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1 – 10 of 767The rising number of food recalls has raised concerns about complexity, globalization and weak governance in the food supply chain. This paper aims to investigate the recall of…
Abstract
Purpose
The rising number of food recalls has raised concerns about complexity, globalization and weak governance in the food supply chain. This paper aims to investigate the recall of plant-based products with data from the US Food and Drug Administration.
Design/methodology/approach
Introducing the structural topic modeling method allowed us to test theories on recall in the context of sustainable food consumption, enhancing the understanding of food recall processes. This approach helps identify latent topics of product recalls and their interwoven relationships with various stakeholders.
Findings
The results answer a standing research call for empirical investigation in a nascent food industry to identify stakeholders’ engagements for food safety crisis management for corporate social responsibility practices. This finding provides novel insights on managing threats to food safety at an industry level to extend existing antecedents and consequences of product recall at a micro level.
Practical implications
For practitioners, this empirical finding may provide insights into stakeholder management and develop evidence-based strategies to prevent threats to food safety. For public policymakers, this analysis may help identify patterns of recalls and assist guidelines and alarm systems (e.g. EU’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed) on threats in the food supply chain.
Originality/value
Two detected clusters, such as opportunisms of market actors in the plant-based food system and food culture, from the analysis help understand corporate social responsibility and food safety in the plant-based food industry.
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This study aims to reconstruct how smallholder farmers implement livelihood adaptation strategies to survive and escape poverty, thereby mitigating or eliminating potential…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to reconstruct how smallholder farmers implement livelihood adaptation strategies to survive and escape poverty, thereby mitigating or eliminating potential livelihood risks by utilizing their available assets.
Design/methodology/approach
This research employed a qualitative approach. For the collection of primary data, the researcher conducted observations and in-depth interviews and engaged with the lives of smallholder farmers during the data collection period.
Findings
Among the various livelihood adaptation strategies, only migration and profit-sharing strategies enable smallholder farmers to escape poverty. However, migration is an unsustainable adaptation strategy. When farmers move to new locations, they often resort to slash-and-burn methods for clearing land, which can lead to forest degradation and deforestation. Profit sharing is a sustainable livelihood adaptation strategy that falls into a different category. This approach can lift farmers out of poverty, increase their income and have no negative environmental impact. Other adaptation strategies include adjustments to traditional agriculture, both on and off-farm diversification, involving the family in income generation, reducing farming costs, practicing frugality in post-harvest processes, converting land from coffee cultivation to other crops and borrowing money and selling owned assets. Smallholder farmers implement these strategies to survive the existing economic conditions.
Originality/value
The profit-sharing strategy was a novel livelihood adaptation approach that previous studies had yet to uncover at the research site. In this strategy, farmers assume the roles of both managers and laborers simultaneously during farming, while toke (the capital owners) play the role of farming funders. The generated profit is then shared between farmers and toke based on the agreement established at the outset of their collaboration.
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Donia Waseem, Shijiao (Joseph) Chen, Zhenhua (Raymond) Xia, Nripendra P. Rana, Balkrushna Potdar and Khai Trieu Tran
In the online environment, consumers increasingly feel vulnerable due to firms’ expanding capabilities of collecting and using their data in an unsanctioned manner. Drawing from…
Abstract
Purpose
In the online environment, consumers increasingly feel vulnerable due to firms’ expanding capabilities of collecting and using their data in an unsanctioned manner. Drawing from gossip theory, this research focuses on two key suppressors of consumer vulnerability: transparency and control. Previous studies conceptualize transparency and control from rationalistic approaches that overlook individual experiences and present a unidimensional conceptualization. This research aims to understand how individuals interpret transparency and control concerning privacy vulnerability in the online environment. Additionally, it explores strategic approaches to communicating the value of transparency and control.
Design/methodology/approach
An interpretivism paradigm and phenomenology were adopted in the research design. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 41 participants, including consumers and experts, and analyzed through thematic analysis.
Findings
The findings identify key conceptual dimensions of transparency and control by adapting justice theory. They also reveal that firms can communicate assurance, functional, technical and social values of transparency and control to address consumer vulnerability.
Originality/value
This research makes the following contributions to the data privacy literature. The findings exhibit multidimensional and comprehensive conceptualizations of transparency and control, including user, firm and information perspectives. Additionally, the conceptual framework combines empirical insights from both experiencers and observers to offer an understanding of how transparency and control serve as justice mechanisms to effectively tackle the issue of unsanctioned transmission of personal information and subsequently address vulnerability. Lastly, the findings provide strategic approaches to communicating the value of transparency and control.
