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1 – 10 of 15Arjona Çela, Egla Mansi and Fatbardha Morina
This study aims to investigate the digital entrepreneurial intentions of Albanian youth, identify the obstacles they face in starting digital businesses and examine their…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the digital entrepreneurial intentions of Albanian youth, identify the obstacles they face in starting digital businesses and examine their preferences regarding the types of businesses they aspire to establish. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is used as a framework to analyze these factors.
Design/methodology/approach
Primary data were collected via questionnaires distributed in public and private universities. In a sample of 325 students, Structural Equation Modeling with Confirmatory Factor Analysis, path analysis and machine learning-based text analysis were used.
Findings
This study reveals significant impacts of innovativeness, attitude towards entrepreneurship, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and self-efficacy on digital entrepreneurial intentions among Albanian students. Additionally, text mining highlights a strong preference for digital entrepreneurship.
Research limitations/implications
The theoretical contributions of this study include applying Structural Equation Modeling to reveal insights into the impact of entrepreneurial factors and obstacles. The findings can inform policymakers and educators in designing targeted interventions to support student entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, the limitations of this study encompass a small sample size, lack of time series and panel data and the absence of an evaluation of the impact of education system practices, along with the need to investigate the effects of young population emigration from Albania to the EU.
Originality/value
This research contributes to the understanding of digital entrepreneurial intentions and behavior by using TPB in the Albanian context, offering access to a diverse dataset from Albanian universities, testing the direct impact of innovativeness on entrepreneurial behavior and pioneering the use of machine learning techniques for text analysis. Thus, it provides novel insights into the entrepreneurial landscape in Albania. In addition, this work can drive initiatives to support student entrepreneurship and bridge the gap between academia and industry in Albania.
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Ubais Parayil Iqbal, Sobhith Mathew Jose and Muhammad Tahir
Commercial banks are the financial powerhouses of a nation that can create a penetrating impact at the grassroots level. This study aims to investigate the demand-side drivers of…
Abstract
Purpose
Commercial banks are the financial powerhouses of a nation that can create a penetrating impact at the grassroots level. This study aims to investigate the demand-side drivers of green banking purchase intention by extending the popular theory of planned behavior (TPB) model.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a mono-method research approach to collect customers’ cross-sectional responses using structured questionnaires. The data were further analyzed using CB-SEM.
Findings
This study points out that attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and environmental concern are demand-side factors that drive the intention of individual customers to adopt green banking services. The moderating roles of collectivism, age and gender are also discussed in this study.
Research limitations/implications
The present study’s results suffer from mono-method bias as they are based on primary data analysis alone. This limitation can be addressed by incorporating a mixed-method approach.
Practical implications
Several policy suggestions are offered based on the findings on improving green banking adoption among individual customers. The proper incorporation of these guidelines will expedite a nation’s aspirations for sustainable economic growth.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the demand-side factors that drive Omani customers’ intention to adopt green banking. Moreover, this study extends the TPB with environmental concern and personal values to examine the green banking adoption by individual customers.
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Henry Uche Obuene, Oludayo Tade, Bamidele Rasak, Ogadimma Arisukwu and Emeka E. Okafor
An increase in informal job advertisements has been attributed to high unemployment. However, less scholarly attention has been placed on the experiences of victims of advertised…
Abstract
Purpose
An increase in informal job advertisements has been attributed to high unemployment. However, less scholarly attention has been placed on the experiences of victims of advertised job scams.
Design/methodology/approach
This explorative study investigates the lived experiences of victims of advertised job scams in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, adopting Durkheim’s Functionalism and Anomie Theory. Around 35 victims were purposively engaged in in-depth and telephone interviews.
Findings
The findings of the study indicated the link between functionalism and anomie, an increasing rate of advertised job scams and a high rate of unemployment and poverty as well as the desperation of victims in getting jobs. The value orientation of an individual is determined by the dynamics of the social institutions. The pattern of job scammers revealed extremists conditioned by the large number of youths seeking employment. The advertised scam jobs are usually unavailable. In addition, employers, through informal job advertisements, subject victims to extortions, exploitation, street begging, kidnapping and rituals as well as sexual harassment and rape. Owing to the high rate of unemployment, many genuine job offers are characterised by bribes, besides trivializing merit.
Originality/value
The government should design measures to tackle the rate of corruption and unemployment. This can be achieved by introducing entrepreneurship and skill acquisition programmes in the nation’s education system.
