Value co-creation in e-services: The case of websites

The objective of the research was to propose a conceptual model with the integration of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Dynamic Capabilities Theory, and the Contingency Theory, and with the review and analysis of the topics e-Service Quality (e-SQ), e-Relationship Quality, e-Trust, e-Satisfaction, Disruptive Factors, Technology Platform, Customer Involvement and Interaction, Value Co-Creation and Continuous e-Loyalty. E-service is strategically used to create brand value. E-commerce will strongly depend on trust. Therefore, online companies must make and maintain a loyal customer base. The face-to-face pre-purchase research, post-purchase feedback, website, and social media technologies have changed e-commerce into more social commerce. The imposition of accelerated technology, consumer interaction, and the fierce COVID-19 pandemic are the factors that most influence value co-creation. The current crisis and new challenges affect the quality of relationships, consumer loyalty, and value co-creation. © International Association for Computer Information Systems. All Rights Reserved.

How Ethnic Minority SME Owners in the UK can Create Value Amid Informal Institutional Voids

This article shows that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed informal institutional voids that exist for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) business owners in the United Kingdom. Based on a primary database of surveys and semi-structured interviews, the results show that many BAME small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners encountered informal institutional voids that White SME owners did not face during the pandemic. The article also shows how these BAME SME owners created value amid these institutional voids and how they can continue to do so. The article concludes by suggesting that bridging these voids is crucial for promoting a more inclusive environment where ethnic and non-ethnic entrepreneurs can succeed. It also presents policy implications and offers directions for future research.

An understanding of how immigration offers a solution against the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on youth entrepreneurship in South Africa

With the entire globe still amid a global pandemic, youth entrepreneurs endure the same impact as any regular business. These implications are either negative or positive or a combination of both. This paper aimed to educate South African youth and governments on the importance of ensuring that youth unemployment is kept low by engaging in entrepreneurship. Therefore, youth entrepreneurship is a solution to South Africa's youth unemployment issue. In addition, immigration was highlighted as a solution for those youth impacted tremendously by the pandemic. The pandemic brought many lockdowns and restrictions in South Africa, forcing existing and budding youth entrepreneurs to find alternatives or shut down completely. After using a qualitative approach in this paper, many recommendations are made in light of improving the state of youth entrepreneurship in South Africa. The most critical recommendation requires that South Africa, from the top-down, adopt a mindset that youth are South Africa's future. This will ensure that everything done to engage in the mentoring, uplifting and shaping of youth will reap the benefits of a better South Africa in years to come.

Lessons Learnt and Policy Implications from Implementing the POWERPOOR Approach to Alleviate Energy Poverty

Energy poverty is a multifaceted phenomenon that affects many Europeans. Alleviating energy poverty is high in the EU, national, and local policy agendas. Despite the attention the phenomenon has been gaining from a policy perspective, especially after the current energy crisis, there are still some gaps due to the complexity of the issue and its vastly different manifestations across Europe. This manuscript presents the policy implications stemming from the implementation of the POWEPROOR approach in alleviating energy poverty in eight European countries, as co-created with relevant stakeholders in each country. The knowledge gained from empowering energy-poor citizens by promoting behavioural changes and small-scale energy efficiency interventions, as well as by encouraging the uptake of renewable energy sources in the form of collective energy initiatives while leveraging innovative financing schemes, resulted in policy recommendations for national and sub-national governments and lessons for civil society and the private sector.

"A Plague Broke Out among Them”: Reflections on the Bible and the Pandemic: A Journal of Bible and Theology

This essay seeks to utilize ideas and texts found in the Hebrew Bible in order to historically contextualize the COVID-19 pandemic and to illuminate various existential, religious, political, and ethical issues raised by the current pandemic and our responses to it.

