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This chapter discusses conceptual links among Hazel Kyrk’s A Theory of Consumption (1923), the overall work of Thorstein Veblen, and Wesley C. Mitchell’s essays on spending and money. The three authors are concerned with transformations in production, related changes in the organization of consumption, and the effects on people. The approach is based on reading of Kyrk’s book in light of an integrated view of Veblen’s overall work. This chapter explains how Mitchell’s essays on money and spending built on Veblen’s work and discusses their relevance for understanding Kyrk’s book as conceptually linked to institutional economics. This chapter delineates the following commonalities: conception of living humans and money as an institution; distinction between business and industrial concerns; connection between distribution, waste, and consumption; and Veblen’s “machine process” of standardization in production and its relation to consumption. This chapter brings more detail in the conceptual and theoretical discussion of Veblen’s influence on Kyrk’s book.

Not that long ago, half of all sales research was demonstrably if not unequivocally “atheoretical” (Williams and Plouffe, 2007). The foundational argument of this paper is that stronger theoretical development and application of theory in sales research is critical for the sales field to retain its relevancy. The purpose of this paper is to underscore that deliberate and cogent application of HWV (2018) is scant in the recent sales literature (over five years after publication in Journal of Marketing) for one or both of two reasons: scholars either do not understand the paper and/or are fearful of (mis)applying it.

More than simply introducing the articles to this special issue of the European Journal of Marketing (EJM), this paper also makes a number of important, overdue contributions. Although Hartmann, Wieland and Vargo’s JM (HWV, 2018) theoretical and conceptual paper has been well-received by the sales community, it has seen limited meaningful integration or application in sales research since its publication. This paper thus clarifies key misunderstandings and misperceptions with HWV (2018) so that sales researchers can more impactfully apply it to future sales research.

This paper identifies and then explains key aspects of service-dominant logic (S-D logic) and commonly misapplied and/or misunderstood aspects of HWV (2018) to guide future sales research. Ultimately, the overarching goal of this special issue of EJM is to focus a “spotlight” on sales theory development, while simultaneously demonstrating – through the five articles the special issue reports – that with purposeful effort, rich theoretical insights can effectively be applied to both “classic” and more current and emergent sales research topics.

Because HWV (2018) draw heavily upon S-D logic, it follows that some aspects of their article have been misinterpreted or misapplied by sales scholars. In particular, the critical concept of “crossing points” (both of the “thick” and “thin” variety) are explicated and detailed further, so as to afford sales researchers with better knowledge and insight on how to apply these key tools within HWV (2018).

The practical implications of this paper primarily revolve around further educating and clarifying for sales researchers “how” to better apply HWV (2018) to sales research, rather than simply citing it in passing. The paper also concludes by providing a summary and introduction to each of the five EJM special issue articles.

The originality and value of this paper and this special issue of the EJM is twofold. First, both this paper and the entire special issue itself emphasize the ongoing importance of advancing sales research through the meaningful and cogent application of theory. Second, the paper demonstrates that purposeful effort can lead to successful applications of HWV (2018) – as exhibited by the five articles in the EJM special issue – such that rich theoretical insights can be woven into both traditional and contemporary sales research topics.

The paper seeks to introduce the “critical open access literacy” construct as a holistic approach to confront the challenges in open access (OA) as a dimension of scholarly communication.

The paper first introduces the concepts of information literacy (IL) and OA in the context of transformations in the scholarly information environment. Via a theoretical-analytical exercise on the basis of a literature review of the intersections between the two concepts and of the criticisms of OA, the paper discusses the role of critical IL in addressing the challenges in OA and lays the theoretical-conceptual groundwork for the critical OA literacy construct.

The structural nature of the challenges and transformations in the scholarly information environment require new foci and pedagogical practices in library and information studies. A more holistic, critical and integrative approach to OA is warranted, which could effectively be achieved through the re-conceptualization of IL.

The paper specifies the avenues for putting the theoretical conceptualizations of critical OA literacy into practice by identifying possible foci for IL instruction alongside a transformed role for librarians.

The paper extends deliberations on the role of critical IL for scholarly communication and attempts to advance the research fields of the two domains by proposing a new construct situated at the junction of OA and IL.

Following the imperative for human-centric digital innovation brought by the paradigm of Industry 5.0, the article aims to integrate the dispersed and multi-disciplinary literature on individual risks for workers to define, explain and predict individual risks related to Industry 4.0 technologies.

The paper follows the question, “What is the current knowledge and evidence base concerning risks related to Industry 4.0 technologies, and how can this inform digital innovation management in the manufacturing sector through the lens of the Industry 5.0 paradigm?” and uses the method of systematic literature review to identify and discuss potential risks for individuals associated with digital innovation. N = 51 contributions met the inclusion criteria.

The literature review indicates dominant trends and significant gaps in understanding risks from a human-centric perspective. The paper identifies individual risks, their interplay with different technologies and their antecedents at the social, organizational and individual levels. Despite this, the paper shows how the literature concentrates in studying risks on only a limited number of categories and/or concepts. Moreover, there is a lack of consensus in the theoretical and conceptual frameworks. The paper concludes by illustrating an initial understanding of digital innovation via a human-centered perspective on psychological risks.

