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In this paper, the authors examine the strategies used to reduce labour costs in three public hospitals in South Africa, which were effective and why. In the democratic era, after the revelations of large-scale corruption, the authors ask whether their case studies provide lessons for how public service institutions might re-make themselves, under circumstances of austerity.

A comparative qualitative case study approach, collecting data using a combination of interviews with managers, focus group discussions and interviews with shop stewards and staff was used.

Management in two hospitals relied on their financial power, divisions between unions and employees' loyalty. They lacked the insight to manage different actors, and their efforts to outsource services and draw on the Extended Public Works Program failed. They failed to support staff when working beyond their scope of practice, reducing employees' willingness to take on extra responsibilities. In the remaining hospital, while previous management had been removed due to protests by the unions, the new CEO provided stability and union–management relations were collaborative. Her legitimate power enabled unions and management to agree on appropriate cost cutting strategies.

Finding an appropriate balance between the new reality of reduced financial resources and the needs of staff and patients, requires competent unions and management, transparency and trust to develop legitimate power; managing in an authoritarian manner, without legitimate power, reduces organisational capacity. Ensuring a fair and orderly process to replace ineffective management is key, while South Africa grows cohorts of competent managers and builds managerial experience.

The study aims to provide a detailed definition of Destination Cultural Reputation while also exploring its impact on tourist satisfaction through an investigation of the dynamics between these two elements. Additionally, the potential moderating role of on-site engagement in sustainable activities has been investigated, examining whether satisfaction prompts tourists to exhibit behaviors such as the intention to return and recommend the cultural destination.

To achieve these objectives, a survey and a structural equation model, based on a sample of 647 visitors to an important UNESCO World Heritage site (i.e. Urbino), have been adopted.

Findings confirm tourists’ recognition of the destination’s cultural reputation, supporting its relationship with visitor satisfaction. Additionally, tourist satisfaction is positively associated with destination loyalty. However, on-site sustainable activities negatively moderate the relationship between destination reputation and tourist satisfaction. This suggests that a favorable cultural reputation should align with quality sustainable activities in the destination to prevent tourist dissatisfaction.

The paper offers valuable practical insights for destination managers and policymakers aiming to enhance appeal and sustainability.

The study contributes to enhancing the understanding of the complex relationship between reputation, satisfaction, and loyalty in cultural destinations. In addiction it measures the reputation of tourist destination through the specific cultural dimension.

The destruction of armed confrontations – ranging from chronic armed conflicts to full-scale wars – leads to enormous loss of human lives and causes wide-scale devastation. They also leave deep and lasting traumas in the minds of those whose lives are torn apart because of a conflict. Memorialisation of conflict-affected sites plays an invaluable part in post-trauma recovery and can contribute to the reconciliation of different groups involved in a conflict as these sites are representatives of communities' collective memory, identity and a source of unity and resilience. This paper aims to investigate post-trauma recovery and reconciliation processes through the phenomena of memorialisation. It aims to answer how and if the memorialisation of sites of pain can contribute to the recovery and reconciliation of affected communities and serve as examples for other people around the world.

The documentation of such processes and the lessons learnt can offer valuable information for conducting similar exercises in other settings ravaged by a conflict. To achieve this, a review of literature on trauma, memory, memorialisation and difficult heritage was conducted, while the memorialisation processes from different cases such as Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1939–1945), Beirut (1975–1990) and Sarajevo's Vijecnica and Mostar Bridge (1992–1995) were analysed.

It was identified that the potential of memorialisation for post-trauma recovery and reconciliation is vast. However, if these processes can “heal” or “hurt” depend largely on who the stakeholders are; how the site and events are interpreted and presented; how pre/post-conflict relationships and dynamics are harnessed; how symbolic meanings (old and new) are [re]interpreted; the spatial-temporal nature of the site and those interacting with it; and the intended and perceived messages. Altogether, memorialisation of conflict-affected sites is a political and continuous process that should take into consideration all those directly and indirectly involved, the dynamics between them and all the symbolic meanings acquired and attributed to the site.

The study critically explores frameworks of memorialisation and their impact on both the built environment and communities. It contributes to the wider discussion of difficult heritage memorialisation and approaches to reflect on sites and cities emerging from crises such as conflict.

Middle-aged and elderly users become an important group on short-video platforms, however, the research on determinants of their video-creating intention is limited. Based on lifespan development theories, this study examines the impact of aging experiences on their video-creating intention, considering internal generative motivations as mediators and age as a moderator.

To test this study’s hypotheses, survey data from 321 Chinese middle-aged and elderly short-video users were collected and partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to analyze these data.

Middle-aged and elderly users' aging experiences of social loss and personal growth are positively related to their video-creating intention. Aging experiences (i.e. physical loss, social loss, and personal growth) are positively related to internal generative motivations (i.e. need to be needed and symbolic immortality), and need to be needed is positively related to video-creating intention. Via the mediation of need to be needed, physical loss and personal growth are indirectly positively related to video-creating intention. Personal growth strengthens the relationship between physical loss and symbolic immortality, but weakens the associations of social loss with need to be needed and symbolic immortality. Age weakens the relationship between symbolic immortality and video-creating intention.

This study is the first wave to introduce and integrate lifespan theories such as selective optimization with compensation model, socioemotional selectivity theory, and generativity theory to explore the impacts of aging experiences on middle-aged and elderly users' video-creating intention by considering generativity motivations as mediators and age as a moderator.

