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In an effort to provide insights that nurture the future of brand relationships, this paper aims to examine the impact of brand communications on consumption behavior during critical events that significantly impact the marketplace. Specifically, this research focuses on external crises (i.e. global health crises, natural disasters and regional conflicts) beyond the control of the corporations that govern brands. It does so by exploring the most effective brand communication strategies at the onset of a crisis when brands may shift promotional content to more sensitive, crisis-related content as a means to connect with consumers. Furthermore, this paper seeks to understand which consumer segment will benefit most from brands’ crisis-related content.

This research introduces two empirical studies (combined sample = 490), using student and online participant samples.

Results from this work demonstrate that at the onset of a crisis, consumers’ attitudes, brand engagement, and self-brand connections significantly increase after visualizing crisis-related versus noncrisis-related brand messages. Results also reveal that consumers who feel less socially connected will react more favorably to brand communications that contain crisis-related content (i.e. informative or emotional content related to the crisis) than non-crisis-related content (i.e. marketing content aimed to promote and advertise the brand, product and/or services).

While the effect of crisis communications on consumption behavior and the moderating effect of social connections is explored, the underlying mechanism of these effects is not investigated in this study. Therefore, future research might consider evaluating the mechanisms that drive these effects.

This work builds on past research to help establish that during early critical times, marketing managers should include crisis-related content in their communications, which will increase consumers’ positive reactions toward the brand.

Another implication of this work is that it underscores the significance of crisis-related brand communications as an inclusive practice because these are particularly well-received among vulnerable consumer segments, such as those who feel less socially connected during critical times.

Proactive communication strategies allow brands to better manage external critical challenges. As brands navigate a postpandemic marketplace, this research highlights the adaptations that managers can make to their communication strategies at peak uncertain times, such as the earlier stages of an external crisis.

Communication with employees during times of crisis has become a crucial aspect of crisis management for building organizational resilience knowledge. Thus, explaining how internal crisis management promotes positive employee behaviour has become imperative. This study aims to investigate the relationship between internal crisis communication, job engagement, Organizational Citizenship Behaviour towards the Environment, Communicative behaviour for sensemaking and sensegiving and organizational resilience.

An online survey was conducted with 483 full-time employees in Pakistan. The structural equation modelling technique was employed to assess the study's hypotheses.

The findings of this study demonstrate that internal crisis communication can boost employee job engagement, organizational citizenship behaviour towards environment, sensemaking and sensegiving, which will also have a downstream effect on organizational resilience.

The findings of this study indicated that effective internal communication can aid managers in making well-informed decisions, coordinating response efforts and disseminating vital information to relevant stakeholders. As a result, this study contributes to the literature on internal crisis management by incorporating employee behavioural intention towards the environment. It provides managers and practitioners with knowledge on managing employees during a crisis.

Surprisingly, the conservation of resource theory (COR) does not explain communicative conduct (sensegiving) and environmental (e.g. organizational citizenship behaviour towards environment) components. This research combines the tenets of COR theory that have yet to be researched with the employees' environmental responses element. The mechanisms of cognition and communication were also ignored in earlier studies. This study sheds light on the process through which higher levels of job engagement, organizational citizenship behaviour towards environment and the capacity for comprehension (e.g. sensemaking) and meaning-transmission (e.g. sensegiving) ultimately help organizations navigate the crisis successfully.

In recent decades, managerial desire to use internal audit services to promote well-controlled organizational processes has significantly increased in the public sector. Yet, there is rare information on how internal audits may effectively be implemented in the public sector. The present research aims to design a comprehensive internal audit effectiveness model for the public sector.