Findings yield practical implications. In investing in the adoption, generation or recombination of new digital technologies in organizations, the paper recommends managers ensure to prevent risks at the individual level. Accordingly, the study’s findings can be used as a common starting point for extending the repertoire of managerial practices and interventions and realizing human-centric innovation.

Following the paradigm of Industry 5.0, the paper offers a holistic view of risks that incorporates the central role of the worker as crucial to the success of digital innovation. This human-centric perspective serves to inform the managerial field about important factors in risk management that can result in more effective targeted interventions in risk mitigation approaches. Lastly, it can serve to reinterpret digital innovation management and propose future avenues of research on risk.

This paper aims to consolidate empirical studies between 2013 and 2022 to investigate the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education. It aims to examine published research characteristics and provide insights into the promises and challenges of AI integration in academia.

A systematic literature review was conducted, encompassing 44 empirical studies published as peer-reviewed journal papers. The review focused on identifying trends, categorizing research types and analysing the evidence-based applications of AI in higher education.

The review indicates a recent surge in publications concerning AI in higher education. However, a significant proportion of these publications primarily propose theoretical and conceptual AI interventions. Areas with empirical evidence supporting AI applications in academia are delineated.

The prevalence of theoretical proposals may limit generalizability. Further research is encouraged to validate and expand upon the identified empirical applications of AI in higher education.

This review outlines imperative implications for future research and the implementation of evidence-based AI interventions in higher education, facilitating informed decision-making for academia and stakeholders.

This paper contributes a comprehensive synthesis of empirical studies, highlighting the evolving landscape of AI integration in higher education and emphasizing the need for evidence-based approaches.

The purpose of this review is to evaluate existing learning agility measures and offer recommendations for their use in organizational and scholarly contexts.

This is a general review paper assessing the psychometric qualities of prevalent learning agility measures. Measures were selected based on their predominance and use in the learning agility literature and organizational settings.

Learning agility measurement is an area requiring further research. Multiple conceptualizations of learning agility exist, making the true structure of learning agility unclear. The learning agility measures in the academic literature deviate from learning agility’s traditional conceptualization and require further validation and convergent validity studies. Commercial measures of learning agility exist, but their development procedures are not subjected to peer review and are not widely used in academic research, given the cost associated with their use.

Learning agility is prevalently used in organizational settings and is receiving increased scholarly attention. Various conceptualizations and measurement tools exist, and it is unclear how these theories and measures relate and differ. This paper contributes to practice by providing practical guidelines and limitations for measuring learning agility.

Learning agility was initially conceived as a multidimensional construct comprising people agility, results agility, change agility and mental agility. As the construct has evolved, the dimension structure of the measure has evolved as well. This study addresses a gap in our current understanding of how to conceptualize and measure learning agility.

The purpose of this study is to disclose ontology of DSI as a novel concept in servitization community, explore the research context and themes (i.e. technological and industrial sectors) where DSI emerges, unveil methodological complexities of the research on digital servitization and DSI and provide guidelines for future research avenues regarding DSI.

Bearing in mind the relative novelty of DSI as a concept in servitization literature, the authors adopted a systematic literature review approach to identify 111 peer-reviewed articles published in English language and available in business and management disciplines via scholar databases (Scopus). The analysis of literature discloses descriptive and thematic insights regarding digital servitization and DSI.

The study provides valuable insights from the descriptive and thematic analyses where classification of articles per publication year, citations, methodology/type of the paper, geographical location of data collection, as well as industrial sector and technological contexts are discussed. Moreover, the unique value of this study is observed through its specific focus on the characteristics of DSI-related literature.

The study is among the first of its kind to provide extensive descriptive and thematic insights on the available literature dealing with digital servitization and DSI, mapping out prior research across a wide spectrum of publication outlets and illustrating the chronological evolution of research on digital servitization and DSI.

Political Science in the United States has focused too much on variable-oriented, quantitative methods and thus lost its ability to ask “big questions.” Stein Rokkan (d. 1979) was an eminent comparativist who asked big questions and provided such qualitative tools as conceptual maps, grids, and clustered comparisons. Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), arguably the first social scientist, also asked big questions and provided a universal explanation about the dialectical relationship between nomads and sedentary people. This article analyzes to what extent Ibn Khaldun's concepts of asabiyya and sedentary culture help understand the rise and fall of the Muslim civilization. It also explores my alternative, class-based perspective in Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment. Moreover, the article explores how Rokkan's analysis of cultural, geographical, economic, and religio-political variations within Western European states can provide insights to the examination of such variations in the Muslim world.

This review addresses how student organizations are conceptually framed in the scholarly literature—organizations the authors referred to as “ethnicized student organizations” or “ESOs,” which include both Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) student organizations and ethnically white student organizations such as mainstream fraternities/sororities and clubs that are normalized as not having a racial/ethnic affiliation.

Critical race theory informs the analysis of 175 articles that address ESOs from 2002 to 2016.

Analysis revealed that a majority of scholarship conceptualizes ESOs in ways that can minimize the role of institutional whiteness where they are positioned as either serving or hindering both individual students and institutional goals. Findings also reveal a smaller body of literature that emphasized institutionalized power dynamics and honors the transformative work of BIPOC students through ESOs.

Despite widespread public commitments to diversity among institutions, whiteness remains a core institutional presence. This study illustrates the relationships among student organizations, white supremacy and higher education transformation.