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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of the addition of flaxseed and amaranth at different proportions on the hydration kinetics, colour and sensory qualities of instant-extruded cereals, important aspects related to the functionality and acceptability of food products.

Instant-extruded cereals were made with different proportions of flaxseed (6.6–9.3%), amaranth (18.7–33.1%), and maize grits (63.8–67.3%); and characteristics such as hydration kinetics, colour parameters and sensory properties were evaluated.

The kinetics of milk absorption showed that the extruded cereals maintained their texture and crispness for a sufficiently long time (≤20 min). The L*, a* and chroma* values of the extruded cereals were significantly affected (p < 0.05) by the flaxseed content. Sensory evaluation showed that all the extrudates had good acceptance in terms of flavour, texture, and colour attributes in relation to high-fibre commercial cereals; according to the preference test, they were as acceptable as commercial extruded cereals when consumed with milk. The addition of high-fibre and protein-containing grains such as flaxseed (8.6–9.3%) and amaranth (18.7–22.9%) in instant-extruded cereals allowed the production of products with acceptable physical and sensory characteristics.

In this study a novel instant-extruded cereal with flaxseed and amaranth was developed. The evaluation of the physical and sensory characteristics of instant-extruded cereals is essential to guarantee consumer acceptability, especially if functional ingredients with a high content of dietary fibre and protein are added.

This study aimed to develop a psychometrically reliable job satisfaction (JS) measure for university employees, guiding administrative decisions and monitoring satisfaction over time in public universities.

A JS survey developed by a Brazilian federal university’s sustainability committee containing 58 items across physical, cognitive and organizational domains was longitudinally tested with 1,214 responses collected. The data were analyzed using Item Response Theory (IRT) analysis, employing the Graded Response Model, with tools such as frequency analysis, item characteristic curve, and full-information factor analysis in RStudio. The scale’s criterion validity was also established via expert qualitative interpretation.

The instrument’s internal consistency was confirmed as the results demonstrated its high reliability with a marginal reliability coefficient of 0.95. Significant findings revealed that recognition and supervisor relationships were key discriminators of JS and that workers began to perceive satisfaction when basic environmental conditions were met.

It is important to mention that the application of this scale is specifically limited to higher education institutions and may not be directly applicable to other educational settings or industry sectors without modifications.

Although numerous measures and scales have been developed to assess JS, one elaborated by using IRT in a public university environment was lacking. Due to shifting dynamics in the workplace, traditional measurement of JS has proven inadequate, necessitating a more precise, accessible and updated tool. The developed scale allows precisely targeted interventions to improve JS and can be reapplied to evaluate their effectiveness. This research thus contributes a valuable tool for academic organizational psychology, enhancing the understanding of the measurement of JS.

Despite the continued focus on online sharing through social media, little consumer research has looked at this behavior as an independent construct or tried to determine how it relates to other consumer behaviors. Consequently, this study aims to explore the concept of social media sharing disposition (SMSD), proposes a measure of the construct, and, in five studies, assesses its reliability and validity and its relationship to other online and offline consumer behaviors.

Five studies using surveys were carried out to assess the SMSD construct. The studies gathered data to assess the properties and validities of SMSD, as well as its ability to assess offline and online sharing behavior.

The results indicate that SMSD is a useful construct that helps to explain people’s social media and offline sharing behavior, although its focus is primarily on social media sharing. It also displays convergent, discriminant and predictive validity. These results indicate that SMSD can be used to predict the likelihood of consumers sharing online information. They also confirm that SMSD works effectively in different cultural contexts. SMSD can also be used to assess consumer offline sharing behavior.

There was neither an investigation of actual differences in behaviors among consumers in the number of posts or online reviews they undertook, based on SMSD, nor a study of whether individuals are more likely to incorporate brand information into their posts. Future research could explore these behaviors to determine whether they can be explained by SMSD. There was also no focus on a rationale for engaging in social media sharing; that is, there are no proposed antecedents of SMSD. Additional studies could assess antecedents of this construct.

Marketers interested in engaging consumers as participants in the dissemination of online (electronic) information can segment and target consumers on the basis of SMSD. Therefore, it can be used to determine who should be targeted with information to disperse to other consumers. It is likely that there is a relationship between SMSD and social media influencer (SMI) activity, so it could also be used to identify SMIs among consumer bases. It can also be adapted and applied to understanding offline sharing behavior.

The paper reports on SMSD and establishes that it is an additional construct that can help explain consumer information sharing. The construct relates to a social media context, where it may be increasingly difficult to identify consumers who engage in differential sharing of digital information.

