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The purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically test a model where different motivational drivers are used to stimulate the intention of individuals to purchase green energy.

The goal-framing theory was used as the theoretical basis to design motivational statements that activate different self-goals driving the intention to adopt green energy. A field experiment was performed to investigate the influence of three different goal triggers on the intention of purchase green energy, specifically solar systems, among households living in a major city located in the central part of Mexico. The effect of demographics, environmental consciousness and perceived risk associated to the technology functionality was also considered in explaining the probability of purchase of a photovoltaic system in a short (one year) and medium (five years) terms.

The goal trigger grounded on normative motivations is the most influential on the probability of adoption of a photovoltaic system. However, the socioeconomic level of the household moderates the effect this type of goal trigger has on the intention of purchase a photovoltaic system. Individuals with a high socioeconomic level significantly increase their intention of purchase this green technology if motivated by a normative goal. On the contrary, individuals with a medium socioeconomic level are mostly motivated by goal triggers grounded on economic benefits.

This study was circumscribed to a particular city of Mexico. Replication of the experiment in cities of other developing countries with contrasting sociotechnical contexts and the consideration of other green behaviours and explanatory variables is relevant to confirm and complement the results of this research.

The cost of photovoltaic systems represents a major barrier to the growth of the Mexican market of this renewable energy. Therefore, the promotion strategy for solar energy must be accompanied by the design of appropriate motivational drivers depending on the socioeconomic level of the segment and the time for the investment. Additionally, public and private strategies to decrease the cost of the technology and financing programs for individual and community projects are recommended.

The willingness to use green energy and contribute to the protection of the environment should spring from within consumers. To upscale the solar energy market, it is relevant to understand the dominant goals of individuals when taking the decision to purchase green energy.

This study contributes to the extant research in green marketing by proposing and testing a new interpretative framework to examine how the benefits of green energy activate the self-goals of consumers, thus influencing their intentions of adoption of green energy. A theoretical model is proposed by constructing “goal-triggers” grounded on the goal-framing theory and empirically testing in the specific case of explaining the intention of purchasing photovoltaic systems in Mexico.

The purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in the literature of taboo imagery in advertising by drawing on cognate disciplines to build a conceptual framework and identify the characteristics of taboo‐challenging advertisements and the audiences who react to them.

Data collected by 22 in‐depth individual qualitative interviews in Morocco and France were subjected to two‐stage formal content analysis.

This study reveals the importance of normative social influence, the properties of the taboo, contagion from the content of the ad to the brand and to customers, and ambivalent emotional reactions. The valence and the intensity of the responses to such advertising depend on personal, interpersonal and situational factors.

The conclusions are based on findings from a relatively small number of respondents reacting to one type of taboo only, but they offer a useful theoretical framework and an empirical basis for future research on the communication effects and effectiveness of taboo in advertising.

The study offers advertisers a better understanding of the factors and processes likely to influence consumers' reactions to the strategy of invoking taboo themes in advertising campaigns, with positive implications in terms of audience segmentation and media selection.

Despite the prevalence of “taboo advertising”, little research‐based analysis has so far been available to academics or practitioners.

This paper aims to explore sustainability‐related perceptions of proponents of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from 53 countries in order to shed light on contextual differences regarding the conceptualization of the role of CSR in global governance.

The results of a survey of corporate UN Global Compact participants are presented, focusing on respondents' perceptions regarding 23 key issues in sustainability. Non‐parametric statistics are applied to identify regional and country‐level patterns within the overall sample.

While general perceptions regarding the urgency of key global sustainability challenges appear to be relatively homogeneous around the globe, significant differences can be identified regarding the specific roles and responsibilities respondents attribute to their own companies in countries from the global North and South, respectively.

The paper focuses on generic patterns within the overall sample; more detailed analysis is needed in future work to explore their origins and impact on corporate practice.

There is a need for an improved integration of Southern stakeholders in CSR practice and policy making in order to fully unfold the potential of CSR in global governance.

The paper uncovers generic differences between conceptualizations of the corporate role in global sustainability between the global North and South.

