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The purpose of this study is to examine how informational faultlines on a board affect the management of knowledge owned by directors and the consequences on organizational performance. In this study, informational faultlines are defined as hypothetical lines that divide a group into relatively homogeneous subgroups based on the alignment of several informational attributes among board members.

The study uses unique hand-collected panel data covering 7,247 board members at 106 publicly traded firms to provide strong support for the hypothesized U-shaped relationship. The authors use a fixed effects approach and a system generalized method of moments approach to test the hypothesis.

The study finds that the relationship between informational faultlines on a board and organizational performance is U shaped, with the least optimal organizational performance experienced when boards have moderate informational faultlines. More specifically, informational faultlines within boards are negatively related to organizational performance across the weak-to-moderate range of informational faultlines and positively related to organizational performance across the moderate-to-strong range.

By explaining the mechanisms through which informational faultlines are related to organizational performance, the authors contribute to the literature in a number of ways. By conceptualizing how the management of knowledge plays an important role in the particular setting of corporate boards, the authors add not only to literature on knowledge management but also to the faultline and corporate governance literature.

This study offers a rationale for prior mixed findings by providing an alternative theoretical basis to explain the effect of informational faultlines within boards on organizational performance. To advance the field, the authors build on the concept of knowledge demonstrability to illuminate how informational faultlines affect the management of knowledge within boards, which will translate to organizational performance.

While transition programs are widely used to facilitate newly graduated nurses transition to healthcare settings, knowledge about preconditions for implementing such programs in the hospital context is scarce. The purpose of this study was to explore program coordinators’ perspectives on implementing a transition program for newly graduated nurses.

An explorative qualitative study using individual interviews. Total of 11 program coordinators at five acute care hospital administrations in a south-west region in Sweden. Data was subjected to thematic analysis, using NVivo software to promote coding.

The following two themes were identified from the analysis: Create a shared responsibility for introducing newly graduated nurses, and establish legitimacy of the program. The implementation process was found to be a matter of both educational content and anchoring work in the hospital organization. To clarify the what and why of implementing a transition program, where the nurses learning processes are prioritized, was foundational prerequisites for successful implementation.

This paper illustrates that implementing transition programs in contemporary hospital care context is a valuable but complex process that involves conflicting priorities. A program that is well integrated in the organization, in which responsibilities between different levels and roles in the hospital organization, aims and expectations on the program are clarified, is important to achieve the intentions of effective transition to practice. Joint actions need to be taken by healthcare policymakers, hospitals and ward managers, and educational institutions to support the implementation of transition programs as a long-term strategy for nurses entering hospital care.

Building on the theory of brand psychological ownership, this paper aims to explore the mediating role of brand psychological ownership in the relationship between brand personality (innocence/coolness) and consumers’ preferences, as well as identify the boundary conditions of this relationship.

To test the hypotheses, a series of four experiments were conducted in Wuhan, a city in southern China, using questionnaires administered at two universities and two supermarkets. Hypotheses were tested using PLS-SEM in SmartPLS 4.

The results indicate that brand personality, specifically the dimensions of innocence and coolness, has a significant impact on consumers’ brand preferences. Brands with a cool personality are preferred over those with an innocent personality. Moreover, the relationship between brand personality and consumers’ brand preferences is moderated by power motivation and identity centrality.

This study contributes to the literature by differentiating between brand personality of innocence and coolness as two separate constructs and proposing brand psychological ownership as a mechanism through which brand personality affects brand preferences. The study’s samples were drawn from universities and supermarkets in southern China, providing evidence for the significant moderating effects of power motivation and identity centrality on consumers’ brand preferences.

This systematic review examined the emerging threat of indoor and outdoor pollutants to public health in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

Pollutants and pollution levels are becoming an increasing cause for concern within the LAC region, primarily because of the rapid increase in urbanization and the use of fossil fuels. The rise in indoor and outdoor air pollutants impacts public health, and there are limited regional studies on the impact of these pollutants and how they affect public health. A comprehensive literature search was conducted using Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, EBSCOhost, Web of Science and ScienceDirect databases. Significant search terms included “indoor air pollution,” “outdoor air pollution,” “pollution,” “Latin America,” “Central America,” “South America” and “Caribbean was used.” The systematic review utilized the Rayyan systematic software for uploading and sorting study references.

