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The aim of this paper is to provide critical reflections on the role of standard setters and the endeavours of various organisations to provide sustainability reporting standards.

The authors’ critical reflections are informed by the literature and websites of IASB, International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), global reporting initiative (GRI) and other relevant organisations. The authors use Bourdieu’s concept of field to support their analysis and critique.

The authors highlight how a disrupted standard-setting field will be a distraction from efforts to address real sustainability issues and concerns. Determining the “legitimate” sustainability reporting standards is likely to be an outcome of struggles between occupants in the sustainability standard-setting field. Accordingly, the shape of legitimate standards will be defined by those with power. The concern is the priority and the motive underpinning the endeavours of those with power. The authors propose that it is important for both the ISSB and GRI to serve the interest of a broad range of actors, including those who are not likely to have a say in sustainability reporting standard setting.

This paper contributes to sustainability reporting practice by putting forward a case for strengthening current sustainability reporting practices with appropriate changes to overcome some of the criticisms of the GRI.

The authors highlight that there is a much broader group of stakeholders who require sustainability information and that it is important that the sustainability reporting standards serve the information needs of all stakeholders and not just those of the dominant actors. However, the ISSB with its economic focus will inevitably focus on the concern of investors and market participants.

The originality in this paper is the use of Bourdieu’s concept of field to theoretically highlight how a new standard setter may disrupt the sustainability standard-setting field and act as a distraction from efforts to address sustainability issues and concerns that the world faces.

This paper aims to propose a theoretically informed and analytically rigorous research framework that sustainability researchers could use or further develop to examine visually persuasive messages in photographs.

Drawing on the theoretical constructs of Peirce’s (1991) visual semiotic system of icon, index and symbol and Aristotle’s (1984) persuasive appeals of ethos, pathos and logos, the authors propose a research methodology that provides an explicit step-by-step guidance to examine visually persuasive messages in sustainability-related photographs. The sustainability-related photographs in The Coca-Cola Company’s 2018 Business and Sustainability Report are examined to illustrate the application of the framework.

This paper develops a research framework and provides empirical evidence of the use of the framework to enhance the understanding of visually persuasive messages depicted in photographs.

The proposed framework serves as a springboard for further research into visually persuasive messages.

The research framework of visual persuasion is novel and can be used by sustainability researchers to analyse photographs in corporate reports. It can be extended/modified to capture visual representations in different contexts and other disciplines as well.

Blockchain technology (BT) is creating a new standard for all business operations. It can assist businesses in handling the complexity of circular digital supply chain (DCM) management. Despite this optimistic view, several barriers hinder its implementation. In this regard, this study contributes to Industry 4.0, circular economy (CE), the viability with a critical emphasis on its potential ramifications and influence on the future agenda while using BT technology in the supply chain (SC). In addition, the research reduces the knowledge gap by investigating and ranking the key barriers to the deployment of BT in viable circular digital supply chains (VCDSCs) and studies their interdependencies and causal relationships. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.

The barriers to BT adoption in the VCDSC are identified through a thorough literature review and considering viability performance. These barriers are then classified using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method. Decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) is then employed to examine the cause/effect, correlation, and connection among the 14 barriers selected barriers from the AHP classification to estimate each barrier's overall degree of impact over the others.

This paper identifies and analyzes the BT adoption barriers in the VCDSC as well as examines how the key barriers interact. As a result, according to the AHP/DEMATEL method, the most prominent influencing barriers to the BT implementation in the VCDSC are “Data transparency,” “Market competition,” “Missing infrastructure,” “Lack of standardization,” “Complex protocol,” “Lack of industry involvement,” “Financial constraints,” “Missing infrastructure,” “Data transparency” and “Interoperability.” The outcomes offer a potential path for identifying important barriers as well as insight into the implementation of BT in the SC while integrating different capabilities such as viability, sustainability and CE principles.

