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In the online environment, consumers increasingly feel vulnerable due to firms’ expanding capabilities of collecting and using their data in an unsanctioned manner. Drawing from gossip theory, this research focuses on two key suppressors of consumer vulnerability: transparency and control. Previous studies conceptualize transparency and control from rationalistic approaches that overlook individual experiences and present a unidimensional conceptualization. This research aims to understand how individuals interpret transparency and control concerning privacy vulnerability in the online environment. Additionally, it explores strategic approaches to communicating the value of transparency and control.

An interpretivism paradigm and phenomenology were adopted in the research design. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 41 participants, including consumers and experts, and analyzed through thematic analysis.

The findings identify key conceptual dimensions of transparency and control by adapting justice theory. They also reveal that firms can communicate assurance, functional, technical and social values of transparency and control to address consumer vulnerability.

This research makes the following contributions to the data privacy literature. The findings exhibit multidimensional and comprehensive conceptualizations of transparency and control, including user, firm and information perspectives. Additionally, the conceptual framework combines empirical insights from both experiencers and observers to offer an understanding of how transparency and control serve as justice mechanisms to effectively tackle the issue of unsanctioned transmission of personal information and subsequently address vulnerability. Lastly, the findings provide strategic approaches to communicating the value of transparency and control.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and disseminate knowledge about quantum-inspired computing technology's potential to solve complex challenges faced by the operational agility capability in Industry 4.0 manufacturing and logistics operations.

A multi-case study approach is used to determine the impact of quantum-inspired computing technology in manufacturing and logistics processes from the supplier perspective. A literature review provides the basis for a framework to identify a set of flexibility and agility operational capabilities enabled by Industry 4.0 Information and Digital Technologies. The use cases are analyzed in depth, first individually and then jointly.

Study results suggest that quantum-inspired computing technology has the potential to harness and boost companies' operational flexibility to enhance operational agility in manufacturing and logistics operations management, particularly in the Industry 4.0 context. An exploratory model is proposed to explain the relationships between quantum-inspired computing technology and the deployment of operational agility capabilities.

This is study explores the use of quantum-inspired computing technology in Industry 4.0 operations management and contributes to understanding its potential to enable operational agility capability in manufacturing and logistics operations.

The current research aims to introduce the concept of frontline employee (FLE) vulnerability and examine its antecedents and consequences using a framework grounded in Job Demands-Resource theory (JD-R).

A systematic review and meta-analysis guided by PRISMA is utilized to review previous FLE literature (204 studies) and develop a conceptualization of FLE vulnerability. The meta-analysis then examines the antecedents and consequences of FLE vulnerability and provides generalizable findings including the identification of critical areas for future research.

The meta-analysis provided support for the proposed conceptualization of FLE vulnerability. Specifically, job demands and individual characteristics were observed to increase FLE vulnerability, conceptualized as an individual's susceptibility to experience state-based harm. Job resources were seen to minimize FLE susceptibility to vulnerability. FLE vulnerability was also observed to significantly strengthen negative outcomes and decrease positive outcomes.

This research addresses calls for greater investigation into how negative events may impact FLE vulnerability. This is achieved by defining FLE vulnerability as a concept which represents one's susceptibility to experience state-based harm as a result of job and/or individual characteristics. The research also provides greater understanding of the health impairment process within JD-R through the introduction and expanded definition of harm that moves beyond physical considerations to also include emotional and psychological harms. Finally, the research adds to the small body of meta-analytic research in the field of service management.

The authors investigated the factors influencing consumer evaluations of advertisements for ethical luxury products that incorporate animal rights and protection concerns. The authors empirically examined how ethical messages influence advertisement persuasiveness through ethical consumer guilt and positively impact consumer evaluations of ethical luxury products. Furthermore, the authors explored the moderating role of consumers’ independent versus interdependent self-construals.

The authors conducted four experimental studies on the interplay among ethicality, luxury brand positioning and self-construal. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that moral emotions were responsible for the effect of ethical luxury advertisements that address animal welfare on brand attitude.

Advertisement messages signaling a luxury brand’s ethical efforts increase empathy through ethical consumer guilt, thereby generating favorable attitudes toward luxury products. However, this effect is limited to consumers with independent self-construal in South Korea and the United States of America.

The authors offer novel insights into the roles of ethical consumer guilt and empathy in the positive effects of ethical messages from luxury brands. Furthermore, the authors identified brand type and self-construal as boundary conditions for the effects observed across different consumer groups and markets.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of subjective ambivalence on ethical consumption behaviors and the role of ethical claims in reducing feelings of ambivalence toward buying ethical products.

