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The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the practice of demotion. This study aims to do so in two ways: first, by investigating Belgian HR professionals’ key motives for practicing and not practicing demotion and second, by examining the reasons why HR professionals choose for these specific motives.

The explanatory mixed methods design is used: survey data are analyzed through cluster analysis resulting in insights into the motives for practicing demotion. Follow-up qualitative focus group interviews provide an explanatory understanding of the motives for practicing and not practicing demotion.

Low employee performance, optimization of the organization, employer branding and career possibilities are motives for practicing demotion. Demotivation, salary issues, a taboo and a lack of vacancies are motives for not practicing demotion. A cultural change, walk the talk, carefully selected vocabulary and transparent communication could possibly counter the motives for not practicing demotion.

The use of terminology such as “downward career twist” instead of “demotion” in some questions of the survey might have influenced the answers of the Belgian HR professionals. In a focus group, no matter how small, participants sometimes tend to give socially desirable answers under group pressure, and this could influence the accuracy. Moreover, the HR professionals often expressed their own opinions, which they clearly dissociate from the views of the organization.

Organizations need to explore alternatives to motivate their employees in general and in particular in case of a demotion. This can be emphasized through a demotion policy. However, these alternative ways to motivate are important as extrinsic motivators such as salary are not the only way to motivate employees.

Motives for practicing and not practicing demotion are to the authors’ best knowledge never studied from a recent, Belgian HR perspective. These motives are contextualized in organizational justice theory. This study contributes to the demotion literature by elaborating the list of motives for practicing and not practicing demotion.

With the available technological tools, fans are able to access sport products regardless of geographic proximity. Through technology, fans can follow sports teams from other countries. In contrast to previous research focused on the local fan, in this paper we report on a study of a group of distant fans – Chinese National Basketball Association (NBA) fans – as the focal object. The study was guided by three questions: RQ1: what motives drive a distant fan’s involvement with their favorite NBA team? RQ2: are there differences in the motives associated with the different stages of psychological connection among distant fans? RQ3: are there differences in the amount of media consumption at the different stages of psychological connection? The paper aims to discuss these issues.

An online survey was distributed to consumers of a Chinese sports message board to assess the motives of distant fans (n=281) following teams in the NBA, and strength of psychological connection to the NBA based on the psychological continuum model (PCM).

There were significant differences in the motives for following a distant NBA team among the respondents at different stages of psychological connection. Significant differences were also found among Chinese NBA fans at the respective stages regarding media consumption.

This study contributes to the advancement of knowledge regarding sport fandom. It is one of the first studies to include an assessment of the sport consumption motives of distant fans, more specifically, motives influencing Chinese fans’ consumption of the NBA. Utilizing the PCM allows for the segmentation of a specific fan population and to ascertain whether there are differences in the motives and behaviors associated with different stages of an individual’s psychological connection with a team.

A seaport is an essential part of a supply chain, but many ports experience truck shortages, creating pressure for port authorities from shippers who need more trucks that move cargo. This study explores and ranks the motives for adopting a truck-sharing concept (where shippers share the same truck for delivery) as a mechanism to improve transport capacity.

This study adopts a multi-method approach – both interviews and surveys. Interviews are first conducted with shippers to explore truck-sharing usage motives. Next, quantitative surveys of both shippers and carriers are conducted to rank those motives.

The study identifies five motives (operational efficiency goal, quick transport solution, sustainability policy, convenience-seeking behavior and secure transport process) for truck-sharing, four critical transport attributes (lower charges for freight, distance travelled, full capacity utilization and environmental recognition), four psychological consequences (monetary savings, greater safety, instant availability of trips and clarification of environmental values), and six core values (secure transport process, being careful of money, ease of doing business, sustainability, status in the community and recognition by customers of shippers).

The qualitative results will help researchers better understand how usage motives influence shippers' willingness to share a truck for transport needs. The quantitative results are useful for ranking truck-sharing motives by their importance.

Based on the findings, managers of carriers can categorize shippers according to their specific needs and thereby customize promotions to attract more shippers.

The findings provide the first, exploratory insights into shippers' motives.

This paper aims at measuring the factors affecting early-stage entrepreneurial activity by opportunity vs necessity motives in India using theory of planned behaviour.

The study is based on the Adult Population Survey (APS) of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), covering 4,165 respondents in 2018. The data has been analysed using descriptive statistics, chi-square test, analysis of variance and logistics regression. The theory of planned behaviour has been used to identify the determinants of early-stage entrepreneurial activity by opportunity vs necessity motives.

