Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6030041

Authors: Salman Naseem Md Shariful Islam Tatiana Iakovleva

Innovation clusters contribute to regional development but face substantial organizational challenges when time-limited public support is reduced or withdrawn. This study examines how membership-based cluster organizations build resilience during such funding transitions. Drawing on organizational resilience theory and conceptualizing clusters as meta-organizations governed through negotiated authority, we conducted a qualitative comparative multiple-case study of nine innovation clusters in Norway and Europe. The empirical material comprises five live semi-structured interviews, four written responses to the same interview guide, and secondary documentary sources. An abductive within-case and cross-case analysis identified four strategic adaptation types: Revenue Diversifiers, Government-Exit Strategists, Survivalists, and Platform Shifters. Cross-case analysis showed that Revenue Diversifiers and Platform Shifters combined multiple revenue mechanisms and service infrastructures, whereas Survivalists remained primarily dependent on public grants and basic membership contributions. The findings show that resilience during predictable funding transitions is strengthened by anticipatory development of member-value propositions, service portfolios, partnerships, and digital infrastructure. The study contributes a typology of post-grant adaptation and explains how negotiated member legitimacy and coordinated service reconfiguration shape resilience in membership-based innovation intermediaries.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6030040

Authors: Constantinos Challoumis Nikolaos Eriotis Dimitrios Vasiliou Konstantinos Mavrommatis

Artificial intelligence (AI) may influence economic performance through productivity, innovation, and the diffusion of advanced technologies, but direct country-level measures of AI adoption remain limited for small economies. This study examines the association between AI-related technological capability and economic growth in Cyprus. The descriptive analysis covers 1993–2024, while the econometric analysis uses the common annual sample for 2008–2024 after introducing one-period lags. High-technology exports as a percentage of manufactured exports are treated as an indirect indicator of technological sophistication and absorptive capacity, rather than as a direct measure of AI adoption. A sequential distributed lag ordinary least squares framework introduces current and lagged high-technology exports, merchandise trade, and inflation, with heteroskedasticity-consistent HC3 standard errors. A COVID-19 indicator for 2020–2021 and an observation-exclusion sensitivity analysis are used to assess the influence of exceptional pandemic-era movements. The preferred specification explains a substantial share of annual GDP growth variation, but the small sample requires cautious interpretation. The estimates indicate a positive contemporaneous and a negative lagged association for high-technology exports, a stronger lagged than contemporaneous trade association, and opposite-signed current and lagged inflation coefficients. The COVID-19 indicator is statistically insignificant and does not materially alter the principal coefficient pattern. Complementary DESI, Eurostat enterprise AI use, and ICT employment indicators show that Cyprus has broadly adequate digital inputs while enterprise AI adoption has not yet reached the European Union average, indicating considerable scope for further diffusion. The findings are exploratory statistical associations and do not identify causal effects of AI. The study contributes a country-specific macroeconomic assessment of technological capability, digital readiness, and growth in a small, highly open economy.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6030039

Authors: Anele Pakkies Ifeanyi Mbukanma Olaitan Ayotunde Shemfe

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly reshaping customer relationship management (CRM) practices in service industries, yet its perceived effectiveness within emerging regional tourism economies remains underexplored. This study examined respondents’ perceptions of how AI-enabled capabilities influence CRM effectiveness within the tourism sector in Mthatha, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Existing AI–CRM research is largely concentrated in developed economies, limiting contextual understanding of its strategic value in resource-constrained and relational tourism environments. A positivist, quantitative explanatory design was adopted, and data were collected through a structured survey administered to managers and staff of tourism enterprises across the Eastern Cape (n = 121). Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling was employed to assess the measurement model and test the hypothesized relationships. The model explained 63.2% of the variance in perceived CRM effectiveness. Sales forecasting and lead scoring exerted the strongest positive influence, followed by sentiment and feedback analysis, while personalization and automation showed positive but statistically insignificant effects. The findings suggest that tourism enterprises may achieve stronger relationship outcomes by prioritizing predictive and analytical AI tools while integrating automation within human-centered service strategies. The study extends AI–CRM theory to an emerging African tourism context and demonstrates that AI effectiveness is context dependent rather than universally transferable.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6030038

Authors: Dimitrios Folinas Elena Fakou Achilleas Christou Maria-Theodora Folina Dimitrios Mylonas

The rapid growth of e-commerce has increased the strategic importance of last-mile delivery as a critical determinant of customer satisfaction and retention. This study examines consumer perceptions of last-mile delivery performance in the Greece e-commerce market, focusing on Millennials and Generation Z. Data were collected from 1252 consumers through a structured questionnaire covering demographics, online purchasing behavior and satisfaction with third-party logistics (3PL) services. Reliability analysis confirmed strong internal consistency of the measurement scales. The findings show that Greek logistics service providers generally meet consumer expectations at a moderate-to-high level, particularly in tracking information, pre-order information and service quality. However, delivery time, communication during delays and compensation procedures remain weaker service dimensions. Comparative analysis revealed no significant differences in satisfaction between Millennials and Gen Z. Regression analysis demonstrated that communication quality, delivery execution and problem resolution positively affect satisfaction, while longer lead times reduce it. Furthermore, positive customer experience significantly increases future intention to continue online shopping, highlighting the strategic importance of efficient last-mile delivery.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6030037

Authors: Georgia Parastatidou Vassilios Chatzis

This study presents a systematic review of the literature on business localness, a concept which, despite increasing interest, remains theoretically fragmented. This fragmentation limits a comprehensive understanding of how firms are embedded in local economies and how localness can be systematically measured. Using the PRISMA methodology, 54 articles were analyzed from an initial set of 500 publications in the Scopus database. Combining bibliometric clustering and qualitative synthesis, the study identifies seven major research clusters and organizes them into broader research streams. The findings suggest that localness is primarily examined in terms of its relational, spatial and economic dimensions. Mechanisms such as knowledge diffusion, trust and access to resources are emphasized, as are outcomes relating to innovation, business performance, sustainability and regional development. However, the economic dimension remains fragmented and is rarely conceptualized as a distinct and measurable component of business localness. Combining findings from previously fragmented research streams, this study develops an integrative framework for business localness that incorporates spatial, relational, and economic dimensions of embeddedness and links them to the mechanisms and outcomes through which firms contribute to local economies. The study is limited by its reliance on English-language journal articles indexed in Scopus and by the conceptual nature of the proposed framework, which requires further empirical validation across different contexts and industries. By explicitly introducing economic embeddedness as a distinct analytical dimension, the framework extends existing embeddedness theory and provides a foundation for future empirical research on how firms contribute to local economic development and sustainability.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6030036

Authors: Truls Engström Mitja Gorenak

Adventure tourism businesses operate in environments characterized by substantial physical risk, highly dynamic natural conditions, and rising customer expectations. As demand for adventure tourism grows, operators must continuously balance experiential delivery with effective risk management and operational control. This study investigates safety management practices among adventure tourism operators in Norway. Data were collected via an online survey of 89 commercial adventure tourism businesses. Results show that environmental conditions—particularly rapidly changing weather—represent the most commonly perceived risk factor, followed by client behaviour, including failure to follow instructions. Slips, trips, and falls constitute the most frequently reported injury type. Tour guide competence emerges as a central safety management strategy. Collectively, the findings underscore the crucial role of tour guides as frontline safety managers and illustrate how small adventure tourism operators in Norway maintain robust safety systems within the constraints of limited resources. The study contributes to the literature on business management in high-risk service sectors and provides practical insights for strengthening safety management practices in adventure tourism.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020035

Authors: Carol Nash

Endpoints of a continuous scale have identified the work engagement extremes of psychological flow and burnout. If a scale, employees could hold these experiences simultaneously, to some degree. Instead, there are two types of employees concerning work engagement: those who experience the extremes of psychological flow and burnout, and those who do not. A deductive model concerning General Systems Theory modifies Csikszentmihalyi’s four-quadrant model. It indicates that eliminating burnout requires achieving psychological flow rather than any other form of work engagement. Therefore, not all experiences currently labelled as burnout are such. Considering skill and challenge, apathy, anxiety, and boredom more correctly define these other negative work-engagement experiences. As such, solutions for improving work engagement require: (1) differentiating burnout from other forms of work-related exhaustion concerning employee skill and challenge, (2) interventions promoting the positive aspect of every work engagement type, and (3) abandoning the idea that social justice necessitates all employees achieve psychological flow—instead viewing social justice as achieved work engagement. Relevant work engagement solutions are according to the modified four-quadrant model. This novel perspective offers conceptually simple, research-supported approaches to eliminating burnout and other forms of work-related exhaustion, promoting work engagement as a preferred form of social justice.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020034

Authors: Almudena Recio-Román Manuel Recio-Menéndez María Victoria Román-González

The grocerant represents an emerging hybrid retail–foodservice format integrating grocery shopping, prepared meals, and in-store dining. Although practically significant, the academic literature remains limited and dispersed. This PRISMA-informed semi-systematic review synthesizes 16 studies—including direct grocerant research and adjacent work on retail innovation, prepared foods, and digital food retail—to clarify the current state of knowledge. The review followed structured database searches, citation tracking, title/abstract screening, and full-text eligibility assessment. Three main perspectives emerged. First, consumer-focused studies emphasize customer experience, food healthiness, multidimensional perceived value (functional, hedonic, social, and financial), brand prestige, in-store dining behavior, and loyalty. Second, strategic research positions grocerants within retail format innovation and competitive convergence between grocery and restaurant sectors. Third, operational perspectives link grocerants to prepared-food systems, retail food environments, and omnichannel transformation. Major gaps include limited operational and comparative research, geographic concentration, and weak digital integration. The review suggests that grocerants function as evolving systems where convenience, experience, branding, and digital transformation converge.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020033

Authors: Sara L. Beckman Amy G. Chen Christopher Chou Charles Zhou Gu Nick Jiang Lingyue Zhu

Innovation proficiency is widely recognized as essential to organizational competitiveness; yet, how product managers and their teams develop these proficiencies across organizational contexts remains understudied. This study examines six innovation proficiencies—Customer Empathy, Insight Generation, Idea Generation, Idea Selection, Experimentation and Learning, and Mobilizing and Executing—using a longitudinal dataset of 15,842 survey responses collected across 1066 organizations over nine years (2016–2024). Responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, nonparametric group comparisons, correlation analysis, reliability testing, longitudinal analysis, and systematic qualitative theme extraction from nearly 50,000 responses. Insight Generation is consistently the lowest-rated proficiency despite being ranked high in importance. Organization-weighted analysis finds significant, but modest, improvement in just one of the six proficiencies (Idea Selection) over the study period and positive but non-significant trends in the others. Qualitative analysis identifies customer centricity, lack of formalized processes and data-based decision making as persistent challenges over time. These findings suggest that improvement of innovation practices depends not only on Product Managers and their teams, but on organization-wide infrastructure changes to facilitate and support their innovation work.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020032

Authors: Ignatius Osakue Sanar Muhyaddin Colin Kuka Sandra Leyva-Hernández Victoria Onyeagwibe Juan Hernández-Arzaba

Within the South-Western food industry of Nigeria, the overall impact, associated challenges, and implementation of Big Data Analytics (BDA) have remained underexplored. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the extent of BDA adoption, identify key barriers and enablers, assess the operational impacts of BDA adoption, and propose a structured framework to guide effective integration. The study adopted a deductive, mono-quantitative method. Data were collected from 151 participants through a stratified sampling technique using an online survey questionnaire and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods, including Chi-Square, Likelihood Ratio, and Fisher-Freeman-Halton Exact tests, using SPSS version 26 and Excel as analytical tools. While awareness and appreciation of BDA’s strategic benefits are growing, significant challenges such as high implementation costs, a shortage of skilled personnel, regulatory uncertainties, and technological limitations persist. Nevertheless, organisations that have embraced BDA report notable improvements in operational efficiency, strategic decision-making, customer satisfaction, and competitive advantage. This study proposes a practical BDA adoption framework designed to address the identified barriers and enhance successful implementation and offers several recommendations. The research helps bridge the knowledge gap on BDA adoption in emerging economies and offers actionable insights for business leaders, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to drive innovation and sustainability in Nigeria’s food industry.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020031

Authors: Gordian Bwemelo Goodluck Mmari Robert Mashenene

The effect of competitor orientation on the performance of furniture manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises was examined, with a special focus on customer loyalty as a mediator. A sample of 364 firms was obtained from the Dar es Salaam Region using proportionate stratified sampling. Data were collected using structured questionnaires and analysed inferentially using covariance-based structural equation modelling. When the mediator was controlled, the results showed that responsiveness to competitor intelligence had a significant effect on FM-SME performance, suggesting partial mediation. However, competitor intelligence generation had no significant effect on FM-SME performance when the mediator was included, implying full mediation. The conclusion is that the mere generation of competitor intelligence does not guarantee improved performance unless firms deploy strategies to reinforce customer loyalty. FM-SMEs should monitor competitors and use competitor insights and customer feedback to improve product design and features, adjust prices, and enhance customer service.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020030

Authors: Nadege Firsova

This study examines cultural risk as a key factor in organizational strategy, bridging cultural studies and the risk management literature. Despite its significance, culture as a risk driver remains underexplored, partly due to a lack of consensus on its definition. Existing research predominantly relies on Hofstede’s model, treating culture as a static, measurable construct, overlooking its dynamic and heterogeneous nature. To address this gap, this study explores cultural risk components through 34 interviews with senior managers in international business. The findings suggest an innovative approach, integrating strategic management perspectives, considering external product-market positioning, and internal resource-based views to better capture cultural dynamics. The study proposes a unifying framework where cultural risk management functions as knowledge management, guided by the principle of requisite variety. This framework offers practical insights for both researchers and practitioners in managing cultural risk effectively.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020029

