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Cyber-attacks that generate technical disruptions in organisational operations and damage the reputation of organisations have become all too common in the contemporary organisation. This paper explores the reputation repair strategies undertaken by organisations in the event of becoming victims of cyber-attacks.

For developing the authors’ contribution in the context of the Internet service providers' industry, the authors draw on a qualitative case study of TalkTalk, a British telecommunications company providing business to business (B2B) and business to customer (B2C) Internet services, which was a victim of a “significant and sustained” cyber-attack in October 2015. Data for the enquiry is sourced from publicly available archival documents such as newspaper articles, press releases, podcasts and parliamentary hearings on the TalkTalk cyber-attack.

The findings suggest a dynamic interplay of technical and rhetorical responses in dealing with cyber-attacks. This plays out in the form of marshalling communication and mortification techniques, bolstering image and riding on leader reputation, which serially combine to strategically orchestrate reputational repair and stigma erasure in the event of a cyber-attack.

Analysing a prototypical case of an organisation in dire straits following a cyber-attack, the paper provides a systematic characterisation of the setting-in-motion of strategic responses to manage, revamp and ameliorate damaged reputation during cyber-attacks, which tend to negatively shape the evaluative perceptions of the organisation's salient audience.

The innovation process demands an interaction between environment agents, knowledge generators and policies of incentive for innovation and not only development by companies. Universities have gradually become the core of the knowledge production system and, therefore, their role regarding innovation has become more important and diversified. This study is aimed at identifying the mechanisms of university–industry (U–I) collaboration, as well as the operationalization steps of the U–I collaboration process.

This study is aimed at identifying, based on a systematic literature review, the mechanisms of university–industry (U–I) collaboration, as well as the operationalization steps of the U–I collaboration process.

The analysis of the 72 selected articles enabled identifying 15 mechanisms of U–I collaboration, proposing a new classification for such mechanisms and developing a framework presenting the operationalization steps of the interaction process.

In this paper, the authors screened nearly 1,500 papers and analyzed in detail 86 papers addressing U–I collaboration, mechanisms of U–I collaboration and operationalization steps of the U–I collaboration process. This paper provides a new classification for such mechanisms and developing a framework presenting the operationalization steps of the interaction process. This research contributes to both theory and practice by highlighting managerial aspects and stimulating academic research on such timely topic.

This study explores how a small minority of social entrepreneurs break free from third sector constraints to conceive, create and grow non-profit organisations that generate social value at scale in new and innovative ways.

Six narrative case histories of innovative social enterprises were developed based on documents and semi-structured interviews with founders and long serving executives. Data were coded “chrono-processually”, which involves locating thoughts, events and actions in distinct time periods (temporal bracketing) and identifying the processes at work in establishing new social ventures.

This study presents two core findings. First, the paper demonstrates how successful social entrepreneurs draw on their lived experiences, private and professional, in driving the development and implementation of social innovations, which are realised through application of their capabilities as analysts, strategists and resources mobilisers. These capabilities are bolstered by personal legitimacy and by their abilities as storytellers and rhetoricians. Second, the study unravels the complex processes of social entrepreneurship by revealing how sensemaking, theorising, strategizing and sensegiving underpin the core processes of problem specification, the formulation of theories of change, development of new business models and the implementation of social innovations.

The study demonstrates how social entrepreneurs use sensemaking and sensegiving strategies to understand and address complex social problems, revealing how successful social entrepreneurs devise and disseminate social innovations that substantially add value to society and bring about beneficial social change. A novel process-outcome model of social innovation is presented illustrating the interconnections between entrepreneurial cognition and strategic action.

Sustainability trends have changed the modus operandi in businesses even as the market environment becomes more socially conscious. However, relatively little research has been conducted on integrating social sustainability aspects with a focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR) into the selection of suppliers in the service sector, particularly the banking industry. In this paper, this study aims to propose a CSR decision support methodology to evaluate and prioritize socially responsible suppliers.

A novel integrated decision support methodology composed of Shannon Entropy and TOmada de Decisão Interativa e Multicritério (TODIM) methods is introduced. The Shannon-Entropy approach is used to estimate CSR factor weights, and TODIM is used to rank the suppliers, with the process completed in a group decision setting.