This research is an applied mixed-methods (qualitative–quantitative) and descriptive survey study. The research population in both qualitative and quantitative sections included all internal and external audit managers and staff of Iraqi public organizations. The study sample of the qualitative section included 28 audit managers and staff selected using purposive sampling, and the study sample of the quantitative section included 399 individuals selected using convenience sampling. The data collection instruments in the qualitative and quantitative sections included semi-structured interviews and questionnaires, respectively. Data analysis was carried out using thematic analysis in Atlas.ti software in the qualitative section. Quantitative analysis and model validation were also performed using path analysis and structural equation modeling in Smart-PLS software in the quantitative section.

The results of the qualitative section led to the identification of 38 effectiveness factors among seven main categories, which were finally presented in the form of a comprehensive model. The main categories included the communication between internal and external auditors, granting independence and authority to internal auditors, providing specialized human resources, providing technological resources, developing management support, strengthening organizational culture and developing audit plans. In the qualitative section, the model was validated and confirmed. Quantitative results further showed that the compilation of audit plans and the development of management support were the most important factors.

The present study contributes to the literature by providing a comprehensive framework on internal audit with an emphasis on resource-based theory and reducing the research gap in the field of agents influencing internal audit efficacy in the public sector of developing countries. Further, the study provides insights into an under-studied developing country, Iraq.

Sexual health is insufficiently addressed in health care and higher education, which can lead to lower quality of life and negative health outcomes. To improve the situation, it is necessary to address both the needs of patients and professionals and collaboratively engage in finding sustainable solutions. The purpose of this paper is to explore the feasibility and value of large-scale digital coproduction in higher education.

A study of a project that developed seven interprofessional, digital master-level courses covering different topics related to sexual health. The project was performed through digital coproduction in higher education, with over 100 persons with various backgrounds working together online in designing content and novel digital learning activities.

Large-scale digital coproduction in higher education is feasible and valuable, but the process demands sensitive leadership, understanding of coproduction processes and willingness to learn from each other. To meet the demands from practice it is important to understand the complexity, ever-changing and unpredictable working life changes which, in turn, demands engagement in continuous learning, training activities and the need for formal education.

The study provides learning of the feasibility of the value of large-scale digital coproduction in higher education, which is a novel way of working in higher education.

This paper aims to understand whether, and if so how, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) influence large companies’ adoption and implementation of a broader corporate purpose, beyond profit maximization.

Adopting a multiple-case study method, data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 28 managers from 16 large companies in Australia and Japan, and from secondary sources. Grounded theory methods were used to analyze the data and draw out key findings.

The study revealed the influence of the SDGs on corporate purpose depends on the SDG integration level: where and how the SDGs are integrated into management practices. The influence was more significant when the companies implemented the SDGs at a normative level compared to those implementing the SDGs at a strategic and/or operational level.

Due to the exploratory nature of the study, the sample size is limited and covers only companies in two countries. Future studies could examine the validity of the findings and the explanatory model by testing with a larger sample and expanding the scope into different countries. The study provides practical implications on how large companies’ could scale up their contributions to achieving the SDGs.

While the extant literature suggests a simple relationship between sustainability (the SDGs) and corporate purpose, this paper identified a more complex relationship. It presents in a multi-pathway model that explains the relationship, based on empirical evidence from 16 large companies in two different institutional contexts.

This study aims to quantitatively consolidate the research conducted over the past four decades on how internal branding activities drive employee commitment. It summarizes several operationalizations of internal branding and tests the moderating effect of employee’s personal characteristics and job characteristics on the relationship between internal branding and employee commitment.

This paper uses meta-analysis as the research methodology. The analysis includes a sample of 65 studies (from 62 published works), yielding 226 effect sizes (coded into 82 composite effect sizes) over an aggregated sample of 21,706 respondents.

This study finds that brand communication, brand-centered human resource management (HRM), training and development, organizational support and culture, brand-centered leadership and an excellent reward system are the key operationalizations of internal branding. Furthermore, employee’s personal (education, age and gender) and job (tenure, work status and level of customer orientation) characteristics significantly moderate the internal branding–employee commitment relationship.

Limited empirical literature on some of the internal branding operationalizations such as brand-centered HRM and rewards has curbed the scope of moderator analysis.