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Jacquie McGraw, Rebekah Russell-Bennett and Katherine M. White
Preventative health services are keen to identify how to engage men and increase their participation, thus improving health, well-being and life expectancy over time. Prior…
Abstract
Purpose
Preventative health services are keen to identify how to engage men and increase their participation, thus improving health, well-being and life expectancy over time. Prior research has shown general gender norms are a key reason for men’s avoidance of these services, yet there is little investigation of specific gender norms. Furthermore, masculinity has not been examined as a factor associated with customer vulnerability. This paper aims to identify the relationship between gender norm segments for men, likely customer vulnerability over time and subjective health and well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
Adult males (n = 13,891) from an Australian longitudinal men’s health study were classified using latent class analysis. Conditional growth mixture modelling was conducted at three timepoints.
Findings
Three masculinity segments were identified based on masculine norm conformity: traditional self-reliant, traditional bravado and modern status. All segments had likely customer experience of vulnerability. Over time, the likely experience was temporary for the modern status segment but prolonged for the traditional self-reliant and traditional bravado segments. The traditional self-reliant segment had low subjective health and low overall well-being over time.
Practical implications
Practitioners can tailor services to gender norm segments, enabling self-reliant men to provide expertise and use the “Status” norm to reach all masculinity segments.
Originality/value
The study of customer vulnerability in a group usually considered privileged identifies differential temporal experiences based on gender norms. The study confirms customer vulnerability is temporal in nature; customer vulnerability changes over time from likely to actual for self-reliant men.
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Betul Gokkaya, Erisa Karafili, Leonardo Aniello and Basel Halak
The purpose of this study is to increase awareness of current supply chain (SC) security-related issues by providing an extensive analysis of existing SC security solutions and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to increase awareness of current supply chain (SC) security-related issues by providing an extensive analysis of existing SC security solutions and their limitations. The security of SCs has received increasing attention from researchers, due to the emerging risks associated with their distributed nature. The increase in risk in SCs comes from threats that are inherently similar regardless of the type of SC, thus, requiring similar defence mechanisms. Being able to identify the types of threats will help developers to build effective defences.
Design/methodology/approach
In this work, we provide an analysis of the threats, possible attacks and traceability solutions for SCs, and highlight outstanding problems. Through a comprehensive literature review (2015–2021), we analysed various SC security solutions, focussing on tracking solutions. In particular, we focus on three types of SCs: digital, food and pharmaceutical that are considered prime targets for cyberattacks. We introduce a systematic categorization of threats and discuss emerging solutions for prevention and mitigation.
Findings
Our study shows that the current traceability solutions for SC systems do not offer a broadened security analysis and fail to provide extensive protection against cyberattacks. Furthermore, global SCs face common challenges, as there are still unresolved issues, especially those related to the increasing SC complexity and interconnectivity, where cyberattacks are spread across suppliers.
Originality/value
This is the first time that a systematic categorization of general threats for SC is made based on an existing threat model for hardware SC.
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Jan Mei Soon-Sinclair, Rounaq Nayak and Louise Manning
The 2008 Chinese melamine milk scandal resulted in six reported fatalities and affected around 300,000 children, of whom 54,000 were hospitalised. Previous studies have used…
Abstract
Purpose
The 2008 Chinese melamine milk scandal resulted in six reported fatalities and affected around 300,000 children, of whom 54,000 were hospitalised. Previous studies have used linear approaches to examine the root causes of the melamine milk scandal.
Design/methodology/approach
In the present study, we applied a systems approach to the melamine milk scandal to identify the complex systems-level failures across the supply chain leading to the incident and why food fraud incidents such as this occurred in the dairy sector. Additionally, systemic failures associated with food fraud vulnerability factors were considered (i.e. opportunities, motivation and control measures).
Findings
48 contributory factors of influence were identified and grouped across six sociotechnical levels across the Chinese dairy system, from government to equipment and surroundings. Lack of vertical integration (processes and communication) contributed to the failure. When viewed from a broader perspective, the melamine milk scandal can be linked to a series of human errors and organisational issues associated with government bodies, the dairy supply chain, individual organisations and management decisions and individual actions of staff or processes.
Practical implications
This approach is of value to policymakers and the industry as it supports public health investigations of food fraud incidents and proactive food safety management.
Originality/value
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to analyse a food safety or fraud incident using the AcciMap approach and the food fraud vulnerability assessment (FFVA) technique. AcciMap analysis is applied to both unintentional and intentional aspects of the incident.
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Damianos P. Sakas, Nikolaos T. Giannakopoulos, Marina C. Terzi, Ioannis Dimitrios G. Kamperos and Nikos Kanellos
The paper’s main goal is to examine the relationship between the video marketing of financial technologies (Fintechs) and their vulnerable website customers’ brand engagement in…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper’s main goal is to examine the relationship between the video marketing of financial technologies (Fintechs) and their vulnerable website customers’ brand engagement in the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis.
Design/methodology/approach
To extract the required outcomes, the authors gathered data from the five biggest Fintech websites and YouTube channels, performed multiple linear regression models and developed a hybrid (agent-based and dynamic) model to assess the performance connection between their video marketing analytics and vulnerable website customers’ brand engagement.
