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This paper aims to examine the effect of social disruption on the use of technologies for digitizing business-to-business (B2B) processes. The aim is to assess how digitalization technologies (DT) may impact corporate performance (CP) in B2B settings.

The methodology is based on a questionnaire survey in Norway, and a deductive research design. A total of 216 usable questionnaires out of 356 were returned, generating a response rate of 60.6%.

This study shows that there is an effect of social disruption on DT (such as digital communication tools, social media and customer relationship management systems) in B2B settings that may impact CP.

This study indicates that the use of technologies to digitize B2B processes may enhance CP when social disruption occurs.

This study offers insights to companies that need help in adapting their business processes to the changing social and technological environment. This study also highlights the importance of digitalization for business survival in the marketplace and society.

This study sheds light on the effect of social disruption on DT and provides opportunities for managing CP.

Across the USA, local municipalities and providers struggle to reliably supply water and electricity when faced with severe weather events induced by climate change. Previous research suggests those at higher risk for experiencing the detrimental effects of climate change have higher climate-related concerns. Additionally, research demonstrates variation in trust in institutions and perceptions of environmental justice along racial lines, which can influence concern for access to resources. Informed by this research, the authors ask two questions: how do Oklahomans’ trust in institutions, environmental justice perceptions and global climate change risk perceptions differ based on race, and how do these factors influence concern for water and electrical infrastructure? The purpose of this study is to better understand Oklahomans’ trust in information from institutions, environmental justice perceptions, global climate change risk perceptions and concern for water and electrical infrastructure.

This study uses a series of nested regression models to analyze the survey responses of 2,687 Oklahoman adults. The data were pulled from Wave 3 of the Oklahoma Meso-scale Integrated Socio-geographic Network survey, which is part of the National Science Foundation EPSCoR S3OK project.

The findings demonstrate the complex interplay of riskscapes – or risk landscapes – that encompass institutional trust, perceptions of environmental justice, climate change and infrastructure in Oklahoma. The authors find evidence that education and income are better predictors of institutional trust and environmental justice than race among our respondents. Political ideology emerges as a significant predictor across all hypotheses.

This study contributes to the understanding of complex dynamics involving race, perceptions of environmental justice, trust in information from institutions, risk perceptions of climate change and concerns for water and electrical infrastructure in Oklahoma.

Prior research on green innovation has shown that institutional pressure stimulates enterprises to adopt green innovation. However, an institutional perspective does not explain why firms that face the same amount of institutional pressure execute different environmental practices and innovations. To address this research gap, the authors linked institutional theory with upper echelons theory and organization performance to build a comprehensive research model.

A total of 800 questionnaires were issued. The final usable questionnaires were 195, yielding a response rate of 24.38%. AMOS 23.0 was used to analyze the data and examine the relationships between the constructs in our model.

Institutional pressures affected both green innovation adoption (GIA) and the top management team's (TMT's) response. TMT's response influenced GIA. GIA was an important factor affecting firm performance. Furthermore, TMT's response mediated the relationship between institutional pressure and GIA. Institutional pressures indirectly affected green innovation performance but did not influence economic performance through GIA. Finally, TMT's response indirectly impacted firm performance through GIA.

The authors draw on institutional theory, upper echelons theory, and a performance-oriented perspective to explore the antecedents and consequences of GIA. This study has interesting implications for leaders and managers looking to implement green innovation and leverage it for firm performance to out compete with market rivals as well as to make the changes in collaboration with many other companies including market rivals to gain success in green innovation.

This paper aims to explore UAE's transition towards circular economy (CE) through construction and demolition waste (CDW) management in the pre-construction stage. The extent of circularity is assessed by five key aspects of CE, such as policies and strategic frameworks, design for waste prevention, design for disassembly or deconstruction, use of prefabricated elements and CDW management plans.

Multiple case studies were conducted in the context of the Dubai construction industry (UAE). Three significant and unique construction projects were selected as the cases. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to collect data, and the thematic analysis technique and NVIVO 12 software were used for data analysis.

Findings reveal several positive initiatives towards CE in the UAE context; yet it is identified that the transition is still at the initial stage. Selected case studies, the best-case scenarios of UAE (i.e. influential cases), demonstrated adequate measures in relation to four key CE aspects out of five. For instance, (a) policies and strategic frameworks such as lean standards, green building standards and standards developed by the local authorities, (b) design for waste prevention (e.g. adherence to the 3R principle, and construction planning with BIM), (c) use of prefabricated elements and application of innovative construction technologies (e.g. 3DPC, DfMA) and (d) CDW management planning such as 3R principle were evident. However, the selected cases hardly showcase designing for disassembly or deconstruction.

