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1 – 10 of 24Micah DelVecchio, Joseph Ofori-Dankwa and Akosua K. Darkwah
Microenterprises in emerging economies are known to operate in turbulent and resource-scarce environments. We test our hypothesis that a more comprehensive “Integrated…
Abstract
Purpose
Microenterprises in emerging economies are known to operate in turbulent and resource-scarce environments. We test our hypothesis that a more comprehensive “Integrated Capital-Based Model” (ICBM) is needed when explaining the performance of microenterprises in such an environment. The model combines traditionally researched financial, human and social capital with more recently emphasized psychological and cognitive capital, providing greater explanatory power than models using only the traditional types of capital.
Design/methodology/approach
We use a pooled linear regression to analyze an existing survey of more than 900 independent business owners who were interviewed seven times between 2008 and 2012 in the Accra and Tema marketplaces in Ghana. We measure the performance of microenterprises using three dependent variables (revenue, profits, and productivity). We contrast the explanatory power of ICBM models against the more traditional models.
Findings
The ICBM has significantly higher levels of explanatory power over the traditional models in examining the performance of these microenterprises. These results highlight the importance of psychological and cognitive capital in emerging economies.
Research limitations/implications
We advocate for a more comprehensive view of capital as shown in our ICBM. However, the data were gathered only in an urban setting, which limits the generalizability to rural parts of emerging economies.
Practical implications
These findings suggest the utility of government and appropriate agencies finding ways to enhance the level of psychological and cognitive capital of microenterprise owners.
Originality/value
This paper's originality stems from hypothesizing and empirically confirming the higher predictive efficacy of ICBM against more traditionally researched capital sources.
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Florence Lunkuse, John C. Munene, Joseph M. Ntayi, Arthur Sserwanga and James Kagaari
This study aims to examine the relationship between tool adoption and information literacy within smallholder farmers (SHFs).
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the relationship between tool adoption and information literacy within smallholder farmers (SHFs).
Design/methodology/approach
A structured questionnaire was used to gather data for this quantitative study from 225 SHFs. Structural equation modelling was done to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The findings established that tool adoption dimensions (Information and communication technologies (ICT) acceptance, language use and information culture) positively and significantly influenced information literacy. Information culture had the strongest impact.
Research limitations/implications
The study enriches the situated learning theory (SLT) literature by introducing tool adoption as a predictor of information literacy in a new context of SHFs. Use of tools as independent variables is a positive deviation from previous studies that have used them as mediating variables. Despite the contributions, the cross-sectional design study undermines the ability to solicit more detailed perspectives from the lived in experience of the respondents.
Practical implications
Managers should promote usage of context-specific tools like local radio stations and mobile phones, but also use language tailored to farmer contexts when disseminating information. Policymakers should leverage on social and cultural settings when designing information interventions.
Social implications
The study highlights critical factors that significantly promote information use for improved productivity for SHFs, cumulatively increasing the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Socially, findings may reduce on their poverty levels of farmers.
Originality/value
This study offers a novel perspective in information literacy domain by using the SLT to delineate contextual tools that are paramount in predicting of information literacy in an under research informal context of SHFs.
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Munir A. Abbasi, Azlan Amran, Noor e Sahar and Chia Yon Lim
This study aims to investigate the effects of both internal and external corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) on organizational workplace deviant behaviours (OWDB) by using…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the effects of both internal and external corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) on organizational workplace deviant behaviours (OWDB) by using social cognitive theory. The study also explores the role of moral disengagement as a mediator in this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was collected from a sample of 321 individuals employed in the textile industry of Pakistan. The study used partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to estimate the relationships within the model.
Findings
The findings indicate that both internal and external CSI have a positive impact on moral disengagement. Secondly, moral disengagement drives OWDB positively. Thirdly, moral disengagement is a significant mediator that mediates between both internal and external CSI and OWDB positively.
Practical implications
This research offers novel perspectives to organizational leaders, highlighting the significance of addressing CSI in conjunction with sustainability endeavours. It is imperative for business managers to prioritize the morality of their employees.
Originality/value
This study’s novelty lies in its confirmation of the mediating role of moral disengagement in the relationship between internal and external CSI and OWDB.
