Search results

This research focuses on the role of product acquisition cues in positive word-of-mouth (PWOM) content on social media, comparing the characteristics of different sources of product acquisition (purchased vs. gifted) and exploring whether and how they affect consumers' reliance on word-of-mouth (WOM).

The research model was developed based on the mental imagery theory. Two offline experiments and two online experiments were used to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results show that, compared to the purchased source, the gifted source evokes more positive mental imagery and greater emotional attachment to the product, resulting in greater consumer reliance on PWOM. In addition, the effect of the source of product acquisition on reliance on PWOM was stronger for experiential (vs. material) products and for consumers with higher interdependent (vs. independent) self-construal.

This research highlights the role of product acquisition cues in PWOM in influencing consumers' evaluation of WOM, while also revealing the processes inherent in how consumers process information through mental imagery. The findings provide a more comprehensive understanding of the antecedents of reliance on WOM and offer new insights and recommendations for management practitioners.

After reviewing the literature focused on real-world course–client marketing projects as well as the literature regarding teaching entrepreneurial marketing (EM), the current paper assesses a census population (N = 106) of course–client projects selected by the current author via Riipen – an online course–project matching hub – for marketing courses taught from Spring 2018 through Spring 2023. The purpose of this paper is to uncover and explore the degree of EM teaching relevance of said course projects over the five-year span indicated.

All Riipen-sourced course–client projects selected by the current author for marketing courses taught from Spring 2018 through Spring 2023 (N = 106) were reviewed so that broad project-level and firm-level characteristics and trends – especially EM relevance – could be excavated and assessed over the five-year/10-semester span. In addition, an in-depth qualitative primacy-recency/bookend approach was taken with regards to the first semester (Spring 2018) and the most recent semester (Spring 2023).

The main finding is that Riipen-sourced course–client projects exhibited an increasingly high degree of EM relevance between Spring 2018 through Spring 2023. Project representatives at the founder/co-founder level or the equivalent made up only 20% of the pool in Spring 2018 yet constituted slightly over 94% of the pool by Spring 2023. Similarly, whereas only 33% of firms sourced and selected in Spring 2018 were in startup mode, fully 100% of firms selected in Spring 2023 were in startup mode.

The population of 106 Riipen-sourced-and-selected course–client projects do not represent a statistically valid basis for “apples-to-apples” comparisons because: the population of projects was spread across multiple courses and across multiple semesters over a five-year span where many shifts and trends were ongoing – including impacts to course-delivery modality due to COVID-19, and it is likely that unconscious idiosyncratic biases of the current author were operant during selection. Moving forward, researchers are encouraged to pursue questions such as the following: are there statistically significant EM-related learning outcomes that differ for students paired to projects that vary across the preliminary project taxonomy detailed?

Many practical teaching recommendations regarding effective ways to source, select and integrate high-EM course–client projects into otherwise standard-issue marketing courses are made. The paper also serves as something of a primer on how best to source and adapt Riipen marketing projects. Cautionary teaching notes and recommendations based on the current author’s observations are also shared.

Over the course of the five-period (Spring 2018 through Spring 2023), it was observed that a rapidly increasing percentage of firms on the Riipen platform self-identified as female-owned, minority-owned and/or LGBTQ-owned. Similarly, a moderately increasing percentage of marketing projects with “social entrepreneurship” and/or “social impact” and/or “environmental impact” elements were posted to the platform.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first peer-reviewed journal article to explore the EM value of real-world course–client marketing projects sourced via Riipen.

Users' voluntary forwarding behavior opens a new avenue for companies to promote their brands and products on social networking sites (SNS). However, research on voluntary information disseminators is limited. This paper aims to bring an in-depth understanding of voluntary disseminators by answering the following questions: (1) What is the underlying mechanism by which some users are more enthusiastic to voluntarily forward content of interest? (2) How to identify them? We propose a theoretical model based on the Elaboration-Likelihood Model (ELM) and examine three types of factors that moderate the effect of preference matching on individual forwarding behavior, including personal characteristics, tweet characteristics and sender–receiver relationships.

