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This study aims to explore the role of frontline service employees’ (FSEs) awareness that their job can be substituted by smart technology, artificial intelligence, robotics and algorithms (STARA) in their job autonomy and proactive service performance and when these relationships can be buffered. Drawing on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress, the study examined the mediating relationship between FSEs’ STARA awareness, job autonomy and proactive service performance and the moderating effects of self-efficacy and resilience on this relationship.

The authors administered two-wave online surveys to 301 South Korean FSEs working in various service sectors (e.g. retailing, food/beverage, hospitality/tourism and banking). The Time 1 survey measured respondents’ STARA awareness, self-efficacy, resilience and job autonomy, and the Time 2 survey assessed their proactive service performance.

FSEs’ STARA awareness negatively affected their subsequent proactive service performance through decreased job autonomy. The negative association between STARA awareness and job autonomy was weaker when FSEs’ self-efficacy was high than when it was low. While the authors observed no significant moderation of resilience, the author found a marginally significant three-way interaction between STARA awareness, self-efficacy and resilience. Specifically, STARA awareness was negatively related to job autonomy only when both self-efficacy and resilience were low. When either self-efficacy or resilience was high, the association between STARA awareness and job autonomy became nonsignificant, suggesting the buffering roles of the two personal resources.

Given that the measurement of variables relied on self-reported data, rater biases might have affected the findings of the study. Moreover, the simultaneous measurement of STARA awareness, self-efficacy, resilience and job autonomy could preclude causal inferences between these variables. The authors encourage future studies to use a more rigorous methodology to reduce rater biases and establish stronger causality between the variables.

Service firms can decrease FSEs’ STARA awareness through training in the knowledge and skills necessary to work with these technologies. To promote FSEs’ proactive service performance in this context, service firms need to involve them in decisions related to STARA adoption and allow them to craft their jobs. Service managers should provide FSEs with social support and exercise empowering and supportive leadership to help them view STARA as a challenge rather than a threat.

Distinct from prior research on STARA awareness and employee outcomes, the study identified proactive service performance as a key outcome in the STARA context. By presenting self-efficacy and resilience as crucial personal resources that buffer FSEs from the deleterious impact of STARA awareness, the study provides practitioners with insights that can help FSEs maintain their job autonomy and proactive service performance in times of digitalization and automation.

This study aims to investigate how social entrepreneurial role models influence social entrepreneurial self-efficacy, social entrepreneurial intent and social entrepreneurial action, with moral obligation as a moderator.

A cross-sectional survey of 261 pupils in the South African province of the Eastern Cape was used in the research study. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses.

The research revealed that having social entrepreneurial role models has a positive impact on both social entrepreneurial self-efficacy and social entrepreneurial intent. In addition, a connection was found between social entrepreneurial intent and entrepreneurial action. The influence of moral obligation was found to be a positive and a significant moderator. Moreover, the association between social entrepreneurial role models and social entrepreneurial intent was mediated by social entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

The findings are not generalizable to nonstudent samples because students constituted the sample for gathering data. Future study therefore requires considering nonstudents to generalize the outcomes. This research should be replicated in other South African provinces and other developing countries for comparative outcomes.

Since social entrepreneurial role models have been practically linked to social entrepreneurship intent and entrepreneurial efficacy, understanding the factors that influence student’s decision to start a social enterprise is critical in South Africa to develop targeted interventions aimed at encouraging young people to start new businesses. Policymakers, society and entrepreneurial education will all benefit from the findings.

This study contributes to bridging the knowledge gap as it investigates how social entrepreneurial role models influence social entrepreneurial self-efficacy, social entrepreneurial intent and social entrepreneurial action, with moral obligation as a moderator. Encouraging social entrepreneurship among South African youth would also help address societal issues. This is a pioneering study in the context of an emerging economy such as South Africa, where social entrepreneurship is so integral.

Despite the considerable increase in research on entrepreneurship education, few studies examine the role of entrepreneurship educators. Similarly, most frameworks from entrepreneurship education recognize the educator’s importance in facilitating instruction and assessment, but the factors influencing the educator role are not well understood. According to the identity theory, personal factors including self-efficacy, job satisfaction and personal values influence the perspective of self, significance and anticipations that an individual in this role associates with it, determining their planning and actions. The stronger the role identity the more likely entrepreneurship educators will be in effectively developing their entrepreneurial skills as well as the overall learning experience of their students. The objective of this study is to pinpoint the factors that affect entrepreneurial role identity.

