Research Streams Research Articles

Theoretical aspects of studies on agricultural economics and agrarian issues

This article contains a theoretical proposal for classifying the agrarian economic theory as a separate school of heterodox economic thought, encompassing more than a dozen research streams. In this sense, it fills a gap in the general economic theory, in which, so far, the agrarian economic thought is not considered a separate school of economics. The study proves that for the development of agrarian economics, it is not necessary to adopt the monistic, reductive, and consolidative approach that characterises mainstream economics. We treat agricultural economics as a pluralistic science, taking into account different viewpoints and research paradigms of development, from industrial to sustainable. Raising the need to integrate agrarian thought, the study points to the designations of the substantive distinctiveness of agricultural economics, including the immobility of the land factor, the price and income specificity of food demand, and the compulsion to consume food. The considerations are supplemented by a conceptualisation of the studied issue concerning the situation in Poland, presented in the form of a case study.

Time and change: A meta‐analysis of temporal decisions in longitudinal studies

SummaryLongitudinal research has grown in popularity in the field of management and organizations. However, the literature has neglected to consider the important ways in which researchers' temporal decisions can influence observed change in longitudinal studies. Researchers must make a set of temporal decisions to capture change, such as the temporal precision of the hypothesized form of change, the selection of a sample that is expected to exhibit the change, the choice of variables to be measured repeatedly, the frequency of measurements, and the time interval between measurements. However, these decisions typically are based on “educated guesses,” which makes their effects on the observed change unclear. In this paper, we develop a conceptual framework to explain how temporal decisions influence observed change and validate it by meta‐analyzing longitudinal studies (k = 268). Specifically, we found that observed change is affected by hypotheses (i.e., temporal precision), the sample (i.e., presence of a change trigger), variables (i.e., variable type and rating source), and measurement occasions (i.e., frequency and time interval). These findings offer insights into the importance of making informed temporal decisions. The implications of our findings are broad and applicable across research streams and theoretical traditions.

Understanding the impact of biased student evaluations: an intersectional analysis of academics’ experiences in the UK higher education context

ABSTRACT This paper aims to offer an understanding of how (intersectional) bias in student evaluations of teaching affects academics’ mental health and career progression. Despite the widespread acceptance of student evaluations, an emerging stream of research has begun to highlight the biases and prejudices that underpin much of data collection when it comes to student evaluation surveys both in terms of who completes the evaluation and also in terms of who is being evaluated. While most studies provide analyses of students’ comments and illustrate the abuse that is directed at (marginalised) academics, very little research has focused on the impact of this process on academics. This study offers an overview of academics’ experiences with student evaluations by drawing on an intersectional analysis of 17 interviews with academics employed in UK Business Schools. The findings illustrate the detrimental impact of student evaluations on academics’ mental health and career progression. This study also shows how institutional pressures to keep students happy impact academics’ wellbeing and teaching approaches.

Dynamic Tracking to Identify Topics and Thematic Evolution of Obsessive-compulsive disorder as an Emerging Topic

This study aims to draw a science map, provide structural analysis, explore the evolution, and determine new trends in research articles published in the field of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The articles published from 1981 to 2021 were retrieved by searching the related keywords in multiple databases including PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, according to their thematic coverage and scope. The papers were analyzed using R and SciMAT software. A total of 1820 articles were analyzed and 4191 keywords plus, and 3242 author keywords were reported in the journals. Moreover, 7482 authors contributed in conducting these studies, of which 111 articles were written by single authors, and the collaborative coefficient was 4.36. Neuropsychopharmacology, International Clinical Psychopharmacology, and Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology are the most significant journals publishing OCD articles. This study uncovered new insights into the evolution trend of the leading research stream on OCD over the past years. The findings of this study can contribute to developing the OCD Global Research Program and policymakers.

