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Despite growing interest in smart sustainable city models, empirical evidence on progress, public perceptions and major adoption obstacles remains sparse. This study aims to assess the readiness of the world’s largest urban agglomerations, including megacities and metacities, to transition towards smarter and more sustainable models, while also exploring the primary challenges and obstacles to this transformation.

Drawing from pragmatism as a theoretical standpoint, a mixed methodology utilizing an online survey as an instrument of exploration was employed to investigate the perspectives of 400 residents of large urban centers globally regarding their city’s readiness to transition towards a smart sustainable city model.

Participants prioritize sustainability over intelligence, focusing on quality of life, environmental benefits and resource efficiency in smart sustainable city initiatives. Key considerations include sustainable urban planning, resource management and smart buildings. Challenges persist in energy management, waste reduction, economic development and education. While policies support sustainability, gaps remain in education, political will, funding, collaboration and technology infrastructure. The study highlights a global trend towards smarter, more sustainable cities and a strong correlation between participants' prioritization of sustainability and their commitment to sustainable practices.

By exploring residents’ viewpoints, priorities and aspirations, this research provides empirical evidence for decision-makers, urbanists and others involved in shaping future cities.

This research contributes to urban studies by exploring the emerging trend towards smart sustainable cities, aligning with perspectives from futurists and urban theorists. Future research should focus on predictive analysis and enhancing collaboration across government, private sector and civil society to accelerate this transformative process.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the legal barriers to termination of an insurance arrangement where there is suspicion of money laundering when paying insurance premiums.

Trials in court between insurance firm and outlaw biker gangs regarding insurance of their clubhouses.

Protection of insured seems more important than prevention of money laundering.

This is a case study that cannot be generalized.

Anti money laundering is difficult when competing with other considerations.

Accusations of money laundering is not sufficient to terminate an insurance contract. Rather, solid evidence is needed.

This is a real case of failing anti-money laundering efforts.

The extensive brand associations research lacks organisation when it comes to the used information cues. This paper aims to systematically map and categorise the brand knowledge associations’ components and develop a typology applicable to any brand.

Using the restaurant and hotel industries in four different European cultural clusters as contexts, this work uses well-established systematic qualitative analysis approaches to categorise, code and model pictorial content in two studies. A four-stage sampling process identified Instagram brand-posted signals (photos), 243 from 26 restaurants in Madrid, Paris and Rome for study one and 390 from 29 hotels in Moscow, Berlin and Stockholm for study two. Adhering to relevant guidelines, the manual coding procedures progressed from 246 for restaurants and 231 for hotels initially generated free information coding inductive codes to a theory-informed categorisation. Quantitative analysis complemented the qualitative analysis, revealing the information cues relative utilisation.

For both studies, the analysis produced a typology consisting of two high-level and five lower-level brand knowledge association categories, namely: (a) brand characteristics consisting of the brand as a symbol, the brand as a product and the brand as a person, and (b) brand imagery consisting of user imagery and experience imagery. The five lower-level categories comprise of sub-categories and dimensions, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the brand associations conceptual structure relevant to brands operating in any industry.

Researchers can use this typology to holistically encapsulate brand associations or design projects aiming to deepen brand knowledge association aspects/dimensions understanding.

Managers can use this typology to portray brands. Some of the identified lower-level categories and/or sub-categories and dimensions are likely to need customisation to fit specific contexts.

The suggested categorisation offers a solid, comprehensive framework for effectively categorising and coding brand knowledge associations and proposes a new theory in the form of a typology.

This paper investigates how stockist brand equity is created in the unorganized pharma retail sector in emerging markets despite the absence of any proactive brand-building efforts by distribution firms (stockists). In addition, this study also aims to unravel the sources of stockist brand equity.

Drawing from grounded theory, a qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews was conducted, and a theoretical saturation approach was used for this purpose. The retailer–stockist (business-to-business [B2B]) relationship in the Indian pharmaceutical market context was used as the study context.

The findings show that in the absence of any brand-building activities, stockists’ sales representatives play an important role in creating stockist brand awareness. In addition, word of mouth from other retailers also plays a minor role. Rational and emotional brand associations which are strong, favorable and unique are created 1) directly by the services provided by stockists, which includes product availability, deliverability, accuracy in billing and batch numbers, credit facilities and discounts, handling issues such as product expiry, and 2) indirectly by the services provided by stockists’ sales representatives which includes their frequency of visits, proactive customer orientation rather than sales orientation, fulfilling commitments and relationship with retailers. The strength of the retailer–stockist (B2B) relationship also depends on retailer-driven factors and other external factors discussed in this study.

