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This study aims to provide insights into the conceptualization of social entrepreneurship and the extent to which culture affects it.

First, social entrepreneurship is conceptualized and then the research integrates Hofstede’s framework, with some consideration for Inglehart’s and Schwartz’s framework in exploring the effects of cultural values.

Seminal studies on social entrepreneurship delineated acting entrepreneurially and having a social mission but failed to consider cultural contextualization. After illustrating Hofstede’s, Inglehart’s and Schwartz’s frameworks for cultural dimensions, the research shows that different cultural dimensions can provide a better understanding of social entrepreneurship.

This study has a limited scope as it relies on narrow conceptualizations of social entrepreneurship and culture.

Future national agendas should embrace varying notions of shared obligation across support institutions and enterprises as they attempt to address social problems across differing cultures.

This research contributes to the literature by providing an insightful understanding of the influence of culture on social entrepreneurship through integrating widely used cultural dimensions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the existing literature in entrepreneurship and innovation and its linkages to sport.

This research involved four main stages: definition of the key aspects of innovation and entrepreneurship; synthesis of the typologies purporting the interplay between entrepreneurship and innovation in sport; showcasing entrepreneurship and innovation in-practice in a sports context; and identifying steps toward the development of an overall sports policy framework.

It was observed that through entrepreneurship, innovation plays a crucial role in contributing to the sports industry through research, and technology adaptation. The wide variation in the adaptation techniques of innovation in the entrepreneurship realm for sports can be supported by three aspects: a strong culture of innovation, the adaptation of technology from other sectors for sports entrepreneurship and network support.

This study highlights the critical role that entrepreneurship and innovation can have on the sports sector. Those in the sports’ field can use this research to continue to push the development of products and services that can improve the field.

There is little emphasis on sports in mainstream entrepreneurship or innovation research. Therefore, this research is one of the few in this area to look at the interconnectivity between entrepreneurship, innovation and sports.

The purpose of this paper is to explore responsible leadership and crisis management. Many sectors and economies have faced the stark effect of coronavirus; however, the damage done was felt more in some areas than others. Cruise tourism is one such sector dramatically affected, as it ground to a screeching halt in March 2020. This has led to crisis management, as passengers, cruise-line crew, large cruise companies and governments were now faced with a new reality as countries around the world closed their borders. This article aims at discussing in detail how responsible leadership, in the small island of Barbados, championed a response to support the cruise tourism sector and assist in managing the crisis.

The author conducted a literature review on the current knowledge relating leadership and crisis management. Thus building a better understanding in the field and identifying gaps for making new arguments for best practices of leadership development in crisis management established in the cruise tourism sector. The author gave viewpoints based on the leadership style of the Prime Minister of Barbados.

Responsible leadership is a style that has been best observed as one that emphasizes a commitment to the common good and provides a constructive societal impact. With this approach, the leaders navigated the uncertainty surrounding the crisis and provided fresh hope to future plans. Thus, the coronavirus was perceived in a positive way, producing opportunities for progress and change.

By developing an understanding of traditional leadership theories, it provides a framework for the adaptation of responsible leadership approach in crisis management. Moreover, the practice of responsible leadership in this COVID-19 era is shown to be crucial to crisis management and enhancing performance. Limitations on viewpoint are based on the author's philosophies.

This paper provides a better understanding of the principles surrounding leadership and fashions a framework for discussing responsible leadership from a crisis management standpoint. The viewpoint provides an optimistic difference in managing a crisis.

The paper provides a better understanding of responsible leadership as an integrated approach to governance, ethics and social responsibility. The paper provides a basis to assess the intersection of the literature on leadership and crisis management.

This article contributes to the literature on responsible leadership within the context of crisis management.

The purpose of this paper is to explore leadership and information dissemination during a crisis like COVID-19. The article reviews the information produced and published during the crisis. The author proposes a typology of information and categorizes messages based on their contextualization within the Caribbean environment.

The research method is developed around three main stages: a review of literature on leadership and information dissemination; synthesis of information to inform the typology; and discussion of the information reflecting the interplay between leadership and information dissemination.

