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Consumers increasingly expect brands to have a social purpose. Yet, guidelines on how to effectively engage in conscientious purpose-driven branding are lacking. This study aims to better understand what the key drivers of a successful conscientious purpose-driven branding strategy are and what is its impact on key brand outcomes.

Data was gathered using a self-administered survey, answered by 670 young adults belonging to generations Y and Z. The study integrates in a single moderated-mediation model, tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling, the joint effects of cause–brand–consumer congruences, cause-brand authenticity and brand image, on consumers’ intention to purchase and recommend the brand.

Consumer-brand congruence mediates the path from cause-brand congruence and authenticity to brand image, which in turn impacts purchase and recommendation intentions, with authenticity playing a dominant role. Moreover, for consumers highly congruent with the cause/purpose, the direct effect of cause-brand congruence on brand image becomes non-significant and only works through consumer-brand congruence.

Theoretically, this study contributes to a better understanding of how and when conscientious purpose-driven branding can be effective. Its findings further advance prior research, by providing an alternative path anchored on cause-brand authenticity to explain positive effects of conscientious purpose-driven marketing on brand outcomes. Moreover, it challenges prior assumptions regarding the impact of consumer-cause congruence on the effectiveness of these strategies. Finally, it highlights that cause-consumer and brand-consumer congruencies also play a role, offering an integrated, triadic view of conscientious purpose-driven branding strategies. Managerially, it provides insights to brand managers wishing to successfully implement these strategies and better understand the role of brands as “purpose-driven entities”.

The study assesses the livelihood resilience strategies among street hawkers during COVID-19 lockdown in the Awutu Senya East Municipality in Ghana.

Using the explanatory case study approach, 12 participants (hawkers) were sampled with the aid of the purposive and convenience sampling techniques. An interview guide was used to collect data.

The study found that street hawking business, prior to the COVID-19 lockdown was a lucrative venture. The COVID-19 lockdown however had mental, psychological and economic effects on the street hawkers in ASEM causing stress, anxiety. loneliness, loss of business capital, and loss of jobs. Hawkers nevertheless demonstrated resilience in their psychological well-being by adopting strategies such as patronizing digital/social media platforms for funny content and entertainment. Hawkers also showed economic resilience through selling products on digital/social media platforms, relied on personal savings, received social support from family members and religious bodies. Government policies and interventions in the form of free water and electricity played a crucial role in building resilience of street hawkers during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The study shows that hawking is a vital avenue for entrepreneurial engagement reducing barriers to entry in formal trading, hence should be considered as key economic venture in the country’s economy. Again, the findings of the study deepen the understanding of stakeholders on the effects of COVID-19 on the psychological and economic life of street hawkers and offers insights into managing both psychosocial and financial stress during crises, emphasizing the potential benefits of resilient strategies for more effective crisis management. The study findings provide insights for government and policymakers on the experiences and coping mechanisms of the vulnerable groups and communities, particularly hawkers during the pandemic.

The study qualitatively assesses the psychological and economic effects of the COVID-19 lockdown and the livelihood resilience strategies employed by street hawkers during the COVID-19 lockdown in ASEM, Ghana.

Many developing countries have encountered frequent pollution accidents during their rapid development, while the previously weak environmental insurance systems could seriously undermine the progress of sustainable development. Some developing countries like China has initiated and strengthened environmental pollution liability insurance, so how effective this system would be in resolving enterprises environmental risks need to be further revealed.

This research identifies the possible consequence that compulsory environmental pollution liability insurance pilot (CEPLIP) policy would bring to the risk-taking capacity of heavy-polluting corporations of China by the Differences-in-Differences (DID) approach.

The result supports the implementation of CEPLIP policy in increasing corporate risk-taking capacity. Furthermore, the CEPLIP policy can promote the corporate’s risk-taking capacity by reducing financial distress constraints and enhancing trade credit, supporting its dual role of “fallback effect” as well as “external supervision effect” of environmental insurance. As a result of heterogeneity test, the policy is more pronounced in enterprise samples with mature life cycle stage or lower industrial concentration degree. Similarly, it is more significant in enterprise samples owned better environmental management capabilities or greater strategic deviance.

This paper verifies the effectiveness of the CEPLIP policy by strengthening its supervision mechanism and restraining opportunistic behavior tendency and provides implications for alleviating increasing environmental risk pressure and building more sustainable environmental protection management systems.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is going through a critical period that challenges its capacity to respond to social and environmental crises, which could be associated with the growing Corporate Hypocrisy (CH) phenomenon. This study aims to identify the theoretical perspectives of the scientific literature on CH as a contemporary phenomenon concerning CSR.

