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Prior work underscores the important role of customer advocacy for brands. The purpose of this study is to explore the critical role customers can play as brand heroes. The authors developed and validated a measurement scale composed of properties that are derived from distinct brand hero motivational mechanisms.

The authors conducted one exploratory pilot, using semi-structured interviews, with industry and academic experts, and employed three main studies across varying brands and market settings.

This study explores and empirically demonstrates how the brand hero scale (BHS) is related to, yet distinct from, existing scales of opinion leaders, market mavens, attachment and customer advocacy. The six-item BHS demonstrates convergent, discriminant, nomological and predictive validity across several different brand contexts.

This research extends the extant body of work by identifying and defining brand heroes, developing and validating a parsimonious BHS, and demonstrating how its predictive validity extends both to a range of key advocacy and loyalty customer behaviors.

The study provides provocative insights for marketing researchers and brand managers and ascertains the important role heroes may play for brands in terms of strong customer advocacy and loyalty behaviors.

Building on the theory of meaning, this study shows that identifying and working with brand heroes is of great managerial importance and offers critical avenues for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate innovations in intellectual property rights (IPR) databases, techniques and software tools, with an emphasis on selected new developments and their contribution towards achieving advantages for IPR management (IPRM) and wider social benefits. Several industry buzzwords are addressed, such as IPR-linked open data (IPR LOD) databases, blockchain and IPR-related techniques, acknowledged for their contribution in moving towards artificial intelligence (AI) in IPRM.

The evaluation, following an original framework developed by the authors, is based on a literature review, web analysis and interviews carried out with some of the top experts from IPR-savvy multinational companies.

The paper presents the patent databases landscape, classifying patent offices according to the format of data provided and depicting the state-of-art in the IPR LOD. An examination of existing IPR tools shows that they are not yet fully developed, with limited usability for IPRM. After reviewing the techniques, it is clear that the current state-of-the-art is insufficient to fully address AI in IPR. Uses of blockchain in IPR show that they are yet to be fully exploited on a larger scale.

A critical analysis of IPR tools, techniques and blockchain allows for the state-of-art to be assessed, and for their current and potential value with regard to the development of the economy and wider society to be considered. The paper also provides a novel classification of patent offices and an original IPR-linked open data landscape.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel network and dynamic data envelopment analysis (DEA) model for evaluating sustainability of supply chains. In the proposed model, all links can be considered in calculation of efficiency score.

A dynamic DEA model to evaluate sustainable supply chains in which networks have series structure is proposed. Nature of free links is defined and subsequently applied in calculating relative efficiency of supply chains. An additive network DEA model is developed to evaluate sustainability of supply chains in several periods. A case study demonstrates applicability of proposed approach.

This paper assists managers to identify inefficient supply chains and take proper remedial actions for performance optimization. Besides, overall efficiency scores of supply chains have less fluctuation. By utilizing the proposed model and determining dual-role factors, managers can plan their supply chains properly and more accurately.

In real world, managers face with big data. Therefore, we need to develop an approach to deal with big data.

The proposed model offers useful managerial implications along with means for managers to monitor and measure efficiency of their production processes. The proposed model can be applied in real world problems in which decision makers are faced with multi-stage processes such as supply chains, production systems, etc.

For the first time, the authors present additive model of network-dynamic DEA. For the first time, the authors outline the links in a way that carry-overs of networks are connected in different periods and not in different stages.

This paper aims to focus on a global consulting company and examine how it struggled to establish an effective environmental management control system for carbon emissions for its employees’ air travel. The organisation was motivated to reduce its carbon emissions both to comply with regulation and to enhance or maintain corporate reputation.

The paper takes a case study approach, examining internal and external documents as well as conducting interviews with senior staff.