When procedures and ideology replace strategy in corporate political activity: Industry associations in Interwar Finland

The core assumption in the management literature on corporate political activity (CPA) is that firms and industry associations representing their interests seek political ends driven by strategic concerns. Other streams of research, however, emphasise the role of ideology in CPA. In this article, we study the balance between strategic and ideological orientations over time. We draw on historical data from the early 1920s to the end of the 1930s to analyse a process in which two competing Finnish industry associations sought to balance strategic and ideological CPA, and how procedural CPA became increasingly important as a mechanism for increasing the emphasis on ideological goals. As industry associations become more autonomous, they gain more opportunities and greater power. As a result of this increased power, associations can promote their own ideological agendas, which often contrast with what would be directly beneficial for individual firms and societies.

Decrypting the specifics of professional football club investments: Why? What? How? An integrative review

PurposeSince the beginning of the 2000s, investors have more frequently invested into professional football clubs, thereby radically changing the industry landscape. This review's purpose is to analyze and synthesize the state of research to understand motives, roles and implications of football club investors, and to provide recommendations for further research.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents an integrative literature review by identifying relevant English articles based on the search terms investor, owner, investment, ownership, shareholder and stakeholder in combination with soccer or football. Around 2,431 articles were reviewed. A total of 129 relevant articles was analyzed and synthesized within eight subject areas.FindingsInvestors in professional club football is a young research stream with a clear European focus. Investor motives and roles are diverse and implications are multidimensional. Investors mostly aim for indirect returns rather than pure profit- or win-maximization.Research limitations/implicationsFootball clubs comprise an own investment class for which the identified, unique specifics must be considered to develop a financially successful investment model. Thorough academic research of investors' inherent characteristics, investor-club pairings and the pillars of long-term strategies for successful investor-club liaisons are avenues of future research. Furthermore, the results illustrate the need for research outside of Europe.Originality/valueThe paper is the first systematic, integrative review of existing literature in the domain of equity investments into professional club football. The findings genuinely show that, depending on the investor type and ownership structure, investors have a wide impact in professional club football.

Development Trends in Soil Erosion Fields Based on the Quantitative Evaluation of Innovation Subjects and Innovation Content from 1991 to 2020

This paper mainly quantitatively analyzes papers in the field of soil erosion from an objective evaluation perspective. The purpose is to provide researchers in the field of soil and water conservation with a comprehensive understanding of the field. The bibliometric method was used to evaluate the technological innovation and evolution characteristics of soil erosion research. In terms of research scale, China and the United States have an absolute lead in this field. China started late, but the growth rate is faster. The evolution process of soil erosion research is classified into three stages (1991–2000, 2001–2010, and 2011–2020). In terms of innovation subjects (countries and institutions) in soil erosion fields, dominant countries exhibit more concentrated results, with an increase from 57% to 80% with respect to the ratio of the number of output papers in these countries to the total number of output papers in the research field of soil erosion. In contrast, research institutions are increasingly divergent, with a decrease from 36% to 26% with respect to the ratio of the number of output papers in the dominant institutions to the total number of output papers in the research field. The comparison results of the comprehensive innovation strength of major countries indicate that soil erosion research has experienced processes such as domination by the United States, and other countries have caught up via concerted efforts, with China and the USA finally leading comprehensively. The overall leading ability of China and the United States in soil erosion research continues to converge and improve. Belgium and other European countries have small research scale characteristics but greater influence capacities. The study of erosion mechanisms and erosion modelling has always been the main research direction in this field, while the quantitative study of soil erosion on large scales and its effects on element cycling comprises the current main research stream and development trend. The results of the present study could provide scientific support for a better understanding of the evolution of innovation characteristics in the field of soil erosion.

