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The aim of this research is to investigate the positive effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on loyalty to retailers through trust dimensions (competence, benevolence and integrity) taking into account socio-cultural factors (social norms and collectivism) across nations.

The authors carried out three quantitative studies (N = 948) in three countries (France, Germany and the United Kingdom [UK]). They then used structural equation modelling to test the model and hypotheses.

The results show contingent positive effects of CSR perception on customer loyalty. They underscore indirect effects of CSR on loyalty through the mediation of specific dimensions of trust (competence, benevolence and integrity). The authors also identify significant moderations such that the effects of social norms on CSR and loyalty are stronger in France/Germany than in the UK. The effects of collectivism on CSR and loyalty are stronger in France than in Germany and the UK.

Retailers can rely on CSR and trust to increase loyalty directly. When communicating CSR activities, retailers have to account for cultural differences in their main markets and adopt adjusted strategies to convince consumers about their CSR efforts. Retailers should understand the social norms of their customers in order to determine the effectiveness of disclosing CSR initiatives.

Using a cross-cultural perspective, this article extends and enriches knowledge on the relationship between CSR, social norms and loyalty in retailing in different cultural settings. It also underscores the role of trust in building loyalty across nations.

Ever since its emergence, the metaverse has presented opportunities and disruptions to every stakeholder, including individual users and organizations. This article aims to offer valuable perspectives on six identified critical areas that the metaverse could significantly impact: marketing ethics, marketing communication, relationship marketing, retail marketing, supply chain management and transportation management.

Through a multi-perspective approach, this paper gathers valuable perspectives from various invited contributors to each of the six identified key areas that the metaverse could significantly impact.

For each key area identified, the invited contributors first share their valuable perspectives by discussing the roles of the metaverse. Subsequently, the invited contributors discuss their views on vital opportunities, challenges and research agenda concerning the metaverse.

With the widespread metaverse, it is expected that each key area identified is likely to undergo significant levels of disruption. Against this backdrop, this paper contributes to the academic literature and industry by gathering different perspectives from invited contributors on the relevance of the metaverse in marketing and logistics domains.

This chapter investigates pandemic impact in a variety of industries, including food, travel, education and pharmaceuticals, considering elements such as isolation, emotions and social influences, which can lead to panic buying. The goal of this research is to ascertain how COVID-19 influences the buying decisions of customers. Additionally, the study aims to identify consumer consumption trends for a spectrum of products and services, including fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs), entertainment, pharmaceuticals, travel and tourism. A comprehensive review of different research papers is done to conclude. The papers considered are from 2020 to 2022. Different keywords are used to search the relevant papers such as ‘pandemic’, ‘COVID-19’, ‘behaviour’, ‘impulsive’, etc. TCCM framework has been applied while reviewing the articles. During the isolation, consumer behaviour moved to panic buying and stockpiling, favouring organic basics, and encouraging e-commerce, as well as economic nationalism favouring made-in-India products. This study helps in knowing the reasons for change in consumers' behaviour for different products and services due to unforeseeable situations like COVID-19 and can find possible ways to deal with them. Business owners learn about changing consumer purchasing behaviours and how to modify products. The government can change policies to improve medical tourism and social protection.

COVID-19 disrupted the lives of consumers across the globe, and the retail sector has been one of the hardest hits. The impact of COVID-19 on consumers' retail choice behaviour and retailers' responses has been studied in detail through multiple lenses. Now that the effect of COVID-19 is abating, there is a need to consolidate the learnings during the lifecycle of COVID-19 and set the agenda for research post-COVID-19.

Scopus database was searched to cull out academic papers published between March 2020 and June 6, 2022, using keywords; shopping behaviour, retailing, consumer behaviour, and retail channel choice along with COVID-19 (171 journals, 357 articles). Bibliometric analysis followed by selective content analysis was conducted.

COVID-19 was a black swan event that impacted consumers' psychology, leading to reversible and irreversible changes in retail consumer behaviour worldwide. Research on changes in consumer behaviour and consumption patterns has been mapped to the different stages of the COVID-19 lifecycle. Relevant research questions and potential theoretical lenses have been proposed for further studies.