The literature shows a legacy of deceit that dominates the history of healthcare for Blacks and Caribbean people. This heritage has helped to fashion individual attitudes toward the COVID-19 pandemic in the Caribbean. The research also highlights that in addressing the several typologies of information, varying leadership styles came to bare. The democratic leadership style was the most dominant among the Caribbean countries, while some illustrations of autocratic leadership were visible. Other leadership facets and traits fashion responses by the leaders in managing information dissemination during the crisis. The paper also observes a triangular system of information which highlights where influences exist between relationships (governments, media/NGOs and society) and how such relationships lend to shaping the behavior of others.

Limitations on the research are based on the author's philosophy and interpretation. In addition, much of the information surrounding COVID-19 is novel and hence difficult to fact-check because of the unique nature of COVID-19.

This paper provides a better understanding of the typology of information during a crisis like COVID-19. The discussion on leveraging leadership strategy and competencies for dissemination of information during a crisis provides an optimistic perspective to guide leaders in managing information dissemination during a crisis.

The typology is helpful in delineating the way society interprets information based on other crisis. It also helps with assessing the leadership styles and understanding potential tailor-made strategies.

The development of an information typology that provides insight into the influence that historical perspectives give to interpreting information in a health crisis in a Caribbean context. The research also looks at the strategies pursued by Caribbean leaders as they adopt novel and promising techniques to communicate during a crisis.

The purpose of this paper is to explore effective leadership based on information collected from leaders in the healthcare delivery system within the Caribbean. It assesses leadership challenges and the ability to perform based on balancing limited resources.

The authors used grounded theories as the basis for data gathering and formulating a strategy for thematic analysis. The researchers analyzed the data through identifying, synthesizing and evaluating codes. The sample comprised 20 senior officials from 7 ministries of health, 7 permanent secretaries and 6 chief medical officers across the 12 island states in the Caribbean region.

The findings are broken down into two main areas: first of these is the competency areas and the second part is the personal characteristics. The first part highlighted the Leader's ability to lead others or projects. The second part assessed the leaders' personality traits and distinguishing qualities that are embodied in the individual leaders.

The study is exploratory; given that this is the first time that such research has been done within the healthcare sector of the Caribbean region. Because of the chosen research approach, interviewees' comments within the paper may be biased based on their specific situation and exposure.

The study highlights that there is a need for more training in leadership and other management competencies to assist in the decision-making process within the healthcare section of the public sector.

The study highlights that there is a need for better understanding of the inter-connectivity of the public service culture, global health governance and healthcare delivery. This paper provides a basis to help academics and practitioners think through leadership styles and strategies; plus, identify suitable best practices to lead more effectively in a social care field.

The study assesses the effectiveness of the leadership styles in the healthcare sector within the context of the Caribbean and it contributes by adapting and extending the literature on leadership in the study. Further, the paper contributes to the discourse on the demands on leadership for developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the family business literature has evolved, and to examine the factors influencing family-owned and managed businesses. The paper discusses important patterns in the present literature and new directions for future study.

The research identifies key research topics and methodical approaches to understand family businesses. Insights into the reasoning behind the historic changes and the current direction and trends of the family business literature are also identified.

The findings of this research argues that the main cause of the challenges in running a family business stem from the management of the interrelationship between family concerns and business concerns. Strong leadership and building a culture that accepts continuous change are key success factors.

Due to the specific nature of the family business dynamics and decision-making conflict, which can hardly be captured by quantitative studies alone, a promotion of qualitative studies is advisable.

This study suggests that understanding the culture surrounding decision making in family business has great value. Characteristics such as aggressiveness, fearlessness and competition are key areas for investigation.

Overlooking the potential of non-family members for family business leadership can produce sub-optimal choices of successors. Further, the aspiration to change society’s and government’s view of family businesses warrants attention.

This review of previous research offers researchers a broader and comprehensive view of the family business, which is inclusive of the challenges, decision making and solutions within the family business structure. Researchers, educators and practitioners will benefit from this paper.