A Nigerian bank was used as a case study to test and show the usefulness of the CSR-based decision framework in evaluating and selecting socially responsible suppliers. The results show the topmost ranked suppliers that are recommended for future negotiations by the case (bank). The study will enable banks to select socially responsible suppliers, which could accelerate the attainment of sustainability objectives, protect their reputations and improve competitiveness.

This study pioneers the application of a novel decision methodology based on Shannon Entropy and TODIM in selecting socially sustainable suppliers in the Banking sector of an African emerging economy-Nigeria.

This paper aims to examine the interaction effect of regulations (monetary and macro-prudential) in explaining the possible non-linear effect of bank risk exposures (credit risk and insolvency risk) on banking stability in Africa.

The study uses a two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator for a data set of banks across 54 African countries over the period 2006–2020.

The authors find that the relationships between bank credit risk–bank stability and bank insolvency risk–bank stability are non-linear and characterized by the presence of optimal thresholds, which are 5.3456 for credit risk and 2.3643 for insolvency. Contrary to their positive effects below these optimal thresholds, credit risk and insolvency risk become negatively linked to bank stability in Africa. The authors find that macro-prudential action and monetary policy both have a positive and significant relationship with bank stability. The authors provide evidence to support that the marginal effect of excessive credit risk and insolvency risk on bank stability is reduced when interacted with monetary and macro-prudential regulations, and the impact is significant in strong institutional environment.

Future research should extend data to include developing and emerging economies in the world. Also, policymakers, researchers and practitioners should consider different regulatory and institutional frameworks in explaining the relationship between the thresholds of bank risk exposures and bank stability in the world.

Regulatory authorities should have to deeply reform their financial systems, develop risk-based regulatory framework and effective supervision mechanism relating to appropriate techniques that maintain an optimal and desired level of bank risks and risk-taking behaviours required to ensure a stable banking system.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine how different regulatory frameworks shape the non-linear impact of bank risk exposures on bank stability in Africa.

Research at the interface of marketing and entrepreneurship has emphasized digital entrepreneurship and how entrepreneurs pursue business opportunities centered on new technologies. However, a different type of entrepreneurship focused on opportunities involving consumers’ (re)adoption of displaced analog technologies when digital alternatives are dominant – analog entrepreneurship – is a trend and counter phenomenon to digital entrepreneurship that is receiving intense practitioner interest but limited scholarly attention. The purpose of this article is to present a theoretical framework that explains the role of analog entrepreneurship in technology revitalization.

In this conceptual paper, the authors use the microfoundations perspective to develop a multilevel theory of analog entrepreneurship. The authors define and delineate the “analog entrepreneurship” concept and formulate a midrange theory explaining how entrepreneurs influence the reemergence of analog technologies.

The theory’s main insight is that the renewal of analog technologies is not confined to consumers. Entrepreneurs are creating businesses that stimulate demand for analog technologies. As a result of entrepreneurs’ activities, legacy analog technologies do not fade into nonexistence in the face of rival digital technologies.

The theory of analog entrepreneurship contributes to research at the intersection of entrepreneurship and marketing by expanding its focus to consider the entrepreneurs who revitalize displaced analog technologies when digital alternatives are dominant. The authors provide insight into the potential trajectories of technologies after their initial displacement and the role entrepreneurs play in shaping the late stages of technology lifecycles. The theory draws attention to an underexplored phenomenon made increasingly prevalent by recent technological disruptions and suggests an agenda for studying how entrepreneurs renew analog technologies.

The study examines the effect of macroeconomic risk, inflation uncertainty and instability associated with key macroeconomic indicators on the efficiency of financial institutions among economies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Data for the empirical inquiry were compiled from 35 SSA economies from 1996 to 2019. The empirical estimates were carried out using pooled ordinary least squares (POLS) with Driscoll and Kraay’s (1998) standard errors.