Via Twitter API, we randomly crawled 1967 Twitter users' data to validate the conceptual framework. Each user’s original tweets and retweeted tweets, profile data such as the number of followers and followees and verification status were obtained. The final corpus contains 163,554 data points composed of 1,634 valid twitterers' retweeting behavior. Tweets produced by these core users' followees were also crawled. These data points constitute an unbalanced panel data and we employ different models — fixed-effects, random-effects and pooled logit models — to test the moderation effects. The robustness test shows consistency among these different models.

Preference matching significantly affects users' forwarding behavior, implying that SNS users are more likely to share contents that align with their preferences. In addition, we find that popular users with lots of followers, heavy SNS users who author tweets or forward other-sourced tweets more frequently and users who tend to produce longer original contents are more enthusiastic to disseminate contents of interest. Furthermore, interaction strength has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between preference matching and individuals' forwarding decisions, suggesting that users are more likely to disseminate content of interest when it comes from strong ties. However, the moderating effect of perceived affinity is significantly negative, indicating that an online community of individuals with many common friends is not an ideal place to engage individuals in sharing information.

This work brings about a deep understanding of users' voluntary forwarding behavior of content of interest. To the best of our knowledge, the current study is the first to examine (1) the underlying mechanism by which some users are more likely to voluntarily forward content of interest; and (2) how to identify these potential voluntary disseminators. By extending the ELM, we examine the moderating effect of tweet characteristics, sender–receiver relationships as well as personal characteristics. Our research findings provide practical guidelines for enterprises and government institutions to choose voluntary endorsers when trying to engage individuals in information dissemination on SNS.

Sourcing decisions are one of the most crucial strategic decisions in companies and often confronted with inherent unexpected uncertainties and risks. This study aims to investigate the impact of ownership involvement on purchasing (PUR) supplier selection activities, including risk consideration in family firms (FFs).

The investigation is based on a structured literature review (SLR) of 83 studies to identify FF-specific supplier sourcing characteristics. To verify these propositions, the authors conducted a second SLR of non-FF behaviour research (179 papers) to generate a non-FF reference base for the respective behavioural characteristics. Following this analysis, the authors conducted 16 qualitative and explorative-oriented expert interviews (EIs).

Based on reviews, the authors deduce that PUR activities of family and non-FFs are different regarding the PUR decision processes and PUR risk behaviour, and that suppliers' selection criteria like sustainability, partnership and long-term orientation are prioritised in FFs. Additionally, several trends of family and non-FF behaviour approximation were identified. Besides these findings, it might be expected that the differentiating characteristics of family and non-FFs vary based on their region or industry sector. The EIs indicated that “the depth of added values” should be considered as a further potential differentiating influence factor.

The analysis encourages to execute further quantitative studies on FF sourcing activities and requests managers to strengthen the position of the PUR departments in FFs.

The study aims to analyze the intellectual structure in sustainable procurement (SP) research to identify the knowledge research clusters and provide potential avenues for future research.

The study conducted a bibliometric analysis to analyze the intellectual structure in the area of SP. Overall, 1,294 articles were selected from the Scopus database published between 2000 and 2022. The analysis was conducted using bibliometric R package, Biblioshiny and VOSviewer software. Further, content analysis of research clusters was carried out to set the future research agenda.

The study identifies four major knowledge research clusters of SP, namely, (1) green supply chain practices, (2) socially responsible purchasing, (3) environmental purchasing and (4) public procurement and policy. The study suggests a few research directions in the SP field. Moreover, the future research directions are aligned with specific organizational theories applicable in the area of SP research.

The study is dependent on the Scopus database for the source of research publications on SP. Future studies may consider other research database sources.

Identifying knowledge research clusters of SP research is of paramount importance for developing policies in the near future. These policy initiatives pave the way for the adoption of SP practices in the business. The findings indicate the issues managers encounter while implementing SP in organizations.