The purpose of the paper is to highlight the need for Caribbean scholarship to advance and test social psychological models that speak to current entrepreneurial realities on the ground which have implications for theory, education, practice and public policy. It tests a revised entrepreneurial intentions‐based model by examining the impact of several socio‐cognitive predictors.

Using a structural equation modelling approach, a revised model of entrepreneurial intentions is tested based on a survey of 376 university students from a Caribbean university.

The chi square difference results reveal that when compared with the proposed (revised) model, a previous model advanced by Krueger is found to be the most suitable model in explaining entrepreneurial intentions.

The cross‐sectional design of the study does not permit causal statements to be made regarding the variables examined. There is a call for longitudinal research to further examine the causal links between relevant variables in entrepreneurial models.

This paper has strong practical value in that the results can assist students, educators, and present entrepreneurs in understanding the dynamics and processes involved in entrepreneurial decision‐making. This understanding can promote the development and maintenance of further entrepreneurial ventures in the Caribbean.

The paper also has a strong theoretical value as it relies on several socio‐cognitive explanations of human behaviour, and seeks to advance the theoretical field by using more rigorous analyses.

This study aims to examine the effects of character body size, subject body size and product type on female adolescents’ attitudes toward the character. Given prior research showing that adolescents identify more strongly with those whom they view as similar to themselves, it is possible that heavy and obese adolescents will react more favorably to plus-size ad characters.

Two studies were conducted, one with females aged 12–14 and a second with females aged 15–17. Based on their body mass index, subjects were classified as of small/average size or overweight/obese. Ads featured either a thin, average-size or plus-size character, and promoted either a healthful or an unhealthful snack item.

In general, small/average size female adolescents responded more favorably toward thin characters, whereas their overweight/obese counterparts responded more favorably toward plus-size characters. Moreover, subjects’ responses were not moderated by the nutritional value (healthful vs unhealthful) of the product being advertised.

To effectively promote healthy foods to overweight/obese adolescents, it may be advantageous to incorporate plus-size characters. Additional research is needed, however, to determine whether this approach can effectively influence brand attitudes and consumption behaviors.

As obesity rates continue to rise, it has become vitally important to encourage healthier food choices among youth. To develop effective communication strategies, marketers need to better understand how young consumers respond to various advertising cues.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the effect of character size and subject size on female adolescents’ attitudes toward the character.

We aim to explore the role of digital technologies for enhanced sustainability, hope, empowerment, resilience and optimism (SHERO) among female entrepreneurs in the Caribbean and the importance of embeddedness and contextualisation as a premise for integrating gender as a socially constructed situational practice.

The study presents qualitative data results of semi-structured interviews with 30 female digital entrepreneurs who own and operate their businesses in a range of sectors in three national contexts in the Caribbean. Narratives of the participants were used to develop the themes that emerged from the interviews.

The Caribbean context is an overarching factor that influences every facet of the lived experiences of female digital entrepreneurs. From the different contextual dimensions, we gained insights into the nuances and paradoxes of dominant assumptions related to how digital technologies influence the business transformation of female entrepreneurship as it relates to sustainability, hope, empowerment, resilience and optimism. Through a contextual gendered lens, these five business areas are found to be overlapping and mutually reinforcing features of the lived experiences of female digital entrepreneurs.

The Caribbean region, comprising of small island developing states, epitomises a unique spatially fragmented entrepreneurial context described as islandness which also offers a “fresh” context within the Global South that captures the novelty and heterogeneity of female entrepreneurs in the digital space.

To enhance the effectiveness of environmental cause-related marketing (CRM) message design, this study identifies two key factors: descriptive social norms (provincial vs general) and temporal framing (near-future vs distant-future). Drawing upon construal level theory, it examined the synergy between the type of social norms and suitable temporal framing, matched at similar construal levels, to optimize CRM’s impact by positively influencing consumer purchase intentions and engagement in environmentally sustainable behaviors.

A full factorial 2 × 2 online experiment was conducted.