Drawing upon the identity theory, this study developed a theoretical framework and carried out an empirical investigation involving a survey of 289 entrepreneurship educators across the globe. Structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was applied to analyze and explore the factors that impact the identity of the educators in their role as entrepreneurship teachers.

The findings show that the role identity of entrepreneurship educators is significantly influenced by their self-efficacy, job satisfaction and personal values. Among these factors, self-efficacy and job satisfaction have the most significant impacts on how educators perceive their role. The implications of these results and directions for future research are also discussed.

The novelty of the current study is derived from its conceptualization of the antecedents of role perception among entrepreneurship educators. This study stands out as one of the earliest attempts to investigate the factors that shape an individual’s scene of self and professional identity as an entrepreneurship educator. The significance of comprehending the antecedents of role perception lies in the insights it can offer into how educators undertake and execute their role, and consequently, their effectiveness in teaching entrepreneurship.

Seekers who visit professional virtual communities (PVCs) are usually motivated by knowledge-seeking, which is a complex cognitive process. How do seekers search for knowledge, and how is their search linked to prior knowledge or PVC situation factors? From the cognitive process and interactional psychology perspectives, this study investigated the three-way interactions between seekers’ expertise, task complexity, and perceptions of PVC features (i.e. knowledge quality and system quality) on knowledge-seeking strategies and resultant outcomes.

A field experiment was conducted with 119 seekers in a PVC using a 2 × 2 factorial design of seekers’ expertise (i.e. expert versus novice) and task complexity (i.e. low versus high).

The study reveals three significant insights: (1) For a high-complexity task, experts adopt an ask-directed searching strategy compared to novices, whereas novices adopt a browsing strategy; (2) For a high-complexity task, experts who perceive a high system quality are more likely than novices to adopt an ask-directed searching strategy; and (3) Task completion time and task quality are associated with the adoption of ask-directed searching strategies, whereas knowledge seekers’ satisfaction is more associated with the adoption of browsing strategy.

We draw on the perspectives of cognitive process and interactional psychology to explore potential two- and three-way interactions of seekers’ expertise, task complexity, and PVC features on the adoption of knowledge-seeking strategies in a PVC context. Our findings provide deep insights into seekers’ behavior in a PVC, given the popularity of the search for knowledge in PVCs.

The paper aims to propose and validate a process-based model to enhance managerial effectiveness among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). It has been observed that business uncertainties and inadequate financial resources that MSME entrepreneurs and managers face require them to constantly engage in strong self-awareness and self-regulating behavior to enhance the efficacy in their roles and, henceforth, their role performance effectiveness.

The approach for data collection was based on the clustering of MSMEs belonging to the clusters machine tool, pump manufacturing, foundry, textile and auto-component clusters in India. The respondents to the study were MSME entrepreneurs and managers who oversee and manage multiple functions like operations, quality, marketing, sales, supply chain management, procurement, personnel and administration and general administration.

The self-efficacy of entrepreneurial managers of MSMEs is observed to play an integral role in enhancing the efficacy of their roles, thus highlighting the use of a process-based perspective while dealing with constant resource constraints and excessive dynamism in their business contexts. The ability to handle multiple tasks effectively and resilience to manage challenges enhances their role-making process, which is significant in achieving and sustaining goal-oriented behavior among MSME entrepreneurs and managers.

This paper would serve as an effective model for entrepreneurs and managers to enhance their efficacy in the individual and interdependent role context, which would help achieve their individual and organizational goals. The model emphasizes a process-based perspective that thrusts the need to relate to the organizational context, enhancing individual confidence for goal-related behavior and fulfilling their role-related expectations.

This paper presents a model of enhancing managerial effectiveness that discusses self-efficacy as antecedent behavior. Here, personal and environmental factors aid cognition to one’s capability to construct reality, self-regulate, encode information and engage in effective managerial action.

Working from home (WFH) was one of the major changes that occurred in many organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. This also led to online training being conducted during this WFH period. The present study investigated the role of technology, manager support and peer support on self-efficacy and job outcomes (i.e. training transfer, work engagement and job satisfaction) of employees while WFH.

The study framework incorporated Bandura's self-efficacy theory. Data were collected from 852 employees in India, and structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

The study found positive relationships between ease of technology use, manager support and peer support on self-efficacy and a negative relationship between self-efficacy and technostress. The study also found significant positive relationships between self-efficacy and training transfer, work engagement and job satisfaction. Moreover, the study also identified the moderating effects of WFH and technical issues in the relationships of self-efficacy with training transfer, work engagement and job satisfaction.

