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The purpose of this study is to investigate buyer actions during source selection that impact the buyer’s reputation.

This study uses survey data of 211 suppliers to empirically test the effects of US Government buyers’ actions on their reputation during source selection.

Suspicion of buyer opportunism diminishes buyer reputation, while debriefing quality positively influences buyer reputation. However, oral presentations, negotiations, the full trade-off source selection method and providing a redacted source selection decision document show no significant association with buyer reputation. In turn, buyer reputation decreases a supplier’s intent to protest the award.

This study underscores the importance of ethical conduct during source selection, emphasizing the detrimental impact of opportunistic behavior on a buyer’s reputation, while also advocating for comprehensive feedback to suppliers and the need for holistic, transparent sourcing procedures.

This study contributes to business-to-business marketing literature by addressing the gap in understanding buyer reputation, highlighting the impact of buyer actions on reputation during source selection. This study develops a framework grounded in signaling theory that incorporates feedback and finds that it may have a multiplicative effect that forms a separating equilibrium.

Cuteness has grown to be a global phenomenon fueled by the explosive usage of social media. Cute stimuli are ubiquitous, but few have explored their effects on consumer decision-making; direct evidence is particularly lacking in the area of risky choices. In this research, the authors theorize and demonstrate the unintended effects of cuteness exposure on people’s risk preference.

Across five experimental studies situated in various risk contexts, including health, financial and safety, the authors demonstrate that exposure to cuteness makes consumers more risk-seeking due to the reduction of situational conscientiousness. Study 1 used an experimental lab study with a real circumstance to test the effect on the risk associated with food consumption. Study 2 used a classical gambling experiment to test the effect on financial risk. Studies 3a and 3b used a mass shooting news article to test the effect on safety risk. Lastly, study 4 tested the mediating role of low conscientiousness with the classical gambling experiment.

The findings show that exposure to cuteness makes people more likely to take risks in various domains (e.g. food consumption, safety and financial decisions).

This study tested the effect of cuteness on risk-seeking with a limited number of domains of risk. In addition, the authors tested the effect with visual cuteness stimuli, while individuals may perceive cuteness through other senses, such as sound.

The findings have implications for business owners and marketers when deciding whether and how to use cuteness to promote their products and brands, as well as to avoid potential repercussions. For example, a marketer for a new extreme sports company could use videos or images of cute animals participating in sports on the company’s social media channels to expand its market share. In addition, findings from this research would make consumers more attentive when facing cute appeals as they gain a better understanding of how exposure to cuteness could impact their own decision-making.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to demonstrate that exposure to subtle, cute environmental cues has a robust effect on consumers’ risk preferences across various domains, regardless of age and gender.

This study aims to explore the interrelationships among quality and safety metrics within the Global Food Security Index (GFSI). Its primary objective is to identify key indicators and their respective influences on food security outcomes, thereby enriching comprehension of the intricate dynamics within global food security.

The analysis encompasses data from 113 countries for the year 2022, utilizing Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) models to identify significant drivers of both the GFSI and quality and safety dimensions. This methodological approach enables the examination of probabilistic connections among different indicators, providing a structured framework for investigating the complex dynamics of food security.

The study highlights the critical role of regulatory frameworks, access to clean drinking water, and food safety mechanisms in fostering food security. Key findings reveal that “nutrition monitoring and surveillance” has the highest probability (75%) of achieving a high-performance state, whereas “national dietary guidelines” have the highest probability (41%) of achieving a low-performance state. High GFSI performance is associated with excelling in indicators such as “access to drinking water” and “food safety mechanisms”, while low performance is linked to underperformance in “national dietary guidelines” and “nutrition labeling”. “Protein quality” and “dietary diversity” are identified as the most critical indicators affecting both the GFSI and quality and safety dimensions.

This research operationalizes a probabilistic technique to analyze the interdependencies among quality and safety indicators within the GFSI. By uncovering the probabilistic connections between these indicators, the study enhances understanding of the underlying dynamics that influence food security outcomes. The findings highlight the critical roles of regulatory frameworks, access to clean drinking water, and food safety mechanisms, offering actionable insights that empower policymakers to make evidence-based decisions and allocate resources effectively. Ultimately, this research significantly contributes to the advancement of food security interventions and the achievement of sustainable development goals related to food quality and safety.

This study aims to identify necessary conditions for innovative entrepreneurship in cities and determine similarities in entrepreneurial configurations among them.

