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Increasing focus on socially responsible investments (SRIs) and green projects in recent times, coupled with the arrival of COVID pandemic, are the main drivers of this study. The authors conduct a post-factum analysis of investor choice between sin and green investments before and through the COVID outbreak.

A passive investor is introduced who seeks maximum risk-adjusted return and/or investment variance. When presented an opportunity to add sin and/or green investments to her initial one-asset market-only investment position, she views and handles this issue as a portfolio problem (MPT). She estimates value-at-risk (VaR) and conditional-value-at-risk (CVaR) for portfolios to account for downside risk.

Green investments offer better overall risk-return optimization in spite of major inter-period differences in return-risk dynamics and substantial downside risk. Portfolios optimized for minimum variance perform just as well as the ones optimized for minimum downside risk. Return and risk have settled at higher levels since the onset of COVID, resulting in shifting the efficient frontier towards north-east in the return-risk space.

The study contributes to the literature in two ways: One, it examines investor choice between sin and green investments during a global health emergency and views this choice against the one made during normal times. Two, instead of using the principles of modern portfolio theory (MPT) explicitly for diversification, the study uses them to identify investor preference for one over the other investment type. This has not been widely done thus far.

The purpose of the present article is to obtain the similarity solution for the shock wave generated by a piston propagating in a self-gravitating nonideal gas under the impact of azimuthal magnetic field for adiabatic and isothermal flows.

The Lie group theoretic method given by Sophus Lie is used to obtain the similarity solution in the present article.

Similarity solution with exponential law shock path is obtained for both ideal and nonideal gas cases. The effects on the flow variables, density ratio at the shock front and shock strength by the variation of the shock Cowling number, adiabatic index of the gas, gravitational parameter and nonidealness parameter are investigated. The shock strength decreases with an increase in the shock Cowling number, nonidealness parameter and adiabatic index, whereas the strength of the shock wave increases with an increase in gravitational parameter.

Propagation of shock wave with spherical geometry in a self-gravitating nonideal gas under the impact of azimuthal magnetic field for adiabatic and isothermal flows has not been studied by any author using the Lie group theoretic method.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an initial analysis of the roles of functional capabilities in adopting environmental management practices (EMP) and improving environmental performance from an organizational capability perspective.

By combing survey data and archival data from 121 UK-based manufacturing firms, this study explores the relationships among functional capabilities (marketing and operations), EMP and environmental performance.

The results show that marketing and operations capabilities significantly affect EMP, which in turn leads to improved environmental performance. More specifically, this study finds that EMP fully mediates the relationship between marketing capability and environmental performance.

The results of this study provide guidance for managers considering how to develop environmental capability in order to improve environmental performance.

This study addresses a demonstrable gap in the existing literature that few empirical studies have explored the potential effects of functional capabilities on implementing EMP.

Purpose – This research in this paper aims to investigate and extend the trust‐relationship commitment model to an internet banking setting by adding attraction as a new factor. Design/methodology/approach – The paper shows that in testing whether attraction might be related to belief in and use of the internet banking, this research sampled 276 bank customers' responses via a cross‐sectional survey in Doha, Qatar. Findings – The findings in the paper indicate that both trust and attraction have significant positive impact on relationship commitment with attraction having a strong positive effect, with communication representing the most important determinant of attraction and having a significant positive relationship with both trust and attraction. Practical implications – The paper shows that, from the managerial perspective, it is necessary for bankers and policy makers to know the relationship between trust and attraction because their influence on the actual commitment is different The findings of this study suggest that, in order to develop trust and to attract more users to internet banking, it is not going to be enough to make the system easy to interact with. It is of paramount importance for banks to develop secured and private internet banking systems that are trustworthy, for their users. Thus, management attention might be fruitfully focused on the development of such beliefs on the part of the users. Thus, the internet banking authorities should employ training and promotion approaches to develop customers' beliefs of shared value, communication, and opportunistic behavior, which in turn will influence or attract the customers' behavioural intention to utilize internet banking services. Similarly, banks may consider offering a low‐cost service by passing on some of their gains from reduced operating cost to customers. This may lead to better customer loyalty towards the service. Originality/value – The paper finds that attraction as an additional factor in a trust‐relationship commitment model has not been examined before. Thus, researchers should include attraction in online relationship banking models along with other relationship effects. Also, bankers and policy makers need to develop trust among the customers and to realize that more favorable communication environments must be created to attract customers and to make them more committed to using online banking transactions over the internet.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between operations capability, productivity, and business performance in the context of environmental dynamism.

A proposed conceptual framework grounded in the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capability view (DCV) is analyzed using archival data from 193 automakers in the UK.

The results show that operations capability, as an important dynamic capability, has a significant positive effect on productivity, which in turn leads to improved business performance. The results also suggest that productivity fully mediates the relationship between operations capability and business performance, and that environmental dynamism significantly moderates the relationship between operations capability and productivity.

The research findings provide practical insights that will help managers develop operations capability to gain greater productivity and business performance in a dynamic environment.

Addressing the two important issues of moderation (i.e. environmental dynamism) and mediation (i.e. productivity), this study makes important contributions to the field of operations management by applying the RBV and DCV.

The purpose of this study is to examine the practical and legal complexities associated with tele-homeworking in the context of the UK Equality Law. First, the paper provides a background to the recent growth of tele-homeworking as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, outlining the tenets of the UK Equality Act 2010 and referring to additional legislation pertinent to the ensuing discussion. Second, illustrative case law relevant to the UK Equality Law is put forward to demonstrate the potential challenges that employers and employees might encounter with continued and longer-term tele-homeworking arrangements. Third, the paper outlines implications for employers and human resource managers in terms of policies and practices that might shape the nature of the employment relationship.

