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Wage employees enter self-employment either directly or in a staged manner and may subsequently undertake multiple stints at self-employment. Extant research on the relationship between entry modes and the persistence and outcomes of self-employment is inconclusive. This study investigates the relationship between wage employees’ initial mode of entry into self-employment and the duration of the subsequent first two stints of self-employment.

This study used a matched longitudinal sample of 9,550 employees who became majority owners of incorporated firms from 2005 to 2016.

The findings demonstrate that the initial mode of entry into self-employment matters for the first two stints at self-employment. Staged entry into self-employment was associated with a shorter first stint and became insignificant for the second stint. Staged entry into self-employment was positively related to the odds of becoming self-employed for the second time in the same firm.

Using a comprehensive and reliable dataset, the paper shifts focus from the aggregated onward journey of novice entrepreneurs (survival as the outcome) to the duration of their self-employment stints. By doing so, the paper offers insights into the process of becoming self-employed and the patterns associated with success/failure in entrepreneurship associated with self-employment duration.

Digital transformation is a foundational change in how firms operate and deliver value to customers by using digital technologies to create new business opportunities. The purpose of this study is to offer a conceptual framework by reorganizing the elements of digital transformation, including resources, technology, capabilities and performance, into a workable process and investigating how firms integrate these resources, build new capabilities and transform them into enhanced performance.

This framework builds three blocks: resource integration, organizational capabilities and outcomes, exploring the impact of resource integration on outcomes through organizational capabilities. For resource integration, this study adopts a resource-based view (RBV) and service-dominant logic (SDL) to integrate organizational resources, including information technology (IT)-based resources, which play a role in moderating the effect of resource integration. Moreover, the author argues that firms’ capabilities have two levels: higher-order capabilities and lower-order capabilities, which will convert these resources through the capabilities into organizational performance.

This framework is built to understand the process of digital transformation and its antecedents for firms’ performance in business environments. Drawing on RBV, it provides a more holistic perspective that has been linked to resource integration, organizational capabilities and outcomes at the firm level. In this way, the theoretical basis for diminishing implicitness associated with the current perspective of digital transformation can be strengthened.

This paper offers a coherent discussion of digital transformation and explains the process of digital transformation, thus advancing prior work. The major contribution is connecting the process of digital transformation through which firms integrate resources, i.e. digital technologies and valuable, rare, inimitable and nonsubstitutable (VRIN) and nonVRIN resources as well, to build organizational dynamic capabilities based on RBV and SDL.

The purposes of this research are to study the theory and method of multi-attribute index system design and establish a set of systematic, standardized, scientific index systems for the design optimization and inspection process. The research may form the basis for a rational, comprehensive evaluation and provide the most effective way of improving the quality of management decision-making. It is of practical significance to improve the rationality and reliability of the index system and provide standardized, scientific reference standards and theoretical guidance for the design and construction of the index system.

Using modern methods such as complex networks and machine learning, a system for the quality diagnosis of index data and the classification and stratification of index systems is designed. This guarantees the quality of the index data, realizes the scientific classification and stratification of the index system, reduces the subjectivity and randomness of the design of the index system, enhances its objectivity and rationality and lays a solid foundation for the optimal design of the index system.

Based on the ideas of statistics, system theory, machine learning and data mining, the focus in the present research is on “data quality diagnosis” and “index classification and stratification” and clarifying the classification standards and data quality characteristics of index data; a data-quality diagnosis system of “data review – data cleaning – data conversion – data inspection” is established. Using a decision tree, explanatory structural model, cluster analysis, K-means clustering and other methods, classification and hierarchical method system of indicators is designed to reduce the redundancy of indicator data and improve the quality of the data used. Finally, the scientific and standardized classification and hierarchical design of the index system can be realized.

The innovative contributions and research value of the paper are reflected in three aspects. First, a method system for index data quality diagnosis is designed, and multi-source data fusion technology is adopted to ensure the quality of multi-source, heterogeneous and mixed-frequency data of the index system. The second is to design a systematic quality-inspection process for missing data based on the systematic thinking of the whole and the individual. Aiming at the accuracy, reliability, and feasibility of the patched data, a quality-inspection method of patched data based on inversion thought and a unified representation method of data fusion based on a tensor model are proposed. The third is to use the modern method of unsupervised learning to classify and stratify the index system, which reduces the subjectivity and randomness of the design of the index system and enhances its objectivity and rationality.

