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The purpose of this study is to comprehend how individuals analysed organisational initiatives while responding to the COVID-19 crisis through corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives through both in-kind and in cash (funding-based) forms. CSR actions manifested finally towards the achievement of organisational reputational and economic egoism.

The study was conducted on 331 respondents during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown in India. Moderated mediation analysis was conducted for data analysis and hypothesis testing. Two models were tested. The research models were tested using a statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) and AMOS.

This study considered the evaluation of the in cash (funding-based) and in-kind CSR types of CSR initiatives by individuals with personal cultural characteristics of independence, interdependence and altruism. The results of the first model indicated a significant positive relationship between independence, utilitarian thinking (UT) and organisational economic egoism (OEE). The mediating effect of UT between the independence-OEE relationship was significant. The results of the second model also found a significant relationship between interdependence, deontological thinking (DT) and organisational reputational egoism (ORE). Similarly, there was a significant positive relationship between altruism, DT and ORE. The mediation effect of DT was significant for both the relationships. The moderated mediation relationship of both the first and second model has been found to be significant.

In the research integrated models were developed associating individual personal cultural characteristics of independence, interdependence and altruism with UT and DT and subsequently to organisational economic and reputational egoism.

Managers undertaking CSR initiatives through both in-kind and in cash (funding-based) would be better able to understand based upon these study insights what nature of CSR initiatives (in-kind or in cash) are more appropriate for what kind of individual context (independence, interdependence and altruism) in decision-making (UT and DT) with organisational context (organisational economic and reputational egoism).

In the trying realities of the COVID-19 context, firms were contributing to society through CSR initiatives which were both in-kind and in cash (funding-based) in nature. This study emphasised what kind of CSR initiative was more appropriate for what kind of context for both enhanced social good and increased organisational gains.

This was one of the first studies in the context of CSR initiatives during COVID-19 times that analysed evaluation of in cash (funding-based) and in-kind CSR actions. CSR initiatives by individuals with personal cultural characteristics of independence, interdependence and altruism were related to UT and DT and finally manifested towards organisational economic and reputational egoism.

The impact of technology on the health and well-being of workers has been a topic of interest since computers and computerized technology were widely introduced in the 1980s. Of recent concern is the impact of rapid technological advances on individuals’ psychological well-being, especially due to advancements in mobile technology that have increased many workers’ accessibility and expected productivity. In this chapter we focus on the associations between occupational stress and technology, especially behavioral and psychological reactions. We discuss some key facilitators and barriers associated with users’ acceptance of and engagement with information and communication technology. We conclude with recommendations for ongoing research on managing occupational health and well-being in conjunction with technological advancements.

The present study focuses on the link between foreign language anxiety (FLA), self-perceived proficiency, and multilingualism in the under-explored English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context of Saudi Arabia. Ninety-six Arabic undergraduate college-level EFL students (56 males, 40 females) answered the Arabic version of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS – Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986). The analyses revealed that Saudi multilinguals suffered from low to moderate levels of FLA with female participants experiencing more anxiety than their male counterparts. Multiple regression analyses revealed that gender and self-perceived proficiency explained over a quarter of variance in FLA. Furthermore, the study did not find any role of experience abroad in predicting FLA.

Current stereotypes of aging consumers paint a picture of them as technology anxious and reluctant to adopt new technologies. This paper aims to show that the present 50‐to‐60 age group does not fit these stereotypes.

A total of 620 Finnish baby boomers (aged between 50 and 60) responded to a mail survey.

Baby boom consumers are shown, in contrast to the stereotypes, to have low levels of technology anxiety and high levels of experience of internet and SMS usage. It is also shown that technology anxiety and experience have an inverse relationship in the age group.

To some extent, the results provide evidence of the distortedness of current stereotypes that are used to describe 50‐plus consumers. However, data was gathered only in one country. Replications of this study in different countries would allow drawing broader conclusions.

Marketers of technological products and services are advised to let go of the outdated stereotypes, familiarize themselves with today's 50‐plus consumers and when applicable, invest effort in serving this market.

While there exists some research on aging consumers as Internet users, this study offers a more general view on aging consumers and their use of technological services by examining technology anxiety within this specific market. The results should be of value to both academicians and practitioners in realizing the potential of the mature market.

The classification of psychological suffering stumbles on the challenge of quantifying the ‘un-quantifiable’ upon the systematic categorising and description of affective and mental states and their transformation into illnesses and disorders. In this chapter, the author will explore the affect of anxiety through a critical recent history of its diagnosis and treatment in the context of psychological care. By unpacking the strategies employed by mainstream psychiatry in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association since the mid-twentieth century, it is possible to unveil the dynamics of a reduction of the subject to a productive-biological body in the last decades. This chapter thinks through what happens to the equation ‘body-world’ through the critical genealogy of affect and its relation to diagnoses and treatments of anxiety and depression. It grapples with the ethics of techno-scientific global financial capitalism – heralded by pharmacological corporations and governmentality – which replicates a modern scientific view of the body, affect and suffering in a world of renewed paradigmatic demands. The author argues that by consistently pathologizing and working towards the elimination of anxiety, the hegemonic clinic erases the possibility of such ‘subjective truth’, reducing the subject to the status of ‘dividual’.

