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The purpose of this paper is to explore how internal auditors’ (IAs) roles have changed because of the diffusion of neoliberal ideologies in the Ukrainian public sector.

A qualitative methodological approach was applied. Data were collected from 29 semi-structured interviews with public sector auditors in Ukraine’s central government; secondary data analysis was also performed.

IAs’ role in Ukraine’s central government has changed significantly, with reforms attempting to move to performance auditing. Consequently, Ukrainian central government IAs appeared in the multi-expectation situation, due to the division of the role senders into two different areas. On one hand, IAs are expected to perform new roles set by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, while their traditional role as “watchdogs” is still expected by managers (heads of institutions). Diverging expectations resulted in the role conflict that impedes the change in IAs’ role and performance auditing introduction in the Ukrainian central government. Moreover, we identify factors that motivate IAs to prioritise managers’ expectations, while trying to cope with the existing role conflict in Ukraine’s central government.

This study makes a threefold contribution by enriching the understanding of auditors’ roles, role conflicts that public sector auditors may experience and factors that influence how auditors cope with such conflicts, through the lenses of role theory; exploring the change in roles with the emergence of performance auditing; and shedding light on public sector auditing in the less explored context of a post-Soviet country.

This study aims to uncover managerial representations of achieving competitive advantage in architectural practices operating within the United Kingdom (UK).

A sequential qualitative methodology is applied, underpinned by nine managerial interviews in five architectural practices, which are analysed using computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software.

In all, 108 representations are identified, with highly rated concepts including reputation, client satisfaction, fees and staff resources discussed in detail. The need for architectural practices to develop a competitive advantage within their sector is increasingly apparent, particularly during times of market turbulence. A total of 20 themes identified are clustered into four main groups focused on People (including Calibre of Staff, Attract Graduates; Qualified Staff); Product (including Emphasis on design, Specialisation, Competitive Fees): Process (including Low Overheads, Office Efficiency) and Potential (Reputation, Ability to Undertake Large Projects, Repeat clients, Ability to expand, Parent Company, Market Understanding and New Offices).

Despite numerous studies conducted on this subject, there has been no research to date documenting managerial representation on achieving competitive advantage in the context of architectural practices in the UK. This paper closes this gap in knowledge by contributing to underlying research on competitive advantage, focusing on the managerial representations within UK architectural practices.

The purpose of this paper is to study the experiences of middle-class working mothers from the ITES (Information Technology Enabled Service) sector in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their experiences of work from home are studied in the backdrop of the ideal worker model at work and the adult worker model at home. Further, the study aims to identify the need for sustainable, inclusive practices for working mothers in Indian organizations to break the male breadwinner model in middle-class households.

A qualitative approach to collect data from 39 middle-class mothers working in MNCs in four metro cities in India. The semi-structured, in-depth interviews focused on their experiences of motherhood, care and work before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic made it evident that the ideal worker model in organizations and the adult worker model at home were illusions for working mothers. The results indicate a continued obligation of the “ideal worker culture” at organizations, even during the health crisis. It made the working mothers realize that they were chasing both the (ideal worker and adult worker) norms but could never achieve them. Subsequently, the male breadwinner model was reinforced at home due to the matrix of motherhood, care and work during the pandemic. The study concludes by arguing the reconstruction of the ideal worker image to make workplaces more inclusive for working mothers.

The study is placed in the context of Indian middle-class motherhood during the pandemic, a demography less explored in the literature. The paper puts forth various myths constituting the gendered realities of Indian middle-class motherhood. It also discusses sustainable, inclusive workplace practices for mothers from their future workplaces' standpoint, especially in post-pandemic times.

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced new challenges for auditors to provide high-quality audits. These challenges pose interesting questions about the ability of auditors to obtain audit evidence and ensure appropriate conclusions. In response to these questions, this paper aims to examine how self-efficacy affects the auditors’ effort and performance during COVID-19 and how remote audit proficiency helps them respond to these challenges, as reflected in more effort and high-quality performance.

To test the hypotheses, this study used a quantitative approach in which 193 Saudi auditors were surveyed and partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

The authors demonstrated that self-efficacy is positively associated with the perceived audit effort and performance during the COVID-19 crisis. The results also showed that remote audit proficiency plays a significant role during COVID-19 as it can help auditors exert more effort and perform audit activities effectively. This study also found that remote audit mediates the association between self-efficacy and both effort and performance during COVID-19. These results are also asserted under several robust analyses.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, these findings provide the first evidence on the effect of COVID-19 on auditors and have implications for both theory and practice.

This paper aims to explore how women’s compassionate leadership behaviors relate to physical isolation, trust building and turnover intention in virtual work environments in Nigeria.

The authors collected quantitative data through two-wave surveys from 428 respondents in virtual work environments across public and private organizations in Nigeria. The proposed hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The outcomes from the test of hypotheses suggest that women’s compassionate managerial leadership behaviors negatively relate to physical isolation among virtual workers. Conversely, a positive link was found between women’s compassionate managerial leadership behaviors and trust building. Further, an inverse association was found between women’s compassionate managerial leadership behaviors and turnover intention among virtual workers.