The study is novel in that it extended self-efficacy theory regarding the WFH context with influencers such as technology, managers and peers as organizational factors. It also demonstrated the effectiveness of remote working and online training considering the potential antecedents while WFH. Moreover, the study highlighted the simultaneous role of technology and people (managers and peers) in enhancing job outcomes by increasing self-efficacy among employees.

This paper aims to examine the health technology use in health information seeking, communication and personal health information management, as well as in the effects they may have on his relationship with the physician and on the consumption of medical resources.

An online survey was conducted. The questionnaires were distributed via online health discussion forums using Google's survey software with a summary presentation of the study’s objective. The final selection of 362 individuals was made using social media, direct email and collaboration with community groups. The empirical validation of the causal model was conducted using the partial least square approach.

The results show that the use of e-health strengthens the quality of the patient–physician relationship and patient empowerment while increasing the consumption of medical resources.

The results of this research indicate that the internet has transformed the relationship of patients to health, to their doctors and to the health-care system. In this new context, a reconsideration of the status of the patient must be considered by health service providers.

This study aims to analyze the capacity of ecotourists to exhibit behavior that aligns with the ecotourist scale using the Rasch model measurement.

The data was gathered using an online survey incorporating the five tenets of ecotourism using a seven-point rating scale on domestic tourists in Indonesia. Descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation and Rasch model measurement were used to analyze the data.

The ecotourist identification scale measurement items were reliable and satisfactory. The most challenging behavior for ecotourists was using the services of a tour guide who was concerned about the environment. Meanwhile, respecting cultural differences around the tourist destination was the most accessible behavior. Most respondents demonstrated a fit response pattern and satisfactorily met the validity and reliability criteria.

This study did not compare ecotourists’ ability to behave by the type of conservation visited as its limitation. However, it provides a significant methodological contribution to developing a measurement of ecotourist behavior implemented in well-established behavioral theories.

Integrating ecotourism into education, incentivizing eco-friendly tourism practices, promoting awareness, supporting local businesses, respecting local values and ensuring safe travels.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to be conducted in Indonesia. It uses a unique and innovative method to reveal the unobserved variables in ecotourists’ behavior. The findings confirm that tourists’ behaviors align with the five tenets of ecotourism.

In the organizational behaviour literature, psychological capital (psycap) has been identified as a significant variable affecting the engagement level of employees. Relying on this, this study aims to examine the association between psycap sub-constructs and employee engagement (EE) using systematic review and meta-analysis techniques.

The study analyzed 28 primary studies (selected through a systematic review of literature by incorporating inclusion and exclusion criteria) via meta-analysis techniques conducted using Meta-Essential Software (1.5). Along with this, the Cohen Kappa reliability test and the trim and fill technique have been applied, followed by moderator analysis.

The results of the study contribute to the extant literature in three ways. Firstly, the study confirms the positive association between psycap sub-constructs and EE. Secondly, it looks into the individual constructs of psycap and shows that hope is the primary component that influences EE, followed by optimism, efficacy and resilience. Thirdly, the country acts as a moderator between psycap and EE.

The study’s result highlights numerous implications, suggesting that organizations should focus on bringing out the latent “HERO” (hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism) qualities of their employees to make the workplace more engaging. Lastly, the study concludes by pointing out the limitations and highlighting future directions.

Being the first systematic review and meta-analytical study focusing on psycap sub-constructs and EE associations, this study contributes to the engagement literature.

This study aims to examine how the effect of gender on entrepreneurial growth aspirations is moderated differently by individual resources (human and financial capital) compared to those within the social environment (availability of entrepreneurial knowledge and role models).

A multilevel estimator is used to investigate the determinants of growth aspirations of owners-managers of nascent start-ups. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor database is employed, covering the period 2007–2019, with 99,000 useable cases drawn from 95 countries.

The results suggest that individual financial resources and human capital have positive effects on entrepreneurial growth aspirations; yet these effects are weaker for female entrepreneurs relative to males. In contrast, the impact of the availability of entrepreneurial social knowledge and role models on their growth aspirations is more positive than for male entrepreneurs.

This study offers a novel insight into entrepreneurial growth ambition, as it utilises a global perspective to scrutinise whether individual and social resources contribute differently to male versus female growth-aspirations, employing a multilevel approach. It also integrates insights from the resource-based view and from the relevant business literature on entrepreneurs’ gender to develop theoretical explanations.