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Sohail Kamran and Outi Uusitalo
The present study aimed to provide an understanding of the roles of community-based financial service organizations (i.e. rotating savings and credit associations [ROSCAs] as…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study aimed to provide an understanding of the roles of community-based financial service organizations (i.e. rotating savings and credit associations [ROSCAs] as institutional pillars in facilitating low-income, unbanked consumers’ access to informal financial services).
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 39 low-income, unbanked consumers participating in ROSCAs in Pakistan, where only 21% of adults have a bank account and almost four out of five individuals live on a low income. The obtained data were analyzed using the thematic analysis technique.
Findings
ROSCAs’ regulatory, sociocultural and cognitive aspects facilitate low-income, unbanked consumers’ utilization of informal financial services owing to their approachability by, suitability for, and fairness to such consumers. Thus, they promote such consumers’ financial inclusion.
Practical implications
Low-income consumers are mostly unable to access formal financial services due to the existing supply- and demand-side impediments. Understanding ROSCAs’ institutional functioning can help formal financial service providers create more transformative financial services based on the positive institutional aspects of ROSCAs to enhance poor consumers’ financial inclusion and well-being.
Social implications
The inclusion of low-income, unbanked consumers in formal banking services will help them better control their finances.
Originality/value
Many low-income, unbanked consumers in developing countries utilize informal financial services to meet their basic financial needs, but service researchers have rarely investigated how informal financial institutions function. The present study showed that ROSCAs, as informal institutions, meet low-income, unbanked consumers’ personal, social and financial needs in a befitting manner, which encourages such consumers to use the financial services offered by ROSCAs.
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Niki Chatzipanagiotou, Anita Mirijamdotter and Christina Mörtberg
This paper aims to focus on academic library managers’ learning practices in the context of cooperative work supported by computational artefacts. Academic library managers’…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to focus on academic library managers’ learning practices in the context of cooperative work supported by computational artefacts. Academic library managers’ everyday work is mainly cooperative. Their cooperation is supported predominantly by computational artefacts. Learning how to use the computational artefacts efficiently and effectively involves understanding the changes in everyday work that affect managers and, therefore, it requires deep understanding of their cooperative work practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Focused ethnography was conducted through participant observations, interviews and document analysis. Ten managers from a university library in Sweden participated in the research. A thematic method was used to analyse the empirical material. Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and work-integrated learning was used as the conceptual lens.
Findings
Five learning practices were identified: collaboration, communication, coordination, decision-making processes and computational artefacts’ use. The findings show that learning is embedded in managers’ cooperative work practices, which do not necessarily include sufficient training time. Furthermore, learning was intertwined with cooperating and was situational. Managers learned by reflecting together on their own experiences and through joint cooperation and information sharing while using the computational artefacts.
Originality/value
The main contribution lies in providing insights into how academic library managers learn and cooperate in their everyday work, emphasizing the role of computational artefacts, the importance of the work context and the collective nature of learning. It also highlights the need for continual workplace learning in contemporary knowledge work environments. Thus, the research generates contributions to the informatics field by extending the understanding of managers’ work-integrated learning in their everyday cooperative work practices supported by computational artefacts’ use. It also contributes to the intersection of CSCW and work-integrated learning.
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Vikas Kumar and Vikrant Kaushal
With the increasing competition and rise in the number of brands in almost every product category, consumers need help to figure out authentic brands. Thus, it becomes imperative…
Abstract
Purpose
With the increasing competition and rise in the number of brands in almost every product category, consumers need help to figure out authentic brands. Thus, it becomes imperative for marketers to examine the factors that influence the perceptions of brand authenticity (PBA) and its favorable outcomes for the brand. This paper aims to explore the critical antecedents (i.e. “brand heritage” and “brand nostalgia”) and consequences [i.e. “consumer brand engagement” (CBE) and “perceived brand ownership” (PBO)] of PBA in this study.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 368 responses were collected online through a self-administered survey method and were analyzed using structural equation modeling in AMOS v 25.
Findings
The findings reveal that both brand heritage and brand nostalgia can affect PBA. In addition, PBA engenders CBE and PBO among consumers toward the brand.
Practical implications
The study findings help the marketers to find ways to induce authenticity perceptions among consumers about their brands, which can further translate into PBO and CBE.
Originality/value
This study empirically verifies a model to enhance PBA through brand heritage and nostalgia. Further, it explores CBE and PBO as the potential outcomes of PBA.
