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The purpose of this paper is to present the initial results of the Camp Performance Indicator (CPI) system to illustrate the importance of self-reliance of refugee camp dwellers with regard to infrastructure and service investments.

Data, derived from a field trip to Zaatari in autumn 2016 and thorough literature research, were taken to develop a new CPI system. The findings from the literature research were merged with available camp data to validate each other.

Self-reliance is a fundamental human right and anchored in the UN sustainable development goals. Yet, presented findings reveal that even in one of the most modern refugee camps in the world – Zaatari – the level of self-reliance is rather low. However, organisations and humanitarian logisticians can influence self-reliance by identifying clearly where challenges are.

Data from a diverse range of reports were extracted. As most of these reports lack reliable and comparative quantitative data, the limitation of the study must be taken into account. So far data were only validated on one case study. To develop the tool further, more data need to be taken into account.

To this point, there is no performance measurement tool available focusing on self-reliance of encamped refugees. In addition, no academic research has measured the interrelation between the level of investments in infrastructure and services and the improvement of the lives of camp residents, especially regarding the level of self-reliance.

The purpose of this study is to specifically look at the relationship between reliable network reliance and entrepreneurial performance.

To help achieve the study objective, 450 rural farmer-entrepreneurs from Jiangsu, Anhui, Guangxi and Zhejiang Provinces were randomly selected. The study concentrated mainly on entrepreneurs who have engaged in entrepreneurial activities the past five or more years.

This study’s findings show that network reliance has direct and indirect effects on entrepreneurial performance through external networking behaviour. The result further shows that external networking behaviour partially mediates the relationship between network reliance and entrepreneurial performance. On the moderation effect on entrepreneurial orientation (EO), the result reveals that it strengthens the relationship between external networking behaviour and entrepreneurial performance. The result shows that EO has a direct effect on entrepreneurial performance. The paper introduces behavioural component of network to entrepreneurial performance. The study concludes that external networking behaviour of entrepreneurs is key in entrepreneurship as it improves relationships among actors and thereby translating into an improved performance.

The paper brings to light the need to reconsider extension education by including elements of networking to enable rural entrepreneurs derive full benefits of their entrepreneurial ventures.

The internet and search engines dominate within people’s information acquisition, especially among the younger generations. Given this trend, this study aims to explore if information and communication technology (ICT) practices, internet reliance and views of knowledge and knowing, i.e. epistemic beliefs, interact with each other. Everyday practices and conceptions among beginning undergraduate students are studied as a challenge for higher education.

The study builds upon survey-based quantitative data operationalising students’ epistemic beliefs, their internet reliance and their ICT practices. The survey items were used to compute subscales describing these traits, and the connections were explored using correlations analysis.

The results suggest that the more beginning undergraduate students rely on internet-based information, the more they are inclined to epistemic beliefs where knowledge is regarded as certain, unchanging, unambiguous and as being handed down by some authority.

The approach used in the study applies to the sample used, and further research is required to test the applicability of the approach on larger samples.

The study highlights the risk of everyday information practices being transferred into the educational context.

Ignorance of these changes may pose a risk for knowledge building on different educational levels and in a longer perspective, a threat to democracy.

While there is some research on epistemic beliefs in relation to internet-based information, studies approaching the problem over a possible connection between epistemic beliefs and internet reliance are scarce. In addition, this study implies a conceptual bridge between epistemic beliefs and internet reliance over the concept of algorithmic authority.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential link between Sweden’s high reliance on equity capital financing among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and its recognition as the most innovative economy in Europe according to the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS). This paper examines the idea that the high levels of trust within Swedish society can explain why private equity financing is more prevalent among Swedish SMEs.

To test these ideas, the authors use data from the Survey on Access to Finance for Enterprises to measure the private equity reliance of firms. The authors also use the EIS to measure the innovation capacity of nations and various aspects of SMEs’ innovation activities. Finally, societal levels of trust are measured through the World Value Survey.

First, the authors find that European countries with a higher proportion of SMEs relying on equity financing tend to be ranked as more innovative by the EIS. Second, the authors find that the correlation between a nation’s share of SMEs relying on equity financing and their level of innovation activities is marginally stronger for product innovations than for business process innovations. Third, the authors find that countries with higher levels of trust tend to have higher equity capital reliance among SMEs.

This study builds upon previous research on equity capital and SMEs’ innovation activity while introducing new insights into the relationship between societal trust and equity financing.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the quasi-experiment setting to test the formulated design support (developed in the author’s PhD research) within a design research methodology (DRM) framework. This support intends to help designers to consciously engage rural families within a development aid scenario and increase their self-reliance towards their built environment (housing).

This paper elaborates on the setting in which the design support was tested within a quasi-experiment. The literature section describes the challenges in design research and why the DRM is suitable for this type of empirical research.

Findings of the paper include a workable setting to organise and evaluate the impact of a design support within a DRM framework on a vulnerable rural community.

The main limitation of the research lies in the study population. Due to financial and time constraints, only four teams could participate in the experiment conducted in rural Kenya.

Further research will need to prove that the support works in comparable situations on the African continent.

The quasi-experiment setting within a DRM framework could benefit researchers in comparable empirical investigations.

Given the important role of change capability for organizational development and competitive advantage, the purpose of this study is to clarify the influences of transformational leadership (TL) on organizational change capability (OCC) via mediating roles of two specific aspects of trust in leadership namely disclosure-based trust and reliance-based trust.

Structural equation modeling is applied to test the degree of influences of TL and employee trust on OCC via empirical data collected from 376 participants in 115 small and medium firms in China.

The results show the positive and significant impacts of TL and aspects of employee trust in leadership on OCC. It indicated that disclosure-based trust in leadership has a greater influence on change capability in comparison with the effect of reliance-based trust in leadership. Especially, the findings have shown the evidence supporting the mediating mechanism of aspects of employee trust in leadership between TL and OCC.

