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Backcasting helps managers involve and align the organization throughout a strategy process. Its core idea is creating a logical path from a depicted future back to the present, to share, analyze and manage strategic challenges. Still its use in strategic management is under-researched. The purpose of this paper is to verify the relevance and validity of backcasting as a strategic management tool. It also analyzes and structures knowledge about backcasting and its practical application in strategic management.

This paper employs desktop research method to outline the benefits and limitations of backcasting for strategy formation under VUCA conditions.

Backcasting can help organizations overcome cognitive barriers and broaden the scope of options when analyzing future positions. The research provides insights regarding the potential and limitations of backcasting when addressing uncertainty and its drivers. For instance, it helps managers to assess and align visions; increase the understanding and clarity regarding complex dependencies; as well as improve strategic agility.

Backcasting is exceptionally useful for investigating possible futures and alternative paths to it. Backcasting is an interactive workshop-based method that challenges prevailing mindsets by assuming we are in the future, looking back towards today to find a feasible path when major transitions are necessary. With it, managers can deal with even the most uncertain decisions in a structured manner.

Backcasting for many reasons has a great potential as a tool for strategy development. It has been successfully applied in other fields but only to a limited extent in business. This paper formally examines its applicability in this context and demonstrates its relevance for dealing with VUCA challenges.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Backcasting provides a useful tool for those involved in strategic planning in a complex and unpredictable business environment.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists, and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

In Finland, new forest-based sector (FBS) businesses are seen as important for the transition to the circular bioeconomy. The purpose of this study is to explore the transition of Finnish FBS companies to new business models. The aim is to understand how FBS companies define their ideal future states and related business models for the year 2030.

This study uses thematic interviews with managers from various FBS firms and companies from interfacing sectors. In the interviews, the key idea of backcasting was pursued when respondents discussed the desirable future states of their business.

The effort to achieve growth of the business and the appearance of new products characterize the company-specific desirable future states. In these desirable futures, expanded businesses will be based on strong knowledge. Resource efficiency and collaboration create a strong basis for the desirable future state of the whole FBS to create a sustainable and innovative “Wood Valley.”

The key limitations are that the backcasting process has been conducted only through interviews and a participative approach with stakeholder dialogue is lacking in the process. This means that the desirable futures are created by the FBS companies only.

As a practical contribution, the study shows the future-oriented thinking and goals of FBS firms. As a theoretical contribution, it extends research on sustainable business models and discussions on the novel field of corporate foresight.

Promoting the self-determination of students, particularly adolescents, with disabilities has become best practice in special education and transition services. Research documents that students who leave school as more self-determined young people achieve more positive employment and independent living outcomes and experience a higher quality of life. Further, promoting self-determination can provide an entry point to the general education curriculum for students with disabilities, and instruction to promote self-determination can enable students to better engage with and learn in the general education curriculum. This chapter defines the self-determination construct as it applies to the education of students with disabilities, examines the importance of such instruction, and provides information with regard to prevailing practices in assessment and instruction to promote this outcome.

The popularity and use of mobile marketing technologies or devices have led to significant interest from researchers and practitioners, particularly in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), where these technologies offer significant benefits to SMEs given the poor human capital and financial constraints encountered. The use of mobile marketing devices assists SMEs to boost their sales promotion strategies which aim at increasing the sales of their products and services. However, there has been limited focus on developing a suitable framework that enables the evaluation and shared an understanding of the factors influencing the adoption of mobile marketing technology by service SMEs in Nigeria. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a theoretically grounded framework for exploring these factors and explaining their impact on mobile marketing technology adoption in SMEs in Nigeria.

The study is qualitative and used both unstructured and semi-structured interviews with a total of 26 participants drawn purposively from NIJA database in Nigeria. Thematic analysis was deployed in analysing the data.

The study developed an extended technology organisation environment (TOE) framework by incorporating the value anticipation context which helped to unveil 16 key factors influencing mobile marketing technology adoption in service SMEs in Nigeria. The finding revealed that factors associated with the extended TOE framework have an impact on SMEs mobile le marketing technology adoption but at different levels.

The limitation of this study emerged because of the use of qualitative methodologies about the research design, rigour in the collection and management of the large volume of the raw data, the data analysis and the credibility of the findings. This may lead to unforeseen respondent and research bias in the data analysis, which may lead to a limited understanding of alternatives and insights into the factors influencing the adoption of mobile marketing. Hence, other measures and approaches such as case study and mix-method could be deployed to validate the findings further. Also, one of the limitations of qualitative study has been the issue of theoretical generalizability of the framework. The generalizability of the formwork needs to be established across a broader range of the population. Future studies may apply confirmatory statistical techniques to test and ascertain the validity and reliability of the framework across a broader population of mobile marketing technology adopters in Nigeria. Such studies may be used as a benchmark for the theoretical constructs and the factors that may lead to the success or failure of mobile marketing technology adoption.

The study had further enriched TOE framework and provided an analytical dimension for exploring the adoption of mobile marketing technology. It also demonstrates the capacity to provide a reliable explanation of the factors and serves as a tool for evaluating the benefits or challenges of mobile marketing technology adoption in SMEs in Nigeria.

The present study seeks to identify the salient mobile shopping (m-shopping) service quality dimensions as perceived by mobile shoppers (m-shoppers) and examines the linkages between the derived m-shopping service quality dimensions, customer trust and customer loyalty.

