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1 – 10 of 993João M.M. Lopes, Sofia Gomes and Tiago Trancoso
Green consumption is fundamental to sustainable development, as it involves adopting practices and technologies that reduce the environmental impact of human activities. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Green consumption is fundamental to sustainable development, as it involves adopting practices and technologies that reduce the environmental impact of human activities. This study aims to analyze the influence of consumers’ green orientation on their environmental concerns and green purchase decisions. Furthermore, the study investigates the mediating role of consumers’ environmental concerns in the relationship between pro-sustainable orientation and green purchase decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a quantitative methodology, applying the partial least squares method to a sample of 927 Portuguese consumers of green products. The sample was collected through an online survey.
Findings
Perceived benefits and perceived quality of products play a positive and significant role in influencing green behavior, especially when consumers are endowed with greater environmental concerns. In addition, consumers’ awareness of the prices of green products and their expectations regarding the future benefits of sustainable consumption positively impact green consumption behavior, further intensifying their environmental concerns.
Practical implications
According to the present findings, companies should adopt a holistic and integrated approach to promote green consumption. This means creating premium eco-friendly products, communicating their benefits, addressing the cost factor, emphasizing the future impact of eco-friendly options and raising consumers’ environmental awareness.
Social implications
It is critical that environmental education is a priority in schools and that there are political incentives for green behaviors. In addition, media campaigns can be an important tool to raise awareness in society.
Originality/value
The results of this study provide important insights for companies on consumer engagement in the circular economy. Deepening knowledge of the antecedents of consumers’ environmental concerns contributes to a deeper understanding of green purchasing decision behavior, allowing companies to support new business strategies.
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Eric Agyemang, John Boulard Forkuor, Ronald Kondor and Douglas Attoh Odongo
This study investigates the economic strategies street beggars (SBs) employ in Ghana to gain a competitive advantage within the contested urban spaces they occupy. By…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the economic strategies street beggars (SBs) employ in Ghana to gain a competitive advantage within the contested urban spaces they occupy. By conceptualising SBs as economic actors, the research shifts the focus from perceiving them as passive recipients of charity to recognising their intentional decision-making and strategic behaviour to maximise financial benefits.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts a qualitative case study approach, using non-participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 40 SBs in Kumasi, Ghana. Thematic analysis was used to identify the economic strategies used by SBs to gain a competitive advantage.
Findings
The study reveals three main strategies adopted by SBs: child advertisement, body marketing, and narrative marketing. These strategies emerge from the SBs' contextual understanding of the public’s social protection needs and are used to develop strategies that give them an advantage over other SBs within contested urban streets.
Research limitations/implications
Future research could explore the effectiveness of different economic strategies employed by street beggars and compare their financial outcomes. Investigating the public’s perceptions and attitudes towards these strategies could provide valuable insights.
Practical implications
Policymakers and city authorities should acknowledge some street begging as an economic activity and develop regulations, designate begging areas, and establish guidelines for acceptable practices. Creating targeted skill training, entrepreneurship programs, and access to microfinance can facilitate the transition of street beggars from begging to more sustainable forms of livelihood.
Social implications
This study challenges the perception of street beggars as passive victims, highlighting their agency and strategic decision-making. Recognizing their economic strategies can inform policies that regulate begging as an economic activity, create alternative opportunities, and prevent exploitation of vulnerable groups, ultimately promoting more sustainable and dignified livelihoods for street beggars.
Originality/value
This study seeks to enrich the current literature and bridge the research gap by investigating the phenomenon of street begging and the diverse economic strategies street beggars employ to gain a competitive advantage within urban areas. This research moves beyond computing financial income and regulating begging by conceptualizing SBs as economic actors and begging as an economic activity. It explores how SBs use conscious efforts and rational strategies to maximize financial benefits from passers-by and outperform other SBs, providing novel insights into the complex dynamics of street begging.
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Liridon Kryeziu, Besnik A. Krasniqi, Mehmet Bağış, Vjose Hajrullahu, Genc Zhushi, Donika Bytyçi and Mirsim Ismajli
This study aims to examine the impact of regulatory, normative and cultural cognitive institutions and firm and individual factors on entrepreneurial behavior.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the impact of regulatory, normative and cultural cognitive institutions and firm and individual factors on entrepreneurial behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the quantitative research method, the authors collected data from 316 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Kosovo, a transition economy, through a cross-sectional research design. The authors performed exploratory factor analyses, correlation and regression analyses on the data using SPSS 26 and STATA software.
Findings
The research findings indicate that, within transition economies, normative and cultural-cognitive institutions have a positive impact on entrepreneurial behaviors. The authors could not determine the effect of regulatory institutions on entrepreneurial behavior. The authors also discovered that young firms are more inclined toward entrepreneurial behavior than older firms, and micro firms display a stronger entrepreneurial behavior than small firms. Furthermore, family businesses showed a greater tendency for entrepreneurial behavior than nonfamily firms. Interestingly, when the rational decision-making interacts with regulatory institutions, the effect on entrepreneurial behavior is negative.
