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This study examines the use of dark humor in brand-to-brand communications on social media and its impact on consumers' brand perceptions. In particular, this study looks at roasting messages in which a brand humorously insults its peers.

The authors used a sampling method to recruit 286 participants from the United States. They employed an ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc analysis to test the hypotheses, as well as Hayes' PROCESS to test the mediation and moderation effects, including Johnson–Neyman procedure.

The authors found that not all customers find roasting messages funny. Rather, consumers' personality and age will influence their perceived humor of the messages and their brand evaluations. Customers who are young and extroverted are likely to believe roasting messages to be funny. They thus perceive the brand to be cooler and more sincere when using such a communication approach, compared to when the brand neutrally interacts with others. Meanwhile, brands may find less success with old and introverted customers.

This research sheds light on how the consumers' perception of humor in a roasting type of brand-to-brand communication has an impact on consumers' psychological perceptions of brand coolness and brand sincerity. To guide practitioners, it explored how the interaction between a consumer's personality and age moderates the aforementioned relationship.

This paper aims to review, systematize and map the extant literature on private equity (PE) and study the underlying research agenda for investment selection and value creation in portfolio firms of PE investors. The PE investment process entails the preinvestment stage, where PE investors screen the target firms, and the postinvestment stage, where PE investors monitor the funded firms. With the motive to understand both stages, this review consolidates the findings of existing literature.

This research adopts a systematic literature review approach to study the underlying themes in PE investment literature. To adequately profile the key research areas, the authors have adopted citation classics in addition to keyword search and drawn the most significant papers in this field of research based on citation metrics.

The review presents a heterogeneous set of themes by encapsulating the relevant PE literature and identifies significant and emergent themes within the broad research area of investment and performance. The foundational themes found are selection determinants for PE investments, value creation in PE investments and selection vs value-adding effect of PE investors. While the emergent themes are the relative performance of PE investments; sources of value creation; skill, luck and social capital in PE; and resource dependency vis-à-vis PE. Each theme or subtheme chalks out the underlying research agendas for future researchers.

To build an understanding of the selection determinants and value creation, this review addresses the need to synthesize and align the PE literature concerning pre and post investment stages. PE is a fertile research area that is systematically captured in this review by identifying themes, subthemes and avenues for future research.

This research paper investigates the theoretical frameworks encompassing a nuanced analysis of the digital divide in the Indian educational context, recognising that it is not merely a matter of technology access but also the ability to effectively use the resource for enhancing learning outcomes. This research provides valuable insights for fostering a more equitable and digitally inclusive learning environment by integrating conceptual insights with empirical evidence. The New Education Policy (NEP), India 2020 firmly emphasises the appropriate integration of technology into the teaching-learning process to develop relevant competencies. The pertinent question is, for India to conquer the second digital divide challenge, is the pace of technology accessibility and skill development sufficient?

The paper is a desk research, using secondary data from the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE+), the Indian Government database of schools. A structured dataset has been created for all years, where states are grouped in descending ranking order of availability of infrastructure and teachers trained. A colour key segregates the States into three zones demonstrating their different levels of performance – high (green), moderate (blue) and low (yellow). The purpose is to identify state/s that have moved from one zone to another and, thereafter, analyse the reasons behind the movement.

Almost all states remained in the same digital resource availability zone for the four years studied, except for a limited few. Despite government interventions through higher budget allocation and targeted policies, growth rates of teacher training in computer usage slowed down post-COVID-19. A high positive correlation between Teachers' training in computer usage and the availability of computer and Internet facilities in schools indicates that an increase in digital infrastructure in schools is highly linked to teachers' training in computer usage and would ultimately translate into better use of digital resources to impart equitable education opportunities.

Primary data collection through interviews might have added to the critical findings. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further on a case-by-case basis for any state under consideration.

Enhancing digital infrastructure in schools and building digital competence in teachers must be understood in the context of the learning organisation and the beneficiaries' attitudes at the meso-level to expand stakeholder motivation towards digital internalisation. This requires continuous engagement with education institutions as professional learning organisations, which will thereby help develop a decentralised context for teacher competency building. Collaboration, continuous monitoring of the outcomes of professional development programs, and sharing best practices are crucial in improving teacher readiness for digital education.

