Search results

We aim to compare multifunctionality, ecosystem services and just transition as overall conceptual approaches to understand agri-food systems.

This is a theory-motivated literature study.

This paper argues that the concepts of multifunctionality and ecosystem services are unsuitable for considering the systemic complexities of today’s food system in order to tackle its grave environmental and social problems. Furthermore, these two concepts tend to neglect the negative externalities of food systems and overemphasize the positive ones. The notion of just transition puts justice and sustainability at the center of agri-food studies and defines targeted systemic interventions in food systems.

While the approach of just transition is only starting to be widely applied to the agriculture–food nexus, we argue that it is better suited to re-orient diets, production processes, the value chain and labor conditions in a more sustainable direction. The just transition approach is also useful in drafting systemic policy innovations.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2023-0740

Relational contracting is increasingly being applied to complex and uncertain construction projects. However, it has proved hard to achieve stable performance and industry-level learning in this field. This paper employs an institutional perspective to analyze how legitimacy for relational contracting has been produced and challenged in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, including implications for dissemination and learning.

A collaborative case study design is used, where longitudinal accounts of the developments in relational contracting over more than 25 years in four Nordic countries were developed by scholars based in each country. The descriptions are underpinned by literature sources from research, practice and policy.

The countries share similar problem perceptions that have triggered the de-institutionalization of traditional contracting practices. Models and policies developed elsewhere are important sources of knowledge and legitimacy. Most countries have seen pendulum movements, where dissemination of relational contracting is followed by backlashes when projects fail to meet projected outcomes. Before long, however, relational contracting tends to re-emerge under new labels and in slightly new forms. Such a proliferation of concepts presents further obstacles to learning. Successful institutionalization is found to rely on realistic goals in combination with broad competence development at the organizational and industry levels.

In seeking inspiration from other countries, policymakers should go beyond contract models to also consider strategies to manage industry-level learning.

The paper provides a unique longitudinal cross-country perspective on the field of relational contracting. As such, it contributes to the small stream of literature on long-term institutional change in the construction sector.

This study aims to empirically investigate how knowledge paradox affects collaboration performance. Knowledge paradox, which arises from the simultaneous need for knowledge sharing and protection, is common in interorganizational collaboration. Using the ambidexterity perspective, this paper aims to reexamine the effect of the knowledge paradox on collaborative performance to explore the moderating roles of structural and contextual ambidexterity.

This study used a sample of 153 firms involved in vertical and horizontal collaboration, collected via questionnaires. Hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analysis.

This study demonstrates that the stronger the knowledge paradox is, the higher the potential for value creation. Thus, knowledge paradox has a positive impact on collaborative performance. The functions of structural ambidexterity and contextual ambidexterity strengthen this positive relationship.

This paper not only expands the theoretical application of the knowledge paradox and ambidexterity theory in the context of interorganizational relationships but also provides significant managerial implications. By comprehending the dynamics of the knowledge paradox and the role of ambidexterity, managers can make well-informed decisions to enhance their collaborative performance.

This chapter examines two 21st-century Disney fairy tale adaptations, Frozen (2013) and its sequel Frozen II (2019), focussing on the representation of male characters and the discourse on masculinity that can be inferred from both films.

Despite featuring two prominent female protagonists – Queen Elsa and Princess Anna – and dealing with themes such as sisterhood and female bonding, a close reading of the two films reveals that they are as much about masculinity as they are about femininity. For instance, filmmakers introduce heterosexual romance where there was none before, as well as male characters Prince Hans and Kristoff, who are not present in the literary source that they draw from, Hans Christian Andersen's ‘The Snow Queen’ (1844).

Furthermore, these male characters are given names, personalities, and motivations, which cannot be said of previous Disney fairy tale Prince Charming-type figures. Therefore, Hans and Kristoff are proposed to be variations of this archetype and can be read as an attempt on Disney's part to complicate it, undermine the patriarchal masculinity that it stood for in its previous Disney renderings, and propose alternative models for the implied 21st-century audience.

Although Prince Hans is initially presented as a stereotypical Disney fairy tale prince, he is eventually revealed to be a narcissistic lover and a patriarchal villain. Kristoff, by contrast, is the humble, lower-class, sensitive ‘new’ man who is presented as a socially acceptable alternative and finally takes Prince Charming's place by becoming the princess's love interest and partner. Frozen can be read as a cautionary tale that urges young women to choose their romantic (male) partners wisely and warns both male and female audiences against the dangers of fragile patriarchal masculinity.

