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One potential source of pioneer brand advantage is retail buyers’ preference for pioneer brands. A model of pioneer brand advantage with retailers developed in the USA was tested in Japan, as a replication and cross‐cultural extension. This provides the first empirical study of Japanese retail buyer beliefs, attitude, and behavior toward new offerings, and the first direct statistical comparison of US and Japanese retail buying behavior in the marketing literature. Similarities and differences in pioneer brand advantage with retailers between Japan and the USA are discussed. Results from a survey of buyers from Japan’s largest supermarket chains suggest that pioneer brand advantage is about as strong for them as for their US counterparts, though for somewhat different reasons. The survey’s results were analyzed in two ways (through a multi‐attribute attitude model and a PLS causal model), with results that complement and corroborate one another. Data were standardized to deal with potential extreme response style bias.

Organizations are implementing sustainability initiatives in different countries with varied socio-cultural systems. The literature on sustainability, however, does not present a clear picture of how national culture can influence interpretations of the meaning of sustainability and how these differences in interpretation can result in different sustainability practices. The purpose of this paper is to build upon the current literature by identifying mechanisms (i.e. sustainability beliefs and perceptions) that mediate the relationship between national cultural values and organizational sustainability initiatives.

The authors examine the literature on culture and sustainability practices, and develop a conceptual model that identifies how cultural values influence the sustainability initiatives of organizations. Several propositions are identified that specify relationships among the constructs, and guidelines are provided for testing the model in future research.

The model posits that national culture influences sustainability beliefs and perceptions, which in turn influence the quantity and scope of sustainability initiatives. The relationship between sustainability beliefs and organizational sustainability initiatives is moderated by sustainability orientation and organizational capacity.

The model can help researchers and practitioners better understand the meaning of sustainability in the context of international business by identifying the mechanisms that explain the link between culture and sustainability. It can also help researchers generate hypotheses for future research. Finally, the model can guide multinational corporations attempting to drive sustainability programs through their subsidiaries as well as international developmental agencies trying to develop programs in partnership with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the direct and indirect factors of the elaborated theory of planned behaviour (TPB) relate to teachers’ intentions and use of technology in teaching.

The current study attempted to provide an understanding of teachers’ beliefs and intentions to use technology in teaching, and their influence on behaviours by applying and elaborating Ajzen’s TPB, a widely applied model for investigating social behaviour.

The elaborated TPB model was found to be a marginally fitting model in predicting and explaining intention and behaviour. The model explained only 17 per cent of variance in intention and 13 per cent in use of technology. Teacher’s use of technology in teaching was predicted by intention and perceived behavioural control (PBC); and intention was predicted by attitude towards the technology and PBC. Subjective norms made weak prediction on intention. The TPB model of direct factors explained 25 per cent of variance in intention and 16 per cent in use of technology.

This study takes a theoretical modelling approach, based on a survey assessing psychological variables (such as teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions) to explain teachers’ technology use in the classroom. The theoretical approach of this study is new within studies of computer technology use, which have normally been limited to reporting user demographic characteristics and/or factors influencing its use among users. This study attempted to develop measurement models that might be replicated by other researchers interested in the influencing factors for teachers’ technology use in education.

Much of IT research focuses on issues of adoption and adaptation of established technology artifacts by users and organizations and has neglected issues of how new technologies come into existence and evolve. To fill this gap, this paper depicts a complex picture of technology evolution to illustrate the development of Web browser technology. Building on actor‐network theory as a basis for studying complex technology evolution processes, it explores the emergence of the browser using content analysis techniques on archival data from 1993‐1998. Identifies three processes of inscribing, translating, and framing that clarify how actors acted and reacted to each other and to the emergent technological definition of the browser. This spiral development pattern incorporates complex interplay between base beliefs about what a browser is, artifacts that are the instantiation of those beliefs, evaluation routines that compare the evolving artifact to collective expectations, and strategic moves that attempt to skew the development process to someone's advantage. This approach clarifies the complex interdependence of disparate elements that over time produced the Web browser as it is known today.

Internships play an important role in the choices engineering students make about future career pathways though there is little research about the messaging students receive regarding internships from academics. This messaging is important because it can contribute to the expectations students set for internships which in turn influences the interpretation of the experience and sense of appropriateness of that particular career pathway. Situated in Expectancy X Value theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the beliefs and behaviors of the academics with whom engineering students interact as related to internship experiences.

The authors conducted and analyzed interviews with 13 career center employees and 14 academic advisers/faculty members across six demographically and geographically diverse schools. Interviews were coded, and within and across case patterns developed.

Across all six schools, interview participants believe internships are important for students with regard to three areas: enabling career discovery, providing opportunities for development of career skills and helping students with full-time job acquisition. However, participants describe few direct actions associated with these beliefs. The lack of recommended actions for making the most of the internship experience, despite a strong belief in their importance, is a major finding of this paper.

This study is original in that it examines an important perspective that is not often a focus of research related to internships: academic advisors, faculty or career center personnel. The multi-institution sample enhances the value of the study as commonalities were seen despite variation in schools, enabling recommendations useful to a variety of contexts.

