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The main purpose of the study is to identify the differences and similarities in the communication between B2B participants in cross-cultural environments.

The research methods used in the study are two-fold: the literature analysis is complemented by primary qualitative research conducted in small- and medium-sized enterprises operating in Poland and doing business internationally. The research was focused on two culturally different markets: China and the United States. In the empirical research, the authors used one of the qualitative methods – Individual Depth Interview (IDI).

General findings showed that the strongest influence of culture was identified among older (+50 years old) business partners. The younger ones are eager to adapt and try to understand others' viewpoints. The research results may be used in creating business communication models in the countries researched for companies that plan to enter both American and Chinese markets.

The results of the study may have useful applied managerial value and be used in cooperation between SMEs' B2B business partners, not only from Poland but also from the whole region of Central and Eastern Europe and the United States and China.

The findings may help to understand and communicate with culturally different social groups such as co-workers, students, teachers, etc.

The research presented in the paper covers the gap in the literature because it relates to some new factors (like cultural heritage, age and type of industry) which determine the effectiveness of personal business communication between partners in the international marketplace.

The question of whether and how communication departments contribute to organizational value creation has rarely been addressed in research. Such evidence is crucial, however, as communications compete internally with other functions (e.g. marketing and human resources (HR)) for budgets and staff. This article fills the gap by applying the business model concept, an established approach from management theory and practice, to communication units.

Based on an interdisciplinary literature review, the authors propose the Communication Business Model (CBM) as a new management approach for communications. To this end, pertinent definitions, frameworks and typologies of business models are analyzed and combined with insights from corporate communications literature.

The CBM outlines the generic architecture of business models for communication departments. Such models describe the basic principles of how such a unit operates, what services and products it provides, how it creates value for an organization and what revenues and resources are allocated.

The approach stimulates the debate on communication units as objects of observation when researching communication management practices. Further research with appropriate empirical methods is needed to identify and study different types of business models for communications.

The CBM can be used as a management tool to analyze, explain and innovate communication management in organizations. It is a fertile approach for communication practitioners to make the work of their department visible and to position themselves internally and externally.

Transferring a well-known concept from general management to communication management enriches the value creation debate in theory and practice. It allows communication leaders to align their work with organizational goals and make it accessible to top management and other decision-makers in the organization. It also opens up new avenues for research and education.

This perspective article highlights the importance of future research that explores how intra-family communication in family businesses was affected during challenging times such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The paper is based on a literature review of current perspectives on the role of informal communication in family businesses. The author offers some research insight into contributing to redirect the study of informal intra-family communication in family businesses.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its consequential effects have presented a series of challenges that possess the capacity to affect communication in any business. Nevertheless, these challenges in informal communication within family members hold a particular relevance for family businesses and require a reassessment of the fundamental assumptions that serve as the basis for research in challenging times.

This paper synthesizes the existing research on informal communication in the family business context and proposes some key research opportunities.

This study aims to develop a model for coordination and communication overhead in distributed software development through case study analysis in the Indian outsourcing software industry. The model is based on business knowledge, which can be classified as domain, regulatory, strategic, business process and operation process knowledge as per existing literature.

Double case study method was used to verify an existing knowledge–management framework of software development from the literature. The stakeholders of both the cases were interviewed, and project documents were verified to reach conclusions.

The findings supported the business knowledge classification from the literature. The concept can be used to analyze the software project in a distributed environment.

The research work findings are based only on two case studies. The study findings cannot be generalized and should be used as a learning tool. There can be large variations of project characteristics with differences in business knowledge requirements. The research shows the importance of business knowledge transfer in global software development.

Projects managers in the distributed software development environment can use the findings in project planning and work allocation for better control over cost and schedule, etc.

There is little research works attempted to study the business knowledge classification in the global software industry making the research novel.

Family businesses require internal communication (IC) to guide and provide direction, and the unique nature of involving both family and nonfamily employees add complexity. Navigating this complexity helps to ensure effective direction and management of family businesses. This paper explores the existing research concerning IC within family businesses and discusses the lenses and contexts through which it is commonly studied.

This paper provides a concise literature review to identify the most common lenses through which IC in family business has been researched.

IC in family enterprises is mostly studied through the lenses of IC between family generations, IC and the influence on family identity, and IC in times of crises. Existing research is largely focused on the role of family in IC, and limited consideration is given to the role of nonfamily members and family members outside of the business.

The paper synthesizes the direction and findings of existing research into IC within family business and provides avenues for future research. Managerial implications are also presented based on the synthesis of existing literature.

Scholars have affirmed that a conceptualization of value co-creation in business relationships should reflect the nature and characteristics of interactional processes that occur in use. The advent of sales and marketing technologies, however, is changing the nature and dynamics of interactions. New trends in digitalization have played a significant role in emphasizing and facilitating the occurrence of business-to- business (B2B) collaborative or sharing economy. The B2B sharing economy and value co-creation are closely intertwined, as businesses harness the power of shared resources and collaboration to generate value in diverse ways. This study highlights the importance of going beyond value co-creation in studying B2B collaborative economy, unpacking the interconnected value processes that influence value co-creation. It also aims at showing the activities that characterize multiple joint value spheres among actors.

