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1 – 10 of 212
Article
Publication date: 18 August 2023

Enrico Bonetti, Chiara Bartoli and Alberto Mattiacci

The purpose of this paper is to enrich the knowledge about blockchain (BC) technology implementation in the agri-food industry by providing an interpretive framework of the key…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to enrich the knowledge about blockchain (BC) technology implementation in the agri-food industry by providing an interpretive framework of the key marketing opportunities and challenges, related to the adoption of BC for Geographical Indication (GI) products.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopts an explorative qualitative research design through the cognitive mapping technique applied to the cognition of different market players involved in agri-food BC projects: farmers, distributors, companies and consultancies.

Findings

This study presents a comprehensive examination of the marketing impacts of BC across various marketing objectives, including product enhancement, brand positioning, consumer relationships, market access and supply chain relationships. It highlights the capability of BC to facilitate data-enabled ecosystems within the agri-food sector, involving supply chain actors and control agencies. Additionally, the study sheds light on the challenges (technological, collaborative, political, financial and organizational) associated with the implementation of BC in the marketing of agri-food products.

Research limitations/implications

This work provides a comprehensive examination of the relevance of BC in the marketing activities of firms, particularly in the context of quality food products. It highlights the main areas of impact and effects and emphasizes the complexity of the phenomenon, which extends beyond its technical issues. Furthermore, it offers a systematic exploration of the challenges associated with the adoption of BC in marketing activities, thus contributing to a broader understanding of the implications of BC adoption in companies' marketing strategies.

Practical implications

The practical implications for this work addresses both GI companies and policy makers. Implications for companies relate to the market benefits associated with the implementation of BC, which allow further strengthening of market positioning, relationships of trust within the supply chain and integration between physical and digital market channels. The study also systematizes the challenges underlying the implementation of BC projects. The implications for policy makers regard the role they have to play in BC projects at regulatory, financial and policy levels.

Originality/value

Studies focusing on BC applications in marketing are still limited and characterized by a very narrow perspective (especially in the food industry). This study contributes to the conceptual design of the marketing applications of BC in the agri-food sector. The value of the study also lies in having framed the marketing impacts of BC in a holistic perspective, along with the technological and non-technological challenges that are related to the integration of BC in marketing strategy and operations.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 126 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 7 December 2023

Federico Paolo Zasa and Tommaso Buganza

This study aims to investigate how configurations of boundary objects (BOs) support innovation teams in developing innovative product concepts. Specifically, it explores the…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate how configurations of boundary objects (BOs) support innovation teams in developing innovative product concepts. Specifically, it explores the effectiveness of different artefact configurations in facilitating collaboration and bridging knowledge boundaries during the concept development process.

Design/methodology/approach

The research is based on data from ten undergraduate innovation teams working with an industry partner in a creative industry. Six categories of BOs are identified, which serve as tools for collaboration. The study applies fsQCA (fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis) to analyse the configurations employed by the teams to bridge knowledge boundaries and support the development of innovative product concepts.

Findings

The findings of the study reveal two distinct groups of configurations: product envisioning and product design. The configurations within the “product envisioning” group support the activities of visioning and pivoting, enabling teams to innovate the product concept by altering the product vision. On the other hand, the configurations within the “product design” group facilitate experimenting, modelling and prototyping, allowing teams to design the attributes of the innovative product concept while maintaining the product vision.

Originality/value

This research contributes to the field of innovation by providing insights into the role of BOs and their configurations in supporting innovation teams during concept development. The results suggest that configurations of “product envisioning” support bridging semantic knowledge boundaries, while configurations within “product design” bridge pragmatic knowledge boundaries. This understanding contributes to the broader field of knowledge integration and innovation in design contexts.

Details

European Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 27 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1460-1060

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 June 2022

Kuei-Chen Chiu

This paper aims to answer these questions: “Is the public adopting energy-saving and water-saving facilities because they want to save energy and water in their psychological…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to answer these questions: “Is the public adopting energy-saving and water-saving facilities because they want to save energy and water in their psychological perception?”, “Is it convenient to use energy-saving and water-saving facilities?”, “If the inductive design of energy-saving and water-saving facilities attracts the public’s interest, the public is it more willing to install energy-saving and water-saving facilities in a widespread manner?” and “Can inductive energy-saving and water-saving facilities be introduced into the smart manufacturing system of manufacturing industries that require a lot of water to effectively save water and save costs for the company?”.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper aims to investigate the attitudes of employees toward using energy-saving and water-saving facilities by constructing a questionnaire based on the ABC (Affect, Behavior, Cognition) model to survey the attitudes of employees from the Southern and Eastern of Taiwan and establishing a structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the relationship between affect, behavior and cognition while using energy-saving and water-saving facilities.