The findings showed that aligning message elements at a low level of construal significantly increases message persuasiveness, enhancing purchase intentions and pro-environmental behaviors. Conversely, matching elements at high levels of construal does not necessarily lead to synergistic effects. Notably, misaligned message elements – where one operates at a higher construal level and the other at a lower level – can generate cognitive resistance, potentially leading to adverse backlash effects. Messages that paired provincial norms with distant future framing were deemed least persuasive, resulting in diminished purchase intentions and pro-environmental behaviors.

This study refines approaches in environmental CRM by illustrating that descriptive social norms alone do not achieve desired impacts. It emphasizes aligning message elements at a low construal level to boost effectiveness and synergistic outcomes. The research also highlights a need to critically reassess matching effects at higher construal levels, thus enriching environmental CRM message strategies.

Healthcare providers are under pressure due to increasing and more complex demands for services. Increased pressure on budgets and human resources adds to an ever-growing problem set. Competent leaders are in demand to ensure effective and well-performing healthcare organisations that deliver balanced results and high-quality services. Researchers have made significant efforts to identify and define determining competencies for healthcare leadership. Broad terms such as competence are, however, inherently at risk of becoming too generic to add analytical value. The purpose of this study is to suggest a holistic framework for understanding healthcare leadership competence, that can be crucial for operationalising important healthcare leadership competencies for researchers, decision-makers as well as practitioners.

In the present study, a critical interpretive synthesis (CIS) was conducted to analyse competency descriptions for healthcare leaders. The descriptions were retrieved from peer reviewed empirical studies published between 2010 and 2022 that aimed to identify healthcare services leadership competencies. Grounded theory was utilised to code the data and inductively develop new categories of healthcare leadership competencies. The categorisation was then analysed to suggest a holistic framework for healthcare leadership competence.

Forty-one papers were included in the review. Coding and analysing the competence descriptions resulted in 12 healthcare leadership competence categories: (1) character, (2) interpersonal relations, (3) leadership, (4) professionalism, (5) soft HRM, (6) management, (7) organisational knowledge, (8) technology, (9) knowledge of the healthcare environment, (10) change and innovation, (11) knowledge transformation and (12) boundary spanning. Based on this result, a holistic framework for understanding and analysing healthcare services leadership competencies was suggested. This framework suggests that the 12 categories of healthcare leadership competencies include a range of knowledge, skills and abilities that can be understood across the dimension personal – and technical, and organisational internal and – external competencies.

This literature review was conducted with the results of searching only two electronic databases. Because of this, there is a chance that there exist empirical studies that could have added to the development of the competence categories or could have contradicted some of the descriptions used in this analysis that were assessed as quite harmonised. A CIS also opens for a broader search, including the grey literature, books, policy documents and so on, but this study was limited to peer-reviewed empirical studies. This limitation could also have affected the result, as complex phenomenon such as competence might have been disclosed in greater details in, for example, books.

The holistic framework for healthcare leadership competences offers a common understanding of a “fuzzy” concept such as competence and can be used to identify specific competency needs in healthcare organisations, to develop strategic competency plans and educational programmes for healthcare leaders.

This study reveals a lack of consensus regarding the use and understanding of the concept of competence, and that key competencies addressed in the included papers are described vastly different in terms of what knowledge, skills and abilities they entail. This challenges the operationalisation of healthcare services leadership competencies. The proposed framework for healthcare services leadership competencies offers a common understanding of work-related competencies and a possibility to analyse key leadership competencies based on a holistic framework.

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and others (LGBTQI+) movement has been the focus of companies that seek to win over consumers by supporting diversity. Any positioning, however, that is not perceived as being consistent and genuine can harm the brand's image. Through a queer theoretical perspective, the authors explore perceptions of LGBTQI+ consumers regarding brand activism.

Qualitative research was carried out that involved interviewing Brazilian consumers who are part of the LGBTQI+ community.

Aspects of the identity of these individuals draw closer to those brands that share the same values the individuals have. Brand activism is perceived positively in terms of the brand's representativeness and social impact. When activism is perceived as inauthentic, activism generates a backlash and consumers begin to boycott brands as the consumers associate positioning with woke-washing practices.

