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This study explores entrepreneurial decision-making in the equity crowdfunding (ECF) context, and it aims to shed some light on the relationship among three aspects: entrepreneurial characteristics (i.e. entrepreneurial alertness and entrepreneurial self-efficacy), entrepreneurial motivations (i.e. promotion, improvement of networking and acquisition of product and market knowledge) and entrepreneurial behaviours (i.e. campaign characteristics in terms of communication and offerings).

The hypotheses testing and analysis were conducted using the partial least squares approach to structural equation modelling, and data were collected from the overall population of Italian ECF platforms.

Our results highlight that entrepreneurial characteristics may be central in ECF because of their significant impact on some motivation entrepreneurs have to adopt ECF, which in turn have an impact on meaningful campaign characteristics that can influence ECF performance.

The current literature is mainly focused on investors' decisions, while a neglected perspective until now has been that of entrepreneurs. This study is among the first to focus on entrepreneurs in the ECF context, and, to the best of our knowledge, it is the first study to investigate the entrepreneurial decision-making process. The added value of this research lies in the analysis of the entrepreneurial aspects underlying entrepreneurial decisions to use ECF.

Gastronomy can be a key destination choice factor. As tourists, people will be able to learn more about the culture of the place through its culinary assets. This paper aims to analyse the interest and the gastronomic motivations of tourists to the city of Granada (Spain), where two important UNESCO World Heritage Sites (WHS) are included.

To achieve the aim of this study, fieldwork was carried out on a representative sample of tourists in Granada (Spain). Specifically, a total of 1,612 valid surveys were filled out in culinary establishments and historical sites. In these surveys, the opinion of tourists regarding gastronomy and their motivations when travelling was assessed.

The results of this research allow to make a segmentation of tourists into three groups according to their position and their interest in gastronomy based on their destination choice, distinguishing among survivors, enjoyers and experiencers’ tourists. Additionally, it is confirmed that gastronomy is shaped as a motivation that influences the level of tourist satisfaction, performing as a differentiating element that can help increase the competitiveness of the destination.

This research contributes to the scarce academic literature on tourism experiences in a city with WHS recognitions. This study confirms the existence of a relationship between gastronomic motivations and the level of satisfaction achieved by tourists who visit the city of Granada, where no similar studies were found. In addition, this work confirms the connection between gastronomy and culture.

Each culture is defined by norms, beliefs and values which influence and complicate individual thoughts and actions. Cultural intelligence (CQ) is a novel concept that reflects the ability of individuals of certain cultures to adapt to the general conditions of a different society. This study aims to explore the relationship between CQ and technology adoption in the form of intention to use the internet.

This quantitative empirical study, based on data from a questionnaire completed by 201 university students, proposes three models to analyse the direct, indirect and moderating influence of the CQ on intention to use the internet.

The study reveals that CQ has an indirect influence on the intention to use the internet.

Most research to date has focused on analysing the influence of CQ in the cross-cultural field. This work contributes to the development of the concept of CQ as a decisive factor in a globalised world and analyses its impact on the internet, a tool that is fundamental at all levels.

Cada cultura posee unas normas, creencias y valores que la definen, lo que influye en el pensamiento y acciones de los individuos que la componen y dificulta el ajuste entre las mismas. Derivado de esto, la inteligencia cultural (CQ) es un concepto novedoso que refleja la capacidad que tienen los individuos de una determinada cultura de adaptarse a las condiciones generales de otra sociedad diferente. En este estudio, se explora la relación existente entre la CQ y la adopción tecnológica en la intención de uso de Internet.

La muestra está conformada por 201 estudiantes universitarios y los datos fueron recolectados a través de cuestionario. Se realizó un estudio empírico cuantitativo, proponiéndose tres modelos para analizar la influencia de manera directa, indirecta y como factor moderador de la CQ sobre la intención de uso de Internet.

El estudio revela que la CQ influye indirectamente sobre la intención de uso de Internet.

La mayoría de las investigaciones hasta el momento se han centrado en analizar la influencia de la CQ en el ámbito cross- cultural. Este trabajo contribuye al desarrollo del concepto CQ como un factor decisivo en el mundo globalizado y analiza su impacto en una herramienta fundamental a todos los niveles como Internet.

Emergency logistics is an important means to deal with disasters and public crises. Since the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus in 2003, China has established and developed an emergency logistics management system. With the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in China, its emergency logistics system is facing unfolded challenges. The main purposes of this study are to explore the development of China’s emergency logistics system in this context and identify the critical success factors for such systems. A series of focus groups are organized to collect the opinions of 24 interviewees from three Chinese cities, namely Wuhan, Shanghai, and Xi’an. Through the analysis, a framework of the critical success factors for emergency logistics in China is recreated. The key elements are demand forecasting and planning, inventory management, distribution network, and systematic information management. Findings suggest critical points on the design and imple-mentation of the emergency logistics operations during a chaotic period.

This study aims to analyze the contribution of business angels (BAs), defined as wealthy individuals who provide risk capital to entrepreneurial firms without family connections, in Estonia, an emerging country in Eastern Europe.

This study compared the data of the financial and non-financial performance of BA-backed firms with that of “twin” non-BA-backed firms, extracted from all Estonian unlisted firms using propensity score matching.

The results of the comparative analysis showed that BAs were patient enough to allow their investees to spend for future growth rather than squeezing profit from increased sales. This is not patience without options for a BA in a situation in which the investee's sales are deteriorating, but rather deliberate patience in the presence of options for a BA where the investee's sales growth is increasing, contrary to conventional investor behavioral principles. It also showed that BAs' post-investment involvement did not make a direct contribution to their investees' sales, although BAs contributed to the sales increase through BA funding itself.