The existing CDW practices are mostly conventional, as most constructions in UAE are procured through conventional building materials and methods. Therefore, there is a necessity of encouraging CE principles in CDW management. Even though the transition towards CE was evident in four key CE aspects out of five, the UAE construction industry has yet to adopt more effective CE-based CDW management practices to accelerate the circularity. Hence, it is necessary to enforce standard waste management guidelines, including the 3R principle, to standardise CDW management in UAE and encourage construction practitioners to adhere to CE principles.

The findings of this study provide valuable insights for decision-making processes around CDW management towards a CE. This paper contributes to the literature by bridging the CE concept with CDW management in the pre-construction stage. The study provides insights for industry practitioners for planning CE in terms of policies and strategic frameworks, CDW management planning, construction planning and application of innovative construction technologies.

Due to the intense rivalry in the smartphone market, manufacturers of mobile phones are becoming increasingly interested in knowing the factors that influence consumers' purchase intention. This paper aims to examine the effect of country-of-origin image, brand image and attitude towards the brand on the purchase intention of smartphone users.

An empirical study was performed based on the information gathered from smartphone users. The structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was applied to examine the hypotheses.

The authors found that brand image and attitude towards the brand significantly influence consumer purchase intention. Additionally, there is an indirect effect even when the nation of origin image does not directly influence the consumer's purchase intention. Indeed, brand image and attitude towards the brand act as a mediator between the country-of-origin image and purchase intention.

This study presents a conceptual model on the impact of country-of-origin image on the propensity of consumers to buy smartphones in a field where little research has been done. The investigation offers a consumer-focused analysis regarding the country-of-origin image. This suggests a significant shift from the current strategy, which is frequently centered on the viewpoint of the companies.

This study aims to propose an innovative model that integrates variables and examines the influence of internet usage expertise, perceived risk and attitude toward information control on privacy concerns (PC) and, consequently, in consumers’ willingness to disclose personal information online. The authors also propose to test the mediation role of trust between PCs and willingness to disclose information. Trust is not a predictor of PC but a causal mechanism – considering that the focus is to understand consumers’ attitudes and behavior regarding the virtual environment (not context-specific) (Martin, 2018).

The authors developed a survey questionnaire based on the constructs that compose the proposed model to collect data from 864 respondents. The survey questionnaire included the following scales: internet usage expertise from Ohanian (1990); perceived risk, attitude toward information control, trust and willingness to disclose personal information online from Malhotra et al. (2004); and PC from Castañeda and Montoro (2007). All items were measured on a Likert seven-point scale (1 = totally disagree; 7 = totally agree). To obtain Westin’s attitudinal categories toward privacy, respondents answered Westin’s three-item privacy index. For data analysis, the authors applied covariance-based structural equation modeling.

First, the proposed model explains the drivers of consumers’ disposition to provide personal information at a level that surpasses specific contexts (Martin, 2018), bringing the analysis to consumers’ level and considering their general perceptions toward data privacy. Second, the findings provide inputs to propose a better definition of Westin’s attitudinal categories toward privacy, which used to be defined only by individuals’ information privacy perception. Consumers’ perceptions about their abilities in using the internet, the risks, their beliefs toward information control and trust also help to delimitate and distinguish the fundamentalists, the pragmatics and the unconcerned.

Some limitations weigh the theoretical and practical implications of this study. The sample size of pragmatic and unconcerned respondents was substantially smaller than that of fundamentalists. It might be explained by applying Westin’s self-report index to classify the groups according to their score regarding PCs. Most individuals affirm having a great concern for their data privacy but still provide online information for the benefit of personalization – known as the privacy paradox (Zeng et al., 2021). It leads to another limitation of this research, given the lack of measures that classify respondents by considering their actual behavior toward privacy.

PC emerges as an important predictor of consumer trust and willingness to disclose their data online, and trust also influences this disposition. Managers need to implement actions that effectively reduce consumers’ concerns about privacy and increase their trust in the company – e.g. adopting a clear and transparent policy on how the data collected is stored, treated, protected and used to benefit the consumer. Regarding the perception of risk, if managers convince consumers that the data collected on the internet is protected, they tend to be less concerned about privacy.

The results suggest different aspects influencing the willingness to disclose personal information online, including different responses considering consumers’ PCs. Through their policies and legislation, the authors understand that governments must be attentive to this aspect, establishing regulations that protect consumers’ data in the virtual environment. In addition to regulatory policies, education campaigns can be carried out for both consumers and managers to raise the discussion about privacy and the availability of information in the online environment, demonstrating the importance of protecting personal data to benefit the government, consumers and organizations.

