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This study investigates online corporate opinion leadership on professional social media from two different perspectives: first, how corporate opinion leadership indicated by corporate followers is related to company revenue and second, what are the drivers and mediators of corporate opinion leadership?

The authors randomly selected more than 300 companies with active profiles on LinkedIn from the S&P 500 list and then collected data on corporate followers as an indicator of corporate opinion leadership and revenue during a year. Moreover, the authors collected daily information on content generated by companies, users, and employees such as job posts, users' reactions to posts, and employee profiles during a 44-day period, which allowed the authors to apply panel estimation techniques to estimate the determinants of corporate opinion leadership.

The estimation results reveal that corporate opinion leadership and business revenue are positively and significantly correlated. Furthermore, after controlling for firm fixed effects and endogeneity, the authors show that corporate, user and employee-generated content (mediated by groups and skills) have a significant impact on corporate opinion leadership.

Individual online opinion leaders are currently paying considerable attention to practitioners. However, professional networking platforms have also created an opportunity to establish corporate opinion leaders who may play an important role in business. The study provides useful and practical insights on the activities that companies can undertake to develop corporate opinion leadership.

This study seeks to expand previous research on opinion leadership with a focus on the corporate dimension, which is increasingly visible on professional networking platforms. Contrary to former research that collected data on perceived opinion leadership, the authors obtained data directly from LinkedIn. Moreover, the authors contribute to signaling and social identity theories by exploring how professional networking platforms constitute an environment for signaling and developing multiple professional identities.

The purpose of this paper is to address how the concept of branding exists in the pharmaceutical sector and Indian market in particular; and second, how this branding technique might be modified to optimize the marketing of branded generics in India.

The study was conducted using qualitative interviews with two sets of respondents in Kolkata city, India: first, 20 senior managers of five renowned Indian pharmaceutical companies and second, 20 physicians of two categories. Patterns of concordance for the author‐coder pairs were tested by using Cohen's kappa.

This study investigated the relationships between five different parameters deemed responsible for enhancing the brand awareness of pharmaceuticals. Out of these five parameters, the authors have identified that “importance of customers' perceptions and need achievement” leads to the development of a positioning statement to communicate the brand's functional values and brand personality; and “importance of pharma brand age in brand awareness” establishes the relationship of brand age with brand recall and communication in brand recall. A high value of Cohen's kappa has helped to establish the qualitative inquiry of the current research.

The authors have proposed that through the said five parameters, the pharmaceutical branding technique might be modified to optimise the marketing of branded generics in India. A strategic comprehensive model that has been constructed would give a direction for branding in the pharmaceutical industry.

This research work has extended prior pharmaceutical branding research by conceptualising the branding strategy as a brand awareness tool, in a new area called branded generic drugs in India.

In Germany the significance of corporate communications has come a long way since the early 1990s. In many cases, multidimensional structural change within companies has left an identity vacuum which some have superficially attempted to fill by way of the shareholder value versus stakeholder value debate. While the market's Top 30 effectively operate as stakeholders, they position themselves for the most part as shareholder‐focused. A successful identity and image policy is characterised by a mindset which interprets identity as a process and image as the benefit to all stakeholders.

This study aims to contribute to the literature on board gender diversity by soliciting university students' views on several perceptions raised by academics concerning the suitability of women to serve on corporate boards. In particular, if the opinions of male students differ from those of female students, this showing any gender bias.

The study is part of a much more comprehensive investigation into board gender diversity. It adopts a questionnaire approach, with this paper focussing on twelve research statements. Two hundred and ninety-six university students completed the questionnaires at a public university in the Czech Republic during March–April 2023. A pilot questionnaire was conducted in February 2023, resulting in minor changes being made. The data is analysed using SPSS and MedCalc® statistical software.