Research limitations/implications
This study employed a cross-sectional approach to investigate the influence of macro, meso, and micro-level factors on entrepreneurial behavior within a transitioning community across three industries. Future studies could replicate these findings within comparable institutional contexts, employing longitudinal studies that include additional variables beyond those considered in our present study.
Practical implications
Considering the importance of MSMEs for a country’s economic and sustainable development, the authors provide some policy implications. The authors recommend managers carefully evaluate the information gathered while they decide and also increase their capabilities concerning digitalization, which is crucial for their firm’s survival, growth and sustainable competitive advantage.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature and shows and analyses entrepreneurial behavior at institutional (macro), firm-level factors (meso) and managers' rational decision-making (micro), providing evidence from a transition community.
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Yiru Zha and Jiawei Jin
This study aims to investigate how environmentalism in photovoltaic (PV) substitution and nationalism in PV rivalry with the USA are associated with the trade-offs made by young…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how environmentalism in photovoltaic (PV) substitution and nationalism in PV rivalry with the USA are associated with the trade-offs made by young consumers in Lanzhou when selecting Chinese brand portable solar power banks.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the choice-based conjoint survey was conducted to investigate mobile power bank consumers aged 18–28 in Lanzhou urban districts. A total of 2,004 valid questionnaires were collected and 1,813 sample was used in analyses. Logit and ordinary least squares regression models were run for empirical analyses.
Findings
The research results show that consumers tend to sacrifice certain levels of affordability for moderate technological capability, a reputable brand, better portability and advanced charging functions or sacrifice certain levels of technological capabilities for a moderate price. Consumers with stronger environmentalism in PV substitution tend to prioritize median price levels, larger battery capacity and better portability, while being less sensitive to brand and showing less preference for advanced charging functions. Consumers with stronger nationalism in PV rivalry tend to prioritize reasonably higher prices, bigger brands, enhanced portability, more solar panels and advanced charging functions.
Practical implications
This research sheds light on consumer trade-offs between price, brand, portability, technological capability and charging function. It also explores how environmentalism and nationalism sentiments are associated with consumer decision-making. These insights carry valuable policy implications for fostering product innovation, supporting brand-building initiatives for small and medium-size enterprises, promoting market competition and preventing the weaponization of consumer nationalism.
Originality/value
As an emerging solar power product, the portable solar power bank holds significant potential for widespread adoption as a means to drive energy transition. Within the current context, two notable sentiments have surfaced: environmentalism, which pertains to the adoption of PV technology as a substitute for conventional energy sources and nationalism, which manifests in the PV rivalry between China and the USA. This research aims to investigate consumer preference related to this emerging product, specifically focusing on its relationship with these two sentiments.
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Ali Sajedikhah, Hossein Rezaei Dolatabadi and Arash Shahin
This study aims to investigate the extent and pattern of the influence of one of the most important decision-making tools in the context of social commerce. This study…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the extent and pattern of the influence of one of the most important decision-making tools in the context of social commerce. This study demonstrates how much customer testimonials (including verified purchases and ordinary users) can influence the sales rank of experience and search goods.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected by text mining and performing a content analysis on the XML documents of Web pages and processing them. For search goods, 22,311 opinions were recorded regarding 95 mobile phones. Additionally, for experience goods, 67,817 opinions were recorded regarding 162 books in the Amazon online store. The data were analyzed by functional regression method in longitudinal data analysis.
Findings
In terms of importance, the opinions and recommendations of verified purchases had a 60% greater impact on the sales rank of experience goods than the opinions and recommendations of ordinary users. In search goods, the opinions of ordinary users had a greater impact than the opinions of verified purchases. The historical effect of the opinions of ordinary users at the end of the review period on sales rank was evident, while the historical effect of the verified purchase viewpoints during the review period had a nonlinear curve. The results showed that it was necessary to increase the volume of comments to increase their reliability in experience goods.
Practical implications
Measuring the effect of customer testimonials helps the managers of retail websites design algorithms and online suggestion systems, thereby improving the sales of their products by providing information desired by customers.
Social implications
Individuals can be a source of information and influence the buying decision process of others by sharing their experiences. This issue helps reduce the purchase risk and explains the importance of interaction and sharing the customer’s experience.
Originality/value
Analyzing the impact of customer testimonials by separating verified purchases and ordinary users is one of the advantages of this study. The quantitative estimation of the impact of recommendations and the provision of a model of their historical effect is one of the approaches not addressed in similar studies.
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Florian Philipp Federsel, Rolf Uwe Fülbier and Jan Seitz
A gap between research and practice is commonly perceived throughout accounting academia. However, empirical evidence on the magnitude of this detachment remains scarce. The…
Abstract
Purpose
A gap between research and practice is commonly perceived throughout accounting academia. However, empirical evidence on the magnitude of this detachment remains scarce. The authors provide new evidence to the ongoing debate by introducing a novel topic-based approach to capture the research-practice gap and quantify its extent. They also explore regional differences in the research-practice gap.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors apply the unsupervised machine learning approach Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) to compare the topical composition of 2,251 articles from six premier research, practice and bridging journals from the USA and Europe between 2009 and 2019. The authors extend the existing methods of summarizing literature and develop metrics that allow researchers to evaluate the research-practice gap. The authors conduct a plethora of additional analyses to corroborate the findings.