The case study investigates how Beta’s management implemented a system to reduce carbon emissions. The organisation focused on air travel, but the study finds that employee travel preferences did not radically change. Rather than reduction in carbon emissions, as planned by head office, air travel carbon emissions actually increased during the period, and, as a consequence, the reported reduction targets were significantly adjusted downwards to meet the new realities.

The study has implications for both policy and practice for organisations seeking to improve their sustainability performance.

The study responds to calls in the literature to undertake research to identify how management practices might reduce negative sustainability impacts, as there is little evidence of what management practices and accounting tools are being adopted, particularly in relation to carbon emissions from air travel. The paper adds to the creation of new accounting, giving visibility to carbon emission management through case study analysis.

The Italian sociological scientific community has shown a limited interest in issues related to bisexuality. The purpose of this paper is to fill the knowledge gap on the subject, showing data of an empirical research conducted online on the Italian bisexual community.

The article is based on a mixed methods online survey on Italian bisexual people, which included 218 interviews. The questionnaire was made up of closed and open-ended questions, to investigate their behaviours, habits and lifestyles.

Social pressure and lack of understanding by others sometimes make difficult for bisexual people to show themselves openly for what they are, especially in some contexts, such as the word of work. From a sociological point of view, one can argue that one of the tools when bisexual people face the stigma related to bisexuality is to control, often in an obsessive way, the information they provide about themselves, carefully evaluating the contexts in which they can free themselves and the time when they must expose themselves in line with the expectations of the heteronormative society.

The non-probabilistic sample limits the external validity of the findings. There are also critical elements that characterise social research when transposed online: first, the profiles of the respondents not always are verifiable; second, the digital divide excludes some groups that cannot access the web or involves an over-representation of those who are more familiar with technologies.

The work presented is the first Italian sociological study aimed at deepening the “invisible B” phenomenon of the LGBT acronym in a systematic way. Nowadays bisexuality remains under-researched in social sciences and overall in sociology. Putting “bisexuality” at the centre of the sociological attention appears important to provide serious and scientifically valid data and information useful both to develop the knowledge on this identity category and to contain forms of discrimination and prejudice.

This article intends to explore the Sub-Saharan African students' perceptions on their cross-cultural adaptation to the Moroccan society by probing into their adaptive strategies adopted in order to overcome day-to-day challenges as well as factors impeding their adaptation processes. To this end, three central research questions are advanced: (1) what are the factors that influence Sub-Saharan students' cross-cultural adaptation to the Moroccan society? (2) How do Sub-Saharan students perceive the role of host communication competence, host interpersonal relationship, ethnic proximity, host receptivity and personality type in facilitating or hindering their adaptation? And (3) how do they undergo their cross-cultural adaptation to the Moroccan society?

The main aim of this article is to explore African Sub-Saharan students' perceptions on their adaptation to Moroccan society as well as factors affecting their adaptive experiences. Due to the complex nature of this research, opting for mixed-methods research, the combination of both qualitative and quantitative, would best serve the objective of this study. For this purpose, qualitative methods (interviews) are used to collect non-numerical data about factors that facilitate or hinder the cross-cultural adaptation of Sub-Saharan students in Morocco in the first phase, and then quantitative methods (questionnaires) are used to collect numerical data about their perceptions of their adaptation in the Moroccan society in the second phase.

The results of the present study revealed that a large number of Sub-Saran African students are well adapted to the Moroccan culture, but with discrepant degrees. Their adaptation is mainly influenced by an array of intersected factors. Firstly, the participants showed that the more they were aware of the Moroccan culture and language, the more likely they would be able to function properly and effectively in different social settings. Secondly, it was found that establishing social ties with the host members was perceived as significant for easing their adaptation due to the cultural, emotional and academic support these ties provided. Thirdly, host receptivity was perceived as an important factor that facilitated the students' cross-cultural adaptation. With the case of some participants, host receptivity, however, hindered their adaptation because they were subject to different types of discriminatory and racist behaviours by some Moroccans. Lastly, intercultural personality traits displayed in flexibility, prior cross-cultural move and intercultural empathy were found to contribute to the students' overall functional fitness in the

This is the first research to tackle the issue of Sub-Saharan African students' cultural adaptation in Morocco.