This study examines how consumer involvement with apparel influences perceptions of an apparel product (T‐shirt) presented in a print advertisement. Consumer involvement with apparel was examined in relation to three advertisement response concepts: attitude toward the advertisement, product attribute beliefs, and product attitude. Also as part of the study, three dimensions of apparel involvement were tested (fashion, comfort, and individuality). Finally, an advertising processing model that integrates apparel involvement with the three advertisement response concepts was tested. A convenience sample of students attending a midwestern university in the USA participated in data collection. Respondents were presented with a full‐page advertisement for a fictitious brand of apparel and answered items on the questionnaire. Findings confirmed that dimensions of apparel involvement shaped consumer attitudes. A combination of apparel involvement dimensions (fashion, individuality, and comfort) influenced consumer beliefs about product attributes in the advertisement. In terms of gender differences, the comfort variable showed to be a stronger component of apparel involvement for men and women tended to be more involved in fashion. Findings also supported relationships among advertisement response variables previously tested by scholars. Product attribute beliefs and ad attitude were significant in product attitude formation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of top leaders beliefs in the importance of work-family balance as a key determinant in explaining the adoption of social practices oriented toward internal stakeholders, focussing on home telework as one of these practices.

A sample of 2,388 top executive officers reported the senior leaders belief favoring work-family balance by completing a new scale developed for this purpose asking how much key decision makers were convinced of the value to employees of supportive family-friendly HR practices, modeled how to balance work and family life, and felt a personal commitment to implement family-friendly practices. They also reported the firm’s provision of telework and organizational characteristics such as industry, multinational status, and firm size.

Regression analyses revealed that firm’s provision of telework is more pervasive when its top leaders believe in the importance of work-family balance, even after controlling for firm context (industry, geographical dispersion, and size). More importantly, the authors also find that managerial beliefs augment the positive effect of instrumental factors on the provision of home telework.

For practitioners, the most important message is that, while contextual and organizational features are important in the choice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices for employees, the conviction of senior leaders is absolutely essential.

This study contributes to the leadership and CSR literature by suggesting that top leaders play a catalyst role in contexts where telework is instrumentally valued. If we conceive CSR for employees as not driven solely by utilitarian logic, it requires a different paradigm that includes leadership motives.

The purpose of this paper is to integrate research on human resource systems with work on disability management practices to outline how multinationals across India and Germany are engaged in efforts to increase workplace inclusion of persons with a disability.

Semi-structured interviews with respondents from multinational corporations in India and Germany were conducted, transcribed, and analyzed.

Employers followed three guiding principles (i.e. beliefs): importance of harnessing diversity, encouraging multi-stakeholder engagement internally, and engaging with the external ecosystem to build internal human resource capabilities. Respondents further noted two interdependent and mutually constitutive programs that covered the life cycle of the employee: job flexibility provisions and integration programs. Country-specific differences existed in terms of perceived external stakeholder support and availability of talent.

The results complement prior research with respect to the importance of organizational factors for the inclusion of persons with a disability and also extend prior research by shedding light on the role of the national context in such inclusion endeavors.

Findings indicate that disability-inclusion principles may be universal, but their operationalization is region specific. Global organizations must be aware of these differences to design effective inclusion programs.

The study helps in designing and evaluating appropriate inclusion initiatives for persons with disabilities, an important yet underutilized group of potential employees in both India and Germany.

This is the first study to investigate country-specific commonalities and differences in fostering workplace inclusion of persons with disabilities in India and Germany.

This paper aims to propose a conceptual model for understanding the influence of change readiness on knowledge management processes and knowledge management effectiveness. It is suggested that change readiness should be assessed as a multidimensional construct consisting of psychological and structural facets. Furthermore, as the process of managing organizational knowledge requires interaction among members of the organization, a holistic view of readiness at individual and organizational levels is presented.

A comprehensive literature review results in the development of the conceptual model that depicts potential relationships between change readiness and knowledge management processes. It also postulates the effects of different knowledge management processes on effective knowledge management implementation.

Potential implications of change readiness from both psychological and structural dimensions for knowledge acquisition, creation and sharing processes are put forward. Further, it offers possible fruitful areas for continuous research of knowledge management effectiveness from a change perspective.

This article puts forward a number of potential relationships among the construct that are empirically testable to further understanding of multidimensional change readiness influences on the various types of knowledge management processes and its effective implementation.

Through a conceptualisation of the relationships between change readiness, knowledge management processes and knowledge management effectiveness, this paper offers a number of practical guidelines for the development of knowledge management policy and a road map from a change management perspective.

Previous literature on knowledge management focuses on understanding organizational readiness to promote successful knowledge management implementation in terms of the structural dimension. This paper proposes understanding of change readiness from a more comprehensive perspective comprising both psychological and structural readiness and its influences on knowledge management processes, which could affect overall effectiveness of knowledge management implementation.

Guided by the Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking (CMIS), this article identifies significant predictors that impact individuals seeking COVID-19 information. People with different political ideologies read contradictory information about the COVID-19 pandemic. However, how political ideology may affect COVID-19 information seeking remains unclear. This study explores the major information channels for individuals with different political ideologies to seek COVID-19 information. It further examines how political ideologies influence CMIS's effectiveness in predicting online health information-seeking.

This study collected 394 completed survey responses from adults living in the United States after the 2020 lockdown. ANOVA analyses revealed the differences in salience, beliefs, information carrier characteristics, utilities and information-seeking actions between Liberals and Conservatives. Regression analyses discovered variables that predict Liberals' and Conservatives' online health information seeking.

Results suggest that the internet is the top channel for COVID-19 information seeking. Compared to Conservatives, Liberals report more COVID-19 information-seeking actions. Liberals also express stronger salience, perceive higher trustworthiness of online COVID-19 information, are more likely to think of seeking online COVID-19 information as useful and helpful and report more substantial efficacy to mitigate the risk. Most CMIS variables predict Liberals' information seeking; however, only salience significantly predicts Conservatives' information seeking.

This article indicates that CMIS should include political ideology to refine its prediction of information seeking. These findings offer practical implications for designing health messages, enhancing information distribution and reducing the public's uncertainty.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-08-2022-0436.