Reported empirical estimates show that macroeconomic risk and exchange rate volatility constrain the efficiency of financial institutions. Further results suggest that inflation uncertainty has a significant influence on the efficiency of financial institutions among economies in the subregion. Additionally, reviewed empirical estimates show that institutional quality positively moderates the nexus between inflation uncertainty and financial institution efficiency. At the same time, political instability is found to worsen the adverse effect of macroeconomic risk on the efficiency of financial institutions.

For policymakers and governments, improved institutional structures are recommended to ensure the operational efficiency of financial institutions, especially during an inflationary period. For decision-makers among financial institutions, the study recommends policies that have the potential to make their institutions less vulnerable to macroeconomic risk and exchange rate fluctuations.

The approach adopted in this study differs significantly from related studies in that the study examines and reviews interactions and relationships not readily found in the reviewed literature.

This study seeks to empirically examine the influence of corporate governance on corporate performance in Ghana.

The study employs data from 30 listed firms spanning from 2008 to 2018 and applies the generalized method of moments technique. The authors use economic value added, shareholder value added (SVA) and economic margin (EM) as measures of corporate performance.

The findings reveal that the presence of both inside directors and outside (nonexecutive) directors significantly improves corporate performance, lending credence to both the stewardship theory and the agency theory. The inclusion of women on the corporate boards and frequent meetings of the board reduce the economic profits of firms. The authors find that CEO duality impedes corporate performance, supporting the presumption of the agency theory. The study further reveals that audit committee size and ownership concentration positively drive the performance of quoted firms in Ghana.

Prior studies on corporate governance and firm performance nexus have chiefly adopted traditional accounting-based performance measures such as return on assets and return on equity to evaluate firm performance. However, these indicators are critiqued for being historic and fail to consider firms' cost of equity. In light of the shortcomings of the accounting-based proxies, this study takes a unique direction by using value-based metrics, which are considered superior measures of performance. Besides, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this study provides a first attempt to investigate the link between corporate governance and firm performance using SVA and EM as performance indicators.

During the supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19, logistics service providers (LSPs) have invested heavily in innovations to enhance their supply chain resilience capabilities. However, only little attention has been given so far to the nature of these innovative capabilities, in particular to what extent LSPs were able to repurpose capabilities to build supply chain resilience. In response, using the concept of exaptation, this study identifies to what extent LSPs have discovered and utilized latent functions to build supply chain resilience capabilities during a disruptive event of high impact and low probability.

This conceptual paper uses a theory building approach to advance the literature on supply chain resilience by delineating the relationship between exaptation and supply chain resilience capabilities in the context of COVID-19. To do so, we propose two frameworks: (1) to clarify the role of exaptation for supply chain resilience capabilities and (2) to depict four different exaptation dimensions for the supply chain resilience capabilities of LSPs.

We illustrate how LSPs have repurposed original functions into new products or services to build their supply chain resilience capabilities and combine the two critical concepts of exploitation and exploration capabilities to identify four exaptation dimensions in the context of LSPs, namely impeded exaptation, configurative exaptation, transformative exaptation and ambidextrous exaptation.

As one of the first studies linking exaptation and supply chain resilience, the framework and subsequent categorization advance the understanding of how LSPs can build exapt-driven supply chain resilience capabilities and synthesize the current literature to offer conceptual clarity regarding the varied implications and outcomes linked to the repurposing of capabilities.

This study aims to evaluate the key risk factors inherent in public–private partnership (PPP) power projects in Ghana and further determine the critical risk factors affecting both the public and private sectors in PPP power projects.

Ranking-type Delphi survey in two rounds was conducted to establish a comprehensive list of critical risk factors of PPP. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques helped obtain experts for the Delphi survey. Mean score ranking, factor analysis, Cronbach α coefficient and Kendall’s concordance were used for analysis. The probability of occurrence and severity of each risk factor were computed to obtain the risk impact.

From the list of 67 risks, 37 risk factors were deemed to be critical. The five topmost risk factors were: delay payment on contract, private investor change, political risks, fluctuating demand of power generated and public opposition. Principal component analysis grouped the risk factors into seven major themes.

This study develops an authoritative risk factor list for PPP power projects, which reflects both sector and country conditions for prioritizing and mitigating risk factors. Delphi approach adopted in this study can be used by future studies in similar environments where PPP is novel and expert respondents scarce.