Authors: Abdelaziz Abdalla Alowais Abubakr Suliman

This study explores how Machiavellian leadership behaviors may become embedded in ethical mentorship relationships and how these dynamics influence trust formation, dependency, emotional ambivalence, and trust erosion within higher education institutions (HEIs). Drawing on destructive leadership and impression management perspectives, this study examines how ethical rhetoric and developmental language may function as mechanisms through which manipulation, reciprocity expectations, and dependency become normalized within organizational mentorship relationships. A qualitative research design was adopted, using semi-structured interviews with sixteen participants employed within multicultural HEIs in the United Arab Emirates. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify recurring patterns related to mentorship experiences, ethical self-presentation, emotional tension, and evolving trust dynamics. The findings revealed five interrelated themes: “The Wolf in a Scholar’s Robe,” where mentors project ethical identities while pursuing self-interest; “Debts That Never End,” reflecting the use of gratitude and reciprocity to create ongoing obligation; “Trust Fractures,” characterized by the erosion of interpersonal and institutional trust following perceived manipulation; “Ambivalence of Gratitude,” capturing the emotional conflict between appreciation and resentment; and “Signals of Dual Image,” highlighting the contrast between public ethical performance and private exploitative behavior. Together, these findings demonstrate how ethical mentorship may simultaneously function as a source of professional support and a mechanism of subtle control. This study contributes to the literature by conceptualizing performative ethical mentorship as a potential mechanism through which manipulative leadership behaviors may become legitimized within academic institutions. It further extends current scholarship by integrating Machiavellian leadership, ethical mentorship, emotional ambivalence, and trust dynamics within an analysis of multicultural HEI environments in the UAE, highlighting how performative ethical leadership may gradually erode psychological safety, relational trust, and organizational confidence.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020028

Authors: Octavian Dospinescu Bogdan-Ionuţ Lefter Gabriela-Lorena Grigorcea Valentin Florentin Dumitru Andreea Măldăreanu

Digital technologies make it possible to combine multiple technical functionalities within applications that address practical and organizational needs. This paper presents Cozzmo, an Android mobile prototype for supporting communication and coordination in shared households. The system combines chat, polls, chores, shopping support, photo albums, presence awareness, mood indicators, and location-based alerts in one application. The prototype was implemented in native Java for Android using Firebase services and an MVVM architecture with LiveData. Its real-time behavior was evaluated on two physical Android devices under mixed connectivity conditions, including mobile data, hotspot use, and temporary connection loss. The evaluation examined end-to-end propagation delay, recovery after reconnection, and state convergence during concurrent user actions. In the reported test sessions, the prototype preserved update order in baseline scenarios, recovered queued messages after short interruptions, and reached a consistent final state in the concurrent voting and task-update tests. The time needed for updates to appear in the interface was less than the propagation delay, suggesting that the measured response path was shaped mainly by network and backend propagation. These findings indicate that the prototype is technically viable and can serve as a basis for further work on mobile systems for household collaboration.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020027

Authors: Li-Shiue Gau Ying-Zhen Wang

In high-demand financial environments, employees’ capacity to regulate and sustain personal energy may constitute a critical yet underdeveloped organizational resource. Drawing on the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model and Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, this study conceptualizes energy management as a multidimensional personal resource that may support adaptive functioning and innovation under demanding work conditions. Despite increasing conceptual attention to energy-related constructs, systematic scale validation and cross-level performance evidence remain limited. This research adopts a two-study design to develop and validate a multidimensional Energy Management Scale within financial institutions. Study 1 (N = 299 employees from 11 financial institutions) examines the factorial structure, reliability, and nomological validity of the scale. Confirmatory factor analysis is used to examine the proposed four-dimensional configuration of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual energy. The scale demonstrates acceptable internal consistency reliability and evidence of structural validity, including convergent and discriminant validity. Structural modeling results reveal that overall energy management is positively related to innovative behavior and organizational citizenship behavior. However, perceived workload was significantly associated only with physical energy, suggesting that demand-related mechanisms of energy may not operate uniformly across energy components. Additionally, exploratory institution-level aggregation analyses showed preliminary, counterintuitive negative associations between mean organizational energy levels and return on equity (ROE) in some years. Given the limited number of institutional clusters, these cross-level findings are preliminary and intended to provide initial external criterion evidence rather than confirmatory causal inference. Study 2 (N = 148 employees from two institutions) further examines alternative scale versions and external validity through stress coping capacity, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction. Results were discussed to examine the robustness and predictive validity of the scale across samples. Collectively, this study advances energy management research by providing a psychometrically supported measurement instrument and preliminary multilevel evidence of its organizational relevance. The findings position energy management as a measurable human-capital resource with implications for sustainable workforce innovation and performance in financial institutions.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020026

Authors: Julie Dal Pra Natasha Kareem Brusco Sara Whittaker Debra Mitchell Christina L. Ekegren

Background: One form of domestic and family violence (DFV) is financial abuse, which involves a person manipulating another person’s access to finances, assets, and financial decision-making. The aim of this study was to understand the perceived role of Australian financial institutions, government bodies and other key stakeholders in the prevention, early identification and resolution of financial abuse in small businesses. Methods: A single workshop was conducted in Melbourne, Australia, in November 2024. Representatives from five stakeholder groups were invited to participate: (i) Australian regulated financial institutions; (ii) Australian unregulated commercial lenders; (iii) government bodies; (iv) small business professional services organisations and their peak bodies; and (v) industry and representative bodies. Results: Four main themes were generated relating to the prevention, early identification and resolution of financial abuse in small businesses: (1) shining a light on financial abuse; (2) detecting and revealing red flags; (3) business lending practices create vulnerability; and (4) building a collective response. Conclusion: Whilst institutions demonstrate inherent potential for addressing family violence and financial abuse within small business contexts, realising this capacity requires substantial investment in education, contextual literacy development, collective responses and structural and legislative reform.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020025

Authors: Fusanori Iwasaki Yasushi Ueki

The strategic decision to choose in-house production and outsourcing (make and buy) is one of the enormous research questions of international business studies. However, the dynamics of offshore mixed sourcing involving suppliers with varying capabilities remain under-explored. This study intends to elucidate how a firm optimizes the division of labour between an affiliated offshore factory and heterogeneous contract manufacture. We adopt a single-case study design to analyse a Japanese apparel firm operating in China. The empirical analysis using the plant-level data of both in-house and outsourcing Chinese factories reveals a clear strategic distinction: the affiliated factory specializes in High-Mix Low Volume (HMLV) production to manage market volatility, whereas outsourcing partners are utilized for volume production, segmented by their quality capabilities. This study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that mixed sourcing is not merely a cost-saving tactic but a mechanism to manage supply chain heterogeneity.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020024

Authors: Terence D. Agbeyegbe

As the strategic debate around corporate purpose intensifies, organizations face a persistent paradox: how to sustain purpose-driven commitments under the continuous pressure of exchange-system efficiency and competing institutional logics. This paper introduces affective infrastructure: the interdependent organizational systems through which firms cultivate and reproduce the emotional and evaluative dimensions of institutional identity. Building on a synthesis of Adam Smith’s moral philosophy and Kenneth Boulding’s integrative systems theory, the paper argues that corporations operate simultaneously as exchange systems and integrative systems and that institutional character emerges from the organizational systems that sustain integrative commitments alongside exchange efficiency. Four infrastructure components are identified (identity alignment systems, integrative human-resource architecture, stakeholder communion practices, and institutional memory mechanisms), and design principles, assessment methods, and organizational illustrations are developed for each. The paper situates the construct within seven adjacent literatures, develops a configurational diagnostic framework comprising six organizational types, and concludes with a structured empirical research agenda that includes proxies for each component. The governing proposition unifying these contributions is this: affective infrastructure explains how organizations sustain integrative capacity under exchange-system pressure as a system—not as a culture to be cultivated, not as a commitment level to be measured, not as a stakeholder orientation to be managed, but as the interdependent organizational architecture through which identity alignment, integrative membership, stakeholder communion, and institutional memory become simultaneously operative and mutually reinforcing. This is what the adjacent constructs, taken individually, cannot explain: no single tradition specifies the generative system through which all four domains become durable together.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020023

Authors: Shigeyuki Hamori

This paper examines whether randomized evaluations can fail to identify causal effects when outcomes include interactions between treatment and unobserved characteristics. We show that even under random assignment, standard regression estimators do not necessarily recover the structural causal effect if outcomes contain non-separable interaction terms between treatment and latent characteristics. When outcomes contain such non-separable interaction terms, the estimated treatment effect reflects interaction components embedded in the outcome construction and may fail to recover the structural policy parameter. We derive conditions under which unbiased identification is restored, highlighting the critical role of additive separability. The results provide a theoretical foundation for understanding when randomized evaluations may yield misleading conclusions in managerial and policy contexts.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020022

Authors: Ehsan Tashakkori Adel Aazami Sebastian Kummer Sahar Mehrabi Jafar Pahlevani Saeed Entezami

This study examines how heritage-based small and medium enterprises (SMEs) cope with economic shocks and institutional constraints in a semi-urban context. The study focuses on identifying context-specific barriers that shape SME growth and sustainability in heritage-based, semi-urban settings. Using a mixed-methods design, survey data from 200 SMEs were analyzed with PLS-SEM, and 20 semi-structured interviews were examined through thematic analysis, collected in Kashan, Iran (March–May 2025). We find that inflation and limited access to finance are the primary barriers to firm growth, followed by regulatory delays and administrative complexity. Qualitative findings reveal five recurring adaptive routines, short-cycle cash management, cooperative input purchasing, product simplification/micro-pivoting, reliance on local networks, and minimalist digitalization, that operate in a discernible temporal sequence to sustain firm continuity. By integrating resource-based and institutional perspectives, the paper advances meso-level theorizing on SME resilience and proposes a set of low-cost, actionable policy measures (e.g., streamlined e-licensing, targeted mobile microfinance, and buyer–supplier matchmaking) for local authorities and development practitioners.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020021

Authors: Lusanda Mlobothi Herring Shava

A recurring question in contemporary society is: How can one survive on a single income? Escalating socioeconomic challenges worldwide are pushing many households beyond their financial comfort zones. As a coping strategy, many individuals have adopted side hustles, income-generating activities pursued alongside full-time employment. However, a crucial question arises: do side hustles come at the expense of primary employment, particularly in terms of employee commitment and workplace loyalty? This study examined the moderating role of work–life integration in the relationship between side hustles, employee commitment, and workplace attachment. The unit of analysis consisted of academic and support staff at South African higher education institutions. Primary data were collected through a survey of a stratified random sample of 300 employees, and the data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The findings support that side hustles offer meaningful opportunities to enhance individual livelihoods by mitigating the impact of declining income levels. Moreover, the results indicate that flexible work arrangements are critical for employees engaged in hustle, as such flexibility strengthens organisational commitment and workplace attachment. The study recommends adopting a humanistic management approach that promotes boundaryless jobs, thereby fostering employee commitment and workplace attachment through an inclusive, supportive, and empowering work environment.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020020

Authors: Chihiro Konasugawa Akira Nagamatsu

Shrinking and aging societies undermine the economic viability of network-based infrastructure once supported by economies of scale and network externalities. This paper develops a conceptual framing of “Denetworking” as a possible reconfiguration strategy in the contraction phase: reducing dependence on highly asset-specific dedicated networks (e.g., pipes and rail tracks) and shifting service functions to distributed systems or generic shared networks (e.g., roads) while maintaining minimum service standards. Rather than presenting a calibrated optimization model or full life-cycle cost (LCC) estimation, the paper proposes a heuristic decision condition for comparing a “keep” scenario (renew and maintain the dedicated network) with a “shift” scenario (Denetworking) and uses quantitative anchors from public sources to illustrate the associated fiscal and institutional trade-offs. Two Japanese cases are used as contrasting illustrations: physical Denetworking, referring to the reduction in or substitution of dedicated physical network assets, in wastewater services (centralized sewerage to decentralized treatment); and functional Denetworking, referring to the transfer of service functions from dedicated networks to more generic shared networks, in regional mobility (local rail to bus/BRT on the road network). The cross-case discussion suggests that Denetworking may become a rational policy option under certain conditions, particularly when demand density declines near renewal-investment peaks and asset specificity increases lock-in. The paper contributes a conceptual vocabulary and comparative policy framing for discussing infrastructure reconfiguration in shrinking societies and highlights practical issues of timing, cost sharing, phased implementation, and stakeholder engagement.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020019

Authors: Luis José Camacho

Platformized markets increasingly organize consumer encounters through adaptive ranking and personalization systems that learn from behavioral traces and reorder what consumers see over time. Although consumer identity theory explains how consumers use marketplace resources to express and negotiate the self, it does not fully explain how recursive ranked exposure shapes identity trajectories. This article develops Algorithmic Consumer Identity Theory (ACIT) to address that gap. ACIT proposes that identity formation in platformized markets is conditioned by three interrelated mechanisms: algorithmic mirroring, through which consumers interpret personalized outputs as self-diagnostic signals; algorithmic steering, through which ranking and recommendation systems structure future exposure; and reinforcement-loop strength, which captures the inertia generated by recursive feedback among behavior, inference, and exposure. Together, these mechanisms produce the steered self, an emergent identity configuration shaped through repeated interaction with curated exposure environments. The theory specifies how adaptive personalization can increase identity salience, strengthen or fragment coherence, intensify dissonance under conditions of misrecognition, and reduce perceived data agency when contestability is weak. By distinguishing representational feedback from directional exposure governance, ACIT offers a mechanism-based and empirically falsifiable framework for understanding identity in AI-mediated markets. The article contributes to consumer identity theory, platformization research, and AI-in-marketing scholarship, and identifies implications for platform governance and identity-safe personalization design.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020018

Authors: Victor Frimpong Ortopah Kojo Botchey

Purpose: This research investigates where formal responsibility for artificial intelligence (AI) lies within organisations and how the presence, absence, or structure of that responsibility affects their ability to govern AI effectively. Method: The study surveys 351 organisations across sectors and regions to examine AI governance roles. It focuses on authority, resources, and organisational integration, using hierarchical cluster analysis to identify governance configurations. Findings: The results indicate that formal AI governance roles are unevenly distributed and often weakly integrated into organisational structures. When these roles exist, they are usually placed below the executive level, lack sufficient authority, and differ greatly in the resources available to them. A cluster analysis reveals four governance configurations—Governance Absence, Symbolic Governance, Operational Governance, and Institutionalised Governance, indicating that governance capacity is primarily influenced by how well these roles are embedded in the structure, rather than just their presence. Implications: The findings suggest that AI governance may be better understood as a structural and organisational design issue, with potential implications for accountability and oversight. However, the relationship between governance configurations and outcomes, such as ethical risk and compliance, remains an area for future research. Originality: The study takes an absence-based approach to AI ethics, establishing a baseline for future research on governance maturity, compliance, trust, and ethical risk.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020017

