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This study aims to contribute to the academic disciplines of entrepreneurship and management by developing a new theory that explains Founder-CEOs’ succession in family and non-family firms. Many scholars failed to generate a specific theory to describe the succession of Founder-CEOs. Family firms remain complex enterprises comprising interconnectedness of cultural interests in which corporate governance occurs by families, Founder-CEOs and sometimes a board of directors.

This study’s design/methodology/approach reflects post-modernist epistemological and ontological perspectives for conducting systematic literature reviews. To identify relevant studies in the review, the several databases (Australian Business Dean’s Council Journal Quality List; EBSCO Database, including PsycINFO and Psych studies; Web of Science) and a mix of ranked journals from entrepreneurship, management and psychology were used.

The findings and results in this paper reflect the purpose, methodology and literature analysis culminating in 1,582 peer-reviewed studies. A total of 182 peer-reviewed studies met the criterion for review. Throughout the research process, a systematic literature review uncovered management literature gaps overlooked for decades during the theory-building process. Hence, developing a theory of Founder-CEOs succession used a combination of systematic, inductive, comparative and interactive approaches.

A Theory of Founder-CEOs Succession explains the strategic process of replacing a founder systematically. The promotion of, and incentives for, internal executives have been topics of great interest and deliberation among scholars and practitioners for a long time. This study contributes research implications for theory building in the academic disciplines of entrepreneurship and management by offering scholars and practitioners a theory that does not exist to describe Founder-CEOs’ succession encompassing both strategic successes and failures. By incorporating successes and failures, this study provides realistic reflections of Founder-CEOs.

The mental health and well-being of employees is negatively impacted by stress, anxiety and depression. There is a need to address these issues at an organisational level to enhance workforce welfare and to decrease the number of days lost due to mental health/well-being concerns. This study aimed to evaluate a mental health and well-being toolkit designed to enhance the resilience, coping and self-talk of employees.

The intervention was derived from counselling psychology and composed of an 8-hour programme, which was delivered over four consecutive weeks. A mixed methods approach was adopted, with the quantitative element assessing an intervention group (n = 10) and control group (n = 14) at baseline and at the end of the programme on measures of mental health and well-being. The qualitative aspect of the study involved interviews with the intervention group, which were thematically analysed..

Quantitatively, the experimental group showed statistically significant improvements in elements of resilience and well-being and a reduction in stress and anxiety. Qualitatively, participants experienced a positive effect on their well-being, benefited from the learning process, applied the taught strategies widely and found the session experience positive.

This was a small pilot study, nevertheless, the mixed methods nature of this investigation indicates that a counselling derived online training programme can enhance the well-being of employees within large organisations.

A remotely delivered mental health and well-being toolkit could be a useful resource to enhance the well-being of employees in all organisations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many industries, and reports indicate that this includes the illicit drug market. Recent research suggests that the homeless are particularly vulnerable during the pandemic, and the UK Government has acted to house rough sleepers. Research is scarce regarding homeless people’s experiences of the illicit drug market. This study aims to explore homeless people’s experiences of the drug supply in the UK during COVID-19.

Eight homeless people who use illicit drugs, residing in hostels for homeless people in Southampton, participated in semi-structured one-on-one telephone-based interviews.

A thematic analysis revealed five themes: availability of drugs, presence of dealers, quality of drugs, finances and personal experiences. Participants reported varying experiences of the drug supply, with lockdown measures expressed as the main reason for reduced supplies, as users found it difficult to find dealers and generate income for purchasing drugs.

The results may lack generalisability to the wider population, such as rough sleepers and drug dealers, suggesting a need for further research into people’s experiences of the drug supply during COVID-19. Research on this topic could be more in-depth through the use of research methods that are convenient for the homeless population.

Services should invest in harm reduction services and encourage homeless people who use drugs to engage in substitution treatment. Homeless services should provide psychological support for homeless people who use drugs.

The changes in homeless people’s behaviour following the pandemic may have implications for their interactions with the rest of society (e.g. begging in town centres may reduce). These changes in behaviour may also change the way society can best support homeless people.

The results are partially consistent with other research findings about the illicit drug supply; however, they also suggest that some individuals experienced minimal change in the illicit drug supply.

