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Firms are advocating for social change to a growing extent, but the performance implications of corporate activism are not clearly understood. This study aims to introduce social nonmarket strategy (SNMS) as a goal-directed form of corporate activism, explore whether such strategy harms corporate financial performance (CFP), and assess the buffering potential of effective market-based strategy and good standing with stakeholders.

A reflective measurement model and all hypothesized relationships were tested using consistent partial least squares structural equation modeling on a data set of 202 US-based small, medium, and large manufacturing and service firms.

SNMS is positively related to good standing with stakeholders but negatively related to CFP. By contrast, a higher market strategy (MS) is positively associated with both stakeholder performance and CFP. MS and stakeholder performance buffer but do not fully neutralize the adverse financial effect of SNMS.

Firms undertaking SNMS face serious risks. However, effective MS and higher levels of stakeholder performance can buffer but not fully neutralize the adverse financial effect of SNMS.

This research introduces SNMS as a goal-directed form of corporate activism, establishes the conflicting performance effects of such strategy and estimates the buffering potential of MS and stakeholder performance.

Reporting on triple bottom line (TBL) practices has emerged as an essential aspect in banking sector due to evolving social and environmental concerns. Engaging in social and environmental activities is a strategic means to uphold dynamic alliances with stakeholders and eventually attain sustainable development. Furthermore, perception towards social and environmental practices is strategic to satisfy stakeholders’ interests. This paper aims to examine managers’ perception about reporting on social-environmental performance and its impact on financial performance (FP) in Indian banking sector. Research further assesses moderating effect of gender and experience in influencing the relationship between the constructs and also determines importance and performance of the constructs.

A well-structured questionnaire was distributed to 400 bank managers across India’s public, private, regional-rural, foreign and cooperative banks. The collected data were analysed through Smart PLS structural equation modelling. The moderating effect of demographics of bank managers in influencing the relationship was assessed using PLS-multi-group analysis (MGA). Besides, importance performance map analysis (IPMA) was used to understand the importance and performance of the constructs.

Findings indicate that bank managers believe that social and environmental activities strengthen relations between banks and stakeholders, resulting in better FP, thereby endorsing the stakeholder theory. Results of MGA suggest that gender and experience of bank managers are not effectual moderators in determining relationship between the constructs. Using IPMA, findings advocate that managers perceive environmental performance as a relatively high performance and a more important construct in influencing FP than social performance.

Research would pave the way for banks to effectively communicate their commitment to sustainable development goals, engage stakeholders and demonstrate their commitment to creating positive social and environmental impacts. Furthermore, managerial perceptions can have a marked effect on customers’ understanding of social and environmental practices. This may influence customer satisfaction, conviction, commitment and constancy. Besides, a better understanding of the performance on social and environmental aspects over and above the FP of banks would facilitate the investors to make more informed and effectual decisions.

Considering the paucity of studies on the managerial perception of social and environmental activities and determining how the perception affects financial success, this study makes significant contribution to the literature. It would facilitate banks to design appropriate strategies and legislations to incorporate reporting on TBL practices for improved performance analysis. This would eventually ensure profitability along with sustainability in the Indian banking sector.

Providing high-quality service for airline companies cannot be overstated, as it directly impacts their survival and competitiveness. Hence, there is an increasing need to measure loyalty in the air transport industry. Loyal customers are highly valued as they are less price-sensitive and require minimal communication efforts. Despite this, there is limited knowledge about the factors that influence a passenger’s level of loyalty towards an airline company. Therefore, understanding the precursors of loyalty is essential. This research investigates the serial mediation effect of consumer brand identification (CBI) and perceived value on the relationship between service quality and loyalty.

In this research, quality is related to loyalty through value and CBI. A conclusive research design was adopted to determine whether value and CBI have a serial mediating effect on the quality-loyalty link. The research framework includes a three-path mediation model.

Based on the analysis of 406 questionnaires, the study concludes that a serial mediation effect of CBI and perceived value on the quality-loyalty relationship exists. The research results indicate that CBI has a greater influence on improving customer loyalty than perceived value.