Managers and researchers will benefit from this research by gaining an understanding of the challenges that must be prioritized and examined for BT to be implemented successfully in the VCDSC.

The use and implementation of blockchain-enabled VCDSC continue to face challenges despite an increase in relevant practice and research. Despite the benefits of BT, managers struggle to apply such technology in the context of their company. In this respect, this paper uses an integrated AHP–DEMATEL for categorizing the BT barriers as well as the interrelationship between them. In this respect, this paper presents the BT barriers studied are those related to the use of BT in the SC while integrating different paradigms such as viability, digitalization and CE. While many studies look at the barriers to BT adoption; none of them has ever included the viable capability, which means the ability to “react agilely to positive changes, be resilient to absorb negative events and re-cover after disruptions and survive at long-term periods.” The study concludes with insightful comments based on the findings and suggestions for eradicating those obstacles and their associated effects.

The learning outcome of this case study is to help students identify issues of the electric two-wheeler industry in India, revisiting conventional business models and transitioning toward sustainable business models. Eventually, this case study will enhance students’ analytical, qualitative analysis, multidisciplinary approach and strategic decision-making skills.

This case study can be used to discuss Michael Porter’s five forces model, TOWS matrix and Michael Porter’s generic strategies for competitive advantage.

Bounce was established in 2014 by Vivekananda Halkere, Anil G. and Varun Agni. The startup was an on-demand service provider of scooters. It also claimed to be the world’s fastest-growing scooter rental startup. As of March 2020, Bounce operated in 12 Indian cities, namely, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Hassan, Kolar, Mysore, Bhuj, Udaipur, Belgavi, Hyderabad, Ahmadabad, Hampi and Delhi. Bounce’s revenue grew to INR 1,000m in the fiscal year (FY) 2020 compared to INR 160m in FY 2019. Halkere was happy and proud of what his friends and he had achieved in the past two years. However, he was concerned about competition. What plan of action was needed to help thwart competition. What would be the best strategy to achieve growth and monetize operations? and How would Bounce address these major challenges to capture market share?

This case study can be taught in advanced undergraduate, MBA or executive-level programs dealing with strategic management. This case study helps students in dealing with issues pertaining to a given market sector where a firm is operating and the strategies to thwart competition.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS11: Strategy.

Lean management is a contemporary management system that firms adopt to boost their performance. Lean management can be integrated with human resources management to develop a new concept of lean human resources management (LHRM). This entails the implementation of several practices. However, the LHRM–performance paradigm remains underexplored in the literature. Hence, this study aims to examine the interrelationships between LHRM practices and the impacts of those practices on firm performance (FP).

Using two equal-sized samples (n = 250 each) of manufacturing firms in Jordan and Germany, this study proposes two structural equation models (i.e. a Jordanian and a German models) depicting the interrelationships between LHRM practices and the impacts of those practices on FP. After testing these models, a comparison between them is conducted, producing findings with theoretical and practical implications.

The main findings of this study indicate that the average implementation of LHRM practices among German manufacturing firms is at a higher level than the average implementation among Jordanian firms. The findings also support the proposed interrelationships between LHRM practices and the impact of those practices on FP for both the Jordanian and German models.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to highlight the proposed relationships, both in general and in the context of comparing developed and developing countries. Its findings have important implications that can enable manufacturing managers to benefit from the implementation of LHRM practices to enhance FP in different contexts. These findings provide valuable insights for human resource managers and decision-makers and open several avenues for future research.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly applied by businesses to optimize their processes and decision-making, develop effective and efficient strategies, and positively influence customer behaviors. Businesses use AI to generate behaviors such as customer retention (CR). The existing literature on “AI and CR” is vastly scattered. The paper aims to review the present research on AI in CR systematically and suggest future research directions to further develop the field.

