Research Streams Research Articles

Spatiotemporal distribution and dynamics evolution of artificial intelligence development in China

The quantified measurement and comprehensive analysis of artificial intelligence development (AIDEV) are vital for countries to form AI industrial ecology and promote the long-term development of regional AI technology. Based on the innovation ecosystems (IE) theory, this paper constructs an evaluation system to measure and analyze the spatiotemporal distribution and dynamic evolution of the AIDEV in China from 2011 to 2020. The results show that the AIDEV of China presents an overall upward trend and an obvious unbalance in the spatial distribution which is “eastern > central > western”. Meanwhile, the provinces of low-level AIDEV are catching up with the high-level provinces, which leads to the regional difference of AIDEV narrowing. Moreover, the concentration and polarization phenomenon of AIDEV in China has been weakening and the AIDEV will continue to increase in the next three years. Further, there is a significantly positive spatial autocorrelation of AIDEV. Finally, high AIDEV provinces will increase the probability of surrounding provinces’ AIDEV to develop. This paper expands the research stream in the field of AI research, extends the application scenarios of IE theory, and puts forward some relevant policy recommendations.

Research streams, gaps and opportunities in servant leadership research

PurposeThe purpose is to use co-citation analysis of servant leadership (SL) research to investigate the evolution of the field, its subfields, gaps and opportunities for future research in a systematic manner.Design/methodology/approachA document co-citation technique and three clustering algorithms (latent semantic index (LSI), the log-likelihood ratio (LLR) and the mutual information (MI) index) were employed to analyse 24,030 references from 549 articles spanning a period of 50 years.FindingsCluster analyses reveal that SL research consists of eight distinct subfields: (1) conceptualisation and measurement of SL; (2) SL and related theories; (3) methodological foundations and empirical expansion of SL research; (4) individual-level cognitive effects of SL and related theories; (5) “Warmth effects” of leadership behaviour; (6) antecedents of effective leadership; (7) SL, marketing, sales management and ethics and (8) SL, job design and work engagement. Important gaps and opportunities for future research are identified.Research limitations/implicationsThe analyses do not show a complete picture of research on SL. Interesting works used by subgroups of SL researchers may not have enough citations to be included in the results. Moreover, bibliometric analyses do not explain the impact of books, journals and articles on the practice of SL. The authors welcome future analyses of the most influential sources of SL practice. The authors expect that managerial and practice-oriented books and journals, such as the International Journal of Servant Leadership and the Servant Leadership Theory and Practice, would play a central role in such analyses.Practical implicationsThe discussions of the nature of SL, its effects and antecedents are useful to leaders who want to develop a SL style or assist others in developing it. For researchers and doctoral students, the cluster analyses of co-citations give an overview of the subfields of SL research and reveal important knowledge gaps in the literature.Social implicationsSL has several favourable effects on the motivation and psychological well-being of followers. Also, followers tend to adopt a willingness to serve.Originality/valuePrevious research has categorised SL research into three broad categories or phases. The cluster analyses of the co-citations reported here reveal a meaningful structure of eight distinct subfields. Knowledge gaps within the subfields represent novel opportunities for future research on SL. The authors also suggest a new subfield of SL research: pedagogical approaches to the motivation and development of SL skills.

Research trends in the field of Islamic social finance: a bibliometric analysis from 1914 to 2022

Purpose This study aims to present a bibliometric analysis of Islamic social finance (ISF) by addressing gaps in the existing research, exploring the current trends of publications and determining possible future research directions in this field. Design/methodology/approach Relevant bibliometric data of published research during 1914–2022 was extracted from the Scopus database and 1,355 studies were considered for the analysis. Biblioshiny app from RStudio, VOSviewer and Microsoft Excel were the tools used for analysis. Findings The identified current research streams are management and distribution of ISF funds especially zakat through fintech; governance and accountability of ISF institutions; Islamic microfinance for poverty alleviation and financial inclusion; ISF for promoting sustainable development and achieving United Nations sustainable development goals; waqf endowments and cash waqf; and Islamic charities. The identified themes for future research directions are Islamic fintech, integration of ISF, sustainable development, economic recovery, social entrepreneurship, sustainable ISF ecosystem and supporting refugees. Practical implications It provides extensive and up-to-date literature on the current trends in ISF and future research themes which can be useful for researchers, professionals and policymakers in the field. Social implications The findings of this research contribute to the solutions to socio-economic challenges and support sustainable development through ISF. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of the first attempt to provide a pervasive bibliometric review on ISF by including various aspects of ISF and extending the study period to more than 100 years.

Development of Research on Continuous usage Intention of M-Wallets: A Systematic Review of Literature from 2011 to 2021

Mobile payment usage must be maintained for mobile wallet companies to survive. Long-term user relationships can assist businesses in lowering costs and increasing profitability to retain customers which ultimately will lead to continuance intention. Despite M-wallets' relative maturity, a study in this sector has been limited to first acceptance/rejection. No study has particularly evaluated the technology's post-adoption impacts. Existing studies mostly examine the initial adoption of mobile wallet users and their antecedents. Though many people use M-wallets regularly, consistency is rare. Thus, both academic researchers and practitioners must investigate mobile wallet users' continued usage behaviour. This research conducts a thorough evaluation of the systematic review of literature on M-wallet continuous usage intentions from 2011 to 2021. The authors of this study employed systematic review methods to analyse the current state of continuous usage of M-wallet research. They identified current research streams and offered ideas for future research. The review identified the Geographic representation of mobile wallet continuous usage research, methodological approaches to investigate continuous usage intention of m-wallets, and popular theories adopted to investigate continuance intention. Through research synthesis, predictors and moderators/mediators of mobile wallets were also identified. The authors then discovered various service quality characteristics that demonstrated how trust, flow, and satisfaction—which have primarily been studied—had a direct impact on behavioural intentions as a result of service quality. The authors recommend the direction of potential future research in mobile wallets. This paper is a systematic review of the continuance usage of mobile wallets based on the dimensions of service quality and is one of the very few papers to offer a systematic review of continuous usage.

