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Financial services industry is increasingly showing interest in automated financial advisors, or robo-advisors, with the aim of democratizing access to financial advice and stimulating investment behavior among populations that were previously less active and less served. However, the extent to which consumers trust this technology influences the adoption of rob-advisors. The resemblance to a human, or anthropomorphism, can provide a sense of social presence and increase trust.

In this paper, we conduct an experiment (N = 223) to test the effect of anthropomorphism (low vs medium vs high) and gender (male vs female) of the robo-advisor on social presence. This perception, in turn, enables consumers to evaluate personality characteristics of the robo-advisor, such as competence, warmth, and persuasiveness, all of which are related to trust in the robo-advisor. We separately conduct an experimental study (N = 206) testing the effect of gender neutrality on consumer responses to robo-advisory anthropomorphism.

Our results show that consumers prefer human-alike robo-advisors over machinelike or humanoid robo-advisors. This preference is only observed for male robo-advisors and is explained by perceived competence and perceived persuasiveness. Furthermore, highlighting gender neutrality undermines the positive effect of robo-advisor anthropomorphism on trust.

We contribute to the body of knowledge on robo-advisor design by showing the effect of robot’s anthropomorphism and gender on consumer perceptions and trust. Consequently, we offer insightful recommendations to promote the adoption of robo-advisory services in the financial sector.

This paper proposes a framework for director evaluation in the context of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs), taking into account the influences of traditional and modern Chinese ideologies.

Following the Delphi method, a series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with Chinese SOE directors.

The framework used has been validated by examining seven dimensions of virtue and four dimensions of competence functions in Chinese SOEs. Effective and representative characteristics of each dimension are identified through interviews.

First, through this research, indicators of virtue have been materialized and those of competence have been specified in a broader range. Second, this research provides advice for training of candidate directors whose experience were in private firms before they step in as SOE directors.

The literature on help-seeking at work has experienced significant growth in the past decades. However, our knowledge about this research domain remains fragmented and lacks sufficient theoretical integration. Therefore, this paper aims to comprehensively integrate the extant literature on help-seeking behavior at work and propose an overarching, organized framework to propel this field forward.

A state-of-the-art review and theoretical development on help-seeking at work are conducted.

First, the authors provide the conceptual clarity of its definitions, key characteristics, types and measurement techniques. Second, the authors develop a fine-grained and integrative process-based framework consisting of antecedents, proximal psychological mechanisms, subsequent influencing processes and distal outcomes to advance our understanding of seeking help in the workplace. Third, the authors offer a detailed agenda for future research to target opportunities within the field.

The current study is comprehensive in surveying the full body of knowledge on help-seeking at work. It uniquely provides a coherent overarching framework that organizes prior findings and channels future research. Additionally, this review paints a complete picture of what has been done and what needs to be done in the field. More research can be spurred based on our conceptual framework.

This paper aims to examine the impact of the assurance and advisory role of internal audit (ADRIA) on organisational, human and technical proactive measures to enhance cybersecurity (CS).

The questionnaire was used to collect data for 97 internal auditors (IAu) from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The authors used partial least squares (PLS) to test the hypotheses.

The results show a positive effect of the ADRIA on each of the organisational proactive measures, human proactive measures and technical proactive measures to enhance CS. The study also found a positive effect of the confirmatory role of IA on both human proactive measures and technical proactive measures to enhance CS. No effect of the confirmatory role of IA on the organisational proactive measures is found.

This study focused on only three proactive measures to enhance CS, and this study was limited to the opinions of IAu. In addition, the study was limited to using regression analysis according to the PLS method.