Findings

There are some findings in this paper that the affective design have a strongly significant positive impact for using energy-saving and water-saving facility in the proposed model. People are willing to use energy-saving and water-saving facilities but are more willing to adopt those energy-saving and water-saving products of smart designs, as those take into account the emotional factors. The critical factor for the public to adopt energy-saving and water-saving facilities is smart design, which incorporates emotional elements.

Research limitations/implications

There are still some limitations of this study that the ABC model can only be used as a psychological discussion, and the development and design of related facilities still needs to be jointly developed with professionals in related technical fields. The introduction of induction water supply facilities needs to be considered while the company introduces the design of the smart manufacturing system. Therefore, professionals related to induction water supply should participate in the planning at the initial stage of the company's concept of introducing the smart manufacturing system.

Practical implications

On the practical side, based on preliminary research conclusions, this study proposes to introduce inductive water supply into smart manufacturing systems for manufacturing companies that require a lot of water in their manufacturing processes. In practice, the company can actually save a lot of water, thereby saving costs and reducing waste water discharge.

Social implications

The results of this study show that the public has a cognition of energy-saving and water-saving. However, there is a Chinese proverb that “easy to know and hard to do”, when actually using facilities, convenience is an important consideration for public. Smart facilities of energy-saving and water-saving, in addition to the benefits of energy-saving and water-saving, it is easy to use, and interacts with users through inductive water supply, which can more emotionally attract people's willingness to use.

Originality/value

This study found that smart facilities, which can more emotionally attract people's willingness to use. On the academic side, this study proves that using the ABC theory to explore the public’s psychological affective, behavior and cognition response to the use of facilities is a very suitable method. On the practical side, based on preliminary research conclusions, this study proposes to introduce inductive water supply into smart manufacturing systems for manufacturing companies that require a lot of water in their manufacturing processes. In practice, the company can actually save a lot of water, thereby saving costs and reducing waste water discharge.

Article
Publication date: 17 February 2023

Hugo Martinelli Watanuki and Renato de Oliveira Moraes

The purpose of this paper is to identify the practices that owners of public profiles in social networking sites can leverage to actively build online reputation and to evaluate…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the practices that owners of public profiles in social networking sites can leverage to actively build online reputation and to evaluate the impact of the adoption of such practices on the initial formation of trust toward these individuals when they are presented as new virtual work partners.

Design/methodology/approach

A theoretical model was developed and an experiment with 233 participants was utilized to assess the model using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results suggest that individuals can build their online reputations in public profiles of social networking sites via a series of practices of self-disclosure of information and that the adoption of these practices has significant effects on the initial formation of trust toward the profile owner in virtual work contexts. Categorization mechanisms such as stereotyping, unit grouping and reputation categorization have been found to contribute to the initial formation of trust, both from an affect and cognition-based perspectives.

Originality/value

Little is known about the information disclosure practices in public profiles of social networking sites that new work partners can adopt to facilitate the formation of trust between them before they start working together. This study has contributed to the existing body of literature by clarifying these practices and the relative importance of online reputation to the initial formation of trust during the outset of a new virtual work relationship.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. 76 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 March 2023

Adela Chen and Nicholas Roberts

Practitioners and academics are starting to recognize the benefits of green IT/IS practices. Despite these benefits, this study aims to know more regarding the factors that would…

Abstract

Purpose

Practitioners and academics are starting to recognize the benefits of green IT/IS practices. Despite these benefits, this study aims to know more regarding the factors that would drive organizations to use green IT/IS practices within their IT function and across the enterprise. To further understanding in this area, this study applies a strategic cognition framework of firm responsiveness and institutional theory to determine the extent to which an organization uses green IT/IS practices in response to stakeholder concerns. This study investigates the extent to which two organizational logics – expressive and instrumental – and three institutional pressures – coercive, mimetic and normative – jointly affect an organization's use of both green IT practices and green IS practices.

