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This first chapter explores the basic foundation of corporate ethics: the human person in all its dignity and mystery, its corporeality and emotionality, and its cognitive and volitive capacities of moral development. Four fundamental characteristics of the human person, namely individuality, sociality, immanence, and transcendence, will be examined for their potential to understand, live, experience, and witness corporate ethics and morals. We explore the profound meaning and mystery of human personhood invoking several philosophies of the good and human dignity as exposed by Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas in the West, by the doctrine of Dharma in the East as expounded by Gautama Buddha, Mahabharata, and Bhagavad Gita, and by Prophets Confucius and Tao, in the East. Several contemporary cases of great human personhood are analyzed: for example, Peace Nobel Laureate Nelson Mandela from South Africa (1993) and Peace Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo from China (2017) – cases of human abuse that turned into triumphs of human dignity.

This paper investigates consumer perceptions of brand authenticity (BA), perceived value (PV) and brand trust (BT) into the context of craft beer market. The purpose of this paper is to examine the statistical associations between these constructs as well as the three antecedents of BA: individuality, consistency and continuity.

The survey, delivered in an online format, was completed by 749 respondents from the USA. These respondents were gained through a basic simple random sampling technique. After conducting data analysis techniques such as reliability, correlation and regression, all five research hypotheses were accepted.

All three antecedents of BA were found to have significant influence on the first-order construct. Also, BA was shown to have a substantial effect on both PV and BT. The relationship between brand individuality and BA was the most significant of the five, while the association between BA and PV was found to be the least significant.

Prior research on BA, the majority of which has involved a qualitative approach, has been severely limited. The authors’ work deepens the study of the effects of BA, or its various antecedents, on PV and BT, enhancing the research with an empirical, quantitative analysis. In addition to the shortage of investigation related to these factors, there has been a nearly complete absence of the application of these variables to the craft beer market.

The relationship of leadership to culture is explored in this study. The study was designed to determine if significant relationships existed between specific leadership practices and different cultural profiles. The treatment for this correlational study consisted of 15 teams with an assigned formal leader for each team. Significant relationships were found between the variables in 14 of the 20 relationships examined. It was concluded that different leadership practices resulted in different cultures.

The study aims to explore the argument of implementing the lean method to part or whole of an operation by examining the moderating impact of varying levels of the extent of implementation of four different lean methods, along with their functionalities, in predicting productivity improvement (PI).

As the focus of understanding the efficacy of lean principles is shifting from process to industry level, this study tried to generalize the approach by gathering data from 132 large Indian auto component manufacturers. This involves an assessing/monitoring approach rather than measurement.

Results highlighted the interdependence or individuality of the extent of implementation of lean methods and their functionalities. Findings revealed a significant moderating effect in improving productivity to a greater extent of 50%.

Adopting an assessment approach to a measurement study provides a noteworthy contribution to bridging theory and practical consequences. The findings can be appropriately extrapolated to medium and small enterprises forming a critical connection in the entire automobile manufacturing ecosystem.

The study showed that even if a lean method is applied to a certain extent of operations the chances of PI are significant. This is important for decision makers as they confront problems of optimum resource allocation.

PI, reduced cost and generalization of results would enable the auto component industry to become more competitive.

The examination of the moderation effect of a lean principle implementation extent, along with that of its functionalities to predict the improvement in productivity from its existing level, is a major outcome of this study.

This paper reports on a project in which students watched short instructional videos on aspects of academic writing as part of a ‘flipped classroom’ approach at an English-medium university in the United Arab Emirates. The authors present the video tutorial project in the context of the flipped classroom, and evaluate student satisfaction with the video input. The findings suggest that although most students liked watching the videos at home, and found the input easy to understand, they still felt the need for teacher explanations. One conclusion from this study is that students are not yet ready for a complete flipped classroom in which all the input is given through the video. In this context, a mix of video input and teacher explanation is more appropriate.

The article makes a conceptual contribution to the substantiation of the foundations in personnel management for the development and decision-making in personnel assessment based on the biographical method.

When substantiating the scientific direction, a comparative analysis, a comparison of the theoretical provisions of leadership and the methodology of personnel assessment, a critical appraisal of the assessment centre and biographical method were used.