About 13.1% of the respondents reported early-stage entrepreneurial activity, of which opportunity motives were reported by 6.5% respondents, necessity motives by 5.4% respondents and the remaining 1.2% respondents reported other motives. Further, the mean difference in early-stage entrepreneurial activities by motives shows the domination of opportunity-driven entrepreneurial activities. Finally, marginal effects of all determining variables and three components of the theory of planned behaviour, i.e. attitude towards entrepreneurship (ATE), perceived subjective norm (PSN) and perceived behavioural control (PBC), have been estimated on opportunity vs necessity motives of early-stage entrepreneurial activities.

This paper contributes theoretically and practically to the existing body of knowledge by predicting the factors affecting opportunity vs necessity motives of early-stage entrepreneurial activities by applying the theory of planned behaviour. Considering the current focus of the government on promoting entrepreneurship, this piece of research can be valuable in adopting a motive-based approach in implementing entrepreneurial initiatives.

This paper provides unique insights into developing a policy framework for promoting new ventures based on the perceived motives of the entrepreneurs.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the different personality types and Facebook behavior of the young Indian consumers in the context of e-tailing. With the increased popularity of Facebook, consumers and e-tailers are using it as a platform to connect better with each other. This paper makes an attempt to study the motive and online purchasing behavior of youth by examining Facebook posts and understanding their relationship with personality and gender.

A survey was conducted on 200 young Indian consumers who use Facebook as well as follow at least one e-tailer on Facebook. The responses to the survey were used to test the proposed conceptual model to find out the relationship of personality types and gender with Facebook behavior, type of post liked on Facebook, reason to use Facebook and motive to follow an e-tailer on Facebook using descriptive statistics and nonparametric tests.

The tests showed that gender of online consumers influences their Facebook behavior and the type of post that they like the most on Facebook. The personality type of the online consumers has a significant influence on the motive to follow an e-tailer on Facebook and the reason to use Facebook. It implies that the Facebook pages of e-tailers should plan their posts keeping the gender and personality type of their followers in mind. In this manner, Facebook can be used as a platform by the e-tailers to increase their consumer base, especially among the youth.

The limitations of this study are the respondents for this study are in the age group of 15-25 years only and the results of the study may vary with the change in the age group. The respondents are Indians by nationality and the results may vary for different nations.

This paper provides an insight to the e-tailer about attracting young consumers on their Facebook page in the context of their gender and personality type to enhance the reach and expand their business. This research paper is informative to the e-tailers who have budgets for social media marketing to know about social media usage by youth for online shopping.

Presently, India has a demographic advantage and this paper contributes to understand the youth social media usage for online shopping. The e-tailers can relate the findings to develop strategies to enhance their customer base. This research paper will contribute to the existing literature on social media marketing and e-tailing.

A large number of industrial manufacturers are forming alliances with partners throughout the supply chain with the focus on improving competitive position. These potential improvements may vary by the type of alliance being formed. In spite of this, little is known regarding what motivates a manufacturer to form an alliance at various channel positions (e.g. supplier versus customer alliances) and what the resultant performance outcomes are from these different types of alliances. This paper examines the importance manufacturers place on various motives based on the channel position of alliance. Further, the paper compares the objectives actually achieved across alliances with manufacturers and partners at different channel levels.

Literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has given much attention to the impact of CSR initiatives on business performance. However, managing customers’ attributions to the company’s social activities are also needed. This study aims to extend the existing knowledge by examining the role of social justice as a moderating variable in the relationships among corporate brand image, CSR motive, corporate brand trust and loyalty.

The research data were collected from a sample of 710 respondents in Indonesia through an online survey. The variables used in this study’s questionnaire were adapted from previous studies. The focus of the survey was a COVID-19-related social activity conducted by the biggest private telecommunication company in Indonesia. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses.

The results showed that social justice moderated the relationship between corporate brand image and CSR motive. Also, social justice that revealed fairness in social life could influence how customers respond on company social activities and thus create corporate brand trust and loyalty.

This study focused on only one company and one type of CSR activity (i.e. philanthropy) that might limit its generalizability. Future studies can focus on other types of CSR activities from various companies and industries.

