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This paper aims to explore current trends in how companies disclose climate-related risks and opportunities in their financial statements. As part of the authors’ analysis, they examine: whether forward-looking assumptions and judgements are typically considered in reporting climate-related risks/opportunities; whether there are differences in the reporting practices of firms in carbon-intensive industries versus non-carbon-intensive industries; and whether negative media reports have an influence on the levels of disclosure a firm makes.

The authors chose content analysis as their methodology and examined the financial statements published by firms listed on the UK’s FTSE 100 between 2016 and 2020. This analysis is framed by Suchman’s three dimensions of legitimacy, being pragmatic, cognitive and moral.

Climate-related disclosures in the notes and financial accounts of these firms did increase over the period. Yet, overall, the level the disclosures was inadequate and the quality was inconsistent. From this, the authors conclude that pragmatic legitimacy is not a particularly strong driving factor in compelling organisations to disclose climate-related information. The firms in carbon-intensive industries do provide greater levels of disclosure, including both qualitative and quantitative (monetary) content, which is consistent with cognitive legitimacy. However, from a moral legitimacy perspective, this study finds that firms did not adapt responsively to negative media coverage as a way of reflecting their accountability to broader public norms and values. Overall, this analysis suggests that regulatory enforcement and a systematic reporting framework with adequate guidance is going to be critical to developing transparent climate-related reporting in future.

This paper contributes to existing studies on climate-related disclosures, which have mainly examined the ‘front-half’ of annual reports. Conversely, this study aims to shed light on these practices in the “back-half” of these reports, exploring the underlying reasons for reporting climate-related risks and opportunities in financial accounts. The authors’ insights into the current disclosure practices make a theoretical contribution to the literature. Practitioners can also draw on these insights to improve how they report on climate-related risks and opportunities in their financial statements.

The learning outcomes of this case study are as follows: It presents an opportunity for the instructors to introduce the concept of decision-making on matters involving risk (like scaling the business) using in-depth market research techniques. The case’s central idea is to make the students understand the growth of the online service delivery model, with a specific example of home-cooked food that also improves social welfare. It is expected to provide the participants with an opportunity to understand the decision-making by the leaders in newly established companies. It enables future managers to analyze a venture’s pros and cons before deciding to expand.

Chef Junction is an online food delivery platform that allows customers to order hygienic home-cooked food prepared by handpicked home chefs in Bhubaneswar. This city in eastern India is one of the fastest-growing metros, is regarded as a study hub, and provides ample employment opportunities making it one of the sought-after destinations for the migrant youth population. The idea behind Chef Junction is to cater to the healthy food needs of the young by utilizing the culinary productivity of the home cooks, empowering the latter by opening up an extra source of income. These chefs prepare delicious healthy food, usually not listed for sale with online food delivery apps. Chef Junction earned revenues by adding an order-dependent commission on the price quoted by chefs and accepting a flat delivery charge from the customers. This offer was very lucrative for home chefs who could join the platform with zero investment and flexible working hours. The customer’s pockets were also handled when several offers and discounts were rolled out through an attractive pricing strategy. Chef Junction expected to improve its patrons’ health quotient by ensuring the nutrition of the home-cooked food, thus contributing to social welfare. With food being delivered from home to home amalgamated with social welfare and empowerment of home chefs, especially women, this case study is an apt example of a sustainable work-from-home model that has proved effective in crisis times. The pertinent question is: “How feasibly can CJ’s business model grow towards an expansion as the demand increases?”

This case study has been prepared keeping in mind the teaching pedagogy for graduate and postgraduate management programs in strategic management, operations research, entrepreneurship and marketing management. It is also expected to be useful for training courses such as management development programs, faculty development programs and executive programs, in discussing service operations in general and online delivery logistics, in particular for working executives and industry practitioners.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

How does a manager’s coaching behaviour encourage taking charge behaviour among subordinates? Although prior research has found a positive association between managerial coaching behaviour and employee performance, to date few studies have examined its effect on proactive behaviours in the workplace such as taking charge. Drawing on social exchange theory (SET) and social cognitive theory (SCT), this study develops a theoretical model to examine the mediating effects of work engagement and role breadth self-efficacy (RBSE) in the relationship between managerial coaching and subordinates taking charge. Additionally, drawing on social role theory (SRT), we test whether our proposed relationships are contingent on subordinates’ gender.

