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This study aims to examine individual-specific market orientation as an innovative approach and its relationship with marketing skills among artisan entrepreneurs in India.

The study adopted an in-depth interview to explore variables, a questionnaire survey to understand their latent dimensions through exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the relationship between constructs under study.

The interview result indicates that 20 variables explain factors affecting individual-specific market orientation with four latent dimensions: customer orientation, competitor orientation, external coordination orientation and personal selling orientation. There is a significant and positive relationship between customer orientation and personal selling orientation with the marketing skills of artisan entrepreneurs in India.

The study is confined to three southern states of India and weaving villages known for their endemic product specifications.

The study found significance in orienting artisan entrepreneurs of developing countries and equipping them with desired skills to meet the changing dynamics of the market and meet their livelihood needs. The study further supports policymaking in strengthening the capability of artisans to enter the market without mediators.

The model provides insight into other unorganized sectors to formulate innovative approaches to strengthen marketing skills and entrepreneurial ability.

As an exploratory study, examining individual-level market orientation as an innovative approach and their relationship with marketing skills among artisan entrepreneurs was unexplored in several unorganized sectors, including handlooms.

This paper aims to assess the design of national-level flexible work arrangement (FWA) policies, evaluating their potential to serve as an effective resource for employees to work flexibly depending on how they set the stage for flexibility claims that will be subject to industrial and workplace dynamics.

Using a capability approach, the authors conceptualize and operationalize two aspects of FWA policy design, namely accessibility and availability. The authors' analysis allows for an understanding of how the availability and accessibility of national FWA policies explicitly and implicitly restrict or facilitate flexible working in a structural manner. The study focuses on countries with differing working time regimes and gender norms on work and care: the Netherlands, Spain and Slovenia.

The authors' findings highlight how FWA accessibility is broader when national policy is specified and FWA availability is not conditional to care. In Spain and Slovenia, access to FWAs depends on whether employees have care responsibilities, which reduces accessibility and reinforces gender imbalances in care provision. In contrast, the Netherlands provides FWAs universally, resulting in wider availability and accessibility of FWAs for employees regardless of their care responsibilities. Despite this universal provision, gender imbalances remain.

The originality of this paper lies in its conceptualization and operationalization of FWAs at the national level using a capability approach. The study adds to the existing literature on flexible working and provides insights for policymakers to design more effective FWAs.

Many libraries and archives maintain collections of research documents, such as administrative records, with paper-based formats that limit the documents' access to in-person use. Digitization transforms paper-based collections into more accessible and analyzable formats. As collections are digitized, there is an opportunity to incorporate deep learning techniques, such as Document Image Analysis (DIA), into workflows to increase the usability of information extracted from archival documents. This paper describes the authors' approach using digital scanning, optical character recognition (OCR) and deep learning to create a digital archive of administrative records related to the mortgage guarantee program of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, also known as the G.I. Bill.

The authors used a collection of 25,744 semi-structured paper-based records from the administration of G.I. Bill Mortgages from 1946 to 1954 to develop a digitization and processing workflow. These records include the name and city of the mortgagor, the amount of the mortgage, the location of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation agent, one or more identification numbers and the name and location of the bank handling the loan. The authors extracted structured information from these scanned historical records in order to create a tabular data file and link them to other authoritative individual-level data sources.

The authors compared the flexible character accuracy of five OCR methods. The authors then compared the character error rate (CER) of three text extraction approaches (regular expressions, DIA and named entity recognition (NER)). The authors were able to obtain the highest quality structured text output using DIA with the Layout Parser toolkit by post-processing with regular expressions. Through this project, the authors demonstrate how DIA can improve the digitization of administrative records to automatically produce a structured data resource for researchers and the public.

The authors' workflow is readily transferable to other archival digitization projects. Through the use of digital scanning, OCR and DIA processes, the authors created the first digital microdata file of administrative records related to the G.I. Bill mortgage guarantee program available to researchers and the general public. These records offer research insights into the lives of veterans who benefited from loans, the impacts on the communities built by the loans and the institutions that implemented them.

