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The aim of this study is to examine the impact of technical and fundamental (referred to as firm-specific) factors on the cross-sectional variation in equity returns on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE).

To reach the objective, the study follows an empirical research approach. Cross-sectional regression analyses, factor-portfolio analyses and multifactor analyses are performed using 50 firm-specific factors for listed shares over three sample periods during 1994 to 2011.

The results suggest that a strong value and momentum effect is present and robust on the JSE, while a size effect is present but varies over time. Multifactor analyses show that value and momentum factors are collectively significant in explaining the cross-section of returns. The results imply that the JSE is either not an efficient market or that current market risk models are incorrectly specified.

The findings of the study offers practical application possibilities to investment analysts and portfolio managers.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to use such a comprehensive data set for the specific analyses on the JSE over such a long period. All previously identified statistical biases are addressed in this study. Different approaches are applied to compare results and test for robustness for the first time.

This study aims to identify current trends in flourishing-at-work (FAW) research, highlight significant gaps in the literature and guide future research directions in this important area.

This study adopts a framework-based systematic literature review (SLR) approach, focusing on established theories, contexts and methods and antecedents, decisions and outcomes framework. The utilization of Web of Science and Scopus databases ensures the inclusion of high-quality, peer-reviewed articles, adhering to the Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews framework.

This study found significant gaps in the literature of FAW. The summarized research gaps are reported using the Miles taxonomy of research gaps.

Organizations can enhance employee well-being by addressing identified gaps, implementing tailored practices and fostering supportive cultures.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to represent the first framework-based SLR on the holistic well-being construct, FAW. Using a rigorous methodology and comprehensive databases, our research offers valuable and unique insights, significantly enhancing the scholarly understanding of FAW.

Purpose: This paper presents a review of the current state and potential capabilities for application of robots, artificial intelligence and automated services (RAISA) in hotel companies.

Design/methodology/approach: A two-step approach was applied in this study. First, the authors make a theoretical overview of the robots, artificial intelligence and service automation (RAISA) in hotels. Second, the authors make a detailed overview of various case studies from global hotel practice.

Findings: The application of RAISA in hotel companies is examined in connection with the impact that technology has on guest experience during each of the five stages of the guest cycle: pre-arrival, arrival, stay, departure, assessment.

Research implications: Its implications can be searched with respect to future research. It deals with topics such as how different generations (guests and employees) perceive RAISA in the hotel industry and what is the attitude of guests in different categories of hotels (luxury and economy) towards the use of RAISA. It also shows what is the attitude of different types of tourists (holiday, business, health, cultural, etc.) and what kinds of robots (androids or machines) are more appropriate for different types of hotel operations.

Practical implications: The implications are related to the improvement of operations and operational management, marketing and sales, enhancement of customer experience and service innovation, training and management.

Originality/value: This book chapter complements and expands research on the role of RAISA in the hotel industry and makes some projections about the use of technologies in the future.

Internal corporate venturing is a vehicle for firms to realize strategic and financial goals through entrepreneurial ventures. Prior research presents a strategic process in which individual managers make rational choices based on their formal roles and top-down corporate objectives. Recent work has challenged this by adopting a relational approach using a macro-level perspective highlighting cultural and institutional logics. This study augments and develops this relational approach by contributing a micro-level perspective by focusing on managers engaged in developing ventures in large organizations. The data show how internal corporate venturing (ICV) actors use discursive practices to make sense of their relationship contexts and develop interpretive repertoires to give sense to their decisions and shape their future strategies. The data illustrate how corporate venturing actors make sense of their uncertain experience and develop insider-outsider strategies by balancing three competing interpretive repertories, which form the basis of strategies supporting an entrepreneurial future in an organizational context.

Forty-two interviews were conducted with ICV actors, including senior directors of corporate venturing units in multinational corporations and their venture project leaders. The authors conducted a micro-level study through an interpretive sensemaking analysis of managers' “talk.” Interviews are considered through three lenses: “functional talk” (why they said it), “interpretive themes” (what they said) and “interpretive repertoires” (how they said it).

The perceived challenges experienced by the participants through their relationships were identified. Participants emphasized balancing project and organizational role risk in pursuing venture development, leading to a perceived dependent trust relationship between supporters. Three interpretive repertories were identified through which participants positioned their explanations of their relationship contexts in ICV. Participants used these to discursively frame their corporate venturing practices and position their future strategies.

A new framework of corporate venture sensemaking and sensegiving reconfiguration is provided to explain how managers discursively resolve conflicting relationship pressures while maintaining personal positioning. The paper shows how conflicting interpretive repertoires and personal interpretations are generated through a discursive practice comprising sensemaking and sensegiving reconfiguration processes to shape their future strategies. The paper contributes to theory by explicating the relational perspective of ICV at the micro-level and demonstrates how this is influenced by the discursive practices of managers leading the ICV activity.