This paper proposes some effective ways of implementing internal branding strategies and provides support for boundary conditions that brand managers should consider to strengthen the impact of internal branding activities on employee commitment.

As per the authors’ knowledge, this paper is among the few quantitative consolidations of four decades of research on the internal branding–employee commitment relationship.

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the compliance of environmental risk management systems implemented by Moroccan banks with ISO 14001 certification or environmental charters.

Data were collected through the distribution of an environmental risk management questionnaire to all Moroccan banks’ branches, business centers and various central entities. The study uses regression analysis to model the relationship between environmental management system (EMS) compliance and environmental management explanatory variables to identify the most relevant indicators that can explain the effectiveness and reliability of an EMS.

Empirical evidence reveals that the evaluation of EMS compliance in Moroccan banks should consider two categories of variables: the first category is related to the culture of environmental risk management, and the second one is related to environmental management practices.

The results show that the “information” variables play a key role in the overall design of an EMS and represent essential variables in the general definition of the environmental policy and in raising awareness and providing information on the bank’s commitment to a pro-environmental approach. The “application” variables confirm that environmental management practices need to be put in place to manage the different environmental risks. The study raises some managerial implications and further research directions.

This article presents a comprehensive analysis of innovation in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India, focusing on the barriers and facilitators within their internal and external ecosystems.

A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 1430 MSMEs across India, employing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to analyze the relationships between internal and external factors and innovation adaptation.

The findings indicate that factors such as top management and organization structure, communication, technological capability and adaptation and organizational culture have a positive impact on innovation adaptation within the internal environment. Conversely, employee and market orientation, as well as financial factors, have a negative influence. Regarding the external environment, industry and competitive analysis, internationalization and partner alliances were found to positively affect innovation adaptation, whereas the country's infrastructure and policies had a negative impact.

The study emphasizes that MSMEs have the potential to leverage their internal and external environments to foster innovation within their organizations.

Building on evolutionary emancipation theory, the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of workplace fun on employees’ scouting behavior through the serial mediation of employees’ psychological empowerment and megaphoning.

A questionnaire survey technique is used to elicit the responses of 445 employees from service organizations.

The statistical results revealed that fun at work influences employees scouting behavior through the serial mediation of psychological empowerment and megaphoning. The direction relationship between fun and scouting was not statistically significant, thus a full mediation mechanism was proved.

The value of employees’ communication behavior has increased in the recent past, and it overweighs the conventional mediums (e.g. TV, radio and newspaper). But the antecedents and mechanisms through which communication behavior can be influenced are an area that has not gained researchers’ attention. This study proposes such a conceptual model and empirically tests it.

This article expands literature on user innovation by exploring the mechanisms that support user innovations in the context of a public organisation. Research has hitherto documented support mechanisms for user innovation in producer companies, where users contribute in early or temporary innovation phases as external non-employees or lead-users engaged by the producer. Complementarily, this paper explores a lesser known area of support mechanisms, those that support internal user innovations in a public sector setting.

Employing a qualitative study of a Norwegian public hospital at the interface between users (personnel and patients) and organisational support (facilitators who orchestrate user innovations), this article analyses in-house user innovation based on observations, text documentation and interviews over a four-year period.

In this public hospital, holistic organisational facilitation of “public user innovators” formed the key support mechanism built on “people” (facilitating co-creation), “process” (facilitating ideas, project realisation and implementation) and “coordination” (facilitating systems and communication). The findings show that public and producer organisational mechanisms both resemble and differ in many respects, as illustrated by the framework developed to describe these characteristics, such as that producers insource users, while the public organisation outsources production.

The originality of the article lies in the identification and description of “public user innovation”, a new term developed from this study of a public organisation in contrast to the dominant literature on producer companies. This article contributes new insights by differentiating the roles of user innovators and the mechanisms that support such innovations. New implications are drawn from the public side of organisational support in user innovation research.