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This article examines how geographic location (i.e. local or nonlocal) influences fans’ communicative convergence or distinctiveness in the context of an informal online fan community (i.e. Twitter [X]). Nonlocal fans, who live geographically distant from the team they support, derive distinctiveness and belonging from supporting a team from afar. This study considers how these needs materialize in online communication.

Text mining and textual analysis were employed to collect and evaluate tweets (N = 12,865) in terms of expressed emotion. Tweets were evaluated using the NRC VAD sentiment lexicon (i.e. valence, arousal, dominance) and then categorized based on geographic location and in-group/out-group status. The resulting groups were then analyzed with a two-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to examine how geographic location relates to the expressed emotion of tweets.

The findings indicate nonlocal fans expressed statistically greater arousal compared to local online community members, reflecting their distinctiveness as nonlocal fans. Nonlocal and local fans expressed similar degrees of valence and dominance in their language, suggesting nonlocal fans converge communication behavior, seeking social approval from the salient online fan community.

This study suggests that geographic location influences communication behavior in online fan communities. Moreover, nonlocal fans may be valuable, and underutilized, advocates for sports teams in online community settings.

Climate hazards in the form of cyclones are projected to become more intense under the pressures of future climate change. These changes represent a growing hazard to low lying coastal cities like Beira, Mozambique. In 2019, Beira experienced the devastating impact of Cyclone Idai. One of the many impacts resulting from this Cyclone was disrupted drinking water access. This investigation explores the distribution of Cyclone Idai’s impact on drinking water access via an environmental justice lens, exploring how preexisting water access characteristics may have predisposed households to the impacts of Cyclone Idai in Beria.

Relying on household survey data collected in Beira, the investigation applied a decision tree algorithm to investigate how drinking water disruption was distributed across the household survey sample using these preexisting vulnerabilities.

The investigation found that households that mainly relied upon piped water sources and experienced inconsistent access to water in the year prior to Cyclone Idai were more likely to experience disrupted drinking water access immediately after Cyclone Idai. The results indicate that residents in formal areas of Beira, largely reliant upon piped water supply, experienced higher rates of disrupted drinking water access following Cyclone Idai.

These findings question a commonly held assumption that informal areas are more vulnerable to climate hazards, like cyclones, than formal areas of a city. The findings support the inclusion of informal settlements in the design of climate change adaptation strategies.

The role of procurement managers is crucial for diffusing sustainability throughout the supply chain. Whether or not they are willing to pay for sustainability is an important and not yet fully understood question. The authors examine antecedents and consequences of their willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainability.

The authors develop a multi-level framework to examine the WTP for sustainability in a B2B context. The authors test this multi-level framework with 372 procurement managers from multiple sectors and countries using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The authors find that individual values of procurement managers and institutional pressures directly, while ethical organizational culture indirectly influence WTP for sustainability. Functional and cognitive competencies of procurement managers improve the sustainability of procurement, but not WTP for sustainability. Importantly, WTP for sustainability directly influences the performance of the procurement function which in turn is positively associated with increased organizational performance.

The study, examining the interplay between individual, organizational and contextual factors, provides empirical evidence on the pivotal role of procurement managers in diffusing sustainability throughout the supply chain. The findings of the study, on the one hand, contribute to the literature on operations management and sustainability, and on the other hand, guide policy and managerial actions.

It is important to understand how recent regulation allowing small businesses to issue equity through crowdfunding can impact investors' decision-making. One unique feature of crowdfunding presented to investors is an issuer's fundraising goal (i.e., minimum target) and how much money has currently been pledged toward that goal by other investors. However, it is unknown whether investors are sensitive to the level at which the minimum target is set, which can influence the perception of the level of support an investment has received from other investors. While holding the amount of capital pledged to an issuer constant, we conduct an experiment to examine how the minimum level of an issuer's fundraising goal impacts the likelihood of investment by investors. We predict that lower minimum goals will facilitate a perception that an issuer has strong support from other investors and will lead to a change in how investors perceive that issuer. We find that, regardless of the financial strength of the issuer, lower minimum fundraising goals lead to greater investment likelihood compared to higher minimum fundraising goals. We also find that issuers with weak financial strength tend to benefit from this effect more than stronger firms. Finally, this effect is mediated by investors' perceptions of the support of other investors in the company. The results of our study have both practical and theoretical contributions.

Transformative generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT, have revolutionized various sectors, including higher education. Since its release in November 2022, it has gathered attention from academia, scholars, students, regulators and education policymakers. Opinions diverge on whether ChatGPT’s use in academia should be circumscribed or regulated. To offer insights into some of these, this study synthesizes 139 contributions (articles and blogs) authored by instructors, publishers, professors, editors and education journalists in the education domain.