Financial literacy bias: a comparison between students and nonstudents

PurposeThis work uses survey data from the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (Comissão de Mercado de Valores Mobiliários – CMVM) to examine financial literacy and literacy bias. The main objective of this study is to shed light on this issue by identifying the individual characteristics that are associated with financial literacy, namely overconfidence and underconfidence, which in turn might help explain individuals' financial decisions. The study distinguishes two groups, i.e. students and nonstudents, and considers several characteristics that are usually employed in this stream of research.Design/methodology/approachThe data are based on a survey conducted by a partnership between the CMVM and a consortium of Portuguese universities. This paper has a three-fold aim. First, it studies the main individual features associated with objective financial literacy. Second, it analyzes the relationship between those variables and the bias between self-perceived and objective literacy, distinguishing overconfidence and underconfidence. Third, and most originally, this framework was also used to examine the differences between students and nonstudents. Those aims are pursued using cross-sectional ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions, except for the study of the literacy bias, for which the authors use an ordered probit.FindingsLiteracy is higher in individuals of the male gender who are older, have higher incomes, live in metropolitan areas, are highly educated, have a field of study related to finance and have high self-perceived literacy. Younger people are more overconfident. Unconditionally, women are less overconfident than men, but conditionally, they overestimate their knowledge. People holding securities and with a field of study related to finance are more overconfident. The gender effect is mainly driven by students, and the impact of a field of study and of holding securities on overconfidence decreases and increases, respectively, for students. The results highlight the importance of financial education.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the way that the questionnaire was made available, there is no guarantee that the sample is representative of the Portuguese general population, or, for that matter, representative of the typical Portuguese retail investors or households. Also, there is no guarantee that the same individual did not answer the questionnaire more than once, although this is highly improbable. The link to the online questionnaire was only transmitted within e-mail databases owned by the CMVM and Portuguese universities, so the authors cannot guarantee its unbiasedness.Practical implicationsThe authors' results may help the National Plan for Financial Education (the acronym in Portuguese is PNFF) fine-tune the required actions towards different target groups and, most importantly, highlight that different groups may require different approaches aiming to narrow the gap between objective and perceived literacy. The first step should be creating procedures to provide feedback on the objective and perceived literacy of those who enroll in financial formation programs.Social implicationsThe study distinguishes two groups, students and nonstudents, providing additional insights that might guide policymakers on how to structure financial education to enhance individual financial behavior. This is especially important in a country such as Portugal which has the lowest objective financial literacy in the Eurozone.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the financial literacy literature, in particular to the stream of research that focuses on psychological biases, by shedding light on the factors associated with both individual overconfidence and underconfidence. Differentiating between students and nonstudents provides additional insights, which might guide policymakers on how to structure financial education to enhance individual financial behavior.

What are we missing? An alternative way to explore distributed leadership effectiveness

Existing research has revealed various beneficial teacher-level outcomes of distributed leadership (DL). Yet these studies lack important operational nuances. The DL effectiveness literature mainly stresses one dimension of DL study operations of how leadership is distributed (e.g., interaction), being grounded in the agency view. However, it is also important to consider other dimensions of what leadership work is distributed to whom. Therefore, our study adopted the study operation of one DL research stream derived from the structural view. Specifically, our research investigated which leadership function distribution patterns for teachers were connected to teacher-level outcomes, especially teachers’ current work environment satisfaction (SENV) and professional learning communities (PLCs). We employed Latent Class Analysis and U.S. lower secondary school teacher samples from the Teaching and Learning International Survey data. Two patterns emerged: the Dualistic Distribution and Fully Stretched-Over Distribution patterns. Importantly, the relationships between the two patterns and the teacher-level outcomes were varied. We discovered no mean difference in teacher SENV between the two patterns in contrast to the previous DL effectiveness research, but a significant mean difference in teachers’ PLCs. These findings suggest considering more operational nuances of what leadership work is distributed to teachers for what outcome to better explore DL effects on teachers.