Authors: Hendrik Godbersen

A method for integrated brand analysis and strategy is developed in this work. The foundation of this method is market research, through which the relevance of brand attributes, their evaluation for competing brands and the market performance of these brands on the steps of the buying process are determined. On this basis, the overall evaluation of brands and their number of brand attributes with the best evaluation are calculated so that strategic decision guidelines for overall brand positioning can be deduced. These strategic decision guidelines are securing the brand based on the existing identity/image, developing the brand based on the existing identity/image, developing (pivoting to) a new brand identity/image, whilst securing the strengths of the existing identity/image, and developing a new brand identity/image. On the level of brand attributes, the weighted relevance of attributes and their evaluation difference to the best competitor are calculated so that, again, strategic decision guidelines can be deduced. The strategic decision guidelines on brand attribute level are securing the attributes as the core brand identity (first priority), selecting and developing the attributes to the core brand identity (second priority), securing the attributes as the extended brand identity (third priority), and selecting and developing the attributes as the extended brand identity (fourth priority). Based on the market performance of brands across the stages of the buying process, the conversions between these steps are determined. On this basis, strategic decision guidelines for market cultivation are deduced, i.e., awareness, image, sales, and loyalty strategies. To gain first indications of the validity of the method for integrated brand analysis and strategy, it is applied to food retail and chocolate brands in the German market. Future research should focus on further validating the method and enhancing it by integrating segmenting and targeting processes and, potentially, marketing measures on an operational level.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6020016

Authors: Collins Kankam-Kwarteng Dennis Yao Dzansi Victor Yawo Atiase

Sustainable environmental performance (SEP) among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has attracted researchers and practitioners’ attention. The achievement of sustainable environmental performance has been largely dependent on the prevailing external ecosystem conditions. Yet in emerging economies such as Ghana, there is limited research and evidence on the extent to which external ecosystem resources influence sustainable environmental performance. This study aims to investigate how external entrepreneurial ecosystem resources including policy, access to finance, market availability, institutional support, human capital and culture influence the sustainable environmental performance (SEP) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) using sample data from Ghana. A total of 386 SME manufacturing and service firms were sampled to participate. Structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) tested a multi-theory framework grounded in the Resource-based View (RBV), Resource Dependency Theory (RDT) and Stakeholder Theory. The results indicate that policy, finance, institutional support, and markets exert significant positive effects on SMEs’ SEP. Culture and human capital were found to have a weaker contribution to SMEs’ SEP. The novelty of this study lies in empirically demonstrating the primacy of ecosystem structural levers over softer ecosystem factors in driving SME sustainable environmental performance, thereby offering a new explanatory hierarchy of ecosystem drivers for sustainability in developing economies. We advance the RBV, RDT and the Stakeholder Theory by showing that external ecosystem resources act as critical environmental enablers for SMEs in developing economies. The findings offer globally relevant policy insights for advancing SDGs 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and 13 (Climate Action) through targeted ecosystem interventions.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6010015

Authors: Torben Hansen

In recent years, consumer preference for sustainable food product attributes has increased. This research aims to investigate the moderating influence of consumers’ shopping motives on the interplay among gender, preferences for sustainable attributes, and brand loyalty. An online cross-sectional study was undertaken with 506 food consumers. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate direct, indirect, and moderating effects between the studied constructs and variables. We found that high quality positively moderates the relationships between gender and sustainable attributes and between gender and brand loyalty, while price as a shopping motive (marginally) negatively moderates these relationships. These findings suggest that brand managers aiming to strengthen brand loyalty among sustainability-oriented consumers—particularly where gender-based differences emerge—may benefit most from pairing sustainability positioning with strong-quality retail settings. In contrast, price-focused retail settings are less effective for activating sustainability-based brand loyalty.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6010014

Authors: Aristidis Bitzenis Nikos Koutsoupias Marios Nosios

This study investigates tax evasion and the informal economy in Greece through an integrated research design that combines bibliometric analysis with large-scale survey data to examine both the structure of scholarly discourse and public perceptions of economic non-compliance. The analysis integrates a bibliometric analysis of the academic literature with survey data from 1074 respondents, enabling patterns of scholarly attention to be assessed alongside public evaluations of institutional performance and economic behavior. The bibliometric findings indicate that academic research is organized around Greece and the tax system as central reference points, while governance-related themes such as transparency and public policy occupy comparatively peripheral positions within the thematic landscape, suggesting a field structured predominantly around country-specific institutional analysis. The survey results reveal a broadly comparable configuration, with political institutions, corruption, and tax evasion identified among the most salient national problems. Respondents differentiate among distinct forms of economic non-compliance and attribute tax evasion primarily to systemic factors, including high taxation, perceived injustice, ineffective revenue management, and corruption, rather than to individual moral failings. Overall, tax evasion in Greece is thus evaluated predominantly in institutional and governance-related terms. Future research could extend this approach through longitudinal bibliometric mapping, multivariate survey modelling, and sectoral or regional comparative analyses.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6010013

Authors: Claudel Mombeuil Jean Fausner Michel Christela Pierre Louis

Interest in organic food has grown steadily, driven by its health and environmental benefits and concerns about conventional production. Yet organic rice remains largely overlooked, while imported, low-cost inorganic rice dominates the market. This study addresses that gap by extending the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to include environmental concern and knowledge, alongside health consciousness and status, as predictors of purchase intention, and the TPB constructs as mediators. Using survey data from 401 Haitian consumers, we applied structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. Results show health consciousness as the strongest and most consistent driver, shaping attitudes, norms, and perceived control, while environmental concern also plays a significant role. Environmental knowledge proved context-dependent, and health status and perceived control were not significant. The mediation analysis revealed several significant indirect effects. Environmental concern influenced behavioral intention through both attitudes and subjective norms, while environmental knowledge showed a significant indirect effect via subjective norms. Health concern demonstrated the strongest mediation effects, with significant pathways through attitudes and subjective norms. In contrast, mediations through perceived behavioral control were consistently non-significant across all tested relationships. The fsQCA analysis identified environmental concern, environmental knowledge, health consciousness, attitudes, and subjective norms as necessary conditions for consumers’ intention to purchase organic rice to occur. This analysis also revealed 22 pathways to high purchase intention, with most pathways including two or three of the identified necessary conditions. These findings advance TPB and offer practical insights for promoting sustainable consumption.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6010012

Authors: María del Carmen Avendaño-Rito Eduardo Cruz-Cruz Paola Miriam Arango-Ramírez Adrián Martínez-Vargas Sandra Nelly Leyva-Hernández

The expansion of wind energy projects in Indigenous territories has intensified debates about the social legitimacy of corporate practices. In the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, the main wind corridor in Mexico, wind farms coexist with deeply rooted Zapotec governance systems, creating a complex interface between corporate responsibility and community well-being. Based on a survey of 184 workers employed by wind companies in the region, this study examines the relationship between perceived Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), in its ethical, legal, and philanthropic dimensions, and social and economic well-being. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and Importance–Performance Map Analysis (IPMA), we found that legal and philanthropic CSR significantly enhance both types of well-being, whereas ethical CSR only affects social well-being. These findings reflect the perspective of workers as hybrid actors, simultaneously employees and members of Zapotec communities, and should be interpreted in light of the study’s limitations: its focus on employed individuals, cross-sectional design, and reliance on self-reported perceptions. The results contribute to global debates on symbolic versus substantive CSR, distributive justice, and the risk of “green colonialism” in energy transitions.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6010011

Authors: Georgios Giotis

This study conducts a meta-analysis to assess the impact of tourism on employment, synthesizing 401 partial correlation coefficients extracted from 39 empirical studies. Employing partial correlation coefficients (PACs) as the effect size measure, the results indicate a modest but statistically significant positive association between tourism and employment, with an average effect size ranging from 0.095 to 0.113. The meta-regression results indicate that the estimated effect varies systematically with the type of tourism indicator, employment definition, use of fixed effects, panel data and macroeconomic controls. Evidence of publication bias and small-study effects is detected, yet robust estimation techniques confirm the presence of a genuine effect. The findings imply that tourism should be considered a complementary and context-dependent instrument for employment policy, with stronger effects associated with tourism intensity measures such as overnight stays and with weaker effects in studies employing more rigorous empirical designs.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6010010

Authors: Nothemba Hope Ndwandwe Floyd Khoza

This study investigated the impact of pricing strategies on the growth and sustainability of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The study employed a quantitative research approach and sampled 132 SMEs operating in a municipality in South Africa. A self-administered, closed-ended questionnaire was tested for reliability and validity and thereafter used to collect data from the respondents. This study employed simple linear regression analysis and performed the reliability test. In this study, the data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that SMEs primarily used cost-plus, value-based, and competitor-based pricing strategies. However, frequently modifying prices in response to market competition and technological advancements improves business performance. The study found a significant and positive relationship between pricing strategies and growth. Furthermore, a positive and significant nexus between pricing strategies and the sustainability of the SMEs. The practical implication of this study informs the SME managers and owners that SMEs that apply strategic and market-oriented pricing practices are more likely to achieve improved performance outcomes. The study, therefore, emphasises the importance of effective pricing in promoting both growth and long-term sustainability among SMEs. The findings of this study are expected to persuade the SMEs to pay crucial attention to the pricing strategies implemented in the business.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6010009

Authors: Maasago Mercy Sepadi Timothy Hutton

Background: Street food vending plays a central role in urban nutrition and informal employment across South Africa; however, its sustainability largely depends on consumer trust, which is strongly influenced by perceptions of hygiene. Objectives: This paper investigates customer expectations, observed hygiene behaviours, and purchasing decisions within Johannesburg’s informal food economy. Drawing on the Health Belief Model and behavioural economics, this study examines how visible hygiene practices shape customer trust, repurchase behaviour, and gendered risk perceptions. Methods: A cross-sectional mixed-methods study was conducted among 110 consumers of street-vended food in Johannesburg’s inner city. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and chi-square tests to assess associations between observed hygiene practices, trust, and purchasing behaviour, while qualitative open-ended responses were analysed thematically. Results: Seventy-four per cent of customers reported preferring vendors with visible hygiene practices, defined as the use of gloves or aprons, clean food displays, and observable handwashing. However, only 41% consistently observed handwashing between transactions, and just 45% had seen any form of hygiene certification displayed. An association was observed between customer trust and repeat purchases (p < 0.001) and between PPE use and customer trust (p = 0.011). Women were significantly more hygiene-sensitive (p = 0.029), expressing greater concern about exposed food, hand contact, and environmental conditions. Thematic analysis revealed that over half of the respondents indicated that trust, once compromised by unhygienic conditions, frequently resulted in permanent customer loss. Conclusions: Customer trust in street food vendors is contingent on hygiene. Hygiene visibility is a core driver of loyalty, especially among female consumers. Interventions to improve food safety should incorporate behavioural insights, vendor-customer feedback loops, and public-facing certification strategies.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6010008

Authors: Rune Bjerke Ida Birkeland

Sick leave in physically demanding warehouse logistics poses persistent challenges for employee well-being, operational performance, and sustainable work participation. This study investigates how warehouse employees and supervisors understand drivers of absence and presence, and which workplace resources are perceived as most important for sustaining work happiness and attendance. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, phase 1 comprised in-depth interviews with warehouse leaders and focus groups with employees (N = 20). Qualitative findings highlight physical strain and sustained pace demands, but also emphasized psychosocial drivers such as emotional exhaustion, limited recognition, insufficient relational support, and a “push-through” culture that normalized strain and hindered recovery. At the same time, collegial support, humor, and everyday recognition were described as critical resources for coping and maintaining presence. Building on these insights, we used a cross-sectional survey (N = 99) to assess work happiness and perceived negative workplace conditions. Exploratory factor analysis identified four work happiness dimensions—supervisor support and recognition; self-development, meaning and autonomy; interpersonal relationships; and collaboration to achieve goals and four dimensions of negative workplace conditions: structural alienation, work-related exhaustion, adverse social climate, and work intensity. Multiple regression analyses showed that interpersonal relationships were the most consistent protective resource, negatively associated with exhaustion, adverse social climate, and work intensity, while supervisor support and recognition primarily reduced structural alienation. Overall, the findings suggest that social relationships constitute a central resource for sustainable well-being and attendance in physically demanding work, offering actionable implications for HRM.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6010007

Authors: Mark Romanelli Andrea Kjærstad Louis Moustakas

This study investigates why companies sponsor individual athletes in sports with low media coverage and how such athletes secure sponsorship agreements. While sport sponsorship research has predominantly focused on mainstream sports and event-based contexts, limited attention has been given to individual athletes in niche sports. Using a qualitative research design, semi-structured expert interviews were conducted with Norwegian sponsors and elite athletes in long-distance running, trail running, and orienteering. The data were analyzed through qualitative content analysis, informed by the Sponsorship Motive Matrix and the Model of Athlete Brand Image. The findings indicate that sponsorship decisions are primarily driven by market-related motives, complemented by bond and society motives, with cost-effectiveness, authenticity, and value alignment playing important roles. Sponsors prioritize athlete performance, personality, and social media presence, while athletes emphasize financial support and performance optimization. Sponsorship activation is generally limited, and agreements are predominantly in-kind or hybrid. The study concludes that sponsorships in low-media-coverage sports are relational and selective, relying heavily on athlete-driven outreach and social media visibility. These findings extend existing sponsorship frameworks to an underexplored context and offer practical insights for sponsors and athletes in niche sports.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6010006

Authors: Aleksandar Nikodinovski Darjan Karabašević Vuk Mirčetić

Through systematic literature synthesis (2000–2024) integrating Foucault’s disciplinary power theory, Nissenbaum’s contextual integrity framework, and job design theory, this paper develops the Autonomy-Surveillance Conceptual Framework to explain differential psychological impacts of digital workplace surveillance. The embrace of remote work has increased surveillance practices among organizations as an increased need to ensure employee productivity in remote settings appears, along with a drive to ensure data security and streamline workflows. Many employees perceive such practices as a breach of privacy, signifying employer distrust. The framework predicts that surveillance creates varying degrees of contextual integrity violation based on job autonomy: high-autonomy knowledge workers experience severe violations through trust erosion, procedural injustice, and temporal autonomy loss, while low-autonomy workers evaluate surveillance primarily through fairness criteria. This paper addresses a critical gap in existing research, which has focused on low-autonomy roles. By examining which roles are most impacted by digital surveillance, this paper seeks to highlight transparency and autonomy-sensitive policies to maximize the associated benefits of digital surveillance, while calling attention to employee well-being, trust, and organizational performance.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6010005

