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This paper aims to investigate the dynamic nature of consumer–brand relationships and, in particular, the passionate dimension of brand love. It explores the relevance of the two dimensions of the identification construct (inner and social self) for the creation of passionate love for a brand. More precisely, it attends to the possible mediating character of identification between the perceived utilitarian or hedonic value and passionate brand love. These effects are analysed in consideration of the moderating effect of relationship duration taking a further-reaching perspective and contributing to the understanding of the transformation of the brand love construct within a long-term consumer–brand relationship.

A survey on universally known brands representing both a hedonic and a utilitarian concept was conducted. The model has been tested using the partial least squares approach to structural equation modelling.

The effects of the antecedents of passionate brand love in general vary with increasing relationship duration. Inner self has a stronger effect on passionate brand love than social self and becomes even more important as the relationship matures. Hedonic and utilitarian value both show substantial direct and indirect effects, but the importance of utilitarian aspects grows with time, substantiating the rational nature of brand love within a long-term consumer–brand relationship.

As we assessed the perceived duration of an intimate relationship, longitudinal analysis should provide even more profound results.

Inasmuch as emotional attributes drive passionate feelings for a brand, the core utilitarian assets of a brand also evoke passionate love and should be highlighted, especially in long-term relationships with customers.

This paper investigates the interdependent effects of identification and customer perceived value (hedonic and utilitarian value) as antecedents of passionate brand love. This paper adapts a dynamic perspective on consumer–brand relationships by taking into account the moderating effect of perceived relationship duration.

Socialization is one of the fundamental processes that define how collectivities emerge. Socialization underpins the social structures that shape not only how social actors interact in community but also the boundaries of action and the rules of engagement. In the context of organizations, socialization is a process that significantly shapes organization in the way core practices shape how things are done and why they are done in particular ways. This emphasis on consistency within and between practices is seen to be greatly facilitated by specific practices like staff induction. The purpose of this paper is to review the current conceptual and empirical research on staff induction as a process of organizational socialization and outlines some of the areas for future research particularly if a social practice perspective is adopted.

The paper presents a systematic review of the relevant literature on organizational socialization and staff induction and outlines themes to which the debate can usefully be extended.

This paper focuses on how staff induction practices provide valuable insights about how social agents (especially newcomers) get socialized in organizations.

This paper provides a foundation for the various staff induction practices that other papers in this issue will be presenting. By outlining the current debate and insights from previous empirical research on staff induction, the objective is to extend the debate by outlining some new avenues for research that papers in the special issue both respond to and further explicate.

This paper explores staff induction and organizational socialization as a practice that can provide new insights into the dynamics of social interaction within organizations.

Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely, innovative thought structures and attitudes have almost always forced economic institutions and modes of behaviour to adjust. We learn from the history of economic doctrines how a particular theory emerged and whether, and in which environment, it could take root. We can see how a school evolves out of a common methodological perception and similar techniques of analysis, and how it has to establish itself. The interaction between unresolved problems on the one hand, and the search for better solutions or explanations on the other, leads to a change in paradigma and to the formation of new lines of reasoning. As long as the real world is subject to progress and change scientific search for explanation must out of necessity continue.

This paper aims to investigate whether environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices influence stock returns in the US stock market, looking at the period from 2002 to 2020.

The authors quasi-replicate two reference articles that found that socially responsible funds used to underperform, but that this underperformance tendency has disappeared in more recent periods.

Using US data, the authors show that independent of the ESG database used, portfolios of neutral stocks present consistently higher systematic risk (beta) than ESG portfolios, although this difference decreases over time. This may be due to the significant increase in demand for ESG portfolios in the past decade, and their consequent price inflation and increase in volatility. However, concerning risk-adjusted returns and contrary to the authors’ reference literature, the results are highly dependent on the rating provider used, and neither support underperformance nor indicate a tendency over time. These inconsistent results suggest that the “ESG label” is not a determinant of portfolio performance.

If ESG ratings are a legitim benchmark for sustainability, then the costs of going sustainable in stock portfolios might be marginal for fund managers.

Two different ESG-rating agencies, Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) and Thomson Reuters, are used to identify sustainable stocks. Different from the literature, the authors selected stocks for their portfolios stochastically following a uniform probability distribution, thus avoiding fund manager bias.

Working conditions on many digital work platforms often contribute to the grand challenge of establishing decent work. While research has examined the public regulation of platform work and worker resistance, little is known about private regulatory models. In this paper, we document the development of the “Crowdwork Agreement” forged between platforms and a trade union in the relatively young German crowdworking field. We find that existing templates played an important role in the process of negotiating this new institutional infrastructure, despite the radically new work context. While the platforms drew on the corporate social responsibility template of voluntary self-regulation via a code of conduct focusing on procedural aspects of decent platform work (i.e., improving work conditions and processes), the union contributed a traditional social partnership template emphasizing accountability, parity and distributive matters. The trade union’s approach prevailed in terms of accountability and parity mechanisms, while the platforms were able to uphold the mostly procedural character of their template. This compromise is reflected in many formal and informal interactions, themselves characteristic of a social partnership approach. Our study contributes to research on institutional infrastructures in emerging fields and their role in addressing grand challenges.