This study aims to explore the relationship between personal innovativeness, perceived symbolic value and green purchase intentions within the context of sustainable consumption. Specifically, it investigates how personal innovativeness influences both green purchase intentions and perceived symbolic value and examines whether perceived symbolic value mediates the relationship between personal innovativeness and green purchase intentions.

Using a survey-based quantitative approach, data were collected from a sample of Indonesian consumers using online panels via SurveyMonkey®. The study used Rogers’ diffusion theory to conceptualize personal innovativeness and drew on theories of symbolic consumption to frame perceived symbolic value. Partial least square structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed hypotheses and explore the relationships among the constructs.

The results indicate that personal innovativeness positively affects green purchase intentions and enhances the perceived symbolic value of green products. Moreover, perceived symbolic value influences green purchase intentions and partially mediates the relationship between personal innovativeness and green purchase intentions. These findings underscore the critical role of symbolic value in the adoption of green products and highlight personal innovativeness as a key driver in sustainable consumer behavior.

This research contributes to the sustainable consumption literature by integrating personal innovativeness with symbolic value considerations in green purchasing decisions, offering a novel insight into how individual traits and product symbolism interact to influence consumer behavior in the context of environmental sustainability.

This paper seeks to understand how a new elite, known as the cork aristocracy, emerged in the Bordeaux wine field, France, between 1850 and 1929 as wine merchants replaced aristocrats. Classic class and status perspectives, and their distinctive social closure dynamics, are mobilized to illuminate the individual and organizational transformations that affected elite wineries grouped in an emerging classification of the Bordeaux best wines. We build on a wealth of archives and historical ethnography techniques to surface complex status and organizational dynamics that reveal how financiers and industrialists intermediated this transition and how organizations are deeply interwoven into social change.

This study explores young consumers' motivations for purchasing Virtual Luxury Non-Fungible Token Wearables (VL-NFTs) from luxury brands, which are virtually crafted luxury wearables minted as blockchain-based NFTs. Specifically, it investigates the relationships among consumers' perceived value of VL-NFTs, engagement with NFTs and purchase intention and the mediating effect of consumer engagement with NFTs.

Data were collected via an online survey of 504 young US consumers who had previously considered purchasing luxury fashion products and NFTs. Structural equation modelling was adopted for analysis.

Perceived economic, functional (uniqueness) and experiential (self-directed pleasure and affiliation) values of VL-NFTs directly influenced consumers' purchase intention. While symbolic value (self-presentation and conspicuousness) did not significantly influence purchase intention, it facilitated consumer engagement with NFTs. Moreover, consumer engagement mediated the relationship between economic and functional values and purchase intention.

The sample was only comprised of young consumers, limiting the generalizability. Additionally, consumers may perceive VL-NFTs differently because of differences in past experiences and the varying VL-NFT types, necessitating further investigation on consumers' motivations across different types of VL-NFTs.

This study contributes to the existing literature by examining the importance of multifaceted perceived-value dimensions and engagement with NFTs in consumers' motivation for purchasing VL-NFTs through the lens of the customer value framework.

The aim of this study is, from the perspective of artisan entrepreneurship, to trace and analyse the artisan's profile in the sustainable development of low population density cross-border territories, using the quintuple helix innovation model.

Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with cultural and traditional artisans to achieve the proposed objective using a qualitative approach. The artisans are from Northeast Portugal (Bragança, Miranda do Douro, Mogadouro, Vimioso and Vinhais) and Northern Spain (Province of Zamora). The interviews were conducted face-to-face between May and June 2022. The interviews were manually transcribed and subjected to content and lexical analyses using IRaMuTeQ software.

An artisan was identified as an enterprising individual whose marketed handicraft pieces transmit the values and teachings of his community. Innovation, technology, sustainability and circular economy in a family environment, where dedication, resilience, happiness and hard work transmit an identity that places the artisan and his artisan practice as the driving force for the enhancement and promotion of his territory, cultural heritage and identity.

This work is the first study to address and treat the issue of artisan entrepreneurship by analysing and defining the cultural-based and traditional artisan profile in a cross-border and low population density territorial context.

This study explores the social conditions for sustainability practices, addressing the processes whereby associational gardening practices in a highly segregated context may or may not create connections and capacities across urban social divides.

Based on organizational ethnographic fieldwork, the article explores urban gardens as potential meeting places in a segregated city, Gothenburg, focusing on collectively organized gardening projects in different socioeconomic and socio-spatial settings.

The study identifies the unintentional encounters embedded in the immaterial act of gardening, that is, digging, planting and actual gardening practices regardless of the harvest. Such practices were found to be important for social sustainability practices beyond the continuous reproduction of silos, at least in multicultural settings. Nevertheless, many urban gardeners create a green living room for themselves and their neighbours, and engagement with those outside their silos often becomes more of a symbolic act of global solidarity, especially in more culturally homogeneous areas.

The article fills a gap in the research by focusing on the social conditions for sustainability practices in urban segregated areas. By showing how gardening practices often reproduce cultural similarity, the study highlights the importance of revealing practices and places that facilitate unintentional social “bonus” interactions that nonetheless occur in two of the gardening environments studied. Unintentional encounters are identified as important dimensions of social sustainability practices.