Tania Morris, Lamine Kamano and Stéphanie Maillet
This article describes financial professionals' perceptions of their clients' financial behaviors and the explanatory factors underlying these behaviors.
Abstract
Purpose
This article describes financial professionals' perceptions of their clients' financial behaviors and the explanatory factors underlying these behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
In this qualitative research, the authors seek to understand financial professionals' experiences in relation to how their clients manage their own finances. The authors conduct and analyze 26 semi-structured interviews with financial professionals from several industries within the financial sector in Canada.
Findings
The professionals in this study noted that despite their clients' financial knowledge, several other factors can explain these individuals' financial behaviors. They include psychological factors (such as financial bias, the need for instant gratification, and the lack of awareness regarding the long-term effects of certain types of financial behaviors), financial habits (such as lifestyle, financial planning and lack of discipline) and the financial system's flexibility with respect to debt financing and repayment. These perceptions are categorized according to whether they are related to debt financing or repayment, savings or investments.
Originality/value
By using a qualitative methodology that relies on the perceptions of financial professionals, this study aims to better understand the financial behaviors of individuals and households, and these behaviors' underlying factors. This study's findings could be useful to various stakeholders interested, in one way or another, in financial literacy, such as organizations aiming to strengthen and promote financial literacy, educators, researchers, regulatory bodies of financial institutions and financial advisers.
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Hanna Kinowska and Łukasz Jakub Sienkiewicz
Existing literature on algorithmic management practices – defined as autonomous data-driven decision making in people's management by adoption of self-learning algorithms and…
Abstract
Purpose
Existing literature on algorithmic management practices – defined as autonomous data-driven decision making in people's management by adoption of self-learning algorithms and artificial intelligence – suggests complex relationships with employees' well-being in the workplace. While the use of algorithms can have positive impacts on people-related decisions, they may also adversely influence job autonomy, perceived justice and – as a result – workplace well-being. Literature review revealed a significant gap in empirical research on the nature and direction of these relationships. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to analyse how algorithmic management practices directly influence workplace well-being, as well as investigating its relationships with job autonomy and total rewards practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Conceptual model of relationships between algorithmic management practices, job autonomy, total rewards and workplace well-being has been formulated on the basis of literature review. Proposed model has been empirically verified through confirmatory analysis by means of structural equation modelling (SEM CFA) on a sample of 21,869 European organisations, using data collected by Eurofound and Cedefop in 2019, with the focus of investigating the direct and indirect influence of algorithmic management practices on workplace well-being.
Findings
This research confirmed a moderate, direct impact of application of algorithmic management practices on workplace well-being. More importantly the authors found out that this approach has an indirect influence, through negative impact on job autonomy and total rewards practices. The authors observed significant variation in the level of influence depending on the size of the organisation, with the decreasing impacts of algorithmic management on well-being and job autonomy for larger entities.
Originality/value
While the influence of algorithmic management on various workplace practices and effects is now widely discussed, the empirical evidence – especially for traditional work contexts, not only gig economy – is highly limited. The study fills this gap and suggests that algorithmic management – understood as an automated decision-making vehicle – might not always lead to better, well-being focused, people management in organisations. Academic studies and practical applications need to account for possible negative consequences of algorithmic management for the workplace well-being, by better reflecting complex nature of relationships between these variables.
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This study aims to answer two research questions, namely, what kinds of mundane resistance practices emerge in the local food system and which spatial, material and social…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to answer two research questions, namely, what kinds of mundane resistance practices emerge in the local food system and which spatial, material and social elements catalyse the resistance practices.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts a post-humanist practice approach and focusses on exploring the agentic capacity of socio-material elements to generate resistance practices. The data were generated through a multi-method approach of interviews, field observations and Facebook discussions collected between 2014 and 2017.
Findings
The empirical context is the rejäl konsumtion local food network in Finland. The analysis presents two types of resisting practices – resisting facelessness and resisting carelessness – which are connected to spatial, material and social elements.
Research limitations/implications
The study focusses on one local food system, highlighting the socio-material structuring of resistance in this specific cultural setting.
Practical implications
The practical implications highlight that recognising the socio-material elements provides tools for better engagement of consumer actors with local food systems.