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Neil Richardson and Ruth M. Gosnay
This paper reflects on antecedents that may cause academic fields to decline or stagnate. It uses a hermeneutic review to consolidate and critique the Internal Marketing (IM…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper reflects on antecedents that may cause academic fields to decline or stagnate. It uses a hermeneutic review to consolidate and critique the Internal Marketing (IM) field. Seminal studies of IM and its related construct Internal Marketing orientation (IMO) are identified. IMO is then juxtaposed with contemporary studies from a communications journal identified as core as part of the hermeneutic process.
Design/methodology/approach
This study critiques the IMO literature in a hermeneutic review. It draws on the auto-ethnographic tradition to compare IMO with contemporary, related communications articles.
Findings
Two antecedents are addressed. There is interest in IM but less so in IMO. Aspects from the IMO literature align with two broad areas, namely customer-centric and company-centric communications. Some IMO aspects have been developed further therein.
Research limitations/implications
This paper recognizes further research opportunities for IMO and communications scholars with a greater focus on boundary spanning employees in national, sectoral and organizational settings. Being conceptual means it lacks empirical testing; being hermeneutic means it contributes to methodological plurality.
Practical implications
Despite having potentially profound organizational effects, IMO lacks awareness and adoption. Recommendations are made throughout to facilitate the adoption of improved communications apropos improving IMO.
Social implications
The paper identifies employee/employer benefits of adopting good internal communications (IC). IM(O) provides a rationale for sound IC practices.
Originality/value
This paper partially addresses the paucity of research into IMO including BSEs. It improves conceptualization by consolidating the key IMO research on the development and measurement of the construct, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses within the literature.
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Wei Du and Yiqin Wang
The widespread application of smart technologies in services not only brings efficiency and convenience to consumers but also inevitably comes with negative effects. Therefore…
Abstract
Purpose
The widespread application of smart technologies in services not only brings efficiency and convenience to consumers but also inevitably comes with negative effects. Therefore, this article aims to illustrate the impact of privacy invasion on consumers' intention to use smart services. Using distrust as a mediating variable, compare two different modes of interaction between voice and text, and study the positive impact of privacy commitment. This study aims to provide recommendations for smart service providers to make the consumer experience better.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts an experimental approach, with data collection and hypothesis analysis by designing four different experiments.
Findings
The results show that the negative impact of privacy invasion on consumers' intention to use smart services is moderated by privacy commitments and interaction modes. This article verifies the mediating effect of distrust on consumers' intention to use when privacy invasion occurs and verifies the moderating effect of the interaction modes by comparing voice interaction with text interaction and demonstrates that text interaction mode will attenuate the mediating role of distrust in the path in privacy invasion. Besides, it also indicates that privacy commitments can moderate the relationship between privacy invasion’s effect on distrust and intention to use.
Originality/value
Focusing on privacy invasion, this study explores consumers' intention to use smart services, compares the two interaction modes of voice and text to explore their moderating effects, deeply explores consumer psychology and studies the mediating role of distrust and the moderating role of privacy commitment.
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Marc Ballesté, Ares Fernández, Cristina Yáñez de Aldecoa and Anna Solé-Llussà
Heritage education is currently a consolidated discipline, which advocate for a holistic vision of heritage. In this sense, this research aims to study the heritage conceptions…
Abstract
Purpose
Heritage education is currently a consolidated discipline, which advocate for a holistic vision of heritage. In this sense, this research aims to study the heritage conceptions, perceptions and learning context amongst primary and secondary students, comprehensively and fully.
Design/methodology/approach
This research focuses in Andorra, a country in the Pyrenees, where there are three different education systems. This allowed the study to obtain a sample of 1,235 primary and secondary students, throughout a structured questionnaire that was previously designed and validated ad hoc.
Findings
In general terms, the results show that around half of the students have a holistic view of heritage; however, natural and historical elements are highlighted as the ones they learn from the most, especially through visits in situ. Moreover, the students’ perceptions of heritage show that over a 90% of students believe it is important to safeguard because it is connected to nature and culture preservation.
Originality/value
This research is included in a greater scope project that also considers other agents in the education community that belong to formal and non-formal spheres. In addition, it is the first investigation where the field of heritage education is studied globally in an entire country, considering primary and secondary education students.
