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This paper aims to explore the problematic of public policies and leadership challenges for socio-economic transformation in South Africa. The paper illustrates that policies and laws of socio-economic reform have been introduced in democratic South Africa. However, socio-economic transformation remains a challenge. Lack of trust in the leadership relationships amongst political and economic agents is pointed as a contributing factor. Hence, LE emerges as a leadership strategy to help mitigate the problem.

The paper starts by presenting the current economic situation of South Africa touching on some important economic indicators to illustrate the consequences of poor leadership in public policy implementation process. The paper then analyses the leadership challenges to drive socio-economic reforms that have been introduced in South Africa since the end of apartheid with focus on the current National Development Plan. Lack of trust in leadership is identified as a problematic factor and leadership ethos (LE) emerges as a leadership strategy to enable the building of trust in leadership for the purpose of a successful implementation of public policies.

Lack of trust in leadership is identified as a problematic factor contributing in the absence of cooperation and collaboration in the leadership relationship amongst public servants (from up to bottom) and citizens for the purpose of successful implementation of public policies. Hence, there is need for a new leadership paradigm that would enable the building of trust in these leadership relationships. LE emerges as such a leadership strategy.

The paper calls for an exploration into the understanding and practice of LE and its inherent critical success factors (CSFs) considered as a leadership strategy that can help drive particularly public policies implementation process. LE intends to promote moral leadership that helps public servants to build good character and thus the will to do the right thing, and mutually trusting relationship is a CSF of LE. Therefore LE enables build the much needed trust in leadership relationships for a successful organisational leadership and management.

This paper provides significant implications by identifying lack of trust as a problematic factor in the leadership relationships amongst political and economic agents in South Africa, contributing thus in the poor implementation of public policies. LE emerges as a leadership strategy that would help mitigate the problem by enabling the building, the maintenance and restoration of trust in organisational and or institutional management for a successful public policy implementation process.

In this paper, the authors describe the step-by-step approach used to develop a trust-repair construct and a valid measurement scale for assessing employee perceptions of the most effective employee trust-repair practices.

The initial employee trust-repair scale (ETRS) was completed by 282 employees of a non-profit organization and validated by 101 employees of the administrative unit of the Finnish Army.

The 14-item seven-factor model was found to be reliable, valid and stable across the samples.

This study contributes to the current literature on trust repair by presenting the first validated measure for employee trust repair.

The findings provide a valuable instrument for practitioners to assess the state of employee trust-repair practices.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in an organizational context demonstrating an operationally valid and comprehensive measure for employee trust-repair practices.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a comprehensive overview of current research on customer behavior in the business-to-business (B2B) context and propose a research agenda for future studies. Despite being a relatively recent area of interest for academics and practitioners, a literature review that synthesizes existing knowledge into coherent topics and outlines a research agenda for future research is still lacking.

Drawing on a systematic literature review of 219 papers and using a text-mining approach based on the Latent Dirichlet Allocation algorithm, this paper enhances the existing knowledge of B2B customer behavior and provides a descriptive analysis of the literature.

From this review, ten major research topics are found and analyzed. These topics were analyzed through the lens of the Theory, Context, Characteristics and Method framework, providing a summary of key findings from prior studies. Additionally, an integrative framework was developed, offering insights into future research directions.

This study presents a novel contribution to the field of B2B by providing a systematic review of the topic of customer behavior, filling a gap in the literature and offering a valuable resource for scholars and managers seeking to advance the field.

The scope of this study is to explore informed citizens' engagement in the development of real municipalities' popular reports. For this purpose, an exploratory experiment is performed where potential users of popular reports with certain accounting skills (i.e. groups of undergraduate accounting students) act as preparers of these reports.

The study uses insights from the sense of belonging theory in an ambivalent way: to explain citizens' interest in popular reports and to consider popular reports as an impetus triggering citizens' sense of belonging. By content-analyzing the reports developed and taking stock of the students' perceptions on aspects of popular reports, a template for a popular report for local governments is synthesized. Further, by comparing the study findings with theoretical recommendations and popular reporting practices, the authors offer insights on the content and layout of popular reports which is expected to enhance the sense of belonging of citizens within their city.

The undergraduate students while relying on earlier examples and existing models have created their own reports in which they have used financial and non-financial information indicating the significance of both types of information for citizens. The evidenced heterogeneity in the developed reports is expected to be the effect of the sense of belonging. Moreover, the study reveals citizens' positive stance toward the adoption of co-development and co-creation approaches in the design of popular reports by citizen groups and municipal authorities which is consistent with a sense of belonging mobilization.

This study adds to the literature on the content and characteristics of popular reports by giving voice to the citizens themselves through an exploratory experiment that permits the sense of belonging to take effect.

Various scams and swindles in banks demand effective supervision and competent workforce, as it involves with workplace accountability and undertaking customer support services. The purpose of this paper is to examine the managerial effectiveness of selected public, private and foreign banks in India.