This study contributes to limited research on the serial mediating effect of value and CBI in the quality-loyalty relationship. It also provides empirical evidence on the determinants of loyalty as part of the Turkish aviation industry. This study highlights the significance of CBI as a critical factor for airlines to maintain their competitiveness in the market.

Extant studies in entrepreneurship have explored factors that influence the birth and growth of start-up firms; however, there appears to be a dearth of studies examining the influence of founders' ambidextrous orientation on start-ups' success, especially their speed of attaining the coveted status of a “unicorn start-up” – which is considered a mega success in practice. This study examines whether and how founding teams’ collective ambidextrous orientation influences their respective start-ups’ pace of becoming a “unicorn”.

This study empirically analyses 220 interviews by the founders of 83 Indian unicorns in examining the influence of the founding teams’ collective exploration-exploitation capability on their firms' speed to achieve the “unicorn” status. The Cox Hazard model was used to test the hypothesized relationships, and linear ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was used to test the robustness of the results.

The authors find a strong positive relationship between founding teams’ ambidextrous skills and the speed of becoming a unicorn. The study results suggest that the founding teams’ collective exploratory skills may be more influential in their start-up’s speed to unicorn status vis-à-vis their exploitative skills.

This study finds that the founding teams’ ambidextrous orientation and exploratory skills accelerate their start-up’s speed to becoming a unicorn, contributing to the academic discourse on the “unicorn” phenomenon, which is widely acknowledged as a grand success status for start-ups—especially technology and venture capital funded start-ups—among the practitioners. This study contributes to the academic discourse on firm capabilities and founding-team-related antecedents of start-up success by raising a new dimension of the founding team’s ambidextrous orientation.

Based on the job demands-resources theory, the objective of the current research is to investigate the influence of contextual (i.e. change information), as well as, personal (i.e. meaning-making) change resources on the perceived change uncertainty (PCU) and employee burnout (i.e. emotional exhaustion, cynicism, professional efficacy) relationship.

The paper examines (1) whether PCU is related to burnout, (2) the extent to which change information and meaning-making are directly associated with burnout and (3) whether change information and meaning-making moderate the relationship between PCU and employee burnout. The research data were collected (in three sequential phases) from 293 employees of a group of Luxury Hotels and Resorts located in Southern Greece that has undergone a major cultural change.

The research findings suggest that change information is related to exhaustion and cynicism, as well as, that meaning-making is directly related to all of the burnout components. Change information buffered the negative relationship between PCU and exhaustion and between PCU and cynicism. Meaning-making moderated the negative relationship between PCU and exhaustion.

The results support that leaders and managers will benefit significantly if they realize how important is to ensure that these change resources (i.e. change information and meaning-making) are in place during organizational changes and constantly evaluate the factors that can increase their employees’ well-being.

The originality of this study lies in the finding that change information moderated the negative relationship between PCU and exhaustion, as well as, PCU and cynicism; and that meaning-making moderated the negative relationship between PCU and exhaustion. Further, the study refers to the Greek tourism industry (9th in the word in terms of international tourist arrivals) which plays a pivotal role to the Greek economy. Finally, the research findings contribute to the uncertainty reduction theory, as well as, other related notions.

Restaurant and foodservice workers who were formally “essential” throughout the global pandemic were disproportionately subjected to layoffs and furloughs, and are now slowly returning to the industry with expectations of equitable pay and benefits. Given the recent acceleration of the UN’s Sustainability Development Goals and its focus on decent work, the purpose of this study was to determine if restaurant consumers would be willing to pay for decent work that supported the social sustainability of restaurant workers.

Data were collected from 317 restaurant consumers during August 2023. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the Decent Work Scale adapted for consumers. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the full behavioral model of decent work predicting willingness to pay, while bootstrapping was used to test the mediation.

The adapted Decent Work Scale for consumers strongly predicted their willingness to pay through a full mediation of Theory of Planned Behavior constructs (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control).

This study demonstrated that restaurant consumers were willing to pay for the decent work and social sustainability of restaurant workers. This study validated an adapted Decent Work Scale in the consumer context, whereas prior research utilizing the scale was of worker self-reports of decent work.