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In their work on ‘online consumer stewards’ in E-sports, the authors point to the competing social and commercial imperatives that govern behaviour and who can be seen as ‘authentic’ in a fast-paced digital environment. Drawing on insights from Bauman’s work on ‘liquidity’ they explore the case of Starcraft II, a global, multi-player online game, and show how the most successful stewards need to be both adaptable and free-floating whilst at the same time anchored in solid community structures. The most successful of these stewards are then able to leverage this (perceived) authenticity to meet both community and commercial objectives.

Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.

The General Assembly recognized the critical contribution of entrepreneurship to sustainable development in its resolution 73/225 on entrepreneurship for sustainable development by accelerating economic growth and innovation and addressing social and environmental challenges in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Hence, it is important to understand the variables influencing entrepreneurs’ aspirations for sustainable enterprises to promote sustainable entrepreneurial activity for sustainable development. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the enablers affecting the adoption of sustainable entrepreneurship practices by the entrepreneurs in India.

This study has been conducted in three steps. The first step includes the identification of enablers from the extensive review of the literature followed by the second step of finalization of enablers by experts’ opinion. Finally, in the third step, enablers are analysed using interpretive structural modelling (ISM).

After the extensive literature review and opinion of 100 millennial experts, 11 enablers are identified. In the third step, ISM is applied to develop a hierarchical model for the enablers affecting the adoption of sustainable entrepreneurial practice and to establish the contextual relationships among those enablers.

This study can be used by practitioners and policymakers to further validate the driving enablers for developing sustainability-driven entrepreneurial intention and to increase the adoption of sustainable practices by entrepreneurs.

This study is based on the ISM providing significant insights related to enablers affecting the adoption of sustainable entrepreneurial practices. It provides valuable knowledge to entrepreneurial researchers and practitioners.

Virtual teams had become a fundamental way to conduct business for organizations to remain competitive and sustain in a global environment. Organizations which willing to understand what makes virtual teams more effective can likely accrue positive results from virtual teams. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate what are the factors that impact the performance of virtual team. This study highlights factors that influence virtual team performance, which not been widely studied in developing countries (i.e. Malaysia). This study tests the impact of six factors (coordination, communication, relationship building, cohesion, trust and reward) on team performance.

A quantitative approach via self-administered questionnaire was adopted. A total of 205 questionnaires were successfully collected at the end of the data collection. Structural equation modelling using partial least squares approach (i.e. ADANCO 2.0 software) was then used to assess the relationships among variables in the virtual team.

After ensuring the data have acceptable reliability and validity, structural model assessment was performed to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that a significant and positive relationship exists between communication, relationship building, cohesion and trust towards team performance. On the other hand, no significant relationship was found between coordination and reward towards team performance.

First, the study may be slightly biased due to the differences in the size of the multinational companies. The result might tend to represent the bigger companies where more virtual teams are available for sampling of this study. Second, the duration of virtual team (long-term and short-term) and the number of sites in the team should be clearly identified. The respondents might have very different experiences and perceptions in different settings of virtual team environment. Therefore, taking care of these characteristics would have provided a more detailed and comprehensive understanding of factors influencing virtual team performance in Malaysia.

The findings from this study can serve as guideline for managers to manage the virtual teams effectively, as well as to optimizes the resources usage and implement the most efficient tools of communication, and subsequently improve the overall efficiency of the teams. This study is useful for researchers, managers and organizations to highlight the factors that contribute to virtual team performance.

The present study has not only extended the use of Media Richness Theory in the context Virtual Team Performance in a developing country but also broadened the previous study through inclusion of other crucial factor, namely, Reward. Given the significant role in the Global marketplace, the understanding of factors influencing virtual team performance in Malaysia using the extended theory of Media Richness would contribute knowledge not only to technology management but also to manufacturing service industry.

Green manufacturing (GM) has received growing attention in the last few years. As today’s business environment is highly competitive, dynamic and volatile in nature, GM is seen as the winning strategy to be adopted by manufacturers. In this scenario, successful implementation of GM by manufacturers can give them an edge over their competitors. The purpose of this paper is to identify and develop the structural relationship among different factors for the successful implementation of GM.

A questionnaire-based survey and interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach has been applied in this study. In this research, 12 factors have been identified, such as top management commitment, supplier and materials management, green product and process design, employee training and empowerment, etc. On the basis of survey results and opinions of experts from industry and academia, a structural relationship model has been developed through an ISM approach.

Top management commitment has the highest driving power for the implementation of GM. Effective implementation of GM will improve organization performance in terms of product cost and quality. For effective implementation of GM, management should not ignore development of people, product and processes.

The developed model will be useful to managers, decision makers and practitioners of GM in prioritizing their resources more effectively.

Critical success factor play a pivotal role for the assessment and implementation of GM practices. Identification of key success factors and their mutual relationship can help in implementation of GM practices in various organizations. It is probably one of the leading attempts to provide road map to the implementation of GM practices in Indian manufacturing industries.

In the context of new workplace environment, this study aims to study and generate insights about artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in hiring process of firms. It is very relevant when AI is dramatically reshaping hiring function in the changing scenario.