The role of recommendation sources and attribute framing in online product recommendations

As artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly incorporated into online product recommendations (OPRs), investigating how an AI recommendation source influences consumer behavior has attracted widespread attention among scholars. Across five studies, this paper empirically examines the effect of the AI (vs. human) recommendation source on consumer responses from the perspective of vice and virtue frame products. The results show that when OPRs frame products as vice (vs. virtue), the AI (vs. human) recommendation source has negative effects on perceived warmth and competence (Study 2a) and eventually negatively influences purchase intention (Studies 1a and 2a), willingness to pay (Study 1b), and product attitude (Study 2b). However, humanized AI and AI-human hybrid improve the acceptance intention of vice frame product recommendations through different improvement paths (Study 3). This paper extends the research stream on the comparison of AI and humans and contributes to the literature on social perception, humanized intelligence, and augmented intelligence.

A bibliometric analysis of trends in the relationship between innovation and food

PurposeFood-related innovations might contribute to a qualitative leap in the transition to sustainable food systems. In this article, the authors map the existing literature on food and innovation in order to identify and systematise major research streams and relate them to current discussions on sustainability. The authors rely on a broad definition of innovation covering specific technological innovations as well as social, environmental and system innovations.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analysed the relationship between innovation and food through bibliometric and content analysis, augmented with visualisation based on data (N = 7,987) extracted from the Web of Science. The published volume, research areas and influential journals were investigated using descriptive analyses.FindingsThis review categorises the literature on innovation and food into six main clusters, showing that most of the studies are carried out at the macro-level related to the global sustainable food systems. Network visualisation allowed them to distribute recent keywords associated with innovation across the agri-food value chain. Moreover, the authors identified environmental, social and economic pillars of innovation, which not only relate to sustainability but also are associated with open innovation as well as social innovation and eco-innovation.Originality/valueThis bibliometric analysis is amongst the first to examine the holistic knowledge structure surrounding a triple concept of innovation, food and sustainability. In addition, the study identifies research gaps and indicates new research directions, which add further value.

Knowledge transfer to aid social coding: The case of Stack Overflow

Focused online question and answer (Q&A) communities aid social coding. Despite the growing importance of social coding, knowledge transfer in this context remains under-researched. Our primary objective is to understand the knowledge transfer process in this context. We conceptualize knowledge transfer as a process that is impacted by the prior knowledge transfer interactions (network) among participants and is augmented by gamification. We argue that social capital resulting from prior knowledge transfer network interactions impact answer quality. Moreover, we also argue that the relationship between social capital and answer quality is moderated by the complexity of the knowledge transferred. Hence, our models draw from multiple related research streams: online communities, knowledge transfer, social capital, and gamification. These models are empirically tested using data from Stack Overflow (SO), a popular online Q&A community that aids social coding. Our results help to understand knowledge transfer in Q&A communities that aid social coding. Moreover, our results have implications for research on other types of Q&A communities and can inform development of platforms to support online communities.

On (In-)Secure Grounds: How Military Forces Interact with Global Environmental Change

Abstract Military forces contribute to, struggle with, and respond to global environmental change. This entangles them ambiguously with their ecological environment. This article reviews these entanglements in two steps. First, it develops a three-dimensional typology of ecologically relevant military activities by drawing on the environmental peace and conflict research streams of political ecology, decolonial studies, environmental conflicts, environmental peacebuilding, securitization, and climate human security. In a second step, this typology then guides the first literature review of studies on military –environment interactions. The review finds four different military roles: (1) Military forces are complicit in causing environmental harms through military conduct; (2) they are involved in Anthropocene geopolitics, for instance, in a melting Arctic; (3) they alleviate impacts through a range of mitigation and adaptation measures, including military disaster response; and, finally, (4) some military forces have been found involved in obstructing climate policy. The study argues that these different roles are indicative of the challenges that conventional security policies face when addressing the increasingly multipolar Anthropocene’s global security challenges.