Findings
The results substantiate a pronounced topic-related research-practice gap in accounting literature and document its statistical significance. Moreover, the authors uncover that this gap is more pronounced in the USA than in Europe, highlighting the importance of institutional differences between academic communities.
Practical implications
The authors objectify the debate about the extent of a research-practice gap and stimulate further discussions about explanations and consequences.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to deploy a rigorous machine learning approach to measure a topic-based research-practice gap in the accounting literature. Additionally, the authors provide theoretical rationales for the extent and regional differences in the research-practice gap.
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Azwan Abdullah, Petter Gottschalk, Chander Mohan Gupta, Maryam Kamaei, William Stadler and Andreea-Luciana Urzică
This study aims to identify perceptions of financial crime among students in six different countries.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to identify perceptions of financial crime among students in six different countries.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey research was conducted among students in India, Iran, Malaysia, Norway, Romania and the USA to compare the ranking of perceptions.
Findings
The following three propositions for financial crime had most agreement among respondents: lack of oversight and guardianship, legitimate access to resources and heroic offender status.
Research limitations/implications
Scholars involved in various countries conducted survey research at different points in time with little knowledge of each other’s survey populations and response rates.
Practical implications
Crime convenience and, thus, attractiveness can be addressed by focusing on propositions finding the strongest agreement in the surveys.
Social implications
Agreement and lack of agreement indicate priorities in fighting financial crime.
Originality/value
The diversity of nations involved in survey research makes this study interesting.
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This paper develops an evidence-based conceptual framework for exploring the applicability of choice architecture in business relationships.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper develops an evidence-based conceptual framework for exploring the applicability of choice architecture in business relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical studies of choice architecture in various fields are systematically reviewed to identify choice architecture techniques; major resulting categories of techniques are then discussed for applicability to business relationship contexts, and avenues for research are outlined.
Findings
Managerial decision-making is potentially influenced by changes to choice contexts that (1 provide additional information from outside the choice context, (2) facilitate a particular way of comparing options, (3) present options in new ways, (4) rework the choice set, e.g. by adding options and (5) create internal states that push toward a target choice.
Originality/value
The paper introduces the concept of choice architecture to business relationships. It develops a taxonomy of choice architecture techniques to guide the exploration of choice architecture effects in business relationships.
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This study aims to elucidate the dynamics of monetary and fiscal policy interactions in Brazil, focusing on the impacts of positive shocks in government consumption and interest…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to elucidate the dynamics of monetary and fiscal policy interactions in Brazil, focusing on the impacts of positive shocks in government consumption and interest rates. By comparing rational and behavioral agent responses, it clarifies how these frameworks influence gross domestic product (GDP), inflation, private and government consumption and nominal interest rates.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs a new Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with Bayesian estimation from 2000Q1 to 2022Q4, capturing rational and behavioral behaviors with adjustments for Brazilian economic idiosyncrasies. Impulse response functions (IRF) assess the dynamic effects of policy shocks, providing a comparative analysis of the two frameworks.
Findings
Behavioral agents show greater initial sensitivity to policy shocks, causing more pronounced fluctuations in GDP, inflation and private consumption compared to rational agents. Over time, the behavioral approach leads to a more robust recovery, while the rational approach results in a quicker return to equilibrium but less pronounced long-term recovery. The study also finds fiscal policy can partially offset the negative impacts of monetary tightening, with a more delayed effect in the behavioral model.
Originality/value
This paper provides insights into the interplay between monetary and fiscal policies under different agent expectations, emphasizing the importance of incorporating behavioral elements into macroeconomic models to better capture policy dynamics in emerging markets.
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Shaheen Borna, Samer Elhajjar and Qiannong Gu
The purpose of this study is to systematically review the existing literature on the concept of consumer sovereignty.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to systematically review the existing literature on the concept of consumer sovereignty.
Design/methodology/approach
By leveraging a systematic literature review using a data-driven approach and quantitative methodology, this study provides an overview of the intellectual structure of consumer sovereignty research.
Findings
We explored the main topics that researchers tackled in consumer sovereignty research. Furthermore, we identified the theoretical lenses used in these studies. Finally, we proposed a research agenda to advance the scholarly debate on consumer sovereignty.
Research limitations/implications
Some limitations should be acknowledged. First, the study only studied and analyzed consumer sovereignty articles that were published in peer-reviewed academic journals. Second, our review comprised journals identified in Scopus. Third, in this study, we have taken into account only articles written in English.
Practical implications
The authors expect the current review to significantly impact the identification of theories for the main trends in the academic analysis of consumer sovereignty and consumer behavior.
Originality/value
This study is the first to provide an integrated view of the body of consumer sovereignty. This review provides a strong contribution to consumer sovereignty literature by recommending a new research agenda for the concept of consumer sovereignty.
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