Human health, food safety and environmental concerns are growing issues for policymakers, firms and the general public. Food without chemicals and pesticides is healthy for the human body and hence, relevant motives to promote organic food consumption needs to be explored. This study used three motivational factors, i.e. hedonic, gain and normative motivations proposed by goal-framing theory (GFT) that affect sustainable consumption. Considering the local scenario, constructs like normative triggers and knowledge have also been incorporated into the model. Therefore, this study attempts to explore whether normative triggers and motivations influence the intention to purchase organic food with the application of GFT

Data were collected from 467 consumers using the purposive sampling technique. The span of the collection of data collection was around five months. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) has been applied and after checking the validity and reliability indicators, bootstrapping has been used for hypotheses testing.

All the motivational factors were found significant and positive to consumers' intentions toward organic food. Moreover, normative triggers also influence intentions. The construct knowledge was not found in a direct relationship with intentions; however, a moderating role was established between gain motivations and intentions.

The study validated and extended the concepts presented in the GFT. Motivational constructs were found important and can be implied in low-cost product categories. The policymakers are suggested to take appropriate measures, based on empirical results.

The study provides an understanding of motivational factors, normative triggers and knowledge in the organic food consumption extent. This will help administrative authorities, marketers and producers of organic food in making their policies, communication strategies and production preferences.

Emerging economies are dominated by an unorganized retail landscape, with complex sociocultural norms dictating the behavior of retailers and customers. The purpose of this paper is to explore the phenomenon of consumer embarrassment in an emerging marketing, India.

This research adopts a grounded theory approach and undertakes 31 in-depth interviews with consumers in India. The data is analyzed inductively and iteratively simultaneously with data collection.

The study uncovers that sociocultural normative influences, the retail environment’s structural constraints, interaction-based buying processes and customers’ perceptions play a role in eliciting embarrassment in traditional stores. The traditional format retailers play a significant role in evoking embarrassment and, surprisingly, also in facilitating coping. Contrary to the extant findings, purchasing embarrassing products online may not ensure anonymity and elicit embarrassment. The findings contribute to understanding the phenomenon of embarrassment in emerging markets.

There is a dearth of research examining consumer embarrassment in emerging markets, with extant studies investigating the phenomenon in the modern retail setup of developed economies. The retail landscape of India is predominantly unorganized, with distinct transactional processes and physical characteristics that are starkly different from modern retail stores. Moreover, sociocultural normative forces have distinct influences on the informal setup of unorganized retail.

Following recommendations by scholars for further research on the business incubation process, the purpose of this paper is to build new theory on incubation using the social mechanisms approach – a well-developed body of theory on social processes.

A critical review of dominant theoretical approaches in the area highlighted that researchers in the past have not studied incubation as a social “process.” In order to study a social process such as incubation, a case is made for the value of social mechanisms theory. In order to study incubation as a social mechanism, an inductive-qualitative research design based on ethnography was used. Data were collected over six months each at two Dublin-Ireland-based business incubators.

Results highlight the significant role of a positive relational bond between the incubator manager and client entrepreneurs. Incubation is triggered in a sophisticated normative environment under the prevalence of ground rules, subtle signals and the interplay of personal histories. These contribute to the incubation mechanism's non-linearity, thereby, making the prediction of outcomes difficult.

A contribution of this research comes in the form of a new conceptualization of incubation based in mechanisms reasoning. The mechanisms approach was found to be versatile and helped in extending the work of previous researchers who proposed advancements in the area based on dyadic theory, social capital theory and social network theory. Further, a new, and it is argued, more fruitful direction for incubation process-related research is also highlighted; one which takes on board the often glossed over idiosyncrasies of incubation as a social mechanism for promoting early stage entrepreneurship.

Notes that people use self‐presentation strategies to enhance their self‐image, and in doing so, they rely on norms. Raises the question of the desirability and feasibility of giving training to individuals in normative self‐presentation, where the idea is to teach the trainees to refer to judgment norms when responding in formal evaluation situations (like job interviews). Three judgment norms are used as illustration: internality, self‐sufficiency, and individual anchoring. The materials for training in these three norms are tested using the methods and techniques of the socionormative approach, and briefly presented. The ethical implications of this type of training are discussed.

