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The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented disruptions to global supply chains, compelling organizations to reevaluate their strategies for resilience and adaptability. In response, smart technologies (ST) have emerged as integral tools in post-pandemic supply chain management (SCM). This study aims to conduct an exploratory systematic literature review to comprehensively examine the evolving landscape of smart technology adoption in the context of SCM post-pandemic.

A systematic literature review has been conducted to examine the potential research contribution or directions in the field of ST and SCM. In total, 240 articles were shortlisted from the SCOPUS database in the chosen field of research. Bibliometric analysis was conducted by using VOSviewer to investigate the research trends in the area of SCM.

The review identifies key themes and trends, including supply chain resilience, digital transformation, enhanced visibility, predictive analytics and sustainability considerations. It explores the role of ST in fostering agility, transparency and risk mitigation within supply chains. Furthermore, eight clusters were identified to generate several thematic topics of ST in SCM. The results have evidenced a strong gap related to Industry 5.0 approaches for the supply chain field. A total of 240 publications, including journal articles, have been found in the literature. A total of 37 words, which were grouped in 8 clusters, have been identified in the data analysis.

By synthesizing the current state of literature, this study provides valuable insights for practitioners, policymakers and researchers seeking to navigate the complexities of post-pandemic SCM in an increasingly digitized and interconnected world. The findings highlight the transformative potential of ST and offer a roadmap for further exploration in this critical domain.

In this paper, the development path of the field of ST in SCM during the pandemic and the research constructs are presented and potential research directions are based on the bibliometric method.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has sparked interest in various areas, including marketing. However, this exhilaration is being tempered by growing concerns about the moral and legal implications of using AI in marketing. Although previous research has revealed various ethical and legal issues, such as algorithmic discrimination and data privacy, there are no definitive answers. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating AI’s ethical and legal concerns in marketing and suggesting feasible solutions.

The paper synthesises information from academic articles, industry reports, case studies and legal documents through a thematic literature review. A qualitative analysis approach categorises and interprets ethical and legal challenges and proposes potential solutions.

The findings of this paper raise concerns about ethical and legal challenges related to AI in the marketing area. Ethical concerns related to discrimination, bias, manipulation, job displacement, absence of social interaction, cybersecurity, unintended consequences, environmental impact, privacy and legal issues such as consumer security, responsibility, liability, brand protection, competition law, agreements, data protection, consumer protection and intellectual property rights are discussed in the paper, and their potential solutions are discussed.

Notwithstanding the interesting insights gathered from this investigation of the ethical and legal consequences of AI in marketing, it is important to recognise the limits of this research. Initially, the focus of this study is confined to a review of the most important ethical and legal issues pertaining to AI in marketing. Additional possible repercussions, such as those associated with intellectual property, contracts and licencing, should be investigated more deeply in future studies. Despite the fact that this study gives various answers and best practices for tackling the stated ethical and legal concerns, the viability and efficacy of these solutions may differ depending on the context and industry. Thus, more research and case studies are required to evaluate the applicability and efficacy of these solutions in other circumstances. This research is mostly based on a literature review and may not represent the experiences or opinions of all stakeholders engaged in AI-powered marketing. Further study might involve interviews or surveys with marketing professionals, customers and other key stakeholders to offer a full knowledge of the practical difficulties and solutions. Because of the rapid speed of technical progress, AI’s ethical and regulatory ramifications in marketing are continually increasing. Consequently, this work should be a springboard for more research and continuing conversations on this subject.

This study’s findings have several practical implications for marketing professionals. Emphasising openness and explainability: Marketing professionals should prioritise transparency in their use of AI, ensuring that customers are fully informed about data collection and utilisation for targeted advertising. By promoting openness and explainability, marketers can foster customer trust and avoid the negative consequences of a lack of transparency. Establishing ethical guidelines: Marketing professionals need to develop ethical rules for the creation and implementation of AI-powered marketing strategies. Adhering to ethical principles ensures compliance with legal norms and aligns with the organisation’s values and ideals. Investing in bias detection tools and privacy-enhancing technology: To mitigate risks associated with AI in marketing, marketers should allocate resources to develop and implement bias detection tools and privacy-enhancing technology. These tools can identify and address biases in AI algorithms, safeguard consumer privacy and extract valuable insights from consumer data.