The objectives are achieved with the help of three studies involving Delphi method to explore the criteria for AI adoption decision. Followed by two multi criteria decision-making techniques, i.e. analytic hierarchy process to identify weights of the criteria and fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution to assess the extent of AI adoption in hiring.

The findings reveal that information security and return on investment are considered two very important criteria by human resources managers while contemplating the adoption of AI in hiring process. It was found that AI adoption will be suitable at the sourcing and initial screening stages of hiring. And the suitability of the hiring stage where AI can be applied has been found to have changed from before and after the onset of COVID-19 pandemic situation. The findings and its discussion assist and enhance better decisions about AI adoption in hiring processes of firms amid changing scenario – external and internal to a firm.

Findings also highlight research implications for future research studies in this emerging area.

Results act as a starting point for other human resources managers, who are still pondering over the idea of adopting AI in hiring in future.

This paper through a systematic approach contributes by identifying important evaluation criteria influencing AI adoption in firms and extent of its application in the stages of hiring. It makes a substantial contribution to the under-developed yet emerging paradigm of AI based hiring in practice and research.

Gender equality and women's empowerment are essential for social progress and sustainable development. Gender equality and women's empowerment initiatives have gained traction in the formerly male-dominated construction sector in recent years. The purpose of this part of the book is to discuss the difficulties that women in the construction industry experience, the value of women's empowerment and the methods that may be used to achieve gender equality in the field.

This paper aims to debate the technology-driven transformation of customer relationship management (CRM) into social CRM, which entails a shift from a transactional and automational solution to a customer experience management philosophy, reflecting high levels of customer empowerment.

A literature review provides a critical analysis of the concept, tenets, aims and implementation approaches of social CRM. Arguments are summarised by developing a process-based framework for implementing social CRM.

By adopting a value co-creation approach that recognises the technology-fostered customer empowerment, the social CRM highlights the need to immigrate from relationship management to relationship stewardship. In this vein, social CRM implementation should support and foster dialogue facilitation and customer engagement in co-creating customer experiences. To achieve these, five approaches for implementing social CRM are proposed: collecting, analysing and interpreting customer insight; monitoring and improving the performance of CRM; developing holistic and seamless personalised customer experiences; gamifying CRM and loyalty programmes; and nurturing community relationship management.

The five approaches to social CRM implementation are identified and validated based on current industry practices, theoretical arguments and anecdotal evidence of professionals’ perceptions about their outcomes. Future research is required to collect hard evidence showing the business and customer impacts of these approaches.

Social CRM immigrates relationship management from a transactional to a customer experience mindset that treats customers as co-creators of value and demands the tourism and hospitality firms to exploit the affordances of information and communication technologies to collect and analyse customer data for better understanding the customer; develop customer touch points that do not only aim to sell but also primarily aim to enhance the customer interactions and experiences; consider and treat the customers and the customer communities as co-creators, brand ambassadors and stewards of relations; and motivate and enable customer participation into value co-creation processes for developing customer experiences and building relationships.

Research in social CRM is emerging, but it mainly focusses on defining its scope and identifying the functionality and adoption of social CRM technology. The paper contributes to the literature by proposing five specific approaches and a process framework for implementing social CRM. Various directions for future research are also provided.

While compassionate and morally motivated people are theorised to be more likely to engage in activities that contribute to the social good, the literature provides contradictory evidence regarding the role of empathy and moral obligation in building social entrepreneurial intention (SEI). This study aims to clarify how empathy and moral obligation influence SEI.

The authors used survey data (n = 307) from Bangladesh, a frontier economy, to test the hypothesised relationships between empathy, moral obligation and SEI by applying partial least square–structural equation modelling in Smart PLS 3. They then conducted a second study with a larger sample (n = 339) from Saudi Arabia, an emerging economy, to further investigate how the findings withstand in a different socio-economic context.

The findings contradicted extant conceptualisations and revealed that empathy and moral obligation influence SEI indirectly through other individual and contextual factors, such as social entrepreneurial self-efficacy and perceived social support. The findings indicate that a person with a feeling of compassion and moral responsibility to help others will not start a social venture unless they feel capable and supported to start and run the venture.

The study contributes to a contentious area of research in SEI by demonstrating the links between various individual-level (empathy, moral obligation and social entrepreneurial self-efficacy) and contextual-level (perceived social support) variables and their relationship with SEI.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the utilization and goals of digital marketing, and examines factors that influence the adoption and use of digital marketing channels in SMEs.

The data comprises semi-structured theme interviews in SMEs among 16 managers and 421 survey respondents in Central Finland.

The results of this study reveal that SMEs seem not use the full potential of the new digital tools, and so are not deriving benefit from the opportunities they provide. Furthermore, the results also raise the question of whether SMEs have understood the fundamental change in the nature of communication brought about by digitization.

The data comes from one region and thus the research context limits the generalizability of the results.

SMEs seem not to be keeping pace with digital developments, mostly due to the lack of knowledge of digital marketing. Most of the studied SMEs do not apply the full potential of the new digital tools and hence are not benefitting fully from them.

Discussions on the future regional development of SMEs have called for training programmes to help SMEs exploit digitization. This is something that the government should take note of.

Whereas the adoption process of new technologies such as IT in general and the internet in particular have been examined in the SME literature, this is among the first studies examining adoption and usage of digital tools from the marketing perspective.