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Large supermarket chains are adopting customer-service robots to improve service delivery in physical stores. Successful deployment of these robots depends on shoppers' willingness to interact with them, requiring an understanding of influencing factors. This study, grounded in the Cognitive-Affective-Normative (CAN) theory, seeks to systematically explore the factors influencing Gen Z shoppers' willingness to interact with customer-service robots.

A hybrid approach combining Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) was employed to analyze survey data collected from 945 Gen Zs in the Czech Republic.

The results from SEM highlight significant cognitive, normative, and affective factors that influence the intention of Gen Z shoppers to interact with a customer-service robot. Specifically, cognitive factors such as effort and performance expectancy, along with normative factors like subjective norms, emerged as critical determinants. Furthermore, affective factors such as technology anxiety and positive emotions significantly influence users' readiness to use customer-service robots for service requests. The study also underscores that positive emotions, effort expectancy, performance expectancy, and subjective norms are vital prerequisites for interacting with customer-service robots.

The originality of this work lies in its two significant contributions to the burgeoning field of SRs in retail literature. First, it extends the CAN theory to the context of SRs among Gen Z shoppers in Czechia, thereby enriching the existing literature on SRs in retail. Second, by employing a hybrid analytical approach, our research offers both empirical and methodological advancements, providing rigorous insights crucial for enhancing the understanding of the pivotal factors influencing shoppers' interactions with SRs in physical store environments.

Ageism has deleteriously influenced individuals and society for nearly half a century. Despite receiving increased attention, it remains under-researched regarding how it might be reduced in the workplace. Even though its prevalence and allure, review studies on workplace ageism (WA) are also scarce, and thus a review is warranted.

To fill the preceding void, this study will systematically review the existing literature on WA using data from the past four decades.

This study identified the various antecedents and the intervention mechanism through which WA may be reduced. Additionally, through reviews, the authors advance the research by offering promising avenues for future research.

This review contributes to human resources managers and will inspire future scholars to delve deeper into combating age discrimination, stereotypes and bias toward employees in workplaces.

Online brand communities (OBCs) and their role in determining consumer behavior is gathering interest of theorists and practitioners. This study examines the role of OBCs in influencing the level of involvement leading to perceived sport team brand equity (STBE) of sports fans from a social exchange theory perspective. The role of self-congruity as a moderator is examined to determine the differences in the level of involvement and attachment of fans in OBCs.

Based on quantitative research and convenience sampling, data for the study were collected from 394 football fans who were existing members of OBCs. The research model is tested using partial least square structural equation modeling.

The results show a direct and significant impact of brand involvement on brand attachment. Consumer brand engagement (CBE) mediates the relationship between brand attachment and STBE. While self-congruence does moderate the effects between brand involvement and brand attachment.

The study reveals the role of community related factors on sports fans’ perceived STBE. The study also provided a novel approach to examine sport fan behavior in social media through the lens of social exchange theory. Finally, it is providing a novel approach in examining role of OBCs in influencing behavior of sports team fans towards the team and brand.

This study aims to enrich the debate on whether women should continue to be under-represented in the upper echelons of organisations. Evidence arrives from the health-care battlefield and, more specifically, the Greek public hospitals assessed in terms of financial performance.

The whole set of Greek public hospitals operating in 2022 were included in a quantitative approach, whereby financial ratios reflect financial performance, while the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – Chief Financial Officer (CFO) gender reflects the female representation. Descriptive statistics analysis, t-tests and correlation analysis were performed.

The findings of this study suggest that female CEOs significantly outperformed their male counterparts on liquidity and accounts payable turnover, while female CFOs surpassed males concerning inventory turnover. Contrarily, hospitals with male CFOs achieved higher profitability, but income statements seem self-manipulated thanks to state subsidies and cash accounting techniques. Women appear to focus on those components of financial performance which are better aligned to the social role of public entities, while their contribution to non-financial performance is also underpinned by previous research.

Women’s under-representation in management positions was partially confirmed, as less than 1 / 4 of hospitals appoint a female CEO but circa 7 / 10 of them appoint a female CFO. This could be attributed to stereotypes combined with policy and governance factors. The latter were discussed well in this paper shaping a roadmap towards better gender equality in health-care settings.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this was the first effort to investigate the association between managers’ gender and financial performance in Greek health care.