Strong stockist brand equity helps build trust and loyalty with pharmacies, ensuring a consistent and timely supply of medicinal products, which will benefit their end consumers or society.

This study identifies the antecedents determining the strength of the retailer–stockist (B2B) relationship, a precursor for establishing retailer-based stockist brand equity in the unorganized sector. This study also highlights the consequences of establishing strong retailer-based stockist brand equity.

This study aims to investigate the complex dynamics of sports sponsorship within the context of mixed martial arts (MMA). Specifically, it explores how audience attitudes toward MMA influence their perceptions of players and sponsors, and subsequently, how these attitudes affect brand perceptions and purchase intentions. Furthermore, this research examines the moderating effect of fans' attitudes toward MMA on the relationship between their attitudes toward sponsors and their purchase intentions. MMA was selected as the focus of this study due to its propensity to evoke more intense emotional responses than other sports, as evidenced by previous research.

Study 1 was conducted to systematically assess the emotional responses elicited by MMA. This preliminary study involved 277 participants. Building on the findings from Study 1, Study 2 employed an online survey to investigate the relationships among various constructs related to MMA. This survey was facilitated through an external portal and included a sample of 459 participants residing in the United States. The constructs measured in this survey were attitudes toward the player (ATP), attitudes toward the sponsor (ATS), perception of brand quality (PBQ), purchase intention (ITP) and attitudes toward mixed martial arts (ATM).

The study reveals that respondents rated MMA the most negatively among the analyzed sports, with the highest standard deviation, indicating that MMA evokes extreme emotional responses. The findings confirm that attitudes toward the player positively influence attitudes toward the sponsor, aligning with sponsorship-linked marketing theory. Moreover, positive attitudes toward the player were found to enhance perceptions of the sponsor’s brand quality. The research further demonstrated that attitudes toward the sponsor and perceptions of brand quality mediate the relationship between attitudes toward the player and purchase intentions, underscoring the complex nature of consumer decision-making in MMA sponsorship.

This research provides novel insights into the critical role of audience engagement and personal connection with sports in formulating effective sponsorship strategies. It emphasizes the need for marketers to tailor their approaches to align with the sport’s personal significance to the audience, employing narratives that resonate with their identities and values. Enhancing player-sponsor associations through co-branded campaigns and endorsements is essential. Furthermore, consistently maintaining high product quality and fostering emotional connections with the sport are key strategies to drive increased purchase intentions.

The purpose of this paper is to find out the possible gaps in the Sharīʿah governance, and suggest how to fill the same, in line with the principles of Islamic finance and the global developments regarding social and value-based financial intermediation.

The paper uses secondary data gathered through analysis of documents and regulations to portray the current Sharīʿah governance framework and to suggest a unique paradigm to be adopted by the regulators of Islamic financial institutions.

The paradigm encompassing value-oriented financial ecosystem would need a comprehensive set of discipline, accountability and governance for making the pursuit of sustainable development goals and corporate social responsibilities effective in a well-defined schedule prepared and implemented by the regulators.

The scope of this research is limited to theory building in the light of emerging trends in responsible and social finance. It is not to empirically test the impact of the governance framework in terms of social justice, corporate responsibility and sustainability.

It would help the policy makers, regulators, researchers and the practitioners in finance to align banking and finance with social and environmental responsibility, and equity through governance and accountability for realizing the sustainable development goals.

It links the regulatory approaches to the emerging paradigm and ecosystem comprising sustainability and value-based governance, awareness and corporate social responsibility.

The paper adds value to the current regulatory frameworks enabling the Islamic financial institutions to realize the economic, social and sustainability objectives, in addition to Shariah legitimacy and enhanced credibility.

Sustainable human resource management (SuHRM), which aims to achieve positive environmental, social and economic outcomes at the same time, has gained prominence across industries. However, the challenges of implementing SuHRM across industries are largely under-studied. The purpose of this study is to identify the grey areas in the field of SuHRM by using an unsupervised learning algorithm on the abstracts of 607 papers published in prominent journals from 1995 to 2023. Most of the articles have been published post-2018.

The analysis of the data (abstracts of the selected articles) has been done using topic modelling via latent Dirichlet algorithm (LDA).

The output from topic modelling-LDA reveals nine primary focus areas of SuHRM research – the link between SuHRM and employee well-being; job satisfaction; challenges of implementing SuHRM; exploring new horizons in SuHRM; reaping the benefits of using SuHRM as a strategic tool; green HRM practices; link between SuHRM and organisational performance; link between corporate social responsible and HRM.

