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The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of action learning programs on individual performance improvement and career progression in a large banking sector organization in the UAE.

A conceptual model was proposed and measured the outcomes of the action learning program variables in a public sector bank in the UAE. A total of 106 employees of the organization who had participated in a certified management program (CMP) have responded to the survey.

The outcomes of action learning program variables, such as self-efficacy, teamwork and performance management, were found to have an influence significantly on individual performance improvement.

As the current study was focused on banking sector only, similar studies from other industries/sectors (e.g. trading, services, etc.) can be taken up for further research by including antecedents and consequences of participants of action learning programs.

This study could offer specific guidance to managers as to how and what type of education and learning programs to be provided to their team members for competency development and career progression.

As the UAE economy is growing and population staying in the region is becoming multicultural, there is an ample need for managers to foster learning and education environment in various organizations to change culture and managerial practices toward achieving organizational objectives.

The study is original and provides value and direction for managers and senior management on talent development processes.

Managers are responsible for implementing reasonable accommodation (RA) for people with disabilities (PwD). Yet, little is known about the extent to which managerial views of RA shape attitudes toward PwD. The study draws on conservation of resources (COR) and job demands and resources (JD-R) theories to examine the relationship between managerial views of RA availability and implementation ease on attitudes towards hiring PwD.

In total, 162 full-time managers at a large New Zealand (NZ) healthcare organisation completed an online survey. Moderated multiple regressions were conducted to test the main effects and interactions between perceptions of RA process and attitudes towards hiring PwD.

The study results indicate that line managers held positive attitudes towards hiring PwD when they viewed RA implementation as easy, particularity around the provision of flexible work arrangements.

This study shows the importance of gaging managers' views of RA processes to understand their attitudes toward PwD and highlights potential linkages between managerial perspectives on RA, PwD experiences in the organisation and the effectiveness of disability support and inclusion initiatives.

RA availability from the organisation is insufficient to elicit positive managerial attitudes toward hiring PwD. Policies and procedures that reduce RA implementation complexity are expected to foster positive managerial attitudes toward PwD and improve employment outcomes for this employee group.

This study is the first to test how managerial attitudes towards hiring PwD are influenced by views of RA availability from the organisation and of RA implementation ease. It also provides a multidimensional measure that captures managerial views of RA availability from the organisation and RA implementation ease.

Research has demonstrated that public organizations commonly adopt performance measurement systems to assess the operational accountability of service delivery. This same research, however, has revealed that public managers struggle with using performance measures for improving service performance and for determining long-term budget needs. One plausible explanation for the limited use of performance statistics is found in the strategic management literature on the evolutionary theory of routine. It suggests that private firms make decisions by identifying alternatives to base routines for process innovation rather than relying on the traditional theory of profit maximization. By applying the routines-based perspective to public organizations, this article presents a model of results-based management where performance of service delivery represents our proxy for profit and where performance measures serve primarily to monitor the performance of selected service dimensions. The results of output, outcome, and efficiency measures are then used to support performance, financial, and strategic management, including the selection and implementation of strategies to alter the base routines of service delivery. These new routines, created under the boundaries of rational choice, often have substantial budgetary implications over time when they change the calculus between resource consumption and service provision.

The purpose of this paper is to explore consumers’ preference for responsible labels in the specific case of well-known brands. The research examines the propensity of consumers to consider self-declarations carried out by the company itself in comparison with independent certifications organised by an external third party.

An empirical study involving 134 French consumers by means of a conjoint analysis method was conducted, and the case of Nespresso coffee was tested.

The results show that self-declaration (Nespresso AAA Sustainable Quality) positively influences consumer preference. Moreover, this positive effect is equivalent to that of independent certification (Fair Trade Max Havelaar).

This study’s contribution gives a better insight into the consumers’ response to eco-labelling. It suggests the existence of an interaction effect between the brand and the responsible label. But, a future research needs to be conducted to gain better understanding of this interaction effect.

The results suggest that a strategy of promoting a well-known branded product based on self-declaration would be effective. They offer additional insights to managers on the eco-labels’ efficiency.