Research on grey systems is becoming more sophisticated, and grey relational and prediction analyses are receiving close review worldwide. Particularly, the application of grey systems in marine economics is gaining importance. The purpose of this paper is to summarize and review literature on grey models, providing new directions in their application in the marine economy.

This paper organized seminal studies on grey systems published by Chinese core journal database – CNKI, Web of Science and Elsevier from 1982 to 2018. After searching the aforementioned database for the said duration, the authors used the CiteSpace visualization tools to analyze them.

The authors sorted the studies according to their countries/regions, institutions, keywords and categories using the CiteSpace tool; analyzed current research characteristics on grey models; and discussed their possible applications in marine businesses, economy, scientific research and education, marine environment and disasters. Finally, the authors pointed out the development trend of grey models.

Although researches are combining grey theory with fractals, neural networks, fuzzy theory and other methods, the applications, in terms of scope, have still not met the demand. With the increasingly in-depth research in marine economics and management, international marine economic research has entered a new period of development. Grey theory will certainly attract scholars’ attention, and its role in marine economy and management will gain considerable significance.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether and how principles from variation theory can contribute to the planning of teaching and learning beyond learning study.

We study whether and how principles from variation theory contributed to a group of teachers’ planning of teaching and learning about decimal numbers in Grades 4 to 7 working in Subject Didactic Groups – a collaborative arrangement suited to daily teaching. A theoretical thematic analysis approach was used when analyzing eight audio-recorded meetings and written documents.

The study shows that variation theory principles contributed to the teachers’ planning of teaching and learning. Two themes were identified: the theory contributed to the teachers being able to (1) specify what their students needed to learn and (2) design tasks that they anticipated would afford the opportunity to learn what was identified as being necessary to learn.

The paper demonstrates how variation theory can contribute to teachers’ planning of teaching and learning when used in a collaborative arrangement other than learning study. This leads into a discussion about variation theory being used separately from learning study and the benefits and limitations this other collaborative arrangement can have for gaining knowledge of what is to be learned and taught.

Sports marketing and sponsorship research is located at the intersection of behavioral and design research, which means that it analyzes the current world and shapes a future world. This dual focus poses challenges for formulating and testing theories of sports marketing.

This article develops criteria for categorizing theoretical concepts as either behavioral or formed as different ways of expressing ideas of sports marketing research. It emphasizes the need for clear concept categorization for proper operationalization and applies these criteria to selected theoretical concepts of sports marketing and sponsorship research.

The study defines three criteria to categorize theoretical concepts, namely (1) the guiding idea of research, (2) the role of observed variables, and (3) the relationship among observed variables. Applying these criteria to concepts of sports marketing research manifests the relevance of categorizing theoretical concepts as either behavioral or formed to operationalize concepts correctly.

This study is the first in sports marketing to clearly categorize theoretical concepts as either behavioral or formed, and to formulate guidelines on how to differentiate behavioral concepts from formed concepts.

The current study investigated the effect of internal marketing practices, specifically the training and rewards system, on job satisfaction, affective commitment and employee turnover intention.

Structural equation modeling analysis was conducted on a sample of 288 responses from employees working in different organizations and diverse industries in Morocco.

The findings revealed that internal marketing positively affected employee job satisfaction and affective commitment and negatively affected employee turnover intention.

The current investigation extends our understanding of the effects of internal marketing practices, especially training and rewards, on an emerging country context and contributes to the organizational behavior and management field. The results may be of interest to organizations and managers who should consider the importance of internal marketing in enhancing job satisfaction, affective commitment and decreasing employee turnover intention.

The current study is the first of its kind to investigate the impact of internal marketing practices on job satisfaction, affective commitment and employee turnover intention in Morocco.