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1 – 10 of over 1000
Article
Publication date: 20 August 2020

Jessica Zeiss, Les Carlson and Elise Johansen Harvey

Prior research has examined the sociopolitical force as simply a part of all types of environmental pressures, yet we argue that this force calls for a unique examination of…

Abstract

Purpose

Prior research has examined the sociopolitical force as simply a part of all types of environmental pressures, yet we argue that this force calls for a unique examination of marketing's role in firm responses to sociopolitical pressures. Understanding the degree to which firms attempt to manage forces and pressures in the external business environment is key to understanding marketing's role in impeding vs aiding public policy initiatives, and is the problem this research investigates.

Design/methodology/approach

Using structural equation modeling, data from 71 firms demonstrate that managing the sociopolitical force is, in fact, distinct from managing the other four market-based forces – consumer demand, supplier power, competition and technological shifts. Managing the sociopolitical force is shown to require fundamentally different skills and resources.

Findings

Results suggest that firm sociopolitical receptivity drives attempts to influence this unique external business environmental force, in turn limiting marketplace sociopolitical receptivity. Furthermore, attempts to influence such a unique force relies on resource-light marketing resources, which limits resource-heavy marketing.

Originality/value

Managing a political force with marketplace ramifications involves strategy that utilizes marketing, but is driven by relationships with social and political agents. This is truly an environmental management concept distinct from the management of the other four market-based forces. The analysis in this study demonstrates that managing another environmental force (i.e. competition force) involves different receptivity influences and marketing tactic outcomes.

Details

American Journal of Business, vol. 35 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1935-5181

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 1 April 2021

Holger Joerg Schmidt, Nicholas Ind, Francisco Guzmán and Eric Kennedy

This paper aims to shed light on the emerging position of companies taking stances on sociopolitical issues and the impact this has on consumers.

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to shed light on the emerging position of companies taking stances on sociopolitical issues and the impact this has on consumers.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses focus groups, interviews and consumer experiments in various countries, to provide insights as to why brands are taking sociopolitical stances.

Findings

Consumers expect brands to take a stance on sociopolitical issues. However, to be credible, a stance needs to be rooted in a long-term commitment that aligns with the brand’s strategy and values. Perceived authenticity is key.

Research limitations/implications

Future studies should aim at broader generalizability and should address various industries.

Practical implications

Differentiating a brand through a sociopolitical stance requires a strategic approach. Brand managers need to identify which issues they should support, how to engage with them and the risks and opportunities involved.

Originality/value

While the impact of brands adopting a sociopolitical stance has been discussed in the mainstream media, there has been a lack of empirical evidence to support the arguments. The results of the four studies discussed in the paper provide insights and demonstrate the brand-related opportunities and risks of taking a sociopolitical stance.

Details

Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 31 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1061-0421

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 June 2021

Luke Rodesiler

Following recent scholarship promoting the study of sports-related texts as a vehicle for examining sociopolitical issues, this study aims to identify methods and materials used…

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Abstract

Purpose

Following recent scholarship promoting the study of sports-related texts as a vehicle for examining sociopolitical issues, this study aims to identify methods and materials used to facilitate the extended exploration of sociopolitical issues in a secondary sports literature class and to establish how students describe their experiences taking up such activities.

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative study stems from a greater investigation into the teaching of secondary sports literature classes. Data collection involved conducting interviews, observing instruction and gathering artifacts. Driven by guiding research questions, data analysis was conducted in an iterative and recursive manner and multiple validation strategies were used to enhance trustworthiness.

Findings

The methods and materials used to facilitate the extended exploration of sociopolitical issues included a whole-class reading of Season of Life (Marx, 2003) and small-group research into “controversial topics” in sports culture. Student-participants described engaging with those methods and materials as relevant to their personal interests and experiences and revelatory in terms of learning about sociopolitical issues in sports and society.

Originality/value

Scholarship promoting the potential for sports-related content to support literacy instruction has grown in recent years. This study covers new ground, for it documents classroom research to build understandings about the methods and materials used to facilitate the extended exploration of sociopolitical issues in a secondary sports literature class and the ways students describe their experiences engaging in such activities.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. 20 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 September 2020

Nadia Behizadeh

This paper aims to examine two teachers’ beliefs and practices on teaching writing at an urban, high-performing middle school to determine: What discourses of writing are being…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine two teachers’ beliefs and practices on teaching writing at an urban, high-performing middle school to determine: What discourses of writing are being taught in an urban, high-performing US public middle school? What factors prevent or enable particular discourses?

