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Prior research has investigated the development of Islamic communities. The authors contribute to this line of research by analyzing the effects of Islamic values and Islamic religious practices on entrepreneurship intentions in Islamic communities. Using theory of planned behavior as a theoretical lens, they also take into account that the relationship between religion and entrepreneurial intentions can be mediated by individual’s attitude toward entrepreneurship.

The authors analyze primary data obtained from a sample of 1,895 Pakistani university students. They also use structural equation modeling to perform a nuanced assessment of the relationship between Islamic values and practices and entrepreneurship intentions and to account for mediating effects.

The results show that both Islamic values and Islamic practices positively influence entrepreneurship intentions. Both effects are mediated by the attitude toward entrepreneurship.

The authors contribute to prior research on entrepreneurship in Islamic communities by applying a more fine-grained approach to capture the link between religion and entrepreneurship. Further, they contribute to the literature on entrepreneurship intentions by showing that the influence of religion on entrepreneurship intentions is mainly due to religious values and practices, which shape the attitude toward entrepreneurship and thereby influence entrepreneurship intentions in religious communities.

This study’s aim is to investigate the role of investor communication in equity-based crowdfunding. The study explores whether and how investor communication can reduce information asymmetries between investors and new ventures in equity-based crowdfunding, thereby facilitating the crowd’s investment decisions.

This paper follows an exploratory qualitative research approach based on semi-structured interviews with 23 market participants in equity-based crowdfunding: 12 investors, 6 new ventures and 5 third parties (mostly platform operators). After analyzing, coding and categorizing the data, this paper developed a theoretical framework and presented it in a set of six propositions.

The results indicate that the venture’s overall impression – especially perceived sympathy, openness and trustworthiness – is important to reduce perceived information asymmetries of investors in equity-based crowdfunding. To communicate these soft facts, personal communication seems to be replaced by pseudo-personal communication over the Internet (e.g. videos, investor relations channels and social media). In addition, the communications of third parties (e.g. other crowd investors, professional and experienced investors and other external stakeholders) influence the decision-making process of investors in equity-based crowdfunding. Third-party endorsements reduce the perceived information asymmetries and lower the importance of pseudo-personal communications by the venture.

Prior research shows that investor communication reduces information asymmetries between companies and investors. Currently, little is known about the role of investor communication in equity-based crowdfunding. This study focuses on the role of investor communication to reduce the perceived information asymmetries of investors in equity-based crowdfunding.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an organizing lens for viewing the distinct contributions to knowledge production from those research communities addressing the impact of competitive strategy on company performance in general, and the influence of cost leadership and differentiation strategy on organizational performance in detail.

The research methodology was based on the PRISMA review, and thematic analysis based on an iterative process of open coding was analyzed and then the sample was analyzed by illustrating the research title, objectives, method, data analysis, sample size, variables and country.

The main factor that influenced the competitive strategy is strategic growth; strategic growth has a significant influence on competitive strategy. Furthermore, competitive strategy will boost firm network, performance measurement and organization behavior. In the same way, the internal goal factor will enhance organizational effectiveness. Also, a differentiation strategy will support management practice factors, strategic positions, product price, product characteristics and company performance.

This study contributes to the literature by identifying a framework of competitive strategy factors, company performance factors, cost leadership strategy factors, differentiation strategy factors and competitive strategy with global market factors. This study provides a complete picture and description of the resulting body knowledge in competitive strategy and organizational performance.

Managing the customer experience is critical for hospitality businesses because business viability can depend on the delivery of valued guest experiences. The industry lacks research that can assist in developing the specific measures and tools to design experiences that meet guests’ expectations. The purpose of this paper is to identify the constructs and generators of memorable experiences (ME) from the perspectives of luxury hotel hosts and guests.

Data were collected in two sequential phases. In the first phase, non-probability sampling was used to engage luxury hotel experts in a Delphi study. This was followed by in-depth, face-to-face interviews with frequently staying luxury hotel guests.

In total, 40 value generating factors emerged from the host data. These were validated with guests; however, guests also revealed a further 19 value generating factors that develop ME. These factors were clustered into five constructs and formulated into a ME framework that presents the constructs and supporting variables that can facilitate memorable luxury hotel experiences.

Guests were asked to recall previous luxury hotel experiences and it is acknowledged that recall of past experiences can be inaccurate. The sample size was also relatively small.

Critical, value generating factors were identified that hotel operators can employ to actively engage luxury hotel guests and ensure their experiences are memorable.

The study extends our understanding of the constructs and variables that contribute to the development of ME identifying the importance of sensory generators and the role of authenticity and destination specific culture in creating unique, ME. These key drivers can be used to increase guest satisfaction, loyalty and repeat visitation.

This paper aims to analyse whether and how different types of institutional investors influence shareholder proposal initiations, say-on-pay (SOP) votes and management compensation from a sustainability perspective.

Based on the principal-agent theory, the authors conduct a structured literature review and evaluate 40 empirical-quantitative studies on that topic.

The traditional assumption of homogeneity within institutional investors, which is in line with the principal–agent theory, has to be questioned. Only special types of investors (e.g. with long-term and non-financial orientations and active institutions) run an intensive monitoring strategy, and thus initiate shareholder proposals, discipline managers by higher SOP dissents and prevent excessive management compensation.

A detailed analysis of institutional investor types is needed in future empirical analyses. In view of the current debate on climate change policy, future research could analyse in more detail the impact of institutional investor types on proxy voting, SOP and (sustainable) management compensation.

