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The digital transformation is dramatically changing the business-to-business (B2B) sales environment, challenging long-standing views regarding the critical competencies required of salespeople. This paper aims to explore the personal traits associated with sales performance in a digital selling environment.

Using template analysis, the researchers captured and coded over 21 h of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with senior sales leaders from various industry sectors, exploring their perceptions of the personal traits now required of B2B salespeople in the digital landscape.

The research identifies three high-level trait types critical to sales success within a digital selling environment: “analytical curiosity” – the natural motivation and ability to gather and synthesize sales-related knowledge, “empathetic citizenship” – the ability to establish initial rapport while building long-term trust and “disciplined drive” – the exertion of selling effort in a highly focused and methodical manner across all stages of the sales process.

The present data came from interviews with sales leaders in Canada. A more global sample may lead to additional insights. Moreover, the sample was drawn from long-cycle B2B sales environments; conclusions may differ for short-cycle or business-to-consumer markets.

This paper presents a framework for hiring and developing salespeople in the digital sales environment, identifying personal trait types that sales leaders should look for when hiring: analytical curiosity, empathetic citizenship and disciplined drive. The paper identifies how these trait types influence sales success, suggesting that sales leaders could coach and educate their teams to make the best use of them.

This paper presents a conceptual framework for hiring in the digital sales environment and introduces the trait of analytical curiosity not previously discussed in the literature.

Massive open online courses (MOOCs), a Taylorist attempt to automate instruction, help make course delivery more efficient, economical and better. As an implementation of Digital Taylorism Implementation (DTI), MOOCs enable individuals to obtain an occupation-oriented education, equipping them with knowledge and skills needed to stay employable. However, learning through online platforms can induce tremendous amounts of technology-related stress in learners such as complexity of platforms and fears of redundancy. Thus, the aim of this paper is to study how student perceptions of DTI and technostress (TS) influence their perceived employability (PE). The role of TS as a mediator between DTI and PE has also been studied.

Stratified sampling technique has been used to obtain data from 305 students from 6 universities. The effect of DTI and TS on PE, and the role of TS as a mediator, has been examined using the partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modelling approach with SMART PLS 4.0. software. Predictive relevance of the model has been studied using PLSPredict.

Results indicate that TS completely mediates the relationship between DTI and PE. The model has medium predictive relevance.

Learning outcomes from Digitally Taylored programs can be improved with certain reforms that bring the human touch to online learning.

This study extends Taylorism literature by linking DTI to PE of students via technostress as a mediator.

Some sports organizations have a strategic objective of promoting human and social development through sports. However, it can be challenging to ensure that these objectives, conveyed by the board, are fully internalized by the athletes. From the perspective of inter-organizational networks, this dissemination can occur through strategic alignment and diffusion of social capital. Therefore, the authors wanted to analyze if organizational policies from sports organizations are related to athletes' perception of social capital and strategic alignment.

The authors conducted a sequential mixed-method research. Firstly, a pilot study was conducted with two exploratory interviews with key informants from a sports organization, supported by documentary data from this organization. A thematic content analysis was carried out to identify relevant categories and subcategories to prepare a quantitative research instrument. In the second phase, a questionnaire was applied to 159 student-athletes from this organization. The collected data were analyzed by multiple linear regression.

From the pilot study, a set of five elements of strategic alignment, and three elements of social capital in the sports organization context were provided. In the quantitative phase, the authors identified that social capital is related to athletes' perception of shared values internalization in a sports organization, but strategic systems were not.

Sports managers could better promote internal policies if there is social capital among athletes rather than implementing top-down deployed communications.

Policymakers could better predict the effectiveness of a foment request by sports organizations considering not only strategic systems communication deployment but also the existence of social capital in a sports organization. It is a broader mechanism to understand the capacity of a sports organization in disseminating good values among their members.

Different from traditional companies, in sports organizations, only social capital is related to the internalization of organizational policy by athletes rather than strategic alignment initiatives.

This study aims to obtain governance strategies for managing the complexity of megaprojects by analyzing the impact of individual factors and their configurations using the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method and to provide references for project managers.

With the continuous development of the economy, society and construction industry, the number and scale of megaprojects are increasing, and the complexity is becoming serious. Based on the relevant literature, the factors affecting the complexity of megaprojects are determined through case analysis, and the paths of factors affecting the complexity are constructed for megaprojects. Then, the fsQCA method is used to analyze the factors affecting the complexity of megaprojects through 245 valid questionnaires from project engineers in this study.

The results support the correlation between the complexity factors of megaprojects, with six histological paths leading to high complexity and seven histological paths leading to low complexity.

It breaks the limitations of the traditional project complexity field through a “configuration perspective” and concludes that megaproject complexity is a synergistic effect of multiple factors. The study is important for enriching the theory of megaproject complexity and providing complexity governance strategies for managers in megaproject decision-making.

As an emerging socio-technical paradigm, high-speed railways profoundly change individuals' lifestyle and allow for the shift toward a green transportation. Digital technologies open an opportunity window for the development of enterprises. This study aims to clarify the impact of firm digitalization on the innovation efficiency of the Chinese high-speed rail industry. In addition, human capital is the important non-physical capital of enterprises. The authors also elucidate the moderating role of human capital on the above relationship.

Based on the data of Chinese high-speed railway listed companies from 2015 to 2021, this study explores the impact of digital transformation on the innovation efficiency, and further clarifies the boundary role of human capital with two-way fixed effect regression models.

The empirical results indicate that digital transformation has a positive impact on the innovation efficiency of the Chinese high-speed railway enterprises. Furthermore, human capital significantly enhances the above relationship. In addition, digital transformation fosters the innovation efficiency of small- and medium-sized enterprises and private-owned enterprises, but the correlation coefficients between digital transformation and the innovation efficiency of large enterprises and state-owned enterprises are not significant.

This is one of the earliest studies to explore how digital technologies shape R&D activities. From the perspective of relative efficiency, this study evaluates the effectiveness of digital transformation and provides empirical evidence for the formulation and implementation of corporate digital strategies. Moreover, this study links human capital with digital transformation and identifies condition factors that affect the effectiveness of digital transformation, thereby supplementing existing knowledge.

This research looks at the link between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental performance, considering the immediate mutual interaction and the potential mediation of specific variables like green innovation and green human resource management (GHRM).

Partial least squares path modeling was used to investigate a sample of 460 respondents in multinational textile manufacturing companies in Ethiopia.

The findings of this study reveal a direct and positive relationship between CSR and environmental performance. In addition, the researchers observed an indirect effect on the relationship by using GHRM and green innovation as mediators.

The study applied a cross-sectional methodology, and experts are not sure that CSR, GHRM, and green innovation in Textile manufacturing companies provide the same results over time. Consequently, future researchers can utilize the same method of investigation to see if outcomes change or stay the same over time. Second the study was conducted in Ethiopia. As a resut, it is possible that our study results will not be generalizable to other emerging nations. We propose expanding research to include more nations with developing markets.

Executives of textile manufacturing companies can adopt the present study framework of performance in developing economies to reduce waste, pollution and air emissions, and conserve water, energy and nonrenewable resources that enhance environmental performance.

The discovery of the present research makes significant contributions to the literature on the impact of CSR on environmental performance as a pioneering study by incorporating CSR, GHRM, green innovation and environmental performance under one research model in an emerging economy context.