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The paper aims to understand how the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) influenced public employees' perception of smart working and how this approach was used during the pandemic. The authors asked about smart working's positive and negative aspects and how these changed during the pandemic.

The authors explored the strengths and weaknesses of smart working before and after COVID-19. The authors interviewed 27 Italian public employees who had experienced smart working before the pandemic. The questions and discussion aimed to broadly explore the strengths and weaknesses of smart working and smart working's impact on working performance, work relationships and work–life balance (WLB).

Smart working had a widespread and positive impact on organizational flexibility. Smart working improved the response and resilience of Italian public organizations to the pandemic. However, some critical factors emerged, such as the right to disconnect and the impact on WLB.

The authors suggest that the pandemic exposed the need for public administrations to consolidate work flexibility practices, such as smart working, by paying more attention to the impact of these practices on the whole organization and human resources management (HRM) policies and practices.

This study makes an important contribution to the literature on the public sector by discussing the positive and negative aspects of smart working. The study also provides managerial and policy implications of the use of smart working in public administrations.

This study aims to understand what drives firms towards board gender diversity in emerging markets. The authors examine the effect of regulative, normative and cognitive pressures on board gender diversity and the moderating effect of national governance quality.

This study tested the hypotheses using unbalanced panel data for the period between 2014 and 2019, which includes 1,384 observations of 380 different firms located in emerging markets.

The results reveal that board gender diversity is directly conditioned by normative pressures (women’s economic and educational empowerment). This relationship becomes stronger if firms are located in countries with high governance capacity. Interestingly, this study finds that regulative and cognitive pressures do not enhance women’s presence on boards if they are not accompanied by strong national governance.

Although we have learned in recent years about how women’s presence on boards brings positive corporate outcomes, we know little about how country-level antecedents foster or hinder this gender diversity. This paper expands knowledge of the way gender-related institutions affect a firm’s board gender diversity, and these findings have policy implications for firms, policymakers, the government and other institutions.

This paper investigates how two characteristics of language, abstractness vs concreteness and narrativity, influence user engagement in communication exercises on innovation targeted to the general audience. The proposed conceptual model suggests that innovation fits well with more abstract language because of the association of innovation with imagination and distal construal. Moreover, communication of innovation may benefit from greater adherence to the narrativity arc, that is, early staging, increasing plot progression and climax optimal point. These effects are moderated by content variety and emotional tone, respectively.

Based on a Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) application on a sample of 3225 TED Talks transcripts, the authors identify 287 TED Talks on innovation, and then applied econometric analyses to test the hypotheses on the effects of abstractness vs concreteness and narrativity on engagement, and on the moderation effects of content variety and emotional tone.

The authors found that abstractness (vs concreteness) and narrativity have positive effects on engagement. These two effects are stronger with higher content variety and more positive emotional tone, respectively.

This paper extends the literature on communication of innovation, linguistics and text analysis by evaluating the roles of abstractness vs concreteness and narrativity in shaping appreciation of innovation.

This paper reports conceptual and empirical analyses on innovation dissemination through a popular medium – TED Talks – and applies modern text analysis algorithms to test hypotheses on the effects of two pivotal dimensions of language on user engagement.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of environmental dynamism on different EO dimensions in family firms. The authors also examine the moderating role of national culture (uncertainty avoidance and in-group collectivism) and the level of family control and influence in fostering/hindering this relationship.

A survey was conducted among 1,143 family firms from twenty-eight countries. The authors developed and tested hypotheses through a fixed-effects regression analysis.

The findings suggest that environmental dynamism has a positive effect on all three EO dimensions. Analysis reveals a positive moderating role of family control and influence and negative moderating roles of in-group collectivism and uncertainty avoidance.

The findings imply that family firm managers should carefully interpret the influence of their national culture on family firm behavior. More specifically, family firms in dynamic environments should consider the importance of the national culture in which they are embedded. Those operating in high uncertainty avoidant and highly collectivist cultures should take proactive steps to cultivate a corporate entrepreneurial culture. On the other hand, the family should not undermine the effect of its control and influence. In dynamic environments, family control and influence may be a competitive advantage in reinforcing entrepreneurial orientation.

The study contributes to the literature on EO in family firms by expanding the previous research on the antecedents of EO and examining moderation effects of culture and family control and influence across a broad multi-country sample. In contrast with the common findings regarding the effect of family logic on EO, the study shows the strengthening role of family control and influence in the relationship between environmental dynamism and EO. The authors show that culture as an informal institution may also play a critical role in hindering/strengthening the relationship between environmental dynamism and EO.

