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Online vigilance is a novel construct which describes individual differences in users' cognitive orientation to online connectedness, their attention to and integration of online-related cues and stimuli and their prioritisation of online communication. Its proponents argue that it is acquired through the processes of instrumental and attentional training that underlie media use behaviours. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the role of three personal characteristics (emotional intelligence, rumination and identity distress) as predictors of online vigilance in addition to media use behaviour.

The authors adopted an exploratory frame and followed a survey-methodology to collect data among a sample of university students (n = 812). The resulting data were analysed through a hierarchical multiple regression process in which four models were considered.

The findings indicate that while media use behaviours (daily smartphone use, social media use, messaging, video watching and media multitasking) predict online vigilance, their combined effect is weak. However, when considering these behaviours in combination with trait rumination and identity distress, a moderate effect is observable.

While the findings do not permit causal inference, it suggests that two personal characteristics, trait rumination and identity distress, play an important role in determining an individual's tendency or ability to psychologically disconnect from their online spheres. This provides an initial step towards the theorisation of online vigilance and the identification of individuals who may be at risk of acquiring it.

Online vigilance is a novel construct which has only been investigated in a small number of studies. However, its emphasis on psychological connectedness presents a unique and important development in the context of permanently online, permanently connected living. The present study is the first to explore its association with personal characteristics.

The purpose of this paper is to examine succession planning and performance of family-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The quantitative research approach and a cross-sectional research design were employed. The probability sampling technique was used to draw 219 respondents from the sampling frame. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics and independent samples t-tests were used for data analysis.

It was revealed that most of family-owned SMEs founders in the study area had mechanisms for succession planning for their businesses. Also, there is a difference in business performance when successors are selected and prepared by business founders compared to when they are selected and prepared by other family members. Successors selected and prepared by business founders performed better in business than successors who were selected and prepared by other family members.

This study employed a quantitative research paradigm methodology, which limits deep discussion with respondents. Future studies could consider using a qualitative research paradigm methodology.

The paper presents succession planning process experience in family-owned SMEs in the study area, specifically the existence of succession planning in family-owned SMEs. It also shows a difference in business performance between the two investigated groups. This paper will benefit business founders, family business successors and researchers.

The impact of financial reforms and financial development on an economy has received considerable attention over the recent past. This paper aims to investigate whether financial liberalisation and financial development increase the likelihood financial crises in Southern African development community (SADC) countries.

Due to the binary nature of the dependent variable, the logit model is used for the analysis using data for the period 1990 to 2015.

The results showed that financial liberalisation captured by real interest rates reduces the likelihood of financial crises. Furthermore, regulatory quality strengthens this reductive effect of financial liberalisation on the probability of financial crises. On the other hand, financial development represented by bank credit increases the incidence of financial crises. The results also suggest that financial liberalisation may increase the likelihood of financial crises indirectly through financial development.

The study recommends that a sound regulatory and supervisory framework be established as well as institutional quality raised to curb the effect of financial development on the incidence of financial crises.

There is scant evidence on the role that financial liberalisation and financial development play in the incidence of financial crises in the SADC. This study incorporates the effect of institutional quality in the analysis which has been neglected by most studies on financial reforms in SADC countries. A number of recent studies in SADC countries conclude that financial development resulting from financial reforms, may hinder economic growth. Therefore, this study sheds light on this negative relationship.

