Search results

This study aims to review the literature on online based learning in business education published in Development and Learning in Organizations between 2019 and 2022. The results of this study can present a better understanding of work-based business learning and offers new insights for future studies.

Recently the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated online learning. The pandemic’s pace and scale have led many universities and business schools to adopt popular e-learning tools such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or other online platforms. As a result, faculty and students needed new skills and resources in business education. Hence, the design and execution of online content were under scrutiny (Singh, 2022). After several months (almost two years) of operating in a highly virtual state during the COVID-19 crisis, there is little understanding of online learning in business education. In addition, asking about online teaching quality and student satisfaction is vital, as unsolved concerns may have long-term implications for future business programs (Szopiński and Bachnik, 2022). Therefore, this study aims to critically discuss the current literature to investigate the effects of online learning in business education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results could present a better understanding of business learning and offers new insights for future research.

The results from reviewing the selected articles showed several methodologies adopted in the field of business education. In this regard, universities must adopt an attendance policy for students with unreasonable excuses and those who cannot attend for technical issues. In this regard, facial recognition technologies and in-class tests that require attendance could assist. In addition, to encourage participation, business schools should build algorithms to measure student engagement and link it to the grading system. Finally, universities and business schools should have continuous assessment measures to ensure quality online learning matches higher education institutions in a specific country (Szopiński and Bachnik, 2022).

Along with the benefits of online learning, business schools must be aware of the risks of extending their online courses. First, digital platforms must be introduced to support all online teaching and learning courses and allow information sharing. This demands institutional reforms and resources, which may be unavailable if a university lacks facilities, administrative support, or a training coordination program. The second challenge is the faculty’s attitude toward online learning and the IT support needed to provide an online environment. While distance learning must offer the same knowledge and skills as traditional learning, faculty should embrace technology as a teaching instrument. Therefore, perceived usefulness is a significant determinant of faculty approval of online education. A post-2020 pandemic study is needed to assess faculty opinions in future studies (Szopiński and Bachnik, 2022).

In e-commerce, consumers have begun to rely on the opinions of fellow consumers who posted through online consumer reviews to a reputation management system. An ethical concern has arisen in the use and abuse of these new systems. We examine the underlying ethical issues that entrepreneurs are confronting in this time of surging e-commerce. Using 32 vignettes, one for each cross-section of our research construct framework, followed by two Likert scales for respondents to indicate their agreement with the action described from both the perspective of ethicality and professional acceptability, we received responses for 1,252 vignettes, which generated a dataset of 2,504 data points. The results of our pilot study suggest that the ethical considerations for business professionals conducting business online are more nuanced and complex than conventional wisdom on the subject might suggest. While 60 research subjects are small, the use of paired vignettes in our survey allowed us to measure at least 1,000 paired responses for each research construct. The results have the potential of revealing how young professionals have been conditioned by the prevalence of web-based interactions and the anonymity they afford participants, as well as the degree to which they rationalize the misrepresentation of information by business professionals for the purpose of manipulating consumers’ purchasing decisions in order to drive sales. If consumers’ trust in reputation management systems erodes, the result could be a collapse of the entire system as a meaningful source of information. We also demonstrate the tolerance of what is deemed ethical versus professionally acceptable with online business practices.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the definitions, dimensions, and classifications of online communities together with their potential to produce value for business. Those value options are then discussed in the context of empirical vignettes showing examples of business models focussed on one of the two potential benefits coming from online communities – clear financial gains and intangible long-run returns.

This paper uses systematic literature review method. In total, 67 academic paper in the area of business and management were chosen for the analysis.

The literature review shows multitude of online communities definitions and classifications, but hardly any comprehensive attempt to map the phenomena in full. This paper is looking into recognising potential revenue streams from online businesses and other non-financial benefits that can be combined to create strong and sustainable value proposition.

Drawing on the literature reviewed a novel categorisation of the commercial opportunities offered by the online communities is presented. These opportunities are discussed in a context of business model design.