The research instrument is developed based upon the mostly validated measures of prior studies. A pretest of the questionnaire is conducted to assess the content validity of the measurement scales. An online survey is used to collect the required data. We employ structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze data collected from 286 m-shoppers.

We identify five key m-shopping service quality dimensions: responsiveness, personalization, ease of use, aesthetics and perceived risk based on an extensive review of relevant literature. The SEM results show that all the five m-shopping service quality dimensions significantly impact, directly and/or indirectly, customer loyalty. Moreover, the results show that trust plays a partial mediating role in the effects of responsiveness and personalization on loyalty; a full mediating role in the effects of aesthetics and perceived risk on loyalty and no mediating role in the effect of ease of use on loyalty.

Mobile retailers (m-retailers) can use the quality measurement tool developed in this study to detect service quality weaknesses and strengths. Based on their quality assessment, m-retailers can effectively allocate corporate resources to the important service quality attributes uncovered by this study, thereby improving their overall service quality performance and in turn expanding their loyal customer base.

Prior studies have demonstrated that service quality and customer trust play a pivotal role in enhancing customer loyalty in both offline and online settings. Unfortunately, no research has empirically examined the relationships between service quality dimensions, trust and loyalty in the context of m-shopping. Therefore, a major contribution of this study is to address this research gap and add knowledge to the limited body of post-adoption m-shopping research.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU) and trust on mobile website satisfaction.

A total of 302 valid questionnaires were collected to empirically test the research model. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the measurement model and structural models.

The results show that there is a positive relationship between PEOU, PU and mobile users’ satisfaction. PU is positively related to trust and mobile users’ satisfaction. Moreover, trust positively influences mobile users’ satisfaction.

Drawing on the technology acceptance model and trust theory, this study develops and empirically examines a model for consumers’ satisfaction to use mobile services. This study contributes new insights concerning the marketing literature by examining the impact of PU, PEOU and trust on mobile users’ satisfaction.

The contribution of the study is significant for both mobile marketers and academicians in the era of the third-generation environment. This study is among the first few attempts to integrate the TAM with trust to determine mobile user satisfaction.

Mobile self-checkout refers to scanning products using a mobile device inside a brick-and-mortar store and completing the checkout process on mobile devices. Even though mobile self-checkout has been used in other industries for several years, it is a new application in the fashion industry and only limited numbers of retailers have implemented mobile self-checkout in their stores. The purpose of this study is to understand consumers' acceptance of mobile self-checkout in fashion retail stores by analyzing determinants of using a new system.

Part of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was used as a theoretical framework. Openness to experience, variety seeking and adventure shopping were added to the model. Empirical data (with 229 valid responses) were collected from the top 20 metropolitan areas in the US via Qualtrics Panel services. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling and multi-group moderation were used to estimate construct validity and test the proposed hypotheses and theoretical framework.

The results indicated that consumers' intentions toward using mobile self-checkout in fashion retail stores were predicted by facilitating conditions, social influence and openness to experience. Moreover, consumers' previous experience of using mobile self-checkout in fashion retail stores moderated the path from facilitating conditions to behavioral intention and the path from social influence to behavioral intention. In addition, different genders and smartphone usage frequency did not vary significantly on the model paths.

The findings show how fashion retailers can understand consumers' preference and their willingness to use mobile self-checkout in fashion retail stores. Moreover, the authors addressed ways for fashion retailers to promote mobile self-checkout in the future.

As a new technology in the fashion industry, literature is deficient concerning consumers' intention to adopt mobile self-checkout. This research provided suggestions for fashion retailers about adopting and improving acceptance of mobile self-checkout. Results will lead to theoretical and managerial implications for future technology development.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of banking innovations (INNs) on customer experience (EXP), satisfaction (SAT) and loyalty (LOY).

The author evaluated the data using a structural equation method-artificial neural network (SEM-ANN) method. The author’s results show the presence of relationship between INN, EXP, SAT and LOY. In this study, the node layers of ANNs add an input layer, hidden layers and an output layer. Each “node” acts as an artificial neuron that communicates with others. The ANN model takes the variables from the SEM analysis as input neurons.

The author observed the significant effects between INN, EXP, SAT and LOY using the normalised importance generated by the multilayer perceptron used in the feed-forward back propagation of the ANN methodology. In this study, the ANN model can predict LOY through service innovation, with a forecast accuracy of 77.6%.

By applying neural network modelling, this research helps us understand how service innovation affects customer behaviour. For the first time, the author examined service innovations' direct and indirect impact on loyalty through EXP and SAT. The author made a significant conceptual contribution by using a non-compensatory model of ANNs to circumvent the limitations of linear models.

The purpose of this research is to portray the historical evolution of retailing from 1980 to 2020. The study considers India as the domain as it is one of the fastest growing markets, and the retail growth is anticipated to reach more than one trillion dollars within this decade.

This paper captures the historical growth trajectory of retailing from the pre-online era to the online era and highlights how the retail environment has become modernized and sophisticated in the process in India.

The study traces the journey of retail from 1980 to the multi-billion-dollar sector it had become by 2020 in India. Furthermore, the article provides an overview of how the different retail forms and players in the Indian retail sector have been shaping the industry over the last four decades. During this period, there has been a transformational change in the format of Indian retailing. The Indian consumers' shopping mindset moved from physical in the 1980s to online, and now “Phygital” (Physical and Digital) in 2020s has become an omni-channel platform in Indian retail.

This paper aims to present a viewpoint of the evolutions of retailing from the unorganized to the organized form and from the physical to the online form over the last 40 years in the Indian retail sector landscape.