Purpose: To demonstrate how an online coaching intervention can support well-being management (mental health and mood) of medical students, by increasing psychological awareness, emotional management, and healthy/positive action repertoires.

Design/methodology/approach: A two-group randomized control trial design using a waitlist as a control was used with a sample of 176 medical students. Half were randomly assigned the 5P© coaching intervention and the remaining half assigned to the waitlist group, scheduled to receive the intervention after the initial treatment group completed the intervention. Participant baseline data on stress, anxiety, depression, positive and negative affect, and psychological capital were obtained prior to commencing the study, after completion of the first treatment group, and again postintervention of the waitlisted group, and then at the end of the year.

Findings: Coaching the students to reflect on their emotions and make solution-focused choices to manage known stresses of medical education was shown to decrease medical student stress, anxiety, and depression, thereby increasing the mental health profiles of medical students.

Research limitations/implications: The findings suggest that an online coaching tool that increases psychological awareness and positive action can have a positive effect on mental health and mood of medical students.

Practical implications: The framework developed and tested in this study is a useful tool for medical schools to assist medical students in managing their well-being, thereby decreasing the incidence and prevalence of mental illness in medical students. The implications of this research are significant in that positively affecting the psychological well-being of medical students could have a significant effect not only on each medical student but also on every patient that they treat, and society as a whole. Better mental health in medical students has the potential to decrease dropout rates, increase empathy and professionalism, and allow for better patient care.

Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature on online coaching for improved psychological well-being and emotional regulation, mental health, and medical students. It is one of the first studies using a coaching protocol to make a positive change to the known stress, anxiety, and depression experienced by medical students worldwide.

Will consumers accept artificial intelligence (AI) products that evaluate them? New consumer products offer AI evaluations. However, previous research has never investigated how consumers feel about being evaluated by AI instead of by a human. Furthermore, why do consumers experience being evaluated by an AI algorithm or by a human differently? This research aims to offer answers to these questions.

Three laboratory experiments were conducted. Experiments 1 and 2 test the main effect of evaluator (AI and human) and evaluations received (positive, neutral and negative) on fairness perception of the evaluation. Experiment 3 replicates previous findings and tests the mediation effect.

Building on previous research on consumer biases and lack of transparency anxiety, the authors present converging evidence that consumers who got positive evaluations reported nonsignificant difference on the level of fairness perception on the evaluation regardless of the evaluator (human or AI). Contrarily, consumers who got negative evaluations reported lower fairness perception when the evaluation was given by AI. Further moderated mediation analysis showed that consumers who get a negative evaluation by AI experience higher levels of lack of transparency anxiety, which in turn is an underlying mechanism driving this effect.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, no previous research has investigated how consumers feel about being evaluated by AI instead of by a human. This consumer bias against AI evaluations is a phenomenon previously overlooked in the marketing literature, with many implications for the development and adoption of new AI products, as well as theoretical contributions to the nascent literature on consumer experience and AI.

Rising rates of anxiety and depression and the varied costs of these conditions indicate a clear need to create learning environments in which graduate and professional students can more readily thrive. However, the absence of multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary evidence about mental health in graduate education has obscured a clear picture of which populations, contexts and social dynamics merit focused attention and resources. The purpose of this study is therefore to analyze prevalence and risk factors associated with anxiety and depression among a large sample of graduate students, with special attention to how graduate education environments and interactions may be associated with mental health.

This paper offers the first multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary analysis of depression and anxiety among US graduate and professional students. Using a sample of 20,888 students randomly sampled within 69 universities, the author compares depression and anxiety prevalence among fields of study with hierarchical cluster modeling. Then, using a conceptual framework that links social support, role strain and self-determination theories, the author estimates fixed effects multivariate logistic regressions to measure how depression and anxiety are associated with experiencing racial discrimination, support from friends and family, perceived competitiveness in one’s classes, and comfort speaking with one’s professors about mental health.

Graduate students who endure frequent racial discrimination have odds of screening positive for depression and anxiety that are 2.3 and 3.0 times higher, respectively, than those who never experience discrimination. Support from family and friends moderates these relationships and perceived competitiveness exacerbates them. LGBTQ students and students who self-report that finances are a struggle or tight also have higher odds of depression and anxiety. Students in the humanities, arts and architecture have significantly higher prevalence of depression and anxiety than the sample as a whole.

The paper offers broadest base of evidence to date about patterns that are usually experienced at the individual level or analyzed institution-by-institution and field-by-field. Specifically, the author identified social dynamics, fields of study and populations where attention to wellbeing may be especially warranted. The conceptual framework and multivariate results clarify how organizational and individual factors in graduate students’ mental health may be intertwined through competitive, discriminatory, or supportive interactions with peers, faculty, family and friends. Findings clarify a need for awareness of the contexts and interactions that graduate students experience as well as individual factors that are associated with student wellbeing.