The study consists of 49 qualitative interviews with managers operating in different industries.

The paper shows that when considering digital B2B contexts, five joint value spheres in business relationships should be considered: a value co-creation, a value appropriation, a value communication, a value measurement and a value representation sphere. Each one is characterized by specific activities that are relevant from a managerial point of view.

This study highlights that value co-creation has often been over stressed when discussing business interactions, also with the advent of new technologies. Rather, this study offers a more comprehensive view of value co-creation that includes different value processes occurring in joint value spheres. These further processes are relevant because failure and success in business relationships within the B2B sharing economy are often dependent from activities outside the value co-creation process, which strongly affect it. Such knowledge will also open up new research venues and opportunities to better contribute to the practice of value management in business relationships.

This study aims to explore the phenomenon of Islamic religious communication and how Islamic banks in Pakistan use religion-based communication, along with its expected outcomes.

Transcendental phenomenology approach is opted using a multi-stage data collection strategy consisting of observations, documentary reviews and semi-structural interviews to get deep into the phenomenon in a particular context.

Findings highlight Islamic religious communication as workplace Islamic da’wah that is majorly categorized into compulsive da’wah, objectics da’wah and impulsive da’wah, serving its role in bringing spirituality to work through work-faith integration.

The finding of the study can be used in planning, formulating and implementing Islamic da’wah-based model to induce spirituality at work.

This study is the first of its type exploring Islamic da’wah in an organizational context as a mean to bring spirituality at work.

With the widespread use of online communications, users are extremely vulnerable to a myriad of deception attempts. This study aims to extend the literature on deception in computer-mediated communication by investigating whether the manner in which popularity information (PI) is presented and media richness affects users’ judgments.

This study developed a randomized, within and 2 × 3 between-subject experimental design. This study analyzed the main effects of PI and media richness on the imitation magnitude of veracity judges and the effect of the interaction between PI and media richness on the imitation magnitude of veracity judges.

The manner in which PI is presented to people affects their tendency to imitate others. Media richness also has a main effect; text-only messages resulted in greater imitation magnitude than those viewed in full audiovisual format. The findings showed an interaction effect between PI and media richness.

The findings of this study contribute to the information systems literature by introducing the notion of herd behavior to judgments of truthfulness and deception. Also, the medium over which PI was presented significantly impacted the magnitude of imitation tendency: PI delivered through text-only medium led to a greater extent of imitation than when delivered in full audiovisual format. This suggests that media richness alters the degree of imitating others’ decisions such that the leaner the medium, the greater the expected extent of imitation.

Listening is often considered the cornerstone of the communication process, with feedback being a crucial skill for effective management. The primary objective of this article was to investigate the relationship between managers’ listening skills and feedback skills from their subordinates’ perspectives. Moreover, it explores the mediating effect of message-sending skills and the ability to deal with interference in this relationship.

This article deployed a quantitative, descriptive research design. The authors developed and distributed a self-administered questionnaire via non-probability convenience sampling, resulting in 304 useable responses.

The results of the main direct effect test (model 1) indicate that listening is positively associated with feedback. Model 2 established that message-sending skills did not directly mediate that relationship. On the other hand, the ability to deal with interference was found to mediate the relationship. Finally, model 4 showed the multi-mediating effect of message-sending skills and the ability to deal with interference in the relationship between listening and feedback.

As far as the researchers are aware, this paper is the first of its kind to show the ability to deal with interference as a mediating factor in a statistical model. Moreover, this study is the first to present a continuous intermediary role played by message-sending skills and the ability to deal with interference in the relationship between listening and feedback.

The authors investigate the relationship between instant messenger (IM) use and work performance, mediated by interruptions and two key indicators of the stress associated with technology use: overload and complexity.

The authors validate this research model using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) with data collected through a survey of 416 working professionals.

The data reveal that while IM use contributes minimally to work interruptions and to a greater extent to technological complexity, these two constructs fully mediate the direct influence of IM use at work on technology overload, and meanwhile significantly and directly contribute to work performance.

This research provides theoretical insights into the deployment of IM and its actual impacts in the workplace. To improve the generalisation of the findings, the authors call for more IM-related research in other countries, with more native theories and various methodologies in this domain.

The level of stress generated through IM use is moderate, considering IM is not a significant contributor to work interruptions. Thus, despite the potential negative effects of IM communication, the positive effects of using IM at work prevail. As a result, the technology can be promoted as long as employees, their managers and the organisation as a whole are well prepared. Employees can transfer skills and behaviour from the personal setting to their work environment and thus may find an intrinsic motivation to make better use of the IM technology at work.

The authors argue that this research model is novel for its perspective on evaluating the actual impacts of IM use at work instead of the reasons of using it. The authors conceptualise the process to explain how IM contributes to interruptions and other technostress indicators in the working context, and the impact on performance. Contrary to some prior research, the authors find that overall IM applications do not have a negative impact on work performance, and instead may enhance it.