The results of this study show that managers need to consider the influential role of IA as a value-adding activity in reducing CS risks and activating proactive measures. Also, IAu must expand its capabilities, skills and knowledge in CS auditing to provide a bold view of cyber threats. At the same time, the institutions responsible for preparing IA standards should develop standards and guidelines that help IAu to play assurance and advisory roles.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind that deals with the impact of the assurance and ADRIA on proactive measures to enhance CS. In addition, the study determines the nature of the advisory role and the assurance role of IA to strengthen CS.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing product recommendations, but little is known about consumer acceptance of AI recommendations. This study examines how to improve consumers' acceptance of AI recommendations from the perspective of product type (material vs experiential).

Four studies, including a field experiment and three online experiments, tested how consumers' preference for AI-based (vs human) recommendations differs between material and experiential product purchases.

Results show that people perceive AI recommendations as more competent than human recommendations for material products, whereas they believe human recommendations are more competent than AI recommendations for experiential products. Therefore, people are more (less) likely to choose AI recommendations when buying material (vs experiential) products. However, this effect is eliminated when is used as an assistant to rather than a replacement for a human recommendation.

This study is the first to focus on how products' material and experiential attributes influence people's attitudes toward AI recommendations. The authors also identify under what circumstances resistance to algorithmic advice is attenuated. These findings contribute to the research on the psychology of artificial intelligence and on human–technology interaction by investigating how experiential and material attributes influence preference for or resistance to AI recommenders.

The aim of this paper is to develop a framework to enhance building maintainability through facilitating early suppliers’ involvement (ESI) in the design process.

A research methodology consisting of literature review, case studies and survey questionnaire was designed to achieve the above-mentioned aim. Firstly, literature review was used to examine the concepts of building maintenance, maintainability, the design process and ESI. Secondly, three case studies were presented and analysed to investigate the role of ESI towards enhancing building maintainability during the design process. Thirdly, a survey questionnaire was carried out with a representative sample of architectural design firms (ADFs) in Egypt to investigate their perception and application of ESI towards enhancing building maintainability during the design process. Finally, the research developed a framework to facilitate ESI in the design process in ADFs in Egypt.

Through literature review, the research highlighted the relationship between ESI and enhancing building maintainability and identified the roles, benefits, challenges and that encounter ESI in ADFs, factors for suppliers selection and levels of involvement. Results of the data analysis showed that “Difficulty of trusting external parties and sharing information with transparency” was ranked the highest challenge of ESI in ADFs in Egypt, followed by “Legal competitive advantage restrictions”. Moreover, “Better estimation for operation and maintenance costs” was ranked the highest contributions of ESI towards enhancing building maintainability, followed by “Reduce the number of operation and maintenance problems or reworks”. Finally, respondents stated that “Innovation, technical expertise, and competence” was ranked the highest supplier’s selection criteria, while “paying consultation fees for offering advice and recommendations to the design team” was ranked the highest form of supplier’s remuneration.

The proposed framework contributes to the body of knowledge through proposing five functions that aimed to facilitate ESI in the design process, a research area that received scant attention in construction research. In addition, because of the conceptual nature of the framework, it has to be validated to ensure its capability to overcome the challenges of ESI as an approach for enhancing building maintainability during the design process.

This research presents a practical solution that bridges the gap between theory and practice through overcoming the challenges that obstruct suppliers from being involved in the design process as an approach for enhancing building maintainability.

This research discussed the relationship between ESI and enhancing building maintainability as well as the roles, benefits and challenges that encounter ESI in ADFs. In addition, the research investigated the levels of suppliers’ involvement, selection criteria and forms of payment. Moreover, it investigated the perception and application of ESI in ADFs in Egypt towards improving building maintainability. The research proposed a framework to facilitate the integration of suppliers in the early stages of the project life cycle. It represents a synthesis that is novel and creative in thought and adds value to the knowledge in a manner that has not previously occurred.

To know the digital competence of rural teachers to carry out the tutoring process with members of the educational community through digital resources (teacher-student, teacher-families and teacher-teaching team). As specific objectives, gender, teaching specialties, interaction between gender*teaching speciality, and significant predictors were analysed.

The research was quantitative, with a non-experimental, cross-sectional, descriptive and inferential design.