Although there is increasing research on consumers’ privacy, studies have not considered their attitudinal classifications – high, moderate and low concern – as moderators of willingness to disclose information online. Researchers have also increased attention to the antecedents of PCs and disclosure of information but overlooked possible mechanisms that explain the relationship between them.

The health crisis linked to COVID-19 has made digitization a significant issue for companies regardless of their form or geographical location. Our research focuses on the financial technology (Fintech) revolution in the context of international development. Its theoretical framework lies in both the fields of Fintech and factoring. As innovative start-ups that combine finance with new technologies, Fintechs have been able to disrupt the banking world in a few years by challenging its traditional practices. We use the case method to analyze two Fintech in-depth, and our results highlight the upheaval of Fintechs in the factoring sector. The supply of the analyzed Fintech is a limited working capital requirement. Furthermore, Fintechs may threaten classical banks due to the innovation of their offers and business models. However, the Fintech revolution focused on corporate finance is still in its infancy.

The broader analytical framing of systematically distorted communication (SDC) helps extract value out of the enormous amount of scholarship on fake news.

The massive literature on fake news has been the subject of handbook overviews, systematic literature reviews, summaries, taxonomies, citation studies and so on. Deploying these tools, the approaches that the literature takes can be characterized, Habermas' concept of systematically distorted communication (SDC) will then be presented in its context, reviewed and put to work to frame fake news research to tell us new things that individual pieces of specific analysis and research do not. Conclusions will be offered from this analysis.

Fake news research has become repetitive, revolving around themes such as the fate of journalism, the role of technology, remediating its effects and deep dives into definitional components (disinformation, misinformation, lies and so on). A broader framing of systematically distorted communication allows us to arrive at some conclusions about contemporary fake news: that it is a power strategy with a particular right-wing slant and it creates a sociology – that is, its own interpretive environment – hostile to democratic functioning. It answers the question: what is fake news for?

A perspective on fake news research is much needed and Habermas' concept is a useful framing mechanism for the large corpus of research. Systematically distorted communication asks – and answers – different questions of the research. Meanwhile, SDC itself is modified by its application to fake news research and contemporary conditions.

In recent decades, higher education institutions (HEIs) have increasingly adopted marketing-oriented approaches. While the adoption of marketing was slower in Europe and Spain, it has become a vital tool for HEIs, both to stay competitive in a changing socio-economic context and to face the challenges posed by the transition to the University 2.0 model. This study aims to analyse the historical evolution of communication techniques used by universities, bringing into focus the relevance of social networks in the most recent decades.

This research methodology consists of two components. Firstly, a comprehensive analysis of the available data is conducted to investigate the earliest marketing and communication actions involving universities, as well as their evolution over time, contextualizing this within the significant shifts in the social, political and technological background. Secondly, a specific focus is placed on the contribution of social media, particularly Twitter, as a powerful tool in creating a university brand and effectively promoting educational institutions, especially during the last stage of this historical evolution. To identify and analyse these trends, Natural Language Processing is used, specifically by leveraging topic modelling techniques.

The results of this analysis offer insights into the evolution of marketing communication applied by Spanish universities and show the increasing importance of social networks and the use of specific topics and contents to enhance their impact on engagement.

This study contributes to the literature by using a novel methodological approach to the research on the historical development of communication in universities in Spain, providing guidance to manage their social media strategy to differentiate themselves, increase engagement and foster brand loyalty.

Art hotels are increasingly providing an opportunity for creative artists to exhibit their artworks and collections within their premises. This research investigates how some hotels are transforming themselves into important cultural tourism centers. Specifically, its objectives are: (i) to better understand the extent to which travelers are aware about the existence of art hotels and to evaluate their level of interest in art-oriented initiatives; (ii) to determine which attributes and features of art hotels are appreciated by travelers; and (iii) to identify the type of travelers who are willing to stay in art hotels. The findings from a descriptive survey suggest that the incorporation of art into the hospitality industry can attract a diverse customer base and could result in a sustainable competitive advantage for hotels. This study identifies four types of travelers including: Art-Infused Travelers, Art-Seeking Travelers, Art-Indifferent Travelers, and Art-Blind Travelers. These prospective tourists were categorized according to their level of awareness and interest in art hotels and art-related experiences. In conclusion, this contribution implies that artification processes within the hospitality industry can add value to the cultural tourism market. Hence, it also advances future research avenues to academia.