This paper examines the emergent and deliberate views in strategy making through, what we develop as, a sequence of thinking and acting. Combining the features of thinking and acting may enhance the organization's ability to achieve change, an ability that remains untapped unless it is accompanied by a change in mental models. Both action thinking emergent issues as well as thinking–acting deliberate issues may constitute triggering events, when contrasted with a previously agreed frame of reference. We develop a framework to show how thinking co-evolves with action in a succession of strategic activities, and within an agreed upon frame of reference. Our aim is to shed light on the circumstances under which deliberate or emergent modes take place throughout the strategy-making process. We claim that changes in strategic activities are determined by attention-triggering events, driven by both thinking and acting.

Proposes the concept of rhetorical closure to address the phenomenon of pervasive IT “fashions”. Suggests that prevailing discourses surrounding IT are dominated by the rhetoric of closure and that such closure, although mutually constructed by suppliers, consultants and managers, has had several adverse consequences in terms of organizational change and results. Stimulates a critical thinking regarding the persistence of successive waves of new IT fashions and the consequences of closure on practice.

Theoretical framework informed by political views within the social shaping school combined with Habermas' theory of communicative action. Illustration of the argument is based on 22 semi‐structured interviews (senior practitioners from client‐firms, software suppliers and consulting‐firms working on ERP projects).

Outlines the nature of the “chain reaction” produced by rhetorical closure from individual practices to the segment level. Identifies occasions for breaking down rhetorical closure at the three levels of analysis. At the individual level, opportunities are related to daily users' practices. At the organizational level, opportunities are related to ongoing organizational decisions and negotiations regarding IT adoption. At the segment level, opportunities are related to forming coalitions, networks and groups of users.

Adopts an original perspective, examining the concept of rhetorical closure from a combination of two approaches: social shaping of technology and communicative action theory. Connects different types of closure to different types of rationality, and recognizes the specific validity claims underlying them. Calls into question current decision‐making processes that sustain IT pervasiveness and taken‐for‐granted assumptions of inevitability associated with new IT fashions.

Existing public–private partnership (PPP) literature that explicitly adopts neo-institutional theory, tends to elucidate the impact of isomorphic pressures and organizational fields and structuration on PPP projects. This paper advances this literature by presenting the institutional work and micro-level dynamics through which actors initiate and implement a new form of project delivery. The authors show how actors enact responses to institutional structuration in the expansion and transformation of an airport from a public entity into a PPP in Saudi Arabia.

The authors use a single case study design that offers an empirically rich and thick description of events such as the dynamic processes, practices and types of institutional work carried out by actors and organizations to deliver the project under investigation.

Religious symbolic work as social integration triggered system integration work, which expanded the power capabilities of individual actors leading the project. Repair work then followed to alleviate the negative effects of disempowering the agency of actors negatively affected by the PPP model and to streamline the project implementation process.

This research offers several practical implications. For PPPs to operate successfully in contexts similar to the Gulf region, policymakers should provide strong political support and be willing to bear a considerable risk of losses or minimal outcomes during the early phases of experimentation with PPPs. Also, policymakers should not only focus their attention on technical requirements of PPPs but also associate new meanings with the normative and cultural-cognitive elements that are integral to the success of PPP implementation. In order to design strategies for change that are designed to fit the unique cultural and sociopolitical settings of each country, policymakers should empower capable individual actors and provide them with resources and access to power, which will enable them to enforce changes that diverge from institutionalized practices.

This research connected the PPP literature with theoretical frameworks drawn from neo-institutional theory and power. It would be valuable for further research, however, to connect ideas from the PPP literature with other disciplines such as psychology and social entrepreneurship. PPP research examines a recent phenomenon that can potentially be combined with non-traditional streams of research in analyzing projects. Expanding the realm of PPP research beyond traditional theoretical boundaries could potentially yield exciting insights into how the overall institutional and psychological environments surrounding projects affect their initiation and implementation.

The paper contributes new insights regarding the roles of religious symbolic work, allied with social and system integration of power relations in implementing PPP projects. It suggests a theoretical shift from structures and organizational fields – macro- and meso-levels of analysis – to individuals – micro-level – as triggers of new forms of project delivery that break with the status quo.