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The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework that describes and explains how corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are perceived by customers and links customer perception to the notion of customer value perception. To explore customer value conception firstly, the perception of CSR initiatives is investigated; secondly, indications for the value-enhancing effects of CSR initiatives are studied, and finally, the varying effects which different value categories can have on customer attitudes and behaviour are extracted.

The data consists of 12 semi-structured interviews with customers of European telecommunication companies.

The results suggest that CSR initiatives, when communicated efficiently and considered as relevant by customers, will enhance two customer value categories: the extrinsic self-oriented value defined as efficiency and excellence and the intrinsic other-oriented value pertaining to ethics or spirituality. Enhancement of extrinsic self-oriented value imbeds the potential of CSR initiatives to affect customers’ purchase behaviour and thus strengthen ethical consumerism within the telecommunications industry.

The main implication for research is a better understanding of the relationship between customer perception and customer value perception in the field of ethical consumerism. Focussing on one industry for the study can be named as a limitation.

As indicated by the research, results by customers prioritised CSR initiative can affect the customer value perception, mainly the extrinsic/self-oriented value. If the company is aiming to change customer behaviour and to strengthen ethical consumerism, it is important that the customer experience of CSR initiatives improve excellence (quality) and/or efficiency of the product/service.

This paper fulfils an identified need of research on how CSR initiatives can influence consumer behaviour.

The learning outcomes of this study are as follows:

1. comprehending foundational dimensions of brand equity and criteria to compare the use of traditional and new media in leading brand communication appropriateness and performance;

2. understanding and evaluating implications of leading brand communications during times of crises; and

3. creating recommendations for leading brand communication preparedness and response to crises.

On 16 August 2020, Dr Barbara Jensen Vorster, Senior Executive Manager, Communications and Marketing of the Gautrain Management Agency (GMA), in Midrand South Africa, considered her dilemma of adapting their communication approach during COVID-19 and beyond the current crisis. The GMA relied on traditional media and the crisis created an opportunity to rethink their entire communications approach. It was important to the GMA communications team to keep the Gautrain commuters connected even though they might not be using the Gautrain during the lockdown of COVID-19. Jensen Vorster believed that a brand should be adaptive and continue even when a service is not running. Jensen Vorster had to lead her communications team when they were all working from home, and they had to keep commuters informed of the requirements during the different levels of lockdown in South Africa. Their various campaigns during this time purposefully communicated with commuters and the various “staying home” initiatives with the intention of lifting spirits. The communication outreach during the COVID-19 pandemic switched over to social media communications out of necessity; however, was that ideal communication during a crisis? While most of the case focuses on this external communication, the case pays attention to some internal communication initiatives by Jensen Vorster with her own team and for the Gautrain’s staff. The question is whether brands should shift from traditional media to new media campaigns during the 21st-century crises? Students will get the opportunity to compare the use of traditional and new media during crisis times. How might they approach their brand communications during COVID-19 and in preparation for future crises?

Marketing and Business Communications and Leadership courses for MBA or executive education programs.

Masters level MBA.

The team of authors conducted face-to-face interviews prior to and during the lockdown in South Africa; the interviews were conducted online through Zoom. Interviews included Dr Barbara Jensen Vorster, Senior Executive Manager, Communications and Marketing of the Gautrain Management Agency and Kesagee Nayager, the Marketing and Communications Executive Manager at Bombela Concession Company. Viwe Mgedzi, Executive Manager for Knowledge Management, provided documents supporting the case. The researchers also conducted desktop research of secondary data, including media and press articles on the companies. The @Gautrain Twitter feed was very important for the researchers to investigate as part of the secondary data research, to triangulate the interview data.

For example, see one of the Twitter feeds on 17 March 2020, 5:37 pm.

The following Twitter feed on the Gautrain’s status confirmed the interview data: https://twitter.com/TheGautrain/status/1239938937885466633

The main resources of this case study were the interviews and the media articles to offer objective references. The authors used the following two newspaper articles to triangulate the information they gained from the interviews:

BusinessTech, March 18, 2020, accessed March 8, 2021 at https://businesstech.co.za/news/lifestyle/382707/south-african-coronavirus-cases-jumps-to-116-as-a-gautrain-exec-tests-positive/

Timeslive, www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-03-17-staff-in-self-isolation-after-executive-tests-positive-two-gautrain-stations-chemically-decontaminated/

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management science; CSS 8: Marketing.

After completion of the case study, the students will be able to gain knowledge on public–private partnerships (PPPs) in emerging markets; understand how to apply the sensing element of the dynamic capabilities framework in analysing context, especially in emerging market context; and understand how to apply the dynamic capabilities framework to the process of developing brand equity.

