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Obesity imposes myriad negative consequences upon society, the economy and personal well-being. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of using political correctness (PC) in social marketing messages to persuade consumers to change their unhealthy behavior. It also explores various underlying mechanisms that drive this effect. Specifically, this research studies that messaging approach – politically correct vs politically incorrect and gain vs loss message framing – generates higher consumer intentions to change their behavior.

Four experiments were conducted with nationally representative samples to examine the effect of PC and gain vs loss message framing on consumers’ behavior changing intentions.

Politically correct prosocial marketing messages displayed higher persuasiveness than politically incorrect messages. Each relationship was mediated by the perceived manipulative capacity of the message and consumers’ attitudes toward the message. Message framing performed as a boundary condition for these effects.

This paper sought to contribute to the literature that investigates the effectiveness of social marketing efforts. Three specific contributions related to the effects of message frames on politically correct and incorrect social marketing messages were developed.

The strategies presented in this paper benefit firms wishing to create a more prosocial approach to their business. A firm can present a prosocial message to their target market in a frame focusing on what will be gained instead of lost. Likewise, firms should welcome this type of messaging that embraces politically correct terminology instead of shying away from it.

This paper generates actionable insights for marketers and policymakers regarding how best to communicate with targeted segments about culturally- and personally sensitive topics related to obesity and weight loss. This paper also contributes to the literature that explores the effectiveness of social marketing initiatives. The findings suggest policymakers and social marketers should be cautious and, regardless of today’s sociopolitical environment, avoid falling into the temptation of developing politically incorrect and loss-framed messages.

There are variations in religious social norms and legal environments around the world. In this paper, we aim to examine the interaction between variations in religious social norms and legal environments on real activities manipulations and expense misclassification using a global sample of 63 countries. Our inquiry is motivated by a paucity of research on the interaction between legal environment and religion on earnings management practices in an international setting.

This study draws on a global sample of 63 countries to examine the effect of variations in religious social norms and legal environments on the trade-off between expense misclassification and real activities earnings management practices. Firm-specific financial data come from Global Compustat. Religion data are obtained from World Values Surveys of the World Bank. We obtain legal environment scores from the International Country Risk Guide.

Findings suggest that the interaction between law and religion serves as constraints on both classification shifting and real activities manipulation around the world. We find that religion strengthens the weak legal environment and the strong legal environment strengthens the weak religious environment to decrease both real activities manipulation and classification shifting when law and religion interact in an international setting. Therefore, our results contradict Zang's (2012) earnings management trade-off evidence. Again, our results contradict Malikov et al.’s (2018) evidence that mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption is associated with increased real activities manipulation.

The study is limited to 63 countries limiting the generalizability of the findings.

This study provides novel evidence and shows that there is a link between law and religion. The interaction between law and religion decreases expense misclassification and real activities manipulation. We contribute that the interaction between religion and law benefits firms and increases shareholder value as real activities manipulation decreases. Therefore, strengthening the legal environment will complement religion, IFRS and other monitoring mechanisms put in place to mitigate unethical expense misclassification and real activities earnings manipulation around the world.

The study aims to explore the role of non-mainstream financial schemes in supporting innovation within SMEs in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. It investigates how informal credit, business group affiliation and foreign and state ownership arrangements influence SMEs’ innovative activities in environments with limited access to formal financial resources.

The research utilizes data from the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys, focusing on 8,466 firms across 11 sub-Saharan African countries from 2011 to 2020. A logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess the impact of various financial sources on SMEs’ innovation outputs, particularly incremental innovations, due to data constraints on radical innovations.

The findings reveal that informal credit significantly supports SME innovation, while business group resources can hinder innovative activities by restricting firms to routine tasks. State ownership positively influences innovation, whereas the impact of foreign ownership is inconclusive. These results highlight the critical role of alternative financial mechanisms in the innovation activities of SMEs in resource-limited settings.

This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the effects of non-mainstream financial schemes on SME innovation in developing countries. It offers new theoretical insights into how SMEs navigate financial constraints to foster innovation and suggests policy implications for improving financial support systems for SMEs in such contexts. The research underscores the importance of contextualizing entrepreneurship studies to better understand the unique challenges and opportunities faced by SMEs in developing regions.

In 2020, former Major Junior hockey players filed a lawsuit against the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), its three regional affiliates and each of their teams. The statement of claim (Carcillo v. CHL, 2020) alleges rampant institutionalised and systemic abuse shaped by a toxic environment that enables abuse, discrimination and other harmful conduct to continue. In response, the CHL commissioned an independent review panel (Thériault et al., 2020) to investigate the abuse allegations. The panel concluded that the culture in the CHL has allowed abusive practices to become a cultural norm. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an understanding of player perceptions of hazing in the context of an environment that is typically understood as hypermasculine to the point of enabling abuse and the vitiation of consent. Drawing on a content analysis of affidavits from the Carcillo lawsuit as well as semi-structured qualitative interviews we conducted with former CHL players, we discuss the findings that suggest that CHL teams and leagues have often fostered a culture that can facilitate dangerous hazing practices for which consent is not always authentically obtained.