The study offers valuable insights concerning parameters such as significant publication outlets, influential countries concerning the number of publications, impactful authors, title keywords and identifying major knowledge research clusters of SP to suggest future research directions. Further, the present study highlights emerging areas that require further research, including process governance, supplier diversity, innovation, the role of emerging technologies and the application of organizational theories in SP.

This study is an analysis that aims to understand the rationale behind the concept of value creation contained in the integrated reporting (IR) framework. As such, the authors examined the quality of the disclosures made in integrated reports by measuring the level to which the six capitals (6Cs) have been integrated into disclosures on value creation.

The IR framework’s value creation model focuses on six content elements and three guiding principles. Hence, the present analysis combines content analysis with quantitative measures in the form of a bespoke Integrated Disclosure Index. The index measures the level of integration found in the disclosures instead of the mere presence or absence of mentioned capitals, content elements and guiding principles in isolation. The present sample comprised the 2016 integrated/sustainability reports for 184 listed companies sourced from the Integrated Reporting Examples Database.

The 6Cs are well disclosed in form but only partially disclosed in substance. Further, overall levels of integration between the capitals, the content elements and the guiding principles are higher than average. Disclosures on materiality, business models and stakeholder relationships are somewhat lacking, as are the related medium- and long-term disclosures on outlook.

The paper contributes to the academic debate on IR by building a case for holistically assessing the substance of integrated reports. Considering that the IR value creation model can underpin and align with the 17 UN sustainable development goals, the authors show how the fundamental concept of the 6Cs sustaining value creation is understood and implemented differently across the various elements and principles of the IR framework.

This research also provides guidance for overcoming some of the practical hurdles associated with assessing the quality of reports because the authors provide tools for spotlighting the substance of disclosures over their form.

This paper delves into the substance of integrated reports by assessing how well the 6Cs have been integrated into disclosures on the content elements and guiding principles of the IR framework. In contrast to previous IR research that has mainly analysed capital, elements and principles in isolation, the authors develop an index assessing the integration of these three fundamental concepts of IR.

This study aims to identify the trending topics, emerging themes and future research directions in supply chain management (SCM) through multiple source of data. The insights would be of use to academics, practitioners and policymakers to leverage latest developments in addressing current and future challenges.

This study uses a multiple source of data such as published literature and social media data including supply chain blogs and forums contents on business-to-business (B2B) firms to identify trending topics, emerging themes and future research directions in SCM. Topic modeling, a machine learning technique, is used to derive the topics and themes. Examining supply chain blogs and forums offer a valuable perspective on current issues and challenges faced by B2B firms. By analyzing the content of these online discussions, the study identifies emerging themes and topics of interest to practitioners and researchers.

The study synthesizes 1,648 published articles and more than 1.3 lakh tweets, discussions and expert views from social media, including various blogs and supply chain forums, and identifies six themes, of which three are trending, and the other three are emerging themes in the supply chain. Rather than aggregate implications, the study integrates findings from two databases and proposes a framework encompassing the drivers, processes and impacts on each theme and derives promising avenues for future research.

Prior literature has majorly used published research articles and reports as a primary source of information to identify the trending theme and emerging topics. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to examine the potential value of information from social media, such as blogs, websites, forums and published literature to discover new supply chain trends and themes related to B2B firms and derive encouraging possibilities for future research.