Database searches produced 1,674 results, of which, after using the inclusion–exclusion criteria and assessing for bias, 16 studies were included and used for the systematic review. These studies covered both indoor and outdoor pollution. Various indoor and outdoor air pollutants linked to low birth weight, asthma, cancer and DNA impairment were reported in this review. Even though only some intervention programs are available within the region to mitigate the harmful effects of pollution, these programs need to be robust and appropriately implemented, causing possible threats to public health. Significant gaps in the research were identified, especially in the Caribbean.

Limitations of the study include limited available research done within LAC, with most of the research quantifying pollutants rather than addressing their impacts. Additionally, most studies focus on air pollution but neglect water and land pollution’s effects on public health. For this reason, the 16 studies included limited robustness of the review.

Although available studies quantifying pollution threats in LAC were identified in this review, research on the adverse impacts of pollution, especially concerning public health, is limited. LAC countries should explore making cities more energy-efficient, compact and green while improving the transportation sector by utilizing clean power generation. In order to properly lessen the effects of pollution on public health, more research needs to be done and implemented programs that are working need to be strengthened and expanded.

The primacy of commerce in livelihood security cannot be overstated. However, in a rural context defined by involuntary socio-ecological displacement, commerce can assume a sociologically distinct character, with far-reaching implications. Based on first-hand encounters with victims of the devastating 2014 flood in Tokwe-Mukorsi, Zimbabwe, this paper analyses how the processes of “recreating” village markets in the resettlement site of Chingwizi impacted the victims’ experiences of resource provisioning and livelihood security.

Qualitative data were collected through 10 in-depth interviews, 10 key informant interviews and two focus group discussions, five years into the flood victims’ resettlement in Chingwizi. The data analysis focused on the dynamics around the recreation of village markets, and the consequences of this on the household economic standing of the resettled flood victims.

The paper reveals how the formation of village markets in Chingwizi was influenced not primarily by the ethno-commercial and ethno-economic impulses reminiscent of life in their ancestral home but mostly by new, disruptive dynamics and challenges unique to the resettlement site. The paper elucidates the constellation of factors that, together, exacerbated the flood victims’ overall socio-economic dislocation and disadvantage.

The study provides a systematic understanding of the dynamics of ethno-commerce, particularly on the evolution of village market activities and livelihoods, among Zimbabwe’s Chingwizi community over a period of five years into their resettlement. It brings to the fore, the often ignored, but significant nuances that 'village market' formation and livelihoods recreation takes in a resettlement context.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2023-0682

This article focusses on the hybrid strategy, a simultaneous combination of cost leadership and differentiation strategy. The study aims to examine the impact of hybrid strategy on firm performance through its anticipated positive effects on process and product innovation. In addition, we study the moderating role of adaptive capacity in the direct relationships of hybrid strategy with process and product innovation.

Structural equation modelling was used to analyse 1,842 Spanish firms with fewer than 250 employees. We randomly selected small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in Spain from the Spanish Central Business Directory (2021) database. The overall sample design was based on stratified sampling.

We found that hybrid strategy is positively related to firm performance and to process and product innovation. Additionally, in firms implementing hybrid strategies, process innovation fostered firm performance. Finally, adaptive capacity strengthened the relationships of hybrid strategy with process and product innovation. This sheds light on how and when hybrid strategy is most effective in fostering SME performance.

We highlight that SMEs need to establish strategies that use diverse resources and capabilities and not just generate competitive advantage using one strategy (cost leadership or differentiation strategy). This requires an agile and flexible systems and structures.

Our research provides novel results by proposing the adoption of hybrid strategies instead of pure strategies (cost leadership and differentiation strategy) as a way for SMEs to survive during crises. Unlike “stuck in the middle” strategies, our study demonstrates the importance of hybrid strategies in a comprehensive model that links them to innovation and firm performance, with adaptive capacity being a determining factor.

The purpose of this study is to understand challenges and constraints in reaching top leadership positions for women in the Portuguese press. Specifically, it aims at characterizing their communication and leadership styles, and at identifying main gender biases in newsrooms routines from their point of view.

A qualitative method was employed by conducting in-depth interviews with four women who have held higher management positions in Portuguese leading newspapers. Participants were asked to characterize their communication and leadership style, but also newsrooms environment, trying to understand how gender asymmetries persist and manifest. Results were analyzed using thematic analysis.

While considering that Portuguese newsrooms are no longer environments marked by a sexist/macho environment, through increasing female participation, women still represent a minority in leadership. Leadership traits linked to male styles, including assertiveness and courage, were revealed, though mixed with a more participative/relational leadership. Also, female leaders regret when emotional ties with teams are not developed and recognized some degree of privilege towards other women through family support or not having children.

There is a limited number of interviews, although they represent the few top women leaders in Portuguese journalism.