Findings
It has been found that video marketing analytics of Fintechs’ YouTube channels are a decisive factor in impacting their vulnerable website customers’ brand engagement and awareness.
Research limitations/implications
By enhancing video marketing analytics of their YouTube channels, Fintechs can achieve greater levels of vulnerable website customers’ engagement and awareness. Higher levels of vulnerable customers’ brand engagement and awareness tend to decrease their vulnerability by enhancing their financial knowledge and confidence.
Practical implications
Fintechs should aim to increase the number of total videos on their YouTube channels and provide videos that promote their customers’ knowledge of their services to increase their brand engagement and awareness, thus reducing their vulnerability. Moreover, Fintechs should be aware not to over-post videos because they will be in an unfavorable position against their competitors.
Originality/value
This research offers valuable insights regarding the importance of video marketing strategies for Fintechs in promoting their vulnerable website customers’ brand awareness during crisis periods.
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Arne Roar Nygård and Sokratis K. Katsikas
This paper aims to discuss the ethical aspects of hardware reverse engineering (HRE) and propose an ethical framework for HRE when used to mitigate cyber risks of the digital…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to discuss the ethical aspects of hardware reverse engineering (HRE) and propose an ethical framework for HRE when used to mitigate cyber risks of the digital supply chain of critical infrastructure operators.
Design/methodology/approach
A thorough review and analysis of existing relevant literature was performed to establish the current state of knowledge in the field. Ethical frameworks proposed for other areas/disciplines and identified pertinent ethical principles have been used to inform the proposed framework’s development.
Findings
The proposed framework provides actionable guidance to security professionals engaged with such activities to support them in assessing whether an HRE project conforms to ethical principles. Recommendations on action needed to complement the framework are also proposed. According to the proposed framework, reverse engineering is neither unethical nor illegal if performed honourably. Collaboration with vendors and suppliers at an industry-wide level is critical for appropriately endorsing the proposed framework.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no ethical framework currently guides cybersecurity research, far less of cybersecurity vulnerability research and reverse engineering.
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Diego Monferrer Tirado, Lidia Vidal-Meliá, John Cardiff and Keith Quille
This research aims to determine to what extent corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions developed by bank entities in Spain improve the vulnerable customers' emotions and…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to determine to what extent corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions developed by bank entities in Spain improve the vulnerable customers' emotions and quality perception of the banking service. Consequently, this increases the quality of their relationship regarding satisfaction, trust and engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from 734 vulnerable banking customers were analyzed through structural equations modeling (EQS 6.2) to test the relationships of the proposed variables.
Findings
Vulnerable customers' emotional disposition exerts a strong influence on their perceived service quality. The antecedent effect is concentrated primarily on the CSR towards the client, with a residual secondary weight on the CSR towards society. These positive service emotions are determinants of the outcome quality perceived by vulnerable customers, directly in terms of higher satisfaction and trust and indirectly through engagement.
Practical implications
This research contributes to understanding how financial service providers should adapt to the specific characteristics and needs of vulnerable clients by adopting a strategy of approach, personalization and humanization of the service that seems to move away from the actions implemented by the banking industry in recent years.
Originality/value
This study has adopted a theoretical and empirical perspective on the impact of CSR on service emotions and outcome quality of vulnerable banking customers. Moreover, banks can adopt a dual conception of CSR: a macro and external scope toward society and a micro and internal scope toward customers.
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Ricardo Fernandes Santos, Fábio Lotti Oliva, Celso Claudio de Hildebrand e Grisi, Masaaki Kotabe, Manlio Del Giudice and Armando Papa
The problem statement is how to identify and analyze the corporate risks involved in the relationships with external agents involved in the open product innovation process (OPIP)…
Abstract
Purpose
The problem statement is how to identify and analyze the corporate risks involved in the relationships with external agents involved in the open product innovation process (OPIP)? Seeking to extend this investigation, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the enterprise risks identified in corporate relations with external agents of the OPIP. This study proposes the systematization of the process of identification and analysis of the enterprise risks involved in the process of open product innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
The case explored in this study is the OPIP of Volkswagen do Brasil (VWB), one of the most important subsidiaries of the Volkswagen Group. Criteria were selected to both assessing corporate relations with external agents of the open innovation of VWB and analyzing the enterprise risks identified in these relations. Data collection included interviews with management-level professionals engaged in the OPIP activities and technical visits to a VWB’s industrial plant.
Findings
Results demonstrate that the enterprise risks mostly affecting the OPIP have a critical impact on the manufacturing process and initial sales of the new product.
Originality/value
The originality of the study focuses on the proposal of a systematization of how to identify and analyze the corporate risks involved in the process of open product innovation. The study focuses on the theoretical frontier on the open innovation and enterprise risk management (ERM) in the open innovation process.
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