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The purpose of this study is to show how strategic planning can play multiple roles in the context of conflict between two controlling shareholders in a new joint venture.

This study conducted a five-year qualitative case study of a large financial services joint venture co-owned by a Latin American state bank and a European financial company.

The authors found that over time, budgeting and strategic planning had intertwining use to guide strategic decisions, but unexpectedly, strategic planning eventually developed three distinct roles beyond the merely functional, as it also contributed to complex symbolic and political functions.

This study provides guidance on considering different roles taken by strategic planning, as a utilitarian practice, as a symbolic narrative and as a conflict-mediating routine.

This text analyzes the relationship between crises and the dominance of interest-bearing capital, with particular emphasis on fictitious capital, which forms a striking feature of contemporary capitalist economies. It discusses how capitalist crises are commonly viewed and how we should understand them, on several dimensions of reality, based on a comprehensive reading of Marx. We follow with a reflection on the nature and characteristics of interest-bearing capital and on fictitious capital and fictitious profit, given that the high activity of this last form of capital is a hallmark of current capitalism and is itself the maximum expression of the fetishism engendered by it. We conclude that what is understood as a crisis by people in general is, in fact, a source of enormous enrichment for the owners of fictitious capital.

The purpose of this paper is to test and develop a method for generation and selection of six sigma projects. This is done by testing the use of the generation and selection method for six sigma projects (GSM_SSP) in a Brazilian manufacturing industry with the participation of managers, aiming to gather the user’s perspective and improvement opportunities for the approach itself.

The work adopts the action research (AR) approach once the researchers were busily involved in the training, implementation and use of the GSM_SSP. The intervention was performed in on a series of 15 workshops, with a group of managers, during six months.

The application of the eight steps of the GSM_SSP approach assisted the company’s management team to generate nine project candidates and also to select three six sigma projects. This study also finds and discusses barriers and lessons learned used to improve the GSM_SSP.

This study presents an example of how six sigma project generation and selection has been applied to a manufacturing industry by adapting AR to the process using the eight steps of GSM_SSP, demonstrating how the management team was involved. This study should be replicated in different companies because AR is limited in its generalization.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents the first use of AR methodology in six sigma project selection. This study contributes a method that can generate and select six sigma projects. In doing so, the research offers a simple approach that can be used by managers. In addition, the steps of the approach before selection were explored.

This article delves into the contributions of Milton Santos (1926–2001) to the economic study of entrepreneurship. Santos made contributions to spatial economics, urbanization, and planning theories, being an important author to the field of regional and urban economics. His most famous idea is the “two circuits” of the urban economy. According to this approach, the urban economies in peripheral countries create two economic-urban circuits that are both distinct and connected. The superior circuit comes from the technological modernization and cultivates international relationships. High-value goods and networks and new technologies circulate through it. The inferior circuit works outside these networks. It consists of low-dimension activities from local populations. Santos elaborated this theory to understand urbanization in peripheral countries and to give voice to the ones left behind by the development process. He did not write directly on entrepreneurship. We argue, however, that his thoughts can be important to entrepreneurship studies. The entrepreneurship discourse, that had in Schumpeter one of its main sources, assumes that the entrepreneur has traits related to the superior circuit, such as access to resources and networks, which would not be available to entrepreneurs in the inferior circuit. We argue that Santos’ contributions can inform economic thought in entrepreneurship by calling attention to how literature can approach structural problems and contribute to making economics a more diverse discipline.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the prejudice and discrimination constructs through the lens of a transcendent knowledge concept.

The paper seeks to demonstrate that Spiritism or Spiritist Doctrine (SD) – regarded here as a source of transcendent knowledge – offers compelling arguments and provides suitable explanations (i.e. transcendent ontology) in relation to the issue of discrimination

Overall, this paper contributes to a better understanding of diversity and inclusive perspectives by examining the antecedents and consequences of discrimination through the insightful lens of SD tenets. In this sense, the findings suggest that the discriminators and prejudiced people may ironically pass through – as a result of the law of cause and effect – the same hard situations (i.e. ordeals or nightmares) – even though in their future lives – that they impose in their current victims to forcefully open their minds, support universal values, enhance their own feelings and spiritual intelligence.

Evidence presented here (although conceptually in nature) could be somewhat integrated into training sections of diversity management. At a minimum, it may encourage the shift of attitudes, revision of embedded values and reflections about the spiritual consequences to the perpetrators of discrimination against minorities.

Taken as a whole, the SD tenets prompt us to understand that the acts of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination engender suffering for their perpetrators, even in their future lives (i.e. reincarnations). Broadly speaking, the SD principles compel us to consider transcendent knowledge even in the context of organizational life.

Employer branding is a topic that has gained relevance in the organisational world. Currently, organisations need to differentiate themselves, and one of their biggest challenges is the search and retention of talent. One of the factors that have been associated with attracting talent is employer branding. However, studies that explore the relationship between this, corporate reputation and the intention to apply for a job are scarce. As such, this study aims to analyse the mediating role of corporate reputation in the relationship between employer branding and the intention to apply for a job offer.

To achieve the goals, data were collected from 225 Portuguese adults. The response rate was 75%. Based on a survey, respondents reported their perceptions of employer branding of a specific organisation, and they rated the organisation’s reputation and their intention to apply to that organisation.

The results showed that employer branding (interest value; social value; economic value; development value; application value) positively influenced an organisation’s corporate reputation, which, in turn, increased an individual’s intention to apply for an employment offer in that organisation.

The present study is a contribution to the literature on employer branding, as it reinforced the importance that employer branding and corporate reputation play in the intention of applying for a job offer.