Authors: Maasago Mercy Sepadi Timothy Hutton

The informal street food sector serves as a vital component of urban economies in South Africa, providing affordable nutrition and employment. However, this industry struggles to comply with required health and safety practices and standards. This study protocol outlines a mixed-methods investigation into hygiene practices, regulatory compliance, and the intersection with business sustainability among informal food vendors in Johannesburg’s inner city. This study aims to investigate how vendors’ perceptions of health risks and benefits influence compliance behaviours and, in turn, how these behaviours impact operational efficiency, financial stability, and customer trust. Grounded in the Health Belief Model (HBM) and the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) framework, the research seeks to explore both behavioural drivers and performance outcomes associated with hygiene adherence. The study will employ structured stall observations, semi-structured vendor interviews, and customer surveys across high-density vending zones. Quantitative data will be analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative data will be thematically analysed and triangulated with observed practices. The expected outcome is to identify key barriers and enablers of hygiene compliance and demonstrate how improved food safety practices contribute to business resilience, customer trust, and urban public health. The findings aim to inform inclusive policy and innovative business support strategies that integrate informal vendors into safer and more sustainable food systems.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6010004

Authors: Abdelaziz Abdalla Alowais Abubakr Suliman

Introduction: Ethical climate theory traditionally conceptualizes organizational ethics as a set of distinct normative dimensions. However, recent evidence suggests that ethical perceptions may converge into a unified climate in culturally cohesive and institutionally regulated contexts. This study aims to validate the Emirati Higher Education Institutions Ethical Climate (EHEC) scale and examine whether the ethical climate operates as a unidimensional construct within Emirati higher education institutions. Methods: A quantitative validation design was employed using survey data from 200 academic and administrative staff across three Emirati universities. Data were analyzed via exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), alongside reliability and validity assessments, using IBM SPSS (Version 27) and AMOS (Version 24). Principal axis factoring without rotation was applied to examine the latent structure, followed by CFA for model fit testing and to compare alternative structures. Results: EFA revealed a single dominant factor with an eigenvalue of 11.8, explaining 47.1% of the total variance, and factor loadings ranging from 0.46 to 0.79. CFA confirmed the adequacy of the one-factor model (χ2/df = 2.31; CFI = 0.93; TLI = 0.91; RMSEA = 0.06; SRMR = 0.05). The scale demonstrated excellent reliability (Cronbach’s α = 0.93; CR = 0.95) and acceptable convergent validity (AVE = 0.48). Comparative analysis showed that the unidimensional model substantially outperformed the traditional five-factor structure. Discussion: These findings indicate that the ethical climate in Emirati higher education institutions is perceived as a single, shared institutional environment rather than as separate ethical dimensions. The validated EHEC scale provides a parsimonious, reliable, and context-sensitive instrument for assessing the ethical climate, suggesting that ethical climate theory may require contextual adaptation in institutionally cohesive and collectivist settings.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6010003

Authors: John Magnus Roos

This study investigates car sharing participation in Sweden within the broader context of sharing economy platforms. Its objective is to explore the relationship between internet use and car sharing, while accounting for residential area, gender, and age. The analysis is based on nationally representative survey data collected between 2019 and 2023 (N = 8762). Initial results indicate a weak positive association between internet use and car sharing. However, this association disappears when age is considered, suggesting that age mediates the relationship. The final analysis shows that car sharing is more common among urban residents, males, and younger consumers. The findings have implications for theory, managerial practice, and policymaking. The study also addresses methodological limitations and outlines directions for future research on the behavioral, social, and structural factors influencing participation in car sharing services.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6010002

Authors: Luigi Capoani Piergiorgio Martini Andrea Izzo Giacomo Bincoletto

This study aims to explore the relationship between a company manager’s activities and their impact on business performance. Networking is considered a worthy factor in professional and organizational success, providing access to important research, industry insights and future partnerships. Through the analysis of the data used in the study, this paper adopts a methodological approach to examine how managerial networking influences business results, with a particular focus on French small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The findings indicate a strong and positive correlation between the manager’s ability to build and maintain professional relationships and the entire performance of their business. In fact, managers who actively engage in networking often gain access to better business opportunities, funding sources and strategic collaborations that increase growth and competitiveness. Additionally, strong networks facilitate the exchange of knowledge, best practices and innovative ideas, thereby improving decision making and operational efficiency. The review further highlights that networking is not just about expanding contacts, but also about attending meaningful and beneficial affairs that contribute to long-term success. These results underline its importance as a strategic tool for business leaders, sustaining the idea that well-connected managers are better equipped to navigate challenges, catch opportunities and drive sustainable business prosperity in an increasingly competitive market.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses6010001

Authors: David Leong

This paper advances a unified theoretical framework that synthesises Shane and Eckhardt’s individual–opportunity nexus, Ramoglou and Tsang’s opportunities-as-propensities perspective, and Davidsson’s tripartite model of new venture ideas, external enablers, and opportunity confidence. Building on these foundations, the paper develops an entrepreneurial entanglement model that explains how opportunities emerge as probabilistic propensities within dynamic configurations of agents, artefacts, distributed agencies, and spatiotemporal conditions. The model clarifies how material artefacts, socio-cognitive processes, and environmental shifts jointly shape the emergence, visibility, and realisation of entrepreneurial possibilities. By situating opportunity formation within an entangled field—rather than within isolated acts of discovery or creation—the framework deepens understanding of how entrepreneurial actions give rise to potentialities and how these potentialities become actualised under conditions of uncertainty. The analysis contributes to both theory and practice by offering a relational, mechanism-based account of how entrepreneurial behaviour and environmental factors intersect to structure the formation and realisation of opportunities.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040061

Authors: Kana Matsuishi Akira Yasumura

Entrepreneurship is increasingly important for economic and societal innovation, yet the individual characteristics that encourage entrepreneurial entry remain insufficiently understood. This study examined whether character strengths, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and highly sensitive person (HSP) traits influence entrepreneurial entry. Two independent web-based surveys were conducted, with ADHD assessed using a psychological scale in Study 1 and self-reported medical diagnosis in Study 2. The Character Strengths Test24 showed a revised factor structure, and an extracted factor (Drive) positively influenced entrepreneurial entry in both samples. ADHD (Hyperactivity/Impulsivity) consistently facilitated entrepreneurial entry, while HSP (Ease of Excitation) inhibited it. The robust positive contribution of ADHD traits across both symptomatic and clinically diagnosed individuals suggests that entrepreneurial potential is not limited by clinical labels and may also be found among individuals who are often marginalized, misunderstood, or discouraged in traditional career pathways. These findings highlight the importance of educational and support systems that not only develop character strengths linked to entrepreneurial drive but also recognize, accommodate, and strategically leverage diverse neuropsychological traits. Empowering individuals with varied cognitive profiles may expand pathways to innovation and contribute to a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040060

Authors: Laura A. Jones

This paper examines the intersection between Christian theological principles and contemporary cybersecurity challenges, with a focus on the specific vulnerabilities and responsibilities of faith-based organizations. Recognizing that digital threats emerge not only from technological weaknesses but also from human motives and ethical failings, this study introduces a Biblically Framed Cybersecurity (BFCy) Model that integrates scriptural ethics with established security practices. Through a narrative literature review and comparative analysis, the research synthesizes Christian concepts, such as stewardship, vigilance, and integrity, with technical standards (including the CIS Controls v8, NIST CSF 2.0, and ISO 27001:2022), mapping biblical narratives to contemporary risks like social engineering, insider threats, and identity theft. The findings underscore that robust cybersecurity requires more than technical solutions; it also demands a culture of moral accountability and spiritual awareness. Practical recommendations, including tables linking biblical values to operational controls, highlight actionable steps for church leaders and faith-based organizations. This study concludes that effective cybersecurity in these contexts is best achieved by aligning technical measures with enduring ethical and spiritual commitments, offering a model that may inform religious and broader organizational approaches to digital risk and resilience.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040059

Authors: James Cooper John Burgess

Family businesses play a central role in the ongoing growth and development of the Vietnamese economy. Economic, social, and demographic changes are undermining the transition of family business to succeeding generations. This study examines the challenges of intergenerational succession in Vietnamese family businesses through the lens of social capital theory. The article examines how the next generation of family business leaders in Vietnam is addressing social capital deficiencies that hinder effective business transition. The study employed a constructionist ontology and an interpretivist epistemology, utilising semi-structured interviews with family business owners and managers. The research draws from participants’ perceptions of social, political, and competitive contexts and the subsequent behaviour that is predicated by those contexts. Findings: Economic transformation, driven by disruptions to the business environment through central planning, coupled with demographic shifts and changes in educational attainment, has impacted family structures, complicating intergenerational business transfers. This is compounded by social transformation weakening familial relationships and connections critical to family cooperation and business continuity. The preservation and renewal of social capital are critical issues for succession planning in Vietnamese family businesses. This research addresses gaps in understanding the interplay between the generational divide, social capital, and family business succession in Vietnam.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040058

Authors: Luis José Camacho Salvador Pancorbo Rosilda Miranda

This study examines how geopolitical uncertainty (GEOUN) influences domestic touristic purchase intention (TPI) through consumer ethnocentrism (CETH), consumer xenocentrism (CXEN), and touristic motivation (TMOT) in the Dominican Republic, a tourism-dependent developing economy. Integrating insights from uncertainty-identity theory (UIT), the theory of planned behavior (TPB), and consumer culture theory (CCT), we propose that macro-level geopolitical instability triggers identity-driven and motivational responses that shape consumer travel decisions. Using survey data from 374 Dominican consumers, we find that GEOUN significantly increases ethnocentric attitudes and touristic motivation, which in turn boost domestic travel intention. Touristic motivation emerges as the strongest predictor of TPI and serves as a key mediator linking uncertainty and identity-based factors to travel intention. However, xenocentrism does not significantly predict travel intention, revealing a gap between aspirational foreign affinity and actual choices under uncertainty. These findings extend consumer behavior theory by highlighting how identity-protective and motivational mechanisms shape decision-making under threat. Practically, the results suggest that in volatile environments, tourism marketing should emphasize national belonging, emotional security, and cultural pride to position domestic tourism as both an economic stabilizer and a psychological resource.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040057

Authors: Anastasia Vasileiou Georgios Tsekouropoulos Greta Hoxha Dimitrios Theocharis Evangelos Grigoriadis

Quiet quitting—a subtle form of disengagement where employees withdraw discretionary effort—poses a growing challenge for healthcare organizations. It undermines workforce resilience and compromises care quality. This study explores how organizational culture and Green Lean Six Sigma (GLSS) practices interact to address this issue, fostering employee commitment and job satisfaction. We analyzed data from 312 healthcare professionals using SEM to examine five hypothesized relationships concerning the independent and combined influence of culture and GLSS. The findings reveal that a supportive workplace environment is strongly associated with lower levels of quiet quitting and higher levels of commitment, while structured improvement practices independently contribute to reduced disengagement and greater job satisfaction. This study identifies a synergy between culture and GLSS: a supportive culture enables improvement practices, and successful initiatives reinforce cultural trust. This virtuous cycle promotes motivation, alleviates burnout, and enhances long-term organizational resilience. The results emphasize the importance of leadership investment in both cultural development and participatory improvement practices. Aligning process optimization with ethical and human-centered principles can strengthen engagement and ensure sustainable, high-quality healthcare delivery.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040056

Authors: Gillian Warner-Søderholm Miika Kuoppamäki

The aim of this paper is to fill the identified gap in the literature regarding mapping key values within Leadership 5.0. Our study indicates that Leadership 5.0 (L5.0) shows a transformative shift in leadership, demanding innovative leaders to adopt agile and digital mindsets, hence fostering innovation whilst balancing human and technological needs in Industry 5.0 settings. Developing people-centric leadership skills is critical in order to build collaborative innovation between humans and machines. In this way, human expertise is integrated with technology, to drive future-ready organizations. Findings show that L5.0 prioritizes continuous learning environments to adapt to rapidly evolving challenges. This ensures that organizations are agile, resilient, and ready for the future. L5.0 recognizes that intellectual capital—driven by human creativity, emotional intelligence, and collaboration—is essential for sustainable innovation in the digital shift. This paper’s theoretical contribution is a conceptual analysis of L5.0. We present a comprehensive and actionable conceptual model for mapping L5.0. We identify five key L5.0 pillars from the literature: human-centric leadership, future readiness and adaptability, a sustainability and ethics focus, collaboration and inclusion values and an innovation and experimentation approach to leadership. We develop a 30-item L5.0 survey instrument, anchored in the literature, and we conduct initial pilot testing for item clarification. The survey instrument application can provide valuable management insights: a road map for assessing the presence and maturity level of L5.0 in organizations.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040055

Authors: Florian Pohlmeyer Rosario Othen Christian Möbitz Thomas Gries

This systematic literature review critically examines sustainability challenges and opportunities within fibre-based process industries (e.g., paper and nonwoven), pivotal energy-intensive sectors in the EU. Using an adapted PRISMA guideline, it analyses the evolution of sustainability concepts, key regulatory frameworks (e.g., European Green Deal, Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), and established management tools (e.g., ISO 50001, life cycle assessment). The review uncovers critical gaps, including a persistent lack of integrated approaches across environmental, economic, and social dimensions, alongside superficial strategic embedding of sustainability. Furthermore, regulatory fragmentation significantly hinders effective implementation. The study also highlights uneven technology adoption and practical obstacles for circular economy models, largely because sustainability often remains a parallel function rather than a core business driver. Ultimately, transformative sustainability demands integrated, sector-specific strategies, robust data, and strong leadership. This necessitates streamlined regulations, accelerated technology uptake, and enhanced multi-stakeholder collaboration, embedding sustainability into core business models beyond mere compliance.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040054

Authors: Theodoros Stavrinoudis Christos Kakarougkas Alexandra Georgopoulou

In recent years, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a noticeable rise in demand for luxury urban hospitality services. Luxury hospitality is not solely about costly offerings; it emphasises creating authentic, personalised, and wellness-focused experiences. Successful luxury hotel operations depend on emotional intelligence, supportive leadership, and HR empowerment. This research aims to identify the variables positively associated with these factors in metropolitan hotels and to propose HRM policies to enhance them. Conducted from March to May 2025 in Athens, Greece, with a sample of 220 luxury five-star hotel employees, the research utilised Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses. The Exploratory Factor Analysis was performed using the method of Principal Components Extraction, while the Confirmatory Factor Analysis employed Structural Equation Modelling. The analysis of the research findings highlighted specific variables that are positively correlated with the development of the emotional intelligence, supportive leadership, and HR empowerment needed to deliver luxury services in metropolitan destination hotels. This paper provides validated Likert-type scales and practical insights for developing these essential workplace factors in luxury hotels, ultimately improving customer service and employee support.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040053