The Moderating Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Corporate Financial Performance: Evidence from OECD Countries

This study aims to investigate the nature and intensity of the changes in corporate financial performance due to the corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures as a result of certain relationships between corporate governance and company performance in the non-financial sector. This study selected 625 non-financial companies across six organizations for economic cooperations (OECD) countries' stock markets for the period of 10 years (2012–2021). For this qualitative study, corporate governance, financial performance, and corporate social responsibility score data were collected from the DataStream, a reliable database for examining the research on OECD countries' listed companies. For the data analysis we applied various statistical tools such as regression analysis and moderation analysis. The findings of the study show that all attributes of the corporate governance mechanism, except for audit board attendance, have significant positive impacts on financial performance indicators for all the selected OECD economies except the country France. France's code of corporate governance has a significant negative impact on return on asset (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) due to differences in cultural and operational norms of the country. The audit board attendance has no significant impact on ROA. Moreover, all the attributes except board size (BSIZ) have significant positive impacts on the earnings per share (EPS) in Spain, The United Kingdom (UK) and Belgium. The values obtained from the moderation effect show that Corporate social responsibility is the key factor in motivating corporate governance practices which eventually improves corporate financial performance. However, this study advocated the implications, Investors and stakeholders should consider both corporate governance and CSR disclosures when making investment decisions. Companies that prioritize both governance and CSR tend to have better financial performance and are more likely to mitigate risks. Moreover, the policy makers can improve the code of corporate governance in order to attain sustainable development in the stock market.

Managing Emergencies Through Resilience: The Case of Turin Smart City

The study explores the enabling factors of resilience as a key lever to address complexity, challenge technological evolution and foster growth in urban contexts. The goal is to explore the determinants of resilience to understand how smart cities can seize opportunities for innovation starting from disruptive event through the right combination of technology, human and social capital. Resilient smart cities can challenge environmental changes and develop proactive behaviors that encourage the attainment of social, economic and environmental well-being. Therefore, being resilient entails the redefinition of orientation, business models, technology and resource allocation to turn a crisis (such as Covid-19 pandemic) into an opportunity for development. Given the need to clarify the key determinants of resilience in contemporary cities, this article aims at exploring: (1) the main drivers for resilience to challenge a crisis;(2) how the drivers o resilience can be activated and combined to create opportunities for innovation. The empirical research is based on a content analysis that explores the case study of the Italian smart city of Turin. The results allow the identification of the determinants of resilience according to an exploratory approach, in which the smart projects and the set of technologies, resources and institutions exchanged and co-developed by Turin smart city are classified to obtain some enabling dimensions for resilience. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Fiscal deficits and the socioeconomic consequences of rebalancing: Insights from a TVP‐VAR with stochastic volatility

This article connects two salient economic features: (i) Fiscal shocks have asymmetric effects across business cycle phases (Gechert, Horn, & Paetz, 2019);(ii) the unemployment‐output trade‐off is time varying and may be unstable. The intertwined dynamic behaviour of fiscal deficit shocks and the unemployment‐output trade‐off is studied in this article using a time‐varying parameter (TVP) vector autoregression (VAR) with stochastic volatility techniques applied to the analysis of data from Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States of America. We confirm the trade‐off heterogeneity across country, and its time‐varying nature across time, showing in addition its fluctuation around a long‐run reference value. We document significant short‐run impacts of fiscal shocks on the unemployment‐output trade‐off which, based on the experience of the Global Financial Crisis, becomes larger in periods of economic turmoil. Policy‐wise, the rebalancing of public finances may have unexpected adverse effects on job creation if implemented during slumps, precisely when the labour market sensitivity with respect to the performance of the product market is likely to be more acute. This message is particularly relevant in the aftermath of the Covid‐19 pandemic.

The impact of risk-taking and auditor characteristics on value creation in pre-Covid 19 and post-Covid 19 pandemic: MRN

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the impact of risk-taking and auditor characteristics on value creation in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. In addition, it investigates the moderator role of auditor characteristics in the impact of risk-taking on value creation, especially in pre-Covid 19 and post-Covid 19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe information about 199 company in 2014–2021 was examined. In the present study, in accordance with the related theoretical literature and the importance of auditor specialization, auditor tenure and auditor reputation, these factors were considered as the auditor characteristics.FindingsThe present findings based on the generalized least squares (GLS) method showed that risk-taking positively affects the value creation. The auditor characteristics (auditor specialization, auditor tenure and auditor reputation) have a significant positive effect on the value creation. Furthermore, the auditor characteristics enhance the impact of risk-taking on value creation. The results of generalized method of moments method and robust regression analysis are consistent with the GLS results. To take into account the Covid-19 conditions, the data were divided into pre-Covid-19 and post-Covid-19 years. The results showed that auditor characteristics moderate the impact of risk-taking on value creation in pre-Covid 19 and post-Covid 19.Originality/valueThe study highlights the role of auditor characteristics in the value creation, especially in the emerging market. Given that Covid-19 has seriously damaged global economic well-being and has put companies at a double risk, the present findings can be useful for managers, investors and the international community, and help company managers make risk-taking policies and select auditors with appropriate characteristics.

