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The purpose of this paper is to explore how the institutional context influences human resource management (HRM) policies in the public and private sector in Nigeria.

The convergent parallel mixed methods approach was adopted for this study. Survey data were collected from 122 HR managers across public and private sector organizations in Nigeria as well as 13 qualitative interviews. ANCOVA was used to analyse quantitative data while thematic analysis was used to analyse qualitative data in order to understand the influence of institutions on HRM in the public and private sector in Nigeria.

Findings indicate that while coercive, mimetic and normative institutional mechanisms influenced HRM in both the public and private sector, the influence of coercive mechanisms was significantly higher in the public sector, largely due to the poor enforcement of labour legislation and attempts by private sector organizations to adopt neo-liberal approaches to HRM.

The study provides an understanding of the institutional context of HRM in Nigeria by highlighting how varying degrees of pressures from the environment create internal diversity in HRM approaches in the public and private sector.

Drawing upon attribution theory, this study aims to examine how different types of product information sources (mainstream celebrities vs micro-celebrities) interact with content type (experiential vs promotional) to influence consumer response toward native posts on social media (causal attributions and click intention).

A total of 134 adult Twitter users participated in a 2 (source type: mainstream celebrity vs micro-celebrity) × 2 (content type: experiential vs promotional) between-subjects online experimental design.

Results showed that for experiential native advertising, messages from a micro-celebrity generated more information-sharing attributions and less monetary gain attributions than those from a mainstream celebrity on social media. Moreover, the experiential native ads from a micro-celebrity elicited greater intention to click the URL than those from a mainstream celebrity. However, consumer response was similar for promotional native advertising regardless of message source. This study demonstrates that information-sharing attributions mediate the interaction effects of source type and content types on click intention.

This study contributes to the literature on native advertising by providing empirical evidence to highlight the effect of message source and content type on consumer response. This study shows that the success of native advertising depends on how consumers perceive the messages and content creators' intention to communicate.

The purpose of this paper is to share the views of award‐winning business consultant, Phil Young, on how to survive a recession and come out on top.

The views of Phil Young on how to survive a recession are given in the form of a list of basic principles to follow.

The paper presents a list of basic principles to follow, which it suggests might help save businesses.

The paper providers some pointers form an award‐winning business consultant on how to survive a recession.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the source of brand-related user-generated content (UGC) (a close friend vs a celebrity) interacts with content sponsorship (organic UGC vs sponsored UGC) to influence consumer causal attributions, brand attitude, and intention to comply with the recommendation.

In all, 285 college students participated in a two (source: a close friend vs a celebrity) by two (content sponsorship: organic vs sponsored) between-subjects online experimental design.

Results showed that recommendation from a close friend generated more information-sharing attributions and less monetary-gain attributions than did recommendation from a celebrity when the brand-related UGC was organic. In contrast, source type did not influence causal attributions differently when the UGC was sponsored. Further, this study demonstrated that both information-sharing and monetary-gain attributions mediated the effects of source type and content sponsorship on brand attitude and intention to comply with the recommendation.

This study is one of the first to examine the effectiveness of celebrities as a source of brand-related UGC. Also, this research extends the existing knowledge about source effects by examining the relative effectiveness of two sources of product information, close friends and celebrities, who have both been found to be individually effective in the traditional marketing context. Additionally, the findings of this study that the relative effectiveness of source type depends on whether brand-related UGC is sponsored or not add a further insight into how source type influences the effectiveness of brand-related UGC.

The purpose of the paper is to introduce the themed issue about qualitative research in the business and management field

The paper considers some issues about how to define the term “qualitative research”, and then introduces each of the papers in the themed issue.

The contents of this themed issue demonstrate the insights that qualitative research can make into the management field.

A large amount of interest was generated in the themed issue. As a consequence, Emerald Publishing Group are launching a new journal which specifically focuses on qualitative research in this field.

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of research which explores how the concept qualitative management research is variably constructed and defined by those who have a direct interest in, and influence upon, important aspects of qualitative management research.

Information was gathered through the use of semi‐structured interviews conducted with 44 individuals who were drawn from four observer‐identified types of “expert” informant who were taken to generally represent key groups of stakeholders in the conduct, evaluation and dissemination of qualitative management research. Interview data from these individuals were analysed though an iterative process using the NVivo software package to inductively generate definitional categories and explore aspects of their interrelationships.

From data analysis it was apparent that there are eight different, but often interrelated, ways in which interviewees define qualitative management research. The philosophical dimensions of each of these variable definitions are outlined and their relationships to the methodological literature are explored. The variety identified amongst informants, indicates how there is a potential dissensus possible regarding what qualitative management research might entail, as well as regarding its provenance and its academic status. This dissensus potentially can create problems with regard to its evaluation.

So whist there is little evidence to suggest any systematic relationship between the variable institutional backgrounds of informants and how they variably define and perceive qualitative management research, philosophical influences upon this contested terrain are explored and the implications of the identified dissensus for how qualitative management research is perceived and evaluated is discussed. The implications of this evidently contested terrain are discussed with particular reference to the future constitution of qualitative management research and its evaluation.

The purpose of this paper is to outline certain currents in the assessment of qualitative research management and organizational research and briefly position this journal in relation to these developments.

The argument draws upon contemporary debates about criteriology and its relation to underlying knowledge-constituting philosophical commitments that may be sometimes unnoticed.

The need for a more permissive, pluralistic and reflexive approach to research evaluation that accepts difference and heterogeneity in qualitative research.

The need for greater reflexivity on the part of research anyone evaluating research.

The paper is of value to those who are engaged in various aspects of qualitative research evaluation either in terms of being evaluated or in terms of undertaking the evaluations.

Many companies have found that the presumed benefits of organizational change initiatives, such as TQM or team working, have not been forthcoming because managers have failed to support those developments through the simultaneous adaptation of the company’s performance evaluation and control systems. This paper reports new research sponsored by the EPSRC which has developed a prototype practitioner methodology to help managers in their role as organizational designers to critically appraise and diagnose current organizational control practices and, where appropriate, intervene.

Despite some notable exceptions, the intricacies, dilemmas and impact of manufacturing management researchers’ adoption of different field roles during data collection in collaborating organizations tends to be glossed over in published work. The aim of this paper is to investigate the potential impact of different field roles upon manufacturing management research. Through a discussion of the research methodology literature two ideal types are presented: the researcher field role and the consultant field role. By drawing upon examples from the authors’ own experience we argue that inadvertent oscillation between these roles influences research findings. Nevertheless it is argued that both field roles are important in manufacturing research, so what is important is to maintain a balance between them. Such a balance requires both situational and epistemic reflexivities. This paper seeks to encourage researchers to be more reflexive in their published research and to avoid the tendency to present rationalized (and sanitized) accounts. The consequence would be a more rigorous analysis of the impact of the researcher’s field role upon the manufacturing management research process and findings.