We adopted a sequential mixed-method approach in this study. First, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of the publications on the Web of Science database. Subsequently, we performed a content analysis of CH with CSR.

The literature review revealed two main research paths: the first deals with the perceptions of hypocrisy; the second relates to the company’s responsibility for disclosure. In addition, we found that researchers use different expressions to refer to the gap between discourse and action in organisations. Some authors suggest subtle differences between these terms, while others use them interchangeably. The causes of this phenomenon vary according to the facets of hypocrisy and the negative implications for the reputation and credibility of companies.

This study contributes to understanding the dissociation between CSR statements and practices. To this end, it combines and collates the literature on a phenomenon studied from different sides using numerous designations.

Financial anxiety has become a global concern and a growing research area with significant potential to contribute to the behavioral and personal finance literature. Despite this, the literature is fragmented and inconsistent. Prior studies vary greatly in the breadth of definitions and measures of financial anxiety. There has been no systematic evaluation of literature on financial anxiety antecedents, consequences, and coping strategies. This systematic review fills this gap.

We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We searched Scopus and Web of Science and identified 55 eligible studies published between 2009 and 2024.

Financial anxiety is defined and measured differently in different research domains. We identified several antecedents, including socio-demographic factors (e.g. gender, age, ethnicity, income, employment, racial background, and language proficiency), personality traits, compulsive and impulsive buying behavior, depression or other mental issues, family health issues, and the COVID-19 pandemic and consequences of financial anxiety, including psychological and psychic health, societal and personal relations, financial behavior and well-being, and job-related outcomes. In addition, the literature presents six financial anxiety coping strategies (self-imposed coping mechanisms, spiritual and theological resources, increased financial capability, social and family support, seeking professional help, and language proficiency training). Several future research directions are presented.

This review represents the first systematic compilation and evaluation of the research findings on financial anxiety.

In 2001, Ellis and Griffith used a multidimensional ethics scale including three subdimensions of moral equality, relativism and contractualism to examine the ethicality of IT scenarios. In the 20 plus years to follow, there has been an exponential growth in uses and users of technology. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to ascertain if the multi-item ethics measure remains valid in spite of the technological advances and progression of communication made possible through technology.

The survey consisted of technology-related ethical situations, an ethical judgment scale, an engagement scale and demographical questions. The sample size was 366, consisting of mainly white, upperclassman, American-native males having proficient experience with computers and spending an average of 20 h or less a week on a computer.

The findings reveal that both moral equity and relativism have a positive relationship with engagement across all tested scenarios, while contractualism has a positive relationship in four scenarios. Furthermore, a significant difference between the means of gender exists in four of the six scenarios. These findings indicate that indeed college students can not only recognize, but also make an ethical decision to not engage in unethical behavior and reconfirm that using a multidimensional ethics scale is warranted.

This study is not without limitations. First, the data is cross-sectional and causal inferences are not warranted. Second, the sample consisted of students and may not be generalizable to employees. Therefore, future research may sample employees in a technology organization to provide greater insight into ethical judgment and engagement in such scenarios. Another limitation of this study is that the scenarios were generated from students discussing their concerns regarding various ethical judgment situations they anticipate encountering in the near future with technology. Although this method of developing scenarios addresses current concerns of students, some of the scenarios do not directly apply to the workplace and may appear to be limited in their applicability. Therefore, future studies should consider developing scenarios that reflect more practical situations that occur in the workplace in general and through work-life blending.

One of the implications of these findings is that universities and business schools who embed ethics courses in the curriculum need to incorporate moral reasoning in ethics courses, as moral reasoning is an essential component of ethical decision-making and is shown to have a positive relationship with engagement in this study. By providing students with instruction on moral reasoning, universities can equip them with the skills to make ethical decisions that align with the values of their future employers and ameliorate their engagement levels. Continuing professional education in these ethical issues areas helps bridge college edification with practical career application, and ensures that as technologies and situations change, future business professionals are equipped to navigate changing environments and ethical scenarios.

With a brighter spotlight shining on employee ethical behavior both in and out of the workplace (Parker et al., 2019), the ability to make moral choices is vital. This study’s findings indicate that an increased focus on ethics education in universities is effective in helping future business professionals recognize and avoid ethical lapses. Therefore, it may be worthwhile for organizations to invest in ethics training programs to promote ethical decision-making skills among employees. By doing so, organizations may create a culture that values ethical behavior and provides employees with the tools and knowledge necessary to make informed and ethical decisions.

This study highlights the importance of ethics education and training programs and underscores the need for organizations to foster a culture of ethical behavior. Additionally, the study’s findings regarding gender differences call for greater efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace, particularly in leadership positions.