Building a green future: Examining the job creation potential of electricity, heating, and storage in low-carbon buildings

Job creation is paramount when considering global transitions to low-carbon, clean-energy solutions. The building sector, critical to reducing greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale, has technologies available that rely on electricity rather than fossil fuels for energy and indoor heating and cooling. Solar photovoltaic, energy storage in the form of prosumer batteries, and heat pumps represent three readily deployable solutions to reduce carbon emissions in both new and retrofitted buildings. This study investigates the creation of jobs for each solution and then for all three combined across key countries in North America, Europe, and Asia. While other studies have explored aggregated job creation within nations, regions or globally, this first-of-a-kind study employs a micro-level approach examining six individual building archetypes: residential, hospital, hotel, office, retail, and education. Using the best available data as of 2022, the first-order assessment finds that more than 2 million new jobs and more than 141 million job years can be generated in Europe and the United States alone during the transition to net zero living.

Retaining remote teaching and assessment methods in accounting education: Drivers and challenges in the post-pandemic era

Despite the availability of studies on teaching and assessment during the pandemic, little is known about the factors that contribute to their retention in the post-pandemic era. This study aims to address this gap by examining the reasons for retaining remote methods and the challenges of maintaining them. Using a case study approach, data were collected through eleven interviews and document analysis of the first and leading academic accounting degree program in Sri Lanka. Isomorphic pressures and PEST factors were used to analyze the drivers for retention and the challenges, respectively. The study finds that coercive pressures dominate in Sri Lanka for the retention of remote teaching and assessment methods, driven by government policies and the country's economic crisis. However, mimetic and normative forces also reinforce these methods, driven by peer pressure and the desire to keep up with global trends. Conversely, political, economic, social, and technological factors impede the retention of remote learning and assessment methods, acting as a powerful force that drives back these remote methods to pre-pandemic practices. Hence, educational policymakers must allocate adequate funds and enhance infrastructure for remote education. We urge educators to gain more knowledge and skills in remote teaching and assessment methods, and learners to demonstrate responsibility, organization, and commitment towards the benefits of remote education.

Environmental change, strategic entrepreneurial action, and success: Introduction to a special issue on an important, neglected topic

Research Summary: The two premises that underpin this SEJ Special Issue on Environmental Change, Strategic Entrepreneurial Action, and Success are that all environmental changes provide positive potentials for some ventures, and that this has been under-emphasized in past theory and research. After stating these premises and illustrating how present research treats the environment, we proceed to explain how the five articles selected for the special issue advance our thinking in this domain. We then broaden our discussion to how future entrepreneurship research can make further progress by studying interaction among environmental changes as well as their links to entrepreneurial agents, contexts (sectoral, spatial, organizational, etc.) and the entrepreneurial artifact (emerging venture). Throughout, the focus is on the enabling rather than constraining role of environmental changes. Managerial Summary: The COVID-19 pandemic, the digital revolution, and the sustainability transition forced by climate change demonstrate significant business impact of environmental changes, including potentials for new business initiatives. This editorial and the five vanguard articles included in this SEJ Special Issue on Environmental Change, Strategic Entrepreneurial Action, and Success outline how future research can develop better theory and evidence on this important topic. The articles address matters ranging from how COVID-19 facilitated some technology firms' recruiting and reignited media firms' dormant initiatives to how environmental degradations sparked entrepreneurial ecosystem development in Kenya, how the level of environmental dynamism at a venture's birth impact its current ability to benefit from change, and the consequences of passing on potentials provided by environmental change.

