Search results

How responsible is the management elite for the so‐called “world‐problems”, e.g. like “the scandalous economic scissors between north and south”, population growth and food scarcity or environmental problems? To give first answers on these questions is the purpose of this paper.

As we began to think about these sorts of questions, we became very much aware, that there are numerous reasons to get down from the “ivory tower” and start being more concerned about the role of business administration within this “world‐problem” issue. The theoretical scope of the paper is observing management attitudes by the glasses of the system theory. The practical outcome of this work is giving managers the chance to reflect themselves.

By asking questions to the traditional business administration as a science and as a practice we will develop a new attitude of self‐responsibility in the spirit of Heinz von Foerster for a new, alternative academic management education.

This paper describes the core elements of a new “I‐want” reflection‐theory and tries to “irritate”; better: perturbate management‐systems in order to keep the dynamics of self‐reflection going.

Presents an “in memoriam” tribute to Heinz von Foerster.

Outlines his work.

Introduces his inspiring contributions in the applied sciences and to the more general researches on the theoretical and practical implications of the cybernetic epistemology.

Gives insights to the importance of the work of von Foerster.

The retail sector in a lot of countries consists of many small and medium sized specialty retailers who face a high degree of dynamics and competition. Consequently, these companies also have to constantly evolve and develop resilient strategies that promise their future success. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the resource and capability bundle for operating as and transforming to a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) omni-channel specialty retailer. Therefore, the authors followed the notions of the Resource-Based-View (RBV) and of the Dynamic-Capabilities-View (DCV).

To answer the authors’ formulated research questions, they applied an exploratory research method by conducting 12 semi-structured and guideline-based expert interviews from two countries.

The findings reveal a specific bundle of transformation resources and capabilities and important drivers for the implementation of an omni-channel strategy. Thereby, the human resources factor and the market as well as customer understanding play a decisive role. In addition, the authors have identified country-specific differences in the technological, logistical, product-specific and financial areas.

The results reflect the importance of qualified and well-trained staff for SME retailers to implement omni-channel strategies in alignment with a high level of service quality. Especially in the Covid 19 era, flexible structures and quick adaptability are essential to remain competitive. Nevertheless, everything should always be in line with the company's own philosophy.

The paper provides new insights into important resources and capabilities retailers need to focus on when implementing an omni-channel strategy. The paper concentrates in particular on the groups of SMEs and niche markets as well as examines country-specific differences in a developed and a developing country.

The purpose of this study is to investigate consumers' attitudes towards alternative slaughter methods (ASMs). ASMs present more animal-friendly and stress-free slaughter practices. However, these practices are not yet widespread due to strict regulations, high labor efforts and costs. Therefore, the market for meat products from ASMs is still small, and less is known about consumers' awareness, assessment and willingness to pay (WTP) for these products.

This study aims to close the research gap using a standardized and representative online survey among 1,604 German participants. To identify target groups for these kinds of meat products, a factor and cluster analysis was conducted.

The results show that ASMs are not widely known among consumers. Overall, participants evaluated ASMs positively, but about 1/3 of the participants stated to also have concerns related more to hygiene than to animal welfare issues. The cluster analysis reveals two out of four clusters found that are interested in ASMs. These clusters are characterized by high trust in small butcheries and organic meat consumption.

The slaughtering sector has hardly been examined from an economic point of view in the animal welfare debate so far. This study identifies potential target groups for products originating from ASMs based on possible consumption drivers and barriers. Therewith, products from particular animal welfare friendly slaughter methods can be promoted purposefully to suitable target groups.

It is suggested that the detrimental externalities of intensive livestock production can be reduced by manufacturing animal proteins with cellular agriculture technologies. This study explores consumer attitudes towards cultured proteins based on representative Finnish survey data (n = 1,452).

Sum variables from the principal component analysis were utilized in the cluster analysis to identify potential consumer groups of cultured proteins in Finland. A regression analysis was used to find out the explanatory factors of positive first reaction, willingness to taste, willingness to use and support for the establishment of a national cultured meat sector.