The success of a young entrepreneur depends on how institutional support can facilitate venture performance. Drawing on the institutional theory, this study posited the role of self-efficacy in supporting the effect of institutional support. Self-efficacy is a driving factor for entrepreneurs in managing and implementing business action confidently and successfully. With macro- and micro-oriented research, this study aims to examine how the micro-level factor that is self-efficacy could mediate the influence of macro-level factors (i.e. institutional governance, cultural and social norms and cognitive structure) toward iGen's new venture performance.

A total of 462 respondents representing the population of Malaysian iGen entrepreneurs participated in this study. The samples were selected using a multistage sampling technique (i.e. probability cluster sampling technique and non-probability purposive sampling). Survey items were adapted from the previous studies. Structural equation modelling was used, and the first stage involved testing confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test the measurement items' unidimensionality, validity and reliability. The second stage of analysis is to test the mediation model.

The mediation analysis results confirm that the relationship between institutional governance, cultural and social norms, cognitive structure and new venture performance is mediated by self-efficacy. The results confirm that the relationship between institutional governance and cultural and social norms toward new venture performance is fully mediated by self-efficacy. On the other hand, the relationship between cognitive structure and new venture performance is partially mediated by self-efficacy.

For future research, it is necessary to consider a wide-ranging sample size in improving research generalisation. Moreover, the cross-sectional study only observes the phenomenon at a certain point and cannot explain the process in the correlational relationship. Future researchers are encouraged to adopt a longitudinal study, which allows the researchers to study a sample throughout a period to draw firm conclusions. Survey data also raise the concern of common method variance (CMV), and future studies may use different data types to solve the problem. In addition, future studies are encouraged to examine other factors that could influence new venture performance.

This study extends the current literature on public policy and entrepreneurship. It comprehensively explains the relationship between institutional governance, cultural and social norms, cognitive structure and self-efficacy toward new venture performance. This study was also conducted in a developing country and iGen context, which can offer new insights into the current literature. Many empirical studies have applied institutional theory in examining entrepreneurship action and behaviour, yet the scholarly consecration on micro-level factors is limited. With macro- and micro-oriented research, this study has examined the influence of self-efficacy as a potential mediating variable.

The purpose of this study is to describe the implementation of a digital-based team coaching intervention aimed at improving team communication in the workplace through social network visualization. The study examined recipients’ perceptions of the intervention at two time points and assessed the temporal stability of various factors, including the intervention’s integrity, design, transferability, acceptance and the usability of the adopted visualization tool. The moderating role of digital usability was also evaluated.

Four team coaching sessions were delivered to 62 participants from seven teams across three departments within a large public health-care organization in Northern Italy. Perceptions of the intervention dimensions were collected after the second and fourth sessions.

Results indicated that, at both time points, recipients appreciated the intervention’s integrity and usability more than its design, transferability and acceptance. Furthermore, no significant changes in recipients’ perceptions were observed over time. The transferability of the intervention was significantly associated with its acceptance, but only when the usability of the digital tool was high.

The study enriches existing literature on digital interventions in group communication by focusing on process dimensions like recipients’ perceptions of various aspects and the implementation process. Furthermore, the study underscores the potential of integrating specific techniques such as sociomapping and coaching within health-care organizations, encouraging more research and development in these areas.

The study emphasizes the critical role of usability and integrity in digital-based team coaching interventions, suggesting that high-quality, user-friendly tools not only lead to initial effectiveness but also sustain positive impacts over time, while also increasing transferability and acceptance.

The present study uniquely deploys a longitudinal approach to examine recipients’ perceptions of a digital-based intervention that combines social network visualization and team coaching to enhance team communication.

This paper aims to analyse the role of business plan development as a knowledge translation tool, especially for the creation of start-ups. In a complex knowledge ecosystem populated by multiple diverse and autonomous actors (such as potential entrepreneurs, local companies, local public entities and business consultants) bonded together by a joint search for valuable knowledge, business plan development can work as a powerful enabler for the translation of knowledge.

The study uses a qualitative multi-case study approach by examining the results of a public programme devoted to the creation of new entrepreneurial ventures. The authors analysed 418 complete business plans and followed up with all the participants with an interview. In total, 40 cases were investigated more in detail.

