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In the online environment, consumers increasingly feel vulnerable due to firms’ expanding capabilities of collecting and using their data in an unsanctioned manner. Drawing from gossip theory, this research focuses on two key suppressors of consumer vulnerability: transparency and control. Previous studies conceptualize transparency and control from rationalistic approaches that overlook individual experiences and present a unidimensional conceptualization. This research aims to understand how individuals interpret transparency and control concerning privacy vulnerability in the online environment. Additionally, it explores strategic approaches to communicating the value of transparency and control.

An interpretivism paradigm and phenomenology were adopted in the research design. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 41 participants, including consumers and experts, and analyzed through thematic analysis.

The findings identify key conceptual dimensions of transparency and control by adapting justice theory. They also reveal that firms can communicate assurance, functional, technical and social values of transparency and control to address consumer vulnerability.

This research makes the following contributions to the data privacy literature. The findings exhibit multidimensional and comprehensive conceptualizations of transparency and control, including user, firm and information perspectives. Additionally, the conceptual framework combines empirical insights from both experiencers and observers to offer an understanding of how transparency and control serve as justice mechanisms to effectively tackle the issue of unsanctioned transmission of personal information and subsequently address vulnerability. Lastly, the findings provide strategic approaches to communicating the value of transparency and control.

This research is designed to explore the relationship between social media addiction, student engagement and student retention. Social media addiction is dealt with as an independent variable student engagement acts as a mediating variable and student retention as a dependent variable.

This is a cross-sectional and quantitative research. Primary data are collected from 600 respondents (university students) with the help of a structured questionnaire. Multistage sampling techniques, i.e. simple random sampling and judgment sampling, are used for the selection of respondents.

Results indicate that for direct relationships, social media addiction has a significant positive impact on student engagement and student retention, respectively, while student engagement is partially mediating the relationship between social media addiction with student retention.

In the future, these kinds of research may also be conducted on students of different universities in Pakistan, which are located in other cities of Pakistan besides Lahore. This research provides a practical framework for the higher authorities of the universities of Pakistan and explains how the use of media positively fosters the levels of student retention directly and indirectly through the path of student engagement. It is commonly believed that media addiction is bad but the result of this research indicates that anything is not dangerous but depends upon its use, media addiction itself is not bad but if someone uses this for a good purpose in limitation then it has better outcomes. The result indicates that the media addiction of students has a positive impact on student retention. This means that if someone uses media for a positive purpose then he/she will use it as a supporting tool for success. Longitudinal research on these variables will also help to check the status after a specific interval of time.

The current study will help the practitioners or policymakers (Managers) of higher education institutions by providing practical insights into the positive use of media by students for increasing their knowledge and grades. This research can also help practitioners or policymakers to focus their students on the positive use of social media for fostering the levels of student retention.

To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, no previous study has been done to incorporate social media addiction and student engagement in a single model in the Pakistani cultural context. Similarly, the relationship of variables social media addiction with student engagement is rarely checked empirically because the research of Wang et al. (2011) proposed that social media addiction has a relationship with student engagement so that is why this is the rationale of the research is to check this empirically. Moreover, this study is an initial effort to check the mediating effect of student engagement in the relationship between social media addiction and student retention. This research is also proposing the framework of social media addiction, student engagement and student retention based on the social exchange theory (SET).

This research study focusses on the succession challenges in small-medium outboard marine businesses of Malaysian Chinese family ownership. The founder-owners face challenges in convincing the next-generation members to establish their careers within the family business and to ensure successions are in place to safeguard the family's wealth. A gap exists in the research literatures concerning such family business owners; and their experiences would provide valuable information to other Malaysian Chinese family businesses planning to start the succession journey.

An exploratory case study methodology to research five Malaysian Chinese family businesses cases in Klang Valley, Selangor, Malaysia, is used in this study. The primary qualitative data were obtained through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and observations. The research data lead to the identification of the following themes: generational change affects the survival of small-medium Malaysian Chinese family-owned businesses; the founder-owners' intention and desire for business to pass to the next generation give rise to the imperative of succession; the founder-owners' motive and goals, family context and the business nature would determine a large part to how the succession plans are carried out and the upbringing, expectation and obligations would determine how the next generations of children would view the prospect of taking over the family business. From this, a succession model that detailed an inclusive approach to succession planning process between the two generations is established.

