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Our research takes inspiration from stories of kindness in the context of the COVID-19 global pandemic and investigates what generational entrants, namely those entering the workforce in large numbers, dubbed emerging leaders (ages 19–39) think of the phenomenon of kindness and its potential role in organizations. Guiding the study is the question: “What can emerging leaders tell us about kindness and work?”

Adopting discourse analysis fused with kindness as research praxis, we conducted 66 qualitative interviews with young leaders (born between 1981 and 2001) across North America, Europe and Africa. Interviews were conducted in the summer and fall of 2020.

Our research sets out to expand theorizing related to kindness as a phenomenon, illustrates implications relevant to management and organizational studies and offers insights into the value of kindness as research praxis. This paper makes three related contributions and one methodological one: (1) it contributes to the literature on kindness and how it can be theorized in management and organizational studies, (2) it explores emerging leaders perceptions of kindness in a pandemic context, (3) it offers insights into how kindness might be leveraged as a model of moral and ethical behaviour valued in organizational environments, and (4) the paper promotes epistemic properties of kindness when fused with research praxis.

Authored during a rapidly unfolding scholarly conversation on the influences of the pandemic on organizational life, our research draws insights from experiences of kindness during COVID-19. This paper applies discourse analysis fused with kindness as research praxis to an understudied area of human behaviour (kindness) which has implications for management and organizational theory and practice. These implications include: (1) individual kindness capacity or inclination towards kindness behaviour that may be depleted by stressors such as the pandemic, (2) that kindness has socially contagious qualities, (3) and kindness as praxis has material benefits in the context of research methods, benefiting the research team and the research outputs.

This study is based on the enforcement record from Canada’s natural mutual fund regulator. This record documented a small subset of mutual fund dealers who had been disciplined for their misconduct from 2007 to 2014. The purpose of this paper is to determine what factors contribute to mutual fund dealers’ time to first financial fraud offense. The longer the time to fraud, the healthier the mutual fund industry and the better a mutual fund dealer’s career.

Based on the belief that adversity reveals true character, the study approaches a mutual dealer’s career success from human capital, socio-demographic and organizational sponsorship points of view by measuring dealers’ success as their time from career beginning to first instance of financial fraud. Ordinary least square regression analysis was used to identify if those factors, including provision of supervisor reminders, gender, position and penalties, are related to career success within the Canadian mutual fund regulatory framework. The research is based on a small sample of mutual fund dealers who had been disciplined for their misconduct from 2007 to 2014.

The study finds that a supervisor’s reminders positively contribute to the career success of a mutual fund dealer in the form of extending their time to fraud. As well, being female is an adverse factor to career success even when both female and male dealers received about the same level of supervisor reminders. It also finds that being in a management position has no association with time to fraud.

The study establishes the statistically significant positive relationship between time to fraud and supervisor’s reminders for mutual fund dealers. At the same time, it shows that human capital and access to organizational resources, measured by being in a management position, have no significant relation to when fraud is committed. This result indicates the value of continuing education for all mutual fund dealers, both inexperienced and experienced.

The detrimental impact of data breaches on organizations and their customers has been well documented in the literature. These breaches expose sensitive information, raising concerns about reputational damage and substantial financial losses for affected firms. Prior research has consistently demonstrated the significant financial repercussions of data breach disclosures, with a significant decline in the market value of breached firms following the incident’s revelation. However, recent literature has documented the shift in consumer perception toward data breaches, warranting a revisit of this important and relevant issue with more recent data. This study aims to revisit the cost of data breach disclosures by empirically analyzing the impact of recent data breach incidents on the market value of affected firms.

The authors collect the data regarding data breach incidents among publicly traded companies in the USA listed in the S&P 500 index from 2013 to 2021. The empirical analysis relies on the event study approach, and the market value of each firm is estimated using the Fama-French three-factor model.

This study finds that the negative market reaction to data breach announcements in recent years has been significantly weaker than those reported in prior works from the past decade. This result confirms the shift in consumer perception toward data breaches in the market.

While prior research has quantified the cost of data breach disclosures, the authors posit that a renewed examination is essential within the contemporary digital environment. Consumer behavior and market sentiment have undergone significant transformations in recent years, necessitating a revisit of this important issue with updated data. This study not only documents this evolving phenomenon but also yields crucial policy recommendations. Notably, it challenges the conventional wisdom to rely on market forces as an adequate deterrent against data breaches. Consequently, updated regulations may be necessary to effectively navigate the complexities of the evolving digital landscape.

