Search results

This perspective article underscores the importance of conducting studies that examine the African philosophy of Ubuntu among indigenous African family businesses. The article summarises the understanding of the role of Ubuntu in indigenous African family businesses and explores potential pathways for further investigations to understand existing cultural and economic differences that could contribute to family business heterogeneity.

The article adopts an analytical and interpretative approach to existing literature in family businesses and Ubuntu philosophy. The approach helps to evaluate the role of Ubuntu philosophy in indigenous African family businesses. Ubuntu was chosen for examination in this article because it is a fundamental African value commonly acceptable in Africa.

The article emphasises the need to deepen the current understanding of the African philosophy of Ubuntu, highlighting the role this philosophy could play in shaping and positioning indigenous African family businesses for long-term success. This perspective article calls for integrating indigenous African philosophies into other knowledge systems to advocate for a better understanding of the institutional structures in indigenous African family businesses. Additionally, as businesses increasingly operate in a global context and more indigenous family businesses enter the formal global economic environments, non-indigenous business stakeholders and practitioners must gain an understanding of a diverse cultural perspective, such as Ubuntu.

This article highlights the importance of African philosophies in understanding business organisations by highlighting the need for family business scholars to investigate the role of Ubuntu in indigenous African family businesses. The perspective article proposes sample research questions and areas for exploring Ubuntu in indigenous African family businesses, which could offer new avenues to understand the cultural and economic differences embedded in indigenous African family business context.

The study aims to examine how different types of green brand ritual (GBR) influence customer engagement behavior and the mediation mechanisms and boundary conditions of the positive and negative pathways.

The study conducts two online experiments to collect data from a total of 940 consumers in China. Hypotheses are tested by independent samples t-test, two-way ANOVA and Hayes' PROCESS model.

Different kinds of GBR have different effects on customer engagement behavior. Internal GBR is more likely to play a positive role by inciting connectedness to nature. External GBR is more likely to play a negative role by inciting psychological resistance. This dual effect is especially pronounced for warm brands rather than competent brands.

The study pioneers the brand ritual into the field of interactive marketing and enriches its dual effect research. Additionally, the study figures out whether the category of brand ritual can trigger negative effect.

Inappropriate brand rituals are worse than no rituals at all. The results provide guidance for green companies to design effective brand rituals to strengthen the connection with consumers. Green brands should describe brand rituals in vivid detail and consciously lead consumers to immerse themselves in them.

Facilitating members' continual participation in a community is crucial for ensuring the community's long-term survival. However, knowledge regarding whether member similarity is related to member participation and the mechanism underlying this relationship is limited. Drawing on similarity–attraction, social exchange and social identity theories, this study explored the influences of different facets of similarity (i.e. value, personality and goal similarity) on group norm conformity, group identity and social participation.

Data were collected from 444 Taiwanese members of social networking sites (SNSs), and structural equation modeling was employed to examine the hypothesized relationships.

The results revealed that value similarity directly affected group norm conformity but did not directly affect group identity; personality similarity influenced group identity but not group norm conformity. Goal similarity had positive influences on group norm conformity and group identity. Moreover, group norm conformity had direct and positive influences on group identity and social participation; group identity also had a positive influence on social participation.

On the basis of the aforementioned findings, this study contributes to the understanding of factors facilitating SNS members' participation from the perspective of similarity. These findings can serve as a reference for SNS administrators to facilitate social participation by emphasizing member similarity.

This paper will challenge normative disaster studies and practice by arguing that thriving communities require the pursuit of imperfection and solidarity. The authors use Lewis Carroll’s Looking-Glass World as a lens to critique both how disasters are understood, and how disaster researchers and practitioners operate, within a climate-change affected world where cultural, political and historical constructs are constantly shifting.

The paper will undertake an analysis of both disasters and disaster studies, using this unique (and satirical) critical lens, looking at the unfolding of systemic mistakes, oppressions and mal-development that are revealed in contemporary disasters, that were once the critiques of Lewis Carroll’s Victorian-era England. It shows how disaster “resilience-building” can actually be a mechanism for continuing the status quo, and how persistent colonizing institutions and systems can be in reproducing themselves.