The paper aims to investigate how perceived psychological benefits from employee participation in corporate social responsibility activities affect organizational citizenship behavior across two Asia–Pacific countries with different national cultures.

A stakeholder relationship model, based on social exchange theory, underpinned the investigation that also tested the mediating role of organizational pride. In a cross-cultural context, data were collected from 319 full-time employees in Thailand and the US and analyzed with SEM-PLS.

Anticipated psychological benefits of hedonic value and perceived community value were found to be significant antecedents of organizational citizenship behaviors, operationalized as customer-directed CSR advocacy. Organizational pride played a partial mediating role.

This study addresses a lack of micro-level CSR research into the relationship between psychological benefits of employee participation in CSR and organizational citizenship behavior. Specifically, this is the first study to link CSR drivers with customer-directed employee advocacy of the firms CSR activities. The study is also the first to compare relationships between an Asian and Western context for CSR drivers of organizational citizenship behaviors.

This paper investigates the intricate process of integrating historically excluded social groups into long-established routines. Drawing on a dialectical perspective, the research explores how persistence and change emerge through the interplay of opposing forces, shedding light on the dynamics of integrating new participants while ensuring stability in established routines. The empirical focus is on an Armed Forces’ ground combat training (GCT) course, examining the integration of the first female officers after the formal ban on their participation in close-combat roles was lifted. The findings reveal a nuanced evolution of routine adaptation and truce reformation, characterized by three dialectical cycles: tentative truces, experimental truces, and enactment truces. These cycles involve negotiations between continuity and reformation, accommodation and resistance, and modification and preservation, uncovering a dialectical dance where organizational actors invest intense effort in maintaining the status quo while accommodating ambiguity and settling tensions. The findings extend our understanding of routine dynamics by illuminating the performative aspect of truce-making, highlighting the effortful processes involved in accommodating new participants. This paper establishes a connection between routines and dialectics, providing novel avenues for exploring complex organizational challenges and emphasizing micro-strategies employed by routine participants to address differences in practice. It also contributes to the field of organizational inclusion by offering a dialectical understanding of integration, showcasing the intricate dynamics involved in integrating historically excluded groups into established routines.

Extant research suggests that consumers value the pursuit, attainment and retention of income security and financial well-being (FWB). The authors aim to expand the relevant literature by examining how consumers' psychosocial characteristics affect and are affected by the pursuit of those objectives.

The authors utilize partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to evaluate the authors' hypotheses based on a sample of USA and Canadian consumers (n = 619).

The authors' PLS-SEM results provide support for the authors' hypotheses, indicating that individuals' insecure attachments – anxious and avoidant – relate negatively to their income security and FWB. The authors' results also show that these two desirable states relate positively to individuals' undesirable state of social loneliness.

The authors' methodology and findings illuminate the positioning of psychosocial factors as antecedents to and outcomes of income security and FWB. This research also provides a basis for understanding the linear vs curvilinear influences of income security on an individual’s social life.

In the present empirical study, the authors present a rare empirical examination of individuals' income security and FWB as outcomes of their psychosocial profile vis-à-vis insecure attachments. Drawing on established psychometric scales, this study expands the consumer psychology and FWB literature, showing significant linkages between insecure attachments, income security, FWB and social loneliness.

Although numerous studies have explored gamification, its effects on student intrinsic motivation and behavioral engagement remain ambiguous. This study aims to address this gap by investigating the impacts of exogenous and endogenous fantasies on students’ intrinsic motivation, behaviors and perception of learning in gamified, fully online courses.

Using a quasi-experimental design and mixed methods, this study involved two groups of postgraduate students: exogenous fantasy group (N = 23) and endogenous fantasy group (N = 23). Intrinsic motivation was assessed through surveys, while behavioral engagement was tracked over 10 weeks using online trace data. Semi-structured interviews gathered student insights on learning perceptions. The patterns of behavioral engagement in both fantasy groups were analyzed using epistemic network analysis.

Observed behavioral data indicated a significantly higher level of intrinsic motivation in the endogenous fantasy setting. The endogenous group was more engaged in pre-task analysis and post-task reflection, while the exogenous group focused more on quiz work and post-task reflection. Participants in the endogenous fantasy setting also reported increased cognitive engagement and a strong identification with their fictional characters.

Integrating endogenous fantasy into the curriculum can boost students’ intrinsic motivation, behavioral engagement and self-identification. Adopting a first-person perspective that allows students to embody the role of a virtual character is highly recommended. The use of interactive multimedia can greatly enrich the fantasy environment, resulting in a more immersive and engaging learning experience.