The results showed an explorer-expert teacher, where the generalist teachers had a superior competence compared to the rest of the specialties. Gender and teaching speciality were significant predictors in the communication that the teacher has with all the agents involved, while the interaction of both predictors was only significant between the teacher-teaching team and teacher-families.

Another issue worth considering relates to the development of the classification tree for the use of digital resources in tutorial action. Due to lack of space, the proposal has focused on gender and particular subjects, but it would be interesting to focus on the dimensions of the instrument with regard to tutorial action with the different agents (students, teaching staff and families).

After reviewing the literature, the authors can conclude that very little quantitative research is focused on the level of self-perception of digital competence of teachers in rural schools. Furthermore, the teaching speciality of teachers has up until now hardly been taken into account as a variable that can determine the levels of digital competence. Not many studies have analysed the use of digital resources to communicate with the different members of the educational community.

This paper aims to present a lesson that showcases how artificial intelligence (AI) tools may be chiefly used in L2 language classrooms to design culture-focussed telecollaboration tasks and aid their completion by students.

The paper begins by reviewing traditional approaches and guidance for developing telecollaboration tasks. It then models how tasks can be designed using the popular AI tool “Chat Generative Pre-training Transformer (ChatGPT)” and then simulates how tasks may be completed by learners using ChatGPT-generated information as a springboard for their own culturally appropriate outputs.

The simulated lesson illuminates the potential value of AI tools for teachers and students. However, it also highlights particular aspects of AI literacy that teachers and learners need to be aware of.

This paper has clear practical implications for teacher development by raising awareness of the importance of teachers upskilling in telecollaboration task design and in their understanding of how AI tools can collaborate with them in language classrooms.

The paper adds to the current body of literature on telecollaboration and more specifically adds weight to current discussions taking place around AI tools in language education. By the end of reading the paper, teachers will have a comprehensive grounding in how to use ChatGPT in their classrooms. In doing so, the author demystifies how teachers and students may start exploring these tools in ways that target developing intercultural communicative competence.

This study explores the phenomenon of compassionate leadership, a promising concept in management literature. Despite significant contributions towards the understanding of its antecedents and consequences, the specific role of compassion concerning the leader behavior under extreme pressure remains unexplored.

Drawing empirically on the case of three banks under three different logics, the authors trace how heads of banking branches, namely, middle managers, deal with the paradoxical phenomenon of integrating their human nature with the coetaneous need to achieve aggressive objectives. The authors analyzed interviews using the interpretive research method (Hatch and Yanow, 2003).

The authors identified that the logic of savings banks and credit cooperatives, together with specific human elements, created a healthier environment to develop compassionate behaviors compared to commercial banks. The authors found coherence when linking the institutional message of putting the spotlight on a personalized treatment of customers, and the middle manager compassionate actions towards customers and subordinates.

Suggestions for future theorizing and research are advanced, along with constructive practical implications to rehumanize the dark side of banking for both employees and customers.

The findings provided in this paper are original because they provide further evidence of linking business logics with compassionate leadership of middle managers and its impact on employees and customers.

Drawing on social exchange theory, this study aims to investigate the reciprocal relationship between an employee’s knowledge sharing and his or her coworkers’ responses to this focal contributor in terms of knowledge sharing and helping behaviors.

A two-wave online survey collected data from 84 respondents who provided ratings on each member on their team, representing 440 dyadic relationships. Hierarchical linear modeling analyzed the between-subjects and within-subject data simultaneously.

Employees generally reciprocate contributors’ knowledge sharing with an exact act (i.e. knowledge sharing) through the mechanism of peer respect. However, respect generated by knowledge sharing is enhanced only when the knowledge contributor is competent.

Research on how an employee’s knowledge sharing actually influences other members of a team is lacking. This study addresses this gap by examining responses to a team member’s knowledge sharing from a peer’s perspective. It also reveals when knowledge sharing is more pronounced in earning peer respect.