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Owing to the significance of a healthy lifestyle, we investigate the antecedents of the healthy lifestyle of young consumers in Sri Lanka. 658 structured questionnaires were collected from young consumers in Sri Lanka as part of the survey procedure. The judgmental sampling method is used to choose the respondents. The analysis makes use of both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings disclose a high degree of healthy lifestyle among young consumers in Sri Lanka. Further findings revealed that health consciousness, collective esteem, and neighborhood environment are the antecedents for a healthy lifestyle. As young consumers are more concerned about a healthy lifestyle, managers in certain industries such as food and beverages, hotels, and restaurants should adopt their products and services in line with a healthy lifestyle.

Over the past few years, the internet has expanded rapidly, and it has been considered a systematic way that consumers use to retrieve health-related information. However, the existing literature does not provide an articulated view of online health information-seeking behaviour through an in-depth understanding of users’ searching-related behaviour. The objectives of this study are to identify the factors affecting consumers’ health-related internet use and recognise the relationships between those specified and health-related internet use. Finally, the recommendations are made based on the findings.

An amalgamated model of technology acceptance model and health belief model was used to hypothesise health-related internet use behaviour, which is then tested using a cross-sectional survey of 287 Sri Lankan managerial-level employees. The covariance-based structural equation modelling with AMOS was used to check the study hypotheses.

Findings of this study depict five factors contributing to consumers’ health-related internet use as follows: perceived health risk towards chronic diseases consisting of perceived susceptibility and perceived severity; health consciousness; perceived usefulness of the internet; perceived ease of internet use; and attitude towards health-related internet use. As theorised, the internet’s perceived usefulness was positively and significantly related to consumers’ use of health-related internet and attitude towards health-related internet use. But as hypothesised, perceived ease of internet use did not directly affect consumers’ use of health-related internet. Further, findings reveal that health-related internet use is estimated by perceived health risk than health consciousness.

Findings reveal that Sri Lankan managerial-level employees have a reactive health behaviour driven by the perceived health risk and the desire to seek online health information.

This study aims to examine buying center members’ information control (IC) in complex organizational buying contexts to uncover the effect of IC on overall procurement performance (PP) and the effects of expert power (EP), legitimate power (LP) and referent power as antecedents to IC.

The study uses confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling in AMOS version 21 to assess the hypotheses using a cross-sectional survey of 294 Sri Lankan buying center members active in complex organizational buying.

Results show that IC has positive effects on overall PP and that both EP and LP are significant antecedents to IC.

The findings challenge the conventional wisdom that sharing all information in complex organizational buying is a sure-fire way to gain success. Instead, a measured, deliberate approach is more productive and this is more likely necessary and fruitful if the buying center member has EP or LP.

Procurement managers, supply chain managers and other managers with responsibility for implementing complex organizational buying outcomes should seek to enhance IC in buying center members to promote positive procurement outcomes, but this may stifle suppliers’ attempts to influence the process. Buying center members with EP and LP are more likely to face pressure to exert IC.

This study is the first to examine IC, its antecedents and consequences in complex organizational buying scenarios. EP and LP appear to underpin IC which, itself, has significant effects on PP.

This study aims to assess the following question: “which information processing approach, formalization or centralization, responds to procurement complexity and how does this affect procurement performance in knowledge-intensive procurements?”

This study draws on a survey of 294 Project Managers with recent experience of knowledge-intensive procurement. It uses AMOS version 21 to perform confirmatory factor analysis and structural modeling to assess the hypotheses.

The findings suggest that procurement complexity directly encourages formalization and that formalization has significant, positive effects on procurement performance. Centralization, on the other hand, appears not to respond to procurement complexity and has negligible effects on procurement performance.

Drawing on information processing theory, this study highlights the importance of two information management approaches in knowledge-intensive procurement, and that such procurement situations share similarities with new product development and other innovation-rich, team-based activities. Knowledge-intensive procurement situations, therefore, require different information management practices than other types of procurement.

The findings suggest that procurement complexity directly encourages formalization and that formalization has significant, positive effects on procurement performance. Centralization, on the other hand, appears not to respond to procurement complexity and has negligible effects on procurement performance.

The study is the first to examine information management approaches (formalization and centralization) in knowledge-intensive procurement as responses to project complexity, and as contributors to procurement performance.