The authors conducted two studies. In study 1, the authors carried out an online survey with a sample of 230 French consumers. The authors applied structural equation modeling with Amos to test the relationships among skepticism, ambivalence and ethical consumption behaviors. Study 2 is an experimental design in which the authors manipulated ethical claims (low – few ethical arguments vs. high – many ethical arguments) in advertising (176 French panelists). The authors tested the relationships among consumer ethical sensitivity, perceived brand ethicality, skepticism, ambivalence and intention to purchase an ethical product, depending on ethical claims in advertising.

Study 1 shows that skepticism toward advertising of ethical products amplifies feelings of ambivalence and that ambivalence reduces consumers’ willingness to adopt ethical consumption behaviors. Study 2 shows that strong claims in advertising of ethical products reduce skepticism toward advertising of ethical products and feelings of ambivalence toward buying an ethical product through perceived brand ethicality, with consumers’ ethical sensitivity positively moderating these relationships.

The two studies explore only one form of ambivalence (i.e. subjective), and the experimental study focuses on a single category of products.

The findings highlight the difficulties in promoting ethical products. Consumers need to know if a product is “really” ethical, as they may feel ambivalent toward that product. This paper shows that strong ethical claims in advertising ethical products significantly help to overcome this barrier.

Based on attribution theory and persuasion models, this research reveals how ethical claims in advertising affect feelings of ambivalence, which negatively influence consumers’ willingness to adopt ethical consumption. In addition, it follows a holistic approach to ethical consumption behaviors to explore consumers’ ambivalence.

The authors seek (1) to identify the profiles of subjective financial well-being (SFWB) of bank customers before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, (2) to analyze the transition to profiles of lower SFWB during the pandemic and (3) to identify the factors driving such transitions.

The authors surveyed five countries during 2019 and 2020 to measure SFWB. The authors applied latent class analysis (LCA) to identify profiles of bank customers according to a mix of SFWB indicators in pre-pandemic times (Study 1). The authors validated the profiles during the pandemic and identified the SFWB dimensions that deteriorated during the crisis (Study 2). Finally, the authors applied latent transition analysis (LTA) to explore transitions to profiles of lower SFWB and identify the drivers.

The authors identified three profiles of customers in pre- and post-pandemic periods for four dimensions of SFWB: control over finances, capacity to absorb financial shocks, ability to track financial goals and financial freedom. Gender, age, trust in banks and bank-supporting policies were related to transitions across profiles of SFWB during the pandemic. These relationships are contingent upon contextual country-related variables.

Banks and policymakers should reduce customers' exposure to the pandemic's long-lasting adverse effects on SFWB and should identify and control the multiplier role that contextual variables play.

Extant literature has not fully identified the dimensions of SFWB that changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors narrow this gap by identifying three SFWB profiles of customers, analyzing the patterns of SFWB change and connecting these changes to individual, provider and contextual factors.

This study aims to explore the relationship between social commerce purchase intention and consumer psychological factors (i.e. resilience, vulnerability and personality traits) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Drawing on social cognitive theory (SCT), an econometrical behavioral model was developed to explore the key determinants of online purchase behavior of 303 students in Greece. The research data were collected with a two-wave online survey (pre- and during the pandemic) which was distributed randomly to students in Generation Z.

A series of regression analyses revealed a positive effect of openness and a negative impact of extraversion and neuroticism on internet, Instagram and Facebook purchases during the pandemic. Findings suggest that loneliness serves as a moderator, while resilience and vulnerability have a positive effect on social media purchase behavior.

This study provides insights and implications for social commerce marketers and sheds light on the determinants of online purchase intentions of young consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Elaborating on SCT, this study provides novel insights into young consumers’ internet use and online purchase behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e. longitudinal approach), by focusing on consumer vulnerability and resilience while also embedding personality traits and mental health aspects (i.e. loneliness levels during the pandemic).

The human resource and talent management fields have been increasingly focusing on the process and criteria to identify employees’ potential for career advancement due to their impact on the competitive advantage of organizations. This paper expands the extant theoretical and empirical evidence regarding these complex decisions, namely through the combined analysis of multidimensional sources of employees' capital.

This is a cross-sectional study. Data were collected from 384 individuals assessed by their line managers. The research model and hypotheses were tested using structured equation modeling.