This paper collates, classifies and organizes the extant research in retail from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies three retail consumption themes: short-term, long-term reversible and long-term irreversible changes. Research agenda related to the retailer and consumer behaviour is identified; for each of the three categories, facilitating the extraction of pertinent research questions for post-COVID-19 studies.

This study aims to explore how subsidiary capabilities collectively configure for performance. Additionally, it seeks to examine whether these configurations of capabilities can provide equifinal solutions through developing a comprehensive research framework that focuses on subsidiaries in China.

With a data set collected through a questionnaire from 172 Korean multinational enterprises (MNEs) in China, this study used a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to detect the capability conditions and configurations. These configurations represent combinations of various subsidiary capabilities linked to high performance.

This study identified several complex pathways with distinct configurations for high subsidiary performance. The findings demonstrate the importance of configurations over individual conditions. Thus, the results highlight that the effectiveness of diverse capabilities, which are widely believed to singularly contribute to the high performance of MNE subsidiaries, depends on how each combines with other capabilities. Overall, the findings provide a richer and fine-grained understanding of the role and relative importance of various forms of MNE subsidiary capabilities and how the joint effect of these subsidiaries contributes to high performance.

This study suggests that MNE managers should comprehensively understand how subsidiary capabilities are configured to produce subsidiary performance outcomes. This specifically illustrates the importance of understanding the mutually conflicting yet collectively exhaustive results of multi-selective solutions and aims to align with China’s industrial and regional heterogeneity.

By examining the role of MNE subsidiary capability configurations, which may collectively influence the subsidiary’s performance, this study contributes to the literature. It elucidates how MNE subsidiaries may achieve superior performance by developing and possessing various capabilities tailored to the local context.

This study aims to establish that the relationship between the risky indebtedness behavior (RIB) of consumers and their attitude toward adopting buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) is not immediate but is mediated through impulse buying. Moreover, it explores how perceived risk moderates the association between the attitude to adopt BNPL and its adoption intention.

This study used the existing theoretical and empirical evidence to propose a model and validated it using the data collected from 339 young shoppers in India. Analysis of data is conducted using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The study results show that consumers’ RIB is not directly related to their attitude toward BNPL. However, impulse buying fully mediates this relationship, influencing the attitude toward BNPL. Impulse buying and attitude serially mediate the relationship between RIB and BNPL adoption intention. Further, in the context of BNPL, perceived risk strengthens the attitude-intention gap.

This study advises policymakers and BNPL providers to carefully assess users’ creditworthiness to prevent those already in debt from entering into a detrimental loop.

This study provides novel perspectives on consumer’s RIB and BNPL within the Indian context. The study additionally identifies the mediating influence of impulse buying and the moderating effect of perceived risk on BNPL adoption intention.

This study aims to examine hotel guests’ acceptance of technology agency – the extent to which they would let artificial intelligence (AI)-based systems make decisions for them when staying in hotels. The examination was conducted through the prism of several antecedents of acceptance of technology agency, including perceived ethics, benefits, risks and convenience orientation.

A thorough literature review provided the foundation of the structural model, which was tested using confirmatory factor analysis, followed by structural equation modeling. Data were collected from 400 US hotel guests.

The most important determinant of acceptance of technology agency was perceived ethics, followed by benefits. Risks of using AI-based systems to make decisions for consumers had a negative impact on acceptance of technology agency. In addition, perceived loss of competence and unpredictability had relatively strong impacts on risks.

The results provide a conceptual foundation for research on systems that make decisions for consumers. As AI is increasingly incorporated in the business models of hotel companies to make decisions, ensuring that the decisions are perceived as ethical and beneficial for consumers is critical to increase the utilization of such systems.

Most research on AI in hospitality is either conceptual or focuses on consumers’ intentions to stay in hotels that may be equipped with AI technologies. Occupying a unique position within the literature, this study discusses the first time AI-based systems that make decisions for consumers. The value of this study stems from the examination of the main concept of technology agency, which was never examined in hospitality.

The COVID-19 outbreak has disrupted the habits of customers as well as their shopping behavior. This study aims to critically examine the associated benefits and challenges of online shopping from the perspective of customers in the COVID-19 pandemic.

