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The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and others (LGBTQI+) movement has been the focus of companies that seek to win over consumers by supporting diversity. Any positioning, however, that is not perceived as being consistent and genuine can harm the brand's image. Through a queer theoretical perspective, the authors explore perceptions of LGBTQI+ consumers regarding brand activism.

Qualitative research was carried out that involved interviewing Brazilian consumers who are part of the LGBTQI+ community.

Aspects of the identity of these individuals draw closer to those brands that share the same values the individuals have. Brand activism is perceived positively in terms of the brand's representativeness and social impact. When activism is perceived as inauthentic, activism generates a backlash and consumers begin to boycott brands as the consumers associate positioning with woke-washing practices.

The results indicate that to adopt an activist stance with regard to the LGBTQI+ public, brands need to be consistent in the brands' communication and advertising and in brands' organizational culture and diversity. This research provides important indicators for brands that genuinely want to support the LGBTQI+ community and is the first to use queer theory to analyze brand activism.

This study aims to suggest a moderated mediation model addressing how internal integration interacts with information technology (IT) link with external customers to meet customer needs more efficiently and effectively.

This study tests the proposed hypotheses by using 268 data collected from manufacturing firms worldwide.

The results of this study reveal that internal integration plays a very important role in promoting customer satisfaction directly and indirectly by enhancing the ability to meet customers’ flexibility needs. In addition, the results show that IT link with customers strengthens this indirect influencing relationship.

By combining IT connectedness with external customers with internal capability, this study provides valuable insights into how manufacturing firms apply internal integration more effectively to enhance customer satisfaction.

The COVID19 crisis has thrown wide open the debate on Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union’s (EMU) future. Next Generation EU (NGEU) has broken the stalemate over a central fiscal capacity. The open question is whether NGEU is a one-off or a first step. The suspension of the Stability and Growth Pact has given new urgency to the debate on reforming EMU’s fiscal rules.

There is no debate as yet about how these two prospects relate to each other. This paper argues that a permanent fiscal capacity and revised rules should be seen as alternatives.

This study makes two claims: first, a fiscal capacity renders a reformed pact unnecessary and second, that is an optimal solution politically. A fiscal capacity would provide an efficient asymmetric shock absorber and therefore reduce the need for pre-emptive action against negative cross-border externalities. It would also provide an abundant supply of an EU-wide safe asset around which to structure the EU’s financial system, thus rendering unnecessary the backstopping of member states' debts.

This would restore democratic accountability while eliminating moral hazard and enforcement problems.

This work aims to determine how innovation orientation (IO), built from six dimensions (strategic, structural-process, human resources, technological, organizational culture and market) affects organizational performance (OP) with the inclusion of knowledge management (KM) as a mediator and technological readiness (TR) as a moderator in the model.

Questionnaires completed by business service companies were analyzed using multiple regression analysis (path analysis), including the mediating variable (KM) and moderating variable (TR). The construct was validated with positive outcomes.

Of the eight hypotheses, six were supported. The study results show that strategic, technological, organizational culture and market dimensions of IO positively influence KM. On the other hand, KM plays an important role as a mediator in supporting the relationship between the four dimensions of IO and performance. Moreover, TR, as a moderator, positively affects the relationship between KM and OP.

The study is the first to explore the relationship between six dimensions of IO and KM in business service sector. Furthermore, this study provides evidence that TR can be beneficial for companies with respect to effective KM, which leads to the better performance.

The intensity of carbon emissions has led to the serious problem of global warming, and the consequences in terms of climatic disasters are gaining increasing attention worldwide. As the energy sector is responsible for most global emissions, developing clean energy is crucial to combat climate change. This study aims to examine the relationship between corporate governance and renewable energy (RE) consumption and explore the interaction between RE production and RE use.

The study adopts an econometric framework of a panel model, followed by the robustness check using alternative methods, including logit regressions. The bivariate probit model is used to analyze the interaction between the decision to use and the decision to produce RE. The analysis is based on a sample of 3,896 firms covering 45 countries worldwide.

The results reveal that appropriate governance mechanisms positively impact RE consumption. These include the existence of a sustainability committee; environmental, social and governance-based compensation policy; financial performance-based compensation; sustainability external audit; transparency; board gender diversity; and board independence. Firms with appropriate governance mechanisms are more likely to produce and use RE than others. Finally, while RE use positively impacts firm value and environmental performance, the authors find no significant effect on current profitability.

This study goes beyond previous research by exploring the impact of multiple governance mechanisms. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is also the first study examining the relationship between RE use and firm value. Overall, the findings suggest that RE transition requires, first of all, establishing appropriate governance mechanisms within companies.