Originality/value
The study adds to the extant research by interweaving the consumer resistance literature and local food systems discussions with the neo-material approach. The findings present a more nuanced understanding of the ways in which consumer resistance is actualised in a non-recreational, mundane context of consumption. Consequently, the study offers new insights into the agentic socio-material actors structuring the local food system.
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Mari Mehtälä, Tuula Lehtimäki, Hanna Komulainen and Asta Salmi
The purpose of this paper is to investigate network mobilization for collective market shaping. The authors focus on sustainable innovations that require broad cross-sectoral…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate network mobilization for collective market shaping. The authors focus on sustainable innovations that require broad cross-sectoral mobilization to create collective action among network actors. By drawing on insights from mobilization in innovation and issue networks, the authors shed light on the role of these two different networks in mobilizing collective action and triggering collective market shaping for sustainable innovations.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents a qualitative case study on the commercialization of a new low-carbon eco-concrete. The eco-concrete faces significant challenges in entering the market, due to the construction industry’s entrenched practices and institutional arrangements. These challenges emphasize the critical need for mobilizing collective action to generate the momentum for market change.
Findings
The findings reveal four types of interplay between mobilization in innovation and issue networks: synergistic and complementary mobilization that can reinforce collective market shaping and conflicting and diluting mobilization that can impede collective action and hinder the market shaping for sustainable innovations.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the role of mobilization in triggering collective market shaping. In particular, this research sheds light on the early stages of market shaping for sustainable innovations where broad mobilization for collective action is critical.
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Noel Scott, Brent Moyle, Ana Cláudia Campos, Liubov Skavronskaya and Biqiang Liu
Based on the theoretical predictions of media equation theory and the computers-are-social-actors (CASA) perspective, this study aims to examine the effects of performance error…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the theoretical predictions of media equation theory and the computers-are-social-actors (CASA) perspective, this study aims to examine the effects of performance error type (i.e. logical, semantic or syntactic), task type and personality presentation (i.e. dominant/submissive and/or friendly/unfriendly) on users’ level of trust in their personal digital assistant (PDA), Siri.
Design/methodology/approach
An experimental study of human–PDA interactions was performed with two types of tasks (social vs functional) randomly assigned to participants (N = 163). While interacting with Siri in 15 task inquiries, the participants recorded Siri’s answers for each inquiry and self-rated their trust in the PDA. The answers were coded and rated by the researchers for personality presentation and error type.
Findings
Logical errors were the most detrimental to user trust. Users’ trust of Siri was significantly higher after functional tasks compared to social tasks when the effects of general usage (e.g. proficiency, length and frequency of usage) were controlled for. The perception of a friendly personality from Siri had an opposite effect on social and functional tasks in the perceived reliability dimension of trust and increased intensity of the presented personality reduced perceived reliability in functional tasks.
Originality/value
The research findings contradict predictions from media equation theory and the CASA perspective while contributing to a theoretical refinement of machine errors and their impact on user trust.
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The article takes its point of departure in the current labor market debate on immigration policy and attempts to explore the way private labor market mediators involved in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The article takes its point of departure in the current labor market debate on immigration policy and attempts to explore the way private labor market mediators involved in the integration of immigrants contribute to reproducing cultural stereotypes reminiscent of colonial ideas.
Design/methodology/approach
Findings are based on respondent-driven interviews with nine labor market mediators (seven women and three men) from eight private labor market agencies in Sweden.
Findings
The findings showed that the private labor market mediators put their trust in the neoliberal system and rely on the colonial discourses when convincing immigrants to assimilate into the dominant culture. At the same time, the findings also show that there is no evidence that the assimilating activities they offer will lead to long-term employment.
Research limitations/implications
Given that migration across national borders has become a common phenomenon, the author suggests a call for critical reflections on the taken-for-granted notions of both self and others and the influences colonial discourses have on integration.
Practical implications
The author would suggest a shift of focus from immigrants' cultural adjustment to society's and employers' responsibilities and readiness to adjust to prevailing conditions.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the labor market literature and the diversity management literature by adding insights from public labor market mediators' experiences of the help they offer immigrants to enter the labor market. It shows how mediators make use of dominating discourses to secure cultural hegemony.