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The purpose of this study is to develop and validate the business streamlining (BS) model proposed in 2017.

This study/paper develops and validates the qualitatively generated BS model, a conceptual model of service sourcing relationships, by testing it quantitatively. A survey was sent to chief exective officers, chief purchasing officers or facility managers in 764 private or public companies in Sweden with an annual turnover exceeding € 10m. The categories were tested and analyzed by means of factor analysis.

The BS model for managing service sourcing processes was confirmed to be significant overall, meaning that it is applicable irrespective of service sourcing context. The efficiency pursuing (EP) was found to have an interlinking role that calls for a revision of the BS model. Furthermore, the four categories tended to load pairwise.

Although this cross-sectional study confirms the relevance of the BS model for managing service-sourcing processes, further studies should examine both the relative significance of its categories in different service-sourcing contexts and why the four main categories tend to pair.

The results support that the model is flexible and adaptable to a wide range of service-sourcing circumstances. Irrespective of the relative complexity of facility management (FM) sourcing processes, the categories can be adapted to fit the service sourcing context. Thus, it can be used as a tool to analyze and facilitate strategic decision-making.

The paper validates that the BS model can represent the dynamics of different service-sourcing processes, regardless of the complexity of the context.

Research has established that 38%, 56% and 66% of training is not transferred to work immediately, six months and 12 months after training, respectively. This has led scholars to advocate the continuous examination of factors that enhance training transfer to have a comprehensive understanding of the factors that enhance it. As a result, this study aims to examine transfer opportunity as a pretraining factor and its influence on assimilated training content (in-training factor); the influence of assimilated training content on motivation to transfer (post-training factor) and training transfer; the influence of motivation to transfer on training transfer; and the mediating role of motivation to transfer in the relationship between assimilated training content and training transfer.

A structural equation model is developed to test the five hypotheses formulated in this study using survey data obtained from 195 respondents who attended various training programs across different organizations. Following the assessment of the measurement model, the determination of the significance of the hypothesized paths is assessed based on the bias-corrected and accelerated confidence intervals obtained from the bootstrapping of 10,000 subsamples.

The findings of this study are that: transfer opportunity positively influences assimilated training content; assimilated training content positively influences motivation to transfer and training transfer; motivation to transfer positively influences training transfer; and motivation to transfer plays a complementary mediation role between assimilated training content and training transfer.

The nature of the work environment regarding the opportunity to transfer training influences trainees’ assimilation of the training content when they undergo training. Hence, organizations need to ensure that employees are always afforded the opportunity to transfer training content assimilated from previously attended training programs to assimilate the content of subsequent training programs. Furthermore, for training to culminate in training transfer, organizations and, more specifically, learning and development practitioners ought to pay attention to trainees’ assimilation of the content of training programs.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to empirically consider transfer opportunity as a direct antecedent of assimilated training content. More so, it is one of few studies to empirically examine the influence of assimilated training content on training transfer.

This study aims to examine decision factors for global sourcing, differentiated into transcontinental and continental sourcing to obtain insight into locational aspects of sourcing decisions and global trends. This study analyzed various country perceptions to reveal their influence on sourcing decisions. The country of origin (COO) theory explains why certain country perceptions and images influence purchasing experts in their selection of suppliers.

This study used a two-study approach. In Study 1, the authors conducted discrete choice card experiments with 71 purchasing experts located in Europe and the USA to examine the importance of essential decision factors for global sourcing. Given the clear evidence that location is a factor in sourcing decisions, in Study 2 the authors investigated purchasers’ perceptions and images of countries, adding country ranking experiments on various perceived characteristics such as quality, price and technology.

Study 1 provides evidence that the purchasers’ personal relationship with the supplier plays a decisive role in the supplier selection process. While product quality and location impact sourcing decisions, the attraction of the buying company and cultural barriers are less significant. Interestingly, however, these factors seem as important as price to respondents. This implies that a strong relationship with suppliers and good quality products are essential aspects of a reliable and robust supply chain in the post-COVID-19 era. Examining the locational aspect in detail, Study 2 linked the choice card experiments with country ranking experiments. In this study, the authors found that purchasing experts consider that transcontinental countries such as Japan and China offer significant advantages in terms of price and technology. China has enhanced its quality, which is recognizable in the country ranking experiments. Therefore, decisions on global sourcing are not just based on such high-impact factors as price and availability; country perceptions are also influential. Additionally, the significance of the locational aspect could be linked to certain country images of transcontinental suppliers, as the COO theory describes.