We tested our proposed moderated-mediation model using empirical data collected across two waves from 196 employees within a large Malaysian services enterprise. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results revealed that managerial coaching has a significant, positive relationship with taking charge, work engagement and RBSE. However, only work engagement was found to partially mediate the relationship between managerial coaching and taking charge. Subordinates’ gender was found to positively attenuate the direct effect between managerial coaching and taking charge among females. However, the mediating effects of work engagement and RBSE in managerial coaching and taking charge were found to be not contingent on subordinates’ gender.

Finding from this study reveals that managerial coaching is useful in shaping employees' taking charge behaviour through work engagement. Hence, organisations should focus on strategies aiming to enhance managers' coaching capabilities.

This study extends the nomological networks of managerial coaching by highlighting it as a predictor of taking charge. Moreover, drawing on SET and SCT to explain the mechanism of managerial coaching and taking charge, we provide a novel perspective on how managerial coaching can influence taking charge. Specifically, we highlight the critical role of work engagement as a key mechanism that influences the relationship between managerial coaching and taking charge. Finally, we demonstrate managerial coaching as a means through which organisations can improve individual functioning.

This study aims to examine talent management (TM) in the hospitality industry in Macao during COVID-19. It deploys a contingency theory perspective (Luthans and Stewart, 1977) to illuminate the heightened uncertainties and challenges talent managers faced during the pandemic and the urgent adaptations to TM practices they embraced in response.

Adopting a phenomenological approach, this study analyzed data collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with a representative sample of 20 hotel managers in Macao.

Managers reported four major categories of COVID-19-induced challenges and a corresponding set of contingent TM practices. The four contingent TM practices were found to contribute to the shaping of the next new normal in TM in hospitality and included the following: Contingent TM planning; contingent TM deployment and replacement; talent training and development under contingent arrangements; and changed “talent” attitude and practices in recruitment and retention.

The findings are limited to the geographical and industry context of the study. This study should be refined with larger samples.

This study provides a useful framework for guiding professionals on how to manage talent during turmoil periods. It also contributes toward understanding the shifting meaning of talent and TM in hospitality.

This study demonstrates the applicability of contingency theory in managing hospitality talent during turbulent times, which extends TM knowledge and enriches the contingency theory. The findings also facilitate our understanding on how contingent TM practices create processes that lead in setting the new normal.

With the popularity of paid apps and increasing concerns about privacy hazards, this paper aims to investigate the impact of mobile services’ fee-charging models on consumers’ privacy concerns, and generate insights for app developers’ fee-charging strategies.

Three experimental studies including 550 participants were conducted. All studies were between-subjects designs and based on the context of financial mobile services. The implementations of fee-charging models were manipulated by both visualized and test-based stimuli.

The results reveal that consumers are less concerned about potential privacy violations when using subscription-based (vs. purchase-based) financial mobile services (study 1). This effect is mediated by consumers’ perceptions that app developers that charge subscription fees (vs. one-off prices) are more likely to be consumer-serving motivated (study 2 and 3).

This paper advances the current understanding of consumer response toward paid apps, by proposing and testing a novel attribution-based mechanism to explain why the implementation of a subscription-based versus purchase-based fee-charging model can result in more favorable consumer reactions. Furthermore, this paper identifies the implementation of contrasting fee-charging models as a market-related factor that affects the extent to which consumers are concerned about potential privacy violations, extending extant literature on consumer privacy concern.

This study investigated what are the effective leadership styles and practices that boost employees’ work outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of facilities management professionals (FMPs).

Three predominant leadership styles (transformational, transactional contingent reward and disaster management) were operationalized into 38 leadership practices (X variables) and 8 work outcomes (Y variables). The explanatory sequential research design was adopted. Online questionnaire survey was first conducted on FMPs who managed facilities during the critical periods of COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore. In-depth interviews were then carried out with subject matter experts to elaborate on the quantitative findings.

During the pandemic, FMPs were significantly stressed at work, but also experienced significant job satisfaction and satisfaction with their leaders/supervisors. Statistical results revealed a range of leadership practices that are significantly correlated with FMPs’ work outcomes. One leadership practice is critical as it affects 4 of the 8 FMPs’ work outcomes - frequently acknowledging employees’ good performance during the pandemic.

The study explored 3 leadership styles. There are other styles like laissez faire and servant leadership that might also affect work outcomes.

Based on the findings, suggestions were provided to organizations that employ FMPs on how to improve their work outcomes during a crisis such as a pandemic.