The authors argue the liberation of disaster studies as a process of challenging the doctrines and paradigms that have been created and given meaning by those in power – particularly white, Western/Northern/Eurocentric, male power. They suggest how researchers and practitioners might view disasters – and their own praxis – Through the Looking Glass in an effort to better understand the power, domination and violence of the status quo, but also as a means of creating a vision for something better, arguing that liberation is possible through community-led action grounded in love, solidarity, difference and interconnection.

The paper uses a novel conceptual lens as a way to challenge researchers and practitioners to avoid the utopic trap that wishes to achieve homogenized perfection and instead find an “imperfect” and complex adaptation that moves toward justice. Considering this idea through satire and literary criticism will lend support to empirical research that makes a similar case using data.

The aim of this research study is to examine the role of emotional solidarity on religious tourism support. Data for the present research work were attained from various groups of residents in Amasya province/Türkiye.

The Google form-based questionnaires were self-managed by the participants. In the context of the survey, 306 complete questionnaires were gathered. For the data analysis, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was used via SmartPLS 4.0 software in conjunction with SPSS version 23.

The analysis results show that the emotional solidarity dimensions such as welcoming nature and sympathetic understanding were found to be positively related with religious tourism support at different coefficient levels; however, emotional closeness was not statistically related.

This study adds fresh insights into the field of tourist literature and has beneficial ramifications for business development in the area of religious tourism.

Effective post-disaster communication is essential for destination marketing organizations to encourage visitors following natural disasters. This research aimed to analyze the impact of two typical types of post-disaster communication messages – solidarity messages and testimonial messages – on post-disaster visiting intention. This research proposes effective communication strategies for post-disaster destination marketing.

For the case of Jiuzhai Valley, China, which experienced market recovery after two years of rebuilding following a 2017 earthquake, this study designed three contextual experiments based on post-disaster communication scenarios on the Internet and social media to test the causal chain between recovery message types and post-disaster visiting intentions. The data were analyzed using analysis of variance, independent samples t-tests, and the bootstrap method.

The results indicate that both solidarity messages and testimonial messages evoked higher visiting intention than the no-message group. However, solidarity messages (vs testimonial messages) were more effective when shared on the destination management organization's official account than when they were shared on an influencer's account, with their effects being mediated by the symbolic – as opposed to the hedonic – value of tourist behavior.

Destination management organizations should actively carry out marketing communication through the Internet and social media for areas that have experienced disasters. Crisis communicators should consider inviting popular social media influencers to visit the destination and share their experiences to enhance market confidence, while also paying more attention to the operation of official social media accounts.

This study sheds light on the use of the Internet and social media as tools for post-disaster marketing. By expanding on post-disaster communication theory, this study fills a research gap regarding the effectiveness of tourism marketing strategies after a crisis.

This article aims to examine the manifestation of coloniality within social studies curricula and explore strategies for rejecting colonial paradigms through teaching praxis. The author presents a curriculum that unveils the narratives of Linnentown, a local Black community, to examine the impacts of colonial legacies on people's everyday lives.

Using the teaching and learning cycle framework, the author demonstrates the integration of sequenced embodied and multimodal activities. Furthermore, the author utilizes the concept of critical place-based education (CPBE) to demonstrate how critical pedagogies within the context of place can cultivate transformative learning experiences.

By guiding students to critically analyze the sociopolitical conditions of Linnentown residents, CPBE, paired with multimodal activities, helps challenge dominant narratives and empowers students to become agents of change in their local communities.

This curriculum fosters a nuanced understanding of structural oppression, empowers students to develop critical awareness and social agency and guides youth in confronting settler colonialism within and beyond their communities.

This study aims to elucidate the dynamics of social media discourse during global health events, specifically investigating how users across different platforms perceive, react to and engage with information concerning such crises.