In designing their social activities, companies must consider the importance of social justice. Companies need to address customers’ concerns toward social and society problems, especially to overcome social, environmental or health problems. Hereinafter, companies must design CSR activities that establish and accentuate their value motives by creating communication through media and public relations activities to symbolize their high concern for social problems or disasters.

Most previous studies consider the outcome of social activities and their impact on business performance. This study focuses on the impact of corporate brand image and social justice (as an individual characteristics) on CSR (social activities) and how it can further enhance business performance (corporate brand trust, corporate brand image, loyalty) and enrich CSR research in emerging economies.

Purpose — The chapter assesses the linkages between unreported economic activities and different individualistic and non-individualistic motives as perceived by firm management.Design/methodology/approach — The empirical research is based on a survey of the management of firms operating in the Baltic States. The survey contains information on the perceived extent of unreported activities and on a large number of firm-, sector-, and country-specific factors. A principal component analysis identifies clusters of motives for unreported activity. Regression analyses ascertain the importance of motives individually and as principal components on the extent of unreported activities.Findings — Both individualistic and non-individualistic motives are important for the prevalence of unreported activities. The individualist motives refer to the management being solely profit-oriented and self-interested. Among possible non-individualist motives, measures of government performance and perceptions of reciprocity towards the government appear to play important roles for the extent of unreported activities, but broader societal norms may also play a role.Research limitations/implications — The study considers the perceptions that managers have of unreported activities and other features. These perceptions are subjective and subject to substantial uncertainty. All results should be interpreted in light of the subjective nature of the survey answers.Social implications — Taken literally, the results suggest that stronger government performance is associated with a reduction in unreported activities, at least as perceived by the management. Broader societal developments may also be of importance.Originality/value — The inclusion of variables capturing individualistic as well as non-individualistic motives gives a comprehensive picture of factors behind unreported activities. We employ principal component analysis which allows us to cluster individual survey answers and to produce composite measures of different explanatory factors.

This paper uses data from the Cedefop European Skills and Jobs survey (ESJS) (Cedefop, 2014, ESJS microdata are Cedefop copyright and are reproduced with the permission of Cedefop. Further information is available at Cedefop, 2015), a new international dataset on skill mismatch of adult workers in 28 EU countries, to decompose the wage penalty of overeducated workers. The ESJ survey allows for integration of a rich set of variables in the estimation of the effect of overeducation on earnings, such as individuals’ job search motives and the skill needs of their jobs. Oaxaca decomposition techniques are employed to uncover the extent to which the earnings penalties of overeducated workers can be attributed to either (i) individual human capital attributes, (ii) job characteristics, (iii) information asymmetries, (iv) compensating job attributes, or (iv) assignment to jobs with different skill needs. Differences in human capital and job-skill requirements are important factors in explaining the wage premium. It is found that asymmetry of information accounts for a significant part of the overeducation wage penalty of tertiary education graduates, whereas job characteristics and the low skill content of their jobs can explain most of the wage gap for medium-qualified employees. Little evidence is found in favor of equilibrium theories of compensating wage differentials and career mobility. Accepting that much remains to be learned with regards to the drivers of overeducation, this paper provides evidence in support of the need for customized policy responses to tackle overeducation.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate why companies reduce transportation emissions by examining the relative importance of external drivers vs internal motives for companies in considering CO₂ emissions in freight transportation.

A framework is suggested that captures internal, competitiveness-driven motives and external, stakeholder-driven drivers for companies seeking to reduce CO₂ in freight transportation. These factors are tested in a large industry survey in Sweden. The survey resulted in 172 responses from corporate heads of logistics, a response rate of 40.3 per cent.

Variations in responding to stakeholder pressure vs company strategy for reducing transportation emissions are identified. Company strategy outweighs stakeholder pressure in determining whether a company intends to green its transportation. The strategy leads to company-internal motives for reducing transportation emissions which differ from company to company. These differences, in turn, lead to different levels of intended reductions. Stakeholder pressure sets the minimal levels that elevate the performance of a group of companies in an industry or a country, but the differentiation effect across companies is lost. The intention to reduce emissions is greatest if a company has both economic and image motives. The logistics resource configuration does not seem to impact drivers and motives.

The research is based on companies in Sweden. Studies across several countries are needed to investigate the impact of national requirements.

The paper shows that the combination of the resource-based view and stakeholder theory presents a better explanation as to why companies reduce transportation emissions than either of them do separately. By combining the two theories this research differentiates between how stakeholder pressure and company strategy influence intents to green transportation.