The study provides valuable insights into the impact of endogenous and exogenous fantasies on intrinsic motivation and behavioral engagement. It also stands out for its use of epistemic network analysis to assess and compare complex networks of learning task participation in two fantasy settings. Through analyzing these engagement patterns, researchers can obtain a more profound understanding of how each fantasy environment influences student engagement.

We aim to ascertain whether and how an individual’s social comparison affects their self-gifting motivations (SGMs).

We survey a North American sample comprising 619 Canadian and US respondents. We apply partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine relationships between social comparison, attachment orientation, parenthood, and self-gifting motivations.

We find that social comparison positively impacts self-gifting motivations. Additionally, we find that attachment orientation and parenthood can moderate social comparison’s impact on positively valenced SGMs and negatively valenced SGMs, respectively.

We elevate and expand existing scholarship on consumers’ self-gifting. Through the current study, we contribute new, empirical evidence illuminating how individuals’ attachment orientation (i.e. secure v. insecure) and parenthood status (i.e. parent v. non-parent) serve as agency-oriented moderators to temper social comparison’s influences on SGMs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between Chinese female executives and corporate risk-taking the contingencies that affect this relationship.

A integrated theoretical framework was established, on the basis of which theoretical hypotheses were developed and tested using 20,315 firm-year observations collected from China’s publicly listed companies during the period 2005–2020. Data were collected from China's Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share Stock Exchanges and analyzed using a moderated regression analysis, PSM, 2SLS-IV and PSM-DID model.

The empirical results indicate a negative effect of the ratio of female executives in top management team on corporate risk-taking, and this negative effect can be weakened by the social capital of board directors and the regional marketization.

The paper contributes to research on the relationship between female executives and risk-taking by considering the effect of eastern culture on female executives’ business decision-making and examining the moderating factors inside and outside the firm.

The paper illustrates the active steps that corporations can take to enhance female executives' willingness and capacity to take firm-related risks so as to improve the firm value in the long run.

The paper explores how Chinese culture and Chinese traditional value affect female executives’ decision-making on risky projects or uncertain investments. In addition, our study for the first time examines the moderating effect of board social capital as an internal factor and marketization as an external one on the relationship between Chinese female executives and corporate risk taking. The research examines the gender inequality in the work and competitive environment facing female executives in the areas of different marketization level, which would affect female executives’ cognition and motivation in corporate risk taking.

Framed by nostalgia marketing, this research draws upon lessons from ParticipACTION, a Canadian non-profit health promotion organization, to examine one of their most well-known campaigns, Body Break with ParticipACTION, in order to assess the potential role for nostalgia-based marketing campaigns in sport participation across generational cohorts.

Exploratory sequential mixed methods involving two studies were completed on behalf of ParticipACTION, with the authors developing the research instruments and the collection of the data undertaken by research agencies. Study 1 was the secondary analysis of qualitative data from five focus groups with different demographic compositions that followed a common question guide. Study 2 was a secondary data analysis of a pan-Canadian online survey with a sample (n = 1,475) representative of the overall adult population that assessed awareness of, and attitudes toward, ParticipACTION, Body Break, physical activity and sport participation. Path analysis tested a proposed model that was based on previous research on attitudes, brand and loyalty. Further, multi-group path analyses were conducted to compare younger generations with older ones.

The results provide direction and understanding of the importance of nostalgia in marketing sport participation programs across generational cohorts. For instance, in the four parent-adult focus groups, unaided references as well as frequent and detailed comments regarding Body Break were observed. Similarly, Millennials reported that Body Break was memorable, Canadian and nostalgic, with a mix of positive and negative comments. The importance of nostalgia was supported sequentially via results from the national survey. For example, while 54.1% of the 40–54 age-group associated ParticipACTION positively with Body Break, so did 49.8% of the 25–39-year age group, most of whom were not born when the promotion ran. Further, brand resonance was found to explain 4% more variance in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), the proxy for sport participation, for younger people compared to older people.

Results provide direction to brands, properties and agencies around the use of nostalgia in sport marketing campaigns and sponsorship efforts. For brands seeking to sponsor sport properties to alter their image with potential consumers in a new market, associating with a sport property that many view as nostalgic could improve the impact of the campaign. On the sport property side, event managers and marketers should both identify existing assets that members or fans are nostalgic about, as well as consider building nostalgia into current and new properties they develop.

This research is valuable to the sport marketing and sponsorship literature through several contributions. First, the use of nostalgia marketing, and nostalgia in general, is novel in the sport marketing and sponsorship literature, with future research in nostalgia and sponsorship recommended. Second, the potential to adopt or adapt Body Break to other sport participation and physical activity properties is empirically supported. Finally, the finding that very effective promotions can have a long-lasting effect, both on those who experienced the campaigns as well as younger populations who only heard about it, is notable.