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This paper aims to analyze variations in the parameters of the market share–rank power law across consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories.

The authors use a two-level hierarchical linear model to examine the relationships between category-level variables and the parameters of the market share–rank power law in 790 CPG categories.

The slope of the market share–rank power law is shallower – indicating more equal market shares – in categories of high importance to retailers and those with high levels of promotional activity or high-volume purchases. Higher levels of market share inequality are associated with categories with high overall prices.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research to show the systematic influence of category characteristics on the relationship between brands’ market shares and their ranks, thus, identifying a key moderator for this important empirical generalization in marketing.

While market leadership may be a desirable goal for many brands, the corresponding market share at the top brand does vary. Moreover, the share premium for being number one in the category (gap between the top and other highly ranked brands) can be greatly affected by retailers’ strategies. In addition, the slope of the power law has desirable qualities as a measure of market concentration. However, the empirical study shows that category characteristics must be considered when analyzing differences in concentration across categories or time.

While other studies document variations in the market share–rank power law relationship, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first that models these variations as a function of observable category characteristics. The comprehensive nature of the data demonstrates the universality of the market share–rank power law relationship across CPG categories in the USA.

The authors study and compare the effects of three CEO compensation restricting policies issued by the Chinese government in 2009, 2012 and 2015. This paper aims to shed light on the conditions under which CEO compenstation can be effectively regulated without negatively affecting firm performance.

These policies targeted state-owned enterprises (SOEs), especially central state-owned enterprises (CSOEs). Using these policies as natural experiments, the authors investigate how their effects differ on CEO compensation, firm performance and two known performance-decreasing mechanisms: perk consumption and tunneling activities.

The authors show that restricting CEO pay does not necessarily backfire in terms of deteriorating firm performance. This non-decreasing firm performance can be achieved by restricting perk consumption and tunneling activities while introducing CEO pay regulations.

The authors exploit a powerful experimental setting in the context of China. The evidence contributes to the literature on CEO pay regulations and is relevant to the managerial decisions of policy makers and boards of directors.

This study aims to explore the influence of external factors and the characteristics of young Indian consumers on their behavioral intention toward fashion clothing rental (FCR), using the theory of reasoned action (TRA) as a theoretical framework.

This study used quantitative research methods, collecting data from 396 Indian participants, and tested the proposed hypotheses using PLS-structural equation modeling.

The results indicated that young Indian consumers' favorable attitudes toward FCR are mainly driven by perceived usefulness, novelty-seeking, fashion orientation, narcissism and environmental consciousness. These drivers, together with subjective norms, further lead to their intention to rent fashion clothing. This study also found that perceived risk has a negative impact on consumers' attitudes toward FCR, but minimalism does not significantly affect consumer attitudes.

By integrating additional constructs into traditional TRA, this study contributes to existing literature and provides insight for fashion retailers on the role of consumer characteristics in the adoption of FCR in emerging markets.

In the course of worldwide COVID-19, the phenomenon of corporate social responsibility (CSR) gained more importance and publicity. Many organizations made a significant contribution in dealing with the crisis situation and even increased their spending on the welfare activities. This study aims to evaluate the attitude of community, especially young generation, towards the CSR undertaken by the organization during the pandemic period.

Descriptive research design has been employed using purposive sampling for data collection through a structured questionnaire. A sample of 550 was taken, and pilot survey was conducted among 100 respondents before administering it at full scale. A model has been proposed and tested by using structural equation modelling in AMOS.

The results of the study show that compulsory provisions of CSR have enhanced the trust of community and made the organizations more responsive towards philanthropic, legal, ethical and economic responsibility. The respondents were found to be aware about the welfare activities carried out by the organizations and developed a positive attitude towards them.

First, the study is limited to examining the attitude of community towards CSR, especially young generation. Second, it is difficult to say whether outcomes of this study can be generalized for such other potential global crisis. Third, the study is based on the Carroll’s “CSR Pyramid” framework when other such frameworks and approaches could be available to analyse the impact of COVID-19-related CSR initiatives. Last, this study has been conducted only in the state of Maharashtra, and results may not be applicable to other states as well other countries.

The findings of the study may help the organizations to plan their activities in line with the amendments made time to time. This shall also help the regulating agencies to monitor and catch the wrongdoers and take appropriate action. Findings of such studies, based on public opinion, can also help the governments to make further amendments, time to time, in related acts. It can also be said that with the involvement of public/society, more transparency can be brought in the functioning of the organizations, especially in the context of CSR.

