Businesses

Brands can be one of a company’s most valuable intangible assets and a lever to generate value. As a source of added value, a brand should be strategically built and managed. To fully take advantage of the benefits that the brand provides, it is necessary to propose a brand management strategy. A conceptual framework was developed by the authors as an alternative to propose a brand management strategy according to a specific business scenario. The objective of this study is to validate this conceptual framework and apply it to propose a brand management strategy in a specific business scenario. For this purpose, a sectorial cross-validation was developed by triangulating the application of the framework to two data collection methods: (1) interviews and (2) a literature review. The results suggested that decomposing a complex business scenario into single-dimensioned business scenarios can help to propose, enhance, or reframe a brand strategy. The results also suggested that some brand dimensions can be used to lever other brand dimensions, such as brand relationship, which is at the top of CEO/CMO priorities in this field. This work contributes to theory by cross-validating the conceptual framework for creating brand management strategies through triangulation. Full article

Fuzzy marketing considers the degree to which a customer belongs to specific segments and subsequently allows them to be targeted with messages that engage them emotionally. To better understand the application and importance of fuzzy logic in marketing strategy, we developed a systematic literature review with bibliometric analysis to examine a sample of 96 studies from the SCOPUS database to identify research activity on this topic until December 2022. It was possible to create a connection between these concepts, marketing and fuzzy logic, to increase the efforts of marketing professionals. For instance, the results show that adopting approaches such as fuzzy marketing or the fuzzy marketing mix model enhances the company’s capability to build stronger customer relationships, enhance profitability, and improve marketing performance. Full article

This study addresses the empirical problem of improving sales channels in countries like Tunisia, with a specific focus on the sales channels of Tunisian olive oil. The authors aim to explore this problem within the theoretical framework of sales channels and emphasize the contribution of their research to enhancing sales channels and accessing new markets for Tunisian olive oil. To achieve these goals, the authors conducted a study with a specific research objective: to examine the factors influencing consumer behavior and perceptions towards olive oil. By doing so, this research contributes to a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities of expanding sales channels and supports the development of sustainable agribusiness. Additionally, the authors highlight the importance of advertising healthy food with good quality based on an ethical production process that emphasizes accountability and transparency. They argue that these ethical practices can serve as competitive strengths for agri-food producers in emerging markets as they explore new market opportunities. Overall, this research not only addresses the need for improving sales channels in Tunisia but also provides insights into consumer behavior, highlights the significance of ethical production processes, and supports the competitiveness of agri-food producers in emerging markets. Full article

This study evaluates the managerial sustainability of implementing a decision support system for industrial symbiosis through a recent business modeling methodology. The decision support system is intended to facilitate the identification of implementable industrial symbiosis good practices in a pilot project located in the industrial retro-port area of Trieste. To evaluate the feasibility of this project, a qualitative “Dynamic business model canvas for sustainability” was designed and supported by a system dynamics approach using causal loop diagrams. The study analyzed various governance scenarios for managing the decision support system (public, private, or public–private partnership) and the financing system. The analysis concludes by discussing the research limitations of this study and future opportunities, emphasizing the importance of a resilient system that can handle operational and regulatory shocks, given the project’s public relevance. Further study opportunities could be provided through quantitative simulations and potential numerical validations with stakeholders in the local area, considering potential regulatory constraints. Full article

Although there has been a worldwide cry for gender equity within organizations, gender discriminatory practices continue to be a challenge. Many women still suffer from gender discrimination and remain at the bottom of organizational structures despite their efforts to ascend. This paper seeks to examine the link between gender discriminatory practices and women’s skill development and progression within the workplace. The study espoused a quantitative approach. A questionnaire survey was self-administered online to 412 women through a convenient non-probability sampling method. Descriptive tendencies, test normality, validity, reliability, and regression analysis were performed using the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS), AMOS 27. The results reveal that women’s skill development is impacted by workplace gender discriminatory practices, and the career progression of women is linked to their skill development. Yet it rejects the claim that workplace gender discriminatory practices impact women’s career progression. While having a gender-friendly work environment is applaudable, developing women’s skills and promoting their advancement at work will require more effort from companies. Organizations need to be deliberate about the skills development and career progression of women and institutionalize initiatives that directly encourage women to engage in developmental activities as well as initiatives geared towards promoting women’s career advancement. Full article

We use the new taxonomy for innovative firms developed based on microlevel data from the Community Innovation Survey (CIS2018) on a sample of 6360 Norwegian firms, and information on users of COVID-19-related compensation schemes for firms with significant loss of turnover and furloughed employees to analyse how resilient different innovative firms have been to the crisis (in both the short and the long run). By using different probabilistic regression models, we study the probability of firms being affected negatively during the pandemic period between March 2020 and February 2022 covering three waves of societal restrictions in Norway. Our main assumption is that all firms were hit by a shock at an early stage due to a complete lockdown in March 2020, but that firms were more resilient if they either did not use the compensation schemes or used them for a briefer period than the less resilient firms. We find “active R&D doers” to be most resilient, while “strategic adapters” (firms with a main strategy of producing high-quality products for a specific group of customers) are found to be least resilient. These results imply that pre-existing innovation capabilities are important for meeting the crisis. Full article