This study is based on a review of the literature and an examination of UK case law applicable to tele-homeworking, taking into consideration equality, diversity and inclusion concerns in the workplace.

Remote working can be beneficial to both employers and employees. However, there are a number of significant concerns surrounding the management of tele-homeworkers in the aftermath of the pandemic that can act as a stimulus for legal disputes around discrimination, infringement of human rights and breach of contract claims. Several policy implications surface from the analysis that relate to equality and fair treatment associated with both current and future work arrangements.

The paper is significant in offering legal insights into how the UK Equality Law relates to the complexities associated with the management of tele-homeworkers. The study also highlights how return-to-office undertakings might need to consider wider legal issues. COVID-19 and its repercussions have demanded the reorganisation of work, which can give rise to a greater possibility of legal challenges and the study highlights the importance of employers undertaking an evaluation of their equality practices and complying with the legal framework.

The purpose of this paper is to consider axisymmetric mixed convection flow of water over a sphere with variable viscosity and Prandtl number and an applied magnetic field.

The non-similar solutions have been obtained from the origin of the streamwise co-ordinate to the point of zero skin friction using quasilinearization technique with an implicit finite-difference scheme.

The effect of M is not notable on the temperature and heat transfer coefficient when λ is large. The skin friction coefficient and velocity profile are enhance with the increase of MHD parameter M when λ is small. Viscous dissipation has no significant on the skin friction coefficient under MHD effect. For M=1, the movement of the slot or slot suction or slot injection do not cause any effect on flow separation. The slot suction and the movement of the slot in downstream direction delay the point of zero skin friction for M=0.

The present results are original and new for water boundary-layer flow over sphere in mixed convection flow with MHD effect and non-uniform mass transfer. So this study would be useful in analysing the skin friction and heat transfer coefficient on sphere of mixed convection flow of water boundary layer with MHD effect.

This study aims to examine whether the selection of a new outsider chief marketing officer from a developed-country incumbent firm with an established brand can serve as an alternative strategy to the acquisition of developed-country firms in benefiting the internationalization of a postselection emerging-market brand marketer that suffers from late-mover disadvantages.

A pretest (survey) and two main studies (experiments) were conducted to examine the proposed mediation model of “Chief Marketing Officer background—enhancement of capabilities—brand competitiveness”.

An emerging-market brand marketer gains enhanced resources and capabilities when a new chief marketing officer is recruited from a developed-country incumbent with a superior reputation, leading to improved brand competitiveness. This positive effect accrues from the new chief marketing officer's background (i.e. prior work organization) spilling over to his/her new emerging-market employer.

This research integrates the research streams of emerging-market firm internationalization, chief marketing officer and executive succession to provide an alternative strategy for emerging-market firms to overcome late-mover disadvantages in global markets.

The purpose of this study is to examine the simultaneous effects of the product, brand, and vendor trust beliefs on consumers' online intentions, i.e. the intention to purchase and the intention to provide personal information online.

The study uses an online 2×2×2 between‐subjects factorial experiment design with two vendor trust beliefs levels (high/low), two brand trust beliefs levels (high/low), and two product trust beliefs levels (high/low). Multivariate analysis of covariance, linear regression, and the SOBEL test were used to analyze the hypotheses.

The results suggest that brand trust beliefs affect online intentions, and may be needed to increase online sales. The influence of vendor trust beliefs on online intentions varies with brand trust, beliefs for products and for services is augmented by brand trust beliefs.

The limitations are those typically applied to experimental methodology. Intentions were used as surrogate for behavior, and a fictitious e‐tailer selling two products with fictitious brands was used.

E‐tailers are encouraged to carry reputable brands and prominently display information about these brands on their web sites. This will improve consumers' trust beliefs, increasing conversion rates, and reducing shopping cart abandonments.

The influence of trust beliefs on online behavior, notwithstanding its importance, remains under‐researched. The paper addresses this gap in the literature. Specifically, it addresses the effects of the simultaneous influence of vendor, brand, and product trust beliefs on shoppers' online intentions. And it decomposes online intentions into its components, i.e. intentions to provide personal information and intentions to purchase, to understand these simultaneous effects not addressed before. The results contribute to the growing literature on trust and consumer online behavior.

Today, companies are struggling to develop their human resources analytics (HRA) capability, although interest in the subject is rapidly increasing. Furthermore, the academic literature on the subject is immature with limited practical guidance or comprehensive models that could support organisations in the development of their HRA capability. To address this issue, the aim of this paper is to provide a maturity model – i.e. HRAMM – and an interdependency matrix through which an organisation can (1) operationalise its HRA capability and assess its organisational maturity; (2) generate harmonious development roadmaps to improve its HRA capability; and (3) enable benchmarking and continuous improvement.

The research described in this paper is based on the popular methodology proposed by Becker et al. (2009) and the procedure for maturity evaluation developed by Gastaldi et al. (2018). This method combines academic rigour and field experience in analytics, in a process spanning eight main phases that involves literature reviews and knowledge creation techniques.

We define HRA maturity through four areas and 14 dimensions, providing a comprehensive model to operationalise HRA capability. Additionally, we argue that HRA maturity develops through an evolutionary path described in four discrete stages of maturity that go beyond traditional analytics sophistication. Lastly, the interdependency matrix reveals specific enablers for the development of HRA.

This paper provides practitioners with useful tools to monitor, evaluate and plan their HRA development path. Additionally, our research helps practitioners to prioritise their work and investment, generating an effective roadmap for developing and improving their HRA capability.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to provide a model for evaluating the maturity of HRA capability plus an interdependency matrix to evaluate systematically the prerequisites and synergies among its constituting dimensions.