Earlier, most of the organizations were falsely recording the CSR expenditure in their balance sheets without actually spending it, but the amendment in act has made it compulsory for the organizations to follow it honestly. The pandemic period gave an opportunity to the society to evaluate the organizations on these parameters and to make their opinion about them in real time. Therefore, it is concluded that pandemic has created awareness in the society and significantly influenced their attitude about CSR activities. This shall also help the organizations feel a pressure in future while planning and implementing the activities under CSR.

The results of the study show contribution of the corporate towards social welfare during pandemic. The results would help the policymakers to monitor the execution of practices more closely and organizations to execute their strategies in a more effective manner.

This research aims to examine how decision-makers’ demographic traits affect the integration of foreign workforce into Tirolean (Austria) companies. With continuous world migrations, Tirol experiences a great inflow of foreign workforce. While integrating into the workforce, the foreign workers interact with various decision-makers whose demographic traits (e.g., age, gender, nationality) potentially influence the success of the integration process. To gather data on the integration levels of a foreign workforce, the author conducted a questionnaire. Furthermore, several statistical analyses were run to determine if the relationship between demographic characteristics and integration success exists. The study reveals that demographic characteristics influence decision-makers’ acceptance of expatriates, as well as their recruitment, integration, and training and development outcomes. The empirical results indicate the strength of relationships identified through analyses. The study is limited to geographical, as well as the scope of the sample size, as the data are obtained from Tirol only. In addition, the results from the study serve as a basis for future discussions and research.

This chapter explores the impact of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), Sustainable Orientation (SO), and Human Resource Orientation (HRO) – the key dimensions of the strategic posture known as Humane Entrepreneurship – on the success of 142 equity crowdfunding campaigns hosted on the US-based platform WeFunder. Utilizing text analysis in conjunction with fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, a configurational research method, the study identifies diverse combinations of these dimensions that lead to successful funding outcomes. The analysis, encompassing both minimum and maximum funding targets and supplemented by robustness tests, indicates that successful equity crowdfunding campaigns are characterized by pitches displaying high levels of autonomy, innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking, with a lesser focus on competitive aggressiveness. It is also observed that campaigns emphasizing HRO consistently achieve their fundraising goals, independent of the funding target set. Notably, a startup’s SO does not seem to significantly influence campaign success within the equity crowdfunding context.

Railways are a well-known example of complex critical infrastructure, incorporating socio-technical systems with humans such as drivers, signallers, maintainers and passengers at the core. The technological evolution including interconnectedness and new ways of interaction lead to new security and safety risks that can be realised, both in terms of human error, and malicious and non-malicious behaviour. This study aims to identify the human factors (HF) and cyber-security risks relating to the role of signallers on the railways and explores strategies for the improvement of “Digital Resilience” – for the concept of a resilient railway.

Overall, 26 interviews were conducted with 21 participants from industry and academia.

The results showed that due to increased automation, both cyber-related threats and human error can impact signallers’ day-to-day operations – directly or indirectly (e.g. workload and safety-critical communications) – which could disrupt the railway services and potentially lead to safety-related catastrophic consequences. This study identifies cyber-related problems, including external threats; engineers not considering the human element in designs when specifying security controls; lack of security awareness among the rail industry; training gaps; organisational issues; and many unknown “unknowns”.

The authors discuss socio-technical principles through a hexagonal socio-technical framework and training needs analysis to mitigate against cyber-security issues and identify the predictive training needs of the signallers. This is supported by a systematic approach which considers both, safety and security factors, rather than waiting to learn from a cyber-attack retrospectively.

This study investigates the role of environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies in enhancing the resilience of Chinese firms during the COVID-19 crisis. By analyzing data from over 3,069 publicly listed companies, the research aims to elucidate the impact of robust ESG practices on stock market performance and operational outcomes during economic disruptions.

Using a dataset comprising ESG scores and financial performance metrics of Chinese firms, we conduct an empirical analysis to assess the correlation between ESG practices and corporate resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study focuses on evaluating the individual contributions of the social and governance components to overall firm performance.

The analysis reveals that firms with higher ESG scores, especially in social and governance aspects, exhibit superior stock market performance and operational outcomes during the pandemic. Companies with strong governance mechanisms demonstrate more pronounced benefits, including better long-term sales growth and return on equity (ROE). The findings highlight the critical role of ESG policies in ensuring corporate stability and competitive advantage during crises.

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the impact of corporate ESG ratings on corporate trust and offers a detailed discussion on the protective role of ESG/CSR on firm value during crises, thus providing an original literature contribution.