With regard to the increased shareholder activism and regulations on SOP and management compensation since the 2007/2008 financial crisis, firms should be aware of the monitoring role of institutional investors and should analyse their specific ownership nature (time- and content-driven and as well as range of activity).

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first literature review with a clear focus on institutional investor range and nature, shareholder proposal initiation, SOP and management compensation (reporting) from a sustainability viewpoint. The authors explain the main variables that have been included in research, stress the limitations of this work and offer useful recommendations for future research studies.

Efficient numerical assessment of performance is particularly important in digital material design of porous materials. This study aims to present an up-scaled approach to virtually investigate permeation of fluids through a real porous filter membrane with a heterogeneous micro-structure.

The method of asymptotic homogenization is applied. The structural parameters of the micro-structure are directly obtained from structural equation modeling image analysis of a commercial filter membrane without fitting procedures. The simulation results are compared to permeation experiments of gaseous nitrogen and liquid water.

The authors found that variations in the pressure gradients across the membrane, resulting from the heterogeneity of pore structure, need to be considered. Remarkable agreement between simulations and experiments is observed.

Despite some research in the field of filtration, no studies on filter membranes have been published yet, although they represent a large segment of filtration technology.

This paper contrasts research streams in corporate brand management (CBM) with perspectives on corporate strategy (CS). The aim is to examine whether CBM research is as diverse as research on CS and to identify potentially new research perspectives within CBM.

First, the main dimensions to capture approaches and directions in general strategy research are carved out and integrated into a framework for subsequent analysis (strategy descriptor cube). Second, research streams within CBM are clustered into predominating schools. Third, the framework is then used to classify the identified schools, allowing further evaluation. In doing so, an innovative view on the status of and developments in CBM research is provided.

Most schools of CBM are built on rational and prescriptive approaches, while political and emergent conceptions are hardly addressed. Thus, from the strategy-derived dimensions, approaches to CBM are surprisingly homogenous, with only one school diverging from the dominating pattern. A variety of perspectives as found in strategy research cannot be validated for CBM. Alternative conceptualizations to CBM in terms of assumptions about the genesis of strategic directions and the perspective of analysis might provide impetus for progress in CBM research.

The question arises why emergent and political perspectives have not been seriously pursued in the past decades of brand research. Researchers might seize opportunities to be further stimulated from the many faceted research approaches in CS. Further dimensions for description, as well as alternative clusterings of CBM schools, should be discussed.

A broadening of perspectives, including potentially a more attentive reception of agile trends in CBM, might become increasingly relevant for CBM practitioners. As new realities shape the present and future of corporate brand building, new paradigms should be explored and tested.

The corporate brand strategy link is evidently important; however, to date, few papers have such a focus. This is the first paper to apply reasoning and perspectives that have contributed to significant developments in CS research to the current situation in CBM research. It introduces a novel way to analyze and discuss developments between and within CBM schools.

During the last two decades, education systems worldwide have been working under an increasing need to adapt to a rapidly changing postindustrial external environment with social, technological, economic, and political transformations. The unprecedented growth, complexity, and competitiveness of the global economy with its attendant sociopolitical and technological developments have been creating relentless and cumulative pressures on education systems to respond to the changing environment. Today, educational institutions from primary schools to universities are being forced to compete and excel in the international arena, and are thus expected to go far beyond simply providing pure knowledge and skills as before. Increasingly, more institutions in primary and secondary education are embracing innovative practices from the global business world and dedicating growing attention to strategic and marketing aspects of educational management.

The European Commission has defined innovation as the “building block of the future competitive workplace during the 21st century” and the strategy of educational institutions around the world is being affected to a large extent by this statement. This chapter focuses on the identification and definition of the future challenges in schools’ governance, and presents a novel logical framework for the arena of educational marketing. Special attention is given to innovation as a key driver for further development of educational institutions and its possible impact on marketing efforts in educational institutions. These aspects, previously overlooked by research literature, are discussed in the present chapter, adding a new dimension to the understanding of strategic facets in the educational marketing arena.

The primary objective in the design of the reversers described and illustrated was to obtain a device inherently safe and reliable, using simple locks and mechanisms. A secondary, but important requirement was operational flexibility, with the proviso that the device should be used for ground control only. Additionally the installation should not adversely affect the output of the power unit when the former is not in operation.

This systematic literature review analyses the determinants and consequences of executive compensation-related shareholder activism and say-on-pay (SOP) votes. The review covers 71 empirical articles published between January 1995 and September 2017. The studies are reviewed within an empirical research framework that separates the reasons for shareholder activism and SOP voting dissent as input factor on the one hand and the consequences of shareholder pressure as output factor on the other. This procedure identifies the five most important groups of factors in the literature: the level and structure of executive compensation, firm characteristics, corporate governance mechanisms, shareholder structure and stakeholders. Of these, executive compensation and firm characteristics are the most frequently examined. Further examination reveals that the key assumptions of neoclassical principal agent theory for both managers and shareholders are not always consistent with recent empirical evidence. First, behavioral aspects (such as the perception of fairness) influence compensation activism and SOP votes. Second, non-financial interests significantly moderate shareholder activism. Insofar, we recommend integrating behavioral and non-financial aspects into the existing research. The implications are analyzed, and new directions for further research are discussed by proposing 19 different research questions.