This paper investigates the interactional relationships between sustainable human resource management (SHRM) and organizational performance (OP). Sustainable HRM is an approach that links HRM and sustainability. These studies focused on integrating HR with sustainable developments, such as economic and social aspects, in favour of focusing on the environmental aspect. Organizational change is an ongoing process that has to be managed effectively to keep the change in place for a long time.

A framework was offered to estimate the cause-and-effect relation of the SHRM and OP factors. Data is gathered from professionals from various pharmaceutical industries. This study applied two methods, Fuzzy AHP and DEMATEL Type II. These techniques are used to understand the cause-and-effect factors and their interactions.

It was observed from the findings that the factor of SHRM, such as Social Justice (F2), Green Job Design (F5), Green Training (F6) and Implementation of Green Policy (F8), was the most critical for the pharmaceutical sector that effects Financial performance (F13), Customer Satisfaction (F15) and Market performance (F14). Pharmaceutical firms ought to coordinate public health advocacy efforts, engage in healthcare initiatives and provide financial support for environmentally friendly efforts that improve social and economic conditions.

For this sustainability, managers concentrate on creating an environment that is healthy and acceptable, and they work hard to mitigate the impact of natural factors and repair damage done to the environment; it is essential to move towards sustainable development to resolve environmental problems. Improving HR efficiency is among essential HRM responsibilities, as they expand the knowledge base of the workforce, enhance human capital, and eventually create valuable intangible assets and promote and encourage sustainable pharmaceutical products for some years.

This research paper has presented exclusive worth to the SHRM and organizational performance literature as it employs fuzzy FAHP and DEMATEL type 2. There is less research on SHRM in the pharmaceutical sector with these factors. In addition, FAHP and TYPE 2 DEMATEL are used in very few researches on SHRM approaches.

Consumers are assumed to engage in external information search only after exhausting their internal information sources. Guided by the accessibility/diagnosticity and ease-of-retrieval frameworks, and the elaboration likelihood model, the current study investigates this phenomenon.

To test the relationships between internal information accessibility/diagnosticity and the importance of external search, and the moderating role of involvement in these relationships, 308 responses were collected on Amazon MTurk. Then, structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the data.

The analyses showed that while accessibility and diagnosticity of internal information have an impact on external information search, involvement with the product class has a consequential moderating effect on these relationships. In particular, in the low-involvement group, only the diagnosticity of internal information had a negative effect on external information search. On the contrary, in the high-involvement group, only accessibility of internal information had a negative effect.

These findings highlight the possibility of drawing erroneous conclusions resulting from not incorporating involvement, in conjunction with information accessibility and diagnosticity, in the study of the consumer external information search behavior.

The findings also imply that if practitioners aim to prime consumers to engage in external information search, they need to take into account that the effects of internal information's accessibility and diagnosticity on consumers' external search behavior may be different depending on their levels of involvement.

This study's results showed that without considering the moderating effect of involvement, spurious conclusions may be made about the relationships between accessibility and diagnosticity of internal and external information importance. This finding may explain the discrepancy between the accessibility/diagnosticity and ease-of-retrieval frameworks, thus enriching the literature.

Food SMEs is the backbone of local and world economy. Even while food SMEs are aware of the potential advantages of implementing supply chain analytics (SCA), only a small number of companies use data-based decision-making. This is because of technophobia. In light of this, the purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that have an impact on SCA adoption which in turn influence the sustainable performance of firms.

The data were collected from 221 managers working in food-related SMEs in China by using a questionnaire-based survey. The framework of this study was validated using a rigorous statistical procedure using the technique, namely, partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The findings of this study suggest that all modified UTAUT components (i.e. performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and technophobia) significantly influence SCA adoption. Moreover, the existing study highlights and confirms the significance of adopting SCA to improve sustainable performance.

This research is novel, as it extends and investigates the theoretical framework based on UTAUT theory in SCA context and its impact on sustainable organizational performance. In addition, the factor of technophobia is tested in SCA context. This study has several contributory managerial implications for food SMEs.

The purpose of this study is to explore the roles that sociocultural systems such as traditions, religious practices, and rituals play in upholding gender imbalance in Fiji.

This qualitative study relies on results from semi-structured interviews with auditors, educationalists, academics, partners from leading accounting/audit firms, company directors and high-ranked government officers. Thematic analysis was conducted both manually and using MAXQDA software, and the themes that emerged from both analyses are complementary. A few more complementary analyses were also conducted such as Word Cloud.

The results support the claim that the religious traditions and rituals are strongly linked to gender-inequitable beliefs and suggest sociocultural factors impose on women experiencing self-effacing emotions and passive acceptance of lower status, contributing to the persistence of gender inequality. It also emphasizes the need to challenge certain sociocultural practices to promote greater gender equality, which is the theme emerged from thematic analysis. Additionally, this paper proposes four distinct types of attitudes in this regard as self-effacing feminist, self-effacing traditional, self-effacing modesty and talented driven.

Respondents' openness authenticity may be limited by factors like selection bias, small sample size and other potential constraints in this study.

The findings might influence stakeholders to advocate for policy changes to promote women's representation in leadership positions. The results give voice to various segments of society who are advocating greater gender diversity on board representation in Fiji. The themes immerged and theories developed would make a substantial contribution to the existing literature.

The findings highlight the importance of addressing gender inequality in leadership positions to promote inclusive and sustainable growth.

This study sheds light on the less-explored domain of internal barriers to gender equality within Fiji. It adds a novel dimension to the understanding of how cultural norms intersect with individual perceptions to shape gender inequality.