Search results
1 – 10 of 53David Micallef, Lukas Parker, Linda Brennan, Bruno Schivinski and Michaela Jackson
This paper aims to understand the opportunities and challenges to engage emerging adult gamers (aged 18–25) in adopting healthier diet behaviours through online games and related…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand the opportunities and challenges to engage emerging adult gamers (aged 18–25) in adopting healthier diet behaviours through online games and related platforms such as esports and streaming. The study uses a socio-ecological approach to understand influences and suggests approaches to changing behaviours.
Design/methodology/approach
Purposive and convenience sampling were used to identify (n = 13) online gaming industry professionals and emerging adult (EA) gamers for interview. Qualitative thematic analysis of data using NVivo was undertaken.
Findings
Bi-directional influences were found that are potentially impacting EA diet behaviours. Food industry advertising and sponsorships were identified as dominant influences within the behavioural ecology, using microcelebrities and esports events to target EAs. The study identifies a need for social marketers to engage EA gamers in healthful behaviours through interventions across various levels of the behavioural ecology, including those upstream with industry and potential government regulation, to promote better health and balance food marketing. It also identifies future research avenues for engaging gamers in good health.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the impact of the gaming behavioural ecology on EA diet behaviour. It identifies new channels that social marketers can use to engage EAs, who are difficult to reach through more traditional marketing channels.
Details
Keywords
Michaela Jackson, Ella Chorazy, Marianne D. Sison and Deborah Wise
To conduct a systematic review of public relations ethics (PRE) research and scholarship in the 21st century and suggest future research directions. The study is prompted by…
Abstract
Purpose
To conduct a systematic review of public relations ethics (PRE) research and scholarship in the 21st century and suggest future research directions. The study is prompted by macro-level phenomena that have impacted societies since the beginning of the 21st century—notably globalisation 4.0 and the fourth industrial revolution.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review was used to search academic literature. Articles discussing PRE in nine leading English-language public relations and business ethics journals between 2000 and 2019 were reviewed. A code-frame facilitated data extraction and subsequent quantitative analysis; qualitative analysis identified key themes.
Findings
The review identified 288 articles, with discussions involving PRE increasing over time. Most works approached the topic generally, rather than from a specific sub-disciplinary perspective, and drew from professional settings. Works were dominated by authors from North American institutions and North American samples. Research became increasingly empirical and intra-disciplinary and discussion about ethics was broadly categorised as part of public relations practice or from the perspective of the “academy”. Overall, the field can be described as of notable size, maturing, yet unbalanced in some regards.
Originality/value
The review helps to identify whether PRE research reflects major changes in the 21st century and augments the sparse recent reviews of PRE research.
Details
Keywords
Michaela Jackson, Lukas Parker, Linda Brennan and Jenny Robinson
After comprehensive review of discourse surrounding school-banking programmes and marketing to children, the authors develop evidence-based guidelines for such programmes…
Abstract
Purpose
After comprehensive review of discourse surrounding school-banking programmes and marketing to children, the authors develop evidence-based guidelines for such programmes. Guidance for organisations is provided to ensure they understand these products' impact on children and other vulnerable consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
A comprehensive, systematised review of literature related to school-banking programmes was undertaken during 2019, 22 Boolean searches were collated, appraised using a five-step quality appraisal framework and analysed against selection criteria. To accommodate literature across disciplines, quality appraisal combined two existing hierarchies of evidence and peer-review status.
Findings
Searches returned over 375,000 articles; 149 were relevant and met quality thresholds. Evidence supports the role of financial education in producing positive financial outcomes. However, education should involve communities and families to enhance consumer socialisation and limit negative consequences. From this, guidelines are presented accounting for students' and parents' ability to understand marketing messages and the impact of in-school marketing on students – including on longer-term perceptions, attitudes and behaviours.
Practical implications
Guidelines are to assist financial institutions, policymakers and schools balance the benefits of financial literacy and education with potentially negative consequences of school-banking programmes. Classifying programmes as marketing rather than CSR also benefits organisations contributing corporate resources and voluntarily engaging practices underpinned by commitment to community well-being.
Originality/value
Avoiding moral panic, the authors instead outline evidence-based guidelines on school-banking programmes. The quality appraisal process used in this review offers a new approach to synthesising inter-disciplinary evidence.
