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The paper intends to show why farms as we know them today may soon be a thing of the past and that organisational behaviour research has an important contribution to make in assisting the upcoming transformation.

Two strains of literature are reviewed and then synthesised: the literature on robots replacing humans in agricultural production and the literature on vertical integration that shifts decisions to agribusiness. Then the potential contribution of organisational behaviour research is outlined.

It is shown how the farm is likely to lose both roles for which their geographic entity is important: making decisions and carrying out production. This requires contributions from organisational behaviour research in the realms of decision designs and social systems.

It can be anticipated that the most profitable strategy for farmland owners in the future will be collaboration with contractors. Farms as organisations, are increasingly losing their importance. This not only has grave social implications for farmworkers and landowners but also for scholars in organisational behaviour research.

The paper challenges an organisational unit that is so familiar to us that it is rarely questioned.

This paper aims to examine how collaborative supplier development (SD) activities, supplier capabilities and buyer–supplier relationship interrelate in technology-based, luxury product business contexts characterized by small volumes, difficult targets and resource constraints relative to those targets.

Using inductive case research method, the authors investigate multiple embedded cases involving six dyadic buyer–supplier relationships of two luxury product manufacturers in the motorcycle and automotive industries. Each dyad represents an important sub-system for which the buying firm committed significant SD efforts to help the supplier successfully achieve difficult targets.

The analysis reveals how paradoxical tensions might emerge as the firms engage in successful SD activities, which could lead to decreasing relationship commitment ultimately resulting in the termination of the relationship. The authors utilize the “value co-creation and value capture” paradox framework to understand the SD and relationship dynamic and characterize it as developing-leveraging paradox to explain its dualities, i.e. commitment-based SD efforts (increasing value co-creation), and unilateral leveraging of the newly acquired capabilities (increasing value capture) by both the buyer and the supplier. Overemphasis on value capture by one of the exchange partners spurs a detrimental vicious cycle leading to the decline of the relationship.

The study explains the paradoxical dynamics that may emerge in SD activities of innovative, technologically complex, luxury product firms. The findings contribute to the SD literature by highlighting how learnings from SD activities could contribute to the dark sides of buyer–supplier relationship. The technologically complex, luxury product contextual characteristics of the study may limit the generalizability of the study findings.

The study provides novel insights into the emergence and management of paradoxes in buyer–supplier relationships, in terms of virtuous and vicious dynamics of developing-leveraging.

The e-commerce boom presents new challenges for last-mile delivery (LMD), which may be mitigated by new delivery technologies. This paper evaluates the impact of mobile parcel lockers (MPL) on costs and CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e) emissions in existing LMD networks, which include home delivery and shipments to stationary parcel lockers.

To describe customers’ preferences, we design a multinomial logit model based on recipients’ travel distance to pick-up locations and availability at home. Based on route cost estimation, we define the operating costs for MPLs. We devise a mathematical model with binary decision variables to optimize the location of MPLs.

Our study demonstrates that integrating MPLs leads to additional cost savings of 8.7% and extra CO₂e emissions savings of up to 5.4%. Our analysis of several regional clusters suggests that MPLs yield benefits in highly populous cities but may result in additional emissions in more rural areas where recipients drive longer distances to pick-ups.

This paper designs a suitable operating model for MPLs and demonstrates environmental and economic savings. Moreover, it adds recipients’ availability at home to receive parcels improving the accuracy of stochastic demand. In addition, MPLs are evaluated in the context of several regional clusters ranging from large cities to rural areas. Thus, we provide managerial guidance to logistics service providers how and where to deploy MPLs.

This viewpoint adds context and variety to the “decolonizing international business” debate by engaging in a discussion of the decolonial thinking approach and proposing a broader framework for analysing the link between international business (IB) activities on the one hand and colonisation and decolonisation on the other. The purpose of this paper is to inspire a more intensive engagement of IB scholarship with issues related to colonisation and decolonisation.

This paper involves taking a reflexive review on recent calls to decolonise IB, contextualising and extending the decolonisation debate in the academic field of IB.

This paper argues that the current discussion of decolonisation should be extended beyond the decolonial thinking approach and its focus on knowledge and the cultural dimension towards a broader framework that covers both colonisation and decolonisation as well as the respective economic, political, social and cultural dimensions. It introduces the varieties of colonisation and decolonisation approach, which considers the complexities of the phenomenon and covers the economic, social, political and cultural dimensions.