Prejudice against Jews was part of the landscape in the Union of South Africa long before Nazism made inroads into the country during the 1930s, at which stage Jews constituted approximately 4.6% of the country’s white (or European) population. Aggressive Afrikaner nationalism was marked by fervent attempts to proscribe Jewish immigration. By 1939, Jewish immigration was included as an official plank in the political platform of the opposition Purified National Party led by Dr D.F. Malan, along with a ban on party membership for Jews residents in the Transvaal province. Racial discrimination, in a country with diversified ethnic elements and intense political complexities, was synonymous with life in the Union long before the Apartheid system, with its official policy of enforced legal, political and economic segregation, became law in May 1948 under Dr Malan’s prime ministership. Although the Jews, while maintaining their own subcultural identity, were classified within South Africa’s racial hierarchy as part of the privileged white minority, the emergence of recurrent anti-Jewish stereotypes and themes became manifest in a country permeated by the ideology of race and white superiority. This was exacerbated by the growth of a powerful Afrikaner nationalist movement, underpinned by conservative Calvinist theology. This chapter focusses on measures taken in South Africa by organisational structures within the political sphere to restrict Jewish immigration between 1930 and 1939 and to do so on ethnic grounds. These measures were underscored by radical Afrikaner nationalism, which flew in the face of the principles of ethics and moral judgement.

The aim of this paper is to explain how the globalisation of services can be limited or enhanced by societal effects.

This analysis is based on a single case study. The authors use a qualitative and longitudinal approach, with in‐depth interviews and archives collected during a six‐year period of participant observation inside the firm.

The authors argue that societal dimensions are at play in the evolution of services activities, and that their influence is especially strong in ex‐public services monopolies. They illustrate the limits of strategic change due to the specific dynamics of societal effects. The authors first look at the evolution of strategic fit before and after multiple changes in La Poste. They then identify different types of reactions at local level. They conclude by insisting on the enduring influence of social patterns and traditions on the adoption of new technologies and modes of organisation.

The main limitation of this research is that a more thorough comparison with other European national leaders in postal services would have helped strengthen this analysis.

A first practical implication for services firms is that societal changes should be greatly considered in their globalisation process and that societal changes are often underestimated. Another practical implication is that a globalisation of services process must certainly be situated at a global level based on national and local specificities built in time.

While comparative studies on international management have often focused on the different modes of organisation depending on culture and institutions, the impact of globalisation on services have been left relatively under‐explored. This paper takes the example of the service industry to show that cultural reasons are not sufficient to explain why the internationalisation of services may encounter difficulties. Other factors such as societal effect should be included.

This chapter seeks to investigate the role of student emotional intelligence (EI) in countering in-class cyberloafing behaviour by students, by exploring the mediating role of boredom proneness through a quantitative approach. A sample of 163 postgraduate university students in India was selected. The authors assessed the mediation model using PROCESS macro. The authors found that students who are more aware of their emotions are better equipped to handle internal and external distractions and work towards a desired goal or outcome and therefore are less likely to experience boredom. Results from this study revealed a significant direct and indirect negative relationship between students’ EI and cyberloafing behaviour. This chapter contributes to the body of literature by highlighting the positive effects of EI as an important antidote to student cyberloafing behaviour. On the practical front, the findings of this study can be used by academicians who are charged with the responsibility of understanding and enhancing student learning by diminishing cyberloafing behaviour among them. The proposed framework could provide a foundation for countering cyberloafing behaviour in educational settings.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate loan price and quantity effects of information sharing offices with information and communication technology (ICT), in a panel of 162 banks consisting of 42 African countries for the period 2001–2011.

The empirical evidence is based on a panel of 162 banks in 42 African countries for the period 2001–2011. Misspecification errors associated with endogenous variables and unobserved heterogeneity in financial access are addressed with generalized method of moments and instrumental quantile regressions.

The findings uncover several major themes. First, ICT when integrated with the role of public credit registries significantly lowered the price of loans and raised the quantity of loans. Second, while the net effects from the interaction of ICT with private credit bureaus (PCBs) do not improve financial access, the corresponding marginal effects show that ICT could complement the characteristics of PCBs to reduce loan prices and increase loan quantity, but only when certain thresholds of ICT are attained. The authors compute and discuss the policy implications of these ICT thresholds for banks with low, intermediate and high levels of financial access.

This is one of the few studies to assess how the growing ICT can be leveraged in order to reduce information asymmetry in the banking industry with the ultimate aim of improving financial access in a continent where lack of access to finance is a critical policy syndrome.