Trademarks and firm market value: Evidence from new trademark-firm linked data in China

A growing stream of research conducted in developed economies has shown that trademarks are positively related to firms' market value. However, we have limited understanding of whether this finding might apply to emerging economies, many of which have developed their own unique trademark regimes and are currently experiencing exponential growth in trademark registrations. In this study, we address this gap by constructing a new dataset that links trademark registrations with listed firms in China—the first of its kind for Chinese trademarks. Using this dataset, we find that in-use trademarks (trademarks being used by firms), as well as unused trademarks registered for a firm's current businesses, are positively related to firm value; further, the strength of IPR protection in subnational regions (provinces in China) amplifies these relationships. By contrast, unused trademarks that are not registered for a firm's current businesses have no impact on firm value. We also find that trademarks and patents complement each other in enhancing firm value. We call for more future research attention to trademarks in emerging economies to improve existing understanding of the important role trademarks play in these fast-growing markets often featuring unique IPR regimes.

When does knowledge hiding hinder employees’ job performance? The roles of emotional exhaustion and emotional intelligence

ABSTRACT As an emerging novelty, knowledge hiding has received considerable attention in management literature. Extending this research stream, we draw from conservation of resources (COR) theory and social information processing (SIP) theory to investigate the mediating role of emotional exhaustion between employees’ exposure to knowledge hiding and their job performance. Moreover, we examine the buffering role of emotional intelligence, investigating whether employees with higher emotional intelligence can mitigate the harmful effects of resource-depleting episodes of knowledge hiding. The study employed paper-and-pencil surveys to collect multi-source, time-lagged data from 319 employees and their respective supervisors in various service sector organisations. The findings indicate that persistent exposure to knowledge hiding diminishes employees’ job performance through emotional exhaustion. However, this negative relationship is less salient for employees with higher levels of emotional intelligence. This study informs important insights for organisations on why and when employees’ experiences of knowledge hiding curtail their performance-enhancing efforts.

Emerging economy firm technological catch‐up through a dual innovation ecosystem framework

Research has identified two principal mechanisms for emerging economy (EE) firms to technologically catch up with advanced economy (AE) firms: absorbing knowledge spillovers from AE subsidiaries and internationalizing R&D into AEs. Prior technological catch‐up research has assumed EE firms are merely trailing their AE counterparts on the technological frontier when in fact the research on the bottom of the pyramid, as well as other research streams, have recognized that the different consumer demands in EEs and AEs drive different R&D activities in EEs and AEs. We submit that technological catch‐up requires both the upgrading of technological capabilities and the shifting of R&D activity from solving EE demand problems to solving AE demand problems. Utilizing patent data, we investigate the relative efficacy of AE knowledge spillovers and internationalizing R&D in AEs on technological catch‐up within a dual innovation ecosystem framework. We find that knowledge spillovers affect technological catch‐up through a process that initially decreases the technological capabilities of EE firms before increasing such capabilities as EE firms shift R&D activity towards the AE innovation ecosystem. However, we find that internationalizing R&D in AEs yields a significant positive effect on EE firms' technological capabilities and shifts their innovative activities towards solving AE demand problems.

Digitalisation and internationalisation in SMEs: a systematic review and research agenda

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an integrative picture of the state of the art of the literature on digitalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as an enabler for their internationalisation process and as a comprehensive view of the specific domains impacted by digital technologies as well as their repercussions on the international outreach.Design/methodology/approachA systematic review which leverages a descriptive analysis of extant literature and an axial coding technique has been conducted to shed light on the current knowledge and to identify primary research areas and future research lines.FindingsThe research indicates that digitalisation impacts the internationalisation of SMEs in three specific domains: (1) internationalisation through the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) technologies and e-commerce platforms; (2) international expansion through the digitalisation of value chain activities and (3) international outreach through knowledge acquisition on digital platforms.Originality/valueThe value of this study is threefold. First, the authors attempt to systematically review the literature on SMEs digitalisation and internationalisation and provide a holistic perspective on the intertwining of these two research streams. Second, the authors propose a novel conceptualisation on the dimensions of SMEs digitalisation as enablers to internationalisation. Third, the authors put forward promising future lines of research.Highlights Digitalisation represents a pivotal strategy that allows companies to build new strategic capabilities and is a propeller for SMEs internationalisation.Through e-commerce, SMEs could compete at the same level of multinational companies but enduring lower costs of expansion.Digital platforms allow SMEs to enhance the learning processes about international markets through an immediate access to relevant information.Digital entrepreneurship has enabled SMEs to develop new configurations of value chain activities, evolving their business model or reaching new markets.SMEs are changing the “business as usual” paradigm offering digital tools to build modular architectures that are scalable and agile in their evolution ability.