Sustainable development goals and the climate change agenda are becoming widely promoted topics of research for the 21st century. The role of cities is increasingly recognised as central to investigating these topics. Yet, the field of informal sector entrepreneurship which so many urban entrepreneurs in developing countries depend upon is seldom considered. To redress this imbalance, this study aims to develop a decision model in accordance with institutional theory (IT) and resource dependency theory (RDT) for city managers to deploy. The model identifies and prioritises optimal strategies to address the three areas of sustainability requirements environment society and economy within the study context of Bangladesh.

This study used a mixed methods research design. In the qualitative part, the authors identified the three areas of sustainability requirements (i.e. environment, society and economy) and their corresponding strategies involving the informal sector that operates within the urban environment. In the quantitative part, the authors applied fuzzy quality function deployment (QFD) integrated with the 0-1 non-linear optimisation technique to identify optimal strategies.

The findings show that strategies such as legitimate frameworks, waste management, allocation of urban public space and training programs contribute in important ways to the three areas of sustainability requirements.

The proposed decision model will assist policy-makers and city managers to prioritise sustainability requirements and implement optimal strategies to address those requirements.

Through the integration of IT and RDT, the decision model developed in this study is unique in its application to urban-based informal entrepreneurship in the context of developing countries. The effective application of the fuzzy QFD approach and the optimisation model in the context of urban-based informal entrepreneurship also offers unique contributions to the field of study.

The research aims to understand how smart speakers are perceived by their actual and potential users, their attitude towards smart speakers and consequently their intention to use them.

The authors apply a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach to test the research hypotheses through data coming from a structured questionnaire.

The results show that the higher the importance attributed to usefulness and ease of use, the higher the positive attitude that in turn positively affects the intention to use smart speakers. A significant relationship also emerged between task technology fit and attitude towards smart speakers, as well as between perceived enjoyment and attitude towards smart speakers. Perceived privacy risk, innovativeness and social attraction have been found to not significantly impact attitudes towards smart speakers.

Although several academic studies have focused on various aspects of smart technologies, only a few studies discuss the factors that push consumers to use smart speakers for activities related to commercial transactions. Therefore, looking at the rapid rise of smart speakers for daily tasks and the gradual acceptance of voice interaction with digital tools, the authors proposed a study about Italian users' intention to use smart speakers. Specifically, to fill the gap in the existing literature, the authors applied a SEM approach to identify utilitarian and hedonic benefits that motivate the use of these devices.

This study aims to investigate how different academic fields within and outside of international business (IB) engage with the topics of social value creation in the context of multinational enterprises (MNEs). The aim is to take stock of the main themes and offer suggestions for future research avenues.

The paper undertakes a scoping review. The authors use the Web of Science database to identify relevant articles. The database search yielded 466 articles. The NVivo software was used to code and identify key thematic areas.

The matrix analysis performed in NVivo yielded 15 main thematic areas spanning 37 research fields. However, further analysis revealed that 89 per cent of the articles originated from 13 fields. Furthermore, while IB journals represent the second-largest field home to publications related to the social value creation of MNEs, they only account for 12 per cent of the sample.

The paper responds to prior calls to reduce disciplinary silos through the performing of a thematic analysis across a multitude of research fields.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether attention, emotion, and cognitive regulation (CR) may be strategies to advance one’s ethnic identity.

The paper is presented in three parts. The first section discusses integrative inquiry (INIQ) (Bresciani Ludvik et al., 2016), a mindfulness methodology and mindful inquiry training program, as a potential pathway to help mitigate stress and enhance healthy development and well-being strategies that combat stressors related to ethnic and racial identity; and increase opportunities for positive ethnic identity development. INIQ was designed to influence areas of the brain associated with attention regulation, emotion regulation, and CR in order to decrease stress and anxiety, and heighten executive functions of undergraduate and graduate students. The second section discusses an exploratory study to see whether INIQ resulted in higher mean scores for participants on their ethnic identity, as assessed by the multigroup ethnic identity measure (Phinney, 1992).

The results indicated that there was a significant increase in pre-test and post-test scores for mindfulness (p=0.001) as well as the dependent measure for learning exploration (p=0.028) among 30 undergraduate, master’s- and doctoral-seeking students. There was also a non-significant increase for clear understanding (p=0.15) and overall ethnic identity achievement (p=0.387); and non-significant decrease for ethnic belonging (p=0.424).