Through its focus on foreign market expansion, international trade, global value chains and formal and informal institutions in the business environment, the academic field of IB provides several starting points for research on the link between IB activities and colonisation and decolonisation. The decolonisation debate can be used to inspire future research in IB, for example, with respect to the role of multinational corporations in colonisation and neo-colonisation processes and the implications of the emerging multipolar world order for IB.

IB scholars will be better informed when engaging in discussions on decolonisation and the decolonise IB project. This paper suggests considering both colonisation and decolonisation processes as well as the respective economic, political, social and cultural dimensions in research and teaching. The varieties of colonisation and decolonisation approach provides a comprehensive and flexible alternative framework to analyse issues related to colonisation and decolonisation.

A balanced view of the implications of colonisation and decolonisation with respect to economic, political, social and cultural dimensions may suitably be incorporated in the field of IB and contribute to tackling grand societal challenges. This applies likewise to past, current and future processes of colonisation and decolonisation.

This paper contextualises and adds a new perspective and variety to the current debate on decolonising IB. This is valuable for engaging in discussions on decolonisation and future conceptual and empirical research on the topic.

This study aims to evaluate the issue of household food waste in Greece, with an emphasis on assessing the level of awareness and key behaviours among consumers. Moreover, the study focuses on examining consumer behaviours related to food waste and identifying distinct consumer profiles that can provide valuable insights into the issue in order to uncover unique behavioural factors and offer targeted interventions to curb food waste in the country.

A nationwide survey was conducted in Greece using a structured online questionnaire, which was sent to 1,270 participants, through the snowball technique. However, due to some incomplete responses, only 1,238 of the responses were considered suitable for analysis. Common descriptive statistics were used to sketch the respondents' profiles, and a non-hierarchical K-means cluster analysis was performed to identify distinct subgroups in the sample.

The study revealed a significant level of food waste awareness among Greek consumers. The cluster analysis identified four distinct consumer groups and substantial differences among them. Notably, sociodemographic analysis underscored a pronounced inclination towards food wastage among younger individuals. Additionally, each cluster's attributes, including their environmental awareness, shopping behaviours meal-planning tendencies and propensity for excess purchases, were examined. Consequently, this study underscored the imperative for targeted informational campaigns tailored for consumer segmentation, offering a pathway to identify prospective interventions conducive to the promotion of sustainable food-consumption practices.

The originality and value of this work lie in its unique focus on addressing the significant issue of household food waste within the context of Greece. What sets this study apart is the application of non-hierarchical K-means cluster analysis (which allowed the authors to identify distinct consumer profiles), a method not widely utilised in the Greek context. By filling this knowledge gap, this study offers crucial insights that can inform targeted interventions aimed at reducing food waste, in alignment with global sustainability initiatives such as the United Nations Agenda 2030 and the European Union's “Farm to Fork” strategy. Additionally, this study contributes to the efforts to provide innovative solutions to prevent household food waste and foster a sustainable future in an ever-changing international environment marked by various crises

This paper describes the development of a digital role play game (RPG) designed to help construction apprentices to better communicate with their supervisors about issues with the potential to impact on their physical and psychological health and safety.

A participatory approach was adopted to utilise the knowledge and insights of the target users to inform the digital RPG development. Apprentices and supervisors were interviewed to identify characteristics of effective supervisor-apprentice communication, which became the RPG’s learning objectives. The scenarios constructed in the RPG were drawn from lived experiences shared by the apprentices in the interviews. During the development process, consultations were conducted with an advisory committee comprising of apprentices and supervisors to improve the realism of the RPG scenarios.

Three scenarios were developed for the RPG. In each scenario, players are asked to make decisions at various interaction points about how the characters should respond to the unfolding and challenging situations. Scripts were developed for the game, which were acted out and motion captured to animate digital MetaHuman characters embedded in a virtual construction site. Two example situations are introduced in this paper to illustrate the development process.

To our knowledge, the RPG introduced is one of the first applications of digital game-based training in the construction industry. The adoption of a participatory design approach ensures that the game content relates to real-world experiences. The digital RPG is highly interactive and engaging in nature and presents a novel approach to developing “soft” skills in construction.

