Business Disciplines Research Articles

Editorial: There Are Promises to Keep and Miles to Go Before I Leave…

Editorial: There Are Promises to Keep and Miles to Go Before I Leave…

Similarities and differences between absorptive capacity and appropriability: a bibliometric perspective

PurposeThis study aimed to examine the similarities and differences between the ability to analyze the environment and exploit new knowledge (absorptive capacity) and the skills to generate value from innovation (appropriation). These fields have similar origins and are sometimes confused by practitioners and academics.Design/methodology/approachA review was conducted based on a full-text analysis of 681 and 431 papers on appropriation and absorptive capacity, respectively, from Scopus, Science Direct and Lens, using methodologies such as text mining, backward citation analysis, modularity clustering and latent Dirichlet allocation analysis.FindingsIn business disciplines, the fields are considered different; however, in other disciplines, it was found that some authors defined them quite similarly. The citation analysis results showed that appropriation was more relevant to absorptive capacity, or vice versa. From the dimension perspective, it was found that although appropriation was considered a relevant element for absorptive capacity, the last models did not include it. Finally, it was found that studies on both topics identified the importance of appropriation and absorptive capacity for innovation performance, knowledge management and technology transfer.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies to examine in-depth the relationship between appropriation and absorptive capacity, bridging a gap in both fields.

Online Assessment in Australian University Business Schools: A Snapshot of Usage and Challenges

Whilst most institutions have been using online assessment submission for many decades, the move to fully online delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic meant more traditional forms of assessment also had to move online. In this national study we captured a snapshot of online assessment usage across business disciplines from 97 survey participants from universities in Australia and identified the challenges reported by participants. We found the three most predominant forms of online assessments are written reports and essays, online exams/quizzes and live or recorded presentations. We categorised the reported challenges into 13 groups, and they include academic integrity; additional time and effort for teachers; technology access and service consistency; student preferences and expectations; and changes to feedback. We conclude with a discussion on these challenges. This study contributes not only a better understanding of the usage of online assessment in Australian business education, but also provides a benchmark with which to track and evaluate future shifts in assessment practice.

An empirical investigation of regional differences in consumption behaviors in an emerging economy

AbstractWidely regarded as one of the most dynamic economies in Southeast Asia, Vietnam has increasingly attracted scholarly interest from diverse business disciplines. However, previous marketing research on Vietnam largely treats the country as a homogenous society. We draw on the literature in sociology, geography, history and predict that significant regional differences exist in consumers' consumption behaviors between the North and South of Vietnam, bearing important implications for international marketers. Using secondary survey data collected by an international market research firm, we show that consumers in Hanoi (HN) and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) differ greatly in how they perceive the impact of an economic crisis, how they change their consumption behaviors as a result, and whether they will cut back on spending on themselves, their families, and children. Our results also demonstrate that HN and HCMC consumers differ in their attitude toward luxury product consumption, attitude toward advertising, and marketing versus non‐marketing controlled sources of information. Our research provides important implications for both managers and researchers interested in this fast‐growing economy.

Artificial Intelligence, Sensors and Vital Health Signs: A Review

Large amounts of patient vital/physiological signs data are usually acquired in hospitals manually via centralized smart devices. The vital signs data are occasionally stored in spreadsheets and may not be part of the clinical cloud record; thus, it is very challenging for doctors to integrate and analyze the data. One possible remedy to overcome these limitations is the interconnection of medical devices through the internet using an intelligent and distributed platform such as the Internet of Things (IoT) or the Internet of Health Things (IoHT) and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML). These concepts permit the integration of data from different sources to enhance the diagnosis/prognosis of the patient’s health state. Over the last several decades, the growth of information technology (IT), such as the IoT/IoHT and AI, has grown quickly as a new study topic in many academic and business disciplines, notably in healthcare. Recent advancements in healthcare delivery have allowed more people to have access to high-quality care and improve their overall health. This research reports recent advances in AI and IoT in monitoring vital health signs. It investigates current research on AI and the IoT, as well as key enabling technologies, notably AI and sensors-enabled applications and successful deployments. This study also examines the essential issues that are frequently faced in AI and IoT-assisted vital health signs monitoring, as well as the special concerns that must be addressed to enhance these systems in healthcare, and it proposes potential future research directions.

