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Using the lens of crisis innovation and strategic alignment, this study explores how a segment of the restaurant sector that may be less agile than others—Michelin-starred restaurants—perceives and aligns with the challenges brought about by the COVID-19-pandemic.

The study collected data from 19 Michelin-starred restaurants in Spain using a qualitative interview method. The data were analyzed qualitatively and organized thematically.

Four key categories of strategic challenges were identified: human resources, uncertainty, control and economic challenges. In response, chefs displayed both behavioral and organizational strategies. Those organizational strategies were new human resource management, reorganization, product and service innovation and marketing. While the new human resource management actions adopted to align with the human resource challenges identified, a misalignment remains between some of the other strategic actions, such as product and service innovation, marketing and economic and uncertainty challenges.

The findings offer new insight into Michelin-starred restaurant chefs' challenges and (mis)alignment strategies, an area that has been understudied in the current literature on innovative responses in the hospitality sector post-pandemic.

This article aims to explore the concept of chain value of the public port system in Ecuador from the perspective of importing/exporting companies, analyzing how perceived value in the use of port services affects customer satisfaction and the intermediate links of the influence of trust and commitment on customer loyalty.

Relying on a survey of 634 Ecuadorian companies with experience in international trade as port users and a theoretical framework well-established in the literature on consumer behavior, the empirical study found evidence of a positive and significant relationship with the knowledge of chain effects.

The findings confirm the chain effect and reveal ways to maintain an ongoing satisfactory, trust and committed relationship with users, thereby ultimately gaining and maintaining their loyalty. The conclusions suggest how this postulate can help to close the gap referred to the effective management of port services, and point out that port managers should be concerned with a continuous in-depth understanding of the perceived value and its chain effects.

The authors add evidence of the use of the postulate of the chain of effects on these dimensions, whose applicability is very well established, tested and consensual for the doctrine in industrial marketing. In contrast, it is scarcely present in the port relationship with its users.

With the growing need for employees to be innovative, public-sector organizations are investing in employee training. This study aims to examine the effects of a combined Lean Six Sigma and innovation training, using action learning, on public-sector employees’ creative role identity and innovative work behavior.

The authors studied a public service agency in Singapore in which a five-day Lean Innovation Training was implemented, using a combination of Lean Six Sigma and Creative Problem-Solving tools, with a simulation on day one and subsequent team-based project coaching, spread over six months. The authors administered pre- and postintervention surveys among all the employees, and initiated group interviews and observations before, during and after the intervention.

Creative role identity and innovative work behavior had significantly improved six months after the intervention, enabled through senior management’s transformational leadership. The training induced managers to role-model innovative work behaviors while cocreating, with their employees, a renewal of their agency’s core processes. The three completed improvement projects contributed to an innovative work culture and reduced service turnaround time.

Starting with a role-playing simulation on the first day, during which leaders and followers swapped roles, the action-learning type training taught all the organizational members to use various Lean Six Sigma and Creative Problem-Solving tools. This nimble Lean Innovation Training, and subsequent team-based project coaching, exemplifies how advancing the staff’s creative role identity can have a positive impact.

Democratic countries all over the world are embarking on initiatives to empower citizens through public participation. One of the tools used by countries to promote public participation is the enactment and implementation of freedom of information (FOI) legislation, as it is the case with South Africa and Zimbabwe. Despite having legislation reaffirming the need for people’s right to know, practices in South Africa and Zimbabwe indicate the opposite. The purpose of this study is to explore FOI models in South Africa and Zimbabwe, with a view to recommend ways in which people’s right to know can be promoted.

This qualitative study used interviews to collect the data from 12 FOI experts in South Africa and Zimbabwe, who were selected through the snowball sampling technique. Data collected through interviews were supplemented by the data collected through document analysis.

The study concluded that the key role players need to make efforts to ensure that the right to know, which is associated with FOI, is being realised in both countries. FOI legislation, in both countries, is imprecise and needs to be revised to ensure effective implementation.

The study demonstrates that FOI is a necessary tool for people to be involved in decision-making in government. People’s rights to know can be achieved by successfully implementing FOI legislation.

