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When the media report negatively about an organisation, its employees are not only affected but also a source of information for outsiders who want to find out more about the situation. Because of their credibility, employees can support public relations managers to preserve or restore organisational reputation. In this research, we explore the role of organisational identification and internal corporate communication (ICC) in the event of negative media coverage for employees’ defensive and assertive impression management behaviours. Defensive strategies include excuses, justifications and the avoidance of threatening situations. Assertive strategies are more active and refer to behaviours which aim to establish a desirable identity; in the context of negative media coverage, this entails actively defending the organisation, explaining the situation and conveying the organisation’s official version of the event in order to bolster its reputation. Results from an online survey among employed persons reveal that employees’ identification with their work organisation positively influences their assertive as well as defensive reactions. ICC has a more differentiated influence on employees’ reactions: If ICC is evaluated well, employees’ assertive reactions increase; if evaluated poorly, employees exhibit more defensive reactions. These findings show that ICC can make a difference in winning employees as ambassadors for the organisation in critical situations.

The paper aims to understand how state and non-state domestic terrorism impacts MNEs in foreign markets. Despite the burgeoning literature on terrorism within international business (IB), most research has focused on international terrorism, or terrorism generally. Consequently, there has been limited research examining how domestic or local based terrorism impacts foreign firms.

This is a conceptual paper.

Domestic terrorism is the most common form of terrorism in the world today and involves the state and non-state actors. Non-state domestic terrorism can be low intensity or high intensity. High intensity non-state-domestic terrorism typically involves regular and protracted political violence, along with inter-communal violence. This can expose MNEs to considerable operational, governance and legitimacy pressures.

The paper contributes to the gap in IB terrorism research with regards domestic or local based terrorism. Drawing on IB theory and critical terrorism research, the paper addresses the nature and impact of domestic terrorism within IB. The authors’ paper shows the operational, governance and legitimacy pressures of both state and non-state domestic terrorism for MNEs in host markets. While most IB scholars consider the threat of non-state terrorism for international firms, this study shows how domestic state terrorism benefits and constrains foreign firms.

This chapter begins with a brief history of the ways in which alcohol has been ingrained in American culture since the arrival of European settlers and their enslavement of African people. The chapter then addresses important aspects of alcohol and other drug use among college students. Because of the popularity of alcohol and cannabis among college students, they occupy the primary focus of the chapter, although other psychoactive drugs are briefly discussed as well. The chapter draws from data collected by the Healthy Minds Study, the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) and the American College Health Association (ACHA) in describing the prevalence of alcohol and cannabis use among college students, as well as trends in the use of both substances. The reasons college students drink and use cannabis are explored, as are the many consequences, including academic, legal, physical and interpersonal. The chapter examines a number of prevention strategies that colleges have used to minimize the negative consequences of substance use, including large-scale scare tactics, educational efforts and norming campaigns, as well as individually tailored programs; the effectiveness of each is reviewed.

From a world society perspective, common national educational developments are driven by global cultural models that dominated an international liberal order. These models emphasized the centrality of education as an institution, both as a source of human capital and as an inherent human right. Epistemic communities and international organizations circulated these models influencing national educational policies and reforms. However, in recent decades the international liberal order has been challenged with social movements across the political spectrum questioning the value and authority of education in this order. Earlier educational mandates to be more inclusive are attacked with the rights of women, immigrants, and minorities often targeted. Confidence in knowledge grounded in education and science also gets undercut. In a more fragmented world society, educational contestations increase, reflecting surges in nationalist, populist, and traditional illiberal ideas. We reflect on the impact of these challenges on the centrality of education and propose future research directions to ascertain which educational developments are likely to continue to be globally valued and which are more apt to erode.

This study explores the emergence of discrimination based on observable characteristics. In many instances, agents presume differences arising from traits such as race or gender, even when these parameters are irrelevant to the situation at hand. This paper intends to reveal an emergent behavior and a persistent culture of discrimination caused by miscategorization in strategic interactions.

We assume that agents occasionally engage in conflicts modeled as asymmetric hawk and dove games, where boundedly rational agents may categorize their opponents based on observable traits to make effective decisions. Three categorization strategies are considered: fine-grained, regular, and coarse-grained. Subsequently, an evolutionary agent-based model is employed to examine the performance of these strategies in a dynamic environment.

The results demonstrate that fine-grained categorization provides an advantage when the cost of fighting is low, while coarse-grained categorizers exhibit more peaceful behavior, gaining an advantage when the cost of conflict is high. Our primary finding indicates the emergence of discrimination based on non-relevant traits, manifested through consistent aggressive behavior towards individuals possessing these traits.

This paper is the first to investigate the emergence of discrimination without assuming prior differences between groups. Previous studies have assumed either an initial population difference or a homophily-based approach. In contrast, we demonstrate that discrimination can emerge even in the absence of such assumptions. Discrimination between two groups may arise as long as there are agents who label these categories.

