Search Results (6)

This paper addresses the critical challenge of identifying cost-effective coalitions of social media influencers to promote environmental sustainability (ES) messages under budget constraints. Traditional influencer marketing often relies on heuristics that ignore relational dependencies and heterogeneous agent costs, leading to redundant coverage and suboptimal resource allocation. To overcome these limitations, we introduce a novel Relational Cooperative Game (RG) framework that formalizes pre-determined dependencies among influencers and followers using closure operators, enabling a portfolio of polynomial-time identification algorithms for Minimal Winning Coalitions (MWCs). We further extend this model to the Weighted Cost-Relational Game (WCRG) to optimize campaigns with heterogeneous influencer costs. We prove that finding a Minimum-Cost Winning Coalition (MCWC) is NP-hard via reduction from weighted set cover and propose two complementary algorithms: (1) a Greedy Cost–Benefit (GCB) algorithm that operates in polynomial time and empirically achieves optimal solutions across all tested instances; a logarithmic approximation guarantee is established for the restricted single-antecedent model; and (2) an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) formulation enhanced with Strongly Connected Component (SCC) preprocessing to handle cyclic dependencies and yield exact optimal solutions for moderate instances. Extensive empirical validation, ranging from a representative six-agent cyclic scenario to large-scale synthetic networks (up to 300 agents), confirms the framework’s robustness and scalability. Results demonstrate that GCB consistently achieves optimal solutions (approximation ratio = 1.000×) with subsecond runtime (<0.2 s) and minimal memory overhead (<50 MB), while ILP-SCC leverages graph condensation for rapid exact solving. Compared to size-based baselines, WCRG achieves up to 95.2% cost savings by systematically leveraging cost-efficient micro-influencers, empirically validating that minimizing coalition size does not guarantee cost efficiency. These findings establish WCRG as a scalable, budget-aware optimization toolkit for maximizing the impact of sustainability campaigns through relational coalition design. Full article

China is experiencing rapid population aging and is actively promoting smart home–based eldercare. Smart homes offer a promising means of supporting older adults in aging in place. However, low adoption and limited sustained use constrain their potential benefits, thereby exacerbating social, economic, and healthcare burdens. This study examined factors influencing older adults’ continuance intention to use smart homes in Shandong Province, China, by integrating the Expectation–Confirmation Model of Information Systems and the Technology Acceptance Model and incorporating China-specific contextual antecedents, including government policy, intergenerational technical support, compatibility, and cost. Data were collected using an online questionnaire survey of older adults aged 60 years and older with prior smart home experience (n = 421) and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Results showed that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, satisfaction, and cost directly affected continuance intention, whereas government policy, compatibility, and intergenerational technical support influenced continuance intention through perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and confirmation. Based on these results, this study proposes a conceptual framework for understanding older adults’ continuance intention toward smart homes. The findings provide implications for inclusive policy, user-centered design, and family-supported digital aging in rapidly aging societies. Full article

Digitalisation has significantly increased cybersecurity risks in organisations, notably for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in which IT departments often have relatively small teams and limited resources. Cyber insurance enables SMEs to navigate cybersecurity risks more economically, providing an essential risk transfer alternative to costly reduction strategies. This article examines the antecedents, emergence, and application of cyber insurance as a solution to cybersecurity concerns against the backdrop of increasing digitalisation. The research adopts a quantitative deductive approach, with an analysis of relevant literature providing the basis for the development of 12 hypotheses, which are then tested via a survey of 168 SMEs in Turkey. Using the Technology–Organisation–Environment–Individual (TOE-I) model as a top-line conceptual framework, the article finds that cyber insurance policy adoption has facilitated a more rapid and secure digitalisation process and that the mitigation of financial risk associated with cyberattacks has allowed companies to invest more widely in information technologies and systems. The article clearly has its limitations, in that it is based on primary research in one European country, but the authors believe that it nevertheless provides some new insights into the potential benefits of cyber insurance, and the key issues SMEs must consider when considering adopting a cyber insurance policy. The findings will be of practical relevance to SMEs and other organisations reviewing their cybersecurity strategy and are also of relevance to the wider debate around the costs and benefits of digitalisation. Full article

In recent years, despite the rapid growth in the number of entrepreneurial incubation platforms in China, many of them are experiencing the sustainability dilemma caused by the loss of incubated startups. However, there is a dearth of research that explores how to promote incubated startups’ continuance intention towards entrepreneurial incubation platforms. Addressing this gap, the present study develops a dedication–constraint model based on the dual model framework, investigating the distinct impacts of entrepreneurial support and relationship-specific investment on incubated startups’ continuance intention towards entrepreneurial incubation platforms. A sample of 534 incubated startups in China was employed to test the research model, and the structural equation modelling was adopted for data analysis. Empirical results indicate that the dedication-based mechanism and constraint-based mechanism simultaneously, yet differently, affect incubated startups’ continuance intention towards entrepreneurial incubation platforms. Specifically, in the dedication-based mechanism, social support and technical support are revealed as the antecedents to relationship satisfaction that significantly leads to benefit-based dependence. As for the constraint-based mechanism, setup activity is the only salient indicator to termination costs, which consequently has a positive effect on cost-based dependence. Incubated startups’ continuance intention towards entrepreneurial incubation platforms is influenced by both benefit-based dependence and cost-based dependence, ultimately. Full article

In the rapidly changing business environment, employee voice can be a key driver of organizations’ sustainable development. However, how can employees ensure that they receive a positive response from their managers? To what extent do the voice patterns within the team influence managers’ reactions to one employee’s voice behaviors? To address these questions, we draw on the antecedent–benefit–cost framework (ABC framework) and knowledge management literature to investigate the inverted U-shaped relationship between employee voice and managers’ performance evaluations and the role of voice consensus (i.e., the extent to which the frequency of an employee’s voice is dissimilar to that of his/her coworkers) in shaping this relationship. The results of a field study of 173 employees in 37 groups show that employees who engage in moderate levels of voice are rated as better performers than those who rarely voice or voice very frequently, especially when the frequency of employees’ voice deviates from the voice frequency of their coworkers (i.e., low consensus). These findings highlight that it is not only important to explore the frequency of voice when studying managerial responses to employee voice but to also examine other dimensions of the voice behavior (such as voice consensus). Full article

With the popularity of crowdfunding, many small- and medium-sized ventures and startups which have insufficient funds advertise and sell their services or products in reward-based crowdfunding markets. The success of crowdfunding projects for sale purposes is therefore beneficial to the sustainable development of these growing enterprises. Based upon goal attainment theory, a research model based on a cost–benefit framework is proposed to analyze consumer purchase intention in reward-based crowdfunding markets. The research model is empirically tested with data collected from 398 participants in China. A structural equation modeling analysis reveal that perceived benefits (price concession and perceived innovation) exert a significant positive impact on perceived net goal attainment (PNGA), whereas perceived costs (transaction cost and performance risk) have a weak negative effect on PNGA. The results also indicate that satisfaction mediates between PNGA and purchase intention. Furthermore, we use an artificial neural network analysis to weigh the relative importance of the antecedents of PNGA. The results suggest that perceived innovation is more important than price concession, which is consistent with the structural equation modeling analysis. These results might deepen our understanding of how consumers trade off costs and benefits in the purchase of crowdfunding products/services. Full article