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The paper aims to clarify the potential impact of data gathered from social media (SM) in the competitive intelligence (CI) process of organizations. As use of SM expands, analysis of this data becomes a critical business need providing essential support for decision makers. This paper seeks to examine how SM be used to enhance CI in an organizational context.

This paper adopted an exploratory mixed-method approach followed by a sequential and equal status design, with qualitative semi-structured interviews, accounting for the qualitative study and serving as precursor to a quantitative structured survey. Interviewees included a university professor and CI consultant, an SM analyst and a subject in a management position – all in the field of CI. A survey was sent to Fortune 1000 companies. Some 227 companies replied.

The findings were that the majority of respondents produce CI reports at least monthly, and that information transmitted mainly by presentation within organizations. Over 70% of companies outsource CI activities to specialized firms, while 80.9% of organizations felt CI improved their relationship with their customers. Not surprisingly, as the number of people dedicated to CI activities increased, the likelihood of an organization hiring outside companies specializing in CI diminished.

All organizations sampled were large US companies; thus, small- and medium-sized enterprises were excluded, as were non-US viewpoints. As survey respondents were anonymous, the source of data at the level of the individual is missing. Finally, only three interviewees provided the qualitative data.

This investigation determined organizations should have an established and well-structured CI department. Furthermore, such a department should have between five and ten employees to maximize the potential. Outsourcing depends on the company’s specific needs. Nevertheless, regardless of whether it outsources CI activities or not, each firm should monitor SM to enhance the CI process.

Much SM-based CI is either non-existent or in “embryotic” stages in most companies, and therefore still a work in progress. Furthermore, as SM is a relatively new phenomenon, studies supporting its implementation are scarce. Companies stand to gain significant improvements to CI if SM is effectively used.

In the evolving digital work landscape, where cyberloafing has become a notable challenge, this study aims to investigate the mechanisms through which organizations can effectively reduce such behaviors. Specifically, the research explores the role of employee adaptability in mitigating cyberloafing, taking into account the influences of temporal leadership, teamwork attitudes, and competitive work environments.

Utilizing the broaden-and-build theory and the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, we analyzed data from 245 employees through structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate how various factors influence cyberloafing.

The results indicate that employee adaptability significantly mitigates cyberloafing and serves as a mediating factor between temporal leadership, teamwork attitudes, and the impact of competitive work environments on cyberloafing. Temporal leadership and teamwork attitudes positively correlate with increased adaptability, thereby reducing cyberloafing. Conversely, competitive work environments, while slightly enhancing adaptability, substantially increase cyberloafing.

The study contributes new insights into the dynamics of cyberloafing, emphasizing the critical roles of adaptability, teamwork attitudes, and temporal leadership in reducing such behaviors. It underscores the need for organizations to foster a supportive culture that minimizes competitive pressures and promotes teamwork and leadership strategies conducive to high productivity and minimal cyberloafing. This research offers practical implications for designing workplace strategies aimed at boosting productivity and curbing undesirable online behaviors during work hours.

Means-end chain (MEC) theory proposes that knowledge held in individuals’ memory is organized in a hierarchy with concrete thoughts linked to more abstract thoughts in a sequence progressing from means (i.e., brands and product features) to psychological and social consequences and finally to ends (i.e., fulfillment of personal values). This chapter proposes several advances in the theory. First, specific buying and consumption situations serve as frames of reference when consumers are thinking about products and alternative features of products and brands. Second, states of psychological imbalance may occur in consumers’ minds among linkages retrieved automatically for features/ consequences and consequences/values; thus, Heider's balance theory incorporates MEC theory and research. The theoretical and practical usefulness of means-end research increases by asking consumers to name an acceptable alternative to the product and brand used in a recent consumption situation, as well as an unacceptable option and to describe the features/consequences/values of these options. Consequently, alternative relationships of consumer/brands (e.g., casual friendships, marriages, enmities) become relevant for MEC theory. To examine the propositions empirically, this chapter describes psychological schemata for four MECs that combine two consumers’ recent consumption situations with personal values.

A problem for many organisations today is what is referred to as the “knowing‐doing gap” or the difference between possessing the knowledge and the actual application of it. This paper aims to explore the perception that differences exist with regard to soft or tacit knowledge‐knowing and utilisation in the IT workplace, but at the level of gender and ethnic‐culture specifically. Through a statistical examination of electronic survey results from two ICT organisations in Australia, the study explores the validity of such claims.

Continuing from previous grounded theory research, a series of workplace scenarios testing for such knowledge utilisation were created. After trialling the initial scenarios on a pilot population, they were further refined and made part of an online survey questionnaire. Some 119 employees of two Australian ICT organisations rated how they would deal with soft knowledge situations both in principle and in practice. The sample was not selected along gender or cultural lines beforehand; however statistical analysis was conducted to determine if differences to situation‐handling existed.

The paper provides empirical insights into how genders and cultures deal with soft knowledge situations in different ways. The findings do tend to support certain stereotypes such as females generally appearing more passive, relationship and high context oriented and less individualistic. Whilst males appeared more achievement‐oriented and individualistic, Anglo‐males were closer to females for relationship and high context ideals.

Due to the limited sample size the research results may lack generalisability. Furthermore criticism of Likert scales also exists, as does the use of language other than English as a representation of ethnic culture.

The study adopts a novel use of soft knowledge inventories when applied to the parameters of gender and culture.