A systematic review of the relevant literature published between 2020 and 2022 was conducted via performing comprehensive search query in leading scholarly databases “Scopus and Web of Science” with the restriction of their predefined subject category of “Business.” Overall, 30 research studies were selected for the review and a significant number of studies were published in 2021 (n = 15).

The research findings revealed that customers are motivated to shop online because of perceived benefits such as time-saving, convenience, 24/7 accessibility, interactive services without physical boundaries, trust, website attractiveness and cost-saving. However, challenging factors such as financial scams, privacy concerns, poor quality of products and services, fake promotions and reduced social interaction have hindered the growth of online shopping. The recommendations regarding designing marketing strategies, secured transaction, multiple payment options, trust building, protection of privacy, promotion via social media, effective mechanism to secure and timely delivery of product are helpful to improve the service quality of online shopping.

The outcomes of this research are valuable to online retailers and policymakers, as it highlights how the benefits can enhance customers’ shopping intentions and minimize the impact of associated challenges. This study also recommends the redesigning of user-friendly interfaces of online shopping websites and ensures their privacy, security and performance on a regular basis.

Growing environmental issues worldwide need the engagement of all stakeholders to compliance with the decisions of global leaders made at COP21 and COP26. In this regard, the present study looks at the influence of retailer social responsibility and consumer environmental responsibility by reinforcing consumer’s green consumption behaviors. Similarly, the proposed study incorporates the mediating role of customer trust and environmental concern to understand whether retailer corporate social responsibility and consumer environmental responsibility strengthen green consumption behavior.

Multiple hypotheses have been developed in light of the theoretical analysis of the available literature. The information was gathered through a survey method. A web-based portal was used to administer the survey, and 340 useable responses were processed by SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0 for experiential analysis. First, the validity and reliability were evaluated. The authors then tested potential relationships using structural equation modeling.

Survey data analyzed using the SEM approach reveal that consumer environmental responsibility and retailer CSR does not drive green consumption behavior directly. However, green concern and consumer trust mediates the relation of consumer environmental responsibility and retailer CSR towards green consumption behavior. Another mediating path was also tested through environmental responsibility and green concern among retailer's CSR and green consumption behavior. The outcomes of this path are also significant.

The study holds promising implications for green consumption behaviors. The following can be achieved by implementing more sustainable supply chain strategies, such as lowering carbon footprint, purchasing eco-friendly goods and supporting environmental causes through retailers and consumers as well.

This study investigated the joint contribution of retailer CSR and environmental responsibility to green consumption for the first time. The work strengthens the body of knowledge in the field of managerial decision-making and creates new directions for scholarly investigation.

Social media platforms are a pervasive technology that continues to define the modern world. While social media has brought many benefits to society in terms of connection and content sharing, numerous concerns remain for the governance of social media platforms going forward, including (but not limited to) the spread of misinformation, hate speech and online surveillance. However, the voice of citizens and other non-experts is often missing from such conversations in information systems literature, which has led to an alleged gap between research and the everyday life of citizens.

The authors address this gap by presenting findings from 16 h of online dialog with 25 citizens on social media platform governance. The online dialog was undertaken as part of a worldwide consultation project called “We, the internet”, which sought to provide citizens with a voice on a range of topics such as “Digitalization and Me,” “My Data, Your Data, Our Data” and “A Strong Digital Public Sphere.” Five phases of thematic analysis were undertaken by the authors to code the corpus of qualitative data.

Drawing on the Theory of Communicative Action, the authors discuss three dialogical processes critical to citizen discourse: lifeworld reasoning, rationalization and moral action. The findings point toward citizens’ perspectives of current and future issues associated with social media platform governance, including concerns around the multiplicity of digital identities, consent for vulnerable groups and transparency in content moderation. The findings also reveal citizens’ rationalization of the dilemmas faced in addressing these issues going forward, including tensions such as digital accountability vs data privacy, protection vs inclusion and algorithmic censorship vs free speech.

Based on outcomes from this dialogical process, moral actions in the form of policy recommendations are proposed by citizens and for citizens. The authors find that tackling these dark sides of digitalization is something too important to be left to “Big Tech” and equally requires an understanding of citizens’ perspectives to ensure an informed and positive imprint for change.