The results indicate that to adopt an activist stance with regard to the LGBTQI+ public, brands need to be consistent in the brands' communication and advertising and in brands' organizational culture and diversity. This research provides important indicators for brands that genuinely want to support the LGBTQI+ community and is the first to use queer theory to analyze brand activism.

The purpose of this paper is to identify influential workplace engagement interventions that were initiated by managers over several years as revealed in many studies. Also, an action learning guide is offered for an individual manager to use such interventions with the employee in shaping activities to assist employee learning and performance improvement which may result in greater workplace engagement.

The first step was to examine the research literature on: the meaning of workplace engagement along with theory bases for it, the framework for stimulating employee engagement and information about action learning in the workplace. Second, was the identification of manager/organization interventions found to result in employee assessment of their own positive growth in workplace engagement? Third, we offer a practical, action learning approach.

An action guide is presented as an example of a method to assist a manager working with, in this case, a single employee. The guide is grounded on empirical research, mostly meta-analyses, and reflects positively assessed workplace engagement interventions.

In the performance management, human resources and training domains there is limited research and/or examples of practical guides for managers to use to link guidance with efforts to apply specific interventions to support employee workplace engagement. This paper provides the manager with a path to assist employees.

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which Kouzes and Posner’s Transformational Leadership Model is being practiced by school principals as perceived by their teachers in Jordanian schools. Means, standard deviations, t-tests, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were utilized in this study. Results indicated that transformational leadership is being moderately practiced and applied by Jordanian principals. Furthermore, statistical results indicated that gender and school type had an influence on teachers’ perceptions in favor of female teachers and basic schools respectively. Finally, there were no significant differences among the three experience level groups of teachers (new hiring, middle career, and long experience) in their perceptions of each dimension of Kouzes and Posner’s model.

The continued evolution of influencer marketing has created a need to better understand influencer marketing effectiveness. With brands increasingly partnering with influencers, research is yet to provide an integrated perspective examining the critical role of both parties. This study aims to draw on the source credibility model and signaling theory to explain the mechanisms that matter in influencer marketing effectiveness.

The proposed model of influencer marketing effectiveness is analyzed using partial least squares with data from 281 followers of social media influencers.

The authors establish influencer characteristics of popularity and attractiveness as heuristic cues that inform judgments of influencer efficacy. Further, category involvement and altruistic motives for collaboration are shown to moderate followers’ reliance on these heuristic cues. Then, a sequential mediating effect demonstrates the critical roles of the influencer and partner brand in three desired outcomes: enhanced perception of brand authenticity, enhanced brand engagement and positive attitudes toward influencer posts.

Future research should consider other heuristic cues that could inform influencer efficacy judgments and switch the focus toward the partner brand’s impact on such judgments.

A step-by-step visual framework is presented to help marketers and influencers translate these findings into key responsibilities for developing more effective and collaborative partnerships.

Besides presenting an integrated perspective, signaling theory provides an original lens for explaining influencer marketing effectiveness, addressing the need to expand the theoretical boundaries of influencer marketing research. 

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the leadership decisions taken during the crisis and their influence on the goals recognized by managers as crucial for surviving.

During the survey, conducted in April 2020 (one month after the first economic lockdown in Poland), as part of a research project called Sur(VIR)val – Survival during the virus, data was collected from 178 leaders from randomly selected companies from Poland using the CAWI method. Ordered logistic regression modeling was used to examine the impact of the decisions taken by company leaders on the goals seen by leaders as most important for company survival.

The results obtained in the study show that during the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, leaders made decisions that can be seen as oriented toward survival and continuity. Changing to remote working, extending payment deadlines for customers, as well as selective employment reduction turned out to have the greatest influence on strategic support for maintaining current production levels and retaining competent employees in order to survive the crisis.

This study has certain limitations. First, the list of leadership decisions and company goals used as dependent variables is not exhaustive. Second, the selection of business goals oriented toward survival may not derive directly from the lockdown situation. Third, our study did not measure the actual accomplishment of the company goals, but the managerial perceptions as to which ones are crucial for company survival during crises, and which of them should be given strategic support respectively. Fourth, the research sample was randomly constructed and covered only business organizations in Poland. Fifth, the hypotheses were formulated in a way that treated leadership decisions as one construct. Finally, we used survey, with a scale measuring managerial perceptions.