Adolescent mental health is a global concern. There is an urgent need for creative, multimedia interventions reflecting adolescent culture to promote mental health literacy and well-being. This study aims to assess the impact of a film-based intervention on adolescent mental health literacy, well-being and resilience.

A pretest-posttest intervention with a multi-methods evaluation was used. A convenience sample of ten schools facilitated students aged 15–17 years to engage in an online intervention (film, post-film discussion, well-being Webinar). Participants completed surveys on well-being, resilience, stigma, mental health knowledge and help-seeking. Five teachers who facilitated the intervention participated in post-implementation interviews or provided a written submission. Analysis included paired-t-test and effect size calculation and thematic analysis.

Matched pretest-posttest data were available on 101 participants. There were significant increases in well-being, personal resilience and help-seeking attitudes for personal/emotional problems, and suicidal ideation. Participants’ free-text comments suggested the intervention was well-received, encouraging them to speak more openly about mental health. Teachers similarly endorsed the intervention, especially the focus on resilience.

Intinn shows promise in improving adolescents’ mental health literacy and well-being. Film-based interventions may encourage adolescents to seek professional help for their mental health, thus facilitating early intervention.

While few studies have examined business-to-business (B2B) mobile application (app) usage, none have examined the challenges in developing these technological assets. This study aims to examine B2B marketing executives’ perceptions regarding benefits, barriers and facilitators in app development.

A survey of 311 B2B marketing executives at selling firms in the USA was conducted to identify key themes related to the benefits, barriers and facilitators in developing B2B apps. The research featured “open-ended” questions exclusively, and advanced textual and thematic analysis of executives’ responses produced several key themes.

Results show that the perceived benefit of lowering customer servicing and costs drives development more so than trying to realize new revenue opportunities (e.g. “saving” vs. “making” money). Achieving internal buy-in/participation was perceived as a larger barrier than the commitment of financial resources. Additionally, training and education were viewed as the strongest facilitators of an app’s success over its design and functionality. Implications for B2B firms are discussed.

The open-ended format of this research captures a greater breadth of perspectives at the expense of more granular analysis of any particular issue.

The themes generated from the responses offer novel insights into the benefits sought in developing an app, as well as the technological, organizational and environmental factors that act as barriers and facilitators. The open-ended format of this research captures a greater breadth of perspectives at the expense of a more granular analysis of any particular issue.

This article aims to explore the potential of feminist phenomenology as a conceptual framework for advancing women’s entrepreneurship research and the suitability of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to the proposed framework.

The article critically examines the current state of women’s entrepreneurship research regarding the institutional context and highlights the benefits of a shift towards feminist phenomenology.

The prevailing disembodied and gender-neutral portrayal of entrepreneurship has resulted in an equivocal understanding of women’s entrepreneurship and perpetuated a male-biased discourse within research and practice. By adopting a feminist phenomenological approach, this article argues for the importance of considering the ontological dimensions of lived experiences of situatedness, intersubjectivity, intentionality and temporality in analysing women entrepreneurs’ agency within gendered institutional contexts. It also demonstrates that feminist phenomenology could broaden the current scope of IPA regarding the embodied dimension of language.

The adoption of feminist phenomenology and IPA presents new avenues for research that go beyond the traditional cognitive approach in entrepreneurship, contributing to theory and practice. The proposed conceptual framework also has some limitations that provide opportunities for future research, such as a phenomenological intersectional approach and arts-based methods.

The article contributes to a new research agenda in women’s entrepreneurship research by offering a feminist phenomenological framework that focuses on the embodied dimension of entrepreneurship through the integration of IPA and conceptual metaphor theory (CMT).

Based on the transformative learning theory, this paper analyses a French women-only training programme (WOTP) that aims to develop women’s soft skills in their professional contexts. This paper aims to focus on the process of personal transformation, the collective dimensions and the unexpected effects of the transformation.

This paper used a mixed qualitative design that mainly combines a qualitative two-step study of 47 women to assess their personal changes in terms of self-confidence, self-efficacy and assertiveness. This paper used 13 semi-structured interviews to explore the perceived changes in-depth.

The analysis shows that beyond “fixing their lack of skills” – including self-limiting behaviours, low feelings of self-efficacy and difficulty claiming one’s place – a WOTP can trigger a transformational learning experience at the individual level and can modify the surveyed women’s attitudes and behaviours at work. The results also highlight the collective dimension of transformation and, to some extent, an avenue for a societal transformation.