The new approach divides global sourcing into transcontinental and European sourcing to evaluate special decision factors and link these factors to the locational aspect of sourcing decisions. To deepen the clear evidence for the locational aspect and investigate the possible influence of country perceptions, the authors applied the COO theory. This approach enabled authors to show the strong influence of country perception on purchasing departments, which is represented by the locational effect. Hence, the success of transcontinental countries relies not only on factors such as their availability but also on the purchasers’ positive perceptions of these countries in terms of technology and price.

Information infrastructures can enable or constrain how companies pursue their visions of sustainability reporting and help address the urgent need to understand how corporate activity affects sustainability outcomes and how socio-ecological challenges affect corporate activity. The paper examines the relationship between sustainability reporting information infrastructures and sustainability reporting practice.

The paper mobilises a socio-technical perspective and the conception of infrastructure, the socio-technical arrangement of technical artifacts and social routines, to engage with a qualitative dataset comprised of interview and documentary evidence on the development and construction of sustainability reporting information.

The results detail how sustainability reporting information infrastructures are used by companies and depict the difficulties faced in generating reliable sustainability data. The findings illustrate the challenges and measures undertaken by entities to embed automation and integration, and to enhance sustainability data quality. The findings provide insight into how infrastructures constrain and support sustainability reporting practices.

The paper explains how infrastructures shape sustainability reporting practices, and how infrastructures are shaped by regulatory demands and costs. Companies have developed “uneven” infrastructures supporting legislative requirements, whilst infrastructures supporting non-legislative sustainability reporting remain underdeveloped. Consequently, infrastructures supporting specific legislation have developed along unitary pathways and are often poorly integrated with infrastructures supporting other sustainability reporting areas. Infrastructures developed around legislative requirements are not necessarily constrained by financial reporting norms and do not preclude specific sustainability reporting visions. On the contrary, due to regulation, infrastructure supporting disclosures that offer an “inside out” perspective on sustainability reporting is often comparatively well developed.

This study aims to address three research questions pertaining to climate neutrality within the supply chain of metal and mining industry: (1) How can an organization implement practices related to climate neutrality in the supply chain? (2) How do members of the supply chain adopt different measures and essential processes to assist an organization in responding to climate change-related concerns? (3) How can the SAP-LAP framework assist in analyzing and proposing solutions to attain climate neutrality?

To address the proposed research questions concerning climate neutrality, this study employs a case study approach utilizing the SAP-LAP (situation, actor, process–learning, action, performance) framework. Within the SAP-LAP framework, adopting a natural resource-based perspective, the study thoroughly examines the intricacies and interactions among existing situations, pertinent actors and processes that impact climate initiatives within a metal and mining company.

The study's findings suggest that organizations can achieve the objective of climate neutrality by prioritizing resources and capabilities that lead to reduced GHG emissions, lower energy consumption and optimal resource utilization. The study further proposes key elements that significantly influence the pursuit of climate neutrality within enterprises.

This study is one of the earliest contributions to the development of a holistic understanding of climate neutrality in the supply chain of the metal and mining industry.

The study will assist practitioners and policymakers in comprehending the present circumstances, actors and processes involved in enterprises' supply networks in order to attain climate neutrality in supply chains, as well as in taking the right steps to enhance performance.

This study presents a climate neutrality model and provides valuable insights into emission management, contributing to the achievement of the climate neutrality objective.

Construction sustainability (CS) is a strategic reaction to the sustainability expectations of the construction industry's external stakeholders. The extant literature has viewed the environmental, social and economic dimensions of CS as having independent effects on financial performance. Due to the influence of common stakeholders, however, interactions in these dimensions will be present in their effect on financial performance. Accordingly, this study identifies the mechanisms of the interactions between the three CS dimensions and how they jointly affect financial performance.

Content analysis of GRI reports of 60 large construction organisations, followed by a hierarchical regression analysis was used to identify the interactions between environmental, social and economic CS in their effect on financial performance.

Economic CS was found to indirectly, and not directly, affect financial performance, the effect being mediated by both environmental and social CS. Environmental CS was found to have a strong negative effect on financial performance, whilst social CS was found to have a strongly significant positive effect on financial performance.

The motivation for engaging in CS is that investment in economic CS will have a positive effect on both environmental and social CS outcomes, which, in turn can have a combined effect on financial performance.

This is one of the first studies investigating the effect of interactions between the environmental, social and economic CS dimensions on the financial performance of construction organisations. It is also one of the first studies that applies a sociotechnical framework to this relationship.

Supplier codes of conduct are amongst the most widely used practices in sustainable procurement programs. While there are limitations and risks involved in using supplier codes of conduct (including the risk of greenwashing, a weak link to action and the inability of supplier to comply), there is only a modest amount of research on the topic, other than content analysis. We aim to contribute to research both lessons learned, over a two-decade period, about the implementation and use of a supplier code of conduct from a case study, as well as, to suggest further research that can support the industry and enrich insight into the effective adoption of supply codes of conduct.