Sage research methods core review

SAGE Research Methods Core is a database and tool that helps researchers, faculty, and students with their research projects. This paper will review SAGE Research Methods Core in the context of business disciplines.

Designing Computer Games to Teach Finance and Technical Concepts in an Online Learning Context: Potential and Effectiveness

Designing computer games to educate students is not a new technique. Not all disciplines, however, embed the same degree of cognitive load, and not all game design approaches are appropriate across contexts. Teaching technical business disciplines, such as finance, using a game imposes specific challenges, especially when the subject is offered online and to students who may not be from relevant technical backgrounds. However, there has only been limited attention concerning the use of game-based learning (GBL) for teaching finance at the higher education level, especially when delivered online. This article explores the potential of GBL to teach finance at an Australian university. We further present the outcomes of a survey of students’ experiences concerning the unique business simulation tool. The results reveal that while a game-based intervention can positively affect students’ learning in a technical discipline, such as finance, the design also needs to be such that the players can relate the experience to learning goals and practical needs for satisfactory outcomes. A defining aspect of this research is using Bayesian analysis, capable of gaining insights irrespective of sample size, yet not widely used in the higher education research area in favour of the frequentist analysis. Bayesian analysis shows a high probability of the educational game achieving positive or satisfactory ratings. Further, two aspects of a game—functionalities and usability and perception of impact—are particularly noted to influence the game’s overall rating. Overall, the outcomes from this research call for careful consideration of the learners’ requirements and capability towards ensuring an enjoyable outcome rather than just focusing on a game’s content or context.

Framing the use of performance management in universities: the paradox of business disciplines

PurposeThis paper explores how performance-management systems are understood and framed through the use of rhetoric and language within universities, where not-for-profit, charitable goals are (or should be) central. It addresses the issues of: how strategic rhetorical frames are used by university actors; and how these relate to actors' primary frames and reactions to performance-management practices. The study focuses on the case of UK universities, taking into consideration both old and newer institutions.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a case-study approach, relying on 28 interviews with key-academic actors involved in the design and implementation of university performance-management systems in four UK universities.FindingsThe research highlights the important effect of primary frames over the strategic frames that are mobilised to achieve desired outcomes or individual advantage. In Business disciplines, the consistency between actors' primary frames and managerial and performance-management tools introduced into universities makes such disciplines a fertile ground for these practices to be embraced. This is not the case with Natural Sciences.Practical implicationsWhile framing a new practice consistently with existing/prevailing primary frames may be a winning strategy in the short term, in the long term, those tasked with introducing new practices should consider that the prevalence of a certain view of the world has the potential to hamper innovation and learning.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to advance our understanding of the interaction between individual primary and strategic frames, as well as academic staff's reactions and interpretations of performance-management practices in universities as knowledge-intensive, not-for-profit organisations.