Drawing on the microfoundations theory and rational choice sociology, this study aims to investigate knowledge-sharing microfoundations through knowledge sabotage behaviours in the workplace. As such, it aims to shed light on the adverse impact of knowledge sabotage on a knowledge-sharing climate.

As a quantitative deductive study, it is based on information collected from 329 employees of European companies by self-administered online surveys. Data validity and reliability has been assessed through a confirmatory factor analysis, and data analysis was carried out by using a covariance-based structural equation modelling technique.

The findings from the empirical investigation supported the baseline hypotheses of the multilevel conceptual model, which is the positive relationship between organizational trust and environmental knowledge sharing. Then, recurring to a microfoundational exploration, this study supports the mediating indirect effect of job satisfaction and knowledge sabotage in affecting knowledge sharing as a social outcome.

This study concurs to broaden knowledge-sharing awareness among scholars and practitioners, by focusing on knowledge sabotage as its most pernicious counterproductive behaviour. Furthermore, this research provides valuable guidance for the future development of research based on multilevel investigations.

This study builds on the need to explore the numerous factors that affect knowledge sharing in economic organizations, specifically focusing on knowledge sabotage. Adapting Coleman’s bathtub, the authors advance the first multilevel conceptual model used to unveil the knowledge-sharing microfoundations from the perspective of a counterproductive knowledge behaviour.

Although much attention has been paid to understanding employee resistance to reform, little study has been done to explore the effect of employee resistance to public service units' (PSUs) reform in China. To address this need, this work aims to investigate the antecedents of employee resistance to PSUs' reform, especially from the perspective of the heterogeneity of the employees' age.

This study considers the PSUs in Harbin, China, as an example and uses survey questionnaires to analyze the factors influencing employees' resistance when PSUs reform. Besides, the authors developed a research model based on the status quo bias theory, the equity-implementation model.

According to the applied research model, employee resistance to PSU change is primarily influenced by perceived switching costs and benefits. According to their age, this survey also confirms how the employees responded to the reform implementation.

The results of this empirical study inform suggestions for the sustainable development of PSUs and organizational transformations. Overall, this work advances the theoretical understanding of employees' resistance to PSUs’ reform, thereby offering practical insights for managing employee resistance during organizational change.

Overall, given that employee resistance emotion exists in an organization, this study offers theoretical and practical implications for change management strategies.

The current research aimed to investigate the external enablement role of Digital Infrastructures (DI) in the interplay of entrepreneurial cognitions and innovation.

Data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) were used for analyses. This yielded a sample of 8,601 Generation Z entrepreneurs operating in 25 European countries.

Applying hierarchical moderated regressions showed that socio-cognitive components of an entrepreneurial mindset (self-efficacy, risk propensity, opportunity identification) affect innovation among Generation Z entrepreneurs. More importantly, DI plays an external enablement role in the interplay of cognitions and innovation among Generation Z entrepreneurs.

This study contributes to the socio-cognitive theory of entrepreneurship by integrating an external enablement perspective into the study of cognitions and entrepreneurial outcomes (here, innovation). It contributes to the digital technology perspective of entrepreneurship by connecting the conversation about the socio-cognitive perspective of entrepreneurship regarding the role of cognitions in innovation to the conversation in information systems (IS) regarding technology affordances and constraints. This study extends the application of the external enabler framework to the post-entry stage of entrepreneurial activity and integrates a generational perspective into it.

High-tech start-up creation is associated with complex challenges originating from quick transformations in technologies and markets. To raise start-up survival and success chances, founders need to ensure a rapid conversion of a venture idea into a working business. This paper aims to explore how identity-related characteristics of founders influence the speed of the start-up creation process.

For this study, a longitudinal multiple-case-study design was selected to identify a vivid flow of decisions and actions taken by high-tech start-ups for analysis in depth. Over 20 months, a series of interviews were organized with founders of six start-ups located in the same business incubator in Russia. Also, a set of additional data sources was engaged, including publicly available data and internal documents provided by businesses.

The findings reveal contrasting dynamics of start-up creation processes among founders with differing role identities. Identity fit and identity misfit are suggested to be serious pull and push factors in the process of organizational becoming through the impact they have on the situational regulatory focus of founders.

The current research contributes to the entrepreneurship stream of research by extending the knowledge of how cognition affects the process of new venture creation.

