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This study examines the relationship between strategic entrepreneurial behaviors (SEBs) and the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in an emerging market context. The authors expand upon prior work in this area by building and testing a model that assesses the moderating effect of CEOs’ narcissism and Machiavellianism on the relationship between SEBs and SME performance.

To test the authors’ theoretical model, the authors use the results of a larger data collection project in Russia to create a national random sample of 372 Russian SMEs that were approached between August and November 2019.

The authors found support for the positive relationship between SEBs and SME performance. Additionally, the authors found that CEO narcissism and Machiavellianism strengthen the relationship between SEBs and firm performance.

This study is an important step toward enriching the understanding of the role of CEO personality traits in shaping the efficiency of entrepreneurial behavior at the firm level. Extending previous research, the authors show that SEBs have a positive effect on firm performance in an emerging market context. Additionally, the authors contribute insight about how personality characteristics of CEOs, specifically narcissism and Machiavellianism, influence the relationship between entrepreneurial behavior and firm performance. Finally, the authors’ research contributes to the development of strategic leadership theory: the results offer insight to scholars regarding the potentially beneficial attributes of otherwise “dark” leaders.

This paper proposes a way of reflexing on how we think within critical disaster studies. It focuses on the biases and unthought dimensions of two concepts – resilience and development – and reflects on the relationship between theory and practice in critical disaster studies.

Premised on the idea of epistemic reflexivity developed by Pierre Bourdieu, and drawing on previous research, this theoretical article analyses two conceptual biases and shortcomings of disaster studies: how resilience builds on certain agency; and how development assumes certain political imagination.

The article argues that critical disaster scholars must reflect on their own intellectual practice, including the origin of concepts and what they do. This is exemplified by a description of how the idea of resistance is intimately connected to that of resilience, and by showing that we must go beyond the capitalist realism that typically underlies development and risk creation. The theoretical advancement of our field can provide ways of thinking about the premises of many of our concepts.

The paper offers an invitation for disaster researchers to engage with critical thought and meta-theoretical reflexions. To think profoundly about our concepts is a necessary first step to developing critical scholarship. Epistemic reflexivity in critical disaster studies therefore provides an interesting avenue by which to liberate the field from overly technocratic approaches and develop its own criticality.

This chapter seeks to elucidate specific behavioral patterns that occur when people travel and consume luxury items using concepts drawn from sociocultural and economic theories. These concepts are Walter Benjamin's “aura,” Karl Marx's “commodity fetishism,” and Arnold Van Gennep's “liminality.” These concepts are deployed within the spheres of tourism and luxury in order to analyze how tourists on a shopping spree search for forms of authenticity, how this type of travel is similar in many respects to a religious quest, and, finally, how the design of luxury outlets in European capitals convey religious overtones.

Millions of social media users over the last two decades have become dependent on social media that has negatively affected their lives, both physically and mentally. Earlier attempts on social media addiction (SMA) scale development have not been made in India which makes it essential to undertake such a study in this region. One of the objectives of this study was to explore and identify the relevant dimensions of the SMA in the literature. The main study objective was to develop and validate a scale on SMA in India.

The research design applied in this work was both qualitative and quantitative. Based on the literature review, some themes of SMA were recognized that were used to conduct semi-structured interviews with the concerned subjects. The interviews conducted were then transcribed, and using NVivo software application, content analysis was carried out. This helped in the identification of relevant themes that were used for preparing the questionnaire. After that an exploratory study was conducted to explore the factors of SMA. This was followed by a confirmatory analysis on a different sample that validated the instrument.

This work developed and validated a six-factor measure of SMA. The total numbers of items in the final instrument are 22. Salience, Tolerance, Mood Modification, Relapse, Withdrawal and Conflict are the six factors of the final scale.

The current designed instrument can be exceptionally functional for evaluating the occurrence and level of the SMA. This can also serve to assist in the handling and management of such online addictive behavior. A lot of productivity is lost due to the unwarranted time spent on the social media. By better understanding the dimensions of SMA, one can limit one's time on such networks.

This work can provide valuable insight into this domain and help in understanding and treatment of this malaise. It can also help parents and other stakeholders at large to comprehend the danger linked with the excessive social media use and therefore, contribute towards the society. These dimensions can also help counsellors and psychologists to better understand the addiction behavior and accordingly counsel the concerned individual.

Although many instruments have been developed in the past by researchers to measure SMA,still some aspects of the concept remain under-researched. Moreover, most of such research has been confined to the developed world regions.

Social media marketing (SMMT) is explored in the light of value creation (VC) and firms' sustainability performance. This research deals with the influence of both value co-creation (VCCR) and value co-destruction (VCDE) on SMMT and firm sustainability.

A quantitative approach is employed in this research. By means of structural equation modeling (SEM), specifically, PLS (partial least squares)-SEM, consumers' responses are analyzed.

The result confirms that SMMT influences firms' sustainability performance. Additionally, the study established a relationship between SMMT and VCCR and SMMT and VCDE. The study further showed that VCCR contributes to sustainability. Concerning the indirect relationships, the study indicates that VCDE influenced SMMT and sustainability performance.

A theoretical basis for studying both VCCR and VCDE is provided. The current study especially encourages further study into VCDE.

This work informs businesses about using SMMT to enhance sustainability performance. This work also warns about the reality of VCDE when using SMMT.

This research empirically explores SMMT and firm sustainability performance (SPFM) and also has a model that includes both VCCR and VCDE.

This study aims to create a more humane and responsible workplace, individuals’ gratitude and meaningfulness seem of utmost importance. This study is an effort to understand the role of gratitude intent of potential managers.

This study examines the psychological characteristic of business students in India. The researchers surveyed 333 Indian students as future managers. The collected data has been analysed with the Smart PLS 3 version to assess the formative-reflective scale by comparing model fit, measurement model and structural modelling.

The results establish that gratitude significantly affects the life satisfaction of future managers. Findings also show that materialism is negatively related to life satisfaction and meaningfulness. The importance–performance map analysis finding suggests that meaningfulness in life is a potential indicator of life satisfaction for the population studied.

Due to the limited research available on the psychological underpinnings in the Indian context, there is a massive value in examining how materialism and gratitude concurrently and distinctively predict meaning in life and the life satisfaction of future managers. This paper gives a formative explanation of the model consisted gratitude, materialism and meaningfulness in life on the life satisfaction of future managers. This study establishes the importance of meaningfulness of life in attaining life satisfaction for young managers.

The novel coronavirus (nCoV) pandemic, and the challenges of social distancing, proffer a unique opportunity to re-explore the role of social network support in entrepreneurship. Applying social support theory and gender schema theory, this study aims to examine the gender-based differences in prospective entrepreneurs' reliance on their social networks in their entrepreneurial journey amid social turmoil.

The authors collected two-stage primary survey data of prospective entrepreneurs within the pandemic's timeframe from Science and Technology Parks in Iran, one of the first countries to deal with the first, second and third waves of the 2019-nCoV virus.

The findings demonstrate that female entrepreneurs rely more strongly on their social network support for guidance and encouragement, which positively affects their opportunity intention. While this effect is also seen in men, the effect size is smaller. Also, prospective female entrepreneurs were generally more dissuaded from opportunity intention by the severe perceived environmental uncertainty of the crisis than were men.

Prior research on the interaction between social network support and opportunity intentions has been examined in the context of socio-economic normalcy. The authors test whether, how and why these interactions hold in times of crisis, with especial attention to the mechanisms of experienced stress, perceived environmental uncertainty and idea innovativeness.