouraoui, T. 2019. Currency returns during democratic transition: Evidence from Tunisia, Managerial Finance, Volume 45 No. 7, 2019, pp. 966-979

October

• Bouraoui, T. External debts, current account balance and exchange rates in emerging countries. Economics Bulletin, Volume 39, Issue 4, pp.2333-2342
• Khan,H.U., Hammami, H. 2019. Measuring Internet Addiction in European Knowledge Based Societies: A Case Study of France. International Journal of Business Information Systems, Volume 32, Issue 2, 2019, pp. 199-218

November

• D’Estea, P., Llopis, O., Rentocchini, F., Yegros, A. 2019. The relationship between interdisciplinarity and distinct modes of university-industry interaction. Research Policy, Vol. 48, Issue 9 (November 2019) 103799
• McColl, R., Michelotti, M. 2019. Sorry, could you repeat the question? Exploring video-interview recruitment practice in HRM. Human Resource Management Journal, Volume 29, Issue 4, pp. 637-656
• Meqdadi, O.A., Johnsen, T.E., Johnsen, R.E. Power and Diffusion of Sustainability in Supply Networks: Findings from Four In-Depth Case Studies. Journal of Business Ethics, Volume 159, November 2019, Issue 4, pp. 1089-1110
• Atil, A., ben Bouheni, F., Lahiani, A., Shahbaz, M. 2019. Factors Influencing CO2 Emissions in China: A Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lags Investigation. The Journal of Energy and Development. Volume 44, N°1, pp. 95-127
• Shahzad, S.J.H., Bouri, E., Arreola-Hernandez, J., Roubaud, D., Bekiros, S. (2019) Spillover across Eurozone credit market sectors and determinants. Applied Economics, Vol 51, N°59, pp.6333-6349
• Rahman, M., Rodríguez-Serrano, M.A., Lambkin, M. 2019. Brand equity and firm performance: the complementary role of corporate social responsibility, Journal of Brand management, Volume 26, Issue 6, November 2019, pp. 691-704
• Xu, L., Yan, J., Xiong, J. 2019. Network Characteristics and Organizational Innovation Capability: A Study of the Inter-organizational Collaboration Network of New Drug Development in Shanghai China. Strategic Change, Volume 28, Issue 6, pp. 499-506
• Wu, X., Xiong, J., Li, H., Wu, H. 2019. The myth of retail pricing policy for developing organic vegetable markets. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Volume 51, November 2019, pp. 8-13
• Shahzad, S.J.H., Raza, N., Roubaud, D., Arreola-Hernandez, J., Bekiros, S. 2019. Gold as a safe haven for G-7 stocks and bonds: A revisit. Journal of Quantitative Economics, Volume 17 (2019), pp. 885–912

December

• Song, Q., Wang, Y., Chen, Y., Benitez, J., Hu, J. 2019. Impact of the usage of social media in the workplace on team and employee performance. Information & Management, Volume 56, Issue 8, December 2019, 103160.
• Roloff, J., Zyphur, M.J. 2019. Null Findings, Replications, and Pre-Registered Studies in Business Ethics Research. Journal of Business Ethics, Volume 160, N°3, pp. 609-619
• Kim, S.-Y. 2019. Competitive Market Embeddedness, Diversity of the Institutional Environment, and Firm Performance. Management International, Volume 23 (special), pp. 183-196
• Tauni, M.Z., Memon, Z.A., Fnag, H.-X., Jebran, K., Ahsan, T. 2019. Influence of Investor and Advisor Big Five Personality Congruence on Futures Trading Behavior. Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Volume 55, Issue 15, pp. 3615-3630
• Safdar, R., Sikandar, M.S., Ahsan, T. 2019. Market pricing of liquidity risk: evidence from China. China Finance Review International, Volume 9, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 554-566
• Kang, S.H, Arreola-Hernandez, J., Yoon, S.M. 2019. Who leads the inflation cycle in Europe? Inflation cycle and spillover influence among Eurozone and non-Eurozone economies. International Economics, Volume 160 (2019), pp. 56-71
• Uddin, G.S., Arreola Hernandez, J., Labidi, C., Troster, V., Yoon, S.-M. 2019. The impact of financial and economic factors on Islamic mutual fund performance: Evidence from multiple fund categories. Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Volume 52–53 (2019), 100607
• Uddin, G.S., Shahzad, S.J.H., Boako, G., Areola Hernandez, J., Lucey, B.M. 2019. Heterogeneous interconnections between precious metals: Evidence from asymmetric and frequency-domain spillover analysis. Resources Policy, Volume 64 (December 2019), 101509
• Kang, S.H., McIver, R.P., Arreola Hernandez, J. 2020. Co-movements between Bitcoin and Gold: A wavelet coherence analysis. Physica A: Statistical mechanics and its Applications, Volume 536 (15 December 2019) 120888 [ABS 2]
• Khlif, W., El Omari, S., Hammami, H. 2019. Challenging the meaning of globalisation in Tunisian context: Social representation for public accountants. Society and Business Review, Volume 14, Issue 4, 2019, pp. 320-337
• Hammami, H., Al-omiri, M., Bouraoui, T., Ousama, A.A. (2019) Target costing: adoption and its relationships with competition intensity, intended strategy and firm size. Asia-Pacific Management Accounting Journal, Vol.14, Issue 3, pp 219-245, 2019.
• Tauni, M.Z., Ahsan, T. and Umar, M., 2019. Do mutual funds have consistency in their performance? Portuguese Economic Journal, pp.1-15.