On 20 March 2020, in Johannesburg South Africa, Dr Barbara Jensen Vorster, the head of corporate communications and marketing at the Gautrain Management Agency, was considering her dilemma of how to manage stakeholders at a time when the patronage guarantee was under question. The nature of the Gautrain PPP transport contract entailed a revenue guarantee that was called a patronage guarantee. How did they build their Gautrain brand equity during the Gautrain PPP patronage guarantee controversy? This case study highlights the perspectives of multiple stakeholders which places the Gautrain brand equity under strain. The Gautrain brand identity was created to project an integrated, overarching brand position for the construction project and later the operating company. The logo illustrated Africanisation, and the slogan “For People on the Move” represented a modern collaborative approach. Upholding the status of the brand is an important quest for the corporate communications and marketing team, and therefore the issue around the patronage guarantee must be addressed. This case study illustrates contrasting views about the Gautrain being elitist versus the rapid rail train enabling economic prosperity. The pro-prosperity versus pro-economic development values were at the heart of the different opinions around the patronage guarantee. Students are therefore confronted with their own values while the case study aims to drive an awareness or consciousness around these issues in an emerging market.

This case study is appropriate for advanced undergraduate and Master of Business Administration courses focused on marketing, communications and/or stakeholder management, such as in business and society courses. At both levels, the case study will be valuable in generating discussion on communications models and how to manage stakeholders ranging from government to community representatives. In courses where dynamic capabilities theory is taught, this case study will offer a specific application of this model in the context of brand communications and building brand equity in times of controversy.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The uncertainty as to whether investments in riskier and less efficient markets allow managers to ‘beat the market’ remains a question to which answers are required. Accordingly, the purpose of this chapter is to offer new insights on portfolios of the US, European and Emerging Market (‘EM’) domiciled equity mutual funds whose objectives are the investment in emerging economies, and specifically analyses two main issues: alpha generation and the influence of the funds’ characteristics on their risk-adjusted performance.

The dataset is made up a survivorship-bias controlled sample of 137 equity funds over the period January 2004 to December 2014, which are then grouped into equally weighted portfolios according to the scheme’s origin. The Jensen’s (1968) Single-Factor model along with the Fama and French’s (1993) and Carhart’s (1997) multifactor models are employed to authenticate results and answer both research questions.

Research analysis reveals that EM exposed fund managers fail to collectively outperform the market. It thereby offers ground to believe that the emerging world is very close to being efficient, proving that the Efficient Market Hypothesis (‘EMH’) ideal exists in this scenario where market inefficiency might only be a perception of market participants as any apparent opportunity to achieve above-average returns is speedily snapped up by very active managers. Overall these managers take a conservative approach to portfolio construction, whereby they are more unperturbed investing in large cap equity funds so as to lessen somewhat the exposure towards risks associated with liquidity, stability and volatility.

Furthermore, the findings show that large-sized equity portfolios have the lead over the medium and small-sized competitors, whilst the high cost and mature collective investment vehicles enjoy an alpha which although is negative is superior to their peers. The riskiest funds generated the lowest alpha, and thereby produced doubts as to whether investors should accept a higher risk for the hope of earning higher returns, at least when aiming to gain an exposure into the emerging world.

Mutual fund performance is not an innovative topic so to speak. Nonetheless, researchers and academia have centred their efforts on appraising the behaviour of fund managers domiciled primarily in developed and more efficient economics, leaving the emerging region highly uncovered in this respect. This study, therefore aims at crafting meaningful contributions to the literature as well as to the practical perspective.

The accounting profession has been charged by Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger with a public responsibility to fulfill a “public watchdog” function. This function demands that the accountant maintains total independence from the client at all times and requires complete fidelity to the public trust (Briloff, 1990). The accounting profession also fulfills a monitoring and enforcing role in society in that the monitoring of contracts is considered a necessary cost of contracting (Jensen & Meckling, 1976). The North American Free Trade Agreement is viewed as a coalition of participants who interact through a system of contracts and agreements regarding trade between Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Explicit in the agreement is the recognition of the individual rights of the labor sector. This article discusses the rights of labor acknowledged by NAFTA, and the role accounting should play as a response to these agreements. Previous papers have called for the creation of a value theory in accounting that is socially conscious (Tinker, Merino, and Neimark, 1982) and for the development of a political economy of accounting which explicitly considers the relationships between accounting and the institutional structure of the economy (Cooper & Sherer, 1984). The Economist (4/9/94, p.14) calls for social disclosure as a means of advancing the cause of human rights in the third world. Following this literature, which calls on the accounting profession to become actively involved in setting accounting policy that is socially conscious, this article recommends making changes to the existing U.S. and North American accounting systems to facilitate fair economic growth and resource allocation between the North American countries. Recommendations include encouraging accounting standard setters and governmental bodies to require publicly traded companies doing business under NAFTA to provide additional disclosures concerning labor and other NAFTA agreements, such as environmental disclosures, in order to provide socially relevant information to stakeholders in all three countries. Additionally, an international group of auditors should be formed and funded by the NAFTA countries to monitor and publish compliance with the NAFTA agreements on labor and other issues, and to provide credibility to the required disclosures.