With the continued growth in online business information provision, database guides can be valuable in helping searchers evaluate and select suitable sources. Studies of business database selection by professional intermediaries indicate a need for detailed descriptions of records as well as for basic, directory‐style information in guides. Less experienced online users need introductions to online, hosts, and business information provision and, most importantly, they need guidance in searching major online sources. Both types of online user would benefit from the inclusion of evaluative comment in database guides. Current guides to British and European business information, both general guides and those dealing specifically with online sources, are reviewed with regard to their suitability for different audiences and to their currency, coverage and overall organisation. The best of these guides are identified. Some guides are inaccurate and many are poorly indexed, with little thought given to how guides are used. Designing guides for specific audiences would increase their effectiveness. They must be quick and easy to use, incorporating evaluative comment to assist selection of databases and record detail to assist searching.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the marketing of online businesses operated by ethnic minority entrepreneurs. The authors apply an entrepreneurial marketing lens to explore how such entrepreneurs draw on the resources to market their businesses. They also consider whether online businesses offer such entrepreneurs the opportunity to break out of the highly competitive sectors with which they are traditionally associated.

Key informant interviews are undertaken with 22 entrepreneurs operating online businesses in the UK and augmented by complementary sources of data such as their websites and press coverage.

Use of an entrepreneurial marketing perspective demonstrates that marketing in such businesses is not haphazard or chaotic. Rather it reflects the emergent and flexible use of resources. The affordances of online businesses appear to offer opportunities for break out, but the reliance on incremental experimentation and copying others results in highly homogeneous approaches to marketing. The authors also provide empirical evidence of the link between visa status and entrepreneurial choices.

Despite the popularity of online businesses, previous studies have not explored them as an opportunity for ethnic minority entrepreneurs. This study moves the consideration of break out from market-entry to the ongoing marketing activities that sustain a business. It also demonstrates how the domains of ethnic minority entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial marketing can be brought together via a focus on resources. Finally, it enriches entrepreneurial marketing by evidencing connections with notions of effectuation and entrepreneur-venture fit.

A new business model online to offline (O2O) has emerged in recent years. Similar to many new models at an early stage, O2O has inconsistent definitions which not only inhibit its adoption but also poorly differentiate O2O from other existing business models. To resolve the two issues, the authors propose an approach of definition development.

To show the usefulness of the approach, the authors demonstrate the differences among O2O and other business models with the use of the distinctive definition and thereby evaluate adoption of O2O from a practical perspective and identify research directions from a theoretical perspective based on the differences.

The authors' proposed approach of definition development integrates the work of Tatarkiewicz (1980) and Nickerson et al. (2013). The approach generates a distinctive definition of O2O with important analytical dimensions which help decision-making of adoption of O2O.

The paper aims to make several contributions. First, on theoretical contribution, the authors confine the scope of O2O studies and facilitate accumulation of more coherent knowledge of O2O. The authors help O2O evolve from a “buzz word” of successful stories in real businesses to a more serious concept from an academic perspective. Second, from a practical perspective, the authors' definition provides business executives with critical evaluative dimensions for gauging the adoption of O2O. Lastly, from a methodological perspective, the proposed approach can be used in future to define an emerging concept in real life businesses.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between five characteristics of social shoppers’ online reviews (the number of all reviews made by a reviewer, the number of friends of a reviewer, the review score, the number of review words, and images/photos) and the usefulness, funniness, and coolness to viewers for the restaurant businesses and the health and wellness businesses.

A sample of 1,114 online reviews of social shoppers was collected from Yelp.com. A zero-inflated Poisson regression was used due to a high number of zero votes in the dependent variables for usefulness, funniness, and coolness. The regression identified the review characteristics that are strongly associated with the number of usefulness, funniness, and coolness votes made by viewers.

The analysis shows that for the health and wellness businesses, all three dependent variables (usefulness, funniness, and coolness) have the number of reviews, the number of friends, and the number of words as significant independent variables. The results indicate that a reviewer who has more friends and is more experienced in giving reviews is likely to be more influential in generating a perceived value of the online review. The analysis also shows that all three dependent variables of the restaurant businesses have the number of words as a significant independent variable. It is found that there is a negative relationship between the review score and the usefulness votes for both restaurant businesses and health and wellness businesses. The effect of the review score on the coolness votes was not consistent.

This study is the first research attempt in understanding social shoppers’ online reviews and their usefulness, funniness, and coolness to viewers, and therefore makes significant contributions to research and practice. The comparison was made between restaurant businesses and health and wellness businesses. The result indicates that for the health and wellness businesses, managers need to pay attention to social shoppers with a high number of friends and high number of words in a review. It is also noted that it is necessary to analyze review characteristics separately for each business type. However, as is typical in many empirical studies, this study is not without limitations. While the author limited the analysis of social shoppers’ online reviews to the five characteristics, additional variables may influence the number of votes, too. This study is limited to social shoppers’ reviews and the findings may not be generalized to regular customers’ online reviews. Future research should also examine whether similar results can be obtained at other review sites such as TripAdvisor and Zagat.