This study investigates the relationship between perceived supervisor support (PSS) and learner career curiosity and tests the mediating role of sense of belonging, engagement and learning self-efficacy.

The authors used a three-wave repeated cross-sectional data collected from 509 final-year undergraduate students of 11 Nigerian public universities, who had completed the compulsory work placement to analyze the influence of PSS on learner’s career curiosity via a parallel mediation involving sense of belonging, engagement (behavioural, emotional and cognitive) and self-efficacy.

The results show that engagement mediates the path through which PSS influences career curiosity. However, the authors found no evidence that sense of belonging and self-efficacy mediated the relationship between PSS and learner’s career curiosity in this population.

The findings of this study highlight the importance of PSS as a resource that influences learner’s career curiosity, particularly during a work placement.

Employers' lack of understanding of neurodiversity, coupled with a mismatch between job skills and workplace demands, contributes to this employment gap. In response to these challenges, neurodiverse individuals often consider entrepreneurship, with research indicating a propensity for entrepreneurial alertness and innovative benefits within the neurodiverse population.

Applying a strategic management lens, this chapter argued that neurodiverse entrepreneurs should adopt a strategic approach to enhance the success of their ventures. It introduced propositions emphasizing the importance of strategic management, strategic positioning, and various drivers such as formalization, entrepreneurial venture size, strategic level, industrial type, organizational leadership, and the strategic positioning implementation mix.

The strategic position was highlighted as a crucial aspect for neurodiverse entrepreneurs, advocating for the adoption of a strategic positioning mindset to navigate uncertain environments. Specific propositions suggest that strategic positioning can lead to enhanced financial wealth, personal satisfaction, and individual strengths among neurodiverse entrepreneurs. Additionally, this chapter explored strategic positioning drivers such as formalization, entrepreneurial venture size, strategic level, industrial type, organizational leadership, and the strategic positioning implementation mix.

In conclusion, this chapter highlighted the importance of strategic positioning for neurodiverse entrepreneurs seeking success in the competitive business landscape. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed, emphasizing the need for further research on factors contributing to a strategic mindset and metrics for monitoring the effectiveness of strategically positioned enterprises. Overall, adopting a strategic approach can empower neurodiverse entrepreneurs to overcome barriers, legitimize their businesses, and increase their chances of entrepreneurial success.

The framework of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) is principles-based and does not provide specific key performance indicators (KPIs) for integrated thinking and reporting. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose KPIs for integrated reporting which decipher a firm’s sustainability through empirical analysis.

As a proxy of firms’ sustainability, the authors focus on firms that have survived for more than 100 years and that have already achieved sustainability, and analyze these firms to reveal the financial features that distinguish sustainable firms from the other firms.

The study found two distinguishing facts: the value added that is distributed to stakeholders other than shareholders is significantly larger, and the stability of profitability and the profitability itself are significantly higher in sustainable firms.

The study proposes a value-added distribution and the stability of profitability as sustainability KPIs for integrated reporting.

First, this study provides the first evidence that value added distribution and the stability of profitability distinguish a firm’s sustainability. Second, it provides a new perspective in the search for sustainability KPIs. Third, as the empirical data consist of all listed firms in 136 countries, the results should be robust and general.

The purpose of this paper is to present a detailed analysis of the social enterprises (SE) and social entrepreneurship (SEship) literature that has been published in international journals from 1991 to 2010, determining the intellectual structure of both fields and their maturity as academic fields of study.

Using a quantitative methodology for literature study, named bibliometric analysis, relevant papers were obtained from three important international databases, and SE and SEship journals. An initial number of 1,343 records were identified and, after applying various filters, a total of 286 papers were studied for bibliometric indicators and epistemological orientation.

The study identified a significant increase in the scholarly investigation of SE and SEship in recent years, together with greater collaboration and international research. It was demonstrated that some countries are dominating the SE and SEship research area, such as the UK and the USA, whereas institutional and individual research output is spread more equally. Currently, no author or institution dominates the SE and SEship literature. The epistemological orientation suggests that the published literature is largely of a theoretical and descriptive nature in both fields, with only a small number of predictive papers.

This paper provides important contributions. First, it presents an intellectual structure of SE and SEship as a discipline. Second, it determines the current maturity of the field based on its epistemological orientation, concluding that SE and SEship are maturing, with theory development followed by empirical testing and validation generating an increase in consensus on the boundaries of the field.