This study identifies benefits and challenges of PL partnerships, and recommendations to improve the PL partnership process.

Qualitative data was collected via semi-structured interviews (n = 8) with Irish PL retail buyers (n = 4) and producers (n = 4). Data was coded and thematically analysed.

Three key themes were identified. Theme 1 provides an overview of the benefits of PL partnerships for producers (e.g. volume driven orders, increased efficiencies) and for retailers (e.g. unique products, meeting consumer demand). Theme 2 presents challenges of PL partnerships specific to small and large producers (e.g. small producers may need significant investment to upgrade facilities, while larger producers may require significant volume to justify adaptation of production lines). Challenges common to both (e.g. risks related to short-term contracts, concerns about brand identity) are also discussed. Theme 3 summarised recommendations for successful PL partnerships generally (e.g. setting clear expectations and goals, building rapport and trust), and recommendations specific to producers and buyers specifically (e.g. producers should diversify customers to reduce risk, and retailers should communicate needs and direction).

There is currently limited research on PL partnerships between producers and retailers. This study addresses this gap by identifying key aspects for producers to consider when entering PL partnerships and key aspects for retailers to be aware of to help improve the attractiveness and success of these partnerships.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between formal ethics and ethics in practice in the empirical context of real estate agents (REAs) working in the residential housing market, including owner-occupied houses and owner-occupied apartments, in Sweden. The paper investigates problems with the Swedish middleman model of real estate agency with regard to the acceptance among REAs of borderline professional behavior.

We report on a survey distributed to all Swedish licensed residential REAs to investigate their attitudes towards eight scenarios displaying borderline ethical behavior. Firstly, the means of each scenario were calculated, investigating signs of distance between formal ethics and ethics in practice. Secondly, logistic regressions were run for each scenario separately, thereby investigating factors affecting misconduct among REAs.

The empirical results show a clear difference between formal ethics and ethics in practice and also illustrate that some scenarios of borderline ethical behavior are creating greater problems for the REAs.

In Sweden, the seller is the principal, assigning the REA to sell a house or apartment, but the regulation is clear on the role of the licensed REA as responsible for promoting an informed and fair sales process where the buyer is safe to act without their own representative. Our study contributes with information to policymakers on possible areas for the development of the middleman model.

The paper is the first to empirically investigate the middleman model of a Swedish real estate agency in relation to the business ethics of the agents. The use of scenarios in close relation to the everyday working context of REAs as tests of ethics of practice is also of original methodological value to investigate possible diversions of professionals from national regulations.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretically rigorous and practically relevant summary of research findings that enables managers to drive sustainable profits improvements via pricing. It showcases multiple case studies that demonstrate how companies can achieve higher-than-average profitability by implementing intelligent pricing strategies and tactics.

Over the past 20 years, this writer has conducted dozens of academic surveys with managers exploring the antecedents, moderators and consequences of pricing practices for existing and new products. The writer has analyzed all pricing research published in leading academic journals over the past decades. Finally, as equity partner of Hinterhuber & Partners, a pricing consultancy (www.hinterhuber.com), this writer – through collaborations with companies and workshops conducted with practicing managers – has collected data and insights on best practices in managing pricing as a strategic activity.

Pricing is the most powerful driver of superior profits, yet managers view pricing as relevant only in the context of innovation. This narrow view prevents companies from realizing their full potential. Best practice examples of pricing as well as rigorous academic research suggest that pricing based on solid scientific principles helps average companies to achieve above-average results. This paper presents a review of recent research and summarizes the fundamental principles that managers must master so that pricing becomes an enabler of lasting superior performance.

Academic research in pricing surpasses managerial practice. Managers often rely on outdated concepts when it comes to pricing strategy and tactics.

The paper presents a framework that allows managers to implement pricing strategies that improve performance.

Effective pricing strategies benefit companies, customers and other stakeholders.

The paper provides a comprehensive overview of the latest research on pricing and thus documents that pricing based on solid, scientific principles is an enable of lasting, above-average profitability.