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on case study methods, this study uses a single-case design with two seventh-grade teachers at a high-performing urban school as embedded units of analysis. Data collection took place over one semester. Data sources included observations and interviews with the two teachers, an interview with an administrator and multiple instructional artifacts, including unit and lesson plans. Observational data were analyzed using a priori code for writing discourses (Ivanic, 2004) and interview data were analyzed for factors affecting instruction using open, axial and selective coding.

Findings

Both teachers enacted extended multi-discourse writing instruction integrating skills, creativity, process, genre and social practices discourses supported by their beliefs and experience; colleagues; students’ relatively high test scores; and relative curricular freedom. However, there was minimal evidence of a sociopolitical discourse aligned with critical literacy practices. Limits to the sociopolitical discourse included a lack of a social justice orientation, an influx of low-performing students, a focus on raising test scores, data-focused professional development and district pacing guides. Racism is also considered as an underlying structural factor undermining the sociopolitical discourse.

Research limitations/implications

Although generalizability is limited because of the small sample size and the unique context of this study, two major implications are the need to layer discourses in writing instruction while centering critical pedagogy and develop teacher beliefs and knowledge. To support these two implications, this study suggests developing university-school partnerships and professional development opportunities that create a community of practice around comprehensive writing instruction. Future research will involve continuing to work with the participants in this study and documenting the effects of providing theory and tools for integrating the sociopolitical discourse into middle school curricula and instruction.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the field of literacy education’s understanding of internal and external factors limiting the sociopolitical discourse in a high-performing, urban middle school in the USA, an understudied context.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. 20 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 October 2020

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

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Abstract

Purpose

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

Design/methodology/approach

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

Findings

This research paper concentrates on companies' use of political or marketing strategies in relation to sociopolitical pressures. Managing sociopolitical forces is a practice that's separate from managing other market-based forces, due to this needing a different skillset. Engaging with sociopolitical agents does make firms more likely to attempt to influence threatening government public policy. A relationship-based strategy to engage with social and political agents was reliably shown to elevate the capacity of a company to respond to and manage sociopolitical forces with marketplace consequences, for example, in the arena of health.

Originality/value

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.

Details

Strategic Direction, vol. 36 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0258-0543

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 October 2022

Cynthia S. Cycyota

The practice of corporate chief executive officer (CEOs) engaging in sociopolitical activism on issues both related and unrelated to their companies is gaining attention in the…

Abstract

Purpose

The practice of corporate chief executive officer (CEOs) engaging in sociopolitical activism on issues both related and unrelated to their companies is gaining attention in the popular press and among management scholars. The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents and motivations of CEO sociopolitical activism in a typology of influences internal and external to the CEO and to the organization. This study’s typology highlights the need for greater understanding of CEOs’ sociopolitical activism for the CEO as an individual actor and for the company they represent.

Design/methodology/approach

This study’s approach is to conceptually review the literature on CEO activism and to create a theoretic framework for future analysis of the antecedents and motivations and ramifications of CEOs’ sociopolitical activism for the CEO as an individual actor and for the company they represent. The author highlights four theories and seeks future application of these theories to the phenomena in a typology.

Findings

The typology highlights the application of management theories to various ramifications of CEO activism to four influences on CEO activities. Upper echelons theory helps explain the motivation of a CEO internally, whereas agency theory applies to CEO activism internal to the CEO and external to the organizational operations. External to the CEO, organizational culture theory supports responses internal to the organization, and stakeholder theory provides insight into responses external to the CEO and the organization.

Originality/value

This study provides conceptual support for the study of CEO activism and encourages future research on the topic.

Details

Society and Business Review, vol. 18 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5680

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 8 December 2022

Eisa Ahmad S. Asiri, Yousef Sahari, Ibrahim Alasmri and Ahmad Assiri

This paper investigates professional translation practice in Saudi Arabia with a particular focus on translation ethics. Following an examination of varying opinions and…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper investigates professional translation practice in Saudi Arabia with a particular focus on translation ethics. Following an examination of varying opinions and contentious concepts relating to translation, this paper suggests that Saudi Arabia should establish a code of ethics for translation services. It investigates the ethical challenges that translators encounter during their professional work and considers their responses to these challenges.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative methodology was adopted to collect data from forty participants. This self-completed survey uncovered 11 ethical dimensions that translators encounter during the translation process and the researchers used descriptive analysis to calculate the mean and standard deviation of their frequency and importance. Participants' responses to the multiple-choice questions were categorised as personal, professional ethics or sociopolitical activism, and their overall percentages calculated.

Findings

For all 11 dimensions, the mean scores fell in the mid-frequency range between 2.74 and 3.88, inferring that the respondents faced these ethical challenges neither particularly frequently nor infrequently. Regarding the importance rankings, the mean scores varied between 1.58 and 2.04, consistently lower than the experience frequency rankings, which indicates that these challenges were considered important regardless of their frequency. The majority (40.27%) related to professional notions of ethics, followed by personal ethics (35.22%) and sociopolitical and activist conceptions of ethics (24.14%), while less than 1% (0.37%) reflected mixed motivations.

