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The authors examine and compare accounting associations' identities in distinct segments of the accounting profession surrounding the 2014 merger of three Canadian accounting associations.

The authors conceive of accounting associations' magazine front covers as a setting for “identity performance” (i.e. a scenery through which identity dimensions are intentionally communicated to target audiences). The authors examine pre-merger and post-merger associations' identity performances that took place between January 2011 and December 2020 and identify 21 broad themes that the authors interpret in terms of identity logics (i.e. professionalism/commercialism) and audience focus (society/association members), underscoring (dis)similarities in identity performances pre- and post-merger.

The authors' analysis reveals distinct identity performances for the different segments of the pre-merger accounting profession and for the post-merger unified accounting association. Identity logics manifest differently: a commercial logic dominated for two of the associations and a professional logic dominated for the third. Identity fluidity was evident in the merged association's shift from commercial toward professional logic when the association ceased publishing one magazine and introduced a new one. Society rather than associations' members dominated as a target audience for all associations, but this focus manifested differently. Post-merger, identity performances continued to focus on society as the audience.

The authors highlight the Goffmanian identity performances (Goffman, 1959) taking place via accounting associations' magazines. The authors adopt a segment perspective (Bucher and Strauss, 1961) that demonstrates that commercialism does not trump professionalism in all segments of the profession. For the first time, the authors juxtapose identity logics (professionalism/commercialism) and targeted audiences to better understand how these facets of accountants' identities compare between segments.

The purpose of this paper is to recommend behavioral targets for future interventions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at college campuses and to advise interventionists on how to choose between many potential behavioral targets.

The authors used the community-based social marketing (CBSM) methodology over two studies. In Study 1, the authors assessed adoption rates (i.e. penetration) and likelihood of adoption (i.e. probability) for 16 potential behavioral targets. In Study 2, the authors used quantitative and qualitative methods to assess the barriers and benefits of engagement in five of the top-performing behaviors from Study 1.

The findings suggest that an intervention to promote purchasing green energy credits (GECs) has a high potential to reduce emissions. Purchasing GECs has a small penetration (<7%) and a large impact (1,405 kgCO₂e/person/year). Compared to the other four behaviors the authors examined in Study 2, purchasing GECs is also more convenient and requires very little time. Thus, the behavior should be appealing to many individuals interested in reducing emissions or protecting the environment.

The authors performed a holistic evaluation of potential behavioral targets that included a barrier and benefit analysis, in addition to the traditional CBSM method of combining impact, probability and penetration.

The advent of technology has propelled audit firms to incorporate AI-based audit services, bringing the relationship between audit clients and firms into sharper focus. Nonetheless, the understanding of how AI-based audit services affect this relationship remains sparse. This study strives to probe how an audit client's satisfaction with AI-based audit services influences their trust in audit firms. Identifying the variables affecting this trust, the research aspires to gain a deeper comprehension of the implications of AI-based audit services on the auditor-client relationship, ultimately aiming to boost client satisfaction and cultivate trust.

A conceptual framework has been devised, grounded in the client-company relationship model, to delineate the relationship between perceived quality, perceived value, attitude and satisfaction with AI-based audit services and their subsequent impact on trust in audit firms. The research entailed an empirical investigation employing Facebook ads, gathering 288 valid responses for evaluation. The structural equation method, utilized in conjunction with SPSS and Amos statistical applications, verified the reliability and overarching structure of the scales employed to measure these elements. A hybrid multi-analytical technique of structural equation modeling and artificial neural networks (SEM-ANN) was deployed to empirically validate the collated data.

The research unveiled a significant and positive relationship between perceived value and client satisfaction, trust and attitude towards AI-based audit services, along with the link between perceived quality and client satisfaction. The findings suggest that a favorable attitude and perceived quality of AI-based audit services could enhance satisfaction, subsequently augmenting perceived value and client trust. By focusing on the delivery of superior-quality services that fulfill clients' value expectations, firms may amplify client satisfaction and trust.