The increasing accumulation of synthetic plastic waste in oceans and landfills, along with the depletion of non-renewable fossil-based resources, has sparked environmental concerns and prompted the search for environmentally friendly alternatives. Biodegradable plastics derived from lignocellulosic materials are emerging as substitutes for synthetic plastics, offering significant potential to reduce landfill stress and minimise environmental impacts. This study highlights a sustainable and cost-effective solution by utilising agricultural residues and invasive plant materials as carbon substrates for the production of biopolymers, particularly polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), through microbiological processes. Locally sourced residual materials were preferred to reduce transportation costs and ensure accessibility. The selection of suitable residue streams was based on various criteria, including strength properties, cellulose content, low ash and lignin content, affordability, non-toxicity, biocompatibility, shelf-life, mechanical and physical properties, short maturation period, antibacterial properties and compatibility with global food security. Life cycle assessments confirm that PHB dramatically lowers CO₂ emissions compared to traditional plastics, while the growing use of lignocellulosic biomass in biopolymeric applications offers renewable and readily available resources. Governments worldwide are increasingly inclined to develop comprehensive bioeconomy policies and specialised bioplastics initiatives, driven by customer acceptability and the rising demand for environmentally friendly solutions. The implications of climate change, price volatility in fossil materials, and the imperative to reduce dependence on fossil resources further contribute to the desirability of biopolymers. The study involves fermentation, turbidity measurements, extraction and purification of PHB, and the manufacturing and testing of composite biopolymers using various physical, mechanical and chemical tests.

This study aims to explore how green supply chain management (GSCM) strategies can be effectively implemented for business supply chain operations, relationship management and product design to gain green competitive advantages.

An exploratory in-depth case study was conducted with one of the largest Chinese electronics manufacturers that is considered a leading GSCM adopter in the industry, to understand how the company adopts green supply chain practices across its multiple product lines.

The findings show that businesses can build different green focuses across GSCM elements of green operation, green relationship management and green product design to form diverse hybrid strategic solutions. They include green control, lean, leagile, agile and clean innovation while taking consideration of supply chain type and product lifespan. A taxonomy of four key GSCM strategic combinations is proposed based on the findings. The strategies align with green demand and supply chain characteristics balancing a series of business competitive objectives in terms of reducing pollution and waste, improving green cost efficiency, enhancing green demand innovation and building green service effectiveness.

This study lends insight into the strategic alignment relationships between product supply chain types and approaches to GSCM.

The findings of this study can support industry practitioners in formulating aligned GSCM strategies based on product types to achieve optimal results.

Optimised green supply chain design, operations and relationship management incorporating product attributes can help further minimise negative impacts of business activities on the environment.

This research provides a systematic understanding of how product supply chain types can influence GSCM strategy formulation. It gives a holistic picture of how hybrid choices of strategies with green supply chain operations, relationship management and product design can be formulated based on product and supply chain characteristics.

This study aims to examine the full mediating role of supply chain flexibility (SCF) between lean production (LP) and business performance (BP) found in the previous literature. This effect negates the direct LP-BP effect (the so-called “total eclipse effect”). The authors analyze the individual contributions that the different SCF dimensions (sourcing flexibility; operating system flexibility, distribution flexibility and information system [IS] flexibility) make to the “total eclipse effect” between LP and BP produced by SCF. The relational resources-based view and resource orchestration theory are used to support the theoretical framework.

Covariance-based structural equations modeling (CB-SEM) is used to test the SCF LP-BP total eclipse hypothesis and four additional mediation hypotheses, one for each of the SCF dimensions. Data obtained via a questionnaire given to 260 companies are analyzed with CB-SEM, and SPSS Process is used to evaluate the mediation effect.

Research results indicate that only one of the dimensions (operating system flexibility) has a full mediation effect between LP and BP and is, therefore, the main contributor to the eclipse effect. Two other dimensions (sourcing flexibility and distribution flexibility) have partial mediation effects, so they also contribute to developing the eclipse effect, although to a lesser extent. Finally, IS flexibility is neither a full nor a partial mediation factor and does not contribute to the eclipse effect.

These findings have some important implications. For academia, they generate new knowledge of the role that each of the SCF dimensions or components plays in the LP-BP relationship. For company management, the findings offer supply chain managers specific information on the individual effects that the different types of SCF flexibility have between LP and BP. This will allow companies to target their efforts to develop certain types of flexibility in LP contexts depending on the outcomes that senior managers want to achieve with their SCs.