The novelty is the discovery that in the context of a global disaster such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the most relevant leadership styles to boost employees’ work outcomes are transactional contingent reward and disaster management leadership. The study adds to knowledge by showing that not one leadership style is superior – all 3 styles are complementary, but distinct, forms of leadership that need to work in tandem to boost FMPs’ work outcomes during a crisis such as a pandemic.

Recent studies on contingent workers highlight their boundaryless and protean nature, and depict them as free agents who reject organisational forms of career support. Going beyond such current view, this paper aims to shed light on the career support provided by labour market intermediaries (LMIs) to skilled contingent workers (SCWs), the latter known as freelancers and consulting firms' employees.

Using a qualitative stance and an inductive approach, the authors draw on 33 interviews to grasp SCWs' discourses on the career support offered by LMIs, and their account managers. The thematic analysis reveals two main themes: the career support delivered by LMIs to SCWs, and the expectations of SCWs regarding potential additional forms of career support from LMIs.

The authors show that SCWs are supported by LMIs in their career via a number of career management practices and operational support, and account managers a likely to play a key role in the careers of SCWs by providing transactional and relational career support. Moreover, the authors stress that SCWs are free agents, yet seeking for forms of support from LMIs.

The present paper addresses the roles of LMIs regarding non-standard population of workers through the lens of SCWs, what has barely been undertaken in recent research. This paper also enriches current debates on the organisational support SCWs are willing to accept and benefit from, despite the idiosyncratic nature of their careers.

Drawing upon person–supervisor fit theory, a model is developed to illustrate how leader–member trait mindfulness (in)congruence may impact leader–member exchange (LMX) and how such trait mindfulness (in)congruence can indirectly influence taking charge.

Polynomial regression and response surface methodology are used to analyze 237 valid matched leader–member dyads.

LMX increases as leaders' and members' trait mindfulness become more aligned; LMX is higher when leader–member dyads are congruent at high levels (vs low levels). In the case of incongruence, LMX is higher when the member's trait mindfulness exceeds that of the leader. Furthermore, the relationship between leader–member trait mindfulness (in)congruence and taking charge is mediated by LMX.

The joint and interactive role of high trait mindfulness in leader–member dyads can help them to generate high-quality interpersonal exchange, as well as to cope with challenges posed by present and future changes.

The linear, nonlinear, simultaneous and interactive effects of dyadic trait mindfulness expand previous research, clarifying that the evaluation of leader–member congruence and incongruence at various degrees, and for various patterns of trait mindfulness, is more informative than examining the direct effect alone.

This paper aims to investigate and formulate several business models (BM) for various energy communities (EC) members: prosumers, storage facilities, electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, aggregators and local markets.

One of the flexibility drivers is triggered by avoiding the cost and maximizing value that consists of delivering a service such as increasing generation or reducing consumption when it is valued most. The transition to greener economies led to the emergence of aggregators that aggregate bits of flexibility and handle the interest of their providers, e.g. small entities such as consumers, prosumers and other small service providers. On one hand, the research method consists of formulating six BM and implementing a BM that includes several consumers and an aggregator, namely, scheduling the household electricity consumption (downstream) and using flexibility to obtain revenue or avoid the cost. This is usually performed by reducing or shifting the consumption from peak to off-peak hours when the energy is cheaper. Thus, the role of aggregators in EC is significant as they intermediate small-scale energy threads and large entities' requirements, such as grid operators or retailers. On the other hand, in the proposed BM, the aggregators' strategy (upstream) will be to minimize the cost of electricity procurement using consumers’ flexibility. They set up markets to buy flexibility that is valued as long as their costs are reduced.

Interesting insights are revealed, such as when the flexibility price doubles, the deficit coverage increases from 62% to 91% and both parties, consumers and retailers obtain financial benefits from the local market.

One of the limitations of using the potential of flexibility is related to the high costs that are necessary to implement direct load control. Another issue is related to the data privacy aspects related to the breakdown of electricity consumption. Furthermore, data availability for scientific research is limited. However, this study expects that new BM for various EC members will emerge in the future largely depending on Information Communications and Technology developments.

An implementation of a local flexibility market (LFM) using 114 apartments with flexible loads is proposed, demonstrating the gains obtained from trading flexibility. For LFM simulation, this study considers exemplifying a BM using 114 apartments located in a multi-apartment building representing a small urban EC situated in the New England region in North America. Open data recorded in 2016 is provided by UMassTraceRepository.

As a novelty, six BM are proposed considering a bottom-up approach and including various EC members.