Authors: Jack Herman Jihyun Kim-Vick Jonghan Hyun

The global secondhand apparel industry, valued at USD 256B in 2025, is expanding rapidly. The growing acceptance of secondhand fashion and advancements in retail technology have driven millions of individuals to resell, yet little research has analyzed the motivations behind these decisions. Guided by Consumption Values Theory and Goal-Framing Theory, this qualitative study uses ten in-depth interviews with experienced resellers to examine why individuals participate in apparel reselling. Analysis of the participants’ narratives indicates that financial gain is the dominant driver of participation, followed by the convenience provided by reselling platforms and channels, emotional satisfaction, and contributing to sustainability. Conceptually, the study integrates value-based and goal-based lenses to offer an extensive explanation of reseller motivations, shifting focus from the buyer perspective that has dominated prior research. Practically, the findings suggest that resale platforms can encourage participation by reducing visible fees, enabling faster payout, and simplifying the reselling process, while also making community and environmental benefits more visible. In all, these insights help retailers and sustainability advocates better design approaches that support individual resellers and sustain growth in apparel resale.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040052

Authors: Cheng-Wen Lee Sephali Bera Ping-Hung Chen Feng-Yi Lin

This study examines the key factors influencing online banking adoption in India in the post-COVID-19 period. Building on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the research integrates traditional factors—perceived ease of use (PEOU), accessibility (ABS), and reliability of the banking system (RBS)—with a novel construct, perceived environmental, social, and governance performance of banks (PESGB). Data were collected through a structured questionnaire administered to Indian banking customers, and the proposed model was tested using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM). The results demonstrate that PEOU, ABS, and PESGB significantly and positively influence customers’ intention to adopt online banking, whereas RBS does not show a significant effect. These findings suggest that in the post-pandemic era, customers prioritize usability, accessibility, and sustainability over traditional concerns of reliability. The study contributes to the extension of TAM by incorporating ESG considerations and offers practical implications for banks to enhance digital adoption by promoting user-friendly services and aligning digital transformation strategies with sustainability commitments.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040051

Authors: Linas Pupelis Beata Šeinauskienė

This study investigates the relationship between materialism and pro-environmental behavior, focusing on the moderating role of narcissism in the attitude–behavior gap. A mixed-method research design was employed, combining a preference-based conjoint experiment with psychometric scales including the Material Values Scale (MVS), Recurring Pro-Environmental Behavior Scale (PEB), and Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire short scale (NARQ-S). A convenience sample of 71 participants evaluated pro-environmental behavior-related choices while also self-reporting their materialistic and pro-environmental values. Results revealed that profiles emphasizing low materialism and high pro-environmental attitudes were most preferred, supporting the hypothesized negative relationship between materialism and pro-environmental choices. The materialism–success dimension showed the strongest behavioral influence. However, narcissism did not significantly moderate the relationship between attitudes and behavior. These findings contribute to dual-attitude theory and impression-management literature by showing that materialists may endorse pro-environmental behavior when it supports social identity signaling. The results have implications for both marketers and policymakers in designing strategies that appeal to reputation-sensitive consumers.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040050

Authors: Walter Peeters

After a period of pure governmental space activities, financed by public money, space has become a commercial business with an estimated turnover of 660 billion USD in 2024 and an expected growth of more than 1.5 trillion USD by 2035. Space activities have transferred from national prestige motives to entrepreneurial business motives. This process has been accelerated considerably with what we presently label as the New Space era. Indeed, since the year 2000, we have witnessed a number of changes in space launch approaches as well as a growing number of smallsats, CubeSats, and satellite constellations in Low Earth Orbit. As a result of these space activities becoming affordable to a large range of countries and, at present, having an important effect on STEM education and capacity building particularly in emerging space nations, there is a need to prepare the future workforce for an economy which will considerably be driven by space-based communications and applications. Indeed, there is no reason why countries, over and beyond the traditional major spacefaring nations, should not prepare for this space business era by becoming active players themselves. Various international initiatives such as the US-led Artemis and the Chinese-led ILRS initiatives support this venue and could become a strong catalyst, but an important element is to have a national space strategy implemented stepwise. A template on how to establish such a strategy is provided in this article. A discussion will analyze the rationale and arguments for emerging space nations to become part of this development, suggesting a number of further studies to enhance this approach.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040049

Authors: Jens Kai Perret Christiane Beyerhaus Shuyi Ding

The article addresses key challenges and opportunities within the high jewelry industry. It explores how brands can target sustainability and diversification demands by consumers from the supply side. It details sustainability-oriented market trends and resulting challenges and opportunities for high jewelry brands, in particular regarding artificial lab-grown diamonds, without being solely focused on this option alone. The study implements a qualitative research methodology, using semi-structured interviews with eight professionals active in different parts of the high jewelry industry, thus covering a large share of all high jewelry companies. The interviews provide an in-depth understanding of the obstacles and opportunities faced by both traditional and new high jewelry brands. The findings of this study reveal the changing trends in the high jewelry industry. Sustainability has emerged as a key driver in consumer decision-making, with ethical concerns now taking a central role in brand strategy and supply chain practices. Diversification has emerged as a strategy to meet this demand without losing the brand’s luxury essence and to build brand power without compromising exclusivity and creativity. The study concludes by proposing an SOR-type framework for the interplay of sustainability and diversification deduced from the interviews.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040048

Authors: Khulud Alyafie

Category management (CM) is crucial for optimising retailer–supplier partnerships via technological integration and data sharing. However, the role of CM in Saudi Arabia’s unique fast-moving consumer goods sector (FMCG) remains underexplored. This study aimed to answer the following research question: How do cloud-based inventory platforms and real-time data sharing improve forecasting accuracy and inventory turnover for retailer–supplier CM partnerships in Saudi Arabia’s FMCG sector? A systematic review of 87 studies from the Web of Science and Scopus databases was conducted, followed by thematic analysis. The findings indicate that CM improves demand forecasting, inventory optimisation, and collaborative decision-making. Key implementation barriers include cultural resistance to data sharing, high technology costs for small and medium-sized enterprises, and infrastructural limitations. Success relies on phased technology adoption, relational data governance, and trust building that aligns with Saudi cultural norms. The study concludes that CM is essential for leveraging technology and data capabilities, and it offers a contextualised framework to overcome local barriers and support the achievement of Vision 2030 objectives. This study provides practical strategies for sector stakeholders to adopt high-impact, low-cost technology and a basis for future comparative studies in Gulf Cooperation Council markets.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040047

Authors: Bora Gündüzyeli

The landscape of marketing is rapidly evolving as companies adapt to new societal dynamics and technological advancements. Guerrilla marketing, characterized by its unconventional, creative, and cost-effective tactics, has proven effective in capturing consumer attention. When integrated with social media platforms, these tactics gain amplified reach, immediacy, and interactive potential, fostering viral spread and deeper consumer engagement. This research seeks to answer the pivotal question: “How does guerrilla marketing on social media influence consumer behavior and brand awareness?” To address this, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to provide an in-depth analysis of relevant studies in the field. Our findings reveal that this integration significantly enhances consumer engagement, boosts brand awareness, and positively influences purchasing behavior. Moreover, it provides firms with competitive advantages in dynamic, resource-constrained markets. The results highlight the importance of leveraging creative marketing approaches alongside digital platforms to shape consumer choices and drive successful marketing outcomes in the digital age.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040046

Authors: Adebiyi Sunday Adeyanju Edson Vengesai Joseph Olorunfemi Akande Paul-Francois Muzindutsi

While international cross-listing locations in host countries have been identified as integral to firm valuation gains, the influence of the home country information environment on firm financial market integration remains underexplored. This study examined how political stability, government effectiveness, and voice and accountability influence cross-listing destination choices amongst emerging-market firms seeking enhanced valuation gains. Using data on cross-listed firms from BRICS countries between 2000 and 2020, the study employed generalized linear models (GLMs), including probit and robit specifications, to analyze this relationship. The researchers found that stronger political stability; government effectiveness; and voice and accountability in home countries significantly increase the likelihood of BRICS firms cross-listing on advanced exchanges characterized by higher valuation gains. These results indicate that reduced political risk, effective government policy implementation and greater media freedom in BRICS emerging market countries facilitate cross-listing firms’ access to more efficient global capital markets by reducing asymmetric information, and help overcome traditional market segmentation barriers. Contrary to the conventional emphasis that home country proximity is significant for cross-listing valuation gains, these results highlight the signaling mechanism of home country governance quality as an appealing factor for firm cross-listing location in advanced exchange markets. Policymakers in emerging markets should consider governance reforms that enhance domestic firm competitiveness in global financial markets for higher valuation gains.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040045

Authors: Mihnea Panait Bianca Raluca Cibu Dana Maria Teodorescu Camelia Delcea

In recent years, the field of European funds for business development has generated significant interest in the academic literature, stimulated by European Union (EU) regulations and the implementation of business financing programs. This context has led to an increase in research on the impact and use of European funds, particularly in terms of support for economic development and infrastructure. This paper presents a bibliometric analysis, using topic modeling, to examine academic publications on the use and absorption of European funds and how they influence the business environment. Using a dataset of 74 publications indexed in the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Core Collection, covering the period 2005–2024, the present study aims to identify the main authors, institutions, journals, and collaboration networks involved. It also analyzes research trends, dominant themes, and the countries with the largest contributions in this field, using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and BERTopic analysis as a complement to the classical bibliometric approach. The thematic analysis reveals a thematic cohesion around entrepreneurship, EU structural funds, regional development, and innovation. In addition, there has been a significant annual increase in publications in this field, and through the use of thematic maps, word clouds, and collaboration networks, this study provides an overview of the evolution of research on the absorption of European funds and its impact on the business environment. These findings contribute both to deepening academic knowledge and to formulating more effective European policies for optimizing fund absorption and supporting the sustainable development of the business environment.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5040044

Authors: Renato Lopes da Costa Mário Pereira António Angelo Pereira João Canas Ricardo Correia Cláudio Dimande

In recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) health projects have attracted significant investment, driven by a 50% annual increase in stored data. This growth has led to the development of AI tools that assist health professionals and managers in decision-making within clinical practice and healthcare management. This research seeks to identify key factors influencing the adoption of AI systems by health professionals and managerial staff, drawing on a sample of 100 respondents, of whom 61 are healthcare practitioners and 39 occupy management positions within the health sector. An extensive literature review and a statistical analysis using SmartPLS 3 were conducted. The findings suggest that the level of knowledge and perceived benefits positively impact the intention to implement AI tools. Interestingly, challenges during AI adoption do not hinder professionals. The study highlights the importance of integrating AI into healthcare professionals’ careers and emphasises the need for measures to enhance their understanding of AI algorithms. Increased knowledge fosters greater willingness to adopt AI systems, promoting improved decision-making in healthcare.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5030043

Authors: Dimitrios Theocharis

This study addresses the growing importance of peer influence in digital marketing by examining how various forms of social interaction affect Generation Z’s purchase intentions, particularly in relation to newly launched technological products. As digital natives, Gen Z consumers navigate purchasing decisions within complex online environments shaped by social networks, peer dynamics, and evolving product categories. Understanding how these elements interact offers valuable insights for both marketers and consumer researchers seeking to engage this influential demographic. Grounded in Social Capital Theory and Relationship Marketing Theory, the study investigates five key social influence factors—social capital bonding, social capital bridging, electronic word of mouth (e-WOM), perceived social pressure, and friend-of-a-friend effects. A quantitative, cross-sectional design was applied, with data gathered from 302 Gen Z participants through printed questionnaires. The analysis showed that all variables were significantly related to purchase intention, with bonding social capital and indirect peer influence emerging as the most impactful. E-WOM demonstrated a moderate effect, while perceived social pressure had a weaker influence and bridging social capital was not a significant predictor. The results also revealed that product type influences the strength of these relationships, with peer influence being strongest for low-involvement products and weakest for luxury items. These findings suggest that both social context and product characteristics should be carefully considered in the design of effective digital marketing strategies.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5030042

Authors: Ionut Marius Croitoru Luciana Dragomir Carmen-Mihaela Imbrescu Paula-Paraschiva Dragan (Spiridon) Mariana Chivu

This study examines how performance measurement frameworks, including the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Strategic Performance Management (SPM), Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), and the European Public Sector Award (EPSA), have been discussed and applied in public education. The research problem addressed is the challenge of understanding the impact and integration of these frameworks in educational management. To address this problem, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of 2626 academic publications from 2020 to 2025 (WOS), mapping the literature quantitatively and qualitatively. Three major themes emerged from a network of keyword co-occurrences: (1) performance measurement frameworks and methods, (2) technical/engineering performance indicators, and (3) strategic management and organizational performance in education. The findings indicate that the successful implementation of performance measurements in education requires the selection of relevant and balanced indicators and the promotion of an organizational culture of continuous improvement. These insights highlight prevailing trends (such as the prominence of the BSC and the widespread use of KPIs) and provide lessons from international practice to guide decision-makers to improve education. Highlighting the link between the theoretical definition of indicators and their practical application provides policymakers and educational managers with an overview of research in the field of performance management in public education.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5030041

Authors: Lynn Crooney Beth Tootell Jennifer Scott

Purpose: This study investigates the relationship between flexible working arrangements (FWAs), employee experiences (EEs), and perceived productivity (PP) in the context of New Zealand employees. The study aims to understand how opportunities and challenges within FWAs impact employee productivity, utilising the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model as a theoretical framework. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted with 176 employees who transitioned from traditional office settings to FWAs. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire measuring work demand, autonomy, employee experiences, and perceived productivity. The analysis involved correlational and moderated regression techniques to assess the relationships between the variables. Findings: The study found that positive employee experiences (expressed as opportunities) are significantly associated with higher perceived productivity (r = 0.610, p < 0.001), while negative experiences (expressed as challenges) are associated with lower perceived productivity (r = 0.515, p < 0.001). Moreover, management strategies were found to moderate these relationships, further influencing perceived productivity. Originality: This research contributes to the understanding of how FWAs, when effectively managed, can enhance employee productivity by fostering positive experiences. It also highlights the importance of addressing challenges to mitigate negative impacts on productivity. The use of the JD-R model offers a novel approach to exploring these dynamics in the context of FWAs. Practical and social implications: Organisations can enhance productivity by focusing on management strategies that amplify positive employee experiences and reduce challenges within FWAs. Effective FWAs can improve work–life balance, employee wellbeing, and organisational commitment, contributing to a more satisfied and productive workforce.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5030040

