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The paper has a twofold purpose: (1) to test the application of means-end theory to providers of hospitality goods and services, and (2) to explore this question in the context of winery tasting rooms when they had a unique opportunity to restructure their hospitality experience due to government restrictions in response to COVID.

A qualitative approach was adopted, and a convenience sample was used to conduct semi-structured laddering interviews. Forty interview transcripts were coded as means-end ladders, which were analyzed using a custom computer program to develop the implication matrix and the hierarchical value map.

This paper demonstrates that means-end is a useful approach to investigate the values and behaviors of the producer, specifically hospitality hosts. It finds that the principal goal of tasting rooms is to generate sales, and offering a compelling guest experience is the characteristic that contributes the most to achieving that goal. The staff and the atmosphere created for the guests are the two factors with the greatest influence on the guest experience.

This is the first paper to use means-end theory to study the hospitality host, or the producer of goods and services in general, and the first to study winery hospitality primarily through the lens of means-end theory. The study also helps fill a gap in research on tasting room sales focused on the winery’s goals.

Even though sustainable entrepreneurship has increasingly received researchers’ attention in recent years, the topic remains rather under-researched in natural resources’ rich Gulf countries such as Oman. Hence, this paper aims to fill this gap in the literature and, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is one of the first attempts to assess the state of sustainable entrepreneurship development in Oman from a multi-stakeholder perspective.

This paper uses a qualitative research approach where in-depth semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 12 respondents representing relevant stakeholders of sustainable entrepreneurship development in Oman. The interviewees included four sustainable entrepreneurs, four policymakers and four educationists representing entrepreneurial skills development institutes in Oman.

This papers’ findings highlight that despite some positive improvements, several critical challenges remain, which hinder sustainable entrepreneurship development. The authors further found the role of FinTech to be critical in this concern by all stakeholders, though its usage and acceptance remain low. Also, the costs associated with the post-carbon (sustainable) economy and different profitability evolution have resulted in a slow change in the policy development in this concern. From an educational (skills development) perspective, a lack of context-specific training programmes and culture-based hesitations appeared to be hindering achieving sustainable entrepreneurship possibilities in Oman. The nascent entrepreneurial ecosystem, bureaucracy and lack of human capital (attraction as well as retention) appeared to be significant challenges for entrepreneurs. Finally, the findings highlighted the need for cross-sector collaboration with clear benchmarks for effective policy development concerning sustainable entrepreneurship in Oman.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first academic study explicitly highlighting the state of sustainable entrepreneurship in Oman by incorporating the development initiatives as well as the major challenges in the analysis. Secondly, this study is also a pioneering work specifying the interlinkage between financing (FinTech), policy initiatives and skills development and the development of a sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem in an under-researched context of Oman. Finally, the transition to a sustainable economy is challenging in natural resources’ dependent economies like Oman, as it needs to be supported by the mindset change in the larger society (legitimacy). In this concern, this paper, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is one of the first academic endeavours to also specify the role of legitimacy from the perspective of different stakeholders (and larger society) for sustainable entrepreneurship development in such contexts.

This study aims to explore the holistic context of organisational staff retention in small, medium and large organisations. It also aims to identify the factors affecting the retention of organisations of different sizes.

The study implements an empirical test of a model created during previous research with the participation of 511 employees. The responses to the online questionnaire and the modelling were analysed using the partial least squares structural equation modelling method. The models were tested for internal consistency reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, multicollinearity and model fit.

Two models were tested by organisation size, which revealed a total of 62 significant correlations between the latent variables tested. Identical correlations were present in both models in 22 cases. After testing the hypotheses, critical variables (nature of work, normative commitment, benefits, co-workers and organisational commitment) were identified that determine employees’ organisational commitment and intention to leave, regardless of the size of the organisation.

As a result of this research, the models developed are suitable for identifying differences in organisational staffing levels, but there is as yet no empirical evidence on the use of the scales for homogeneous groups of employees.

The results show that employees’ normative commitment and organisational commitment are critical factors for retention. Of the satisfaction factors examined, the nature of work, benefits and co-workers have a significant impact on retention in organisations, so organisational retention measures should focus on improving satisfaction regarding these factors.

The readers of the journal would appreciate the work, which highlights the significance of employee psychology and retention for organisational success.

The study is based on primary data and, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is one of the few studies that take a holistic approach to organisational staff retention in the context of the moderating effect of organisational size. This study contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of employee retention and in contrast to previous research, examines the combined effect of several factors.

The purpose of this research is to explore the dynamics of using strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices in the public sector. More specifically, this paper tries to point out some main aspects of SHRM, which strongly influence the decision of employees to stay. The empirical study here tends to reveal greater insights into the SHRM-retention relationship and its validation at the National Bank of Egypt (NBE).

This research is co-relational in nature with cause and effect approach. The design of the study is both descriptive in the theoretical part and quantitative in the applied one. Theoretically, this paper adopted the analytical approach to define the main concepts, aside from an empirical study to investigate correlations in practice.

This paper concludes that the employment of best HRM practices is deemed a remarkable strategic tool in the retention of core public employees. Also, the results of analysis provide evidence that SHRM contributes to employee retention at NBE.

The findings and recommendations of this research can practically guide management to devise effective policies to improve employee retention using appropriate SHRM activities, particularly in the Egyptian public organizations.

This research has valuable implications for both theory and practice, as it offers several contributions to literature in the field of study, as well as the practical contribution.

Social exchange theory predicts that perceptions of employee/employer exchange relationships may change as employees add educational qualifications. Literature also suggests that more innovative individuals, who are particularly important to organisations, may be more likely to change jobs. The purpose of this study is to test how the innovativeness of an individual differs in its contribution to retention when subjected to different mediating and moderating influences indicated in the literature, for a cohort of employees that are undertaking degree studies while working.

To test theory that suggests certain implications for employee turnover, the part-time studies unit of a large South African university offering degree studies by evening classes was sampled, yielding 323 useable responses, with a response rate of about 30%. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to test a theoretical model predicting certain mediating and moderating influences on the relationship between individual innovativeness and turnover intentions.

Individuals with higher innovativeness self-report higher turnover intentions, which seem to be reduced by the mediating effects of perceived supervisor support and job satisfaction. Perceptions of distributive justice and core self-evaluations, which may be associated with an individual's evaluation of the social exchange relationship, are found to directly enable retention.

A model of moderation and mediation relationships between employee innovativeness and turnover intentions is derived from the literature and tested, offering novel insights into how to retain valuable staff in this context.