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This study aimed to investigate whether information from reliable news sources such as medical experts and government officials, along with governmental and individual risk responses, influences consumers’ perceptions of news and intention to seek more information. Additionally, it aimed to explore the relationships between these perceptions and consumers’ intentions to seek information in a food safety risk event.

A survey design methodology was employed. A quasi-experimental approach divided 470 Taiwanese participants into three groups, each exposed to varying online news content about food safety news, designed according to the Internalization-Distribution-Explanation-Action (IDEA) model. This involved different combinations of reliable sources and risk response advice to examine the impact on news comprehension and behaviour intentions.

The results indicated that consumers perceived the news as highly credible when they read it with reliable news sources or risk response advice. Governmental and individual risk response advice significantly impacted consumers’ understanding of news. In addition, perceptions of news credibility and understanding of news can increase individuals’ information-seeking intentions to protect themselves from food safety risks.

This study introduced novel insights into the application of the source credibility theory (SCT) model within Taiwanese food safety incidents, identifying key factors that motivate consumer information-seeking behaviour. It marks an initial attempt to incorporate the IDEA model-based risk communication content into research design, aligning with existing literature while highlighting the critical role of reliable sources in enhancing news credibility and consumer response.

We demonstrate in a laboratory experiment that the effectiveness of performance-contingent incentives is inversely related to risk-aversion levels. For about 16.5% of participants, performance fails to improve under performance-pay, and the probability of such failure increases with risk-aversion. This phenomenon works in part through the reduced effort level of more risk-averse individuals when effort level is positively correlated with risk exposure. It is also associated with higher self-reported levels of stress by more risk-averse people working under performance-contingent pay. We find no evidence of such stress causing decrements in the quality of effort affecting performance after controlling for effort level. However, controlling for effort, more risk-averse participants perform better under a fixed salary, leaving less room for improvement under performance-pay.

This paper identifies and maps themes and critiques emerging from feminist-informed and gender-focused mainstream entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship (SE) literature. We aim to develop a robust, theoretically informed gender-aware framework for future SE research.

A five-stage literature review process was undertaken to identify the common themes, key knowledge gaps and areas of contention highlighted by feminist critiques of mainstream entrepreneurship and what we refer to here as the “critical SE literature”. We draw on a widely used framework of epistemological approaches to discuss the emergent themes, specifically utilising three dominant epistemologies previously found to map onto entrepreneurship policy, those being: “gender as variable”, feminist standpoint and feminist poststructuralist positions.

We find feminist perspectives on SE particularly distinctive for their high reliance on relational and embedded accounts of the economy, more attentive to collectivist themes like “belongingness” in the performance of gender and identity, and maintaining a challenge to neoliberal and postfeminist norms. Anchoring each perspective in their respective epistemologies, we demonstrate their lineage in critiques of mainstream entrepreneurship and critical (non-feminist) SE. However, divergences from these lineages lead us to identify diversely contextualised and value-adding feminist accounts of SE that add richness and nuance to mainstream entrepreneurship theorising.

The relative “youth” of the gender-focused and feminist-informed SE literature, alongside the theoretical relevance of the feminist critique of mainstream entrepreneurship and critical social entrepreneurship literature, lead us to draw on the strengths of a more interpretivist paradigm in our research. This amplifies our ability to support the revelation of conceptual connections and relationships between emergent themes, theories, epistemologies and approaches drawn from multidisciplinary sources and to thereby enhance the reach, and associated value, of our research findings.

This review responds to calls for a gender-aware framework for social entrepreneurship research by (1) developing a set of original emergent themes, (2) tracing their intellectual lineage in associated research fields and (3) using them to deepen the connection between feminist epistemologies and entrepreneurship concepts.

With a growing world population and climate crises, edible insects are a promising alternative to conventional livestock. However, Western consumers are largely opposed to eating insects. The aim of this study is to investigate the acceptance of insects in a German sample with a specific focus on risk–benefit perceptions and risk preferences.

Data were collected via an online survey (N = 569). Established scales for food neophobia (FN), risk perception, risk preference and acceptance were used. The statistical analyses included mean comparisons regarding acceptance and risk–benefit perceptions of unprocessed and processed insects. We further examined the role of perceived benefits and risks as well as risk preferences as determinants of acceptance via hierarchical multiple regressions.

Respondents indicated lower perceived risks, and higher perceived benefits and thus higher acceptance for processed insect products as compared to whole insects. Risk perception was the strongest predictor of acceptance of unprocessed as well as processed insect food. Respondents who reported to have already eaten insects before exhibited higher risk preferences than those who had not.