The authors assessed the necessary conditions for various levels of entrepreneurial output and categorized cities based on similar patterns by applying necessary condition analysis (NCA) and cluster analysis in a sample comprised of 101 cities from the entrepreneurial cities index, representing a diverse range of urban environments in Brazil. A comprehensive data set, including both traditional indicators from official Bureau of statistics and nontraditional indicators from new platforms of science, technology and innovation intelligence, was compiled for analysis.

Bureaucratic complexity, urban conditions, transport infrastructure, economic development, access to financial capital, secondary education, entrepreneurial intention, support organizations and innovation inputs were identified as necessary for innovative entrepreneurship. Varying levels of these conditions were found to be required for different entrepreneurial outputs.

The static nature of the data limits understanding of dynamic interactions among dimensions and their impact on entrepreneurial city performance.

Policymakers can use the findings to craft tailored support policies, leveraging the relationship between city-level taxonomy and direct outputs of innovative entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs).

The taxonomy and nontraditional indicators sheds light on the broader societal benefits of vibrant EEs, emphasizing their role in driving socioeconomic development.

The cluster analysis combined with NCA’s bottleneck analysis is an original endeavor which made it possible to identify performance benchmarks for Brazilian cities, according to common characteristics, as well as the required levels of each condition by each city group to achieve innovative entrepreneurial outputs.

This study aims to examine the combinations of internal and external knowledge flows between research and development (R&D) incumbents and start-ups in the context of open innovation. While there is a growing body of knowledge that has examined how, in a knowledge economy, a firm’s knowledge and innovation activities are closely linked, there is no systematic review available of the key antecedents, perspectives, phenomenon and outcomes of knowledge spillovers.

The authors have conducted dual-stage research. First, the authors conducted a systematic review of literature (97 research articles) by following the theories–contexts–methods framework and the antecedent-phenomenon-outcomes logic. The authors identified the key theories, contexts, methods, antecedents, phenomenon and outcomes of knowledge spillovers between R&D-driven incumbents and start-ups in the open innovation context. In the second stage, the findings of stage one were leveraged to advance a nomological network that depicts the strength of the relationship between the observable constructs that emerged from the review.

The findings demonstrate how knowledge spillovers can help incumbent organisations and start-ups to achieve improved innovation capabilities, R&D capacity, competitive advantage and the creation of knowledge ecosystems leading to improved firm performance. This study has important implications for practitioners and managers – it provides managers with important antecedents of knowledge spillover (knowledge capacities and knowledge types), which directly impact the R&D intensity and digitalisation driving open innovation. The emerging network showed that the antecedents of knowledge spillovers have a direct relationship with the creation of a knowledge ecosystem orchestrated by incumbents and that there is a very strong influence of knowledge capacities and knowledge types on the selection of external knowledge partners/sources.

This study has important implications for practitioners and managers. In particular, it provides managers with important antecedents of knowledge spillover (knowledge capacities and knowledge types), which directly impact the R&D intensity and digitalisation driving open innovation. This will enable managers to take important decisions about what knowledge capacities are required to achieve innovation outcomes. The findings suggest that managers of incumbent firms should be cautious when deciding to invest in knowledge sourcing from external partners. This choice may be driven by the absorptive capacity of the incumbent firm, market competition, protection of intellectual property and public policy supporting innovation and entrepreneurship.

Identification of the key antecedents, phenomenon and outcomes of knowledge spillovers between R&D-driven incumbents and start-ups in the open innovation context. The findings from Stage 1 helped us to advance a nomological network in Stage 2, which identifies the strength and influence of the various observable constructs (identified from the review) on each other. No prior study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, has advanced a nomological network in the context of knowledge spillovers between R&D-driven incumbents and start-ups in the open innovation context.

Entrepreneurial universities, through their intellectual capital (IC), can promote the development of a third mission, which involves collaborating with business and societal organizations to create value. Joint research projects are undertaken within entrepreneurial universities leveraging their IC. These generate value for both the academic community and the territory as they generate impact, in terms of regional IC. At the micro level, scientists in the principal investigator (PI) role are influential actors in generating impact and IC that is beneficial for all joint project stakeholders. The purpose of the paper is to address the existing gap in entrepreneurial university literature concerning the impact generation process.

The paper represents a theoretical contribution adopting a deductive approach.

This paper proposes a novel approach to support PIs in entrepreneurial universities in the process of managing innovative initiatives toward IC impact generation. First, we present the IC-based Research Impact Tool (ICRIT) to guide PIs acting as explorative entrepreneurs; then we propose an IC-based Research Impact Report (ICRIR) including some key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate impact and IC.

The theoretical approach proposed could be developed further. This could be furthered through more empirical studies using initially, for example, comparative cross-country case study research.