Modern science contains information about effective leadership and few grounds for objective selection for leadership positions. Why do some individuals become leaders in the churches, while others become leaders of business corporations? The accepted assessment tools allow obtaining information about the candidate, but do not have a scientific basis for making a decision about leadership in recruiting. Biographical psychology brings together leadership theories and assessment tools; it allows to establish a connection between developmental psychology, social, applied and organizational psychology and provides the integration of various directions in science. It allows a deeper understanding of the relationship between a person's biographical facts and his/her suitability in the profession to justify the reasons for leadership, as well as the grounds for selection for managerial positions.

Substantiation of biographical psychology will allow in the future to legitimize the conduct of such studies, to come closer to the truth in the selection for leadership and not only positions, to understand the connection between the biography of leader and organizational culture. Biographical psychology will contribute to the creation of scientific basis for recruiting. To consider biographical factors more significantly (gender, age, sexual orientation, differences in personal development, and not just executive experience in the resume), this will reduce the economic costs of introducing and supporting costly procedures in organizations, as well as increasing the objectivity of the assessment and selection of personnel in organizations.

The literature on ‘mixed’ families (in which members are socially viewed as ‘different’ due to their varying ethnicities and/or nationalities) identifies several stakes of mixedness. One of them arises from childbirth, after which parents need to give name(s) to their offspring. How does the parent–child dyad understand the giving of names in their mixed family? What does naming children unveil regarding interpersonal interactions and the value of children within this social unit? The chapter delves into these questions through a case study of forenaming children in Filipino-Belgian families in Belgium. Interview data analysis reveals two modes of forenaming in these families: individualisation through single forenames and reinforcement of collective affiliation through compound forenames. Through the analytical framework of social relatedness, this chapter uncovers the way the act of naming a child bridges families based on biological and social ties, generations, and parents' nations of belonging in their transnational spaces. The complex process of naming reflects the power dynamics not only within the parental couple but also within the wider set of social relations. Although the use of forename(s) in everyday life and in legal terms differ, the value of children in the mixed families studied lies in their symbolic role as social bridges linking generations and non-biological relationships, the then and now, and the here and there.

This study aims to investigate different types of platform providers (PPs) to gain a deeper understanding of the characteristics and underlying logic of this group within collaborative consumption (CC). As CC occurs with three groups of actors (PP, peer service provider and customer) and is predominantly viewed from the customer perspective, this study offers insights from the under-researched PP perspective.

This research applies a multiple case study approach and analyzes descriptively and thematically 92 cases of CC PPs gathered through the Crunchbase database.

The authors derive four archetypes of CC PPs, namely, the hedonist, functionalist, environmentalist and connector, that differ in their offered values, dominating motives and activities across industries.

The authors conceptualize CC by clearly describing the four archetypes and their characteristics. However, further research would benefit from including databases other than Crunchbase.

PPs need to understand their value offerings and customer preferences to develop convincing value propositions and offer engaging activities. PPs would benefit from a more active social media presence to build strong relations with customers and peer service providers to effectively communicate their values.

The paper is pioneering as it encompasses the perspective of CC PPs and operationalizes the concept of CC. The authors address the lack of research on CC by conducting an extensive case study.

The aim of this research is to identify the characteristics that give rise to motivations to use social apps in light of behavioral concepts related to consumers’ desires and emotional values.

Netnography is used as the main methodology to analyze and categorize user profiles of online social networks. These profiles are presented through conceptual headlines, which highlight the main characteristics of each user group.

The results of the study show that many users have become dependent on the WhatsApp application, either for technological reasons or for social reasons related to fashion and status.

Few consumers actually explained the ways they use mobile social networks in the context of the procedures and level of communication performed. However, the influence of social contexts in the consumer environment is changing perceived values focusing on prestige and status to technological elements that the majority of consumers use.

Practical implications are directly related to forming business connections in a less formal and more hedonic environment, improving market results while fostering user enjoyment. In addition, the ongoing updates to WhatsApp have brought new functionalities and improvements to previously weak features.

Although other applications offer means by which to talk and send messages, WhatsApp continues to be (as of early 2021) the most used platform for conversation in Brazil. The sovereignty of WhatsApp is directly linked to its social value, which is related to the number of consumers who daily interact via the network.