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Our study investigates the role of the Human Resources Management (HRM) system strength in supporting Italian healthcare managers during times of uncertainty and change. The perceived HRM system strength and its relationship with managers’ taking charge behaviors, perceived procedural constraints, and work engagement were examined.

Two surveys were conducted to gather empirical data from a pooled sample of 121 healthcare managers located in hospitals across Italy. We use regression analysis to test our hypotheses.

The data show that strong HRM systems facilitate managers taking charge behaviors and work engagement. Additionally, the findings highlight the mitigating effect of a strong HRM system on procedural constraints, such as red tape, in public healthcare organizations.

Emphasizing the positive outcomes associated with strong HRM systems, the findings suggest that public health organizations should make efforts to put in place robust HR practices to bolster engagement and proactive behaviors among healthcare managers in times of uncertainty and change.

Analyzing a unique data set, the study extends the understanding of HRM system strength in the public sector, specifically in post-pandemic healthcare organizations. Overall, the study contributes to the growing literature on HRM system strength by offering novel insights into its nomological network.

The purpose of this paper is to review the empirical literature on the relationship between the characteristics of the top management teams (TMTs) and the performance of entrepreneurial firms.

A literature review was carried out on 33 empirical studies related to TMTs and performance through analyzing and summarizing the quantitative studies conducted in this area.

The results of the literature review show that the relationship between TMTs (demographics and heterogeneity) and the performance of entrepreneurial firms is not straightforward and further investigation is still needed in this area.

The author maps the theoretical and empirical research of TMT demographics and heterogeneity in relation to firms’ performance and possible moderators and mediators, which govern the relationship between TMT composition and firms’ performance.

The author presents a detailed future research agenda for the purpose of advancing the theoretical and empirical knowledge on TMT-performance links. The review provides a comprehensive picture of TMT-firms’ performance literature and what should be done to enrich the literature.

This research has three objectives: one is to develop measuring criteria for ascertaining performance of customs clearance firms, another is to test reliability and validity of the factors, and the third is to analyze the relationship between customer service and firm performance. This research gathered the data from customs clearance firms. Reliability and validity concerned with the collected data are tested by exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis and the relationship between variables is tested by analyzing structural equation modeling. The results are as follows. There are no problems in reliability and validity. According to the result of the analysis, customer service is divided into customer focus, customer needs, customer response and flexibility and performance is classified into customer performance and financial performance. The result of empirical tests is as follows. Customer focus has a positive effect on customer performance and financial performance. Flexibility has a positive effect on both types of performance. This means that firms which have discriminative services and a high level of flexibility through collaboration with customers can achieve high levels of customer performance and financial performance.

This study aims to shed light on the relationship between gender diversity and group performance by considering the moderating role of relative cultural distance. Drawing from the categorization–elaboration model (CEM), the authors hypothesize that gender-diverse collaborative learning groups perform better when a low level of relative cultural distance in country-level individualism–collectivism or power distance exists among group members.

To test this hypothesis, the authors conducted a study on 539 undergraduate students organized into 94 groups. The assessment of group performance was based on scores given by external raters.

The authors found that relative cultural distance significantly moderated the gender diversity–group performance relationship such that gender diversity was positively related to group performance when the collaborative learning group included members who similarly valued individualism–collectivism or power distance (i.e. relative cultural distance was low) and was negatively related to group performance when the collaborative learning group comprised members who differently valued individualism–collectivism or power distance (i.e. relative cultural distance was high).

This study contributes to understanding when gender diversity is positively associated with group performance by expanding the range of previously examined diversity dimensions to include relative cultural distance in country-level individualism–collectivism and power distance.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how far technology and information enable, facilitate or support the planning and implementation decisions in humanitarian vaccine cold chains for vaccination campaigns. The authors specifically focus on three emerging technologies that have the potential to create more flexible conditions in the field, and identify the need to further explore the link between uncertainty, information and irreversibility.

The authors present a basic structure for the analysis of cold chain disruptions in terms of three distinct yet connected layers of deficient infrastructure and capacity, information gaps and failures in decision making. The authors then review three humanitarian technologies and their impact on vaccine campaigns along these layers. From there, a research agenda is developed to address research gaps this review brought forward.

Three critical research gaps in the areas of technology innovation for humanitarian vaccine cold chain management are presented. The authors argue that technology to improve capacity, information and decisions need to be aligned, and that the areas of uncertainty, information and irreversibility require further investigation to achieve this alignment. In this way, the paper contributes to setting the research agenda on vaccine cold chains and connects humanitarian logistics to technology, information management and decision making.

This paper presents the humanitarian vaccine cold chain problem from an original angle by illuminating the implications of technology and information on the decisions made during the planning and implementation phases of a vaccine campaign. The authors develop an agenda to provide researchers and humanitarians with a perspective to improve cold chain planning and implementation at the intersection of technology, information and decisions.

This study aims to examine the relationship between sellers’ ethical behaviour and customer loyalty. The mediating effect of trust and satisfaction in the relationship between ethical behaviour and loyalty was also assessed in the sportswear industry.

Data were collected from 265 consumers. Ten hypotheses were developed and tested by applying structural equation modelling.

There is a significant influence between sellers’ ethical behaviour and consumers’ loyalty. Also, satisfaction and trust mediate the relationship between sellers’ ethical behaviour and consumers’ loyalty. Trust is also found as the most proximal antecedent to customer loyalty.