Authors: Hiroyuki Sasaki

The behavioral theory of the firm explains how firms react to performance feedback, yet little is known about how firms integrate backward-looking feedback with forward-looking assessments of market opportunity. This study proposes and tests a retrenchment model grounded in SWOT-based behavioral logic via the TOWS matrix. Changes in market share are conceptualized as an internal strength or weakness, and market attractiveness, as an external opportunity or threat. Using prefecture-level panel data on Japanese life insurance companies (2006–2019), the analysis showed that market attractiveness served as a cognitive frame that shapes a firm’s response to performance signals. In attractive markets (opportunity), firms reduced retrenchment, as share gains (strength) were leveraged and losses (weakness) triggered problem-solving. Conversely, in unattractive markets (threat), firms accelerated retrenchment, as losses (weakness) confirmed the need to exit and gains (strength) enabled a profitable withdrawal. The study extends behavioral theory by showing that the strategic meaning of an internal strength or weakness depends on the external context of an opportunity or threat. This mechanism helps explain why firms sometimes persist after failure and retrench after success. Practically, the findings offer a diagnostic framework that helps managers assess market portfolios and mitigate behavioral biases in resource allocation decisions.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5030039

Authors: Ziphozakhe Theophilus Shasha Melius Weideman Huaping Sun Guifeng Liu

Scholars are showing a growing interest in smart tourism, a promising trend in destination development. The current research studies have established a strong theoretical foundation on the functions of technology and the impacts of smart tourism on travelers. Nevertheless, little is known about the comprehensive and systemic effects on the growth of smart tourism in a particular destination. This study employs bibliometric analysis to examine the scientific literature of smart tourism research, based on 563 relevant publications retrieved from the leading database Web of Science Core Collection between 2000 and 2024 and analyzed using VOSviewer software 1.6.20 packages. The results show that the total number of relevant publications has gradually increased in recent years. Key journals include Tourism Management, Sustainability-Basel, and Annals of Tourism Research. The results also show that authors from the People’s Republic of China have the most publications and international co-authorships, while the most influential institution is the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Moreover, research keywords have been identified, including smart tourism, smart cities, Internet of Things and big data. The research findings of this study provide valuable insights to further improve smart tourism research.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5030038

Authors: Luis José Camacho

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance has emerged as a critical indicator of corporate legitimacy, resilience, and long-term value. However, translating ESG strategic intent into tangible results remains a pressing theoretical and managerial challenge. This paper introduces an integrated framework elucidating the pathways through which Corporate Citizenship (CC), understood as a participatory, relational evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), influences ESG outcomes at the employee level. Drawing on both Social Exchange Theory (SET) and Social Identity Theory (SIT), the model explains how reciprocal obligations and identity-based alignment jointly influence employees’ discretionary behaviors. Perceived Organizational Support (POS) is introduced as a moderating factor that shapes the strength of the CC–OCB pathway. This study contributes to the micro-foundations of ESG by illuminating how individual discretionary behaviors mediate and condition the impact of strategic corporate citizenship initiatives. By advancing a dual-theoretical, micro-foundational approach, the framework moves beyond reputational CSR models and provides a testable, behaviorally anchored account of ESG implementation. Practical implications are offered for organizations seeking to cultivate trust-based cultures that align employee engagement with sustainable performance.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5030037

Authors: Erin M. Ashbee Michal J. Bardecki

Based on semi-structured interviews with individuals with direct involvement in the certification process, this study examines the ANSI/NSI 373: Sustainable Production of Natural Dimension Stone standard from a business perspective, analyzing its adoption within the North American dimension stone industry and comparing it to voluntary sustainability initiatives (VSIs) in the forest sector. Key factors driving adoption include environmental and social responsibility, competitive positioning, and market differentiation. The findings reveal both the opportunities and the barriers that businesses face in integrating sustainability standards, including certification credibility, operational challenges, and varying levels of industry acceptance. While ANSI/NSI 373 offers potential value in branding and environmental responsibility, inconsistent firm responses and rigorous certification demands pose challenges to widespread implementation. This research underscores the need for strategic collaboration among industry stakeholders to enhance adoption, improve market positioning, and leverage sustainability as a business advantage.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5030036

Authors: Hilal Argun Katherine Jane Baxter Anna Kyawt Ni Mark Ching-Pong Poo

This study explores how Turkish Generation Z adapts their fashion consumption behaviours in response to economic crises, particularly focusing on involuntary anti-consumerism. Through a qualitative methodology using semi-structured interviews and purposive sampling, the research captures the coping strategies and emotional experiences of young consumers in Türkiye. A thematic analysis of fifteen interviews reveals an original “8Rs” framework—Reject, Restrict/Reduce, Reuse/Reclaim, Re-find, Reconsider, Re-framing Discounts, Re-direction of Resources, and Emotional Responses—that illustrates both behavioural and psychological adjustments under financial strain. Notably, the study introduces two novel concepts: “recession rush,” a calculated urgency to purchase before price hikes, and “re-direction of resources,” the reallocation of budget from other categories toward fashion purchases. By focusing on a geographically underrepresented context and a pivotal consumer segment, this research contributes new insights to the literature on anti-consumption, economic adaptation, and youth identity expression in crisis economies.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5030035

Authors: Bharat Singh Thapa Bibek Karmacharya Dinesh Gajurel

Career decisions are among the most consequential choices individuals make, profoundly shaping their long-term stability and overall life satisfaction. The literature suggests that behavioral biases, specifically overconfidence, herd mentality, social comparison, status quo bias, and optimism bias, can exert considerable influence on these decisions, thereby shaping students’ future career trajectories. This study adopts a behavioral perspective to examine how these biases influence career choices within a collectivist social context. A survey of 360 undergraduate and graduate business students was conducted. The collected data were analyzed using an integrated approach that combines Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), enabling the use of both linear and non-linear methods to analyze the relationship between cognitive biases and career choices. Our findings reveal that while all five biases have a measurable impact, status quo bias and social comparison are the dominant factors influencing students’ career decisions. These results underscore the need for interventions that foster self-awareness, independent decision-making, and critical thinking. Such insights can guide educators, career counselors, and policymakers in designing programs to mitigate the negative effects of cognitive biases on career decision-making, ultimately enhancing career satisfaction and workforce efficiency.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5030034

Authors: Aivars Spilbergs

Digital wallets (DWs) have experienced significant growth in recent years. Still, at the same time, there are substantial differences in the level of adoption of these financial technologies between EU Member States. This research investigates the key factors affecting the intention to use DWs by analyzing previous research and applying an extended Technology Acceptance Model. In total, 418 respondents from the Baltic states participated in the online survey in 2024. Using partial least squares–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), the analysis revealed that the factors studied, such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influence, facilitating conditions, and perceived trust, significantly influenced users’ intent to use DWs for financial services. Perceived trust emerged as the strongest predictor, and social influence moderated perceived ease of use and facilitated conditions that impacted users’ intent to adopt DWs. This study provides important insights into the factors that shape users’ intentions to use DWs and the interactions between these factors. In addition, the extension of the TAM strengthened the theoretical framework for the study of DW adoption.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5030033

Authors: Kehinde Ogunsola-Saliu Abdulaziz Alotaibi

Franchising operates as a proven business model that drives substantial growth for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) worldwide. The franchise ecosystem in Saudi Arabia lacks sufficient research, despite established frameworks for success in markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. This research investigates the elements that lead to franchise success in Saudi Arabia through a combination of qualitative and quantitative data. This research evaluates franchise performance through metrics such as Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU), Return on Investment (ROI), Franchise Success Rate, Time to Break Even, and Market Growth Rate, comparing Saudi Arabia with the U.S., the U.K., and India to identify essential success determinants. The research reveals that franchise success depends on regulatory frameworks, cultural alignment, economic diversification, and supply chain efficiency. The U.S. and U.K. enjoy established legal protections, whereas Saudi Arabia faces regulatory complexities and resource limitations. The research proposes three strategic recommendations: government incentives, locally adapted business models, and carefully selected locations to boost franchise success. The analysis provides essential information to policymakers, franchisors, and entrepreneurs seeking to expand their businesses in Saudi Arabia. The implementation of Vision 2030 growth barrier solutions and market opportunities will enable Saudi Arabia to build up its franchising sector and enhance market performance. This research adds new knowledge to the franchising literature in emerging markets and its impact on sustainable business growth.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5030032

Authors: Mark Colgate

In today’s volatile business environment, command and control leadership is increasingly inadequate for sustaining engagement, innovation and resilience. This review synthesises peer-reviewed evidence on coaching leadership style (CLS) published between 2000 and 2025. A systematic search across four databases yielded eleven high-quality empirical studies and three meta-analyses. The findings indicate that CLS enhances employee motivation, facilitates skill development, promotes psychological safety and strengthens organisational adaptability, while concurrently advancing leaders’ effectiveness and emotional intelligence. Notably, recent trials demonstrate that both virtual and face-to-face coaching modalities produce comparable performance gains. This review also identifies contextual constraints—such as time intensity and crisis-driven situations—where CLS may be less advantageous. Practical recommendations are offered for embedding coaching behaviours into daily management routines, including phased roll outs, leader as coach training and metrics for monitoring engagement and innovation. Future research should prioritise longitudinal, cross-cultural studies that examine CLS efficacy in digitally transformed, post-pandemic workplaces. Collectively, the evidence positions coaching leadership not as an optional enhancement but as a strategic requirement for organisations seeking sustained competitive advantage.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5030031

Authors: Ingrida Kazlauskienė Vilma Atkočiūnienė

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are becoming increasingly important for sustainable rural development through the smart village concept. This study aims to model ICT’s potential for public services management in European rural areas. It identifies ICT applications across rural service domains, analyzes how these technologies address specific rural challenges, and evaluates their benefits, implementation barriers, and future prospects for sustainable rural development. A qualitative content analysis method was applied using purposive sampling to analyze 79 peer-reviewed articles from EBSCO and Elsevier databases (2000–2024). A deductive approach employed predefined categories to systematically classify ICT applications across rural public service domains, with data coded according to technology scope, problems addressed, and implementation challenges. The analysis identified 15 ICT application domains (agriculture, healthcare, education, governance, energy, transport, etc.) and 42 key technology categories (Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, digital platforms, mobile applications, etc.). These technologies address four fundamental rural challenges: limited service accessibility, inefficient resource management, demographic pressures, and social exclusion. This study provides the first comprehensive systematic categorization of ICT applications in smart villages, establishing a theoretical framework connecting technology deployment with sustainable development dimensions. Findings demonstrate that successful ICT implementation requires integrated urban–rural cooperation, community-centered approaches, and balanced attention to economic, social, and environmental sustainability. The research identifies persistent challenges, including inadequate infrastructure, limited digital competencies, and high implementation costs, providing actionable insights for policymakers and practitioners developing ICT-enabled rural development strategies.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5030030

Authors: Samreen Ashraf Juliet Memery Martyn Polkinghorne

Although research on religion has gained increasing attention, few studies have examined its connection to consumer identity and how it influences purchasing decisions. This gap is especially noticeable when it comes to decision-making around religious services. Previous studies on what influences consumers’ choice of banks have produced mixed findings on the role of religion. This study explores how multiple identities shape the decision to use non-Islamic banking services in Pakistan, where Muslim consumers can choose between Islamic (religious) and non-Islamic (non-religious) banking options. Using a qualitative approach, the research focuses on Muslims who opt for non-Islamic banking to understand the factors behind their choice. Findings reveal that role identity—especially as a son or daughter—plays a key role in bank selection, even when religion is important to the individual. However, identity conflicts arise as people navigate different aspects of their identity. Surprisingly, group identity had little influence on these banking decisions.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5030029

Authors: Kristaps Banga Elina Gaile-Sarkane

In today’s globalized and rapidly evolving technological landscape, innovation serves as a critical driver of economic growth and competitive advantage. The concept of an innovation ecosystem has emerged to elucidate the complex interactions among various stakeholders—including public sectors, startups, academia, businesses, NGOs, and venture capitalists—who collaborate and compete to foster technological advancements and economic growth. Open innovation emphasizes leveraging external ideas alongside internal efforts to enhance innovation capabilities, fostering more dynamic and resilient systems. Additionally, learning from innovation failures plays a crucial role in shaping effective strategies for growth, as startups often translate these learnings into robust innovation frameworks. Given the increasing complexity and interconnectedness of innovation ecosystems, traditional metrics often fail to capture their dynamic and collaborative nature. The European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) provides a comprehensive framework for assessing the innovation performance of EU countries, offering insights into the overall health and performance of innovation ecosystems. This review article addresses the need to identify metrics and methods for measuring open innovation’s impact on innovation ecosystems. Building upon foundational theories and empirical findings, this study proposes a framework for evaluating the impact of open innovation on innovation ecosystems. It integrates insights from the academic literature with EIS metrics to develop robust methods for assessing open innovation’s multifaceted influence. This review article is particularly relevant as firms and policymakers strive to understand which metrics are most affected by open innovation and how these can be leveraged to enhance the performance and sustainability of innovation ecosystems.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5030028

Authors: Hasnain Javed Marcus Goncalves Shobana Thirunavukkarasu

This study examines the impact of AI adoption orientation on innovation performance in multinational corporations (MNCs), emphasizing team innovativeness as an intervening mechanism and technology orientation as a moderating factor. Using data from 410 respondents collected via a snowball sampling strategy and analyzed through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), the findings reveal that artificial intelligence (AI) adoption orientation positively influences team innovativeness and innovation performance. Team innovativeness partially mediates this relationship, while technology orientation moderates the link between AI adoption and team innovativeness, underscoring the role of technological preparedness in enhancing innovation. The study contributes to theoretical understanding by integrating team dynamics and technology preparedness in AI-driven innovation. It provides practical insights for managers, policymakers, and organizational leaders on fostering an innovative culture and investing in technology skills to drive MNC competitiveness.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5030027