This study aims to analyse how the media plays its role in the information communications technology (ICT) debate in a developing country context, by way of analysing the media discourse surrounding the South African Broadband Policy.

The study adopts a critical approach and uses critical discourse analysis, employing Habermas's theory of communicative action. Data for the study include the media reports on the South African Broadband Policy.

It is noted that: the media discourse was systematically distorted; the discourse was driven mainly by the government; and many actors were systematically excluded from the discourse, or opted not to engage in the debate. The low‐income category, the very group that should benefit from the policy, was excluded from the debate. The study notes further that the status of key actors in the policy affected the media's perception of the policy.

To increase the chances of success for policy, there is a need to include all stakeholders in the policy debate. This study notes how some actors were left out, and how others opted not to engage in the debate, which points to the need for strategies to promote participation in policy debate. It is noted, too, that the distortions could have resulted from lack of skills in the media, the enhancement of which could address the problem.

Urbanization is a main driver of the transformation from agricultural-based economies to service-based economies. At the same time, urbanization might also alter preferences and attitudes such as risk and time preferences that contribute to economic growth and foster this transition. To study the effect of urbanization, few studies have compared individual time or risk preferences in rural and urban settings, reporting mixed results. This study analyses how risk and time preferences alter along the rural–urban interface and assesses the correlation of socio-economic, socio-cultural and demographic characteristics with these preferences. Using such an approach provides insights how preferences are altered in areas of transition as the rural–urban interface mirrors different stages of urbanization.

Using experimental approaches, risk attitudes and time preferences of 1,117 agricultural and non-agricultural households were elicited along the rural–urban interface of the fast-developing Indian megacity Bengaluru in 2016/17. The study reports joint estimations of risk and time preferences and discusses the influence of urbanization on these preferences.

Results show that households are on average slightly risk-averse and highly impatient. The results also indicate a decline in discount rates towards rural areas while risk preferences do not considerably differ between those areas. This puzzling result may be explained by difference response of rural and urban areas to the Demonetization policy of the Indian government in 2016.

The research design compares jointly estimated risk and time preferences of agricultural and non-agricultural households of a rapidly urbanizing area in a low-medium income country.

The purpose of this paper is to test the so-called “Sell in May” effect in globally listed private equity markets based on monthly data covering the period 2004–2017.

Ordinary least squares regressions, generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity regressions and robust regressions are used to investigate the existence of the “Sell in May” effect in globally listed private equity markets. Additionally, the authors conduct robustness checks by dividing the sample period into two subperiods: pre-financial and post-financial crisis periods.

The authors find limited statistically significant evidence for the “Sell in May” effect. In particular, the authors observed a statistically significant “Sell in May” effect when taking time-varying volatility into account. These findings indicate that the “Sell in May” effect is driven by time-varying volatility. By contrast, economic significance as measured by visual return inspection and the magnitude of the estimated “Sell in May” coefficients in combination with their positive signs was found to be considerable.

The findings are important for all kinds of investors and asset managers who are considering investing in listed private equity.

The authors present a novel study that examines the “Sell in May” effect for globally listed private equity markets by using LPX indices, offering valuable insight into this growing asset class.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of extreme weather conditions on runoff, nutrient, and soil loss from agriculture‐dominated catchments at different locations in Norway.

Four catchments have been selected to study the potential effects of climate change on runoff and nutrient loss. The catchments are part of the Agricultural Environmental Monitoring Programme in Norway (JOVA) and represent different climatological conditions, agricultural production systems/practices, and soil types. Different characteristics were calculated on the basis of existing measurements and evaluated with respect to climate change.

In four selected catchments, climate change is predicted to lead to an increase in runoff. Under similar land use and tillage methods, this will most likely lead to an increase in nutrient and soil loss. Milder winters as a consequence of climate change might lead to extreme runoff conditions and severe erosion, caused by a combination of frozen soil, snowmelt, and intense rainfall. Existing large diurnal variations in discharge have to be taken into consideration in the future design of hydrotechnical implementations. Information about the potential effects of climate change on runoff generation, the magnitude of the different hydrological flow paths, and their potential effects on nutrient and soil loss processes is necessary in choosing the right mitigation measures.

Long time series on runoff and water quality (such as those collected in small agriculture‐dominated catchments as part of the Agricultural Environmental Monitoring Programme in Norway (JOVA)) are rare, but indispensable in evaluating the potential effects of climate change on nutrient and soil loss.