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Chenchen Weng, Martin J. Liu, Jun Luo and Natalia Yannopoulou
Drawing on the social presence theory, this study aims to explore how supplier–customer social media interactions influence supplier observers’ trust in the customers and what…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the social presence theory, this study aims to explore how supplier–customer social media interactions influence supplier observers’ trust in the customers and what mechanisms contribute to variation in trust experience.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 36 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Chinese suppliers using WeChat for business-to-business interactions. Data were analyzed in three steps: open coding, axial coding and selective coding.
Findings
Findings reveal that varied trust is based not only on the categories of social presence of interaction – whether social presence is embedded in informative interactions – but also on the perceived selectivity in social presence. Observer suppliers who experience selectivity during social and affective interactions create a perception of hidden information and an unhealthy relationship atmosphere, and report a sense of emotional vulnerability, thus eroding cognitive and affective trust.
Originality/value
The findings contribute new understandings to social presence theory by exploring the social presence of interactions in a supplier–supplier–customer triad and offer valuable insights into business-to-business social media literature by adopting a suppliers’ viewpoint to unpack the mechanisms of how social presence of interaction positively and negatively influences suppliers’ trust and behavioral responses.
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Hannelore Ottilie Van den Abeele
This paper argues that Bruno Latour’s work on translation provides an alternative to dominant anthropocentric, individualistic and managerial approaches in career studies by…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper argues that Bruno Latour’s work on translation provides an alternative to dominant anthropocentric, individualistic and managerial approaches in career studies by considering careers as precarious effects of networks instead of the implicit assumption of individual strategic career actors in extant career research paradigms.
Design/methodology/approach
The article first compares the three main current approaches to studying careers – structural functionalist, interpretivist and critical – illustrated by three exemplary empirical studies. Subsequently, three concepts from the sociology of translation that are relevant for the study of careers are introduced: career making as translating interests, careers as effects of networks and career action as dislocated and overtaken. Taken together, these three concepts allow us to conceive of careers as practices performed by human and nonhuman actors. Finally, an example from an ethnographic case study in the field of contemporary art illustrates how a Latourian approach can be used.
Findings
Latour’s work on translation provides conceptual and methodological tools to investigate career processes and practices in an era of unpredictability.
Originality/value
The paper introduces Bruno Latour’s work on translation to the study of careers.
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This study aims to use emotions-as-social information theory to investigate how physical (customer perceived store atmosphere) and social servicescapes (customer information…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to use emotions-as-social information theory to investigate how physical (customer perceived store atmosphere) and social servicescapes (customer information searching) influence the effects of employees’ positive affective displays on customer outcomes via customer positive moods and positive expectation disconfirmation.
Design/methodology/approach
This research included two studies, each using a distinct research design, to empirically test the proposed model. Study 1 involved 200 observational data points on objective purchase amounts from designer watch shops. In Study 2, data were collected from 230 customers in designer jewelry stores.
Findings
The results of path analyses revealed that: employee positive affective displays are positively associated with customer purchase outcomes; employee positive affective displays had positive indirect effects on customer purchase outcomes by enhancing customer positive moods and positive expectation disconfirmation; these positive indirect effects were strengthened when customers engaged in information search behaviors; and these positive indirect effects were attenuated when customers perceive store atmosphere as favorable, indicating a substitution effect of customer perceived store atmosphere.
Originality/value
Previous research has not thoroughly examined the role of the servicescape in moderating the effects of employees’ positive affective displays on customer purchase outcomes. This present study not only clarified the affective and cognitive mechanisms that link employees’ positive affective displays on purchase outcomes but also identified servicescape as a critical boundary condition of these effects.
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The study aims to investigate how pregnant and nursing mothers’ stories have been neglected in writing about gender, security and spaces.
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to investigate how pregnant and nursing mothers’ stories have been neglected in writing about gender, security and spaces.
Design/methodology/approach
The study chronicles Agogo Traditional Area’s pregnant and nursing mothers’ resistance and survival in this conflicted environment. The author used photo voices in a participatory photography design to give conflict-area women a voice. Interviews and observations supported this. Pregnant and nursing mothers were sampled using the purposive and snowball sampling techniques. The data analysis considered narrative analysis, photographic and inductive approaches.
Findings
The findings highlighted how these mothers in vicious settings experienced healthcare access and problems, societal issues including gender dynamics, food insecurity, and emotional and psychological well-being.
Originality/value
The findings in this study expand the socio-cultural narratives of pregnant and nursing mothers in violent spaces.
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