Authors: Rune Bjerke

The purpose of this conceptual and explorative study is to investigate whether health-promoting self-leadership could be used as a coping strategy enabling employees to deal with negative emotions in an organizational change process, providing a conceptual framework. A total of 18 faculty members from a Nordic university college were interviewed about their experiences, perceptions, and emotional reactions. The study reveals that new IT-systems; heavier workloads; and a lack of involvement, trust, and information, in particular, were stated to be the main reasons for negative emotions, detachment from the university-status aim, and the disruption of employee work–life balance. A few faculty members practiced fragments of what, in theory, is defined as health-promoting self-leadership to successfully manage the organizational change processes. Some were unconscious of their self-leadership practices, while others had no tools to enable them to cope with changes, leading to negative emotions. I discuss the findings regarding health-promoting self-leadership practice based on self-leadership, change management, and emotion theory. Based on both the findings in this study and relevant theories regarding self-leadership and coping strategies, I propose a health-promoting self-leadership-based coping model that could provide both individual and organizational health and performance benefits.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5020026

Authors: Yingkui Yang Jan Møller Jensen René Heiberg Jørgensen

This article proposes and tests a conceptual model examining the antecedents of customer satisfaction and loyalty in the Danish banking sector. Given the changing landscape, the importance of personnel contact, the bank’s website, and the bank’s ethics and reputation are of particular interest. Data were collected through convenience sampling. A total of 1132 usable questionnaires were received. This study reveals that competent personnel, as well as bank ethics and reputation, are major factors influencing customer satisfaction and loyalty. Personal contact with staff is also crucial in shaping customers’ perceptions of the bank’s ethics and reputation. The results also demonstrate that switching barriers have a significant influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Finally, the multi-group analysis revealed no significant differences in terms of gender or generation. This study offers valuable insights for retail banks to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty, demonstrating that competent personnel remains an important driver, even during the shift to digital banking.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5020025

Authors: Olaitan Shemfe Ifeanyi Mbukanma

Rural agricultural markets face unique challenges, yet neuromarketing applications in this sector are understudied. This systematic review investigates how neuroscience has been applied to shape marketing narratives for rural agricultural producers. The objectives were to catalog relevant studies, identify key themes using inductive thematic synthesis, and derive practical implications for rural marketing strategy and future research. We systematically searched English-language, peer-reviewed studies published between 2016 and 2024 across multiple academic databases, following PRISMA guidelines. Two independent reviewers screened the records, resulting in the inclusion of 20 studies. Key data from each study were extracted and synthesized using an inductive thematic analysis approach. The synthesis revealed several recurrent findings. First, in terms of social and community context, farmers showed greater trust and engagement with familiar local buyers than with distant corporations, indicating that local relationships strongly influence producer behavior. Second, regarding product and narrative attributes, marketing narratives that emphasized local provenance, organic or sustainable production, and ethical values such as animal welfare and environmental sustainability resonated strongly with rural consumers. Third, sensory and emotional cues particularly visual elements and storytelling techniques including color, imagery, and packaging design consistently enhanced consumer attention and engagement. Overall, these neuroscience-informed themes suggest that marketing narratives emphasizing authenticity, trust-building, and community values can effectively strengthen rural agricultural marketing. This review provides neuroscience-informed interpretations of key rural marketing challenges, drawing on dual-process theory and consumer decision models for applying neuromarketing insights in this context. Practically, rural producers can leverage these findings by designing marketing messages and packaging that highlight local identity and ethical values, thereby building consumer trust and loyalty. The review also highlights gaps such as the need for more field-based neuromarketing studies and suggests directions for future research, offering guidance for both scholars and practitioners working at the intersection of neuroscience and rural consumer behavior.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5020024

Authors: Scott Sheridan Marc Dressler

The restaurant industry, especially fine dining, is characterized by intense competition and an increasing number of closures. Wine is a profit lever, but the exploitation of sales potential can present a challenge. As consumers encounter more extensive wine lists, they often find themselves overwhelmed. A restaurant experiment in Stuttgart, Germany, examined strategies to simplify decision-making for customers and their impact on wine purchases and the dining experience. This experiment, conducted at a small fine-dining establishment, aimed to understand how wine descriptions and pairing recommendations influence customer choices and behavior, revealing key insights that wineries and restaurants can leverage to boost wine sales. The findings underscore the power of wine descriptions and strategic pairing recommendations in enhancing customer engagement. They suggest that restaurants can increase their wine sales by integrating well-crafted wine descriptions into menus, while wineries can benefit by providing comprehensive tasting notes and pairing suggestions that align with restaurant offerings. For both sectors, understanding the sensory and psychological factors that shape wine appreciation can offer a competitive edge.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5020023

Authors: Ayaphila Mkhize Katleho D. Mokhothu Mukhodeni Tshikhotho Bonginkosi A. Thango

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face substantial barriers in accessing reliable and cost-effective IT infrastructure, primarily due to economic constraints and limited technical resources. Hybrid cloud computing solutions, including infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS), offer potential to overcome these barriers by providing scalable, flexible IT services. This study systematically reviews the impact of cloud computing on SME performance, focusing on key performance metrics such as cost-efficiency, operational reliability, and competitive advantage. A systematic literature review was conducted using the PRISMA 2020 framework. Inclusion criteria included studies published in English from 2014 to 2024, focusing on cloud computing for SMEs and presenting clear analytical frameworks for evaluating performance. Out of an initial pool of 18,570 studies, 90 met the criteria for detailed analysis. Findings show that cloud computing adoption enhances SME performance, with approximately 82% of studies reporting improvements in operational efficiency and 76% noting cost savings. Competitive advantage was identified as a key benefit in 64% of studies, driven by cloud-enabled scalability and access to advanced technology. Key adoption drivers include management support (cited by 68% of studies), service quality (56%), and perceived risks (54%), while barriers such as initial cost concerns and data security risks were also prevalent, affecting 48% and 45% of SMEs, respectively. This review provides strategic insights for SMEs and policymakers, emphasizing the importance of tailored cloud strategies that align with specific operational needs and budget constraints. By addressing key predictors and challenges, this study offers a roadmap for SMEs to leverage cloud computing to improve performance, sustainability, and competitiveness.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5020022

Authors: Shao V. Tsiu Mfanelo Ngobeni Lesley Mathabela Bonginkosi Thango

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face unique challenges that can be effectively addressed through the adoption of data mining and business intelligence (BI) tools. This systematic literature review scrutinizes the deployment and efficacy of BI and data mining technologies across SME sectors, assessing their impact on operational efficiency, strategic decision-making, and market competitiveness. Therefore, drawing from a methodologically rigorous analysis of 93 scholarly articles published between 2014 and 2024, the review elucidates the evolving landscape of BI tools and techniques that have shaped SME practices. It reveals that advanced analytics such as predictive modeling and machine learning are increasingly being adopted, though significant gaps remain, particularly shaped by economic factors. The utilization of BI and data mining enhances decision-making processes and enables SMEs to adapt effectively to market dynamics. Despite these advancements, SMEs encounter barriers such as technological complexity, high implementation costs, and substantial skills gaps, impeding effective utilization. Our review, grounded in the analysis of business intelligence tools used indicates that dashboards (31.18%) and clustering techniques (10.75%) are predominantly utilized, highlighting their strategic importance in operational settings. However, a considerable number of studies (66.67%) do not specify the BI tools or data mining techniques employed, pointing to a need for more detailed methodological transparency in future research. The predominant focus on the ICT and manufacturing sectors underscores the industrial context sector specific applicability of these technologies, with ICT accounting for 45.16% and manufacturing 22.58% of the studies. We advocate for targeted educational programs, development of user-friendly and cost-effective BI solutions, and strategic partnerships to facilitate knowledge transfer and technological empowerment in SMEs. Empirical research validating the impacts of BI and data mining on SME performance is crucial, providing a directional pathway for future academic inquiries and policy formulation.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5020021

Authors: Keolopile D. Motsaathebe Molefakgotla A. Molefi

This study explores employees’ perceptions of the Office of the Premier in the North West regarding their level of organizational commitment. Using questionnaires to collect qualitative data, a sample of 214 employees, ranging from entry-level to senior management, from the Office of the Premier in the North West Province were gathered. Data were analyzed using SPSS 2011 software. The overall findings show that younger respondents aged 25–34 had an emotional connection to the organization, which aligns with the existing literature. Furthermore, this age group indicated that one of the primary reasons for continuing to work in their department was that leaving would require considerable personal sacrifice, showing that the more committed the employee becomes, the lower the chance of them leaving. Notably, the empirical evidence further reveals that female employees were less likely than male employees to talk openly about their organization. Gender being a factor for employees talking openly about the organization implies that the management must pay attention to gender dynamics across all levels of the organization and ensure that gender representativeness is achieved. This study significantly contributes to the literature on organizational commitment by providing pertinent information regarding organizational commitment based on age, gender, and tenure.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5020020

Authors: Mohammad Tondro Mohammad Jahanbakht Dervis Ozay

The rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) presents emerging economies with an invaluable opportunity to reshape their market standings and reach a competitive advantage. Nonetheless, the acquisition and development of IoT technologies poses significant challenges for businesses in these areas. This study explores the factors affecting IoT technology acquisition and advancement by smart mobility businesses in this market. Through a review of literature and case studies, the research identifies key strategies and their characteristics. We focus on critical factors such as infrastructure constraints, technology acquisition, regulatory frameworks, business structures, and strategic alliances by analyzing related startups engaged in IoT products and services, each with distinct features. Additionally, this research utilizes the Capability Maturity Model to evaluate and enhance technological capabilities and business processes according to their readiness levels. Based on the results obtained, we emphasize the necessity of approaches tailored to specific needs and obstacles. Employing a mixed-methods approach, including conceptual studies, thematic analysis, interviews, questionnaires, and advanced machine learning techniques, the study sheds light on the strategic decisions, technological trends, and achievements of IoT-focused businesses. Therefore, it underscores the importance of recognizing technological trends and the pivotal role of data-driven analytics in strategic decision-making for technology adoption.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5020019

Authors: Árpád Ferenc Papp-Váry Áron Rönky

The use of product and service brands by popular movie characters has long been a powerful marketing tool, boosting brand awareness and enhancing brand image. Product placement—the appearance of brands in films—not only increases visibility but also provides vital financial support for film production, particularly in big-budget blockbusters. However, an interesting question arises: to what extent do filmmakers and brands align brand values with the personalities of film characters? Is the goal solely to maximize exposure, or is there a conscious effort to create authentic pairings that resonate with audiences? This study examines the appearance of product and service brands in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, focusing specifically on two main characters: Iron Man (Tony Stark) and Captain America (Steve Rogers). We analyzed 11 Marvel Studios films released between 2008 and 2019, documenting brand appearances and evaluating their alignment with the characters’ personalities. By applying personality typology models (Aaker, Mark and Pearson, MBTI, NERIS Type Explorer), we developed detailed profiles of both the movie characters and the associated brands. The findings reveal that while brand placements are extensive, there is often a deliberate effort to pair them with characters in ways that reinforce authenticity and strengthen audience connections. This benefits filmmakers, audiences, and brands alike by enhancing credibility and fostering emotional engagement.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5020017

Authors: Andiso Pingilili Ntebele Letsie Gift Nzimande Bonginkosi Thango Lerato Matshaka

In today’s fast-paced technological landscape, businesses must adapt to evolving business models and harness the power of data to thrive. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) face significant challenges in aligning IT infrastructure with business objectives while navigating digital transformation. This systematic review, conducted using PRISMA 2020 guidelines, investigates the role of Enterprise Architecture (EA) and Information Management (IM) in driving IT growth and sustaining competitive performance in SMEs. Through a synthesis of academic research, industry analysis, and case studies from the last decade, this review identifies key frameworks—such as TOGAF, Zachman, and FEAF—that support the alignment of IT capabilities with organizational goals. The integration of IM within EA frameworks is found to enhance decision-making, resource allocation, and operational efficiency. Emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud computing are highlighted for their transformative impact, enabling real-time data analysis, improved scalability, and enhanced agility. Our review reports that 43.44% of the studies focused on cloud-based solutions, while 24.59% adopted hybrid models, offering SMEs scalable and flexible IT infrastructures. The findings emphasize the necessity of strong governance frameworks to ensure compliance, adaptability, and long-term sustainability in a dynamic environment. This research contributes to a comprehensive roadmap for SMEs, enabling them to leverage EA and IM for sustained growth and competitive advantage in the digital era.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5020018

Authors: Gabriel Reichert Sophie Ehrenbrandtner Robert Fina Franz Theuretzbacher Clemens Birklbauer Christoph Schmidl

Heat pumps (HPs) are considered as a key technology in the future energy system. Besides technical and ecological aspects, user acceptance and user friendliness are also essential. The aim of the study was therefore to research which aspects are decisive for the purchase decision, which different types of HP owners can be distinguished, how their specific user behavior can be characterized in terms of control and operation, and what their respective requirements and wishes are for the functions and operation of their HPs. A mixed-methods approach in an exploratory sequential design was used. Based on nine qualitative interviews and a survey with 510 respondents, both conducted in Austria, it is observed that the most relevant arguments for the purchase decision of HPs are high environmental friendliness and efficiency, as well as resource independence. Respecting certain usage and requirement patterns, four user types could be identified and defined—the minimalist, the functionalist, the tech-savvy tinkerer, and the anxious user. In the future, intelligent control and regulation approaches and the integration of HPs into a holistic energy and building management system (smart home) will become more important. Based on the results, tailor-made system solutions can be developed, user friendliness optimized, and new services developed.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5020016

Authors: Senad Osmanovic

The purpose of this bibliometric analysis is to understand what skill sets are needed for the entrepreneurial mindset, how the entrepreneurial mindset is practically operationalized, and where opportunities can be identified using the entrepreneurial mindset. The entrepreneurial mindset is crucial in entrepreneurship and innovation, leading to value creation, business development, and competitive advantage. The methodological approach involves a bibliometric analysis utilizing seven databases and a total of 478 articles that were selected based on the phrase “entrepreneurial mindset”. Data were extracted on 6 July 2024, and the bibliometric analysis consisted of four separate steps in the methodological approach. The findings identified six different clusters in which the entrepreneurial mindset adopted a process-oriented perspective, a concept that is underexplored in the current literature. The novelty in this study involves a cluster in the findings, labeled “the missing dynamics”, which warrants attention. Overall, the missing dynamics cluster in this bibliometric analysis offers originality and further research suggestions. By continuing to explore the process-oriented views of the entrepreneurial mindset, new value opportunities can be created, while the missing dynamics can be better understood.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5010015