Details
Keywords
Valentina Cillo, Gian Luca Gregori, Lucia Michela Daniele, Francesco Caputo and Nathalie Bitbol-Saba
Through the human resources (HR) and knowledge management (KM) perspective as human-centric processes, the aim of this study is to explore how companies’ engagement in diversity…
Abstract
Purpose
Through the human resources (HR) and knowledge management (KM) perspective as human-centric processes, the aim of this study is to explore how companies’ engagement in diversity (DIV), inclusion (INC) and people empowerment (PEMP) policies influences companies’ organizational performance, to support organizations in the shift to the Industry 5.0 framework.
Design/methodology/approach
Combining the HR management and the KM-driven organizational culture, a conceptual model is proposed for explaining companies’ higher organizational performance. Proposed hypotheses are tested with reference to a set of listed international companies traced by Refinitiv on a five-year time horizon (2016–2020) through 24,196 firm-year observations.
Findings
This research shows that companies engaged in DIV policies, INC practices and PEMP through education have higher profitability and are more valued by capital markets’ investors.
Originality/value
This paper draws attention to the need to overcome the reductionist view of HR and rethink KM architecture to cope with the growing challenge of HR integration according to the Industry 5.0 paradigm.
Details
Keywords
Maria Vernuccio, Michela Patrizi and Alberto Pastore
By adopting a managerial perspective, this study aims to deepen how the strategic role of brand voice is conceived in the design of in-car name-brand voice assistants (NBVAs), how…
Abstract
Purpose
By adopting a managerial perspective, this study aims to deepen how the strategic role of brand voice is conceived in the design of in-car name-brand voice assistants (NBVAs), how the brand experience based on NBVAs is designed and how the NBVA brand experience might influence customer brand engagement (CBE). The ultimate aim is to develop an interpretative theoretical framework for developing voice-based branding through NBVAs.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative research approach with the analysis of a single in-depth case study is followed: the NBVA developed in-house by Mercedes, which was the first NBVA launched in the automotive market.
Findings
In the design of the NBVA, a key role was assigned to the brand voice in developing the brand’s anthropomorphic profile. Driving safety, consistency with the corporate identity, human-like interaction, dynamic personalisation and connectivity emerged as the strategic criteria for designing the NBVA brand experience, which was oriented towards the pursuit of multiple CBE dimensions.
Research limitations/implications
Although the qualitative empirical contribution of this study differs from statistical generalisations, the research insights are analytically generalisable. The insights emerging from the study could guide future research on voice-based branding.
Practical implications
The results may be a useful conceptual reference for managers involved in designing brand voice and brand experience based on NBVAs.
Originality/value
This study is the first empirical contribution to the marketing literature about voice-based branding in an innovative experiential field, a topic that, thus, far has been poorly analysed.
Details
Keywords
Michela Vignoli, Marco Depolo, Manuels Cifuentes and Laura Punnett
The purpose of this paper is to analyse how disagreement between supervisors and their subordinates on leadership style (transformational and transactional) is related to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse how disagreement between supervisors and their subordinates on leadership style (transformational and transactional) is related to employees’ outcomes, considering both work team characteristics (social support and conflict), and employees’ well-being (burnout, work engagement and poor health). The role played by the size of the work team is also analysed.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample is composed of 24 supervisors and 468 employees working in grocery stores of a large retail chain; 369 employees worked in 14 medium-size work teams and 99 employees worked in small-size work teams. Disagreement on leadership style between supervisors and their subordinates has been computed as the difference between the score reported by the supervisor and the score reported by the worker on the same items. Linear regression analyses, ANOVA and multilevel analyses have been computed.
Findings
Multilevel analyses results showed that, considering the disagreement on transformational and transactional leadership style and the work team size, only disagreement on the transformational leadership style is related to employees’ outcomes. Higher clustering effects, meaning that the between-groups variability was bigger than the variability within groups, have been found in conflict between members and burnout. Furthermore, results showed that work team size moderated the relationship between disagreement on transformational leadership style and burnout.
Practical implications
In order to enhance workers’ well-being and produce a better working climate it could be useful to focus on reducing the disagreement on leadership style between leaders and theirs subordinates.
Originality/value
Disagreement between supervisors and their subordinates, in order to understand the role played by leadership on work team characteristics and workers’ well-being, has rarely been studied before.
Details
Keywords
Francesca Bartolacci, Andrea Caputo, Andrea Fradeani and Michela Soverchia
This paper aims to extend the knowledge of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) to synthesize what 20 years of accounting and business literature on XBRL suggests about…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to extend the knowledge of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) to synthesize what 20 years of accounting and business literature on XBRL suggests about the effective improvement from its implementation in financial reporting.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis of 142 articles resulted in the identification of 5 primary research streams: adoption issues; financial reporting; decision-making processes, market efficiency and corporate governance; audit and assurance issues; and non-financial reporting.