These findings suggest that INIQ may increase students’ ethnic learning exploration, which is an important process in ethnic identity development (Phinney and Ong, 2007). This study also suggests that INIQ increases mindfulness in participants. The authors conclude with a discussion and recommendations to future INIQ and other diversity centered student support practitioners interested in influencing positive ethnic identity formation.

Different from Marx's analysis of the dialectical relationship between the production and realization of surplus value, the Okishio theorem only shows one aspect of the contradictory movement of the total social capital, that is, the reverse effect of the realization of surplus value on the production of surplus value.

The production of surplus value and the realization of surplus value are simplified into one process. This simplification eliminates the contradiction between the production and realization of surplus value, and the antagonistic contradiction between accumulation and consumption and the antagonistic production-distribution relationship in capitalist society are naturally covered up.

Therefore, it cannot explain the actual expansion way of the falling general rate of profit as the historical development law of capitalism. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the Okishio theorem places the analysis of the general rate of profit back into the social reproduction model with department equilibrium, which points out the significance of wage income to the realization of surplus value and outlines the macro mechanism of the realization of surplus value reacting to the production of surplus value. It also strongly promotes the research progress of the law that the profit rate tends to decline.

The mistake of the Okishio theorem is that the exchange process in the labor market forms the real wage rate. It determines the production price of wage goods, which thereby determines that the production price of capital goods and general rate of profit, the production of surplus value and realization of surplus value are simplified into the same process, and only the value that can be realized is the real value.

This paper aims to investigate the formation of an inter-organizational collaboration network that made it possible to repair 2,516 mechanical respirators that were inoperative in Brazil during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A qualitative approach was used in a single case study with semi-structured interviews. The interviewee selection process was non-probabilistic through snowball sampling.

The results suggest that society, through different social groups with their different roles, can organize itself quickly through the formation of collaborative networks, and this organizational configuration can be an alternative for facing crises where actions isolated would be insufficient or slow to urgently address complex situations.

This paper aims to (1) demonstrate that society, through different social groups with their different roles, can organize itself quickly through the formation of collaborative networks; (2) favor the understanding and dynamics of the formation of a network; and (3) contribute to a possible replication of this initiative in future contexts.

The case portrays an unprecedented formation of a collaboration network involving more than 144 organizations that mobilized quickly in a complex context of a pandemic and that generated remarkable results through the reintroduction of equipment that were responsible for the preservation of thousands of lives during the year from 2020.

Climatic changes caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions are an urgent challenge for all regions around the globe while the livestock sector is an important source of GHGs emissions. The adoption of low-carbon manure treatment technology (LMTT) by farmers is emerging as an effective remedy to neutralize the carbon emissions of livestock. This paper aims to incorporate environmental literacy and social norms into the analysis framework, with the aim of exploring the impact of environmental literacy and social norms on farmers' adoption of LMTT and finally reduce GHGs emission and climate effects.

This research survey is conducted in Hebei, Henan and Hubei provinces of China. First, this research measures environmental literacy from environmental cognition, skill and responsibility and describes social norms from descriptive and imperative social norms. Second, this paper explores the influence of environmental literacy and social norms on the adoption of LMTT by farmers using the logit model. Third, Logit model's instrumental approach, i.e. IV-Logit, is applied to address the simultaneous biases between environmental skill and farmers’ LMTT adoption. Finally, the research used a moderating model to analyze feasible paths of environmental literacy and social norms that impact the adoption of LMTT by farmers.

The results showed that environmental literacy and social norms significantly and positively affect the adoption of LMTT by farmers. In particular, the effects of environmental literacy on the adoption of LMTT by farmers are mainly contributed by environmental skill and responsibility. The enhancement of social norms on the adoption of LMTT by farmers is mainly due to the leading role of imperative social norms. Meanwhile, if the endogeneity caused by the reverse effect between environmental skill and farmers’ LMTT adoption is dealt with, the role of environmental skill will be weakened. Additionally, LMTT technologies consist of energy and resource technologies. Compared to energy technology, social norms have a more substantial moderating effect on environmental literacy, affecting the adoption of farmer resource technology.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, a novel attempt is made to examine the effects of environmental literacy and social norms on the adoption of LMTT by farmers, with the objective of identifying more effective factors to increase the intensity of LMTT adoption by farmers.