This paper studies how employee effort depends upon the manager’s level of narcissism and the framing of the manager’s incentive scheme. In an online experiment with 356 employee participants, the authors manipulate the description of the manager narcissism (high or low) and the framing of the manager’s compensation scheme (bonus or penalty) and examine the joint effect of these two factors on employee effort to help the manager reach their objectives. Results show that employees exert less (more) effort when manager narcissism is high (low). This effect is mediated by employees’ feelings of envy toward the manager. In line with recent research on the cascading effect of management compensation, the authors also find that a manager’s penalty contract has a negative effect on employee effort when manager narcissism is high. The results have important implications for compensation design in business practice.

When CEOs are publicly weighing in on sociopolitical debates, this is known as CEO activism. The steadily growing number of such statements made in recent years has been subject to a flourishing academic debate. This field offers first profound findings from observational studies. However, the discussion of CEO activism lacks a thorough theoretical grounding, such as a shared concept accounting for the heterogeneity of sociopolitical incidents. Thus, the aim of this paper is to provide an archetypal framework for CEO activism.

The authors used a multiple case study approach on 145 activism cases stated by CEOs and found seven distinct statement archetypes.

The study identifies four main structural design elements accounting for the heterogeneity of activism, i.e. the addressed meta-category of the statement, the targeted outcome, the used tonality and the orientation of the CEOs’ positions. Further, the authors found seven distinguishable archetypes of CEO activism statements: “Climate Alerts”, “Economy Visions”, “Political Comments”, “Self-reflections and Social Concerns”, “Tech Designs”, “Unclouded Evaluations” and “Descriptive Explanations”.

This typology classifies the heterogeneity of CEO activism. It will enable the analysis of interrelationships, mechanisms and motivations on a differentiated level and raise the comprehensibility of research-results.

The framework supports executives in understanding the heterogeneity of CEO activism and to analyse personality-fits.

To the authors’ knowledge, this marks the first conceptualisation of activism developed cross-thematically. The work supports further theory-building on CEO activism.

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of internally displaced persons regarding their experiences with various human rights prescripts. This study also sought to contribute to the literature on the living conditions of internally displaced persons and narrow the gap in internal displacement studies, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

A case study approach and quantitative research paradigm were adopted in the study. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 584 participants in Niger State, Edo State and Kaduna State in Nigeria.

The findings reveal that most of the internally displaced persons were youth, unemployed and had a strong motivation to meet their physiological needs. The empirical evidence in this study leads to the conclusion that the daily struggle of the participants to meet their survival needs overshadows every other human rights consideration among them.

Various practical and theoretical implications are inferred from this study including the imperative to urgently address the causes of internal displacement and provide urgent assistance to internally displaced persons.

Besides the novel conceptual insights and empirical data, this study makes unique contributions to literature on internally displaced persons and human rights theory.

The increased digital interactions in the B2B industry have enhanced the importance of customer engagement as a measure of firm performance. This study aims to map and analyze temporal and spatial journeys for customer engagement in B2B markets from a bibliometric perspective.

The extant literature on customer engagement research in the B2B context was analyzed using bibliometric analysis. The citation analysis, keyword analysis, cluster analysis, three-field plot and bibliographic coupling were used to map the intellectual structure of customer engagement in B2B markets.

The research on customer engagement in the B2B context was studied more in western countries. The analysis suggests that customer engagement in B2B markets will take centre stage in the coming times as digital channels make it easier to track critical metrics besides other key factors. Issues like digital transformation, the use of artificial intelligence for virtual engagement, personalization, innovation and salesforce management by leveraging technology would be critical for improved B2B customer engagement.

The study provides a comprehensive reference to scholars working in this domain.

The study makes a pioneering effort to comprehensively analyze the vast corpus of literature on customer engagement in B2B markets for business insights.

The effect of viscosity on the performance of disk-shaped electromechanical resonators has been studied and investigated in the past. The vibration frequency of a disk-shaped resonator changes according to the viscosity of the liquid which the resonator is in contact with. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is based on design a sensor for measuring the viscosity of liquids using a disk-shaped electromechanical resonator. The viscosity of liquids is of interest to researchers in industry and medicine.

In this paper, a viscosity sensor for liquids is proposed, which is designed based on a disk-shaped electromechanical resonator. In this proposed sensor, two comb drives are used as electrostatic actuators to stimulate the resonator. Also, two other comb drives are used as electrostatic sensors to monitor the frequency changes of the proposed resonator. The resonance frequency of the resonator in response to different fluids under test varies according to their viscosity.

After calibration of the proposed sensor by nonlinear weights, the viscosity of some liquids are calculated using this sensor and results confirm its accuracy according to the liquids real viscosity.

The design of the proposed sensor and its simulated performance are reported. Also, the viscosity of several different liquids are evaluated with simulations of the proposed sensor and presented.