Thanks to the support of our co-author from Bayer we are able to share lessons learned by the global procurement team of Bayer and use these as a basis for suggesting questions for further research. The approach of this paper centres on the adoption and implementation of the supplier code of conduct in an effort to complement existing research on supplier codes of conduct that is largely focused on code of conduct content, less on the implementation of codes of conduct. The collaboration with our co-author from Bayer enables direct access to experiences and managerial perspectives. By considering the two-decade journey towards more sustainable supply chain management at Bayer, we are able to achieve a longitudinal perspective on adoption and implementation aspects.

Bayer ensures personal and community engagement in its sustainable procurement program in order to drive action and improve decision making along the value chains. The company regularly updates its code of conduct to stay aligned with its maturity and complements the code of conduct with a continuous improvement focus, supported by both generic and industry-specific consortia. The company has not yet been able to establish direct visibility into the conduct of tier 2 and up suppliers.

This paper helps close a gap in the literature and provides input into industry efforts in one of the most widely used practices in sustainable procurement. We hope that the research questions that we developed based on the first 20+ years of Bayer’s learning journey towards sustainable procurement will inspire research that can impact industry efforts towards creating a more sustainable future.

Consumer-perceived review attitude determines consumer overall information adoption and is a core part of consumer’s online-shopping. This study aims to focus on factors that could influence consumer review attitude and can be used by marketers to shape individual information perception.

The study used the questionnaire method to collect data from online shoppers and the modelling of structural equations as an empirical approach to analyse the data.

The findings demonstrate that both systematic and heuristic cues impact the reviewer’s credibility and perceived website attitude differently, which, in turn, influence review attitude. Review characteristics, such as factuality, consistency and relevancy, have a positive relationship with reviewer credibility, while only review consistency and relevancy appears to have a relationship with review attitude. Website characteristics such as reputation, familiarity and social interactivity positively influence the website attitude, which positively influences review attitude. Apart from this, review skepticism has a significant negative relationship with review attitude.

This study could help to foster a positive attitude towards online reviews. Digital marketers need to motivate trusted reviewers to post consistent, fact-based reviews. Further improving the overall website reputation and interactivity could bring a positive attitude towards the reviews. Also, digital marketers must filter and avoid contradictory reviews or reviews that have a bipolar message and reviews expressing numerous emotions to enhance review relevance and consistency.

The current study addresses the need to understand the formation of consumer review attitude through both review and website characteristics using heuristic – systematic model. The paper captures the complex process undergone by the consumer to decipher review attitude and thereby extend the understanding of consumer information processing.

In an era where complex technological advances increasingly govern service delivery, it is incumbent on service firms to pioneer innovative strategies to sustain customer engagement and cultivate loyalty. This conceptual paper examines the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in the realm of online customer communities, with a particular focus on its creation, management and enhancement facets. The authors explore how AI can revolutionize the dynamics of customer interaction, feedback mechanisms and overall engagement within the service industry.

This conceptual paper draws from marketing and management literature focusing on customer communities and AI in service and customer engagement contexts with a robust future research agenda.

A classification of online customer community engagement is provided along with a conceptual framework to guide our understanding of the integration of AI into online customer communities.

This exploration underscores the imperative for service firms to embrace AI-driven approaches to online customer community management, not only as a means to optimize their operations but as a vital strategy to stay competitive in the ever-evolving digital landscape. This paper examines the novel combination of AI with online customer communities and provides the framework in the form of an input-process-output (IPO) model for future research into this integration.

Develop a comprehensive framework for assessing the knowledge organization systems (KOSs), including the taxonomy of Wikipedia and the ontologies of Wikidata, with a specific focus on enhancing management and retrieval with a gender nonbinary perspective.

This study employs heuristic and inspection methods to assess Wikipedia’s KOS, ensuring compliance with international standards. It evaluates the efficiency of retrieving non-masculine gender-related articles using the Catalan Wikipedian category scheme, identifying limitations. Additionally, a novel assessment of Wikidata ontologies examines their structure and coverage of gender-related properties, comparing them to Wikipedia’s taxonomy for advantages and enhancements.

This study evaluates Wikipedia’s taxonomy and Wikidata’s ontologies, establishing evaluation criteria for gender-based categorization and exploring their structural effectiveness. The evaluation process suggests that Wikidata ontologies may offer a viable solution to address Wikipedia’s categorization challenges.

The assessment of Wikipedia categories (taxonomy) based on KOS standards leads to the conclusion that there is ample room for improvement, not only in matters concerning gender identity but also in the overall KOS to enhance search and retrieval for users. These findings bear relevance for the design of tools to support information retrieval on knowledge-rich websites, as they assist users in exploring topics and concepts.