In total, 467 questionnaires from (middle and top-level) managers of (five public, five private and five foreign banks) fifteen banks have been considered. The descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA are used to differentiate each sector of banks.

The significant difference denoted in terms of managerial effectiveness among banks. The results revealed that managers of public banks are action-oriented and receptive to feedback, whereas the manager of private sector banks embodies self-disclosure and perceptiveness. The correlates, namely, action-orientation, self-disclosure and receptivity to feedback evident significant among foreign banks.

The consideration and application of such correlates would surely help managers, decision-makers and practitioners to enhance their effectiveness. Human resource professionals can use these results to develop programmes and policies for better management.

The study is imperative as it compares the behaviour of managers of public, private and foreign banks individually. The findings demonstrate that correlates of managerial effectiveness significantly differ among the banks.

This paper aims to compare the relative importance of tangible compensation across the offline and online service mediums, and assess tangible compensation as a trust recovery tactic.

This study is based on a 3 (compensation level: 20%, 50%, 100%) × 2 (compensation type: refund, coupon) × 2 (service medium: offline, online) scenario-based experimental design.

The offline and online customers exhibit different satisfaction for the respective values of both the immediate and delayed compensation types. Moreover, offline customers exhibit more trust in the firm when they receive a refund, whereas their online counterparts demonstrate a higher trust when provided with a coupon.

For a service failure such as the one presented in the experimental study’s scenario, a lower (higher) value coupon will generate more (less) satisfaction compared to providing the same value as a refund. Firms will be better off by providing partial compensation in the form of a coupon, rather than a refund.

Unlike most studies of service recovery, this research takes into account the perceived differences of various tangible compensations to provide a comparison of offline and online customers’ recovery preferences. Furthermore, the previous studies have not focused on trust restoration and assessed causes and effects of trust based on trust at one point in time i.e. trust after recovery. While this study has included restored trust as a variable in the conceptual model.

Esta investigación tiene como objetivo comparar la importancia relativa de la compensación tangible en los medios de servicio offline y online, y evaluar la compensación tangible como táctica de recuperación de la confianza.

Este estudio se basa en un diseño experimental basado en 3 (nivel de compensación: 20%, 50%, 100%) x 2 (tipo de compensación: reembolso, cupón) x 2 (medio de servicio: offline, online).

Los clientes offline y online muestran una satisfacción diferente para los valores respectivos de los tipos de compensación inmediata y diferida. Además, los clientes offline muestran más confianza en la empresa cuando reciben un reembolso, mientras que sus homólogos online demuestran una mayor confianza cuando se les proporciona un cupón.

Para un fallo del servicio como el presentado en el escenario del estudio experimental, un cupón de menor (mayor) valor generará más (menos) satisfacción en comparación con proporcionar el mismo valor como reembolso. Las empresas saldrán ganando si ofrecen una compensación parcial en forma de cupón, en lugar de un reembolso.

A diferencia de la mayoría de los estudios sobre la recuperación de servicios, esta investigación tiene en cuenta las diferencias percibidas de varias compensaciones tangibles para ofrecer una comparación de las preferencias de recuperación de los clientes offline y online. Además, los estudios anteriores no se han centrado en el restablecimiento de la confianza y han evaluado las causas y los efectos de la confianza basándose en la confianza en un momento determinado, es decir, la confianza después de la recuperación. En cambio, este estudio ha incluido la confianza restaurada como una variable en el modelo conceptual.

本研究旨在比较有形补偿在离线和在线服务媒介中的相对重要性, 并评估有形补偿作为一种信任恢复策略。

本研究基于3（补偿水平：20%, 50%, 100%）×2（补偿类型：退款, 优惠券）×2（服务媒介：线下, 线上）的情景实验设计。

线下和线上的顾客对即时和延迟补偿类型的各自数值表现出不同的满意度。此外, 离线顾客在收到退款时表现出对公司的更多信任, 而他们的在线顾客在得到优惠券时表现出更多的信任。

对于像实验研究中提出的那种服务失败, 与提供相同价值的退款相比, 价值较低（较高）的优惠券会产生更多（更少）的满意度。企业通过以优惠券的形式提供部分补偿, 而不是退款, 会有更好的效果。

与大多数关于服务恢复的研究不同, 这项研究考虑到了各种有形补偿的感知差异, 以提供离线和在线顾客恢复偏好的比较。此外, 以前的研究没有关注信任的恢复, 而是基于一个时间点的信任, 即恢复后的信任来评估信任的原因和影响。而本研究将恢复的信任作为概念模型中的一个变 量。

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of the Ponzi schemes and revocation of licences of some financial institutions in Ghana on financial threat.

