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The purpose of this paper is to investigate self-perceived age among Baby Boomers in the UK, Germany, Japan, and Hungary, and identifies two horizontal segments based on the way consumers view their age.

Questionnaires were used to sample 880 Baby Boomers. Structural equation modeling is used to investigate multinational measurement invariance of the cognitive age scale.

Two distinct segments are identified, providing support for a young-at-heart consumer culture in all nations in the study. Results also find cognitive age to exhibit partial measurement invariance, which is expected given the disparate nations under study.

This research contributes to cross-cultural global age research which is still in an early pioneering stage. The study builds on a small number of previous studies that validate cognitive age, extends current knowledge of the measurement properties of cognitive age, and identifies two distinct international segments of Baby Boomers. Further research needs to delve into the antecedents of self-perceived age, particularly in the ways in which different life experiences and cultures may impact age identities.

The study has implications for marketing managers wishing to target the increasingly important young-at-heart Baby Boomer.

The study uses four non-American countries, uses samples matched for chronological age, and does not use convenience samples, which make it unique in the cognitive age literature. The study has value for marketing managers, global age researchers, and consumer culture researchers.

Professional touching behavior (PTB), defined as intentional touching behavior that occurs between organizational members and that falls within the boundaries of appropriateness and professionalism in the workplace, is prevalent in organizations. Scholars from multiple disciplines, including human resources researchers, have acknowledged the importance of physical contact for facilitating interpersonal communication and relationship-building. However, PTB may not only elicit positive reactions from those who receive it but also negative reactions as well, with implications for social dynamics in organizations. PTB can, on the one hand, fulfill employees’ desires for interpersonal connection; at the same time, such physical contact at work can represent a threat to employees’ health. To explain the nature and implications of these divergent effects of receiving PTB, the authors draw upon sociometer theory and behavioral immune system (BIS) theory to model the emotional, cognitive, and physiological processes via which, and the conditions under which, receiving such behavior will result in socially functional responses and prompt subsequent prosocial behavior, and when PTB will be perceived as a health risk and prompt withdrawal behavior. The theoretical framework of this chapter expands our conceptual understanding of the consequences of interpersonal physical contact at work and has important human resources management (HRM) implications for organizational managers.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the relations among different knowledge management (KM) factors, such as human capital (HC), processes and information systems (IS) on organizational sustainable competitive advantage (CA), within the SMEs context.

Structured questionnaires were distributed to CEOs and managers of Portuguese organizations through an electronic survey. Partial least squares software was utilized to analyze the data.

The measurement model results identify and validate the dimensions of HC, processes and IS representing the KM construct. The structural model results demonstrate that HC and processes have a direct and significant impact on organizational CA, on the customer and financial dimensions, respectively. IS indirectly and significantly influence organizational CA, mediated by HC and processes.

The sample size includes mostly service business and SMEs. Other organizations sectors, such as industry, should be analyzed in order to develop a comparative cross-sectorial study.

This study establishes suggestions for managers to make legitimate decisions concerning investments on knowledge assets and organizational capabilities that can foster business growth and sustainable CA within a SMEs context.

The authors propose a mediation mechanism showing that the relationship between IS and sustainable CA is not direct, but it is mediated by HC and processes. This mechanism points out some critical issues for the strategic knowledge and intellectual capital assets, as a source of organizational CA.

Prior research has highlighted the isolation felt by some researchers engaged in academic writing. This article aims to examine whether such isolation might be partially overcome by membership of an online community of writers (CoW), hosted by higher education (HE) library services.

A review of the literature was followed by an innovative piece of action research based around the authors' own long distance collaborative writing task in order to explore the issues at first‐hand. Case studies of existing online writing communities known to the authors but not currently hosted by libraries were also undertaken.

Themes emerging include the importance of finding a medium for a CoW that is familiar and comfortable. Motivators to join a CoW include demands that academics be research active. Demotivators may include lack of trust and reluctance to share.

There are still questions to be answered and decisions to be taken about the initiation of a CoW. Further research is needed into topics such as mentoring roles and trust‐building but this work should provide a springboard.

HE libraries might consider a CoW as a research support mechanism.

The concept of a CoW is a novel one, as is the idea that such a collaboration might be hosted by HE libraries that might consider a CoW as an innovative addition to their existing portfolio of research support services.

This paper aims to examine the differences in the process by which three types of self-congruity (actual, ideal and social) interact with the need for uniqueness (NFU) to influence brand loyalty via brand experience and brand attachment.

An online survey with 428 members of an Australian consumer panel. The data are analyzed using the structural equation modeling (SEM).