Most of the respondents (72%) would taste cultured products, but attitudes of optimists (n = 516), moderates (n = 479) and sceptics (n = 457) differ in terms of the environment, livestock farming and cultured proteins. Most optimists (77%), almost quarter (23%) of moderates and less than a fifth (18%) of sceptics support cultured proteins. The environmental concerns are shared by optimists and moderates, whereas moderates and sceptics tend to be more suspicious. Positive attitudes are significantly influenced by social norms and respondents' beliefs regarding their global and national benefits. Major concerns pertain to anticipated dictation force of big companies, negative effects on Finnish agriculture, product attributes, use of genetically modified organisms and experienced (un)naturalness of cultured foods.

This study contributes to the understanding of Finnish consumers' attitudes towards cultured proteins. The identification of potential consumer segments and the elucidation of their attitudes are relevant, given the anticipated acceleration in the development of cultured foods.

Heuristics are fundamental components of the bounded rationality paradigm and influence entrepreneurs' decisions profusely. On the other hand, the affect heuristic is one of the most important heuristics. The body of knowledge on entrepreneurial heuristics is scattered on the whole and very superficial concerning women entrepreneurs, given that most studies have considered women and men entrepreneurs similar in showing heuristics. The dearth of research is more evident in the context of developing countries. Thus, to fill part of the existing research gaps, this study explores the affect heuristic in Iranian women entrepreneurs.

This paper's data were gathered by conducting face-to-face interviews with 17 novice Iranian women entrepreneurs active in biotechnology, nanotechnology, advanced medicine, aerospace, textile and food sectors and analyzed through a thematic–narrative analysis.

According to the results, the main outcomes of the affect heuristic in Iranian women entrepreneurs are delaying the final decision (including an obsession with collecting too much information, overemphasizing the role of negative information and seeking external advice before making a decision), rash decisions (including evaluations based on satisfying decision strategies, too much enthusiasm about one's venture, as well as an optimistic assessment of different scenarios) and serious consideration of quitting (including too much disappointment and anger over discrimination).

Based on this paper's findings, novice women entrepreneurs should be heedful of their fear, which could not only delay their decisions but also paralyze their capability of decision-making. Furthermore, while under circumstances such as information overload and uncertainty, positive feelings like optimism and happiness could be very instrumental by enabling entrepreneurs to shorten the process of their decisions, women entrepreneurs should be very careful about the possible biases resulting from their positive affect.

This study is a pioneer in two respects. First, it explores women entrepreneurs' decision-making heuristics, which is often a neglected area of research. Second, coming to the conclusion that most of the research on women entrepreneurs has been conducted in the Western context, this paper focuses on the context of developing countries by targeting Iranian women entrepreneurs.

This study aims to examine management attitude and awareness towards green logistics, explores the external conditions that drive and restrict its positive behaviour, investigates the level of its adoption amongst logistics service providers (LSPs) and determines the major barriers affecting its application in the industry.

This research investigates the key decision-making process on green logistics attitude and behaviour through in-depth interviews and thematic analysis.

This study explores both institutional and individual-level attitudes/awareness. Then, the driving and restraining forces and the challenges that influence the industry’s adoption of green initiatives are determined. Finally, this study constructs a framework following a behavioural driving route with interactions among green “attitude”, sustainable “subjective norms”, “behavioural control” and “external context” factors.

Findings can enlighten the practitioners who are struggling to adopt the green or low-carbon practice and provide valuable insights and constructive advice to LSPs and their stakeholders.

Findings can draw the government and policy-makers’ attention to provide necessary financial or non-financial support for the practitioners to improve their green operations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first attempts to adopt the hybrid theoretical lens on the green behaviour of the logistics industry. New insights are added to existing environmental management literature with a wider understanding and deeper investigation of the decision-making on green logistics in the industry. The theoretical framework in this study can offer future applications to a relevant large-scale study.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate US noncombatant evacuation operations (NEO) in South Korea and devise planning and management procedures that improve the efficiency of those missions.

