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Family small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent a substantial part of many economies. In these organizations, close and informal relationships between employers and employees often foster a mutual understanding of each other’s needs, facilitating the negotiation of idiosyncratic deals (i-deals), special employment conditions tailored for individual employees. However, research on how i-deals are negotiated in family SMEs, especially regarding power dynamics and influence, remains limited. This study aims to identify the types of i-deals negotiated in family SMEs and explore the role of power and influence in these negotiations.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 45 employees and 15 employers from Spanish family SMEs. Data were analyzed using ATLAS.ti 8, and thematic analysis was performed.

The study concludes that task, flexibility, financial and development i-deals are particularly negotiated in family SMEs. It identifies that referent and expert power play an important role in initiating these negotiations. Furthermore, rational tactics are generally employed for negotiating work performance, soft tactics for employment-related aspects and hard tactics for work flexibility. Additionally, the study identified gender differences in the negotiation of i-deals.

This study enhances i-deal literature by highlighting the distinct characteristics of family SMEs and their impact on i-deal negotiations. The findings suggest that power dynamics and influence tactics in family SMEs differ from those in larger firms. Moreover, certain i-deals may encounter resistance due to concerns about organizational performance and economic implications. Understanding these factors is essential for developing effective negotiation strategies in family SMEs.

This study offers a dual perspective, analyzing the power and influence tactics used by both employees and employers in family SME i-deal negotiations and highlighting gendered dynamics in these processes.

This research aims to explore the complexities surrounding smart contracts enforcements in cross-jurisdictional transactions.

To achieve the aim of this study, doctrinal legal analysis was adopted. Although the subject is multidisciplinary, the aspect of enforcement in cross-jurisdictional transactions from legislative analysis does not require a technical method to be analysed, hence the adoption of this method. Where relevant legal academic journal articles were sourced and analysed along different legislative frameworks in some jurisdictions under review. To determine the legality of smart contracts, applicable law and court with jurisdiction to enforce blockchain smart contract disputes.

It was discovered that there remain fundamental questions regarding jurisdiction, applicable law and enforcement. Due to the problem of a uniform legislation to manage smart contract transactions.

This study limits itself to the legality of smart contracts within a conflict of laws, and it propels the need for either a choice of domestic legislation for parties to be bound or the adoption of a universal legal framework for all smart contract formation through an international treaty or convention that has a binding effect on contracting parties to a smart contract.

This study highlights the fact that the key elements of smart contracts within traditional contract requirements as provided in domestic legislation vary across jurisdictions. This variation results not only in conflict of law but also affects enforcement in cases of dispute in the contractual terms.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of measuring a sample of engineering students’ perceived achievement of complex thinking at different stages of their professional training. This study intended to analyze and predict the differences in the self-perception of achieved complex thinking competency by gender, semester, course of study and high school of origin.

The methodology included applying the E-Complexity instrument to 225 university students from northern Mexico. The initial comparison of groups used the chi-square test and two supervised learning algorithms (logit regression with Lasso regularization and a classification tree).

The findings of this study indicated that the selected undergraduate degree did not reveal differences in self-perceived performance in complex thinking, while gender, semester and high school of origin had significant differences.

Among the limitations of the study is the size of the sample and the fact that it only focused on engineering students from a single educational institution; however, this limitation responds to the exploratory nature of this study and the guidance of the institutional ethics committee. With these results, it is feasible to request an extension of the sample to include other disciplines to evaluate these findings, which, although relevant, cannot be considered exhaustive.

Regarding possible lines of research, the authors propose that given the difference between students who graduated from the high school of the same institution and those who did not, a possible line of research could explore new hypotheses on whether the policies and practices of the institution’s high school emphasize the development of complex thinking skills; the teachers of this high school are trained to teach complex thinking; and the learning materials of this high school are designed to develop complex thinking skills.

We investigate the effect of the adoption of formal board structure and board processes on firm performance in Colombian family firms, in a context where firms can choose specific aspects of board structure and processes. We deploy insights from the behavioral governance perspective to develop arguments about how family businesses may choose board elements based on their degree of control over the firm (absolute control or less), and its effect on firm performance.