This study examines the impact of financial services employees’ engagement on the attitude toward artificial intelligence (AI) in Sri Lanka. The model developed in this study comprises three constructs to demonstrate employee engagement (EE), namely, psychological state engagement (PSE), trait engagement (TE), and cognitive engagement (CE). Further, the model tests the moderating effect of age and gender on the relationship between EE and attitude toward AI. The authors conducted this research through a survey of 200 employees at Sri Lankan financial service firms. The findings indicate that EE substantially impacts attitudes regarding AI. Additionally, PSE, CE, and attribute engagement substantially affect how people feel about AI. Further, age has a moderating effect on the association between EE and attitude toward AI among financial services personnel. Based on the findings and discussion, the researcher recommends AI’s most significant importance in promoting a high level of engagement. The results would be helpful for both academic researchers and practitioners, especially HR managers, to understand the status of AI in Sri Lanka and formulate strategies to expedite EE.

Purpose: This chapter aims to unveil the challenges of adopting and using banking chatbots in India and identify the challenges of Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) for future banking.

Need for the study: Unveiling the challenges of chatbots and ChatGPT in the banking industry in India is crucial to understand the limitations and areas of improvement to enhance customer experience, ensure data security, and maintain regulatory compliance.

Methodology: The researchers conducted a narrative review systematically summarising and analysing existing literature on chatbots and ChatGPT, providing a comprehensive overview of the challenges faced in the industry.

Findings: The authors identify perceived risk, platform quality, connectivity and infrastructure, data privacy and security, user education and acceptance, existing legacy systems, and regulatory guidelines as the challenges of adopting chatbots. Additionally, the findings reveal that the challenges posed by ChatGPT in future banking include the potential reduction of traditional banking jobs, linguistic diversity, data privacy and security, ethical considerations and bias mitigation, explainability and accountability, integration with existing banking systems, and user trust and acceptance. However, implementing these new technologies also presents opportunities for individuals with unique human skills, such as critical thinking, empathy, and creativity, which are difficult to replace with technology.

Practical implications: By minimising the challenges of ChatGPT and chatbots, the banking industry could achieve improved customer service, cost efficiency, automation of routine tasks, and 24/7 availability, leading to enhanced customer satisfaction and operational efficiency in the banking industry. Additionally, these artificial intelligence (AI) tools enable data-driven insights, personalised experiences, scalability, and efficient handling of large customer volumes, contributing to better decision-making and enhanced customer engagement.

As the pandemic begins to ease, many companies are figuring out that working remotely is the future of work and “a new normal”. This research focuses on strategic planning and practices inherent in remote work, and aims to identify the optimal balance between virtual and on-site working. Specifically, the authors investigate the moderating effects of managerial ability and Hofstede's cultural factors.

The authors build a mathematical model to locate the optimal balance between virtual and on-site working. A numerical study is presented, and additional sensitivity analysis is conducted to validate the proposed model.

This model provides organizations with a general guideline with recommended optimal percentages of remote workforce based on specific Hofstede's national scores. The authors also find that organizations with varying levels of managerial ability exhibit different adoption rates of remote working.

Because of the chosen research approach, the proposed model may lack empirical verification and require further adjustment of parameters. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to empirically and statistically test the proposed model further.

This model equips organizations and practitioners with a general guideline to identify their desired portion of remote workforce. The incorporation of managerial ability and cultural factors makes our model applicable to various business structures across different sectors.

This proposed model addresses this optimization problem from a mathematical perspective with an interdisciplinary approach. The model also considers the moderating effects of managerial ability and Hofstede's cultural factors.

1. The main contribution of this study is the theoretical development of our mathematical model that identifies the optimal balance between remote and on-site workforce in the context of managerial ability and Hofstede's cultural factors.

2. A numerical study is presented, and additional sensitivity analysis is conducted to validate the proposed model and highlight the moderating effect of managerial ability and cultural influence on the adopted percentages of remote working.

3. Our study suggests that organizational capabilities, managerial skills, and culturally suitable work arrangement are vital in successful development and implementation of remote working policy.

4. Practical managerial implications and general guidelines are offered to organizations and practitioners.

The main contribution of this study is the theoretical development of our mathematical model that identifies the optimal balance between remote and on-site workforce in the context of managerial ability and Hofstede's cultural factors.