Contrary to the literature which suggests the superiority of the effect of certifications organised by a third party, this research shows that this finding is not valuable in the case of a well-known brand. Self-declaration may be preferred by consumers in the same way as independent certification. This research is one of the rare research to stress the need to consider brand when exploring eco-labelling issue.

As the Arab/Muslim-Israeli animosity case is attracting international attention, citizens of non-Arab and non-Muslim countries around the world, referred to as third-country nationals (TCNs), are increasingly joining the boycott against Israel. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of empathy for the citizens of the countries offended by Israel, namely Palestine and Lebanon, as a potential factor affecting TCNs decision to boycott Israeli products.

In total, 20 in-depth interviews were conducted with non-Arab, non-Muslim, and non-Israeli informants from different national and religious backgrounds, supported by secondary data sources. The qualitative grounded theory approach was employed to analyse data in order to answer the research questions.

TCNs decision to boycott Israeli products is affected by their empathic concern for the citizens of Palestine and Lebanon rather than by animosity towards Israel. Such concern is evoked by their awareness of the animosity case and further strengthened by their self-transcendence/universalism values and interaction with the case which activate their altruism towards the citizens of the offended countries, and consequently motivates them to relieve or reduce the suffering of these citizens by avoiding Israeli products. Greater emphasis is given to the Arab/Muslim-Israeli animosity case as a result of the greater empathic emotional impact it generates compared to other cases.

This is an original attempt to distinguish empathy from animosity as a factor which can affect TCNs decision to buy from a country engaged in hostile actions against another country other than their own. As the boycott campaign against the country under examination is growing internationally, this study can help international marketers in setting strategies to either exploit or combat the boycott campaign.

This study examines whether Shari’ah approved companies with majority Muslim directors adopt better corporate governance (CG) than non‐Shari’ah approved companies with majority non‐Muslim directors and whether the performance of the former is better than that of the latter. The objective of this study is to determine whether religious factor has an influence in adopting corporate governance mechanisms and in performance. Performance of the companies is measured in relation to three perspectives, namely, Shari’ah compliance, environmental performance, and social performance. This study used secondary data and the leading 50 firms were selected from each group based on their market capitalization for the year 2002. The proxies for good corporate governance are CEO non‐duality, the proportion of non‐executive directors on the board, and the proportion of independent non‐executive directors on the board. The proxies used to measure Shari’ah compliance are the ratio of prohibited income to total income and the ratio of prohibited expenses to total expenses. The variables used to measure the environmental and social performance are certification of ISO 14001 and OHsas 18001, respectively. The results generally showed that there is little significant difference between the CG and performance of Shari’ah approved companies with majority Muslim directors and non‐Shari’ah approved companies with majority non‐Muslim directors, although the former is marginally better for both, in a few instances.

This study aims to establish the link between business ethics and brand loyalty and to investigate the mediating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as green marketing.

Using the purposive sampling technique, data were obtained from 622 middle-income city dwellers who shop at leading retail malls. Data were analyzed with partial least square–structural equation model.

The study found a positive and significant relationship between business ethics, CSR, green marketing and business loyalty. Both CSR and green marketing mediate between perceived firm ethicality and brand loyalty.

This research was done based on general knowledge of business ethics, CSR and green marketing from the consumers’ perspective. Future studies can avoid this limitation.

By ensuring ethical codes, CSR and green marketing, firms can contribute to promoting the SDGs, and at the same time, achieving customer loyalty. Brand loyalty is further enhanced if customers see a firm to be practicing CSR.

The SDGs of sustainable production patterns, climate change and its impacts, and sustainably using water resources must become the focus of companies as they ultimately yield loyalty. Policymakers and society can design a policy to facilitate adoption of better ethical behavior and green marketing by firms as a way of promoting SDGs.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to test the mediation effect of green marketing and CSR on how ethical behavior leads to brand loyalty. It is also one of the few papers to examine how SDGs can be promoted by businesses as stakeholders.