Design/methodology/approach

This study tested the hypotheses with survey data collected from 306 organizations. Structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.

Findings

Findings support four joint effects: (1) individualistic identity orientation and coercive pressure positively affect green IT practices; (2) collectivistic identity orientation and normative pressure positively influence green IS practices; (3) cost reduction orientation and mimetic pressure positively affect green IT practices; and (4) revenue expansion orientation and normative pressure positively influence green IS practices.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature by providing evidence for joint drivers of green IT and green IS practices. Green IT and IS practices represent organizations' different levels of commitment to environmental sustainability and responsiveness to stakeholders (i.e. green IT/IS practices). Organizations of different expressive and instrumental orientations are attuned to institutional pressures to various degrees, which leads to different green IT/IS practices.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 23 February 2024

Sarah Mueller-Saegebrecht

Managers must make numerous strategic decisions in order to initiate and implement a business model innovation (BMI). This paper examines how managers perceive the management team…

672

Abstract

Purpose

Managers must make numerous strategic decisions in order to initiate and implement a business model innovation (BMI). This paper examines how managers perceive the management team interacts when making BMI decisions. The paper also investigates how group biases and board members’ risk willingness affect this process.

Design/methodology/approach

Empirical data were collected through 26 in-depth interviews with German managing directors from 13 companies in four industries (mobility, manufacturing, healthcare and energy) to explore three research questions: (1) What group effects are prevalent in BMI group decision-making? (2) What are the key characteristics of BMI group decisions? And (3) what are the potential relationships between BMI group decision-making and managers' risk willingness? A thematic analysis based on Gioia's guidelines was conducted to identify themes in the comprehensive dataset.

Findings

First, the results show four typical group biases in BMI group decisions: Groupthink, social influence, hidden profile and group polarization. Findings show that the hidden profile paradigm and groupthink theory are essential in the context of BMI decisions. Second, we developed a BMI decision matrix, including the following key characteristics of BMI group decision-making managerial cohesion, conflict readiness and information- and emotion-based decision behavior. Third, in contrast to previous literature, we found that individual risk aversion can improve the quality of BMI decisions.

Practical implications

This paper provides managers with an opportunity to become aware of group biases that may impede their strategic BMI decisions. Specifically, it points out that managers should consider the key cognitive constraints due to their interactions when making BMI decisions. This work also highlights the importance of risk-averse decision-makers on boards.

Originality/value

This qualitative study contributes to the literature on decision-making by revealing key cognitive group biases in strategic decision-making. This study also enriches the behavioral science research stream of the BMI literature by attributing a critical influence on the quality of BMI decisions to managers' group interactions. In addition, this article provides new perspectives on managers' risk aversion in strategic decision-making.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 62 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 April 2024

Carmen Valor, Carlos Martínez-de-Ibarreta, Isabel Carrero and Amparo Merino

Brief loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is introduced here as a valid social marketing intervention. LKM positively influences prosocial cognitions and affects. However, it remains…

Abstract

Purpose

Brief loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is introduced here as a valid social marketing intervention. LKM positively influences prosocial cognitions and affects. However, it remains unclear whether brief meditation interventions can influence prosocial behavior. This study aims to provide evidence of the effects of short LKM on prosocial behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

This study reports the results of three experiments examining the effects of brief LKM on donations to unknown others. The results are then integrated with the results of seven other studies testing the effects of brief LKM on prosocial behavior using a meta-analysis (n = 683).

Findings

LKM increased love more than the control group (focused breathing) in the three experiments; however, its effects on donations were mixed. The meta-analysis shows that LKM has a small-to-medium significant effect compared to active control groups (d = 0.303); moreover, age and type of prosocial measure used moderate the effects.

Originality/value

Results suggest that LKM can nurture prosocial emotions such as love and lead young individuals to donate. However, these emotions may not be sufficient to lead adult meditators to share their resources with unknown others. This study presents the first meta-analysis of brief LKM and provides insights into the use of meditation in social marketing programs.

