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Drawing on mindfulness theory, this study attempts to gain insights into whether leader-mindfulness (LM) influences workplace cynicism (WPC) among non-family employees (NFEs) working in small and medium-sized private family firms. Furthermore, the study leverages the self-determination theory to examine if the above relationship is mediated by the belongingness of the NFEs to the organization and leader–member exchange quality (LMXQ).

A conceptual framework with a set of hypotheses is developed. Using cross-sectional survey data collected from 376 NFEs working in small and medium-sized private family firms in Oman, the hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling that was analyzed through PLS-SEM.

The results indicate that LM influences WPC both directly and through the mediating effect of LMXQ. The findings also suggest that, while LM influences belongingness, and that belongingness also mediates the relationship between LM and LMXQ. However, belongingness does not mediate the relationship between LM and WPC, either by itself or serially.

The prevalence of WPC among NFEs in family firms hinders the ability of such organizations to retain talented employees that are outside the family circle. Hence, this study presents nuanced insights to those who manage such organizations, as it reveals that leading the family business mindfully can markedly reduce WPC among NFEs, particularly when LM enhances LMXQ.

The study makes four novel contributions. First, this appears to be the first study at the crossroads of the family business and organizational behavior literature to investigate the under-researched topic of WPC among NFEs in family firms. Second, the study provides insights into the relationship between LM and WPC by developing a conceptual framework that draws on mindfulness theory and self-determination theory. Third, it identifies the mediating role of LMXQ in the link between LM and WPC. Finally, it reveals that, although the belongingness of NFEs to their organization is influenced by LM, it does not automatically influence WPC.

The purpose of this paper is to depict how entrepreneurs improve community vitality in the economic, social and environmental dimensions. The paper joins the conversation of business spirituality as the study participants were Sri Lankan Buddhist entrepreneurs from the emerging venture context (i.e. from enterprises which are less than 1–10 years old). The aim of the paper is to introduce spiritually informed entrepreneurial actions, thus contributing to a better understanding of entrepreneurial impact on communities.

The paper involves a qualitative, interpretivist research design. Data was collected by conducting 28 semi-structured interviews with 18 Sri Lankan Buddhist entrepreneurs. Research participants were selected from diverse business sectors. The research applied inductive thematic analysis for structuring and interpreting data.

For Sri Lankan Buddhist entrepreneurs, improving community vitality is an essential altruistic goal of their business agenda. During the operations of their ventures, this altruistic goal is translated into altruistic actions that improve the economic, social and environmental vitalities of communities. Research findings highlight that in the case of Sri Lankan Buddhist entrepreneurs, altruistic actions are informed by compassion, which is a fundamental value in the Buddhist religion. Drawing on the findings, an integrated model of community vitality, which describes the role of compassion and the mechanisms of entrepreneurial actions in a Buddhist setting was developed inductively.

Studying entrepreneurial actions to focus on the motivations behind improving community vitality is a new research topic. The paper provides valuable knowledge on business spirituality regarding the compassionate motivations of Buddhist entrepreneurs. The integrated model of community vitality, which describes the mechanisms of entrepreneurial actions to improve community vitality in a Buddhist setting could be an essential compass not only to entrepreneurs but also research scholars in the field of business spirituality.

Online food shopping has emerged as a fast-growing market. However, the retail online food supply chain (ROFSC) is attracting increasing attention due to its social, environmental and financial impacts. This study aims to empirically evaluate food waste prevention and mitigation (FWPM) strategies in a real-world case study within the UK ROFSC.

Advanced methodologies are required to explore and address FWPM problems across ROFSC. Surveys and interviews were conducted with practitioners. Hard and soft data were collected from the case online retailer. Experts from an FWPM non-profit organization checked and validated the data collected.

Results revealed that inter/cross-organization integrated collaboration and visibility in the ROFSC influence FWPM. Findings established that consumers are the main source of food waste, followed by suppliers and online retailers, with 18, 11 and 1%, respectively. Worryingly, only 1% of respondents expressed that there is a strong commitment to a zero-waste strategy, emphasizing the necessity for more effective waste reduction initiatives and awareness.