Tacit knowledge is often difficult to define, given its inexpressible characteristics. Literature review highlights the impact of tacit knowledge on certain knowledge management topics and these include organizational learning, intellectual capital, knowledge management strategy and so forth, but some research gaps remain. The paper aims to propose directions for future research in this domain of discourse.

A review of existing studies highlights some gaps in the literature on the role of tacit knowledge, which is followed by questions for future research.

Given the richness of tacit knowledge discourse, the authors believe that the proposed questions offer avenues for scholars to explore and develop greater understanding of the role of tacit know‐how in certain knowledge management topics.

The authors acknowledge that there are certain limitations to this paper, namely, focusing on the review of tacit knowledge and not on other forms of knowledge. The review presents the role of tacit knowledge and its use in the context of knowledge management related topics. Finally this study proposes only future research directions that are far from being exhaustive, rather than presenting field study results.

This paper reviews the existing literature on how tacit knowledge is perceived and used in certain knowledge management areas. Reviewing the current literature uncovers a number of gaps regarding the role of tacit knowledge.

The purpose of this conceptual chapter is to analyze the current state of the astructural bias in symbolic interactionism as it relates to three inter-related processes over time: (1) the formalization of critiques of symbolic interactionism as ahistorical, astructural, and acritical perspectives; (2) an ahistorical understanding of early expressions of the disjuncture between symbolic interactionism and more widely accepted forms of sociological theorizing; and (3) persistent and widespread inattentiveness to past and present evidence-based arguments that address the argument regarding symbolic interactionism as an astructural, ahistorical, and acritical sociological perspective. The argument frames the historical development of the astructural bias concept in an historically and socially conditioned way, from its emergence through its rejection and ultimately including conclusions about contemporary state of the astructural bias as evidenced in the symbolic interactionist literatures of the last couple of decades. The analysis and argument concludes that the contemporary result of these intertwined historical and social conditioning processes is that the astructural bias myth has been made real in practice, and that the reification of the myth of an astructural bias has had the ruinous effect of virtually eradicating a vital tradition in the interactionist perspective which extends back to the earliest formulations of the perspective. As a result, a handful of suggestions that serve to aid in reclaiming the unorthodox structuralism of symbolic interactionism and the related interactionist study of social organization are provided in the conclusion.

Given the scarce research on the intention to use the metaverse by higher education students in the marketing field and since the introduction of the metaverse brings a new dimension to consumer interaction, the purpose of this study aims to understand what psychological and contextual factors such as the feeling of loneliness or perceived social risk of young people affect the incorporation of immersive reality tools in the teaching-learning process.

Currently, the use of the metaverse in university education has captured the interest of teachers and researchers. The adoption of immersive virtual platforms where students experience different forms of interaction through customized avatars appears as a promising opportunity in the field of marketing, while concerns arise about the social and psychological risks that may affect its main adopters, youth. The proposed relationships were evaluated using PLS-SEM (symmetric) and QCA (asymmetric) approaches.

The results revealed that the feeling of loneliness, as well as personality traits of openness to experience and conscientiousness, in relation to hedonic motivations, are significant for the intention to use the metaverse.

This research provides useful implications from an educational perspective, as well as applications in the commercial management of immersive platforms, taking into account their social impact, allowing for effective exploration and development of the metaverse’s potential in educational environments.

This research analyzes the relationship between the experience of feelings of loneliness and perceived social risk in the educational environment, along with the psychological and motivational factors affecting the intention to use the metaverse by higher education students which have not been investigated in the scientific literature so far.

Busch focuses on what he regards as the three broad causes of immorality in the modern world: scientism, statism, and marketism. He views these three “isms” pejoratively and originating respectively with Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes and Adam Smith. Each is treated as a “leviathan” spewing immorality from its multiple heads in the form of undue faith in the three different kinds of social order they generate.

This paper aims to investigate how dynamic capabilities enabled survival in a select group of brewers, during one of the lengthiest and most severe industry consolidations in history. In doing so, we advance Abell’s (1978) theory of strategic windows through integration with the resource-based view of the firm.

Using a mixed method approach, we first apply case study methods to develop hypotheses around the timing and level of operational capability required for survival. In the second phase, we test these hypothesized estimations on the USA Brewing population.

Indicate that brewers which had advanced distribution and manufacturing operational capabilities before the strategic window of opportunity closed had higher survival rates.

This study reinforces the importance of making timely strategic investments in capabilities.

The integration of strategic window and capability theories advances our understanding of the roles that capabilities and time play in determining firm survival.

Realist evaluation seeks to answer the question of “what works for whom in which circumstances?” through developing and testing middle range theories (MRTs). MRTs are programme theories that outline how certain mechanisms of an intervention work in a specific context to bring about certain outcomes. In this paper, the authors tested an initial MRT about the mechanism of participation. The authors used evidence from a participatory organisational intervention in five worksites of a large multi-national organisation in the US food service industry.

Qualitative data from 89 process tracking documents and 24 post-intervention, semi-structured interviews with intervention stakeholders were analysed using template analysis.

The operationalised mechanism was partial worksite managers’ engagement with the research team. Six contextual factors (e.g. high workload) impaired participation, and one contextual factor (i.e. existing participatory practices) facilitated participation. Worksite managers’ participation resulted in limited improvement in their awareness of how working conditions can impact on their employees’ safety, health, and well-being. Based on these findings, the authors modified the initial MRT into an empirical MRT.

This paper contributes to the understanding of “what works for whom in which circumstances” regarding participation in organisational interventions.