This study specifically considered the role of risk preferences, which has been so far largely overlooked in consumer research on insect foods. The findings indicate that acceptance of insect food is mainly driven by risk perception rather than individual risk preferences. However, risk preferences should not be totally overlooked as they seem to play a role especially for unprocessed insects and the decision to try insects for the first time.

Firms that need to address growing concerns about the environmental impact of their activities could benefit from collaborating internally and externally. The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a theoretical model of the effects of internal and external environmental collaboration with customers on the firm performance of logistics service providers (LSPs).

Hierarchical multiple regression and generalised linear modelling are utilised to analyse 311 LSPs offering road transport services in Finland. The data set was collected from a Finnish nationwide logistics survey in 2012 and financial reports-based data.

External environmental collaboration with customers seems to be the most effective way to improve operational and financial performance, while internal environmental collaboration does not yield similar benefits.

Research limitations include the concentrated geographic origin of the respondents and the exclusion of potential indirect effects of environmental collaboration on operational and financial performance through environmental performance.

Managers planning to implement environmental initiatives should extend their focus from internal operations to external partners in the supply chain.

This research is one of the first attempts to focus on performance outcomes with regard to the environmental activities of LSPs. The research provides quantified insights using both self-reported and financial reports-based data.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how a combination of Normative Commitment (NC) and Instrumental Commitment (IC) affects the creation of budgetary slack when the decision-making mode is individual versus group.

We use 86 students in a two-by-two experimental design (individuals vs. groups and a combination of NC/IC vs. no NC/IC), fully crossed between participants, to examine the combined effects of NC/IC on budgetary slack creation by individuals and group members.

The results show that groups without NC/IC create the highest budgetary slack and differ from the other three experimental cells (groups with NC/IC and individuals with and without NC/IC). In addition, individuals with NC/IC also differ from individuals without NC/IC.

Research limitations are formation of groups, validity threats common to laboratory experiments, and generalizability of the findings. We do not believe these limitations are affecting the results.

As organizations continue to increase the use of group decision-making for setting their budgets, they may want to monitor groups with low NC/IC due to higher slack creation.

Use of groups can impact prosocial behavior via creating a “label” and/or forming social ties in budgeting.

This study extends budgetary slack creation under individuals versus group decision-making, introduces the combined effects of NC/IC as a psychological contract to the accounting literature, and examines the combined NC/IC effect on groups as compared to individuals.

Retailing has developed from independent merchants to multinational giants operating through global value chains, which has profoundly shaped consumption patterns in Western economies. This constant development currently consists of three global-scale change trajectories – climate change, online consumption, and technological development – that affect the retail industry. Based on this, this chapter concentrates on connecting the development paths of consumption and retailing and identifies various factors that affect the future of international retailing. The authors analyze the changes in institutional logics of international retailing by mapping the past, present, and future of the retail industry and consumption using content analysis of secondary data. The authors pay special attention to the effect of the current Covid-19 crisis on the future development of the retail industry. In the findings of this chapter, the authors recognize institutional logics changes in organizing the position of retailing as a connector of customers and producers, and the authors suggest blockchain to be an emerging new institutional order.

A project contractor can promote the success of a delivery project by planning the project well and following a project management methodology (PMM). However, various changes typically take place, requiring changes to the project plan and actions that deviate from the firm’s established PMM. The purpose of this paper is to explore different types of changes and change management activities over the lifecycle of delivery projects.

A qualitative single case study design was used. In total, 17 semi-structured interviews were carried out during a delivery project in a medium-sized engineering company that delivers complex systems to industrial customers.

Both plan-related changes and deviations from the PMM were mapped throughout the project lifecycle. Various internal and external sources of change were identified. An illustrative example of the interconnectedness of the changes reveals the potential escalation of changes over the project lifecycle. Managers and project personnel engage in different change management activities and improvisation to create alternative paths, re-plan, catch up, and optimize project performance after changes.

The empirical study is limited to a single case study setting and a single industry. The findings draw attention to the interconnectedness and potential escalation effect of changes over the lifecycle of the project, and the need for integrated change management and improvisation actions.

Efficient change management and improvisation at the early phase of a delivery project can potentially mitigate negative change incidents in later project phases. Changes are not only the project manager’s concern; project personnel’s skilled change responses are also helpful. The findings emphasize the importance of the project customer as a source of changes in delivery projects, meaning that customer relationship management throughout the project lifecycle is needed for successful change management.

The study offers increased understanding of changes and change management throughout the project lifecycle. The results show evidence of plan-related and methodology-related changes and their interconnections, thereby proposing a lifecycle view of integrated change management and improvisation in projects.