The Food Systems Leadership Institute (FSLI) is a 2-year leadership development program consisting of 3 intensive in-person immersion retreats, and a robust and customizable distance-based program. Participants come primarily from land-grant and public universities and learn about personal, organizational and system leadership with a focus on food systems as an organizing theme. For this study, program graduates from FSLI Cohorts 4-6 (n=60) were asked to complete an online retrospective pre- and post-test of skill competency and skill use for 20 competencies addressed in the program, with 47 (78%) completing the survey. Data indicate participants’ ratings of skill competency increased significantly across all 20 targeted areas.Participants further noted that they used these skills more after completing the program as compared to prior to the Fellowship training. Data suggest the FSLI model of leadership development can have a significant impact on participants’ perceived skill level in and use of important skills in both personal and organizational leadership in academic and food system settings.

The purpose of this paper is to study well-being among the internationally mobile work force by exploring the relationships between international business traveling, work-family conflict (WFC), and health issues. In this study, these relationships are examined on the basis of the health impairment process of the job demands-resources model. More specifically, the study examines the role of WFC as a mediator between international business travel and sleep problems using a full panel design.

The data for this study are drawn from Finnish employees whose work involved international business travel (n=868) and who answered two surveys with a one-year time lag.

The results showed that international business travel in terms of the number of travel days per year, while not predicting sleep problems directly over time, did significantly increase WFC, which in turn increased sleep problems. Thus, WFC functioned as a mediator in the relationship between business travel and subsequent sleep problems.

The results indicate that family-friendly HR policies and practices might help international business travelers (IBTs) reduce levels of WFC, which could in turn protect them from harmful health effects, particularly sleep problems.

The study examines the understudied professional group of IBTs and contributes to the knowledge on their well-being and WFC issues.

This chapter describes the unique journey of two faculty members and six undergraduate students through the field of social justice theory and practice during the implementation of inquiry-based learning (IBL) in a social justice course. The two faculty members, from different departments, Education and Religion Studies, collaborated to structure and co-teach the course using IBL pedagogical strategies. This collaborative opportunity was made possible through a generous grant from the 1976 Hamilton Faculty Fellowship that was administered through the college’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). The six undergraduate students represented majors from different disciplines. The goal of this chapter is to share the IBL implementation and to discuss the advantages and limitations from the perspectives of both the students and the two faculty. The chapter describes: (1) our exploration of the practice of social justice including how it ties to the mission and core values of the college and the theoretical framework of IBL, (2) implementation of IBL, (3) student and faculty feedback on the experience, and (4) advantages and limitations of the practice in higher education with suggestions for future practice.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and moderating effect of gender and parental status on the relationship between international business travel days and work-to-family conflict (WFC) among international business travellers (IBTs) on the basis of the conservation of resources theory.

The study was conducted among 1,366 Finnish people in jobs demanding international business travel and a moderated hierarchical regression was utilised in data analysis.

An increase in the number of international business travel days and being a parent is positively related to WFC. Women with dependent children experience a lower level of WFC than do men with dependent children. However, a significant interaction effect between international business travel days, parental status and gender was found that indicates that the volume of travel days increases the level of WFC for those women who have children more than it does for women who do not have children. For men, increased numbers of travel days raises levels of WFC, as does having children, but there is no interaction between travel days and parental status among men. An increased number of travel days was least critical for WFC among women without dependent children and most critical for WFC among women with dependent children However, women with dependent children were able to travel to a considerable extent before their levels of WFC overtook those of men with dependent children.

The findings indicate that organisations should pay particular attention to developing policies and practices that take account of the family status of the traveller. In addition, to assist IBTs to cope with their WFC, attention should be paid to the intensity of work-related travel. However, gender seemed not to play a particularly important role in WFC, indicating that organisations need not be wary of recruiting both men and women into roles involving international business travel.

This is the first study focusing on IBTs WFC that simultaneously takes account of how the intensity of business travel and both gender and parenthood are related to it.

Launched in 2005, the Food Systems Leadership Institute (FSLI) is a 2-year leadership development program primarily focused on academic leaders. As of spring 2020, FSLI has enrolled 15 Cohorts, training a total of 347 Fellows. In 2020, a review of the graduated cohorts was undertaken to understand both the range of institutions served by FSLI and the career trajectory of the 319 graduated Fellows who participated in Cohorts 1-14. A total of 78 different organizations have enrolled FSLI participants, including 79% of the 1862 Land Grant Universities, 68% of the 1890 Land Grant Universities, and 12% of the 1994 Institutions, in addition to fewer participants from non-Land Grant public universities, government institutions, industry, and institutions located outside of the U.S. FSLI has served participants from 84% of the US and Territories. The review showed that 46% of Fellows in Cohorts 1-14 advanced into higher positions of academic administration and they filled 169 new hierarchical positions, including college-level, university-level and system-level administration positions in higher education. Similar trajectories were found in industry-organizations, although in smaller numbers. In all, 470 administrative and leadership positions have been filled in these organizations by the 319 members of the cohorts reviewed. While career progression is a limited measure of leadership success, this brief review supports the hypothesis that participation in the FSLI program contributes to the careers of the enrolled participants.