We use an unbalanced data panel of 404 firm-year observations. The data was obtained from the annual financial and corporate governance reports of 62 Colombian stock-issuing firms for the period 2008–2014 – due to change in regulation, data could not be added beyond 2014. Panel data technique with random effects was used.

The results show that board structure is positively associated with financial performance, however, this relationship is negative in businesses where family has absolute control. We also found that there is a negative association between board processes and performance, but positive association in family-controlled businesses.

Our research contributes to research streams on effects of family control in firm choices and on the interactive effect of governance choices and institutional context and more generally how actors interact (rather than react) with their institutional context.

The objective of this instrumental case study is to investigate issues impacting capability development/transformation with respect to student entrepreneurs’ aspirations to create a viable, evolving business model for their start-ups, namely, that are underpinned by goals featuring the “triple bottom line”. That is, instead of simply profits as an economic performance metric, there is also a consideration of wider social issues within the notion of “responsible leadership”, involving people and the planet.

Underpinned by a “capabilities lens”, the research setting focuses on the perceptions of student entrepreneurs together with other stakeholders in a Canadian university. The country context is pertinent, since to gain scalability, owners of start-up firms may need to internationalise to overcome limited domestic demand (despite the large geographic area); also, stakeholders’ support is sometimes needed to facilitate growth.

New insights demonstrate the need for appropriate stakeholders to facilitate effective transformative capability development amongst student entrepreneurs with triple bottom line objectives. Student entrepreneurs’ capability of validating facets of a viable evolving business model that address “all” and not “some” aspects of the triple bottom line is especially important. This is alongside the capability of being able to pivot product-market strategies where necessary, and this may feature the need to internationalise in the event there is limited domestic demand. A capability to develop soft skills is also likely to help student entrepreneurs communicate with stakeholders. In turn, such capabilities are likely to help move ideation, passed validation and through to commercialisation.

The utility of institutions and associated stakeholders offering education and training support to develop capabilities amongst students as aspiring entrepreneurs has featured in earlier studies. Likewise, issues associated with the notion of sustainability have also been previously considered. The originality of this instrumental case study is to offer a more nuanced investigation into salient issues associated with capability development amongst student entrepreneurs exhibiting triple bottom line objectives in their start-ups. That is, focusing on considerations related to validating their evolving business models and especially when facing limited domestic market demand.

Identity regulation is part of a management control package. Organizations regulate employees’ self-identity to influence their behaviors. The success of this regulation depends on its trade-off with employees’ work identities and personalities. Organizational discourse nurtures this dynamic and interactive process. We focus on the regulation of an (undesired) organizational identity that is born at the intersection of race/ethnicity, gender, sex and migrant discrimination in accounting-related positions. We aim to analyze how Latina accountants who migrate to Spain perceive that their triple status as Latina, women and migrants affects their careers as accountants and interpret whether this triple intersectional discrimination aims to create a Latina accountant’s self-identity.

This critical study follows a phenomenological approach to analyze the experiences of women born in Latin America who migrated to Spain to occupy accounting-related positions. A thematic analysis of their semi-structured interviews allowed us to examine the challenges faced by Latina accountants in their accounting careers in Spain.

Our interviewees' narratives display an internalization of, even resignation to, a self-identity that we label “Latina accountant identity.” This identity is based on explicit discrimination discourses that cause them to suffer from the intersection of racism, sexism and migrant conditions and is nurtured by the discourses of their senior managers, co-workers and subordinates.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to frame the regulation of an intersectional discriminatory identity that is used to control Latina accountants from the inside, acting on the triple condition of Latinas, women and foreigners, influencing their self-perceptions regarding work and personal lives.

This research identifies the individual socioeconomic and urban infrastructure attributes that explain the sales performance of informal street vendors in Dhaka, Bangladesh, shedding light on areas where public intervention could enhance informal vendors’ entrepreneurial activities.

The study employs a quantitative methodology, focusing on two street vending areas in Dhaka: New Market Area and Mirpur-1. Primary data (n = 243) were randomly collected from vendors in these areas. The importance of various attributes was estimated using non-parametric, non-linear methods (random forests and geographical random forests). These results were compared with those obtained from linear multiple regression and Lasso regression models.