Downward line extension is a valuable growth strategy that enables multiple products and services to meet diverse customer needs. However, downward extended products launched by high-status brands may be challenged by horizontal extended products launched by relatively low-status brands when these two types of products target similar consumers. This study aims to examine the impact of product type (horizontal extended versus downward extended) on consumers’ purchase intentions, the underlying mechanism and the moderating role of power distance belief.

Four scenario-based experiments were conducted to probe the research questions.

Consumers develop lower purchase intentions for downward (versus horizontal) extended products due to the reduction of perceived fit and self-congruity (Study 1). Beyond that, power distance belief moderates the impact of product type on consumers’ purchase intentions, as a low power distance belief reduces the negative effect of downward line extension (Studies 2a, 2b and 2c). Perceived fit and self-congruity mediate the interaction effect between product type and power distance belief on consumers’ purchase intentions (Study 2c).

This study provides marketing practitioners with guidance on implementing the strategy of downward line extension.

This study serves as a preliminary effort to compare consumers’ responses between downward and horizontal extended products, which deepens the understanding of downward line extension. It also contributes to the body of knowledge about line extension and power distance belief by demonstrating the moderating role of power distance belief in a line extension context.

This paper aims to explore the increasing importance of the intraorganizational dimension of the sales role (IDSR) based on service-ecosystem theory. Specifically, it examines how firms can improve interactions both internally and with external actors and stakeholders to both create and sustain advantageous “thin crossing points” (Hartmann et al. 2018). Academic research on sales ecosystems has yet to fully harness the rich insights and potential afforded by the crossing-point perspective.

After developing and unpacking the paper’s guiding conceptual framework (Figure 1), the authors focus on crossing points and the diversity of interactions between the contemporary sales force and its many stakeholders. They examine the sales literature, identify opportunities for thinning sales crossing points and propose dozens of research questions and needs.

The paper examines the importance of improving interactions both within and outside the vendor firm to thin crossing points, further develops the concept of the “sales ecosystem” and contributes a series of important research questions for future examination.

The paper focuses on applying “thick” and “thin” crossing points, a key element of Hartman et al. (2018). The primary limitation of the paper is that it focuses solely on the crossing-points perspective and does not consider other applications of Hartman et al. (2018).

This work informs managers of the need to improve interactions both within and outside the firm by thinning crossing points. Improving relationships with stakeholders will improve many vendor firm and customer outcomes, including performance.

Integrating findings from the literature, the authors propose a conceptual framework to encompass the entire diversity of idiosyncratic interactions as well as long-term relationships the sales force experiences. They discuss the strategic importance of thinning crossing points as well as the competitive disadvantages, even peril, “thick” crossing points create. They propose an ambitious research agenda based on dozens of questions to drive further examination of the IDSR from a sales-ecosystem perspective.

The purpose is to review literature on sports season ticket subscriptions to distil current knowledge and guide future research and practice.

A systematic literature review is conducted of research on sports season tickets, a long-established and innovative subscription category.

In-depth examination of 28 papers showed a focus on drivers of satisfaction, churn and renewal causes, and product utilisation rates. Subscription markets typically involve many “solely loyal” consumers, most purchasing one or two subscriptions in a category. From reduced barriers to entry and exit to “curated” subscriptions, subscription marketing is changing very quickly. Sports marketers build relationships with subscribers using behavioural data, tier benefits to distinguish between casual and subscribing customers, and create recall and scarcity around key aspects of subscription to combat churn and increase utilisation.

Scarce research on subscription marketing practices remains the primary limitation. Existing research suggests that strong connections between subscriber and organisation, heavy product utilisation and/or strong barriers to switching drive customer satisfaction and retention.

Rapid expansion of subscription products should reduce “excess loyalty”, meaning that subscription models' main benefit will be limited to reoccurring revenue. Exceptions occur when consumers are heavily connected to the product or have little provider choice, so allocate their category buying exclusively. New subscription products face myriad challenges. Guidance on effective subscription marketing from sports marketing research and practice is outlined.

By combining research on market structure, marketing empirical generalisations and subscription marketing, this paper guides future research and practice.