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This paper explores the precedents for purchasing to contribute effectively to innovation exploration. We investigate how purchasing can become aware of innovation opportunities, their incentives or motivations to explore and capture innovation and the required capabilities.

Aiming for theory elaboration, we analyse an exemplar case study of a company developing leading-edge practices for involving purchasing in innovation exploration applying an Awareness-Motivation-Capability (AMC) framework.

This study elaborates on purchasing theory with a comprehensive set of AMC-based precedents for purchasing’s innovation exploration contribution that we categorise into three dimensions: motivations, capabilities and awareness. Our findings indicate interrelations between these and purchasing motivation as a precedent of capabilities and awareness.

We demonstrate the useful of applying AMC theory to researching purchasing’s contribution to innovation and how AMC needs to be adapted in this research context. We explore interrelations between awareness, motivation and capabilities but propose future research on the nature of these interrelations.

We suggest ways for managers to shape, adapt or redesign their purchasing organisations to better support innovation exploration.

This study proposes a framework for purchasing contribution to innovation based on AMC theory.

Tolerance to ambiguity (TOLA) is a personal trait influencing one’s comfort and proficiency in navigating uncertain situations. While the concept of role ambiguity is well-established in sales literature, the broader trait of ambiguity has been largely overlooked in this context. In the dynamic landscape of modern business, uncertainty is a regular phenomenon, and navigating ambiguity is an invaluable skill. While salespeople are celebrated for their customer focus, negotiation skills and product knowledge, their capacity to embrace ambiguity-a skill that could be an important contributor to their success in the diverse global market is rarely studied. This study contributes by linking a salesperson’s TOLA and two well-established dimensions of emotional intelligence to adaptive selling behavior. Using responses from a sample of 209 employees of financial institutions in a large metropolitan city in India, this study shows that TOLA, understanding others' emotions and regulation of emotions positively influence a salesperson’s adaptive selling behavior. Further, results also point out that TOLA moderates the relationship between understanding other emotions and adaptive selling. To our knowledge, this is the first study that has explored the link between these two important skills of salespeople, thus extending TOLA as a critical construct to the sales field. Managerial implications and directions for future research are provided.

Using responses from a sample of 209 employees of financial institutions, a model was tested using structural equation modeling. A measurement model was used to assess the validity of the scales used in the study. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted using AMOS 28 with the scale items for understanding other’s emotions (UOE), regulation of emotions (ROE), adaptive selling behavior (ADPS), job performance (JOBP) and three mean-centered dimensions of the TOLA scale. A structural equation model was run using AMOS 28 to test the relationships among variables.

The study results show that TOLA has a strong positive relationship with adaptive selling. Further, results show that TOLA acts as a moderator in the relationship between understanding others’ emotions, a fact of emotional intelligence and adaptive selling behavior.

To our knowledge this is the first study that explored the link between TOLA and adaptive selling, a critical predictor of sales performance. While the concept of role ambiguity is well-established in sales literature, the broader trait of ambiguity has been largely overlooked in this context. By establishing the link between these two important skills of salespeople, this study extends the concept of TOLA as a critical construct to the sales field.

Study results validate the important role of TOLA on salesperson’s ability to use adaptive selling behavior which is critical for sales performance. This study highlights the different ways sales professionals who possess a high TOLA can benefit. Field sales managers can play a crucial role in fostering a TOLA culture in the sale team and help leverage the relationship between TOLA, emotional intelligence and adaptive selling. By integrating qualities of TOLA into recruitment and training, managers can create a sales team that is not only effective in navigating uncertainties and thrive in dynamic and competitive business environments.

In sales settings, the concept of role ambiguity is well-established, but the broader trait of ambiguity has been largely overlooked and has rarely been part of sales research. A recent review of 15 studies on TOLA shows that almost all the studies used student samples and only a handful of them were done in organizational or sales settings. The current study aims to fill the gap in sales research by exploring how TOLA influences adaptive selling, one of the critical constructs in sales research.

The purpose of this study is to map the intellectual structure of sustainable finance and accounting (SFA) literature by identifying the influential aspects, main research streams and future research directions in SFA.

The results are obtained using bibliometric citation analysis and content analysis to conduct a bibliometric review of the intersection of sustainable finance and sustainable accounting using a sample of 795 articles published between 1991 and November 2023.