A small purposive sample is included, and it is recommended that a larger and more diverse sample be collected in future studies. This study follows a nuclear family structure of parents and children. If more Chinese family businesses are selected based on a wider set of family members such as uncles and cousins, the findings may differ.

This research study could also facilitate other Malaysian family businesses to rethink and refocus on the importance of undertaking an inclusive approach to succession planning and also help potential next-generation successors in understanding and working towards attaining the qualities that family firms look for in future leaders.

The researcher summarizes the study findings into a management succession model. An inclusive succession approach is needed to overcome these challenges and would enable sustainability, continuity and longevity of the family business. This would help the family business to understand that succession is not a single event but a process that needs to be planned together with the next-generation family members over a certain period of time.

This study aims to examine the triple relationship between capital regulation, banking lending and economic growth in a dual markets. Specifically, the author seeks to explore how changes in capital regulation can impact banking lending practices and subsequently influence economic growth, while also investigating the reciprocal effects of banking lending on economic growth.

The author follows several previous studies such as Shrieves and Dahl (1992), Beck and Levine (2002), Altunbas et al. (2007), Saeed et al. (2020) and Stewart et al. (2021) to identify a system of three equations, regarding economic growth, capital and banking financing growth, respectively. The author estimates the parameters of all equations simultaneously using the seemingly unrelated regression method (Zellner, 1962) for a sample of 46 Islamic banks and 113 conventional banks during 2002–2022. These banks operate in 13 Muslim countries from Middle East and North Africa and Southeast Asia.

The author’s findings demonstrate that in the case of Islamic banking, an increase in loan growth stimulates economic growth, while an increasing capital ratio positively influences economic growth but is accompanied by a reduction in loan growth. This result corroborates the findings of Stewart et al. (2021), which indicate that regulatory capital reduces unstable credit while improving gross domestic product growth. However, in the case of conventional banks, the response to an increase in loan growth on Gross Domestic Product Per Capita Growth (GDPCG) is ambiguous, while the capital ratio improves GDPCG and promotes LOANG, which, in turn, increases risk.

The Islamic banks can continue to significantly contribute to economic growth by effectively directing their available capital toward viable investment opportunities and supporting sustainable financial practices, even in the presence of potential constraints on loan growth. As for conventional banks, they are invited to increase their capital levels to ensure a strong and resilient financial system that can support lending and facilitate economic growth.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first to explore the triple relationship between capital requirements, Islamic bank lending and economic growth.

The paper draws extensively from Aristotle’s Poetics, a classical work on the aesthetics of drama. Drawing from symbolic and thematic elements from folklore and mythology, this paper aims to illustrate how the Poetics can be referenced as an allegorical device in the design of culture-building strategies and interventions.

This exploratory paper examines Aristotle’s “Poetics” and the range of creative expression this literature provides as a conceptual design framework for the development of a culture map in creating a distinctive organisational mythology. The Poetics articulates an Aristotelian perspective on theatre which infuses itself as a new language in offering structural and archetypical plot devices in the development of an organisational narrative.

Findings from this explorative study can provide a creative roadmap to culture practitioners and leaders, to be used as a determining reference point in developing culture maps and change management interventions.

Poetics has its detractors, notably Bertolt Brecht and Augusto Boal. Boal examines how Poetics promotes a narrative that suppresses free thinking and encourages a cult of feudal personality, therefore encouraging industrial and cultural oppression, which he rebelled against through the development of his “Theatre of the Oppressed”. This new kind of theatre discarded the Aristotelian model of thinking. Ideas proposed in the Poetics may also lend verisimilitude to the propagation of obsessive consumerism through the definitive symbolism it offers in the development of institutionalised personality cults.

The Poetics as a creatively driven reflexive study provides a forward movement in the study of culture design templates. Its definitive allegorical devices and metaphors act as action principles through which an enterprise culture and its value system can be examined and developed.

The aim of the study is to capture consumers' conceptualization of ethnic food and ethnic restaurants, focusing on what it takes for ethnic restaurants to be perceived authentic.

Qualitative research, based on semi-structured in-depth interviews which were transcribed and subjected to inductive thematic analysis.

The findings conceptualize what ethnic food and ethnic-authentic restaurant are, leading to formulating the criteria that authentic ethnic restaurant should meet.

Findings have practical implications for restaurateurs interested in establishing themselves as ethnically authentic and for businesses focusing on ethnic food. This study was based on Israeli-Jewish participants; studies with other populations will contribute to the findings' trustability.