A numerical study is presented, and additional sensitivity analysis is conducted to validate the proposed model and highlight the moderating effect of managerial ability and cultural influence on the adopted percentages of remote working.

Our study suggests that organizational capabilities, managerial skills, and culturally suitable work arrangement are vital in successful development and implementation of remote working policy.

Practical managerial implications and general guidelines are offered to organizations and practitioners.

Digital transformation has made enormous changes in the banking domain, where FinTech is the salient driving force inside it. Especially in the banking industry, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain technology act as the most innovative technologies. Similarly, Chatbots in commercial banking and Robo-advisors in investment banking has shifted banks into the entire virtual environment. In this context, the main objectives of this chapter are: to determine the current application of AI and blockchain in the banking industry, to identify the challenges faced by banks in adapting AI and blockchain technology, and to provide new insights on future banking in the industry 5.0 in this digital era. This chapter discusses the application of two robotic platforms widely used in banking, chatbots, and Robo-advisors. Chatbots are more like frontline employees of banks who are commonly engaged in customer relationship management, sales, and marketing. In contrast, Robo-advisors are a relatively advanced AI tool involved in investment and portfolio management. Blockchain will accelerate digital transformation where a decentralized digital ledger system is used for banking transactions. However, this is entirely the opposite of conventional centralized digital banking, and the adoption of these technologies is still in its infancy. Employment, performance, security, privacy and trust, cost, ethical and regulatory challenges are the most common challenges. To avoid the challenges, banks should concern with strategies like collaboration with robots, increasing the platforms’ performance, etc. Finally, the chapter provides insights on banking at industry 5.0. In the future, banking customers can experience completely virtual and customer-oriented banking services. In this regard, the fusion of all technologies and collaborative human effort is essential.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of key hotel attributes on the room rates of selected hotels in the Greater Gaborone Region, Botswana.

Using hedonic pricing analysis, the effect of eight attributes collected from 80 standard double rooms on Booking.com in the area was analysed using quantile regression.

The estimated results from quantile regression suggested the importance of the 10th quantile as the best predictor of hotel room price distribution. Overall, the presence of a fitness centre and the availability of meeting and conference facilities were positively significant for the lowest- and premium-priced hotels, respectively.

The study advanced the literature in hedonic pricing models by confirming the applicability of hotel room rate attribute research in unexplored environments.

Hotel managers should be aware of the influence of key attributes, such as meeting and conference space availability and locational factors, on the pricing decisions of room rates in the Greater Gaborone Region. The study also presented opportunities for business-to-business marketing between hotel and tour operators in the region.

The study is one of the few that uses quantile regression in the hedonic pricing analysis of hotel room rates.

This study aimed to collect data on the perception of top executive women in the Aruban hotel sector regarding implicit gender bias.

A qualitative study on the metacognitive processes of awareness, evaluation and autocorrection was utilized. Through purposive sampling women in the top two leadership levels in Aruba Hotel and Tourism Association (AHATA) member-hotels were selected.

Results showed that a third of the top female executives experienced implicit gender bias career barriers. Different types of bias were identified such as: judgments regarding pregnancy, unequal pay and obstructions by the male general manager. How the women dealt with this bias depended on the type of bias and their personality. The identification of bias and its effects on the career trajectory were also influenced by characteristics of the work setting such as the size of the hotel and functional area.

The research limitations include the chosen scope, the impediment of the generalizability of the findings due to the nature of the study, self-perceived data and possible researcher and respondent bias.

This study added to the existing body of leadership development literature with a focus on the effects of implicit bias on female leadership advancement. Some specific theoretical concepts that were combined in this study are organizational leadership, metacognition and the unconscious mind. The important role of personality was also confirmed in this study however one element that stood out in the current study was the effect of resilience in overcoming perceived barriers and attaining personal career goals. Suggestions and directions for future research are provided.

Despite the fact that gender bias was not observed in an explicit form, participants advised to be aware of the existence and effects of the implicit form and to seek education and guidance from female mentors and to remain goal oriented when confronted with this bias. Since female under-representation in senior leadership positions in other economic sectors is not observed this advice serves as a significant practical implication for the development of female leadership in this important sector in Aruba.