The study adopted a quantitative research approach. Convenient sampling method was used to select 435 individuals from three regions in Ghana. Standardize questionnaire developed by the researcher was used as the main data collection instrument. The binary logistic regression was used to test the relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variables.

The results of the study showed a positive relationship between financial threat and job loss, general health, information search and loss of investment. However, negative relationship was identified between financial threat and total debt, stress, economic hardship and anxiety. Findings from this study imply that job loss, general health, information search and loss of investment are major factors that determined financial threat in Ghana.

This indicates that individuals in Ghana have become uncertain regarding the use of current and future financial services in Ghana because most individuals have lost their jobs in the financial institutions, cannot get access to safe drinking water and education, need to gather more information before investing in financial institutions in Ghana and losing of funds invested.

This study is the first to test the effects of the Ponzi schemes and the revocation of licences of some financial institutions in Ghana on financial threat using binary logistic regression.

Reactance theory is applied to investigate consumer responses to “buy local” campaigns initiated by government to counteract the effects of an economic crisis, using the COVID-19 pandemic as an illustrative context.

A conceptual model is developed, aimed at revealing the extent to which “buy local” campaigns – explicitly justified by the need to fight an economic crisis – are likely to lead to (a) compliance (i.e. support for local products/retailers) or (b) freedom restoration (i.e. support for foreign products/retailers). The model is subsequently tested on samples of German (N = 265) and Italian (N = 268) consumers.

“Buy local” campaigns are likely to generate reactance amongst consumers and such reactance can lead to both non-compliance and, albeit less so, freedom restoration outcomes. At the same time, consumer ethnocentrism acts as a countervailing influence by attenuating the effects of generated reactance and its undesirable outcomes.

Psychological reactance theory offers a novel perspective for conceptually approaching the likely responses of consumers towards “buy local” campaigns and the empirical findings support the use of the theory in this context.

Policymakers seeking to encourage consumers to support the local economy during times of an economic crisis need to be aware that “buy local” campaigns may, against their intended communication goals, result in non-compliance as well as consumer responses in the opposite direction. Thus, the reactance-generating potential of such campaigns needs to be explicitly considered at the planning/implementation stage.

The findings confirm the relevance of reactance theory as a conceptual lens for studying the effects of “buy local” campaigns and have important implications for domestic/foreign firms as well as for policy makers seeking to encourage consumers to support the local economy during times of an economic crisis.

The aim of this article is to explain why there is a higher degree of trust in some countries compared to others – and which are the main historical factors that explain these differences. The main focus is on how governments relate to and communicate with its citizens in the times of crises.

The analysis is based on comparative historical sociology with a modernity perspective with a special focus on Norway and Scandinavia. The authors do a parallel demonstration of history to confirm and expand the theories that could explain the high level of trust in these countries. The authors also bring in the Spanish experience in order to testify how governmental reactions affected the different levels of trust.

Scandinavian governments allowed open communication between different social classes on difficult and important issues, in contrast to Spain in the same period. These two factors therefore expand the understanding of the development of trust: (1) The establishment of the nation state as the organising concept and all-encompassing container of the other institutions (democracy, parliamentarism, trade unions, etc.); (2) The open hand strategy in dealing with deviant opinions, based on democratic compromises and a policing of consent ideology.

The article combines the understanding of the first crisis of modernity and the development of trust and contain a comparative analysis of the development of trust in four different countries. The investigation thus clarifies the correlation between specific historical factors and the levels of trust.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the emergence of sustainability governance through the unfolding hybridisation process between corporate governance and corporate social responsibility and the implications of this for understanding patterns in sustainability reporting over time.

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill incident is an extreme case study undertaken to examine its implications on the organisational legitimacy of British Petroleum (BP) and the latter’s response to the incident and beyond. The paper draws on Suchman’s legitimacy framework (1995) to understand sustainability governance as an organisational practice that evolved post the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to manage BP’s legitimacy. It draws on archival records and documentation from 2008 to 2017, as key sources for data collection, using interrogation by NVivo software.

Sustainability governance is a sound practice that was socially constructed to manage the re-legitimatisation process following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. It is characterised by broadness (the interplay between the corporate governance and corporate social responsibility disciplines), dynamic (developing the tactics to repair and maintain legitimacy), agility (conforming to the accountability for socially responsible investment and ensuring steps towards geopolitically responsible investment) and interdependence (reflecting composition and interactions).

This paper has practical implications for organisations, in terms of sustainability governance’s constitution, mechanism and characteristics.

This paper has implications not only for organisations, in terms of sustainability governance’s characteristics, but also for policy-makers, regulators and accounting education. However, the present paper’s insights are achieved through an in-depth and longitudinal case study.

This paper has problematized the concept of sustainability governance and elaborated its evolution (the emergence, enactment, deployment and interplay) process. The sustainability governance showed an otherwise organisational response that moves our understanding of the deployment of disclosure for complex organisational change as a way to discredit events.