TRAINING OF STUDENTS IN THE HOTEL AND RESTAURANT BUSINESS DURING DISTANCE LEARNING

The peculiarities of the use of Internet resources in the process of teaching students for hotel and restaurant business in the process of their distance learning are revealed in the researching. Scientific publications were analyzed, in which the introduction of distance learning in general and in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic in particular was studied. The potential aspects of using Internet resources in educational process is considered. It includes the following opportunities: search for literature sources according research problem, synchronization of translation work from foreign sources, storage and accumulation of information, organization of communication, graphics, sound effects, distribution, planning, testing and implementation research results. Students should be introduced to the organization of the educational process and material and technical base of the university in the process of distance learning are investigated in this article. In particular, it proposes to do with the help of created viber groups, introductory meetings in ZOOM, 3-D excursions. The study focuses on the use of Internet environments Moodle, ZOOM, Viber, and also revealed methodological aspects of the use of Internet sites in the process of distance learning of individual educational components of future hotel and restaurant professionals. Aspects of the use of the Internet resources during the introduction of students with the infrastructure of hotel and restaurant enterprises are also substantiated; the peculiarities of the organization of hotel and restaurant enterprise and catering are defined; the classification of hotel and restaurant enterprises, analysis of PR-technologies in the hotel and restaurant business are investigated. Approaches to the formation of knowledge the design of objects of the service sector, and training in graphic and design activities using the following software environments Kompass-3D, AutoCAD and NanoCAD are represented. The authors developed a model of using Internet resources in the process of professional training in hotel and restaurant business, which provides for the grouping of methodological aspects of the use of Internet sites in the process of studying disciplines in hotel and restaurant business. The positive and negative aspects of distance learning technology with the use of Internet resources are outlined.

Main Features of Business English Translation and Teaching Model Optimization Based on the Logistic Model.

With the continuous development of global trade in recent years, business English has received more and more attention as a medium of communication. Business English is a branch of English, and in order to meet the practical needs in business, business English is involved in various business disciplines from foreign trade to international logistics, to economics, foreign trade correspondence, law, and so on, which need to be translated in a more targeted manner. Therefore, there are many professional tutorials for business English in the market to guide trade personnel in business English translation. Many scholars have also conducted comprehensive studies on business English translation, some starting from its stylistic features and some focusing on translation skills, but fewer scholars have conducted studies on business English translation through models, and there is still a lack of theoretical basis for how to effectively improve the translation of business English. Therefore, in order to reduce the friction between different cultures in trade, promote business English better, and provide convenience for foreign traders, this study will implement the basic principles of “faithfulness, elegance” in English translation, with the aim of improving the practicality and effectiveness of business English, mainly from the main features of business English translation, and then, in the process of analysis, we mainly use the logistic model to analyze the characteristics of business English translation, including timeliness, professionalism, uniqueness, and diversity. The final analysis results show that the influence of professionalism and diversity on the effect of business English translation is more obvious, and we need to carry out a special teaching mode for these two points. The final analysis shows that professionalism and diversity have a significant impact on the effectiveness of business English translation, and special teaching models are needed to optimize these two points.

Achieving transparency through blockchain: sustainability of fishery supply chain management

Objective: This paper aimed to discuss how blockchain technology would incorporate several changes in the fishery supply chains, in order to make them more reliable and sustainable. Method: This is a qualitative study, using an exploratory method with descriptive approach. In addition, the literature review in this study presents theoretical contributions regarding utility. Main Results: The study highlights the importance of incorporating blockchain features into seafood supply chains, which are currently fragmented and lack of real-time information, focusing on its traceability potential to leveraging fishery supply chains operations and outcomes. It identifies a sequence of strategic checkpoints that provide real-time information by using blockchain in fishery supply chains. Relevance / Originality: This manuscript presents a diagram of a seafood supply chain considering how blockchain allows the data gathering in each stage in order to provide traceability to the supply chain. Hence, the study serves as a map, as well as a model, for upcoming research on how to understand the incorporation of technology into supply chains stages. Theoretical / Methodological Contributions: Supply chains support international business operations. Furthermore, as digital revolution moves aggressively forward, supply chains need to adapt to it in order to fit for the new stakeholders’ expectations. This study uses sustainable supply chain management and blockchain technology as positioning literature. Management Contributions: The study provides an overview of how fishery supply chains would work by incorporating blockchain technology, which extends the literature about sustainable supply chain management and proposes paths for actions for policymakers in order to make them improve the business ecosystem. This study implies a practical contribution to global value chain perspective and the discipline of business.