The results show a positive and significant influence of four employees’ capital sources, namely: human capital (what you know), social capital (whom you know), psychological capital (who you are) and reputational capital (how others perceive us) with regard to judgments of potential for career advancement. The model explains 52% of the total variance in those judgments.

The data were collected using a questionnaire at a single point in time and thus, not allowing cause-effect inferences.

The results provide guidance to organizational leaders to improve the decision-making process regarding judgments of potential for career advancement.

To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine managers’ judgments regarding the potential for career advancement using four sources of employees' capital: human, social, psychological and reputational capital. Furthermore, it considers that reputation plays a mediation role.

:在人力資源和人才管理的領域裡,越來越多的焦點被放在找出員工職業發展所需潛能的過程和標準上,這是因為機構和組織的競爭優勢會受其影響。本文擬擴展關於這類複雜的判斷和決定的現存理論和經驗證據; 研究人員使用的方法為對員工資本的多維來源進行綜合分析。

:本研究為橫斷面研究。數據來自384 名受其直線經理評估的個別員工; 研究人員使用了結構方程模型,去測試其研究模型和各個假設。

:研究結果顯示,就員工職業發展所需潛能的判斷而言,存在著會帶來正面和重大影響的四個員工資本來源,這包括人力資本 (你所瞭解的事物) 、社會資本 (你所認識的人物) 、心理資本 (你是誰) 和聲譽資本 (我們予人的印象) 。有關的模型可說明判斷百分之五十二的總方差。

:由於數據的收集是於單一時間點和透過問卷調查而完成的,故未能收因果推斷的效果。

:研究結果給予組織領袖實際的指引,使他們在關於職業發展所需潛能的判斷上，能夠改善其決策的過程。

:就我們所知,本研究為首個研究、以四個員工資本來源,即人力資本、社會資本、心理資本和聲譽資本,去探討經理如何就職業發展所需的潛能作出判斷; 而且，本研究認為聲譽是扮演著調節角色的。

This study aims to investigate the influence of the interrelationship between the deployment of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies and the application of lean production (LP) practices on the degree of organizational sustainability performance (SP) enhancement of the Bangladeshi ready-made garment (RMG) sector.

Previously, researchers have applied the resource-based view (RBV) or dynamic capability view (DCV) to describe the interaction of resources and capacities (technologies, management practices, SP) to analyze their effectiveness. However, in light of several contemporary academic discussions, this study contends that these organizational views are inappropriate for explicating SP. Hence, as the foundation of this study’s theoretical framework, the authors used the practice-based view (PBV), which is recommended as a useful window to evaluate the function of practices that are common and simple to emulate in execution. To test the theoretical framework and research hypothesis, this study used partial least square (PLS) analysis. For that, the authors carried out a systematic survey to collect data from 80 Bangladeshi RMG factories.

The results of this research imply that LP is a crucial factor in enhancing organizational SP. Moreover, the results also indicate that the adoption of I4.0 technologies along with LP can assist in delivering the lean objectives more efficiently and, therefore, the combined application of LP practices and I4.0 technologies play a significant role in enhancing organizational SP.

Though the present literature indicates the probable significant association between LP and SP or I4.0 technologies and SP, no study, with the best of the authors’ knowledge, has empirically examined the combined impacts of correlation between LP and I4.0 on SP. This is also a unique study to apply the PBV theory to explain the organizational SP through the combination of common resources and technologies.

It is crucial for the Indian micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to implement a few of the most important Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies and reap maximum benefits of sustainability. This paper aims to prioritize I4.0 technologies that can help achieve the sustainable operations and sustainable industrial marketing performance of Indian manufacturing MSMEs.

I4.0-based sustainability model was developed. The model was analyzed using data collected from MSMEs by deploying analytic hierarchy process and utility-function-based goal programming. To have a better understanding, interviews were conducted.

Predictive analytics, machine learning and real-time computing were found to be the most important I4.0 technologies for sustainable performance. Sensitivity analysis further confirmed the robustness of the results. Business-to-business sustainable marketing is prioritized as per the sustainability need of operations of industrial MSME buyers.

This study uniquely integrates literature and practitioners’ insights to explore I4.0’s role in MSMEs sustainability in emerging economies. It fills a research gap by aligning sustainability goals of industrial buyers with suppliers’ marketing strategies. Additionally, it offers practical recommendations for implementing technologies in MSMEs, contributing to both academia and industry practices.