This study empirically justifies the relationship between sellers’ ethical behaviour towards customer satisfaction and trust. This study also provides insight into the relationships between customer satisfaction, trust and loyalty in an integrated model.

Este estudio examina la relación entre el comportamiento ético de los vendedores y la lealtad de los clientes. También se evaluó el efecto mediador de la confianza y la satisfacción en la relación entre el comportamiento ético y la lealtad en la industria de la ropa deportiva.

Se recogieron datos de 265 consumidores. Se elaboraron diez hipótesis y se comprobaron aplicando un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales.

Existe una influencia significativa entre el comportamiento ético de los vendedores y la lealtad de los consumidores. Además, la satisfacción y la confianza median en la relación entre el comportamiento ético de los vendedores y la fidelidad de los consumidores. La confianza también se revela como el antecedente más próximo a la lealtad de los consumidores.

Este estudio justifica empíricamente la relación entre el comportamiento ético de los vendedores con la satisfacción y la confianza de los clientes. Este estudio también proporciona una visión de las relaciones entre la satisfacción del cliente, la confianza y la lealtad en un modelo integrado.

本研究考察了卖家的道德行为与顾客忠诚度之间的关系。同时评估了在体育用品行业中, 信任和满意度在道德行为和忠诚度之间的中介效应。

收集了265名消费者的数据。通过运用结构方程模型, 提出并检验了10个假设。

卖方的道德行为和消费者的忠诚度之间存在着显著的影响。同时, 满意度和信任感对销售者的道德行为和消费者的忠诚度之间的关系起到了中介作用。信任也被认为是顾客忠诚度的最接近的前因。

本研究从经验上证明了卖家的道德行为与顾客满意度和信任之间的关系。本研究还对顾客满意度、信任和忠诚度之间的关系提供了一个综合模型的见解。

While entrepreneurship has long been heralded for its positive contributions, there is a growing recognition of its “dark side,” characterized by unproductive, unethical and destructive actions. This exploratory literature review aims to illuminate the underexplored dark side of entrepreneurship, thereby enriching the discourse on entrepreneurship’s dual nature.

This study employs a robust mixed-method approach, integrating phenomenologically detailed co-citation bibliographic coupling with detailed thematic data and code-weaving. Science mapping tools like R-Bibliometrix and VOSviewer enhance the credibility of the findings by providing a sophisticated and reproducible methodological framework.

This review defines dark entrepreneurship, its characteristics, and its complexities. We introduced the “Dark Entrepreneurship Trinity”: Ethical Complexity, Institutional Navigation and Conflict Entrepreneurialship, with Institutional Navigation as the apex theme. It elucidates how this theme influences ethical dilemmas and operational strategies in conflict zones, illustrated through a diagram depicting their complex interrelations and dynamics.

The originality of this literature review lies in its comprehensive synthesis of the dark side of entrepreneurship. This review significantly contributes to the academic discourse by delineating a clearer picture of the destructive potentials of entrepreneurship. It compiles existing research, critically addresses the gaps and suggests future pathways for empirical studies.

Policy makers are applying market-inspired competition and financial incentives to drive efficiency in healthcare. However, a lack of knowledge exists about the process whereby incentives are filtered through organizations to influence staff motivation, and the key role of managers is often overlooked. The purpose of this paper is to explore the strategies managers use as intermediaries between financial incentives and the individual motivation of staff. The authors use empirical data from a local case in Swedish specialized care.

The authors conducted an exploratory qualitative case study of a patient-choice reform, including financial incentives, in specialized orthopedics in Sweden. In total, 17 interviews were conducted with professionals in managerial positions, representing six healthcare providers. A hypo-deductive, thematic approach was used to analyze the data.

The results show that managers applied alignment strategies to make the incentive model motivating for staff. The managers’ strategies are characterized by attempts to align external rewards with professional values based on their contextual and practical knowledge. Managers occasionally overruled the financial logic of the model to safeguard patient needs and expressed an interest in having a closer dialogue with policy makers about improvements.

Externally imposed incentives do not automatically motivate healthcare staff. Managers in healthcare play key roles as intermediaries by aligning external rewards with professional values. Managers’ multiple perspectives on healthcare practices and professional culture can also be utilized to improve policy and as a source of knowledge in partnership with policy makers.

A large number of studies indicate that coercive forms of organizational control and performance management in health care services often backfire and initiate dysfunctional consequences. The purpose of this article is to discuss new approaches to performance management in health care services when the purpose is to support innovative changes in the delivery of services.

The article represents cross-boundary work as the theoretical and empirical material used to discuss and reconsider performance management comes from several relevant research disciplines, including systematic reviews of audit and feedback interventions in health care and extant theories of human motivation and organizational control.

An enabling approach to performance management in health care services can potentially contribute to innovative changes. Key design elements to operationalize such an approach are a formative and learning-oriented use of performance measures, an appeal to self- and social-approval mechanisms when providing feedback and support for local goals and action plans that fit specific conditions and challenges.

The article suggests how to operationalize an enabling approach to performance management in health care services. The framework is consistent with new governance and managerial approaches emerging in public sector organizations more generally, supporting a higher degree of professional autonomy and the use of nonfinancial incentives.