This study provides novel and critical insights into ethnic restaurant managements and to the customer conceptualization of the concept of ethnic authentic, demonstrating it being a multifaceted concept.

The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of existing literature on post-traumatic growth (PTG), particularly in the ways that it relates to grief.

This narrative literature review brings together 125 sources and presents them in a readable way.

There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that PTG can come from grief. This is not always the case, however.

This review presents only a selection of the existing literature – the review is not systematic. However, this allows for a narrative to be crafted, to aid readability.

Suggestions for future research are made throughout, and potential therapeutic applications are mentioned.

This paper discusses stigma, in the form of “disenfranchised grief”. In this, social pressures and expectations affect how a person processes their grief psychologically. While movements to increase discourse and reduce stigma are on the rise, more is needed.

This review guides readers through existing literature, providing a wide overview of the topic of PTG in grief.

The world is experiencing democratic backsliding such that the situation is down back to 1986. This has resulted in the global shrinking of civic space for civil society organizations (CSOs). NGOs engaging in advocacy activities are seen to be among the CSOs affected. Using four NGOs cases from Tanzania, the study contributes to the civic space debate by uncovering how advocacy NGOs become resilient.

The study is anchored in interpretivism and a cross-sectional case study design, following a qualitative approach path. Data were collected through interviews and a documentary review.

Results show that several strategies such as complying, building community back-up, collaboration, strategic litigation, using digital media and changing the scope are applied. However, strategies face obstacles including scope limitations, expected democratic roles, high cost, changes in the scope and being outsmarted by the government, and hence their effectiveness is questionable.

This study focused on advocacy NGOs. More studies can be conducted for other advocacy-related CSOs on how they become resilient.

While NGOs are allowed to exist in the country, their freedom continue to be curtailed. Even the effectiveness of resiliency becomes temporary and depends on the political will of the existing regime.

Tanzania NGOs have to build strong bonds with citizens, expand the scope of strategies and use deliberative democratic principles to educate the government to change laws and tolerate plural political culture. Also, NGOs in other countries with confined civic space can apply the same.

Considering the ongoing discourse on diversity, equity and inclusion, brands aim to develop marketing campaigns that demonstrate respect for all individuals. Despite these intentions, many advertisements still provoke strong negative reactions from consumers due to brand transgressions in social media marketing campaigns that violate these values. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the repercussions that such social media marketing campaigns have on brands, categorizing these campaigns as brand transgressions in social media advertising.

This research uses a mixed-method design that includes semi-structured interviews (Study 1), a content analysis (Study 2) and an online experiment (Study 3).

This paper clarifies the elements that qualify as brand transgressions in advertising within the diversity, equity and inclusion discourse. The negative electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) associated with brand transgressions in advertising comprises negative emotions (e.g. anger, contempt, disgust and hate) and behavioural intentions to penalize the brand (e.g. negative word-of-mouth, brand avoidance and protest behaviours). The negative e-WOM stemming from these transgressions amplifies the adverse consequences for consumer–brand relationships by negatively influencing other consumers through sympathy towards the offended parties.

This paper offers brand managers guidelines for preventing and managing negative consumer reactions towards brands based on their responses to marketing campaigns that contradict the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion.

This paper contributes to the literature on brand transgressions related to diversity, equity and inclusion values by exploring their impact on consumer–brand relationships and highlighting the pivotal role of sympathy in perpetuating negative consequences.

This research aimed to examine entrepreneurial fear of failure and entrepreneurial well-being from the perspectives of incubated and nonincubated startups during crises.

Data were collected by distributing online questionnaires to 152 respondents comprising 43 incubated and 109 nonincubated startups in Indonesia. A multivariate discriminant analysis procedure was used to examine the interrelationships between both groups at the discovery, validation, customer creation and construction stages.

The result showed a significant difference between these startups at various stages, which was analyzed to provide insights into the relevant dimensions of fear of failure for startups. The essence of entrepreneurial well-being during crises is in accordance with the role of business incubators in an emerging market economy.

Startups need to innovate in order to grow while considering other factors such as work-life balance and financial resource availability. This is important to ensure they have sufficient motivating dosage of fear of failure.

The present study evaluates incubated and nonincubated startups in an emerging market economy by using both the entrepreneurial fear of failure and well-being to capture possible differences between groups. The context of pandemic crises helps us formulate appropriate approaches taken by incubators and startups in the future crises.