Access to tangible resources, such as computers, Internet connectivity and educational software, and developing intangible resources, such as teacher digital competencies, will play a pivotal role in shaping students' learning experiences. By studying the discrepancies in digital resource accessibility and teacher technology adoption, this research endeavours to add to the efforts towards enhancing the educational landscape.

This paper seeks to address a critical issue in the Indian education system and contribute to the ongoing effort to prevent the widening of the second and third digital divide in schools, and help achieve UN SDG Goals 4 and 10.

This study aims to understand the effect of cultural dimension (individualism/ collectivism) on promotional rewards (social or economic) resulting in incentivizing consumers to engage in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), further impacting their repurchase intentions.

In Study 1, a 2 (culture: individualism vs collectivism) × 2 (promotional rewards: social vs economic) between-subjects design was used. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. In Study 2, culture was measured instead of just being manipulated. The authors used regression analysis in this study.

Owing to the characteristics of collectivistic individuals, consumers in collectivistic cultures were more likely to respond to social rewards as an incentive to engage in eWOM. However, consumers in individualistic cultures were more motivated to engage in eWOM when economic rewards were offered.

Despite the global nature of eWOM, little research has explored the effects of cultural traits on consumer response to amplified eWOM strategy. Additionally, though many organizations now offer various promotional incentives to reviewers, little research has explored the effects of promotional offers on a reviewer’s subsequent behavior, and no research has explored the relationship between cultural dimensions and current and future response to promotional eWOM rewards.

Ensuring adequate access to food to all has remained a major challenge of the 21^st century. To aid the effort of hunger alleviation, many studies have quantified the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU), mostly at the national level. There has been limited attention to understanding the intra-country variation in undernourishment estimates.

Unlike past studies, this study tracks the substantial regional heterogeneity in the undernourishment status within Nepal. Employing Food and Agriculture Organization's methodology and Nepal Living Standards Survey data from 1995, 2003 and 2011, household energy consumption and requirements are computed to determine regional undernourishment.

Nepal's PoU declined between 1995 and 2003 but increased after 2003 affecting approximately 7.6 million Nepalese in 2011. The Terai domain – Provinces 2 and 5 – are found to be the most vulnerable to undernourishment concerns likely because of economic and natural shocks. Province 4 achieved higher progress in alleviating undernourishment during 2003, but its PoU doubled in 2011 (as in Province 6).

By examining where and how many are undernourished within Nepal, this study has provided a more accurate picture of the PoU for better-targeting assistance to improve the livelihood of its citizens.

Past studies indicate substantial variation in food access and PoU within Nepal. While they provide some answers to “where and how many” questions for some districts, provinces, belts and urban/rural domains at the cross-sectional level (or for selected locales), few have examined intra-Nepal heterogeneity, especially over time. Therefore, this study explores where and how many within Nepal have been undernourished during the past three decades.

This empirical research aims to provide organisations with useful information on how teleworking has affected employee commuting, allowing organisations to adapt working conditions to the new social context. This research sets out to provide evidence on the behaviour of teleworkers in terms of the mode of transport chosen when commuting to work physically.

This research is based on a survey conducted in Madrid based on a theoretical approach grounded in the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and discrete choice models. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and discriminant analysis have been used to determine the variables that influence the mode of transport chosen by teleworkers when commuting in person.

The results indicate the prevalence of private car use by teleworkers when working at the office, finding that attitudes and satisfaction with modes of transport significantly influence their choice. The characteristics and frequency of teleworking, however, are not significant, which indicates that teleworkers attach greater importance to their preferred mode of transport, regardless of the disadvantages.

This research provides empirical evidence using an inductive approach to understand the challenges that organisations are facing with regard to teleworking since commuting behaviour has changed for teleworkers. This requires organisations to give significant reconsideration to the issue of commuting as an important component of working time that could condition employee satisfaction and, therefore, the retention or recruitment of talent. Furthermore, residence and mobility changes afford organisations better access for recruitment, notwithstanding urban planning implications.

The research analyzes the influence of three environmental triggers, i.e. awareness, concern and knowledge on environmental attachment and green motivation that affect tourists' pro-environmental behavior in the Pakistan’s tourism industry. Furthermore, this study has analyzed the moderating role of moral obligation concerning environmental attachment and green motivation on tourists' pro-environmental behavior.

Data were gathered via a structured questionnaire by 237 local (domestic) tourists of Pakistan. Furthermore, the data were examined by employing SmartPLS.