The most influential factors in the SFA literature are identified, highlighting three primary areas of research: corporate social responsibility and environmental disclosure; financial and economic performance; and regulations and standards.

SFA has experienced rapid development in recent years. The results identify the current research domain, guide potential future research directions, serve as a reference for SFA and provide inspiration to policymakers.

SFA typically encompasses sustainable corporate business practices and investments. This study contributes to broader social impacts by promoting improved corporate practices and sustainability.

This study expands on previous research on SFA. The authors identify significant aspects of the SFA literature, such as the most studied nations, leading journals, authors and trending publications. In addition, the authors provide an overview of the three major streams of the SFA literature and propose various potential future research directions, inspiring both academic research and policymaking.

This study aims to examine the concurrent influence of parental stress, executive functions and communication skills on challenging behaviors in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). These behaviors are frequently exhibited by children with ASD and can be attributed to a variety of factors, including the child’s environment and their own level of development.

The current investigation was cross-sectional. Based on the inclusion criteria, 74 children with ASD were chosen, including those aged 4–7 years and 11 months, those with a moderate level of ASD and those without medical conditions or accompanying issues. Convenience sampling was implemented.

In children with ASD, challenging behaviors were observed to be significantly correlated with all three factors of parental stress, executive functions and communication skills (p < 0.05). Additionally, the executive functions were the most effective predictor of the frequency of challenging behaviors in these children. Furthermore, parental stress was the most effective predictor of the severity of challenging behaviors.

In previous research, the examination of the concurrent impact of factors that influence challenging behaviors demonstrated by children with ASD was restricted to the child’s level (executive functions and communication skills), whereas environmental factors such as parental stress were disregarded. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research to look at the concurrent influence of three crucial factors: parental stress, executive functioning and communication abilities on challenging behaviors in children with ASD. The findings suggest that interventions targeting challenging behaviors in children with ASD may benefit from addressing the child’s executive function difficulties and parental stress.

While the efforts at the curriculum level to promote sustainability and resilience have been increasing, it is critical to determine effective approaches to advance the awareness of social equity of the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) students in such a context. This study aims to explore AEC students’ awareness and perception of societal inequalities within resilient infrastructure systems and investigate the efficacy of a training approach to cultivate concepts related to sustainable, equitable and resilient infrastructure (SERI).

The study surveyed AEC students and gathered data about students’ awareness of equity in resilient infrastructure systems, their desire to promote systemic change and relevant demographics. Furthermore, the study implemented training within a sustainability course and conducted a post-training survey.

The results revealed that although the majority of the students demonstrated a promising level of awareness, some students lacked knowledge related to infrastructure inequity issues. In addition, the findings indicated that guided training could improve the students’ understanding as well as boost their confidence to address and mitigate infrastructure inequity issues in resilient infrastructure development.

The findings of the study are valuable for increasing awareness of infrastructure equity and can motivate educators to develop targeted strategies and educational modules, ensuring that AEC students possess the essential knowledge and perspectives to develop equitable, sustainable and resilient infrastructures.

This study aims to investigate the interrelationships between charter value and market discipline in five Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN-5).

This research uses a simultaneous equations model with a three-stage least squares estimator for a sample of 79 listed banks from 2006 to 2019.

The findings show a negative two-way relationship between charter value and market discipline. More specifically, charter value can reduce market discipline. Meanwhile, a negative relationship between market discipline and charter value reemphasizes the significance of market discipline in the banking system to enhance bank charter value. Similar results still hold when using several robustness checks (e.g. subsamples, considering the global financial crisis, governance indicators and market structure).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to investigate the bidirectional relationship between bank risk and charter value in ASEAN-5. Therefore, this study would provide significant recommendations for policymakers and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the practices, processes and expertise embedded within Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) distinctively mediate the tensions between outcome payers’ competing and contradictory programmatic discourses.

We use qualitative research methods and employ concepts drawn from the governmentality literature to analyse interviews with SIB outcome payers.