The Scopus database is used to collect the data for systematic review and bibliometric analysis using the VOSviewer tool. The paper performs the following analysis: (1) year-wise publications and citations, (2) co-authorship analysis of authors, countries, and affiliations, (3) citation analysis of articles and journals, (4) co-occurrence visualization of binding terms, and (5) bibliographic coupling of articles.

Five research themes are identified, namely, (1) AI and customer churn prediction in CR, (2) AI and customer service experience in CR, (3) AI and customer sentiment analysis in CR, (4) AI and customer (big data) analytics in CR, and (5) AI privacy and ethical concerns in CR. Based on the research themes, fifteen future research objectives and a future research framework are suggested.

The paper has important implications for researchers and managers as it reveals vital insights into the latest trends and paths in AI-CR research and practices. It focuses on privacy and ethical issues of AI; hence, it will help the government develop policies for sustainable AI adoption for CR.

To the author's best knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to comprehensively review the existing research on “AI and CR” using bibliometric analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential role of remittances on renewable energy consumption in the top recipient developing countries from 1990 to 2016.

The paper uses autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique to fulfil the purpose.

The empirical findings divulge that remittances positively affect renewable energy consumption. This finding implies that remittances can potentially increase the level of renewable energy consumption by increasing affordability if proper incentives and encouragement are offered.

Given the enormous potential that renewable energy can bring to an economy, the government should offer indirect incentives to encourage recipients to allocate a portion of their remittances to renewable energy projects, either as minor investors or users.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is novel for two reasons. First, this study adds to the existing literature by empirically examining the link between remittances and renewable energy consumption in the top five remittance recipients, which have never been studied before. Second, the findings of this study will have policy implications not only for the top remittance recipients but also for other remittance recipients, particularly for developing countries.

Following the recent rise in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools, fundamental questions about their wider impacts have started to reverberate around various disciplines. This study aims to track the unfolding landscape of general issues surrounding GenAI tools and to elucidate the specific opportunities and limitations of these tools as part of the technology-assisted enhancement of mechanical engineering education and professional practices.

As part of the investigation, the authors conduct and present a brief scientometric analysis of recently published studies to unravel the emerging trend on the subject matter. Furthermore, experimentation was done with selected GenAI tools (Bard, ChatGPT, DALL.E and 3DGPT) for mechanical engineering-related tasks.

The study identified several pedagogical and professional opportunities and guidelines for deploying GenAI tools in mechanical engineering. Besides, the study highlights some pitfalls of GenAI tools for analytical reasoning tasks (e.g., subtle errors in computation involving unit conversions) and sketching/image generation tasks (e.g., poor demonstration of symmetry).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study presents the first thorough assessment of the potential of GenAI from the lens of the mechanical engineering field. Combining scientometric analysis, experimentation and pedagogical insights, the study provides a unique focus on the implications of GenAI tools for material selection/discovery in product design, manufacturing troubleshooting, technical documentation and product positioning, among others.

This paper aims to conduct a systematic literature review on the fintech services and financial inclusion of the developing nations that particularly focuses on lower middle-income group nations (LMIGN) and upper middle-income group nations (UMIGN) to highlight the research areas that have not received attention and present opportunities for future research.

This paper adopts a systematic approach to examine 65 research articles published from 2016 to 2021, adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.

The study identifies research gaps in two key themes: backward and outward linkages. In backward linkages, the literature on UMIGN should pay attention to the behavioural patterns associated with lending, investment and market provision-related fintech services. Further research is needed to understand the relationship between fintech services on the usage and quality dimension of financial inclusion in both LMIGN and UMIGN. For outward linkages, future research work should explore the role of fintech and financial inclusion in the development of LMIGN. This study provides valuable insights and guides future research directions by comprehensively mapping the existing studies.

This study does not use quantitative tools, such as meta and bibliometric analysis, to validate the findings.

This research paper offers new perspectives that introduce a novel framework for analysing literature on fintech, financial inclusion and its impact on the overall development of UMIGN and LMIGN.