Linking Relationship Marketing to Customer Loyalty in The E-Banking Context: The Central Role of Customer Satisfaction

This research examines the interrelationships between relationship marketing, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in e-banking’s context. The study was conducted in two phases: In-depth interviews and a quantitative survey with a sample of 690 Vietnamese individual and corporate e-banking customers. The research results show that customer satisfaction mediates the impact of relationship marketing on customer loyalty among individual customers. Meanwhile, instead of customer satisfaction, relationship marketing significantly and directly contributes to the loyalty of the corporate customer group. The significance and magnitude of the effects that the five dimensions of relationship marketing’s effectiveness have on customer satisfaction and loyalty, which include the banks’ commitment, customer experience, process-driven approach, service reliability and application of technology, are also different between the two customer segments. This study theoretically contributes to the research stream regarding the mechanism underlying the relationship between relationship marketing’s effectiveness and customer loyalty in the e-banking context, and proposes practical implications for commercial banks to effectively apply relationship marketing in the virtual business environment.

When apologies backfire: a moderated mediation model of exposure by NGOs, companies’ hypocrisy, and consumers’ political orientations

ABSTRACT To determine when and why a company’s apology for a moral transgression might backfire, this study considers a rarely researched cue: exposure of company misconduct by non-governmental organisations (NGOs). In three experimental studies, we demonstrate that after companies’ moral transgressions are exposed by NGOs, their apologies exacerbate consumers’ negative responses because consumers view the companies as having increased moral and behavioural hypocrisy. Consumers’ political orientations moderate the mediating effect of companies’ moral hypocrisy as, following exposure by an NGO, conservatives perceive the company issuing an apology to be more deceptive, which is not the case for liberals. Thus, this study expands upon the developing research stream related to the efficacy of apologies as strategic responses to preventable crises. It specifies an underlying mechanism that explains when and why exposure by NGOs causes apologies to backfire and suggests practical guidelines for companies when developing appropriate apologies.

Achieving Organizationality Through Authorship Affordances — A Communicative Episode of Telegram Polling from 2019 Hong Kong

ABSTRACT In 2019, Hong Kong activists mobilized against the proposed Extradition Law Amendment Bill (Anti-ELAB) and relied on a mobile chat-app’s polling feature to make collective decisions. To understand the chat-app’s role in the movement’s ‘backstage’ dynamics — i.e., building coalitions, making decisions, and coordinating action away from public view — I analyzed a series of Telegram polls during the Anti-ELAB movement's airport sit-in/takeover. To generate insights into social movement studies, I combined aspects of a vibrant stream of research known as Communication as Constitutive of Organizing (CCO) with a nuanced use of the affordances concept. To identify the backstage dynamics of the movement, I applied criteria from the organizationality concept to assess the extent to which the movement communicatively exhibited organizational characteristics. Therefore, I addressed how chat-app polling facilitated collective decision-making and cultivated the movement’s social address and collective identity. Recognizing chat-app polling as pivotal in transforming voiced concerns to legitimized authority, I identified three authorship affordances that fostered authority practices: anonymity, hyper-temporality, and affectivity. This study makes three contributions: (1) it extends the understanding of backstage organizational dynamics of social movements by adding two additional criteria of collective decision-making and collective actorhood to the extant criteria of collective identity, (2) it refines the affordances concept to explore how chat-apps influence data-related practices in contentious politics, and (3) it provides a novel method of analysis to isolate and investigate the processual dynamics of authority practices.