The paper sheds new light on the importance of the final impact generated by research initiatives, focusing on the crucial role played by PIs and promoting the adoption of an IC-based strategic approach, to maximize the final impact of projects, in terms of regional IC.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) increasingly implement digitalization in uncertain business environments. However, a dearth exists in the entrepreneurship literature for understanding the decision-making logic of digitalization as a management issue. Drawing on the effectuation theory, this study aims to explore the relationships between effectuation dimensions and SMEs’ digitalization.

Using quantitative data collected from 345 Chinese SMEs through questionnaires, the authors conducted the principal component analysis and hierarchical linear regression analysis.

The results highlight significant positive relationships between the four effectuation elements – experimentation, affordable loss, flexibility and precommitment – and SMEs’ digitalization. Moreover, this research considers the environmental conditions as moderators and reveals that environmental dynamism and complexity associated with high uncertainty negatively moderate the effects of effectuation on SMEs’ digitalization.

SMEs embarking on digitalization should constantly experiment to determine optimal strategies while contemplating their affordable losses. Flexibility should also be maintained to discard unproductive tactics and redirect to other viable options. Additionally, precommitments can reduce the risk that SMEs encounter in digitalization process. While the effectuation principles consolidate the likelihood of a successful digitalization, this research recommends that entrepreneurs should carefully consider their possible application in uncertain environments.

This study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by theoretically clarifying the decision-making mechanism of digitalization and extends the application of effectuation to this context by illuminating the influences of effectuation principles on SMEs’ digital transformation. The identification of negative moderating effects of environmental uncertainty also augments an academic criticism about uncertainty creating the conditions for effectuation.

This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of SHS in Malaysian and Indonesian university students’ populations using the Rasch Rating Scale Model.

Specifically, the persons’ and items’ reliability and separation, rating scale’s functionality, unidimensionality, item targeting, item quality and item bias were evaluated using Winstep 4.8.1.0 on a sample of 318 Malaysian and 470 Indonesian university students.

Both samples show good unidimensional measures. In terms of certain psychometric attributes, the Indonesian and Malaysian samples have relatively similar qualities. The adoption of SHS in measuring the self-handicapping tendency indicates the scale works well for both Indonesian and Malaysian samples.

The findings allow researchers in Malaysia and Indonesia to confidently use the SHS to measure self-handicapping behaviours among university students. This will then enable the design and implementation of a comprehensive intervention programme aimed at reducing self-handicapping and improving the psychological well-being of these future change agents in both countries.

This instrument was first tested in the United States, but its psychometric properties have yet to be evaluated in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Inspired by the internationalisation paths to prosperity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), where narcissistic leaders are diligent about organisations but also pursue their dark goals, this study aims to concurrently examine two avenues for the internationalisation of narcissistic leaders in SMEs concerning the function of team organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB): corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) and digital business model innovation (BMI).

This study utilised a quantitative design emphasising mature theory research, and data was analysed using multiple regression analysis and Hayes' process model. The data for this study was collected via surveys from 270 SMEs in Vietnam.

The study showed that narcissistic Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) can penetrate the global market profoundly by utilising both the righteous path, which is based on the power of the times via BMI, and the unethical path, CSI. However, team devotion via OCB can mitigate the unethical conduct of narcissistic CEOs.

The study endeavoured to find a path to internationalisation for SMEs in emerging markets with high economic openness and increasingly close connections with international markets, via two strategies for SMEs to conquer the international market more successfully, and with utilising the foundations of CEO narcissism and team citizenship behaviour.

This study contributed to the theory of SME internationalisation by employing the resource-based view and upper-echelon theory, with the updated Uppsala model as its foundation.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the conceptual confusion in the extant literature about organizational agility and explore its role in different relationships in the context of digital transformation.

An integrative review of the relevant literature on agility was conducted. The literature on organizational agility and other variables in recent quantitative research was also examined to explore its role in different relationships.

Organizational agility is the ability to quickly respond and proactively embrace unanticipated changes in dynamic environments through effective resource reconfiguration and rapid decision-making. The role of organizational agility in achieving digital transformation has not been addressed from a holistic conceptual perspective. This paper addresses that gap and proposes that organizational agility is the underlying mechanism for an organization to fully use and engage its workforce, operation and network in the process of digital transformation.

This research is an integrative review of the existing literature on the concept of agility and its relationships. The next phase of research needed for theory building will be the operationalization of constructs.

Organizations should strive to strategically develop both the reactivity and proactivity sides of organizational agility in achieving digital transformation that involves fundamental changes at different levels of the organization.

This paper explores the role of organizational agility in digital transformation through an integrative review of the relevant literature.