Further inquiries are required to appraise the influence of advanced technology adoption within audit firms on client trust-building mechanisms. Moreover, an understanding of why the impact of perceived quality on perceived value proves ineffectual in the context of audit client trust-building warrants further exploration. In interpreting the findings of this study, one should consider the inherent limitations of the empirical analysis, inclusive of the utilization of Facebook ads as a data-gathering tool.

The research yielded insightful theoretical and practical implications that can bolster audit clients' trust in audit firms amid technological advancements within the audit landscape. The results imply that audit firms should contemplate implementing trust-building mechanisms by creating value and influencing clients' stance towards AI-based audit services to establish trust, particularly when vying with competing firms. As technological evolutions impinge on trustworthiness, audit firms must prioritize clients' perceived value and satisfaction.

To the researcher's best knowledge, no previous study has scrutinized the impact of satisfaction with AI-based audit services on cultivating audit client trust in audit firms, in contrast to past research that has focused on the auditors' trust in the audit client. To bridge these gaps, this study employs a comprehensive and integrative theoretical model.

Despite many years of academic research into organisational integration and effectiveness, organisations still struggle to successfully implement strategy and achieve competitive advantage. However, the rapid evolution of marketing technologies such as big data, marketing analytics, artificial intelligence and personalised consumer interactions offer potential for an integrated marketing communication technological capability that aligns and integrates an organisation. Programmatic advertising is one such integrated marketing communication (IMC) technology capability, applying and learning from customer information and behaviours to align and integrate organisational activity. The literature on programmatic is embryonic and a conceptual framework that links its potential to organisational effectiveness is timely. This paper aims to develop a framework showing the potential for programmatic advertising as an IMC technology capability to enhance organisational integration and performance.

An exploratory methodology gained insight from 15 depth interviews with senior marketing executives from both organisations and external advertising agencies.

Four elements of a programmatic integrated organisation were identified and aligned with seven marketing activity levers to deliver firm performance measures.

This research contributes to theory, affirming IMC as a capability and positioning programmatic as a means of organisational integration.

The model also offers guidance for practitioners looking to integrate programmatic into their organisation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to look at programmatic from an IMC perspective and as a means of organisational integration. It is also the first to apply Moorman and Day’s (2016) model to explore organisational integration and programmatic, developing a new model, specifically contextualised for programmatic advertising.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly important and influential in reading and writing. The influx of social media digital spaces, like TikTok, has also shifted the ways multimodal composition takes place alongside AI. This study aims to argue that within spaces like TikTok, human composers must attend to the ways they write for, with and against the AI-powered algorithm.

Data collection was drawn from a larger study on #BookTok (the TikTok subcommunity for readers) that included semi-structured interviews including watching and reflecting on a TikTok they created. The authors grounded this study in critical posthumanist literacies to analyze and open code five #BookTok content creators’ interview transcripts. Using axial coding, authors collaboratively determined three overarching and entangled themes: writing for, with and against.

Findings highlight the nuanced ways #BookTokers consider the AI algorithm in their compositional choices, namely, in the ways how they want to disseminate their videos to a larger audience or more niche-focused community. Throughout the interviews, participants revealed how the AI algorithm was situated differently as both audience member, co-author and censor.

This study is grounded in critical posthumanist literacies and explores composition as a joint accomplishment between humans and machines. The authors argued that it is necessary to expand our human-centered notions of what it means to write for an audience, to co-author and to resist censorship or gatekeeping.

Communication about sustainability in fashion is complex. While fashion businesses have increasingly sought to manage their sustainability practices, their understanding of how to communicate about sustainability persuasively remains limited. The authors argue that a key problem with a firm’s efforts in communicating about sustainability is that it is a psychologically distant issue for both businesses and stakeholders. This paper aims to apply construal level theory to explore managers’ construal level in shaping communication about sustainability.