Based on the findings, organizations may consider deploying more women managers to virtual work schedules to address trust, isolation and turnover intention challenges. Also, HR practitioners may consider training male managers in virtual work on how to restructure their relationships with subordinates to reflect compassionate attributes so that subordinates can feel safe sharing their worries with them for timely support. Policy-wise, relevant government agencies that are saddled with the responsibility of emancipating women from career-inhibiting patriarchal practices in Africa (i.e. confining women to the house) should encourage women to embrace the homeworking model, which holds great career potential for women.

As a response to the current calls for research on the suitable leadership style for virtual work environments, this study empirically demonstrates that women’s innate compassionate leadership behaviors significantly address physical isolation, trust and turnover intention challenges in virtual work settings. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that explores the link between these variables. As such, this study substantially enriches the literature on gender in management.

Given the continuing need to study service marketing adaptations that emerged in the wake of Covid-19, this paper aims to look at the formation and evolution of purchase groups (PGs) that arose in Indian gated communities during the pandemic and have continued functioning in the post-pandemic marketplace. Not only did these groups act as much-needed interstitial markets during a time of significant external disruption, but they also served as sites of value co-creation, with consumers collaborating with each other and with service providers.

Using a phenomenological research approach, the authors conducted 22 in-depth interviews with Indian consumers and small service providers to gather accounts of how PGs started and evolved with time. Subsequent data coding and analyses are conducted with NVivo 12.

Using the service ecosystem perspective, the authors illustrate seven distinct themes that capture the nuances of the formation and evolution of PGs. These consist of entrepreneurality, collectivity, and fluidity at the service ecosystem level, hybridity and transactionality at the servicescape level, and mutuality and permeability at the service encounter level.

This study provides an empirical and theoretically grounded account of a long-term service marketing adaptation that has persisted in the post-pandemic marketplace. This helps us address recent calls for such research while also adding to the work on value co-creation in collective consumption contexts and extant discourse on service ecosystems.

The purpose of this study is to introduce new tools to develop a more precise and focused bibliometric analysis on the field of digitalization in healthcare management. Furthermore, this study aims to provide an overview of the existing resources in healthcare management and education and other developing interdisciplinary fields.

This work uses bibliometric analysis to conduct a comprehensive review to map the use of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2) research models in healthcare academic studies. Bibliometric studies are considered an important tool to evaluate research studies and to gain a comprehensive view of the state of the art.

Although UTAUT dates to 2003, our bibliometric analysis reveals that only since 2016 has the model, together with UTAUT2 (2012), had relevant application in the literature. Nonetheless, studies have shown that UTAUT and UTAUT2 are particularly suitable for understanding the reasons that underlie the adoption and non-adoption choices of eHealth services. Further, this study highlights the lack of a multidisciplinary approach in the implementation of eHealth services. Equally significant is the fact that many studies have focused on the acceptance and the adoption of eHealth services by end users, whereas very few have focused on the level of acceptance of healthcare professionals.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to conduct a bibliometric analysis of technology acceptance and adoption by using advanced tools that were conceived specifically for this purpose. In addition, the examination was not limited to a certain era and aimed to give a worldwide overview of eHealth service acceptance and adoption.

This study aims to extend ambidexterity theory from the perspective of organisational learning and examine how process ambidexterity, which comprises operational flexibility and operational routine, responds to environmental uncertainty and ultimately reduces organisational risks.

This study tests the hypotheses by analysing 464 annual reports of 115 listed companies in the Chinese agricultural and food industry using content and secondary data analyses. Four case studies are also provided.

The results show that (1) environmental uncertainty has a positive effect on either operational flexibility or operational routine; (2) both operational flexibility and operational routine have negative effects on organisational risks, supporting the view that process ambidexterity mediates the relationship between environmental uncertainty and organisational risks; and (3) organisational slack plays the role of “double-edged sword” by negatively moderating the effect of environmental uncertainty on operational flexibility and positively moderating the effect of environmental uncertainty on operational routine.

In an uncertain environment, companies are exposed to greater risk. This study contributes to risk management in three ways: first, it extends ambidexterity theory to process management and proposes how process ambidexterity balances operational flexibility and routines. Second, it distinguishes between the different conditions under which flexibility or routines are superior. Third, it explains the mechanisms related to how organisations can resolve environmental uncertainty into risk through process ambidexterity.

Despite the plethora of research into country-of-origin (COO) effects, research that investigates the cognitive structures behind elite consumers' preferences for foreign brands remains limited. Hence, this study aims to investigate the cognitive structures behind foreign brand preference among professional elites in Sri Lanka.

Using the means-end chain (MEC) theory as the theoretical lens and building on the findings of 30 laddering interviews (semi-structured), a survey was conducted among 311 professional elites to uncover the key elements of the cognitive structures behind foreign brand preference.

The findings revealed that the cognitive structures behind foreign brand preference are influenced by a bundle of brand attributes, brand consequences and personal values of elites', which significantly influence their attitudes towards foreign brands. Multi-group analysis further revealed that the relationship between brand attributes and attitudes significantly differs across Chinese and US COOs where the path coefficient is stronger for elites' preference for Chinese brands.

This study is the first of its kind to explore the COO effects on consumer cognitive structures. The findings contribute to MEC theory and shed light on the understanding towards elites' preference for foreign brands.