Policymaking recommendations derived from conclusions include participative leadership, implementing quotas, and monitoring tools of gender biases and special training.

Media literacy policies and open debates on main media outlets concerning female leadership and communication styles may contributes toward the acknowledgement of lingering gender biases in the industry.

This study contributes to a fuller insight into the identification of leadership and personal traits among women who managed to disrupt stigmas and break barriers. Their voices are seldom heard in studies focusing leadership, so results enable ascertaining whether there is a female way of leading in journalism and comprehending the sense of privilege these women perceive.

I historically compare changes in institutional frameworks creating academic positions linked to temporary employment by analyzing university employment statistics in Chile, Colombia, Germany, and the USA. I find that temporary academic positions were institutionalized through the creation of previously inexistent academic categories called a contrata in Chile, de cátedra in Colombia, “junior professor” without tenure in Germany and “postdoc” in the USA; used in higher education and employment laws since 1989, 1992, 2002, and 1974, respectively. Under institutional frameworks demanding the maximization of students and research, universities have increasingly contracted academics through temporary contracts under rationales that differ between regions. In Colombia and Chile, public university leaders and owners of private universities contract such teaching positions to expand student numbers through lowering costs. In Germany and the USA, employment insecurity is mostly driven by temporary scientific positions under a main rationale of scientific expansion. The share of temporary positions has increased exponentially in Colombia and Germany in recent decades, whereas in the USA there has only been an increase since 2012. Moreover, in Chile, the share of permanent positions has decreased since 2012. The common trend is one of isomorphism of vertical academic structures sharing a pyramidal form, with a wide base of academics working under conditions of contractual insecurity. Such trends follow a rationale for maximization of student numbers as well as administration, and scientific production that is in tension with prioritizing wellbeing and improvement of academics’ working conditions. Yet, in these environments, the institution of tenure in the USA and recent Chilean regulations on accreditation represent mechanisms counteracting precarious employment.

Switching behavior is predominantly seen in the consumer buying behavior of the mobile industry. This research aims to identify the factors influencing consumers to switch from their present mobile service provider. The consumer of the mobile industry operates in a dynamic and ever-changing environment that is difficult to predict, so this paper aims to focus on these issues.

The selection of factors was made with the help of qualitative study and quantitative research methods for further findings; with the help of a structured questionnaire, a total of 514 valuable responses were collected to get the results. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to analyze the data.

The finding shows that technology and edge-on-competition (TEC) and pricing have a negative influence on customer switching behavior. The switching cost (SC) is the most significant factor and has a positive impact, while service encounter failure (SEF) also positively impacts switching behavior.

The findings provide important implications for consumers switching brands if they are finding alternative offers that are cost-effective and SEF from service providers

The study of one of the largest mobile markets is learning lessons for other markets around the world. This study will be helpful for mobile service provider companies in their branding and marketing strategies. This study will also be helpful to practitioners, educators and researchers in understanding the consumer behavior of mobile users.

The learning of the largest mobile market will be a great learning lesson for other mobile markets around the world. Consumer behavior will help marketers follow ethical practices and make their strategy so a consumer does not switch brands and remain satisfied with the existing brand.

The study provides unique learning for practitioners, educators and researchers to understand the consumer behavior of mobile users. This will help marketers create factors that stop consumers from switching brands and develop strategies to retain customers.

The aim of this work is to provide a theoretical model that can help companies to develop a unique approach to achieve both corporate environmental sustainability (CES) and successful customer experience management (CEM).

A two-phase study achieved the research aim. The first phase consisted of the analysis of contemporary theoretical contributions with a focus on CES and CEM. In the second phase, taking a qualitative approach, the key dimensions identified in the initial analysis were investigated to explore the dominant perceptions of practitioners and to hone the theoretical categories.

Five innovative pathways emerged from the study to inform decision-making while maintaining the dual objectives of CES and successful CEM. These pathways are combined to offer a strategic tool for managers and for research advances. This original integrated model also offers six novel theoretical propositions that describe how to shape corporate decisions to achieve environmental sustainability in CEM.

Firms can benefit from an approach that integrates CES and CEM to develop a new mindset for an innovative and valuable decision-making process and to design more captivating experiences for customers. Nevertheless, the efficacy and generalizability of the theoretical framework and propositions require empirical testing.

This paper makes an original contribution to the environmental sustainability and marketing literature by bringing together all elements in these fields of research in a conceptual model. Moreover, this paper proposes theoretical propositions that advance knowledge of the subject and offer ideas for future research and managers.