Results show how business plan development can function as a bridge between academic, theoretical and general knowledge on start-up creation on the one hand and practical contextualised activities of potential entrepreneurs on the other.

The process of knowledge translation is crucial to ensure that relevant knowledge coming from both the inside (the entrepreneur) and outside (the stakeholders) of the organisation is effectively applied. To facilitate the translation process, key knowledge users should be supported in contextualising and making sense of the research knowledge. Initiatives carried out by local entities and other actors, gathering several stakeholders to develop business plans, can become valuable opportunities to facilitate the translation process for start-up development.

The paper contributes to knowledge management and knowledge translation literature by demonstrating the role of business plan development as an effective knowledge translation enabler. It also adds to the understanding of innovation management and entrepreneurial education by proving the relevance of the translation of knowledge for the creation of new business ventures.

Communication about sustainability in fashion is complex. While fashion businesses have increasingly sought to manage their sustainability practices, their understanding of how to communicate about sustainability persuasively remains limited. The authors argue that a key problem with a firm’s efforts in communicating about sustainability is that it is a psychologically distant issue for both businesses and stakeholders. This paper aims to apply construal level theory to explore managers’ construal level in shaping communication about sustainability.

The paper used a two-phase qualitative methodology. Phase one involved undertaking interviews with ten managers in fashion firms to address communications about sustainability in the UK. In phase two, 16 consumers interpreted and reflected on the persuasiveness of communications about sustainability encompassing both concrete and abstract forms of messaging.

The authors identify the factors driving different approaches to communication (concrete and abstract) depending on the construal levels of managers, managers’ perceptions of the construal level of target stakeholders and the perceived authenticity of the sustainability claim. The paper highlights the conditions under which the (mis)match with the brands’ sustainable practices works in crafting communication. The authors also highlight three main communication strategies in responding to the complexity of sustainability in fashion ecosystems: amplification, quiet activist and populist coupling.

As an in-depth qualitative study, the authors seek to expose an under-researched phenomenon, yet generalisations both within the fashion industry and beyond are limited by this focus.

Fashion managers need to be flexible and evaluate how their communications about sustainability affect stakeholders’ evaluations of their brands. As sustainability in fashion brands grows, concrete and specific sustainability messaging may be necessary to improve sustainable behaviours.

The prevailing literature encourages symbiosis between sustainability practices and communications; such relationships are rare, and studies outside the consumer perspective are also rare. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this exploratory study is the first to understand how managers’ construal level influences decisions around communications about sustainability in fashion and how these messages are perceived by consumers.

The purpose of the present paper is to provide a systematic overview of dimensions that need to be enfolded or considered in microfinance policies and strategies designs as well as impact studies aiming to empower or assess the empowerment of a specific category of women, namely women entrepreneurs. Afterward, the study aims to suggest some directions for future studies.

To meet its purpose, the paper applies the systematic review approach. The applied methodology follows guidelines for systematic reviews of social and economic interventions as set out by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). More specifically, the authors examine 87 empirical papers from 6 databases investigating the impact of microfinance institutions on the empowerment of women entrepreneurs.

Overall, findings of the study suggest that dimensions of the empowerment of women entrepreneurs are formed and conditioned by normative, cognitive and regulative institutional logics. Additionally, the systematic review suggests key research avenues and calls for more inclusive empirical studies in terms of geographical coverage, microfinance services/products assessed and method designs applied.

Findings of the current review provide clear theoretical contribution and useful practical implications in the field of microfinance and the empowerment of women entrepreneurs. On the one hand, the study suggests to scholars key avenues for future studies likely to bring new insights in terms of theory, context and methods. On the other hand, this study extents the understanding of microfinance practitioners on the concept of women empowerment as the field of female entrepreneurship is concerned. This implication is likely to enable the design of appropriate microfinance strategies and policies, allowing women entrepreneurs to achieve an overall empowerment.

The present paper contributes to the debate around the multidimensionality of the concept, “women empowerment.” The multidimensional nature of the addressed concept is well established in the existing literature. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has provided a conceptual analysis of empowerment dimensions of a particular category of women, namely women entrepreneurs. Unlike most of the studies assuming that all women face identical challenges, the present paper brings new insights on the topic as it is built on a different assumption. The paper takes ground from the institutional theory and applies it to the specific case of female entrepreneurship.