Whilst, in some respects, it supports the literature in relation to the observations highlighted in the research statements concerning female traits/characteristics, there is unmistakable evidence of gender bias in the respondents' opinions regarding the qualities women can bring to corporate boards. Overall, this research shows a negative bias by male respondents towards the positive attributes females can bring to the boardroom. This bias may influence the selection of female directors in the future. This research suggests that the apparent discrimination against women is not just because they are female but from a perceived mismatch between inferred female characteristics and male stereotype leadership requirements. There is, however, no gender bias with respect to students' leadership aspirations.

The findings of this research should help with policy-making decisions concerning the selection of future corporate board directors and help break down any negative gender selection bias. The paper adds to the discussion and debate about ethical issues related to business and broader society concerning gender diversity in senior management roles. It also adds to the political debate on the issue of legislative gender initiatives.

The research respondents' perceptions may well influence the decision-making process for the selection of future corporate directors. Whilst these current perceptions may, and invariably will, change over time, it is important to identify them at an early stage in the respondents' careers. This research gives a better understanding of the perceived qualities that women bring to corporate boards from an inexperienced perspective.

This paper aims to seek the perceptions of potential future corporate managers and directors on the issues raised in the literature, especially recent articles in the corporate communications literature, concerning corporate board gender quotas. It focusses on the Czech Republic, where research on board gender diversity is sparse.

The study is part of much more comprehensive research into board gender diversity. It adopts a questionnaire approach, with this paper focussing on 13 research statements. A Likert Scale of 1–4 (Strongly Agree; Agree; Disagree; Strongly Disagree) was applied to the perceived views expressed. The questionnaires were completed by university students at a public university in the Czech Republic during March–April 2023. A pilot questionnaire was conducted in February 2023, resulting in minor changes being made. The data is analysed using SPSS and MedCalc® statistical software.

There is overwhelming opposition to quotas, even from women. The opinions expressed by the respondents to this research, in many respects, support the literature, but there is unmistakable evidence of gender bias. Regarding the positive female benefits of quotas, male respondents disagreed; regarding the negative issues of quotas, male respondents agreed more than their female counterparts.

The research findings have important implications for how women recruited through quotas may be received onto corporate boards – what challenges will they likely face? Some current female candidates for directorship, who would have been selected on merit and perceived as such by their male counterparts, may now be hesitant to apply for such positions if they are seen as being appointed due to quotas. Therefore, the selection procedure must continue to be based on merit and seen as such.

One of the important aspects of the paper is that it focusses on a country that has, until recently, resisted pressures to implement mandatory corporate board gender quotas; in this respect, it has a corpus of originality and value. The Czech Republic and other European countries will also be affected by the recent EU law on gender balance or corporate boards. The paper also highlights the perceptions of potential future directors on various issues of board gender quotas.

This study examines the decision-making processes surrounding C-suite changes, to help understand the extent to which these processes may help or hinder progress towards greater diversity and equality at board and senior leadership levels.

Since acquisition of corporate entities by private equity (PE) investors is known to trigger more frequent changes in leadership than in other corporate situations and its influence on global corporate structures continues to expand, it was targeted as a critical context for exploring the issue. In-depth semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 23 senior investors from 19 different PE firms, examining how incumbent leadership capability is assessed, how decisions regarding changes to incumbent leaders are made, and how existing approaches might influence leadership equality and diversity.

The findings reveal a common reliance on informal approaches for informing decisions regarding C-suite changes, on subjective and/or anecdotal opinions of leaders' suitability, and an over-reliance on past experience rather than capability or potential when identifying suitable replacements. Evidence of heuristics and biases emerged, including a bias for maintaining incumbent leaders, even in light of concerns regarding their capability or suitability, thereby inhibiting efforts to improve diversity and perpetuating inequality.

This paper explores the decision-making processes undertaken within organisations to determine C-suite changes, a relatively unexplored area, which plays a key role in the upward mobility of a diverse workforce. The study engages directly with decision-makers to examine real-life decision-making situations and explores the findings with reference to theory from occupational psychology and behavioural economics, providing a rich exploration of potential limitations and consequences of current practices for equality and diversity.

This study aims to identify the critical barriers to women’s leadership in Indian corporate sector using the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach.