Originality/value

The study's concept and methodology are both novel. The researchers believe that this is the first study to examine professional translation ethics in the Saudi context. Unlike most studies in this field, this study adopted a quantitative approach, thus calling for the development of an effective professional code of ethics for translators.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 17 February 2023

Vanja Bojanic

This paper aims to take stock of current knowledge on chief executive officers (CEOs) speaking out on societal issues and to position the phenomenon with and against the relevant…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to take stock of current knowledge on chief executive officers (CEOs) speaking out on societal issues and to position the phenomenon with and against the relevant literature on CEO communication. Ultimately, the paper seeks to arrive at a better conceptual understanding of CEO advocates and activists from a communication science perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is conceptual and considers findings from the literature on personalization, reputation, issues and topic management.

Findings

The paper reflects media, receptive and strategic implications for CEO advocates and activists and derives four workable propositions. It lays the foundation for treating CEO advocacy and activism as a form of strategic topic management that harnesses personalization to address a new set of stakeholder demands.

Practical implications

The insights gained from this paper may help researchers and practitioners understand when CEOs should speak up, what to communicate and how. The human element behind this kind of communication echoes new expectations, demands and values from stakeholders, shareholders and society at large.

Social implications

Understanding the specific interdependencies between personalization, reputation, issues and topic management underlying CEO advocacy and activism can help to improve a CEO's relationship with stakeholders and guide the public discourse to actively bring about positive societal change.

Originality/value

The paper fills a gap by providing an understanding of advocate and activist CEOs from a communication science perspective. The insights from this paper can be used as a starting point for further research on this subject.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 27 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 March 2021

Elena Zubielevitch, Helena D. Cooper–Thomas and Gordon W. Cheung

The growing instability of the labor market will almost certainly result in more employees whose values misfit with their organization’s. This paper draws from the…

Abstract

Purpose

The growing instability of the labor market will almost certainly result in more employees whose values misfit with their organization’s. This paper draws from the exit-neglect-voice-loyalty model to examine a broader range of responses to misfit; explores sociopolitical resources as the mechanisms through which misfit transmits its effects and investigates job mobility as a boundary condition enhancing or constraining responses to misfit.

Design/methodology/approach

A novel model (N = 152 New Zealand employees) examined links from misfit to two sociopolitical resources (perceived influence and organizational responsiveness) and from these to exit-neglect-voice-loyalty moderated by job mobility. Supplemental analyses examine moderated-mediation.

Findings

Misfit negatively predicted both sociopolitical resources, perceived influence and organizational responsiveness. Moderated-mediation analyses showed that the constructive reactions to misfit (voice and loyalty) were predicted conditionally at low levels of job mobility and indirectly via the respective sociopolitical resources. In contrast, destructive reactions to misfit (exit and neglect) were predicted directly, with neglect predicted at high levels of job mobility.

Research limitations/implications

Implications for human resource practitioners highlight the deleterious repercussions of misfit but also include the conditions under which misfit employees may attempt to constructively salvage their employment relationship.

Originality/value

This study integrates a broader set of concurrent responses to misfit using the exit-neglect-voice-loyalty typology, as well as introducing sociopolitical perspectives to the literature on misfit.

Details

Journal of Managerial Psychology, vol. 36 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0268-3946

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2021

Yeunjae Lee and Weiting Tao

From an internal perspective, the purpose of this study is to understand employees' responses to chief executive officer (CEO) activism, a phenomenon wherein a company's CEO…

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Abstract

Purpose

From an internal perspective, the purpose of this study is to understand employees' responses to chief executive officer (CEO) activism, a phenomenon wherein a company's CEO expresses his/her own opinions and ideas on controversial sociopolitical issues. Integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR), public relations and leadership literature, this study examines the effects of employees' expectations toward CEOs and transformational CEO leadership on the perceived morality of CEO activism and its attitudinal and behavioral outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

An online survey was conducted with 417 full-time employees in the US whose CEO has been engaging in sociopolitical issues.

Findings

The results showed that employees' ethical expectations toward their CEOs and transformational CEO leadership were positively associated with perceived morality of CEO activism, whereas economic expectations toward CEOs had no significant relationship with it. In turn, perceived morality of CEO activism contributed to employees' positive attitudes and supportive behaviors for their CEOs and their companies.

Originality/value

This study is among the first attempts to examine the effectiveness of CEO activism from an internal perspective, drawing from CSR, public relations and leadership literature.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 59 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 1000