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Marya Tabassum, Muhammad Mustafa Raziq, Naukhez Sarwar, Zujaja Wahaj and Malik Ikramullah
Emergent leadership is a relatively new phenomenon, suggesting that leaders emerge from within teams without having a formal leadership assigned role. While emergent leadership…
Abstract
Purpose
Emergent leadership is a relatively new phenomenon, suggesting that leaders emerge from within teams without having a formal leadership assigned role. While emergent leadership has much relevance in today's organizations transitioning from vertical to horizontal leadership, there is a paucity of research about the process of emergent leadership that enables team members to become influential within teams.
Design/methodology/approach
Using purposive sampling, we interview 40 individuals in nine agile teams working in five Information Technology firms.
Findings
We identify various traits, experiences, behaviors, skills, and abilities of emergent leaders. Broadly, we conclude that an emergent leader serves as a “detail-oriented structure” or a “big picture coordinator.” Based on the findings, we propose a leadership emergence process that details how team members gain status and emerge as leaders, as well as the factors that can cause them to lose that status and return to becoming a regular team member. Furthermore, we introduce a model that demonstrates how technical expertise and personality traits interact, influencing team dynamics and facilitating the emergence of leaders within a team.
Originality/value
We contribute to the literature on emergent leadership by conceptualizing lateral influence and a leadership emergence process. We also extend the agile leadership literature and address some calls for empirical studies to understand the leadership dynamics in agile teams. We also show some limitations of the existing approaches and offer some useful insights.
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Marya Tabassum, Muhammad Mustafa Raziq, Matthew Allen, Naukhez Sarwar and Owais Anwar Golra
Leadership research has traditionally focused on formal leadership; however, leaders may emerge in informal settings in self-managed teams, and little is known about who emergent…
Abstract
Purpose
Leadership research has traditionally focused on formal leadership; however, leaders may emerge in informal settings in self-managed teams, and little is known about who emergent leaders are and what their characteristics are. This study investigates emergent leaders' behaviors, roles, skills, and leadership style, drawing on a multi-method approach.
Design/methodology/approach
We first identify emergent leaders using social network analysis and aggregation approaches. Second, we investigate emergent leaders' characteristics using interviews with forty agile team members in five organizations.
Findings
Results indicate different roles of emergent leaders (i.e. coach, liaisons), leadership styles (i.e. supportive), skills (i.e. culturally intelligent, strategist), and influencing factors (i.e. personality, technical knowledge, social circle).
Originality/value
We contribute by identifying emergent leaders through multiple identification methods (i.e. network analysis, aggregation), and then through identifying their various characteristics, we contribute to leadership literature as well as idiosyncrasy-credit theory. We also add to agile-leadership theory, showing that multiple informal leaders may emerge within agile teams. Finally, our findings have practical implications for self-managed teams, informal group settings, organizational change professionals, and organizations with horizontal structures.
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Marya Tabassum, Muhammad Mustafa Raziq and Naukhez Sarwar
Agile project teams are self-managing and self-organizing teams, and these two characteristics are pivotal attributes of emergent leadership. Emergent leadership is thus common in…
Abstract
Purpose
Agile project teams are self-managing and self-organizing teams, and these two characteristics are pivotal attributes of emergent leadership. Emergent leadership is thus common in agile teams – however, how these (informal) emergent leaders can be identified in teams remains far from understood. The purpose of this research is to uncover techniques that enable top management to identify emergent agile leaders.
Methodology/design
We approached six agile teams from four organizations. We employ social network analysis (SNA) and aggregation approaches to identify emergent agile leaders.
Design/methodology/approach
We approached six agile teams from four organizations. We employ SNA and aggregation approaches to identify emergent agile leaders.
Findings
Seven emergent leaders are identified using the SNA and aggregation approaches. The same leaders are also identified using the KeyPlayer algorithms. One emergent leader is identified from each of the five teams, for a total of five emergent leaders from the five teams. However, two emergent leaders are identified for the remaining sixth team.
Originality/value
Emergent leadership is a relatively new phenomenon where leaders emerge from within teams without having a formal leadership assigned role. A challenge remains as to how such leaders can be identified without any formal leadership status. We contribute by showing how network analysis and aggregation approaches are suitable for the identification of emergent leadership talent within teams. In addition, we help advance leadership research by describing the network behaviors of emergent leaders and offering a way forward to identify more than one emergent leader in a team. We also show some limitations of the approaches used and offer some useful insights.
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