Details

Journal of Social Marketing, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-6763

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 27 September 2023

Lilian M. Hoogenboom, Maria T.M. Dijkstra and Bianca Beersma

Scholars and practitioners alike wish to understand what makes workplace conflict beneficial or injurious to, for example, performance and satisfaction. The authors focus on…

1291

Abstract

Purpose

Scholars and practitioners alike wish to understand what makes workplace conflict beneficial or injurious to, for example, performance and satisfaction. The authors focus on parties’ personal experience of the conflict, which is complementary to studying conflict issues (i.e. task- or relationship-related conflict). Although many authors discuss the personal experience of conflict, which the authors will refer to as conflict personalization, different definitions are used, leading to conceptual vagueness. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop an integrative definition of the concept of conflict personalization.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a systematic literature review to collect definitions and conceptualizations from 41 publications. The subsequent thematic analysis revealed four building blocks that were used to develop an integrative definition of conflict personalization.

Findings

The authors developed the following definition: Conflict personalization is the negative affective as well as cognitive reaction to the self being threatened and/or in danger as a result of a social interaction about perceived incompatibilities.

Practical implications

The integrative definition of this study enables the development of a measurement instrument to assess personalization during workplace conflict, paving the way for developing effective research-based interventions.

Originality/value

Conceptual vagueness hampers theoretical development, empirical research and the development of effective interventions. Although the importance of conflict personalization is mentioned within the field of workplace conflict, it has not been empirically studied yet. This paper can serve as the basis for future research in which conflict issue and personal experience are separated.

Details

International Journal of Conflict Management, vol. 35 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1044-4068

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 April 2024

Chenchen Weng, Martin J. Liu, Jun Luo and Natalia Yannopoulou

Drawing on the social presence theory, this study aims to explore how supplier–customer social media interactions influence supplier observers’ trust in the customers and what…

Abstract

Purpose

Drawing on the social presence theory, this study aims to explore how supplier–customer social media interactions influence supplier observers’ trust in the customers and what mechanisms contribute to variation in trust experience.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 36 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Chinese suppliers using WeChat for business-to-business interactions. Data were analyzed in three steps: open coding, axial coding and selective coding.

Findings

Findings reveal that varied trust is based not only on the categories of social presence of interaction – whether social presence is embedded in informative interactions – but also on the perceived selectivity in social presence. Observer suppliers who experience selectivity during social and affective interactions create a perception of hidden information and an unhealthy relationship atmosphere, and report a sense of emotional vulnerability, thus eroding cognitive and affective trust.

Originality/value

The findings contribute new understandings to social presence theory by exploring the social presence of interactions in a supplier–supplier–customer triad and offer valuable insights into business-to-business social media literature by adopting a suppliers’ viewpoint to unpack the mechanisms of how social presence of interaction positively and negatively influences suppliers’ trust and behavioral responses.

Details

Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-5577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 May 2023

Brian Gregory

This study aims to explore a rarely studied form of person–organization fit, perceptual fit, which captures the accuracy of an employee’s understanding of their organization’s…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore a rarely studied form of person–organization fit, perceptual fit, which captures the accuracy of an employee’s understanding of their organization’s culture. The managerial antecedents of perceptual fit were explored to increase understanding about how employees learn their organizational culture and the role that managers play in that process. In addition, the behavioural and attitudinal consequences of perceptual fit were examined to gain a deeper appreciation for the impact of misunderstanding one’s organizational culture on work attitudes and cognitions.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey tools were used to measure multiple workplace cognitions, attitudes and values from employees of three small health-care organizations. Organizational culture was measured for each organization so that perceptual fit could be ascertained, which represents an accuracy score of each individual’s comprehension of their organization’s culture. Regression analyses measured the hypothesized associations between perceptual fit and its proposed antecedents and consequences.

Findings

The results suggest that leader–member exchange (LMX) and perceived organizational support (POS) are both positively associated with perceptual fit. In terms of the outcomes of perceptual fit, the regression analyses provide support for an association between perceptual fit and psychological empowerment, job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature by exploring how employees come to understand their organization’s culture, and the consequences of differing levels of understanding (i.e. perceptual fit). The study results suggest that managerial action such as LMX and POS can enhance the chances that an employee is able to understand their organization’s culture accurately. Furthermore, this research adds to our understanding of the individual consequences of understanding one’s organizational culture by providing evidence that psychological empowerment is associated with perceptual fit.

Details

International Journal of Organizational Analysis, vol. 32 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1934-8835

Keywords

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