Religion and Interfaith Dialogue: The Forgotten Pedagogical DEI Initiative in Business Education and Strategic Planning

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are considered “mission critical” objectives within higher education strategic planning processes and by accrediting bodies, particularly at private liberal arts-based institutions. A research gap currently exists with respect to how organized faith, religion, and interfaith dialogue play a pedagogical role in business, particularly when preparing undergraduate students for technical business careers in accounting, finance, and decision sciences. Viewed as the “forgotten DEI” initiative, interfaith dialogue is critical to success at multinational corporations and at the center of employee resource group (ERG) creation. The infusion of interfaith classroom examples, articles, and pedagogy can serve a dual purpose, both preparing undergraduates for careers in technical business disciplines and exposing them to cross-cultural dialogue necessary within multinational companies. This paper describes how religion and interfaith dialogue can be incorporated within the pedagogical design of technical business disciplines to help support DEI initiatives and students preparing for careers in a global world.

AI-Enabled Marketing Solutions in Marketing Decision Making: AI Application in Different Stages of Marketing Process

The digital transformation led by disruptive technologies can help organizations address numerous challenges and deliver better customer value through innovative technologies in all business areas. Artificial intelligence (AI) is finding its application in various business disciplines and is expected to be one of the most important technological tools used in marketing in the years to come. The paper addresses the expected role of artificial intelligence solutions in marketing decision-making throughout the five steps of the marketing process. The study provides a systematic review of the research articles addressing the application of AI for marketing decision-making published in the period from 2020 to 2022. Identified applications are then mapped to five steps of the marketing process: analysis, strategy, tactics, customer relations, and value proposition creation. The findings indicate that most of the current AI applications are utilized in the first stage of the marketing process related to understanding and predicting customer behaviour and in the tactical stage of creating a marketing mix. The paper concludes with recommendations for marketing practitioners and recommendations for further research.

Household cooking in the context of carbon neutrality: A machine-learning-based review

About 6.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions is caused by household cooking activities and thus it is of significance to identify research gaps between current studies and future directions in the context of carbon neutrality. To this end, the Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic model is used to review a total of 1440 household cooking studies from international journals written in English between 1983 and 2021. The textual mining technique helps to identify 20 topics in machine-learning sense, involving 8 research disciplines. In addition to energy field, household cooking is most relevant to disciplines of Multidisciplinary, Clinical Medicine, Chemistry, Economics and Business, and Geosciences. Energy ladder hypothesis and energy poverty are the most prevalent topics and asymmetric dependence relationships are unveiled among the 20 topics. Almost all cooking topics focus on health risk elimination and the transition to cleaner fuels while the target of carbon neutrality has not been adequately considered. The practical cooking fuel transition pathway, health co-benefits, impacts of the shift in cooking methods and practice on cultural diversity and human society driven by carbon neutrality constitute potential research directions. The machine-learning literature review research framework used in the study can be generalized in era of big data.

An empirical survey on prevalence and demographic differences in academic dishonesty among undergraduates from four public universities in China

PurposeThis empirical survey is conducted to investigate the prevalence rate of academic dishonesty (AD) in examinations and assignments among undergraduates. The study compared the difference in admitted behaviours of academic dishonesty between male and female students comprising second-year, third-year and fourth-year students from the discipline of business, engineering, information technology (IT) and education.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional study was utilized in this study and collected data via the online questionnaire. A total of 1,624 respondents participated from four public universities of four provinces in China Mainland.FindingsThe findings showed that the proportion of respondents from China participating in AD is between 15.4 and 51.7%. The findings showed that more than two-thirds of the respondents stated involved dishonesty in examinations and assignments at least once during the previous academic year. In addition, male and female undergraduates in second-year, third-year and fourth-year showed statistically significant differences in dishonest behaviours. Specifically, the male/senior students were more involved in dishonest behaviours than the females/sophomores.Originality/valueUnlike previous studies, this study found that discipline in the Chinese context was not a significant demographic predictor of dishonesty. Although not significantly different, the respondents majoring in business reported a high engagement rate of dishonesty, followed by engineering and information technology undergraduates, but education undergraduates revealed the lowest engagement rate of dishonesty. The target integrity education should be imparted among male and senior students.