This study provides the practical initiatives that highlight the importance of applying TL style to build and improve the trust of employees in their leadership for fostering OCC.

The paper has significantly advanced and deepened insight of how transformational leaders nurture employee’s specific shades of trust in leadership for fostering OCC. The valuable findings of this study contribute to enriching the theoretical basis of organizational behavior and change management, and can be used to analyze and explain the relationships between TL, employee’s trust in leadership and organizational capability for change.

Social network and being a part of an established business network helps in the acquisition of resources. The purpose of this study specifically looked at the mechanisms through which network reliance (NR) influences the entrepreneurial performance (PERF) among rural farmer entrepreneurs in China.

The paper looks at the economic sociology perspective of social networks. A total of 450 rural farmer entrepreneurs were interviewed for the study. The study introduces emotional intelligence (EI) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) into the relationship between NR, knowledge acquisition (KA) and entrepreneurial PERF.

The result shows that KA partially and positively mediates the relationship between NR and entrepreneurial PERF. EO is shown to moderate the relationship between KA and entrepreneurial PERF apart from its direct effect on entrepreneurial PERF. The EI of rural farmer entrepreneurs has a direct and significant effect on KA but does not moderate the relationship between NR and KA.

This study provides a new direction for extension education to rural farmer entrepreneurs. Knowledge building capacity programmes for rural farmer entrepreneurs should be an area of priority for extension education. Building the social capital and entrepreneurial capacities of rural farmer should be a new area of focus for policymakers. These measures will go a long to improving the capabilities of rural farmer entrepreneurs, which will, in turn, impact positively on their PERF.

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbots have brought unprecedented business potential. This study aims to explore consumers' trust and response to a text-based chatbot in e-commerce, involving the moderating effects of task complexity and chatbot identity disclosure.

A survey method with 299 useable responses was conducted in this research. This study adopted the ordinary least squares regression to test the hypotheses.

First, the consumers' perception of both the empathy and friendliness of the chatbot positively impacts their trust in it. Second, task complexity negatively moderates the relationship between friendliness and consumers' trust. Third, disclosure of the text-based chatbot negatively moderates the relationship between empathy and consumers' trust, while it positively moderates the relationship between friendliness and consumers' trust. Fourth, consumers' trust in the chatbot increases their reliance on the chatbot and decreases their resistance to the chatbot in future interactions.

Adopting the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework, this study provides important insights on consumers' perception and response to the text-based chatbot. The findings of this research also make suggestions that can increase consumers' positive responses to text-based chatbots.

Extant studies have investigated the effects of automated bots' attributes on consumers' perceptions. However, the boundary conditions of these effects are largely ignored. This research is one of the first attempts to provide a deep understanding of consumers' responses to a chatbot.

Despite its devastating nature, the COVID-19 pandemic has also catalyzed a substantial surge in the adoption and integration of technological tools within economies, exerting a profound influence on the dissemination of information among participants in stock markets. Consequently, this present study delves into the ramifications of post-pandemic dynamics on stock market behavior. It also examines the relationship between investors' sentiments, underlying behavioral drivers and their collective impact on global stock markets.

Drawing upon data spanning from 2012 to 2023 and encompassing major world indices classified by Morgan Stanley Capital International’s (MSCI) market and regional taxonomy, this study employs a threshold regression model. This model effectively distinguishes the thresholds within these influential factors. To evaluate the statistical significance of variances across these thresholds, a Wald coefficient analysis was applied.

The empirical results highlighted the substantive role that investors' sentiments and behavioral determinants play in shaping the predictability of returns on a global scale. However, their influence on developed economies and the continents of America appears comparatively lower compared with the Asia–Pacific markets. Similarly, the regions characterized by a more pronounced influence of behavioral factors seem to reduce their reliance on these factors in the post-pandemic landscape and vice versa. Interestingly, the post COVID-19 technological advancements also appear to exert a lesser impact on developed nations.

This study pioneers the investigation of these contextual dissimilarities, thereby charting new avenues for subsequent research studies. These insights shed valuable light on the contextualized nexus between technology, societal dynamics, behavioral biases and their collective impact on stock markets. Furthermore, the study's revelations offer a unique vantage point for addressing market inefficiencies by pinpointing the pivotal factors driving such behavioral patterns.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how digital transformation changes highly traditional business processes and how it impacts value co-creation and co-destruction. More specifically, the aim is to examine, using the resource interaction approach, how the friction between non-digital and digital resources affects the co-creation and co-destruction of value in a network during digital transformation. Based on this, the authors provide managerial implications on how to handle simultaneous digital and traditional business processes to co-create value during digital transformation.

A case study is conducted of a digital platform provider and of three traditional confectioneries. In this analysis, the authors looked at the business processes of highly traditional confectioneries that have introduced online services through a digital platform and are undergoing digital transformation.

In some industries, it is neither possible nor advisable to fully digitalise all business processes, and companies have to partially retain their traditional, analogue character to create value. The process of value co-creation during digital transformation is affected by friction between the digital and non-digital resources and is mitigated by specific lubricants (e.g. mutual reliance, smooth personal communication, willingness to help, attitude towards change). This results in the improvement of processes and capabilities in terms of digital development and traditional production. Friction may also lead to value co-destruction, for example, as the result of transformation from face-to-face to digital interactions.

The authors contribute to research on the digital transformation of highly traditional companies that need to introduce new, digital technologies and resources while continuing their traditional processes. The authors develop the concept of lubricants that mitigate the friction between resources and, therefore, facilitate value co-creation in a business network. Additionally, the authors provide managerial implications for how to handle simultaneous digital and traditional business processes during digital transformation.