The research outcome calls for further efforts by policymakers and practitioners to guide consumers toward efficient food waste management practices.

The study extends previous literature by proposing a holistic framework for reducing food waste from suppliers and consumers. The study captured interesting insights on food waste, including measuring, reasoning and destinations of online food waste.

This study aims to report the quality of Bangladesh's science and technology universities (STUs) in ensuring sustainable employment of graduates during the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) by assessing their vigilance in skill development activities and exploring students’ perspectives on the university.

This research used mixed methods: a close-ended five-point Likert scale questionnaire to understand students’ perspectives and a thematic analysis of the interviews of students, faculties, policymakers and relevant stakeholders. The data was collected through a random sampling method where 1,000 university students took part in the quantitative analysis along with other respondents for the qualitative portion. The analysis was done with a 99% confidence level and a 4.5% margin of error.

Bangladesh's STUs still have a long way to go to ensure quality education and generate sustainable employment for their graduates. The universities' preparation to comprehend the 4IR is not at the expected level. In addition, despite students' favourable perception of universities as providers of qualified labour, there is a significant mismatch between supply and demand.

This research has some limitations regarding time and resources. Due to the limited number of responses from a few universities, this study's findings might only apply to some of the STUs of other countries. This study provided several recommendations for providing quality education to the STUs of Bangladesh.

The findings of this study indicate that there is still a crucial gap between the initiatives of STUs and the employment market, which prevents graduates from offering the necessary skills to achieve sustainable employment. The findings also support the idea of significant changes in the approach of these universities to address the mentioned issues.

This study suggests collaboration among social actors, relevant stakeholders, STU authorities, education experts and government officials to ensure a demand-based curriculum for the students. The relevant stakeholders should come forward to ensure advanced technologies and internet connectivity in the STUs.

The data set used in this study is significantly large and varies in the number of institutions, departments and socioeconomic backgrounds of the students, faculties, policymakers and various stakeholders. Furthermore, the capacity of scientific and technology institutions to guarantee sustainable employment through quality assurance in education has also not been recently evaluated in Bangladesh.

In the digital age, enterprise social media (ESM) has been broadly used to break the barrier of space and time for knowledge sharing involving two activities—knowledge donating and knowledge collecting. Yet, hardly any study has thus far explored how and when knowledge donating and knowledge collecting through ESM impact employees’ innovative work behavior (IWB). Therefore, drawing on the social exchange theory, this study aims to introduce relational social capital as a mediator and performance climate as a moderator to examine differential impact mechanisms of knowledge donating and knowledge collecting through ESM on employee IWB.

First, we collected 225 survey data from employees who used ESM at work. Then, according to the two-stage procedure of the partial least square structural equation modeling method, we established and analyzed a moderated mediation model based on the context of ESM.

Results demonstrate that knowledge donating through ESM has a positive relationship with IWB, but knowledge collecting through ESM has no such relationship. Through the mediation of relational social capital, both knowledge donating and knowledge collecting through ESM have indirect positive relationships with IWB, but knowledge collecting through ESM has a greater one. Moreover, when employees perceived a relatively high-performance climate, the positive relationships of knowledge donating and knowledge collecting through ESM with IWB via relational social capital would be stronger.

On the one hand, organizational managers should not only focus on different innovation benefits caused by knowledge donating and knowledge collecting through ESM but also should realize differences in the direct/indirect effect of knowledge donating and knowledge collecting through ESM on IWB. On the other hand, employees need to proactively enhance their innovative ability by considering knowledge donating/collecting channels (e.g. ESM), gaining successful competitiveness. Moreover, both managers and employees should realize that different innovation benefits of knowledge sharing activities through ESM can be further strengthened when establishing a high-performance climate.

Different from prior literature on knowledge sharing or ESM, this study contributes to analyzing the differential effects of two dimensions (i.e. knowledge donating and knowledge collecting) of knowledge sharing on employees' IWB in the context of ESM.