Consumer Habits of Domestic Tourists in Croatia: Motivation, Behavioural Intentions and Cocreation of Tourist Experience

The economy of the Republic of Croatia is dependent on the tourism industry. The current crisis in the global tourism market, caused by the Covid 19 pandemic, has highlighted the impor-tance of the domestic market for the survival of tourism and the Croatian economy as a whole. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to determine the consumer habits of domestic tourists, fo-cusing on the characteristics of travel, motivation and behavioural intentions and co-creation of the tourist experience to better understand the behaviour of tourists. The paper is based on an empirical study conducted on a sample of domestic tourists. The research results show that the majority of tourists organize their own travel and that the main source of information for them is the Internet. The most common reasons for traveling are rest and relaxation, fun and new experiences. Using cluster analysis, three segments of domestic tourists were identified (Youth, Couples and Families with Children), and differences were found among them in terms of travel characteristics, travel motivation, behavioural intentions, degree of tourists' involvement in travel preparation, and degree of co-creation of the tourist experience. The paper contributes to the understanding of motives and behavioural patterns of domestic tourists. The research findings can be used by marketing manag-ers in travel agencies and tourist destinations to better address the needs of domestic tourists.

How value drivers of internet medical business model affect value creation: a configurational approach

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate how value drivers of internet medical business model affect value creation through a configurational approach. The internet medical business model (IMBM) is such a business model that integrates online and offline medical services with the driving force of internet technologies covering prediagnosis, in-diagnosis and postdiagnosis. The outbreak of COVID-19 and the support of national policies have boosted the development of internet health care. However, there are still many challenges in practice, such as the unclear innovation path, as well as difficulties in landing and profiting. Academic research has not yet provided sufficient theoretical insights. Therefore, to better explain and guide practice, it is urgent to clarify the innovation path and mechanism of value creation for IMBM. Design/methodology/approachBased on the sample of 58 internet medical firms in China, this paper adopts fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore the configurational effects of IMBM's value drivers on value creation. FindingsBuilding on the business model canvas and the characteristics of internet health care, five value drivers of IMBM are identified, namely, functional value proposition, emotional value proposition, user involvement, resource capabilities and connection properties. And the five value drivers form three configurations, which are, respectively, labeled as resource-driven configuration, user-operated configuration and product-combined configuration. From the perspective of the integration of traditional and emerging theories, such as resource-based view, internet economics and value cocreation, each configuration leads to value creation and improves value results with different mechanisms behind it. Originality/valueFirst, combined with the business model canvas and the characteristics of internet health care, this paper identifies five value drivers of IMBM, thus improving the relevant research on internet health care. Second, based on the configurational effects, this paper discusses the mechanism behind the configurational effects of IMBM's value drivers on value creation, thus expanding relevant research on the value creation of business models. Third, applying fsQCA and combining the advantages of qualitative research and quantitative research, this paper adds to the configurations of IMBM's value drivers that achieve high-value results.

Drivers of employment effects in tourism-related sectors: the case of Mainland China

PurposeTourism is a labor-intensive sector with extensive links to other industries and plays a vital role in creating employment. This study aims to propose a new framework to analyze the intrinsic structure of the employment effects of tourism-related sectors and their drivers.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses input–output and structural decomposition analysis (IO-SDA) to quantify the employment effects of tourism-related sectors and their driving mechanisms based on China's I-O tables of 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017.FindingsThe results show a declining trend in the intensity of direct or indirect employment effects in tourism-related sectors, indicating a decreasing number of jobs directly or indirectly required to create a unit of tourism output. Among tourism-related sectors, catering has the highest intensity of indirect employment effects over the study period. Catering stimulates the indirect employment of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery and food and tobacco manufacturing. The decomposition analysis reveals that final demand is the largest contributor to the increase in tourism employment, while technological progress shifts from an employment-creation effect in 2002–2012 to an employment-destruction effect in 2012–2017.Originality/valueThis study proposes a new analytical framework to investigate the structural proportional relationship between the direct and indirect employment effects of various tourism-related sectors and their dynamic changes. Doing so, it provides valuable references for policymakers to promote tourism employment.