Findings demonstrate that all three environmental triggers have a positive and significant relationship with environmental attachment and green motivation. Accordingly, environmental attachment and green motivation promote tourists' pro-environmental behavior. Furthermore, the moderating role of moral obligations has also been incorporated in the study. The finding reveals a strong and positive relationship among environmental attachment and tourists' pro-environmental behaviors during high moral obligations. In contrast, moral obligations do not moderate association between green motivation and tourists' pro-environmental behavior. Therefore, competent authorities should facilitate tourists to adopt environmentally friendly practices; which will ultimately promote pro-environmental behavior.

This study provides useful insights regarding the role of tourism in fostering environmental attachment and green motivation that sequentially influence tourist pro-environmental behavior. Secondly, this research has employed moral obligations as a moderator to identify the changes in tourists’ pro-environmental behavior based on individuals' ethical considerations. Hence, the study provides an in-depth insight into tourists' behavior. Lastly, the present research offers effective strategies for the tourism sector and other competent authorities to increase green activities that can embed the importance of the environment among individuals.

This study aims to observe and discuss an emerging disintermediation in transportation, finance and health care, and explain how these three key areas depend on intermediary institutions that are the fruit of modern corporate governance conditions that find their roots in classical sociological theory.

The authors review and incorporate a diversity of research literature to explain the likelihood for the development and continuation of disintermediation.

The authors map two sociological perspectives (Emile Durkheim’s theory of interdependence and Herbert Spencer’s theory of contracts) to two modern corporate governance theories (resource dependence theory and agency theory). The authors then discuss the challenging social situation resulting from modern corporate governance and show how these conditions create the potential for a continuum of disintermediation across the specific and crucial economic sectors of transportation, finance and health care.

The implications of this theoretical integration can help organizational leaders navigate complex social and strategic issues and prepare for the consequences that may result from the emerging disintermediation.

This paper aims to analyse COVID-19’s effects on job loss and job finding rate in Serbia, focusing on groups with already low employment before the pandemic, such as youth, women, low-educated and rural areas.

The authors exploit the panel structure of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) data for Serbia to analyse if the impact of the pandemic on transition probabilities was different for vulnerable groups and their counterparts during the first year of the pandemic.

The results indicate that stagnation in overall employment growth in Serbia during the first year of the COVID-19 crisis resulted from decreases in new hiring rather than increases in job losses. However, trends differed for vulnerable groups. Young workers faced the highest increase in job losses, partly due to their higher shares in informal wage employment. In contrast, decreases in job finding rates were particularly high among low-educated and in rural areas.

After the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, employment opportunities of vulnerable groups further deteriorated, and already existing labour market inequalities were exacerbated. These effects are partially due to policies implemented to mitigate the crisis, which focused on preserving permanent employment while leaving vulnerable workers and groups unprotected.

The authors investigate the annual effects of the first year of the pandemic in a country with a large informal sector and explore the role of vulnerable groups’ job characteristics in transition changes.

The purpose of this study is to examine the existence of greenwashing and sustainable development goal (SDG)-washing processes by comparing ex ante (SDG Compass) and ex post (SDG Compliance) indicators and investigating whether the limitations associated with these indicators encourage companies to engage in washing processes.

The authors use a sample of 1,154 companies included in the S&P Sustainability Yearbook (formerly the RobecoSAM Yearbook). The authors test for the presence of greenwashing by comparing ex ante and ex post indicators for each SDG, whereas to test for SDG-washing, the authors compare the two ex ante and ex post approaches considering the full set of SDGs.

The results show that there is no consistency between the two types of indicators to measure the level of SDG implementation in organisations. This lack of consistency may facilitate both greenwashing and SDG-washing processes, which is due to the design and limitations of these measurement tools.

Companies may choose those indicators that paint their commitment to the SDGs in the best light, but they may also select indicators based on the SDGs they want to report on. These two options would combine greenwashing and SDG-washing.

The shift towards improved standards and regulations for measuring SDG achievement is the result of several social factors such as investor scrutiny, regulatory reform, consumer awareness and increased corporate accountability.

Few previous studies have analysed in detail the interaction between greenwashing and SDG-washing. They focus on the use of ex ante or ex post indicators separately, with samples composed of local companies, and without considering the whole set of SDGs.