Leaders should ensure that proper IT tools are developed within the organization, and that the skill level of employees is high enough for fast shifting employees on to remote working. At the same time, it is important to maintain IT infrastructure at a high level. In terms of general recommendations for leaders, they should make quick decisions, maintain the most valuable resources of the company (human resources and cash flow) and take actions aimed at taking advantage of opportunities (R&D) during and after the crisis.

Additionally, due to the key importance of human resources for the survival of the organization, leaders should respond quickly by making flexible decisions about sending employees on leave and downtime. As human resources are the most valuable assets of the company from the point of view of its survival, decisions concerning employment reduction should be taken carefully. Leaders who acted in panic after the first lockdown and made employees redundant, later on had problems recruiting skilled employees back and strived to return to full organizational capacity.

Although scholars have investigated leadership decisions and actions taken during economic crises, little is known about how leaders behave when taken by surprise, and what decisions they make when the duration of a crisis is difficult to predict. The results of this study show which leadership decisions during the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 influenced prioritizing critical company goals oriented toward survival.

“New leadership” studies often suggest that transformational leadership in particular produces desirable leadership outcomes. However, few studies have demonstrated a direct link between the exercise of a particular type of leadership and organisational effectiveness. Efforts to establish such a link are hampered by the absence of a generally agreed definition of organisational effectiveness. This is particularly true in higher education where attempts to develop models of organisational effectiveness applicable to universities have been sparse despite worldwide calls for universities to demonstrate “value for money” performance. This paper examines the relationship between transformational/transactional leadership and university organisational effectiveness. In the course of the examination, the paper indicates possible modifications to the original conceptualisation of transformational leadership. The paper also argues for university leadership that is self‐reflective and capable of utilising the array of leadership characteristics subsumed under the transformational and transactional leadership notions.

Studies report that frontline employees frequently discriminate against overweight customers, a group of vulnerable consumers that is growing worldwide. However, because most discrimination by frontline employees is covert, the authors ask whether overweight customers perceive discrimination and what influences this perception. Drawing on field theory, this paper aims to investigate how two environment factors (frontline employee overweight and frontline employees’ neutral treatment of other customers) and two person factors (customer pre-encounter affect and self-esteem) influence customer-perceived weight discrimination.

In a pilot study and three experimental studies, the authors examine the impact of covert discrimination of overweight customers by frontline employees on customers’ perception of discrimination and the influencing effects of environment and person factors. Hypotheses are tested using regression analysis.

The authors find that overweight customers perceive covert weight discrimination by frontline employees. Frontline employee overweight mitigates the effect of covert discrimination, and (state and trait) self-esteem amplifies this effect. Frontline employees’ neutral treatment of other customers is insignificant. Customer (state and trait) negative affect directly increases customer-perceived discrimination independent of covert discrimination.

While extant research focuses on marketplace discrimination triggers and consequences, the perspective of the discriminated customer and what influences his or her perception of covert discrimination has attracted much less attention. Moreover, research rarely addresses overweight as a discrimination trigger. As environment and person influences frequently shape service encounters, the authors contribute novel and relevant insights to the literature. This is of high value, especially in light of the harmful consequences marketplace discrimination entails for customers and service firms.

The study uses the meaning transfer model to integrate celebrity advertising and branding under the broad paradigm of celebrity–brand communication. Specifically, the paper aims to examine the influence of celebrity attributes (authenticity and identification) on brand advocacy and purchase intention through brand personality appeal and brand identification.

The study adopts two scenario-based research designs (involving nonfictitious and fictitious celebrities) for a cross-sectional structural path analysis.

Celebrity authenticity, celebrity identification and celebrity–brand congruency significantly influence brand advocacy and purchase intention, with brand personality appeal and brand identification emerging as effective mediators.

The study highlights how vital brand personality appeal and brand identification are in transferring positive perceptions about a celebrity endorser into brand advocacy and purchase intention. These results will allow marketers to realize the relative influence of celebrity attributes on the partnered brand.