Authors: Samira Binte Saif Anisul M. Islam

Occupying the prestigious second place globally, the readymade export garment industry is the most important manufacturing and export industry in Bangladesh. The industry took root in the 1980s and has subsequently grown very rapidly since the 1990s, and now it contributes significantly to employment, income, exports, foreign exchange earnings, national output, and the overall social and economic development of the country. This paper focuses on the growth and development of the industry over the years, along with a critical discussion of some major social sustainability challenged facing this industry, particularly those pertaining to child labor issues, worker income, the gender gap, and worker and workplace safety, among others. The paper uses a mixture of quantitative and non-quantitative analysis and utilizes data and information from secondary sources to analyze the issues. The authors fill a critical gap in the existing literature on social sustainability challenges facing the export garment industry and finds that the country has made significant progress; however, however, more needs to be done improve social sustainability. The authors argue that not addressing these challenges, particularly external ones, may threaten the long-term viability and sustainability of this industry in the global stage. The paper discusses the progress made in these fronts, and the prospects for the future, so that the industry continue to play a pivotal role at the global stage and in the overall economic, social, and human development of the country.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5010014

Authors: Peter R. J. Trim Yang-Im Lee

Since COVID-19, there has been an increase in the utilization of food banks owing to a number of factors, including a reduction in household income due to job losses and an increase in the cost of living, which has affected people on low incomes. In this paper, we explain how people that are in need of assistance and have limited knowledge of service provision can be remotivated through regaining their self-esteem. This is achieved through various forms of intervention. By adopting a metaphorical approach, we conceptually explore how intervention provided by a social inclusion community center stimulates recipients to re-ignite their desire for self-improvement. This is achieved through an analogy made, comparing a Formula 1 motor racing team servicing a car during a pit-stop and a person (recipient) in need of food visiting a food bank to collect a food parcel. Based on a conceptual analysis, we propose a framework outlining the interactional process involving the social inclusion community center staff and a recipient, whereby the recipient becomes, through empowerment, an external operant actor and resource integrator for the social inclusion community center. This is achieved through a circular value co-creation process. Through the circular motion of the value co-creation, an external operant actor regains self-confidence due to gaining a sense of belonging and feeling inspired to contribute to the community they are associated with.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5010013

Authors: Fungai Chiruka Zivanayi Mazhazha-Nyandoro Renier Grosch Ntandoyenkosi Sibindi

The COVID-19 pandemic devastated businesses globally, leading to significant economic and social challenges. Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are particularly vulnerable to environmental turbulence, while their survival and resilience are critical to the national economic recovery of countries globally. This study adopted a qualitative approach to examine the strategic responses adopted by MSMEs and the impact of the strategies on survival and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic period. The sample size comprises ten (10) MSMEs and data collection using a semi-structured interview schedule. The key findings indicate that the MSMEs adopted cost reduction and diversification strategies to mitigate the impact of the abrupt COVID-19 lockdowns and the subsequent financial and cashflow problems, threats to business continuity and survival. The study conclusions indicate that adopting a combination of cost reduction and diversification strategies improved the business continuity and survival of MSMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study recommendations include the need for government and stakeholders to enhance the capacity and competence of MSMEs in strategic and operational planning, investing in technology, innovation, creativity, training and development of strategic agility and fostering adaptive organisational cultures that enhance flexibility, resilience and survival when faced with economic and business environment disruptions in future.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5010012

Authors: Viktoriia Koilo

This study explores the integration of digitalization and circular economy (CE) principles within the maritime industry through a theoretical analysis, proposing a framework that aligns business models with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and net-zero objectives. By investigating how digital servitization and circular business models can drive economic, social, and environmental outcomes, this research provides valuable insights into sustainable value creation and capture across maritime value chains. The theoretical analysis covers the evolution of business models, emphasizing their collective role in fostering sustainable transformation within the maritime sector. The central idea of this study is a sustainable value mapping approach that aligns product–service systems (PSSs) with circular economy principles, incorporating lifecycle thinking (LCT) to capture the full environmental, economic, and social impacts. This broader perspective on the economic value proposition highlights the need for a shift from selling products to offering servitized products, acknowledging the importance of sustainability across the entire product lifecycle. This framework offers actionable guidance for maritime stakeholders committed to transitioning their value chains towards sustainable, circular models, addressing both production and consumption dimensions to achieve broader environmental and social benefits.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5010011

Authors: Yan Cao Carola Raab Christine Bergman

Research published about the restaurant industry has experienced consistent growth over the past few decades. Yet, a comprehensive bibliometric review of this research has not been performed. This study aimed to perform such a review by examining peer-reviewed articles (n = 792) focused on restaurant business research published in the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Articles related to health or food science were not examined in this study. Articles were categorized as focusing on one of five types of restaurants (i.e., fast food, fast casual, casual dining, fine dining, and general restaurants), and the articles were analyzed within three research fields: consumer behavior, organizational behavior, and finance. The increasing number of research articles focused on the restaurant industry was found to have occurred during the same time as the number of hospitality scholars and the fast food restaurant sector expanded. Fast food restaurants received the most research attention and the fast casual types received the least. Consumer behavior research dominated the restaurant research, reflecting a focus on customer satisfaction and purchase intentions. Organizational behavior topics, such as workforce dynamics and organizational structure, received slightly less attention. Finance research was the least explored research field, likely due to its complexity and perceived indirect connection to consumer-facing outcomes. The study emphasizes the need for integrative research linking consumer behavior, organizational strategies, and financial decisions to provide a holistic understanding of restaurant performance and industry practices.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5010010

Authors: Hiroko Nakajima Tomoki Sekiguchi

Whether or not business planning is useful for entrepreneurs is a critical question both academically and practically. While some studies suggest that structured business planning enhances business performance, others argue that it may be unnecessary or even counterproductive in uncertain environments. This lack of consensus creates a gap between academic research and practical application, leaving entrepreneurs without clear guidance on when and how to engage in business planning and what impact it may have. To address this issue, we conducted an integrative literature review on the effectiveness of business planning in entrepreneurship. The results of our review suggest that business planning is generally effective, and we categorize its effects into three aspects: (1) economic effects, such as start-ups’ improved sustainability and profitability; (2) external and symbolic effects for stakeholders, including enhanced decision-making for external funding, trust building, vision legitimization, and stakeholder engagement; and (3) internal and psychological effects, such as improved decision-making, cognitive enhancement, and flexibility for entrepreneurs. This article also highlights the gaps in the literature, particularly regarding the relationship between business planning and factors such as time, environmental conditions, feedback loops, entrepreneurial passion, and psychological ownership. To fully leverage the benefits of business planning, we propose six evidence-based recommendations to guide entrepreneurs in effectively utilizing this critical tool.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5010009

Authors: Godswill Agu Clara Margaça

African traditional entrepreneurship schemes have gained growing scholarly attention in recent times, with the Indigenous Igbo Entrepreneurship Scheme (IIES) recognized as the most impactful. Although scholars have explored various dimensions of the IIES, they agree that the phenomenon requires more exploration in order to position it properly in the global literature of entrepreneurship and support its adoption in other regions beyond the Igbo context. Currently, very few studies have investigated the roles, impediments, and possible solutions to the challenges faced by the IIES, and none is known that covers these three areas simultaneously. By deploying a mixed research method involving in-depth interviews with IIES enrollees and trainers, and a systematic literature review, this study proposes the 3Rs framework to the IIES. Thus, it anchors on the entrepreneurial venture creation theory and the multidimensional construct to explore the IIES’s relevance, restraints, and remedies. Several findings relating to the relevance of the scheme, such as its economic, social, financial, and environmental contributions, the restraints (informality, lack of regulation, eroding trust, and dwindling enrolment), and the remedies (including the formulation of regulatory policies, formalization of the scheme, talent hunting, and rekindling the spiritual side) are highlighted. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5010008

Authors: Baomin Qi Emma McCauley Katherine Baxter Mark Ching-Pong Poo Yui-yip Lau

This study explores the impact of COVID-19-related supply chain disruptions on manufacturing firms, focusing on external risks: demand, environmental, and supply. Our literature review reveals the general lack of comprehensive disruption plans and exposes the vulnerabilities in manufacturing firms with limited research addressing this issue. By adopting an interpretive research philosophy and a qualitative, inductive approach, our research delves into the operational challenges and adaptations implemented in the manufacturing sector during the pandemic through case studies. The findings reveal that COVID-19 significantly increased risks, causing demand surges, logistical disruptions, extended lead times, and labour shortages due to lockdowns, necessitating strategic shifts towards localised and digital supply chains in the manufacturing sector. Our study not only enriches the supply chain literature by detailing the pandemic’s effects and emphasising the need for robust disruption plans for enhanced resilience but also offers new insights into managing supply chain disruptions in crises, highlighting the necessity of strategic adaptations for future crisis preparedness across various industries.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5010007

Authors: Seong-Won Eum Byunghak Leem

The purpose of this study is to identify airline asymmetric attributes that affect customer satisfaction based on the three-factor theory and to build an Asymmetric Impact-Sentiment Analysis (AISA) for resource allocation prioritization. We identified food and beverage service as a basic factor; inflight service as a one-dimensional factor; and seat comfort, ground service, and airline seat class as attractive factors. AISA analysis results showed that food and beverage services should be prevented from falling into customer dissatisfaction through Urgent Action (cell II), and in-flight services should be improved continuously to increase satisfaction (cell IV). Low-priority improvement is required for seat comfort, which is an attractive factor (cell VI), and strong maintenance is required for ground service and airline seat class as strength factors (cell V). The first contribution, the asymmetric relationship between customer opinions for service attributes and satisfaction, was verified. Second, this paper extended the IPA to the text mining-based asymmetric AISA.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5010006

Authors: Keshava Raj Gnawali Rajan Kadel

This study examines the defection patterns of post-paid telephone customers based on migrant status and season-wise acquisition using the Weibull model. Data from 48,666 post-paid customers were extracted from the data warehouse of a telephone company in Nepal. After pre-processing, the migrant status and season of acquisition for 48,583 customers were identified. Survival analysis was then conducted using the Kaplan–Meier (K-M) method to estimate the hazard of defection. Finally, the Weibull model was applied to analyse defection patterns concerning migrant status, default status, and season-wise acquisition in relation to survival periods. The results indicate that migrant customers have a significantly higher probability of defection compared to non-migrant customers. Additionally, the season of acquisition has a notable impact on customer survival duration. The study also highlights a higher risk of involuntary defection among migrant customers. These findings can inform the development of marketing strategies aimed at improving customer retention and acquisition in the telecommunications sector. Moreover, the model and methodology employed in this research can be extended to other marketing contexts.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5010005

Authors: Meshal Abdulaziz Aldhobaib

Although the Middle East is often perceived as politically, economically, and socially unstable, Saudi Arabia offers a different narrative. Inspired by the country’s vision (Vision 2030) and the growing body of research exploring its socio-economic transformation, this article examines how organizational strategy theories and practices can be advanced by inviting researchers to focus on Saudi Arabia’s evolving context. To achieve this, the article addresses three pivotal questions: (a) Why should academics consider conducting research in Saudi Arabia? (b) What research topics could significantly advance organizational strategy theories and practices? (c) What are the primary barriers to conducting research in Saudi Arabia? Using a comprehensive review of existing literature, socio-economic analysis, and an evaluation of Vision 2030 targets, the article identifies three key themes: (1) socio-cultural dynamics and their influence on organizational strategies, (2) economic diversification and its impact on strategic resilience, and (3) the strategic alignment of foreign direct investment (FDI) with expatriate mission success. These findings lead to distinct research agendas linked to relevant theoretical frameworks, including Cross-Cultural Theory, Institutional Theory, and the Resource-Based View. The article concludes by inviting scholars to explore these themes and generate findings that contribute to existing organizational strategy theories and practical solutions, fostering a deeper understanding of organizational strategy within Saudi Arabia and the broader global landscape.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5010004

Authors: Georgios Korakis Ioulia Poulaki

The aim of this paper is to fill the identified gap in the literature regarding a holistic approach to the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and transformational leadership (TL). In fact, this paper contributes to the annotation of the literature in this particular field through a selective bibliography, aiming to cover the main contributors to the development of this topic and explore their different views in order to critically approach the pros and cons, producing implications for academia and organizations. A leader who applies the transformational style is able to indirectly or directly influence the efficiency of employees through increased levels of emotional intelligence and developed cognitive skills. The purpose of this paper is to examine the correlation between EI and TL. A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted for papers published from 2000 onwards (21st century). Published papers were selected from international scientific journals that have been indexed as Q1 or Q2 (best quartiles) in the SJR database fields of business, management, and accounting. For the initial screening, the Google Scholar database was used to access papers through the following keywords: emotional intelligence, transformational leadership, organizational behavior, management, and organizational development. Furthermore, SLR’s PRISMA flow chart indicated the most suitable papers to be analyzed in the context of this paper. The research yielded 16 published studies confirming the positive relationship between EI and TL and 9 papers questioning it. These papers have been analyzed to open a discussion and draw conclusions. Research on the relationship between transformational leadership and emotional intelligence demonstrate a positive correlation in the majority, while there are some who question it.

Businesses doi: 10.3390/businesses5010003

Authors: Teuku Muda Nanta Noermijati Noermijati Fatchur Rohman Ananda Sabil Hussein

This study aims to determine the influence of digital touchpoint usage experience, specifically through the myIndiHome application, on customer loyalty, with digital engagement and customer satisfaction as mediating variables. The study used a quantitative method to survey 385 active IndiHome broadband customers in Indonesia. Structural Equation Modelling–Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS) was used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that digital touchpoint usage positively and significantly affected digital engagement, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. Additionally, digital engagement and customer satisfaction had a positive and significant impact on customer loyalty. The results further demonstrated that digital engagement positively influenced customer satisfaction. Mediation analysis showed that digital engagement and customer satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between digital touchpoint usage and customer loyalty. This study demonstrates the role of digital experience, digital engagement, and customer satisfaction in fostering consumer loyalty. The current findings provide insights into the development of more effective marketing strategies, ensuring business sustainability and strengthening long-term relationships with customers.