The insights gained from this study along with the discussions on each topic will be extremely beneficial for researchers, academicians, journal editors and practitioners to channelise their research focus. No other study has used a smart algorithm to identify the research clusters of SuHRM.

By utilizing topic modeling techniques, the study offers a novel approach to analyzing and understanding trends and patterns in HRM research related to sustainability. The significance of the paper would be in its potential to shed light on emerging areas of interest and provide valuable implications for future research and practice in Sustainable HRM.

Organizations use innovations and respond to external pressures, creating a transition to the sociotechnical system. In their transitions, they interact with the environment and undergo adaptation-selection. The extant literature used a multilevel perspective (MLP) with a structural view and examined dynamics and transitions (phenomena) in a noninterventionistic setting. This study aims to examine the dynamics and phenomena with a microstructural or functional view and expand the MLP; this paper uses neo-institutionalism and human values as part of the functional view. Moreover, when the authors examine the phenomena in an interventionistic setting, they can obtain certain unique dynamics and their influence on the phenomena.

The authors need to examine the phenomena in its setting, so this paper selected a case study, Indian electricity generation. For diverse heuristic and analytic views, it selected two Indian states.

The findings from the functional view showed that organizations exhibit certain traits of neo-institutionalism and human values, which mediate their responses (behavior) to external pressures. Additionally, due to the interventionist state, their dynamics use shaping instead of selection logic for innovations, which decides the transition pathway selection (technology adoption). It further decided the extent to which innovations cumulate as stable designs. As a result, the responses and the transition provide benefits in the short term while invariably failing in the long term.

By selecting cases with higher investments in renewable energies and combustible fuels, the authors can expand the functional view to include user typologies such as producers, intermediaries and citizen groups and obtain further insights into transitions.

The study highlights the generation dynamics specific to Indian electricity generation and its transition pathways. The study’s outcome provides insights to researchers and practitioners in formulating policy changes and transforming electricity generation.

The study uses a functional view comprising neo-institutionalism and human values and expands the sociotechnical transition theory. In addition, selecting an interventionist setting provided insights into dynamics specific to organizational behavior and associated services. Finally, the obtained insights offer suggestions for technology development to better manage transitions with adaptation-selection.

This research aims to analyse the perceptions of practitioners in three regions regarding the challenges faced by their firms during the pandemic, considered a black-swan event. It examines the strategies implemented to mitigate and recover from risks, evaluates the effectiveness of these strategies and assesses the difficulties encountered in their implementation.

In the summer of 2022, an online survey was conducted among supply chain (SC) practitioners in France, Poland and the St. Louis, Missouri region of the USA. The survey aimed to understand the impact of COVID-19 on their firms and the SC strategies employed to sustain operations. These regions were selected due to their varying levels of SC development, including infrastructure, economic resources and expertise. Moreover, they exhibited different responses in safeguarding the well-being of their citizens during the pandemic.

The study reveals consistent perceptions among practitioners from the three regions regarding the impact of COVID-19 on SCs. Their actions to enhance SC resilience primarily relied on strengthening collaborative efforts within their firms and SCs, thus validating the tenets of the relational view.

COVID-19 is (hopefully) our black-swan pandemic occurrence during our lifetime. Nevertheless, the lessons learned from it can inform future SC risk management practices, particularly in dealing with rare crises. During times of crisis, leveraging existing SC structures may prove more effective and efficient than developing new ones. These findings underscore the significance of relationships in ensuring SC resilience.

The study aims to investigate the relationship between certain key attributes of the board of directors as their international experience, tenure, age, independence and size and internationalization strategies of firms in an emerging economy.

The study uses random effects panel Tobit regression on a data set of 418 Indian companies spanning over a time frame of nine years from fiscal year (F.Y.) 2009–2010 to F.Y. 2017–2018.

Board members substantially associate with internationalization choices of emerging economy firms. Specifically, board members with extensive international experience, shorter tenure, higher age, greater independence and larger board size are associated with high level of internationalization in these firms.

The study advocates that Indian companies should focus on recruiting board members with international experience, periodically refreshing their boards, valuing wisdom and experience, adhering to regulatory requirements of independent directors and increase the number of board members to expand internationally. By following this, Indian companies can successfully expand into international markets.

The study’s originality lies in its focus on the role of board members in the internationalization strategy of emerging economy firms, which remains an under-researched area.