Making cultural and tourist attractions accessible and inclusive for people with disability through value co-creation amidst COVID-19: a critical discourse analysis

People with disabilities (PwD) are a COVID-19 vulnerable group, and globally they are experiencing even higher rates of social exclusion than before the pandemic. Value co-creation is a process whereby firms and their customers work together to develop service offerings and provides a tool for service improvement during disruptions such as health crises. Although many cultural and tourist attractions have access and inclusion as part of their strategic plans not all of them have turned to value co-creation to address access and inclusion in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They also have varying degrees of understandings about what facilitates social inclusion. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, this study explores how museums have addressed access and inclusion in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the degree of uptake, discourses of value co-creation, and how their responses can be categorised. The research design included semi-structured, participatory interviews with 15 managers from eight museums;and ethnographic observation and semi-structured, post-museum visit interviews with 12 PwD. Then, an iterative data analysis process using ATLAS-ti was undertaken. The results provide insight into the social inclusion of PwD in museums during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Forging organizational resilience through green value co-creation: The role of green technology, green operations, and green transaction capabilities

The study assessed the mediating role of green organizational capabilities (green technology development, green operations, and green transactions), in the relationship between green value co-creation and organizational resilience among Chinese manufacturing firms, that is, firms' ability to build strong organizational resilience in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It focused on manufacturing firms operating within Shenzhen, a coastal city located within the Guangdong province in southeastern China. The sample comprised 234 firms. Data were analysed using a covariance-based structural equation modeling. Findings revealed that green value co-creation had no direct effect on organizational resilience, rather, its effect was realized indirectly through green organizational capabilities. The study concludes that manufacturing companies can augment their organizational capabilities by leveraging the knowledge of their customers through green value co-creation to build strong organizational resilience. Theoretical and managerial implications have been provided.

Bank liquidity hoarding during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper examines the association between bank liquidity hoarding (BLH) and the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a sample of U.S. banks and applying fixed effect estimators, we reveal that banks rack up liquidity assets and liabilities when the pandemic escalates. Our finding holds with alternative BLH and COVID-19 proxies and is further validated by falsification tests. Additional analysis reveals that BLH improves bank stability by reducing earnings volatility, non-performing loans and the propensity to go bankrupt. This study supports the existing literature on BLH and economic adversities and expands our understanding of BLH during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Knowledge Creation in Social Work During the Time of COVID-19

This chapter discusses the experience of three graduate students of social work enrolled in field instruction during the first semester that was restructured to be managed remotely, due to the restrictions of the COVID-19 community quarantine in the Philippines. Specifically, the researcher examined the integrative reports and reflexive notes of the students and faculty supervisors, and audio/video recordings of the department's field sharing of experiences. Comparison of the data from the proposed models of practice submitted by the graduate students revealed different knowledge sources used by the students in evaluating the gaps in practice in their respective agencies. The proposed models of the graduate reflected the combination of knowledge shared by the different stakeholders, (organizations, clients, faculty supervisors, agency supervisors), the application of theories and perspectives in social work and other disciplines, and the insights and strategies gleaned from innovative practice. This knowledge creation is vital toward the remaking of social work for the future. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Attunement in the Cracks: Feminist Collaboration and the University as Broken Machine

This essay takes the form of a dialogue between Natalie Loveless and Carrie Smith, both professors at a large western-Canadian research-intensive university undergoing restructuring prompted by budget cuts. Together they ask how feminist collaboration can work to resculpt academic political spaces. Though both agree that large-scale action is needed, they also argue for the value of insurgent, modest, local modes of collaborative resistance that operate in the cracks of the neoliberal university. Beginning from their experience navigating the dual threats of COVID-19 and radical budget cuts as professors in academic leadership positions, they make a claim for an anti-racist, feminist university that is responsive in its capacity to nurture generosity, care, and creativity. Together they invite readers to be attentive to the conditions necessary for any true critical collaboration to take place, listening for and attuning to what Sarah Sharma has called "brokenness" (2020)—those places where things are not working from the perspectives of patriarchal power and where those committed to feminist anti-racist/ableist/speciesist university spaces might want to linger.