With production systems become more digitized, data-driven maintenance decisions can improve the performance of production systems. While manufacturers are introducing predictive maintenance and maintenance reporting to increase maintenance operation efficiency, operational data may also be used to improve maintenance management. Research on the value of data-driven decision support to foster increased internal integration of maintenance with related functions is less explored. This paper explores the potential for further development of solutions for cross-functional responsibilities that maintenance shares with production and logistics through data-driven approaches.

Fifteen maintenance experts were interviewed in semi-structured interviews. The interview questions were derived based on topics identified through a structured literature analysis of 126 papers.

The main findings show that data-driven decision-making can support maintenance, asset, production and material planning to coordinate and collaborate on cross-functional responsibilities. While solutions for maintenance planning and scheduling have been explored for various operational conditions, collaborative solutions for maintenance, production and logistics offer the potential for further development. Enablers for data-driven collaboration are the internal synchronization and central definition of goals, harmonization of information systems and information visualization for decision-making.

This paper outlines future research directions for data-driven decision-making in maintenance management as well as the practical requirements for implementation.

The study aims to analyze the different types of risks related to the use of technology and determine their positive or negative influence on teachers' motivation and behavioral intention to use digital tools.

The research is based on survey data from 200 teachers in the Romanian preuniversity education system. The data analysis followed a four-step approach, using a partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) model for hypothesized relationships among research concepts and a PLS prediction-oriented segmentation (POS) procedure.

This study showed that increased risk awareness influences both motivation and, consequently, the intention to adopt digital tools in the preuniversity education system.

The scope of research remains constrained with regard to the examined population, considering the substantial number of teachers within the preuniversity education system. Another limit lies in the basic classification of identified risk types.

School managers should design a strategy to increase the level of motivation for integrating digital tools in the educational process.

Little scholarly attention has been devoted to investigating the risks associated with digitalization in the preuniversity education system. In addition, no prior research has been conducted to assess the influence of risk perception on people's motivation and intention to use digital tools in preuniversity education.

As the size of the population is growing and the capacity of the planet Earth is limited, human beings are searching for sustainable and technology-enabled solutions to support society, ecology and economy. One of the solutions has been developing smart sustainable cities. Smart sustainable cities are cities as systems, where their infrastructure, different subsystems and different functional domains are virtually connected to the information and communication technologies (ICT) and internet via sensors and devices and the Internet of Things (IoT), to collect and process real-time Big Data and make efficient, effective and sustainable solutions for a democratic and liveable city for its various stakeholders. This chapter explores the concepts and practices of sustainable smart cities across the globe and explores the use of technologies such as IoT, Blockchain technology and Cloud computing, etc. their challenges and then presents a view on business models for sustainable smart cities.

This paper aims to explore the increasing importance of the intraorganizational dimension of the sales role (IDSR) based on service-ecosystem theory. Specifically, it examines how firms can improve interactions both internally and with external actors and stakeholders to both create and sustain advantageous “thin crossing points” (Hartmann et al. 2018). Academic research on sales ecosystems has yet to fully harness the rich insights and potential afforded by the crossing-point perspective.

After developing and unpacking the paper’s guiding conceptual framework (Figure 1), the authors focus on crossing points and the diversity of interactions between the contemporary sales force and its many stakeholders. They examine the sales literature, identify opportunities for thinning sales crossing points and propose dozens of research questions and needs.

The paper examines the importance of improving interactions both within and outside the vendor firm to thin crossing points, further develops the concept of the “sales ecosystem” and contributes a series of important research questions for future examination.

The paper focuses on applying “thick” and “thin” crossing points, a key element of Hartman et al. (2018). The primary limitation of the paper is that it focuses solely on the crossing-points perspective and does not consider other applications of Hartman et al. (2018).

This work informs managers of the need to improve interactions both within and outside the firm by thinning crossing points. Improving relationships with stakeholders will improve many vendor firm and customer outcomes, including performance.

Integrating findings from the literature, the authors propose a conceptual framework to encompass the entire diversity of idiosyncratic interactions as well as long-term relationships the sales force experiences. They discuss the strategic importance of thinning crossing points as well as the competitive disadvantages, even peril, “thick” crossing points create. They propose an ambitious research agenda based on dozens of questions to drive further examination of the IDSR from a sales-ecosystem perspective.