Despite the potential significance of social shoppers’ online reviews, the critical mass of empirical studies still lacks in this area. For a more comprehensive interpretation of review characteristics, this study develops hypotheses based on the literature review on electronic word of mouth and source credibility models and investigates the effect of the five review characteristics on the viewers’ perceived usefulness, funniness, and coolness. Unlike previous studies focused on a single business type, this study compares the results obtained for restaurant businesses and health and wellness businesses and demonstrates that viewers in each business type respond differently to social shoppers’ online reviews.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the beliefs of local grocery retailers about online grocery retailing. Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the study explores the outcome, normative and control beliefs held by the local grocers about online grocery retailing which would eventually translate into behavior. Factors influencing local grocers intention to participate or refusing to participate in the online grocery retailing was investigated.

In total, 20 in-depth interviews with local grocery retailers were conducted ranging from small to large sized retail stores from a city in the western part of India. The sample included two groups of local grocers – first, grocers who partnered with online retailers as suppliers. This group included those retailers who had partnered but discontinued later and second, grocers who had not partnered with online retailers. In-depth interviews with the local grocery retailers were conducted using TPB as a basis to uncover local grocers’ beliefs toward online grocery retailing and predict their behavior.

The outcome beliefs were classified into five broad heads – business expansion; gaining visibility and reputation; customer expectations; inventory management; and margins, costs and technical issues. The normative belief was that the actions and response to online grocery retailing would be governed by their referent group – the consumers. The main control belief was that partnering with online grocery retailing would result in loss of control regarding their business operations.

The results indicated that in a country like India especially in small to medium size towns, online grocery retailers would have to think of creative ways to involve the local grocery retailers to grow their business. The local grocers due to their size were able to adapt to the requirements of their referent consumers without any additional cost. They were unlikely to give up control regarding how they run their business. The main limitation of this study was the exploratory nature of this study which makes it difficult to prioritize the importance given to each belief. The study sample was restricted to one city in India, and future studies could include other cities.

The findings have practical implications for online grocery retailers who wish to expand into emerging markets like India. It provides understanding about the local grocery retailers who were the major competitors of online grocery retailers. It provides direction to integrate and partner with the local grocers and utilize them for mutual benefits.

Given the absence of academic literature in the public domain, this study provides a platform for future studies in this area. This paper is a systematic attempt to uncover the underlying beliefs of local grocery retailers who were the key players in the grocery retailing business.

There is a lack of clarity about what online business models are. The top 20 Google search results on online business models are articles that explain online business models. However, each of them deals with just one or two elements of business strategies. The list of business models is also a mixture of business strategies. This paper aims to provide practical guide that puts these business models into proper perspective.

A business model includes all key elements of the business, marketing and operational strategies. There are many such elements. The author has reviewed the popular use of the term online business models and found that just five of the key elements can put almost all of them into proper perspective.

Five elements of the business and marketing strategies constitute a practical guide for understanding, discussing and even designing the first working draft of a business plan.

The practical guide will serve as a robust vehicle for understanding, discussing and even designing the first working draft of a business plan. The current haphazard use of the term online business models does not shed light on online business models.

The author has examined 20 top Google search results for “online business models” and “business models”. These are articles that talk about 3-17 “business models”. The author examined all of them and confirmed that the five key elements of the business and marketing strategies can put all of them into proper perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight how future teaching in business schools will probably take place in an online (here called 24/7) classroom, where culturally diverse e‐learners around the globe meet. Technologies such as iPhone, iPad and a variety of social media, to mention but a few, give management learners of any age easy 24/7 access to information. Depending on the quality of the materials and the competences and cross‐cultural sensibilities of the teachers and trainers, this information may support the progress of e‐learning in business schools. At the same time, easy online access to knowledge and educational structures is not, in practice, equally available yet across cultures, and this will be documented with comparative cases from the Arab world and African learning communities.

This article contributes to multicultural education by identifying various barriers in the online management classroom. It combines theories from educational and cross‐cultural leadership studies, as well as e‐learning studies.

The outcomes of this analysis show how technical, language and cross‐cultural barriers still hinder particular adult learners to benefit from the “24/7 business school”. It is concluded that by understanding and serving a wide range of culturally diverse e‐learners in business schools, the stewardship role of the business school teacher is key.

The interplay between technical, language and cultural barriers in the online business school is rarely reflected upon. It is the intention of the authors to trigger a broad discussion process by focusing on culturally diverse management learners and by connecting with innovative educational insights across histories and cultures.