The results show that social self-congruity (SSC) has a direct effect on the brand attachment, but actual and ideal self-congruity (ASC and ISC) influence it only indirectly through brand experience. Moreover, the NFU strengthens the positive effect of ISC but weakens the effect of SSC on brand attachment.

This study uses publicly consumed brands and the NFU as the moderator. Future research may study privately consumer brands and use other moderators, such as regulatory focus (promotion vs prevention).

This study extends current research on brand attachment by highlighting the positive influence of SSC on brand attachment. It also establishes the mediating role of brand experience and the moderating role of the NFU. These are new insights about the underlying process and the boundary conditions for the well-established relationship between self-congruity and brand attachment.

Students with developmental/intellectual disabilities (ID/DD) often have serious health issues that require additional medical care and supervision. Serious health issues also mean increased absence and additional lags in academic achievement and development of adaptive and social skills. The incorporation of artificial intelligence in the education of a child with ID/DD could ameliorate the educational, adaptive and social skill gaps that occur as a direct result of persistent health problems.

The literature regarding the use of artificial intelligence in education for students with ID/DD was collected systematically from international online databases based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. The collected articles were analyzed deductively, looking for the different gaps in the domain. Based on the literature, an artificial intelligence–based architecture is proposed and sketched.

The findings show that there are many gaps in supporting students with ID/DD through the utilization of artificial intelligence. Given that the majority of students with ID/DD often have serious and chronic and comorbid health conditions, the potential use of health information in artificial intelligence is even more critical. Therefore, there is a clear need to develop a system that facilitates communication and access to health information for students with ID/DD, one that provides information to caregivers and education providers, limits errors, and, therefore, improves these individuals' education and quality of life.

This review highlights the gap in the current literature regarding using artificial intelligence in supporting the education of students with ID/DD. There is an urgent need for an intelligent system in collaboration with the updated health information to improve the quality of services submitted for people with intellectual disabilities and as a result improving their quality of life.

This study contributes to the literature by highlighting the gaps in incorporating artificial intelligence and its service to individuals with ID/DD. The research additionally proposes a solution based on the confounding variables of students’ health and individual characteristics. This solution will provide an automated information flow as a functional diagnostic and intervention tool for teachers, caregivers and parents. It could potentially improve the educational and practical outcomes for individuals with ID/DD and, ultimately, their quality of life.

In pursuit of socio-economic growth, scholars and policymakers in emerging economies continues to show interest in understanding technology-based start-up (i.e. tech start-up) emergence, to help mitigate persistent failure experienced during commercialization. Howbeit, some scholars lamented that extant studies that investigated tech start-up emergence are mostly fragmented, because they focus on specific event/sub-process in tech start-up gestation. Thus, this study aims to conduct a systematic literature review to discover, harmonize and develop a framework that describes the interaction among varying dimensions of events/sub-processes that characterizes tech start-up emergence in an emerging economy.

To conduct this study, the authors engaged a concept-centric systematic literature review. Having developed a search protocol, the authors searched through information systems database, and other relevant discipline databases, to select relevant articles for review.

The systematic review revealed various dimensions of events (i.e. opportunity discovery and selection, team formation and domain consensus, bootstrapping and the development of minimum viable product and market experimentation feedback) that are critical to tech start-up emergence. Most prior studies are isolated, as they focus their investigation on specific event. Thus, from this review, the authors developed a framework harmonizing various dimensions of events characterizing emergence of a viable tech start-up.

The researchers conducted this study in response to lingering call for harmonized study that provides in-depth description of how different dimensions of events interact and characterize tech start-up emergence. Consequently, the study resulted in a descriptive framework. Furthermore, the findings highlight some practical implications and proposes new study directions as future research agenda for scholars interested in tech start-up emergence.

This chapter introduces the specifics of spirituality-centric management practices in service and operation focused industries. Strategic management practices are often challenged by the human factor of businesses. Consequently, businesses often waver with the fulfillment of their strategic goals and face harmful repercussions. Subsequently, strategic leadership plays a crucial role in the advancement of incorporating spirituality in the workplace and cultivating a perception of the spiritual domain at the individual, team, and organizational levels. To succeed, organizations need to overcome the challenges pertaining their members' retainment and wellness. This is because members often act on their emotional, moral, and ethical concerns that are pillared by their spirituality-centric views on colleagues and management. As the overarching term, workplace spirituality has been linked with organizational learning, togetherness, sense of nurturement, and interpersonal fulfillment with tasks and often coincidences with managerial application of strategic approaches. For the synthesis of service focused businesses, authors exemplify studies within tourism and hospitality industries.