Through data obtained from extant literature and the expert opinion of women seeking higher managerial positions in the Indian corporate sector, this study identified total 18 barriers to women’s leadership. Thereafter, this study used the Delphi technique to identify the most critical barriers and ISM to understand the causal relationship among them, and then ranked them based on relevance.

Of the 13 critical barriers identified, corporate policies, conscious organizational bias and family responsibilities had the highest driving power. By contrast, inadequate career opportunities and the lack of risk-taking ability and assertiveness had the highest dependence power. Unconscious organizational bias and occupational segregation were other prominent barriers.

This study establishes the interrelationships between women’s leadership barriers. It provides a well-defined model which helps to get theoretical insight considering barriers for women leaders in their career progression in the Indian context. Based on the ISM model, these findings can help academicians and researchers gain deep insights into the barriers to women’s leadership in the Indian context, as no studies have been found in the literature concerning the given subject.

Based on the findings, corporations and policymakers can design inclusive leadership policies to support women as they climb the corporate ladder and to enhance their contribution to organizational success.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to identify barriers to women’s leadership in India using ISM analysis.

The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a link between responsible leadership and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Luxembourg and also to determine Luxembourg’s specifics in the field of CSR.

This is a qualitative study. In total, 64 semi-structured interviews were conducted from January to August 2017 with four culturally different samples: Luxembourgers with Luxembourgish nationality, foreigners who reside in Luxembourg, cross-borderers and the rest of the world.

Responses from all four samples were similar on the one hand and quite contradictory on the other. Three groups were formed: euphoric respondents who said it is the authenticity of the leader and his modelling role in lived CSR; moderate respondents; critical respondents who deny any link between responsible leadership and CSR and claim for change and innovation, accusing the high Uncertainty Avoidance Index. In their opinion, there is an urgent need for managers to learn responsible leadership and CSR.

This paper contributes to the discussion on change and innovation in the field of leadership theory with particular emphasis on responsible leadership following Michael Maccoby, on multilingual and multicultural Luxembourg in the middle of Europe following Geert Hofstede and Edgar Schein and on CSR following Thomas Maak and Nicole Pless.

This study is a combination of research on responsible leadership and CSR in Luxembourg in connection with Hofstede’s cultural dimensions: high long-term orientation, high uncertainty avoidance and high collectivism (low individualism).

This study aims to determine the relationship between servant leadership, innovation self-efficacy, corporate work culture and employee productivity in mediating and moderating role.

The research sample was 72 supervisors and 576 employees from 72 food and beverage small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in three major cities in Indonesia. SPSS and AMOS were used to test the research hypothesis using the hierarchical regression analysis test.

The results show that there was a positive and significant effect between servant leadership on innovation self-efficacy and employee productivity. Innovation self-efficacy mediates the relationship between servant leadership and employee productivity. Corporate work culture moderated the relationship between innovation self-efficacy and employee productivity.

Future research with larger samples are needed to determine the relationship between servant leadership, innovation self-efficacy, corporate work culture and employee productivity more clearly not only on food and beverage SMEs but also on other industries. Future research needs to be carried out using experimental and longitudinal research designs.

There are three important practical implications based on the findings of this study. First, the results of the study provide new ideas for SME managers on how to increase the productivity of their employees, by using servant leadership which is known to be the main driver for innovation self-efficacy behavior. Second, the mediating role of innovation self-efficacy requires managers to build employee self-efficacy behavior, share more power with employees and make employees more involved in decision-making, which in turn can increase employee confidence and motivation, and their productivity. Finally, managers must realize the need to create a productive work culture in the company, by taking various actions, such as giving rewards to productive employees, making clear regulations on the company regarding working hours and company targets, and must pay attention and respect the employee's views and opinions to improve employee identification of their leaders.

This is the first study to build and examine the direct and indirect relationship (mediating and moderating role) between servant leadership, innovation self-efficacy, corporate work culture and employee productivity in food and beverage SMEs.