The paper used a two-phase qualitative methodology. Phase one involved undertaking interviews with ten managers in fashion firms to address communications about sustainability in the UK. In phase two, 16 consumers interpreted and reflected on the persuasiveness of communications about sustainability encompassing both concrete and abstract forms of messaging.

The authors identify the factors driving different approaches to communication (concrete and abstract) depending on the construal levels of managers, managers’ perceptions of the construal level of target stakeholders and the perceived authenticity of the sustainability claim. The paper highlights the conditions under which the (mis)match with the brands’ sustainable practices works in crafting communication. The authors also highlight three main communication strategies in responding to the complexity of sustainability in fashion ecosystems: amplification, quiet activist and populist coupling.

As an in-depth qualitative study, the authors seek to expose an under-researched phenomenon, yet generalisations both within the fashion industry and beyond are limited by this focus.

Fashion managers need to be flexible and evaluate how their communications about sustainability affect stakeholders’ evaluations of their brands. As sustainability in fashion brands grows, concrete and specific sustainability messaging may be necessary to improve sustainable behaviours.

The prevailing literature encourages symbiosis between sustainability practices and communications; such relationships are rare, and studies outside the consumer perspective are also rare. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this exploratory study is the first to understand how managers’ construal level influences decisions around communications about sustainability in fashion and how these messages are perceived by consumers.

This study aims to investigate the impact of the source of the content in social media communication and the content distribution intensity on consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) dimensions and how the study will eventually impact purchase intention.

A total of 521 samples were collected using an online survey questionnaire. The respondents' validity was verified using purposive sampling techniques, and the responses were analysed using SmartPLS 3.0.

The authors outlined the fundamental mechanisms of what makes social media communication effective and discovered that emotional-based brand equity dimensions (brand association and brand loyalty) remained significant in influencing purchase intention. However, attribution-based brand equity dimensions (perceived quality, brand trust and brand awareness) are found to have no impact.

This study decomposed social media communication into three different dimensions, and the authors' result showed that the dimensions do not impact CBBE to the same extent. The authors concluded that some CBBE dimensions, which appear to be a rigour determinant of purchase intention over time, have a feeble effect during the pandemic. The existing relationship between the CBBE dimensions with purchase intention might not hold in the pandemic context. The authors suggested that anxiety or pandemic fear could alter the normal consumer buying process and make some well-established relationships not hold. As research indicates that pandemics are reoccurring events, the authors' study contributes to the global effort to dampen some of the pandemic-related effects on business and marketing.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

A brand’s prestige relies on its audience’s niche and its products’ exclusivity. While digital platforms can enhance brand prestige, they can also hinder it.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The case has been tested and proved significant as a part of executive educative courses. Students and participants are pushed to consider practical options. The audience for this case study could be BBA students, MBA students, postgraduate management students or students who chose marketing as their area of specialization.

• Strategic management courses/modules at the intermediate level.

• Marketing management courses/modules at the entry/intermediate level.

When the instructor wants to discuss marketing models like segmentation, targeting, positioning (STP) or marketing strategy model during the course, he or she may use this example.

This instructor’s manual accompanies the case entitled “Krishivan Agri Tourism: Challenges for Sustainability.” This case study highlights the entrepreneur’s struggles with his resort’s limited audience, lower weekday occupancy and weekday reach. The government’s declaration of a lockdown and the COVID-19 epidemic ultimately led to financial losses and stressed cash flow. The businessman understood the enormous potential of the Indian agritourism market. It was a turbulent time for him to evaluate his strategies to sustain in the market. The case illustrates the owner’s struggle to survive and prosper in a commercial setting. The scenario can be used by the instructors to talk about risk mitigation strategies such as promotion, marketing and strategy analysis. Readers must consider difficulties related to corporate success strategically. The proposed responses to the discussion questions in the instructors’ manual are provided here. It can be taught in management courses to handle topics like marketing management, strategic marketing, STP and entrepreneurship, among others.

Marketing management and strategic marketing in Management courses at the intermediate level.