Complexity Leadership: The First Two Decades

Complexity leadership, complex adaptive leadership, and adaptive leadership theories are related but separate streams of leadership research dating back four decades. This article reviews the first two decades. The research team searched academic literature within the business discipline for journal articles related to complex adaptive leadership, complexity leadership, and adaptive leadership, resulting in a sample of 778 articles. The researchers used multiple methods to analyze the articles, eventually conducting deductive analysis on a subset of nine articles published between 1982-2002. Analysis from the sample revealed frustration by some leadership scholars over the ability of leadership theory to address practical leadership problems. Therefore, scholars called for and began to develop novel approaches beyond concepts of leader-follower influence. Scholars turned their attention to understanding the role of leadership within VUCA contexts. They began to conceive of organizations as open systems and to describe characteristics that leaders would need to be successful in complex adaptive systems. These early attempts set the stage for scholars to apply complexity theory to the study of leadership.

Business school grades, assessment scores, and course withdrawals in the Covid-19 pandemic

We compare student performance before and during the Covid-19 pandemic using three course outcome measures: grades, scores on standardized course-specific assessment tests, and the incidence of dropping, withdrawing, or earning a grade of F. Across 10,000 observations and all business disciplines, grades trended higher throughout pandemic, although student performance on assessment tests and the incidence of failing or dropping remained unchanged. This suggests that universities and employers who use GPA as a screening tool should be cautious. First-year and first-generation students did significantly worse in online courses when compared to courses with some in-person element, suggesting that universities and instructors may need to devote academic support resources to these subgroups.

Publication Concentration Trends of Top Business Journals, 1990–2020

We conduct a comprehensive analysis of trends in publication concentration across seven business disciplines from 1990 to 2020. The predominant evidence has so far been limited to a single discipline, sometimes one journal. We construct different measures of publication concentration using over 64,000 articles in 24 top business journals. We find that the concentration of institutional affiliations has steadily declined. However, significant heterogeneities exist across and within disciplines. Additionally, there is an increasing democratization of institutional affiliations as measured by the number of business schools that contribute more than 20% of the top business journal articles. While there is significant churn in the makeup of the top contributors, a few business schools are able to consistently stay as the top contributors throughout the sample period. Textual analysis shows that the elite business schools have research visions very different from those of less successful competitors.

Foreign Subsidiary Governance: Toward A Research Agenda

Foreign subsidiaries have been well-studied in the field of management and international business. A small but growing research niche addresses on the governance of foreign subsidiaries particularly looking into board and top management team (TMT) compositions and roles. This paper aims to systematically review and integrate the literature on foreign subsidiary board and TMT. We first identify key parts of foreign subsidiary governance based on an examination of 58 relevant articles published during the years of 1990-2021. Second, we construct a framework to organize the articles with regard to antecedents and consequences of foreign subsidiary board and TMT structure and functioning. Third, we discuss the findings and identify the gaps in the current literature. We stress that foreign subsidiary governance is understudied and is quite fragmented across various business disciplines and institutional contexts. In particular, the complexities of how foreign subsidiary boards and TMTs are structured in conformance to home and host country challenges are not yet rigorously examined. Finally, we conclude by proposing new theoretical directions and research avenues. Keywords: foreign subsidiary corporate board, foreign subsidiary TMT, emerging markets, institutions.

Seeing the Elephant: Cross-Disciplinary Review of the Use of Text Analysis of Firms’ Disclosure

The purpose of this study is to cross-fertilize the use of text-based analysis of firms' disclosure - annual reports, letters to shareholders and conference calls - across disciplines within business. It reviews the use of textual analysis of firms' disclosure in top journals of six business disciplines in the period from 2010 to 2021. The screening of 3389 articles results in 410 articles using automated text analysis. Furthermore it shows a dominance of accounting and finance in the use of textual measures of firms' disclosure, an increase of text-based measures since the mid of the decade and a group of central articles whose measures are used across disciplines. It furthermore provides a comprehensive list of dictionaries using disclosure text as well as an overview of automated text-based measures. Based on broad categories of the text-based measures the study concludes with a multi-level framework that can guide researchers in their understanding of firms and their disclosure environment.