A mixed-method approach was employed, combining both quantitative and qualitative data collection. Initially, thematic analysis was applied to a data set of social media posts across four major platforms over a 12-month period. This was followed by sentiment analysis to discern the predominant emotions embedded within these communications. Statistical tools were used to validate findings, ensuring robustness in the results.

The results showcased discernible thematic and emotional disparities across platforms. While some platforms leaned toward factual information dissemination, others were rife with user sentiments, anecdotes and personal experiences. Overall, a global sense of concern was evident, but the ways in which this concern manifested varied significantly between platforms.

The primary limitation is the potential non-representativeness of the sample, as only four major social media platforms were considered. Future studies might expand the scope to include emerging platforms or non-English language platforms. Additionally, the rapidly evolving nature of social media discourse implies that findings might be time-bound, necessitating periodic follow-up studies.

Understanding the nature of discourse on various platforms can guide health organizations, policymakers and communicators in tailoring their messages. Recognizing where factual information is required, versus where sentiment and personal stories resonate, can enhance the efficacy of public health communication strategies.

The study underscores the societal reliance on social media for information during crises. Recognizing the different ways in which communities engage with, and are influenced by, platform-specific discourse can help in fostering a more informed and empathetic society, better equipped to handle global challenges.

This research is among the first to offer a comprehensive, cross-platform analysis of social media discourse during a global health event. By comparing user engagement across platforms, it provides unique insights into the multifaceted nature of public sentiment and information dissemination during crises.

Global brands have become increasingly vulnerable to external disruptions that have negative spillover effects on consumers, business and brands. This research area has recently garnered interest post-pandemic yet remains fragmented. The purpose of this paper is to recognize the most impactful exogenous brand crisis (EBC) and its affective and behavioural impact on consumers.

In Study 1, we applied repertory grid technique (RGT), photo elicitation method and ANOVA comparisons, to identify the most significant EBC, in terms of repercussions on consumer purchases. In Study 2, we performed collage construction and content analysis to ascertain the impact of the identified significant crisis (from Study 1) on consumer behaviour in terms of affective and behavioural changes.

Study 1 results reveal Spread-of-diseases and Natural disaster to be the most impactful EBC based on consumer’s purchase decisions. Study 2 findings uncover three distinct themes, namely, deviant demand, emotional upheaval and community bonding that throws light on the affective and behavioural changes in consumer behaviour during the two significant EBC events.

The collated results of the two studies draw insights towards understanding the largely unexplored conceptualisation of EBC from a multi-level (micro-meso-macro) perspective. The integrated framework drawn, highlight the roles and influences of different players in exogenous brand crisis management and suggests future research agendas based on theoretical underpinnings.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study which identifies the most important EBC and explicates its profound impact on consumer purchase behaviour, providing critical insights to brand managers and practitioners to take an inclusive approach towards exogenous crises.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the spillover effects of microcredit on the economy of Ecuador, with a particular focus on its potential as a poverty alleviation mechanism.

To address our research questions, we take into account the distance between cantons (Ecuador’s own administrative distribution) by adopting a spatial autoregressive (SAR) model. To this end, a database will be constructed with macroeconomic information about the country, broken down by canton (administrative division of Ecuador), and in a 2019 cross section, with a total of 1,331 microcredit operations in all 221 of Ecuador’s cantons.

We find a positive effect of microcredit on these neighbouring regions in terms of wealth generation.

We acknowledge that this study is limited to Ecuadorian cantons. Nonetheless, it is crucial to emphasize that focussing on an under-represented developing country like Ecuador adds significant value to the research.

Facilitating access to microcredit is one of the main solutions to address the goals proposed in the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Microcredit activity contributes to the creation of value and wealth in Ecuador, exerting a spillover effect in neighbouring areas that can generate positive multiplier effects and alleviate poverty. For all of the above reasons, our proposal for the country is to support and promote microcredit as one of the main solutions to address the goals proposed in the SDGs.

The novelty of this study lies in the use of spatial econometrics to observe the indirect effects of microcredit on the regions bordering the canton in which it was issued, thus examining the spatial effects of microcredit on wealth distribution.