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This study investigates the impact of transformational leadership and transparent communication on employees' openness to change with the mediating role of employee organization trust and moderating effects of change-related self-efficacy.

A sample of 260 employees from banking sector of Pakistan through self-administrated questionnaire participated in this study and the data was analysed through partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The results reveal that transformational leadership and transparent communication help to create trust among employees of the organization which ultimately have positive effects on employee openness to change. Further, the results suggest that the presence of change-related self-efficacy significantly moderates relation between the transformational leadership and employee openness to change. However, change self-efficacy does not change the relationship between transparent communication and employee openness to change.

This study contributes to change management literature and helps organizations to understand the importance of employees and their positive behaviour during change.

The researcher provides the guidelines for employers to craft change communication policy during the change implementation phase.

This study tests a mediating role of employee organization trust and moderating role of change-related self-efficacy in relation with transformational leadership and transparent communication on employees' openness to change which had not been tested theoretically and empirically in the context of Pakistan.

Fake news represents a real risk for brands, particularly for firms selling essential products, such as food items. Despite this anecdotal acknowledgement, the dynamics of the relationship between fake news and brand reputation remain under-explored. The present study addresses this gap by examining the association of consumer values (universalism and openness to change), brand trust, fake news risk and system trust in the context of natural food products.

The study utilised a cross-sectional survey design and the mall-intercept method to collect data from 498 consumers of natural food residing in India. To test the hypotheses, which were grounded in the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework, the collected data were analysed using covariance-based structural equation modelling in SPSS AMOS. The conceptual model proposed universalism and openness to change as stimuli, brand trust as an internal state or organism and fake news risk – captured through the tendency of consumers to believe and act on fake news – as a response.

The findings support a positive association of universalism with brand trust and a negative association with fake news risk. In comparison, openness to change has no association with either brand trust or fake news risk. Brand trust, meanwhile, is negatively related to fake news, and this association is moderated by system trust. Furthermore, brand trust partially mediates the relationship between universalism value and fake news risk.

Notably, the present study is one of the first attempts to understand the fake news risk associated with natural food brands by utilising the SOR framework in an emerging market setting. The study provides interesting insights for policymakers, brands and consumers.

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of managerial communication, employee participation and trust in one's supervisor in enhancing openness to organizational change of Turkish employees.

Data were collected via a structured questionnaire. A total of 878 employees from public organizations in Turkey participated in the study. The basic postulate of this study is that trust in one's supervisor will surpass the effects of managerial communication (i.e. task communication, career communication and communication responsiveness) and employee participation as they jointly influence employees' openness to organizational change.

The results indicate that trust in one's supervisor fully mediates the relationship between managerial communication and openness to change, whereas it partially mediated the relationship between employee participation and openness to change of Turkish employees.

This paper demonstrates that using a trust‐based approach during change initiatives could be very effective for organizations in collectivist cultures like Turkey.

This study contributes to the literature by investigating the combined effects of managerial communication, employee participation and openness to organizational change on employees' openness to organizational change in a different cultural context. Managerial and theoretical implications of research findings are also discussed.

Based on the theory of basic human values, this study aims to examine the impact of CEO conservation (i.e. security, conformity and tradition) and openness to change (i.e. self-direction, stimulation and hedonism) values on one of the most conflictual decisions inside a firm: workforce downsizing.

The hypothesis testing was done in the context of all workforce downsizing decisions made by German companies (and their CEOs) listed on the German Prime-Index between 2005 and 2019. A software-based psycholinguistic assessment of various sources of CEO communications was conducted to tap into their underlying values.

Tobit regression analysis confirms that CEO conservation and openness-to-change values impact the severity of workforce downsizing. Namely, the higher the CEO conservation values, the lower the downsizing severity (i.e. employees dismissed in relation to overall workforce). In contrast, the higher the CEO openness to change values, the higher the downsizing severity.

Against prior research that has centered around political ideology as a proxy to understand the mechanisms through which values impact strategic decisions, the present study employs advanced measurement approaches to assess the general impact of CEO values on critical firm decisions. As such, the study contributes to upper echelons research by offering a new perspective on how CEO values impact critical firms' decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how middle managers respond to the career challenges caused by environmental regulation. In particular, this paper examines whether environmental regulation strength is positively related to middle managers’ openness toward change, and whether middle managers’ openness toward change is positively related to proactive behavior. Furthermore, the moderating role of top managers’ bottom-line mentality in these two relationships is examined.

Cross-sectional survey research (n=155) was conducted. During a training program, data were collected from 155 middle managers from a listed company that manufactures primary products. With these data the authors examined the main relationship and also explored the moderating effect of top managers’ bottom-line mentality.

Analysis of the findings indicates that perceived environmental regulation strength influences middle managers’ openness toward change and consequently their proactive behavior. In addition, top managers’ bottom-line mentality moderates both the link between environmental regulation strength and openness toward change and the link between openness toward change and proactive behavior.

The findings of this study reveal how environmental regulation induces middle managers’ proactive behavior, and the influence of top managers’ mentality on how middle managers respond to environmental regulation both cognitively and behaviorally.

This study aims to use the novel approach of applying the behavioural reasoning theory (BRT) to understand the relative influence of reason for and reason against the adoption of mobile learning applications (M-learning apps) among information technology (IT) and information technology enabled services (ITeS) employees.