This study’s social implications emphasise the need for a comprehensive approach to address the ethical and legal challenges of AI in marketing. This includes adopting a responsible innovation framework, promoting ethical leadership, using ethical decision-making frameworks and conducting multidisciplinary research. By incorporating these approaches, marketers can navigate the complexities of AI in marketing responsibly, foster an ethical organisational culture, make informed ethical decisions and develop effective solutions. Such practices promote public trust, ensure equitable distribution of benefits and risk, and mitigate potential negative social consequences associated with AI in marketing.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is among the first to explore potential solutions comprehensively. This paper provides a nuanced understanding of the challenges by using a multidisciplinary framework and synthesising various sources. It contributes valuable insights for academia and industry.

The purpose of this study is to understand user perceptions and misconceptions regarding security tools. Security and privacy-preserving tools (for brevity, the authors term them as “security tools” in this paper, unless otherwise specified) are designed to protect the security and privacy of people in the digital environment. However, inappropriate use of these tools can lead to unexpected consequences that are preventable. Hence, it is significant to examine why users do not understand the security tools.

The authors conducted a qualitative study with 40 participants in the USA to investigate the prevalent misconceptions of people regarding security tools, their perceptions of data access and the corresponding impact on their usage behavior and data protection strategies.

While security vulnerabilities are often rooted in people’s internet usage behavior, this study examined user’s mental models of the internet and unpacked how the misconceptions about security tools relate to those mental models.

Based on the findings, this study offers recommendations highlighting the design aspects of security tools that need careful attention from researchers and industry practitioners, to alleviate users’ misconceptions and provide them with accurate conceptual models toward the desired use of security tools.

This study aims to evaluate blockchain as an e-government governance model. It assesses its alignment with legal frameworks, emphasizing robustness against disruptions and adherence to existing laws.

The paper explores blockchain’s potential in e-government, focusing on legal, ethical and governance aspects. It conducts an in-depth analysis of blockchain’s integration into data governance, emphasizing legal compliance and resilient security protocols.

The study comprehensively evaluates blockchain’s implementation, covering privacy, interoperability, consensus mechanisms, scalability and regulatory alignment. It highlights governance’s critical role in ensuring legal compliance within blockchain paradigms.

Ethical and legal concerns arising from blockchain adoption remain unresolved. The study underscores how blockchain challenges its core principles of anonymity and decentralization in e-government settings.

The framework outlined offers potential for diverse technological environments, albeit raising ethical and legal queries. It emphasizes governance’s pivotal role in achieving legal compliance in blockchain adoption.

Blockchain’s impact on legal and ethical facets necessitates further exploration to align with its core principles while addressing governance in e-government settings.

This study presents a robust framework for assessing blockchain’s viability in e-government, emphasizing legal compliance, despite ethical and legal intricacies that challenge its fundamental principles.

This paper aims to increase understanding of pertinent exogenous and endogenous antecedents that can reduce data privacy breaches.

A cross-sectional survey was used to source participants' perceptions of relevant exogenous and endogenous antecedents developed from the Antecedents-Privacy Concerns-Outcomes (APCO) model and Social Cognitive Theory. A research model was proposed and tested with empirical data collected from 213 participants based in Canada.

The exogenous factors of external privacy training and external privacy self-assessment tool significantly and positively impact the study's endogenous factors of individual privacy awareness, organizational resources allocated to privacy concerns, and group behavior concerning privacy laws. Further, the proximal determinants of data privacy breaches (dependent construct) are negatively influenced by individual privacy awareness, group behavior related to privacy laws, and organizational resources allocated to privacy concerns. The endogenous factors fully mediated the relationships between the exogenous factors and the dependent construct.

This study contributes to the budding data privacy breach literature by highlighting the impacts of personal and environmental factors in the discourse.

The results offer management insights on mitigating data privacy breach incidents arising from employees' actions. Roles of external privacy training and privacy self-assessment tools are signified.

Antecedents of data privacy breaches have been underexplored. This paper is among the first to elucidate the roles of select exogenous and endogenous antecedents encompassing personal and environmental imperatives on data privacy breaches.