The study shows that having a designated vending spot is the most important attribute associated with higher sales, confirming the critical role of secure vending locations in urban planning policy. Other significant factors include the width of the sidewalk and the level of odors, indicating the role of urban infrastructure on sales performance. Key individual socioeconomic factors include having a bank account and working experience. The initial economic situation, measured by the log of initial capital, also plays a significant role, especially when accounting for spatial heterogeneity.

This research explores the relationship between individual socioeconomic characteristics, urban infrastructure and street vendors' sales performance using advanced machine learning models. Our findings underscore the significance of adequate street vending infrastructure and access to banking services, highlighting critical areas for public policy intervention to support this vital entrepreneurial activity.

With the competitive nature of golf club operations, understanding the loyalty formation process is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge. This study investigated the sequential developmental stages of consumer loyalty, progressing through cognitive, affective, and conative stages.

The study conducted a survey targeting consumers who have experienced golf club services in the United States. This study operationalized reliability and trust as key indicators of the cognitive stage, hedonic motivation and social engagement as indicators of the affective stage, and loyalty as the indicator of the conative stage.

Using structural equation modeling (SEM), this study found that reliability has a significantly positive influence on trust. Trust has a significantly positive influence on hedonic motivation and loyalty. Furthermore, hedonic motivation has a significantly positive influence on social engagement and loyalty.

By integrating these findings within the Cognitive-Affective-Conative (CAC) framework, this study contributes to both the theoretical literature on consumer loyalty and provides practical insights for golf club management.

The study aims to develop and test a supply chain wide green product development framework of focal firms and their major suppliers, in the context of the Chinese automotive industry.

An in-depth case studies approach is adopted for this study. Three automotive sector upstream supply chains involving 17 firms and 51 experts as respondents were interviewed on the importance and implementation effectiveness of 6Rs (reduce, redesign, recover, remanufacture, reuse and recycle) across the manufacturer and their respective tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers.

The results indicate that the Chinese automotive sector supply chains are mainly focused on “reduce” practices with immediate environmental and economic benefits. The investigated firms however had future implementation plans for “redesign” and “recovery” practices to become comprehensive in green product development (GPD).

The study facilitates automotive firms, industry policymakers and researchers the understanding of incorporating comprehensive GSCM practices across the upstream supply chain to achieve circularity. The study focused on upstream supply chain due to the concentration of major production practices in this section of the supply chain. However, the downstream supply chain equally deserve attention as well as the need to understand the mediating and moderating roles of the different Rs to tease out the pros and cons of achieving overall environmental sustainability.

There are very limited studies on comprehensive GPD for achieving optimal GSCM and sustainability. By simultaneous looking at a focal firm and its upstream supply chains GSCM practices, this study addresses a system-wide comprehensive GPD issues from implementation of 6Rs perspectives in the supply chain.

The ascendancy of modular offsite construction (MOSC) over traditional construction methods is well known. Despite the known potential of this construction approach, its adoption is minimal in New Zealand construction industry. This article investigates the potential benefits of using MOSC for delivery of high-rise buildings in New Zealand, underlying factors responsible for its low uptake and the measures that can facilitate its improved uptake.

This study utilised a mixed research approach. An empirical questionnaire survey was carried out with New Zealand construction industry professionals with expertise in MOSC. Factor analysis of survey data was carried out using SPSS software. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with subject matter experts to get further insights and expand the survey findings. Interview data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Study identified benefits of MOSC, thus establishing potential of its uptake for high-rise building construction. Constraining factors were investigated, most pronounced being low level of skills in construction industry to design, manufacture and integrate supply chain of MOSC, high initial investment, high cost of importing modules and negative perception about offsite manufactured buildings. This study also highlighted the enablers to improve uptake of MOSC. These enablers included; loan and mortgage policies to suit MOSC paradigm, building regulations to support OSC industry, increased support from the government and awareness and acceptance of standardised building designs among the clients.

Originality of this paper harps from little to no research carried out to investigate use of MOSC for high-rise buildings in New Zealand context.