It formulates a time-staged network model of the South Korean noncombatant evacuation system as a mixed integer linear program to determine an optimal flow configuration that minimizes the time required to complete an evacuation. This solution considers the capacity and resource constraints of multiple transportation modes and effectively allocates the limited assets across a time-staged network to create a feasible evacuation plan. That solution is post-processed and a vehicle routing procedure then produces a high resolution schedule for each individual asset throughout the entire duration of the NEO.

This work makes a clear improvement in the decision-making and resource allocation methodology currently used in a NEO on the Korea peninsula. It immediately provides previously unidentifiable information regarding the scope and requirements of a particular evacuation scenario and then produces an executable schedule for assets to facilitate mission accomplishment.

The significance of this work is not relegated only to evacuation operations on the Korean peninsula; there are numerous other NEO and natural disaster related scenarios that can benefit from this approach.

Plant-based (PB) and meat-reduced (MR) diets have a positive impact on human and environmental health, yet consumer acceptance of such diets is relatively low. Research investigating factors influencing consumer behavior around PB and MR diets is emerging; however studies lack strong theoretically underpinned, comprehensive theoretical frameworks. In this paper we synthesize factors from current literature and propose a comprehensive theoretical model across different consumer dietary types (e.g. omnivore, flexitarian, pesco-vegetarian) and account for consumer cognitive dissonance to facilitate a transition to MR diets.

The factors are examined in a five-step integrative literature review of empirical literature about PB/MR-related consumer behavior since 1989. Studies are critically assessed across four theories commonly used to explain the different antecedents of sustainable consumer behavior. We focus on the theoretical domains framework with COM-B (capability, opportunity, motivation and behavior) framework, as it provides the strongest foundation for modelling the consumer behavior of interest.

107 studies have empirically investigated PB/MR consumer behavior. Of these, 81 studies applied some COM-B domains, but no study has captured all domains. Scant studies investigating cognitive dissonance in the PB/MR literature have been published. Different consumer dietary types are featured across 47 studies; however, none of the studies comprehensively capture all dietary types and psychological discomfort in different consumer dietary types and cognitive dissonance theory.

To synthesize the findings of the present study, we propose an alternative model to address the before-mentioned gaps identified in our critical analysis. The alternative model captures the relationships between the 12 domains of the COM-B model constructs, psychological discomfort and consumer dietary types in the PB/MR foods setting.

The proposed research model facilitates the transition from MB diets to PB diets in three ways: (1) By differentiating consumer dietary types in terms of the COM domains influencing their PB/MR behaviors, PB-producing businesses could better target their foods to hitherto overlooked consumer dietary categories, such as lacto-vegetarians or emerging categories, such as flexitarians, through more refined segmentation and sharper profiling of consumers. (2) Knowing the level of capabilities of consumers in respect of cooking skills and knowledge about purchasing and preparing PB foods could help marketers develop strategies to improve buyers' skills and knowledge. (3) With an understanding of the opportunities (from the Opportunity domain of the COM-B model), including environmental context and resources and social influences, PB food businesses could more effectively market their PB food products. (4) It provides an understanding of capability, motivation and opportunity factors separately but also the interrelationship between these COM domains, as all these variables are intertwined.

Our ILR with the proposed model and the resulting research helps facilitate progress in the transition to PB diets necessary for more sustainable global food production and consumption.

The paper is the first to critically assess existing PB/MR literature regarding each of the COM-B domains, psychological discomfort and the six dietary types. We propose an alternative research model to address the gaps in literature and explain the antecedents and moderators in PB/MR dietary transition. The proposed model may provide information for practitioners and future researchers to understand a wider range of relevant factors influencing consumer’s behavior in transitioning to PB/MR diets.