This chapter delves into sustainability-related competences in innovation management for further education as part of the European lifelong learning initiative. Despite extensive research in primary and secondary education, adult education often remains overlooked. Competence-based learning is a favored approach to integrating knowledge, skills, and attitudes across various domains. Through thematic analysis and deductive coding, the study examines 72 innovation management-related further education programs conducted in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, between June and December 2022. The findings unequivocally demonstrate the inclusion of sustainability competences in innovation-related further education. Notably, Strategic Competence emerges as the most prevalent, while Normative Competence appears least frequently. This research significantly advances the convergence of further education in innovation management, responsible management education, and competence-based learning, emphasizing the importance of sustainability competences in adult learning contexts. By shedding light on this underexplored domain, the study prompts further exploration and development of sustainable educational practices for lifelong learning.

This chapter explores two cases of small towns as creative places in the Galloway and Borders regions of Scotland. It considers and compares their cultural development, economic contributions, resilience and sustainability. The chapter uses prior works on policy, theory, and creative rural economies as conceptual framing.

The study is an empirical exploration, which used cultural observation as an interpretive method to undertake desk and field research in the two towns presented as cases, Wigtown (Scotland’s National Book Town) and Coldstream. It offers findings related to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative sector; cultural identity branding; the roles of anchor attractions and events; policy; digital economy; and cultural inclusion or exclusion. The conclusion is that creative placemaking is a medium-to-long term activity involving community and joint entrepreneurship between stakeholders to demonstrate sustainability and resilience. However, creative places need to be or become distinctive in some respects for the ingredients and enabling factors of placemaking to combine and sustain effectively as a destination.

This paper aims to analyze the impact of green people management (GPM) practices on the development of organizational competencies for sustainability in Brazilian publicly traded companies.

To validate the proposed model and hypotheses, a quantitative-descriptive methodological strategy was adopted, empirically investigated through a survey with publicly traded companies listed on B3 S.A. (Brazil, Stock and Exchange). The collected data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and multiple linear regression.

The results indicate that green ability has a positive impact on the development of strategic and systemic competence for sustainability. Green motivation has a negative impact on the development of systemic and economic competencies for sustainability. Green opportunity positively impacts the development of strategic, systemic and economic competencies for sustainability.

In terms of academic contributions, this study allowed for an empirical and comprehensive evaluation of variables related to GPM practices and their impact on the development of organizational competencies for sustainability, in line with the research agenda of the management field, focusing on outcomes for individuals (employees) and organizations.

The identification and possible implementation of certain GPM practices as a way to boost recruitment, selection, evaluation, rewards, recognition and involvement of individuals with green values and objectives, minimizing environmental and societal impacts, represent the main managerial and social contribution.

This chapter investigates heritage craft entrepreneurship ‘in the wild’, creative start-ups emerging within a rural context in Norway and the UK. The research asks how entrepreneurs accomplish heritage craft entrepreneuring. To answer this question, we apply relational ontology, conceptualising entrepreneurship as the ongoing accomplishment of entrepreneurial activities, labelled entrepreneuring. We compare two rural heritage craft businesses: Running a spinnery located on a farm in a valley in Norway and a tweed-based textile creating organisation, co-located with other artisan entrepreneurs positioning in a community-led craft heritage building in the United Kingdom. Both entrepreneuring settings employ heritage craft in their businesses and engage in various forms of collaborations and placemaking in their creative entrepreneuring. This chapter unpacks three facets of artisan entrepreneuring through the lens of placemaking – connecting, organising, and co-developing in rural settings. We contribute to the entrepreneurship-as-practice and creative entrepreneurship literature and highlight the implications of placemaking for rural development.

An integrative model that predicts users' stickiness to WeChat is built. In the proposed model, perceived value plays a dual mediating role in the causal pathway from users' immersive experiences of presence and flow to their engagement and stickiness. Furthermore, presence is treated as a bi-dimensional construct made up of spatial feelings and the sense of being in company, and users' engagement is conceived as cognitive, affective and behavioural contributions to WeChat's marketing functions.

The authors develop a measurement instrument and analyse data from a survey of 917 WeChat users. They use a hybrid partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and neural network approach to confirm the reliability and validity of the measurement items and all the relationships between the constructs.

The paper provides robust evidence about the mediating influences of both utilitarian and hedonic value on users' engagement with the immersive experiences of presence and flow. An additional finding highlights the role of social norms in engagement and stickiness.

Rather than studying the effects of the immersive experiences of presence and flow from either a hedonic or a utilitarian perspective, the authors consider how immersive experiences shape both utilitarian and hedonic value, as well as their joint impact (along with that of social norms) on users' engagement and stickiness.