This study aims to provide operators with measures for successful IPTV utilisation by identifying the quality of IPTV services for home training and analysing the relationship between consumers’ exercise satisfaction and continuous use to respond to the COVID-19 era. To achieve the research purpose, people who exercise at home using IPTV home training pro-grams were selected as the sample population. The relationship between efficiency, availability, security, and practicability, which are sub-factors of the service quality of IPTV home training, was analysed for exercise satisfaction and continuous use. The analysis methods include frequency analysis and Cronbach’s α using SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 20.0. Validation was conducted through correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation model analysis. In addition, Harman’s one-factor verification was conducted to determine the common method bias. All statistically significant levels were set at the p < 0.05 level. The results show that efficiency, availability, security, and practicability have a positive effect on exercise satisfaction, and exercise satisfaction has a positive effect on continuous use. First, during COVID-19, IPTV plays an important role in helping consumers exercise at home and indoors. Second, the subjects of this study showed that individuals 40 years old and older are exercising the most. Therefore, it is assumed that consumers will continue to participate if they provide programs that young people can do. Third, since various human disasters, natural disasters, and other un-predictable phenomena such as COVID-19 are occurring worldwide, policymakers should try to activate programs such as IPTV’s home training that can be done indoors. Full article

This paper examines the effect of CSR perceptions on online recruitment practices and outcomes in the Vietnamese food and beverage sector. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seventeen participants, including CEOs, HR (human resource) staff and store managers. The results show that CSR perception varies and is exemplified through employee-related activities, ethical products, environment, philanthropy, and international standards. The study is novel in establishing that, despite high unemployment in developing economies, CSR communication in online recruitment sites impacts job applicants’ choice of company. While the strategic potency of CSR has been established, this study brings to light its critical significance for human resources processes, particularly online recruitment, in an emerging economy context. The study has considerable implications for practitioners and researchers, suggesting the necessity to strategically manage the interface between CSR and online recruitment. Full article

For the tourism industry, the COVID-19 pandemic has acted as an accelerator towards the 4th industrial revolution by creating new and innovative solutions, which have transformed management, finance, planning and opened new avenues for the introduction of innovative sales and marketing technologies. As the tourism industry in Greece faces significant challenges and opportunities posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, additional needs have arisen for tourism businesses, as confirmed in this research, to adapt faster to digital operations and strengthen digital marketing through multi-channel distribution and use of digital assistants. This study aims to investigate the use of digital marketing tools by tourism companies as well as the overall satisfaction of the companies with its use and the areas of impact of digital marketing from the COVID-19 pandemic, and then to highlight all those features that stand out from those of their competitors, as well as the creation of an appropriate marketing strategy that will ensure the flow of new customers and increased revenue. To meet this purpose, an empirical survey was conducted in tourism companies in order to provide answers to research questions. As tourism businesses have not yet made sufficient use of digital media as a strategic marketing tool, this research is the basis for further research into the use of technology and digital tools to reach customers and create a more personalized experience for them. Full article

Total quality management (TQM) has become a reliable quality and customer satisfaction approach that can meet or exceed customer satisfaction. Previous studies have not really tied total quality management in the aspects of SERVQUAL as the major influence on customer satisfaction in the Ghanaian telecommunication sector, thus the need for this research. As customer satisfaction continues to rise, telecommunication customers expect service quality to improve to meet their satisfaction. The quality of service determines the customer satisfaction level in a service industry, such as telecom. Effective total quality management would result in better service quality. SERVQUAL is arguably the model to assess the effectiveness of customer satisfaction in the service industry. The aim of this study is to assess the influence of total quality management on customer satisfaction in the telecom industry from a TQM–SERVQUAL perspective. The study relied on questionnaires to gather data about the TQM services on customer satisfaction. A self-completion questionnaire was administered to customers and employees of MTN Ghana and Vodafone Ghana. Both companies operate with the same procedures and equipment, hence the need to use the same apparatus for all contacted customers and employees. There were 800 respondents from both companies’ employees and customers, although 850 questionnaires were administered. Descriptive statistical analysis was used through the questionnaire. The investigators also ran preliminary tests such as reliability, validity, and multicollinearity tests to ascertain if the received data were reasonable enough for the research and would fit the expected model. The data collected were analyzed and the inference was drawn in the study. The key finding states that total quality management had a significant impact on service quality and customer satisfaction. It is also concluded that service quality has a positive influence on customer satisfaction. Moreover, service quality has been detected as a major variable of TQM in achieving customer satisfaction in telecommunication companies in Ghana. Full article

Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) periodically decide on both which products to launch (or phase out) and in which global regions, thereby conducting an integrated products-countries consideration in diversification strategies. Over time, these diversification decisions can have a cumulative impact on the structure. Diversification literature has primarily focused on one of these two metrics rather than providing an integrated view; this work investigates both metrics. Considering deal-making as an execution instrument of strategies, a comparison of historic deals of MNEs with their current structure offers insights into the nature of the diversification strategies that were pursued. For the most active global deal-making pharmaceutical firms, we derive normalized deal diversity profile metrics in terms of their cumulative past product-countries’ preferences and compare them with the product-countries’ operations of their current subsidiaries. We rationalize MNE deal behaviors as means to shed, acquire and consolidate businesses to enable their market leadership aspirations. The analysis reveals two trajectories that have been actively favored in deals: one directed at niche products offered globally, and one directed at niche products in selected countries. The former is characterized by deals in a high number of countries, whereas the latter by two identifiably different product concentration levels. In contrast, trajectories directed at widely diverse products have been disfavored in deals. Understanding such directions and their pace can aid in global- or group-level strategy formulation, monitoring strategy execution, interpreting competitor moves and designing regional policies. Full article

E-commerce is an area in which success largely depends on the e-commerce applications used. Currently, there are many studies that focus on various technological innovations in e-commerce systems, but a comprehensive concept of their improvement is lacking. In this regard, the main objective of the article was to explore the technological possibilities for the improvement of e-commerce systems and to propose a conceptual framework for their maintenance and development. The chosen research approach included a combined methodology–text mining analysis of existing developments and identifying the key themes and trends in papers and deep scientific analyses of the most-cited developments. As a result, a conceptual framework for the maintenance and development of e-commerce applications was proposed. To test the approach, publications from the scientific literature database Scopus, on the topic “e-commerce applications” were used. Experiments and text processing were performed with the software RapidMiner Studio. Several main directions for the development of e-commerce systems have been defined: the application of modern development tools; the technological base; and the possibilities of integration. Future research may focus on detailing each direction. Full article

This article aims to explain the innovative behaviour of large Spanish companies by comparing the hospitality industry with other service providers and industrial manufacturers. Several hypotheses are proposed and tested for different innovation stages: innovation effort, outcome and performance. The sample includes 2944 Spanish companies with 200 or more employees. Using one-way ANOVA analysis, this study fills an important gap in the impact of innovation and technology on the performance of the hospitality sector. The results show that catering establishments have differentiated innovation behaviours not only to manufacturers but also compared to service providers. The findings support the hypothesis and suggest that hotel companies complement in-house R&D with other innovative activities. Furthermore, hospitality organisations have the highest percentage of innovation revenue due to fewer innovation efforts and innovation outcomes, mainly due to the organisation’s innovations. Full article

The purpose of this paper is to identify whether a person’s entrepreneurial characteristics can be sought in written texts, and it deals with aspects such as understanding hidden feelings by looking only at a person’s written texts. The transcripts of their speeches, interviews, and press conferences were analyzed in terms of semantic categories of words that were included with the use of General Inquirer software, which was developed in Harvard in order to support content analysis. Representatives clearly articulate and work together to establish the organization’s values, ascertain its objectives, create and carry out a strategic plan, and cultivate and interact with the organization’s perspective. A leader needs to be appointed, but they also need to have the ability to demonstrate their aspirations, excite their audience, and visualize their followers. In addition to this, they need to have the determination to take risks. This paper could be helpful for assessors of modern businesses as well as investigators of political and social sciences who are seeking to determine the perspective that is encountered in the literary documents of a particular person. A large variety of written documents from numerous people that have lived in a variety of historical eras and countries, regardless of gender and educational or professional background were examined. The common characteristic is that they were leading personalities in any of the following categories: their country, social movements, sports, art, business and social life. Full article

The Asian disease problem has long been studied since first introduced by Tversky and Kahneman in 1981. This study explores the mechanics of the Asian disease problem to a scenario reflecting deaths attributed to climate change. The study examines the gain/loss frame setup of the Asian disease problem. To research the Asian disease problem, in partnership with a Qualtrics panel, we surveyed 1209 customers of Utah utilities. Through statistical tests on the survey data, we confirmed the existence of the gain/loss framing effect. Moreover, the framing effect held when separating and examining responses based on unique socio-economic characteristics (i.e., age, gender, race, marital status, income, educational attainment, political preference, living status, household size, years at current residence, and energy-saving preference). In short, like the original Asian disease problem, the framing impact varied regardless of the characteristic studied. Based on these findings, we recommend implementing the framing effects of the Asian disease problem to an expanded realm for energy- and climate-related programs, initiatives, and academic research. We believe that this framing could spur action to mitigate climate change. Moreover, we recommend an expanded empirical study of the Asian disease problem to novel and understudied realms beyond our focus area. Full article