One can state that these WOTPs may positively contribute to human resources development in organisations, and that they may be considered a relevant practice in the move to promote women and gender diversity in organisations.

The findings reveal that, at their individual levels, these women may become agents of change by influencing and acting in their professional lives. The results stress that training women may contribute to organisational changes in terms of gender diversity. These findings contribute to the enrichment of the transformative learning theory by developing the collective and societal dimensions.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neuro-developmental condition that has frequently been pathologised in career research and broader society to date. The study seeks to reframe such assumptions through a qualitative positive-focused exploration of career stories of ADHD adults, elicited through a strength-focused technique with wide applicability for coaching and other career-based development activities.

Situated in a strength-focused coaching psychology paradigm, the authors undertook semi-structured interviews with 17 participants, using an adapted feedforward interview technique (FFI) rooted in positive psychology (PP), to investigate individuals' strengths and successful career experiences.

Narrative thematic analysis of the transcripts identified two core themes: “the paradoxical nature of strengths” and “career success as an evolving narrative”. The participants described how they have achieved career success both “in spite of” and “because of” ADHD. The use of the FFI demonstrated a helpful and easily taught method for eliciting personal narratives of success and strengths, an essential foundation to any coaching process.

This research provides a nuanced overview, and an associated conceptual model, of how adults with ADHD perceive their career-based strengths and experiences of success. Further, the research shows the value of using a positive psychological coaching approach when working with neurominority individuals, using a successful adaptation of the FFI. The authors hope that the documentation of this technique and the resulting insights will offer important guidance for managers as coaches and internal and external career coaches, as well as providing positive and relatable narrative resources for ADHD adults.

The immature research endeavor on refugee entrepreneurship has not adequately covered the success factors of refugees. The current work aims to address this gap through the theory of planned behavior and the theory of procedural utility to identify the success factors of refugee entrepreneurs in the tourism and hospitality industry.

The current work is based on a qualitative approach drawing on data from 24 semistructured interviews with refugee entrepreneurs in Istanbul-Türkiye.

The thematic analysis of the data set revolved around three interrelated themes: personal, organizational and environmental factors, which offer a better understanding of the elements defining successful refugee entrepreneurs.

The paper also offers various practical implications and policy recommendations for the economic integration of refugee entrepreneurs in the public and private sectors.

The results enhance the understanding of successful refugee entrepreneurship in their new hosting environment, contributing to the existing research agenda by identifying the key themes of refugee entrepreneurs’ success factors.

This paper is one of the first studies to examine specificities, including limits of mindfulness at work in an African organisational context, whilst dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It specifically addresses the role of organisational and managerial support systems in restoring employee wellbeing, social connectedness and attachment to their organisations, in order to overcome the exclusion caused by the ongoing pandemic.

The study uses a qualitative research methodology that includes interviews as the main data source. The sample comprises of 20 entrepreneurs (organisational leaders) from Ghana and Nigeria.

The authors found that COVID-19-induced worries restricted the practice of mindfulness, and this was prevalent at the peak of the pandemic, particularly due to very tough economic conditions caused by reduction in salaries, and intensified by pre-existing general economic and social insecurities, and institutional voids in Africa. This aspect further resulted in lack of engagement and lack of commitment, which affected overall team performance and restricted employees’ mindfulness at work. Hence, quietness by employees even though can be linked to mindfulness was linked to larger psychological stress that they were facing. The authors also found leaders/manager’s emotional intelligence, social skills and organisational support systems to be helpful in such circumstances. However, their effectiveness varied among the cases.

This paper is one of the first studies to establish a link between the COVID-19 pandemic and mindfulness limitations. Moreover, it is a pioneering study specifically highlighting the damaging impact of COVID-19-induced concerns on leader–member exchange (LMX) and team–member exchange (TMX) relationships, particularly in the African context. It further brings in a unique discussion on the mitigating mechanisms of such COVID-19-induced concerns in organisations and highlights the roles of manager’s/leader’s emotional intelligence, social skills and supportive intervention patterns. Finally, the authors offer an in-depth assessment of the effectiveness of organisational interventions and supportive relational systems in restoring social connectedness following a social exclusion caused by COVID-19-induced worries.