The study uses sentiment analysis and topic modelling to examine the 139 articles and blogs. Drawing on their insights, it firstly explores emotional dimensions of the content. Subsequently, using critical discourse analysis, it integrates them with emerging concerns (what and why), and explicates key processes (how) to inform academia, research, practice and policy.

Drawing on the results obtained from sentiment analysis, the study identifies that the overall sentiments surrounding generative AI tools such as ChatGPT in higher education are more positive (33%) than negative (11%). Using topic modelling, the study further highlights four thematic areas to explore benefits and challenges: perceptions and biases, pedagogical impact, ethical considerations and implementation and adoption.

Limitations include the absence of student perspectives, which may offer deeper insights into perception, pedagogical impacts, and integrity-related issues. Additionally, while findings are applicable across various domains, specialized areas may present differing insights that could refine the conclusions.

Overall, contributors acknowledge the capabilities of generative AI tools like ChatGPT in enhancing students’ productivity. The findings suggest that it is likely to offer significant gains in the education domain, providing several benefits to both teachers and students. Nevertheless, they also consider its limitations, discrimination and bias, copyright infringement, plagiarism, fabricated unauthentic textual content and assessment bias.

This paper investigates the intersectionality of entrepreneurial masculinity within the context of venture accelerators. As such, it aims to shed light on how intersecting factors influence the construction and expression of masculinity among male entrepreneurs in venture accelerators.

This research is based on an in-depth analysis of four distinct accelerator cohort groups, employing a semi-structured interview approach. Interviewees were conducted with four accelerator managers and 52 male accelerator participants across four distinct accelerator cohort groups. Such a methodological choice is deemed instrumental in unravelling the nuanced dynamics within accelerator environments and their implications on hegemonic masculinity.

This study elucidates the nuanced ways in which men navigate the venture accelerator landscape. The findings revealed that the accelerator environment facilitated the reinforcement of traditional masculine behaviours. Whilst diversity was ostensibly valued, its acceptance decreased if it posed a challenge to male dominance or stereotypical masculine traits. Indeed, there was marginalisation of nontraditional expressions of masculinity, leading to a sense of “othering”.

By integrating intersectionality theory into the examination of masculine dynamics within venture accelerator contexts, this study expands current understanding of venture accelerator environments and their effects on both traditional and nontraditional forms of hegemonic masculinity. In particular, we highlight the impact of non-intersectional institutional norms on male entrepreneurs who deviate from traditional stereotypes. As such, we advance the understanding of venture accelerators by examining how they perpetuate and reinforce traditional masculine norms, even in environments that strive for diversity.

This study aims to examine the mediating role of audit seasonality on the association between audit fees and audit quality in Nigerian deposit money banks.

The sample comprises 14 banks with annual financial statements between 2008 and 2020. The modified Baron and Kenny’s (1986) causal mediation model by Iacobucci et al. (2007) through the use of bootstrapped partial least square structural equation modelling and Sobel’s (1986) z-test is adopted to achieve this study’s objective.

The results of the causal mediation analysis show evidence of a fully mediating role of c between audit fees and audit quality in the Nigerian banking industry.

This study extends the body of knowledge by demonstrating how audit fees influence audit quality through audit seasonality as a mediator in line with the job demands-and resources and conservation of resources theories. Regulatory authorities should be wary of policies that will further increase the workload of already burdened personnel of audit firms as the uniform fiscal year-end of 31 December introduced in the Nigerian banking system has unintended consequences on audit fees and audit quality.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is one of the first studies to provide evidence on the indirect association between audit fees and audit quality.

Researchers have studied supervisors’ proactive personality in its relationship with employees’ attitudes. However, little attention has been given to how employees react to instances of supervisors’ proactive behavior. Drawing from P-E fit theory, we propose that the relationship between supervisor weekly taking charge behavior (TCB, the quintessential proactive behavior) and employees’ weekly job attitudes depends on employees’ proactive personality.

Utilizing a diary study, we investigate how employees’ proactive personality moderates the within-person relationship between supervisor TCB and employees’ attitudes (measured as job satisfaction and affective commitment). We surveyed 39 employees ten times over ten weeks.

Multi-level analyses partially supported our predictions on the differential effects of weekly supervisor TCB on employees’ job attitudes. Supervisors’ above-average TCB was significantly related to higher levels of employees’ job satisfaction and marginally related to affective commitment for employees with high proactive personality, but not for those with low proactive personality. Supplemental analyses revealed that our results are unique to supervisor TCB and not to supervisor helping behavior.

Our study is among the first to utilize a dynamic approach to understand the consequences of supervisors’ proactive work behavior in the context of P-E fit research. Our findings will open several fruitful avenues for future research that continue to understand the powerful effects of supervisors’ proactivity.