Research on the career expectations of employees and the potential (mis)match with their lived reality is abundant, yet the research field has paid less attention to the expectation–reality gap of the self-employed. Self-employed people’s attitudes towards work are, however, important for determining business success and persistence. Therefore, research is needed to examine their expectations as well as how self-employed people’s expectations materialize in their experiences. By analyzing in-depth interviews with 19 self-employed workers without employees in Belgium, both desired and undesired career expectations were revealed. After becoming self-employed, these expectations sometimes materialized in reality, in both a positive (e.g., independence and doing what you love) and a negative (e.g., risk and insecurity) sense. Our results also imply that expectation–reality gaps going in two directions exist. We identified positive expectations being met by less-positive experiences (e.g., loneliness, increased responsibility, being unable to do what you like, overestimated financial success, and unavailable or expensive formal support), as well as negative expectations being met by better experiences (e.g., social support between self-employed colleagues). The study signals that the social environment of the solo self-employed (SSE) merits policy attention. Efforts need to be made to create self-employed networks, where professional and social ties can be formed. Full article

Literature on participation in the informal food sector in cities of the Global South is conventionally characterized by a survivalist or opportunistic perspective. The main difference is that opportunists, in contrast to survivalists, are motivated by entrepreneurial choice rather than necessity and see opportunities for economic and social advancement in the sector. Recent studies in Brazil and India conclude that research on informal sector participation requires a “both/and” rather than “either/or” approach. The main problem this paper addresses is whether the “both/and” model is also applicable in the African context. This is the first study to investigate the issue in the informal food sector of an African city; in this case, the capital city of Namibia, Windhoek. The paper evaluates five potential ways of distinguishing between survivalist and opportunistic food vendors and concludes that entrepreneurial motivation (EM) provides the most useful set of metrics. Selected EM responses are then used to construct four regression models—two survivalist and two opportunistic—in order to determine which individual and business characteristics are most strongly and consistently associated with survivalism and opportunism. Few vendors are both survivalist and opportunistic in orientation. There is a possibility of survivalists becoming more opportunistic over time but the models do not confirm this hypothesis. Apart from differences in EM, there are many similarities between the two groups and both would therefore benefit from a more enabling policy environment. The primary distinguishing business characteristic is the enterprise type with street food vendors most likely to be opportunistic. Ironically, it is street vendors who are seen as unsightly, unhealthy, and uncontrollable, and face the most difficult operating environment. Full article

The purpose of this study is to find a way to maintain the sustainability of YouTube quality by identifying the relationship between user satisfaction, perceived achievement, and continuous use intention of YouTube content quality that provides ski technology information. Moreover, with the recent emergence of the recent emergence of COVID-19, face-to-face activities have been limited and skiing technique is commonly conveyed through YouTube. Therefore, it is urgent to develop and provide meaningful skiing technique content and information to YouTube users. To this end, this study focuses on YouTube content on ski techniques provided by the Education Committee of Korea Ski Instructors Association. The subjects of this study were 322 individuals who watched five YouTube videos produced by the Education Committee at High1, Yongpyeong, Phoenix Park, and Welli Hilli 4 ski resorts located in Gangwon-do from November 2021 to March 2022. Frequency analysis, Cronbach’s α, and correlation analysis were performed using SPSSWIN 24.0. In addition, AMOS 24.0 was used for confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model analysis for hypothesis validation. All statistical significance levels were set to p < 0.05. The findings support the suitability of the research model. Full article

Green technology is the new trend for combining technology, innovation, and sustainability. However, China faces several problems in this regard, given the high cost of green products and services. To accelerate the establishment of green technology, it is necessary to solve the financial system problems faced by the various companies and to build a system that promotes green technology innovation. Based on an analysis of articles published in top international journals and official documents from 2016 to 2022 about the relationship between green technology and financial services in China, this paper tries to present specific policy recommendations to create a market that supports green technology in China. Our results show that the financial system must include, first of all, a model for financing and risk management at the level of the stock market, investment, insurance, and guarantees to face the reluctance of banks to lend. In addition, government incentives, including incubation, guarantees, interest rate subsidies, etc., mitigate the environmental externalities of green projects and limit the costs of financing green technology enterprises. Then, long-term funding needs to be provided to address the cost-effectiveness of selected green technology projects; and finally, the use of digital technology is required to improve green valuation capabilities and establish a set of environmental benefit definitions and valuation criteria that is suitable for green technology and green venture capital funds. Full article