Plant-based (PB) and meat-reduced (MR) diets have a positive impact on human and environmental health, yet consumer acceptance of such diets is relatively low. Research investigating factors influencing consumer behavior around PB and MR diets is emerging; however studies lack strong theoretically underpinned, comprehensive theoretical frameworks. In this paper we synthesize factors from current literature and propose a comprehensive theoretical model across different consumer dietary types (e.g. omnivore, flexitarian, pesco-vegetarian) and account for consumer cognitive dissonance to facilitate a transition to MR diets.

The factors are examined in a five-step integrative literature review of empirical literature about PB/MR-related consumer behavior since 1989. Studies are critically assessed across four theories commonly used to explain the different antecedents of sustainable consumer behavior. We focus on the theoretical domains framework with COM-B (capability, opportunity, motivation and behavior) framework, as it provides the strongest foundation for modelling the consumer behavior of interest.

107 studies have empirically investigated PB/MR consumer behavior. Of these, 81 studies applied some COM-B domains, but no study has captured all domains. Scant studies investigating cognitive dissonance in the PB/MR literature have been published. Different consumer dietary types are featured across 47 studies; however, none of the studies comprehensively capture all dietary types and psychological discomfort in different consumer dietary types and cognitive dissonance theory.

To synthesize the findings of the present study, we propose an alternative model to address the before-mentioned gaps identified in our critical analysis. The alternative model captures the relationships between the 12 domains of the COM-B model constructs, psychological discomfort and consumer dietary types in the PB/MR foods setting.

The proposed research model facilitates the transition from MB diets to PB diets in three ways: (1) By differentiating consumer dietary types in terms of the COM domains influencing their PB/MR behaviors, PB-producing businesses could better target their foods to hitherto overlooked consumer dietary categories, such as lacto-vegetarians or emerging categories, such as flexitarians, through more refined segmentation and sharper profiling of consumers. (2) Knowing the level of capabilities of consumers in respect of cooking skills and knowledge about purchasing and preparing PB foods could help marketers develop strategies to improve buyers' skills and knowledge. (3) With an understanding of the opportunities (from the Opportunity domain of the COM-B model), including environmental context and resources and social influences, PB food businesses could more effectively market their PB food products. (4) It provides an understanding of capability, motivation and opportunity factors separately but also the interrelationship between these COM domains, as all these variables are intertwined.

Our ILR with the proposed model and the resulting research helps facilitate progress in the transition to PB diets necessary for more sustainable global food production and consumption.

The paper is the first to critically assess existing PB/MR literature regarding each of the COM-B domains, psychological discomfort and the six dietary types. We propose an alternative research model to address the gaps in literature and explain the antecedents and moderators in PB/MR dietary transition. The proposed model may provide information for practitioners and future researchers to understand a wider range of relevant factors influencing consumer’s behavior in transitioning to PB/MR diets.

In response to growing concerns over the negative consequences of Internet addiction on adolescents’ mental health, coupled with conflicting results in this literature stream, this meta-analysis sought to (1) examine the association between Internet addiction and depressive symptoms in adolescents, (2) examine the moderating role of Internet freedom across countries, and (3) examine the mediating role of excessive daytime sleepiness.

In total, 52 studies were analyzed using robust variance estimation and meta-analytic structural equation modeling.

There was a significant and moderate association between Internet addiction and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, Internet freedom did not explain heterogeneity in this literature stream before and after controlling for study quality and the percentage of female participants. In support of the displacement hypothesis, this study found that Internet addiction contributes to depressive symptoms through excessive daytime sleepiness (proportion mediated = 17.48%). As the evidence suggests, excessive daytime sleepiness displaces a host of activities beneficial for maintaining mental health. The results were subjected to a battery of robustness checks and the conclusions remain unchanged.

The results underscore the negative consequences of Internet addiction in adolescents. Addressing this issue would involve interventions that promote sleep hygiene and greater offline engagement with peers to alleviate depressive symptoms.

This study utilizes robust meta-analytic techniques to provide the most comprehensive examination of the association between Internet addiction and depressive symptoms in adolescents. The implications intersect with the shared interests of social scientists, health practitioners, and policy makers.