The management of consumer privacy has become a critical concern for organizations in the age of artificial intelligence–powered marketing. The impact of data on the market environment has brought both benefits and challenges, with marketers gaining valuable insights but also raising privacy concerns. As artificial intelligence–powered marketing advances, consumer vulnerability increases due to the sensitivity of collected data. This vulnerability leads some consumers to resort to falsifying information, posing a significant threat to the digital economy. Privacy empowerment and customer control play a vital role in addressing these challenges. This chapter explores the influencing factors and ethical considerations surrounding data falsification. It also discusses strategies to mitigate perceived vulnerability through privacy controls and explores the consequences of data breaches and customer vulnerability. The chapter further emphasizes the need for organizations to balance benefits, risks, and customer trust while harnessing the value of customer data. An ethical framework for data privacy marketing audits is proposed to help organizations assess their data practices responsibly and competitively. By integrating personal data protection strategies within an ethical framework, organizations can protect consumer privacy, enhance customer trust, and maintain their competitive edge in the market.

Though the circular economy (CE) is a current buzzword, this still lacks a precise definition. In the absence of a clear notion of what that term includes, actions taken by the government and companies may not be well informed. In particular, those actions need to consider what people mean when people talk about the CE, either to refocus people's decisions or to undertake a more effective communications strategy.

Since people voice people's opinions mainly through social media nowadays, special attention has to be paid to discussions on those media. In this paper, the authors focus on Twitter as a popular social platform to deliver one's thoughts quickly and fast. The authors' research aim is to get the perceptions of people about the CE. After collecting more than 100,000 tweets over 16 weeks, the authors analyse those tweets to understand the public discussion about the CE. The authors conduct a frequency analysis of the most recurring words, including the words' association with other words in the same context and categorise them into a set of topics.

The authors show that the discussion focuses on the usage of resources and materials that heavily endanger sustainability, i.e. carbon and plastic and the harmful habit of wasting. On the other hand, the two most common good practices associated with the CE and sustainability emerge as recycling and reuse (the latter being mentioned far less). Also, the business side of the CE appears to be relevant.

The outcome of this analysis can drive suitable communication strategies by which companies and governments interested in the development of the CE can understand what is actually discussed on social media and call for the attention.

This paper addresses the lack of a standard definition the authors highlighted in the Introduction. The results confirm that people understand CE by looking both at CE's constituent activities and CE's expected consequences, namely the reduction of waste, the transition to a green economy free of plastic and other pollutants and the improvement of the world climate.

Research on online user privacy shows that empirical evidence on how privacy literacy relates to users' information privacy empowerment is missing. To fill this gap, this paper investigated the respective influence of two primary dimensions of online privacy literacy – namely declarative and procedural knowledge – on online users' information privacy empowerment.

An empirical analysis is conducted using a dataset collected in Europe. This survey was conducted in 2019 among 27,524 representative respondents of the European population.

The main results show that users' procedural knowledge is positively linked to users' privacy empowerment. The relationship between users' declarative knowledge and users' privacy empowerment is partially supported. While greater awareness about firms and organizations practices in terms of data collections and further uses conditions was found to be significantly associated with increased users' privacy empowerment, unpredictably, results revealed that the awareness about the GDPR and user’s privacy empowerment are negatively associated. The empirical findings reveal also that greater online privacy literacy is associated with heightened users' information privacy empowerment.

While few advanced studies made systematic efforts to measure changes occurred on websites since the GDPR enforcement, it remains unclear, however, how individuals perceive, understand and apply the GDPR rights/guarantees and their likelihood to strengthen users' information privacy control. Therefore, this paper contributes empirically to understanding how online users' privacy literacy shaped by both users' declarative and procedural knowledge is likely to affect users' information privacy empowerment. The study empirically investigates the effectiveness of the GDPR in raising users' information privacy empowerment from user-based perspective. Results stress the importance of greater transparency of data tracking and processing decisions made by online businesses and services to strengthen users' control over information privacy. Study findings also put emphasis on the crucial need for more educational efforts to raise users' awareness about the GDPR rights/guarantees related to data protection. Empirical findings also show that users who are more likely to adopt self-protective approaches to reinforce personal data privacy are more likely to perceive greater control over personal data. A broad implication of this finding for practitioners and E-businesses stresses the need for empowering users with adequate privacy protection tools to ensure more confidential transactions.