This study has two unique research contributions. First, it shows that the patience of BAs was not a by-product but was intentional, and adds to the debate on whether BAs are patient investors. Second, there are only a few studies on the contribution of BAs to their investees in emerging countries; this study aims to help fill this research gap using the case of Estonia.

The main aim of the paper is to examine the small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) capital structure determinants in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) (Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania).

The authors used panel models to analyze financial data of 15,253 companies operating in the years 2014–2017.

The authors confirmed the dominant role of firm-specific factors. Industry and country variables explain only 4% of debt variability of the surveyed companies. The direction of influence of the diagnosed firm-specific factors is consistent with the pecking order theory. About one-fourth of SMEs in CEE hold a stock of debt capacity. It negatively affects the share of debt in the capital. The authors did not confirm the influence of the systematic industry business risk.

The limitations of the study are (1) the inclusion of only six CEE countries in the sample; (2) the exclusion of microenterprises from the sample; (3) the capital structure relationships are observed following the applications of static panel; (4) the endogeneity issue has not been addressed in the model.

This study shows that business-friendly institutional environment is an important factor influencing the indebtedness of companies. It increases the leverage and, consequently, the return on equity, especially in CEE countries.

SME analyses in CEE countries are not as frequent as for other regions. Despite the classical determinants of the SMEs' capital structure, the authors have included debt capacity and systematic industry business risk in this study.

This paper investigates how to embrace an “either/and” logic, borrowed from the Yin-Yang epistemological system, to provide a different perspective to the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) research and reframe its paradoxes and dilemmas.

The study adopts the duality map for paradox management, a tool designed to recognize and measure the threshold as a range within which opposite elements can be properly balanced for a healthy tension, to show that the apparently contradictory poles of the EO construct can co-exist within the same organization depending on specific situations, contexts and time.

By using duality maps as working models, the study shows that, in real life, the apparently contradictory poles of the EO construct co-exist in a healthy tension within the same organization and are managed in a constant process of dynamic balancing over time.

The present paper contributes to the EO research by providing a different perspective to the EO concept, thus filling the gap on how to go beyond the traditional polarized (“either/or”) paradigm that has dominated the EO literature since its origins.

EO is dominated by a polarized view that sees opposites as sharp dichotomies. However, the complexity and variability of today’s interconnected world are pushing scholars to move from this hegemonic Western perspective by adopting different cultural and philosophical approaches able to balance the inherent duality of the EO concept.

Food banks play an increasingly important role in society by mitigating hunger and helping needy people; however, research aimed at improving food bank operations is limited.

This systematic review used Web of Science and Scopus as search engines, which are extensive databases in Operations Research and Management Science. Ninety-five articles regarding food bank operations were deeply analyzed to contribute to this literature review.

Through a systematic literature review, this paper identifies the challenges faced by food banks from an operations management perspective and positions the scientific contributions proposed to address these challenges.

This study makes three main contributions to the current literature. First, this study provides new researchers with an overview of the key features of food bank operations. Second, this study identifies and classifies the proposed optimization models to support food bank managers with decision-making. Finally, this study discusses the challenges of food bank operations and proposes promising future research avenues.

The study introduces a new approach to leverage-value relationship. Besides applying the classical regression models, the study deals with leverage as a continuous treatment variable implemented on the firm’s value using the dose-response function (DFR).

After proper model calibration and splitting the treatment (leverage) into ten doses, a response function is generated, which enables the realization of the dose level at which the firm’s value is maximized. Furthermore, the study tests the pecking order theory (POT) and the trade-off theory (TOT) using the threshold model to see whether firms are under or over-indebted. The analysis is carried out on panel data from small-medium enterprises (SMEs), providing more valuable insights than large and mature companies.

The study used two leverage measures: total liabilities ratio and bank debt ratio. Value is measured by the market capitalization and Tobin’s Q. In general, the study finds a positive relationship between leverage and value; POT is not strongly supported, firms are below their optimal leverage and there is a certain leverage dose that would maximize firms’ value.

Since the threshold model and DRF show that SMEs are under-indebted, firms could benefit from extra leverage doses without affecting the firm’s risk profile, especially in a low-interest rate regime, and the potential increase in public-private expenditure after Italy obtained the European Recovery Funds.

The study contributes to new knowledge and understanding of financial leverage from new methodological perspectives, offering valuable insights from SMEs using novel approaches.

The increasing responsibility of organisations towards society and the environment has inverted the relationship between accounting and accountability, leading to accountability-based accounting systems. This study aims to explore the debate on accountability for climate change within the integrating thinking (IT) perspective. Ascertaining the most significant trends in the debate around purposes and performance that characterise climate mitigation engagement and their connections, the study would explore if and to what extent organisations are tackling climate actions.

A narrative review of the extensive academic literature developed from the Kyoto Protocol to date was performed. After selecting a representative sample, papers were analysed with the support of a new analytical framework that involves three dimensions – answerability, enforcement and outcome – and governance schemes that emerge from the involvement of the private and public sector and civil society. With the support of NVivo software, themes arisen were analysed and coded. Key items were labelled, creating specific nodes and synthesised into the proposed framework.

A “silo approach” largely characterises the debate on accountability for climate change. The most significant reasons behind the shortcomings of extant climate actions may be retrieved firstly in the weakness of the motivations that guide organisations to operate in a climate-friendly way.

This study underlines the need for a 360° integrated approach for strategically tackling climate actions.

This study would represent a further step towards an integrated approach for studying organisations behaviours in the “climate war”, embracing the connectivity between purposes and outcomes, capitals and the relationships amongst the various stakeholders.