Findings
The results reveal a scarcity of studies devoted to explicating the consequences of XBRL implementation on financial reporting outside the SEC’s XBRL mandate and listed companies’ contexts. Also, some papers’ results question the usefulness of the language on the decision-making process. The overall lack of literature concerning the impact of XBRL on financial statement preparers, especially with reference to SMEs, is evident. Moreover, the consequences on corporate governance choices and the relevant internal decision-making processes are rarely debated.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are useful for users of companies’ financial disclosure policies, particularly for regulators who manage XBRL implementation in countries where XBRL has not yet been adopted as well as for others working in specific areas of financial disclosure, such as non-financial reporting and public sector financial reporting.
Originality/value
This study differs from previous literature on XBRL as it focuses on a wider period of analysis and offers a unique methodology – combination of bibliometric and systematic review – as well as a business perspective for deepening XBRL.
Details
Keywords
Michaela A. Balzarova, Pavel Castka, Christopher J. Bamber and John M. Sharp
To investigate the influence of organisational culture on the implementation of ISO 14001:1996 environmental management system (EMS) standard in two manufacturing case study…
Abstract
Purpose
To investigate the influence of organisational culture on the implementation of ISO 14001:1996 environmental management system (EMS) standard in two manufacturing case study organisations (CSOs).
Design/methodology/approach
This research is a case study action research conducted in two manufacturing organisations in the UK.
Findings
The hassles authors identified a framework of four dimensions of organisational culture that play an important role during the ISO 14001:1996 implementation process of. These are recognised as people, process, structure and environment.
Research limitation/implications
The study is limited to two case organisations, which are based in the UK.
Practical implications
The four dimensions of organisational culture identified through this research can help practitioners to coordinate their ISO 14000:1996 implementation projects.
Originality/value
This paper fulfils the need to improve the understanding of the impact of the organisational culture on ISO 14001:1996 implementation projects within the manufacturing environment.
Details
Keywords
Dawei Lu and Alan Betts
The purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying reasons why providing process improvement training, by itself, may not be sufficient to achieve the desired outcome of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying reasons why providing process improvement training, by itself, may not be sufficient to achieve the desired outcome of improved processes; and to attempt a conceptual framework of management training for more effective improvement.
Design/methodology/approach
Two similar units within the same financial service group are studied specifically through online surveys, follow up interviews and a subsequent comparative study focusing on the disparity of outcome following the same training activities.
Findings
The research reveals three underlying reasons for the failure of the process improvement training: an un‐sound prerequisite knowledge basis, too short a time span for the feedback dynamics to take effect, and weak cultural commitment in the management population. A training provision framework that put those factors into a structure has been developed.
Practical implications
The study clarifies the relations between many factors and puts emphasis on more fundamental organisational culture change. The developed framework provides direct guidance to process design and implementation to achieve the desired results.
Originality/value
The study represents the original firsthand empirical research over the last three years in a leading edge financial service organisation in the UK, which results in a novel conceptual framework that improves managerial practice.
Details
Keywords
Xingshan Zheng, Tomas Thundiyil, Ryan Klinger and Andrew T Hinrichs
Utilizing attribution theory, the purpose of this paper is to propose a more nuanced theoretical understanding of role clarity – supervisor satisfaction trajectories. The authors…
Abstract
Purpose
Utilizing attribution theory, the purpose of this paper is to propose a more nuanced theoretical understanding of role clarity – supervisor satisfaction trajectories. The authors also identify leadership characteristics that moderate these trajectories: supervisor developmental feedback (SDF) and interpersonal justice.
Design/methodology/approach
In this field study, survey responses were collected from 334 employees. Data were submitted to hierarchical polynomial regression.
Findings
The impact of too much role clarity was dependent on the level of interpersonal justice and SDF. When these moderators were high, too much role clarity had a decremental effect on supervisor satisfaction. When these moderatos were low, high role clarity was depicted by an asymptotic trajectory.
Research limitations/implications
Cross-sectional data were collected from a single source. Future research might attempt to replicate findings using longitudinal designs and multiple data sources. Proposed mediating mechanisms might be measured and incorporated into tests of the theoretical models.
Practical implications
When managing employee role clarity, more is not always better. Decision makers should examine supervisor-subordinate characteristics to predict employee responses to increased levels of role clarity. Even under optimal conditions, one should expect decreasing marginal returns from role clarity interventions.
Originality/value
This is the first study to explore nonlinear relationships between role clarity and supervisor satisfaction. This is also the first study to explore moderators of role clarity trajectories.
Details