This study surveys 680 employees of IT and ITeS companies in India to examine the adoption of M-learning apps for learning using the BRT and the primary data analysis was done using the partial least squares-structural equation modelling technique.

It is found that the context-specific adoption factors for M-learning apps are hedonic motivation, self-efficacy, learning autonomy, ubiquitous and relative advantage, whereas the reasons against adoption of the M-learning apps are traditional barrier, usage barrier and image barrier. It is also found that values of openness to change positively affect the reasons for adoption and do not significantly affect reasons against adoption of M-learning. Values of openness to change affect the attitude towards M-learning apps and attitude affects the adoption intention of M-learning apps for learning.

This cross-sectional study was conducted only in the Indian IT/ITeS firms and future research can be conducted in other sectors and countries to generalize the results.

This research uniquely highlights the adoption factors both for and against, which should be considered while developing marketing strategies for M-learning apps’ adoption. It is imperative for training managers to consider these factors during the selection of M-learning apps and for designers while designing the M-learning apps.

This study provides new insights towards the use of mobile apps for learning with the employees’ perspective using the BRT theory and it highlights the reason for adoption and reason against adoption of M-learning apps.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how international tourists’ cosmopolitan values change due to the restraining fear of terrorism, and how this change affects their worldview, destination perception and travel preferences.

In-depth interviews were conducted with international travellers from all five continents to pinpoint the universal shifts in cosmopolitan values, specifically regarding risk perception in the face of terrorism.

Tourists’ personal values are changing due to the increased risk of terrorism (or the perception of it), which prompts international travellers to act less on their desire for stimulation and more for their need for security when travelling. Just as any change in values tends to be relatively permanent, this value shift might have long-term consequences for the entire tourism industry.

Terrorism risk perception and its retraining effect regarding willingness to travel were established to be significant and universal. However, this study suggests that the strength of the travellers’ cosmopolitan orientation influences the extent terrorism risk is acted upon. Results indicate that the higher the travellers’ cosmopolitan conviction is, the less significantly they seem to be affected by the fear of terrorism.

The study offers cues on how managers and policy makers can enhance destination image that keeps up with the current realities of global tourism in the face of terrorism, and highlights a promising market segment, strongly cosmopolitan travellers who are less concerned with potential travel risks and react less negatively in troubled times.

Most of the previous studies considered tourists’ cosmopolitanism as a stable orientation rather than a context-specific state. This study addresses this gap by exploring how resilient the tourists’ cosmopolitan desire for openness and freedom is under the risk perception of terrorism, and what effect the fear of terrorism has on their travel habits.

The paper analyses the current process of government accounting development in Albania using an integrated diffusion‐contingency analytical framework. This framework synthesises elements of contingency theory with theories of diffusion of innovations to provide greater insight into the organisational processes of innovation. The paper observes that the level of innovativeness of the government organisation in Albania appears to be marginally positive and that, at present, developments in government accounting are being clarified as part of the implementation phase of the innovation process.

How to derive policy implications from five future scenarios of transformed research and innovation (R&I) systems? This paper analyzes methodological and content issues of five future scenarios of transformed R&I systems. The aim of this paper is to provide an outlook on strategic policies capable of facilitating or moderating these transformative changes in R&I practices is discussed in light of overarching intentions to foster “responsible” ambitions (in Europe and beyond, discussed as responsible research and innovation, RRI).

The paper elaborates a four-step methodology to assess the scenario’s policy implications: first, by articulating the scenario implications for six core dimensions of R&I systems; second, an RRI assessment framework is developed to assess in each scenario opportunities and limitations for transforming R&I systems towards responsibility goals; the third involves a cross-scenario analysis of similarities and differences between the scenarios, allowing the identification of robust policy options that make sense in more than one scenario. The last analytical step includes again the richness of the individual scenario assessments aiming to provide a broader outlook on transformative policy orientations.

The paper concludes with outlining the contours of a future-responsible R&I system together with some suggestions for transformative policy orientations that aim to govern the R&I system towards such a future, as a source of inspiration and reflection.

The analysis is based on five future scenarios that do not systematically cover future developments external to the R&I system.

An outlook of strategic policies capable of facilitating or moderating these transformative changes in R&I practices is discussed in light of the overarching European Union goal of encouraging the performance of RRI.

This paper provides inspirational anticipatory strategic intelligence for fostering the responsible ambitions of research with and for society.

In recent decades, higher education institutes (HEIs) have come under pressure to cooperate with society as a whole. This shift towards an increased focus on third mission and social innovation activities implies a substantial organizational change process for many HEIs, as they need to initiate both structural and cultural changes. This paper provides guidance for such change processes by examining the views and attitudes of academic and administrative staff, as well as students within the HEIs over a period in which the HEIs increase their focus on social innovation.

The study uses a longitudinal quantitative approach consisting of a survey of administrative and academic staff, as well as students at two German HEIs. The authors studied members’ attitudes towards third mission and social innovation activities (N = 3470).

Results suggest that the university members’ attitudes towards third mission and social innovation are positive but change to some extent over time. Different aspects shape the attitudes within the three groups (administrative staff, academic staff and students). Furthermore, attitudes vary among academic employees who are involved in the process and those who are not.

The findings provide useful information for university managers and anyone aiming to promote social innovation at HEIs.

The study examines how attitudes of university members change whenever social innovation takes place at HEIs. This study includes data on the participation and empowerment of all HEI members in view of the important role that HEIs can play as supporters of social innovation.