Consumer marketing suggests that greater concern for the environment is impacting purchase behavior. Recent surveys into US pro-environmental (PE) purchase patterns show a considerable gap between consumers’ attitude and actual behavior regarding PE products. What these products have in common is a normative component. This research aims to understand whether perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) and social desirability bias (SDB) influence consumers’ purchase decisions regarding PE wine products and willingness to pay (WTP).

To assess whether PCE and SDB influence consumer’s actual WTP for PE and conventional wine despite normative beliefs (NBs), two studies with sample sizes of 117 and 124 were conducted in the USA. The first part of each study involved surveying participants as to their NB, SDB, PCE and demographics. The second part of the study measured their actual WTP through participation in an experimental auction.

Consumers with high levels of NBs were significantly more likely to pay higher premiums for PE wines compared to non-PE wines and had higher levels of PCE, suggesting that they believe their purchase behavior makes a difference to the environment. However, this same group is strongly influenced by SDB, indicating that they may “over-report” desirable behaviors. Controlling for PCE and SDB, the significant difference in price for PE wine and non-PE wine was mitigated. Those with lower NBs were just the opposite, less concerned whether their purchase behavior directly impacts the environment, feeling that non-PE wine may be a better value proposition.

The use of an auction method to assess actual behavior may be skewed by the attempt to get a winning bid, and this research was conducted in one particular part of the USA, which limits the generalizability of the results to other parts of the country or world.

The findings from the current research provide important information for wine producers, distributors and retailers, specifically the development of marketing and branding strategies, and as a method for normative product/brand differentiation in a competitive marketplace.

This study aims to address research gaps by constructing critical success factors (CSFs) in the context of green hotel investment in Taiwan. It contributes to the domain knowledge to cultivate Taiwan’s green hotel development in the future.

The authors secured 20 prominent green hotel management/owners/architects as crucial informants. The first stage used the Delphi method to collect expert opinions (i.e. CSFs) and the second stage applied the analytic hierarchy process to analyze the importance of CSFs.

The results show that the “financial investment benefits” is considered the most crucial success factor for the green hotel investment. However, to balance long-term economic development with environmental impact, green hotel investors should consider other aspects of the research to sustain future financial performance returns.

Further studies should consider regional characteristics to accommodate geographic/social differences and hotel types to explore possible CSFs for the green hotel investment. The authors suggest including panel experts from government officials and prominent scholars to represent a broader but different view on subject matters. They also offer implications for investors’ governmental policies, hotelier cognition and customer-related aspects in green hotel investment.

This study built a hierarchical framework based on the CSF concept by evaluating priority differences between hotel management and hotel owners/architects. Such findings help investors’ effective decision-making through considering factors’ relative importance for green hotel investments.

Whilst capabilities in exploiting existing assets and simultaneously exploring new opportunities have proven essential in today's organisations, an understanding of how these so-called ambidextrous capabilities are deployed remains elusive. Thus, the authors aim to investigate the role of better management practices (BMP), as organisational routines, in deploying ambidextrous capabilities in practice.

High-variety, low-volume (HVLV) manufacturers are adopted as exemplar ambidextrous organisations. A conceptual model was developed where BMP, including human resource management (HRM) and production planning and control (PPC), are considered as mediators in the relationship between ambidextrous capabilities and organisational performance outcomes. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was adopted to analyse the results of a survey undertaken by Australian HVLV manufacturers.

The results suggest that merely holding ambidextrous capabilities is not enough – demonstrating a fully mediating role of BMP between ambidextrous capabilities and HVLV manufacturer performance outcomes. However, the individual effects of PPC and HRM prove varied in their unique impact on HVLV manufacturer performance.

This study also provides a rare account of how HVLV manufacturers can leverage their inherently ambidextrous design towards greater organisational performance and highlights critical considerations in the selection of organisational capabilities.

By exemplifying the explanatory power of BMP in ambidextrous capability deployment, this study moves beyond the more prevalent stance on the links between BMP and ambidextrous capabilities as that of capability building through management practices, to one concerning the deployment of the capability itself.