The different dimensions and contexts within which value is co-created has generated varied views of how value is understood or formed. This study aims to examine employee-guest perceived value as important factors for the successful implementation of value co-creation (VCC).

The study employs an interpretive paradigm, using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation in a qualitative design to increase understanding of employee-guest perceived value to aid the implementation of VCC at the dyadic level.

Findings highlight eight value perceptions including value for money, hotel location, physical evidence, mutual respect, appreciation, safety & security, quality & varieties of food and technological characteristics of service as important factors for the successful implementation of VCC at the dyadic level.

Generalisability of the findings is a limitation not only due to the smaller sample size but also due to industry-specific context. The study follows rigorous procedures to minimise biases, yet research limitation is acknowledged from the researcher’s participation in the research process.

The notion that actor’s assess value differently from the same service suggests that diverse service elements might be experienced differently. This study provides insights for hotel managers to recognise not only individuals’ value preferences but also service types that reflect employee-guest collective service preferences for sustainability.

This study integrates and extends extant literature by examining employees’ and guests’ individual and collective views at distinct hotel contexts to gain useful insights into value and VCC. The study proposes a framework that hospitality firms can use to address service failure and competition-related issues.

The purpose of this paper is to revisit the potential of the New Deal as a research context in management and organization studies and, in doing so, forward the role one of its chief architects, Harry Hopkins, played in managing the economic crisis. The exploration takes us to multiple layers that work together to form context around Hopkins including the Great Depression, the Roosevelt Administration, and ultimately, the New Deal. By raising Harry Hopkins as an exemplar of historical-narrative exclusion, the authors can advance the understanding of his role in the New Deal and how his actions produced early insights about management (e.g. modern crisis management).

The paper experiments with the methodological assemblage of ANTi-History and microhistorical analysis that the authors call “ANTi-Microhistory” to examine the life narrative of Harry Hopkins, his early association with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and later, the New Deal. To accomplish this, the authors undertake a programme of archival research (e.g. the digital repository of The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum) and assess various materials (e.g. speeches, biographies and memoirs) from across multiple spaces.

The findings suggest Harry Hopkins to be a much more powerful actor in mobilizing New Deal policies and their effect on early management thought than what was previously accepted. In the process, the authors found that because of durable associations with Roosevelt, key policy architects of the same ilk as Harry Hopkins (e.g. Frances Perkins, Henry Wallace, Lewis Douglas, and others) and their contributions have been marginalized. This finding illustrates the significant potential of little-known historical figures and how they might shed new insight on the development of the field and management practice.

The aim is to demonstrate the potential of engaging historical research in management with the individual – Harry Hopkins – as a unit of analysis. By engaging historical research on the individual – be it well-known or obscure figures of the past – the authors are considering how they contribute to the understanding of phenomena (e.g. New Deal, Progressivism or Keynesian economics). The authors build on research that brings to focus forgotten people, communities and ideas in management studies but go further in advocating for space in the research to consider the scholarly potential of the individual.

This article studies a court case heard by the European Court of Justice in 2008 concerning employment discrimination faced by the mother of a disabled child. This case illustrates the search for a fair balance between informal care work and employment in a market economy is a fresh perspective. The very terms of social justice must be recast for the implementation of a more caring society wherein informal caregivers must be recognized as very often constituting a socially disadvantaged group. The development of a caring society requires a more comprehensive examination of power relations between informal caregivers and care recipients or resulting from care activities. Most analyses of care activities reveal a social reality involving structurally unequal agents. Among these are informal caregivers who face situations of inequality, which will not be overcome as long as care continues to be seen through the category of dependency, unilaterally assigned to those on the receiving end of care.

This study investigated a teacher leadership program created by a partnership between a large US urban district, their teachers’ union and a university. We were part of an action-research partnership that examined the program’s implementation.

We employed a hermeneutic phenomenology methodology and mixed-method data collection methods and analysis strategies to understand the experiences of program participants. Data included interviews with program participants, union leaders and district administrators along with an analysis of projects that participants created during the program.

Teacher leadership programs were legitimized through diverse stakeholder collaboration, and involvement of a university partner was viewed as a value-add for teachers. Formalized teacher leadership programs professionalize teachers through expanding professional networks, developing leadership skills and lifting teachers’ voices. When teacher leader work is directed towards school improvement, teachers’ unique perspectives yield varied problems of practice and goals in ways that help schools address these problems.

This study has implications for districts seeking to create teacher leadership opportunities and for districts and universities seeking to partner for in-service professional learning opportunities.

This study underscores the role effective district-union-university partnerships can play in fostering pipelines for teacher leader development, which can better position school improvement efforts to be sustained over time.