SIBs are shown to challenge the degree of negative influence of biopolitics, neoliberalism and financialization by highlighting a broader and more holistic set of influences. SIB operations pre-empt and counteract perceived risks and are refined through a “learning by doing” effect. In contrast to other approaches to funding social interventions, the SIB structure attributes and independently validates outcomes. Payments to investors are based on the achievement of outcomes and are funded by the outcome payers. SIBs’ operational processes allow the responsibilities of the various parties to be explicitly assigned and contracted. The interests are aligned, yet the cultural differences harnessed.

This paper is one of the first to apply governmentality concepts to SIBs. By focusing on outcome payers, the paper provides new perspectives on the practices, processes and expertise of governing and the programmatic discourses of governing, as well as their relationship. The insights offered are supported by one of the largest and most diverse empirical SIB samples including 34 interviews where 43 individuals reflect on their experiences across 32 unique outcome payer organisations.

Packaging-free shopping disrupts the usual retailing and consumption patterns in which packaging usually plays a central role. When manufacturers no longer offer predetermined packaging, how do retailers and consumers ensure packaging functions? Investigating the way packaging-free actors appropriate packaging functions during use is particularly important because they exert a new power over these functions, which can be challenging to appropriate. The purpose of this study is to contribute to a deeper understanding of why packaging-free shopping can be perceived as constraining.

Drawing from the literature on packaging functions and adopting Miller’s conceptual framework of appropriation, this research uses a qualitative method with a variety of discursive and visual data, including 54 interviews with experts from packaging-free product stores and consumers, 190 Instagram consumer posts and 428 in-store and at-home photographs.

This research shows that packaging-free actors jointly appropriate packaging functions through two modes of appropriation (assimilation and accommodation) each encompassing distinct strategies and highlights the misappropriation that actors can experience, especially when prioritizing one function over another.

This research contributes to the literature on packaging-free shopping, an emergent and growing trend that challenges conventional shopping models. The research reveals dark sides of packaging-free shopping – namely, the damaging effects on health and the environment and social exclusion. In particular, it discusses the ambivalence of the packaging-free shopping environmental function. This research also deepens insight into how individual acts of appropriation may lead to misappropriation.

This paper reviews the corpus contained in the Knowledge Bank of Australian and New Zealand School Libraries (KBANZSL) to explore the under-researched history of Australian school libraries and teacher librarianship. Through the analysis of publications in the knowledge bank, new insights into the history of school libraries and teacher librarians in Australia are gained and the intersecting relationship between school libraries and wider library and educational agendas are explored.

This paper uses a critical, and historical, bibliometric approach to provide new insights into the history of Australian school libraries. It examines the records of the Knowledge Bank of Australian and New Zealand School Libraries (KBANZSL) for trends and insights these records may provide.

The publications and collective memory captured within the Knowledge Bank of Australian and New Zealand School Libraries (KBANZSL) provide new insights into the rich history of the evolution of school libraries and teacher librarianship and, more particularly, the close links between formal and informal education, schools and libraries in Australia.

The research was limited to Australia and did not include New Zealand.

This research highlights the social value invested by the community in free access to knowledge through libraries over time and how this has impacted the provision of such access to children.

This paper takes an original approach to the exploration of school libraries in Australia through the use of historical bibliometrics. It uses this approach to analyse the published record and reflects on what this record can tell us about the inter-relationship between formal and informal education and library development in Australia. The findings provide new and valuable insights into the place of libraries in wider educational agendas and how political and community engagement with libraries influences the provision of library services to Australian children.

This study examined corporate communication strategies designed to effectively address routine consumer complaints on social media and transform them into relationship-building opportunities. Drawing from relationship maintenance and conflict/crisis communication literature, two communicative approaches were explored: relational strategies (communicated relational commitments and conversational voice) and accommodative strategies.

A nationwide US consumer survey was conducted to test the proposed model.

The results showed that communicating relational commitments directly enhances consumer trust and fosters supportive intentions. Additionally, using a conversational voice indirectly influenced these outcomes through the mediating factor of perceived humanness. The accommodative strategy also effectively fostered trust and supportive intentions among consumers.

This study extends the application of relational maintenance strategies to online consumer complaints. Though conversational voice does not address core complaint issues, the findings reveal its positive ripple effects via perceived humanness. The study clarifies prior inconsistencies in research on accommodative vs defensive strategies for handling online complaints, offering practical insights for organizations to strengthen customer relationships through effective complaint management.