Imageability norms for 90 English spatio-temporal prepositions and semantically similar expressions

Imageability norms are presented for 90 single- and multiword spatio-temporal expressions of English including classic prepositions (e.g., at, in front [of]), intransitive prepositions (e.g., away), and common combinations such as up against. This 90-item set is a substantial enlargement and enhancement of a 56-item set collected in relation to a recently published study of phrasal verbs. For nearly half of the expressions in that earlier set there are now revised mean ratings based on proportionally large increases in the number of respondents from whom ratings were obtained. The enlarged set includes 34 newly rated spatio-temporal expressions, 19 of which appear to have no other published imageability rating. The 90-item list appears to be unique in its coverage of multiword prepositions and unusual in that 20% of the ratings pertain to items that raters saw with disambiguating information (e.g., “back, as in move back”). These 90 norms could be useful in many streams of research owing both to the importance of spatio-temporal prepositions in communication and to the well-established association of lexeme imageability with enhanced memorability, speedy mental processing, and learnability.

Financial management and family business: a perspective article

PurposeThis study aims to review major themes and findings of research into financial management of family business and to suggest new directions for future research.Design/methodology/approachThis is a perspective article beginning with literature review to summarize prior research and to identify main findings and issues. The paper then develops themes, questions and opportunities for future research.FindingsThis paper presents a summary of principal research streams in the financial management of family business. Prior research has found significant differences in financial performance, in financial policies and in ownership and governance structures and behavior. These research findings vary by industry, by country and by stage of economic development. While extensions of these streams will add additional richness to the author’s understanding of finance in family business, recent innovations in the role and organization of the firm and in access to key resources suggest promising new research paths. There are also important lessons from financial practices in family business that have broader applicability.Originality/valueThis is a perspective article suggesting that many financial and governance issues central to family business have broader applicability to nonfamily business. Substantial value can be added by applying these learnings to a broader corporate finance context. Innovations in financing, governance and organizational design are transforming financial management in family business. In addition, changes in markets and industries create new opportunities for financing family business and for new strategic opportunities.

Human Trafficking: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda

This study aims to examine the topic of human trafficking (HT) to outline the definition and typology of HT, stages of HT, research themes, and future research directions in HT studies. This study used a systematic literature method to analyze 229 articles from the social sciences category from the Scopus database. This study found that the definition of HT is complex. Thus, to define HT, scholars need to be specific about the context, characteristics, and typology of trafficking. There are many internal and external factors in mobilizing the victim's choice of victim's immigration into this crime's vortex. Hence, policymakers need to know the critical issues of victim preference in the HT stage. Ultimately, there are three primary themes in the HT topic. They are: (1) developing models and strategies for dealing with more effective ways to combat HT around the world, (2) exploring and further comprehending the social and cultural factors underlying HT in different regions, and (3) capacity-building countries and implementation of more effective policies to protect and assist trafficking victims. Our integrative literature review may be the most recent study to provide detailed information about each research stream of HT literature in the social sciences discipline. The results of our review are limited to HT publications in the social sciences field, which stemmed from Scopus.

How Does Inclusion Impact Employees in Organisations? Literature Review

Purpose: The purpose of this systematic literature review is to review the current state of research on the impact of inclusion in organisations on employees. Methods and materials used: The presented analysis of the empirical literature on the impact of inclusion was undertaken utilising two databases: Scopus and the Web of Science. In addition, a manual search of prominent journals within the ‘Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management’ category was performed. A total of 166 articles resulted from the conducted literature search, with 11 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. Main findings: Inclusion is a concept inspiring empirical research aiming to identify the positive impact of inclusiveness on employees in organisations. Empirical research indicates that inclusiveness has a positive impact on employees by stimulating their creativity, reducing turnover, increasing organisational commitment and citizenship behaviour, and improving employee well‑being and self- ‑esteem. The area that has received the most attention is inclusive leadership, but inclusive practices and, more broadly, inclusive organisations are also explored. Principal conclusion: The research focuses on the positive impact of inclusion on an organisation’s employees: their attitude, behaviour and intentions. The review has revealed that the dominant stream of research is inclusive leadership. What is lacking, however, is empirical research on how inclusion affects other stakeholders, so future studies should explore that.

The role of artificial intelligence for management decision: a structured literature review

PurposeThe topic of artificial intelligence (AI) has been expanding rapidly in recent years, gaining the attention of academics and practitioners. This study provides a structured literature review (SLR) on AI and management decisions (MDs) by analysing the scientific output and defining new research topics.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a rigorous methodological approach to summarise the state of the art of the past literature. The authors used Scopus as the database for data collection and utilised the Bibliometrix R package. In total, 204 peer-reviewed English articles were collected and analysed.FindingsThe results showed that literature in this field is emerging. Studies are focused on using AI as forecasting and classification for management decision-making, AI as a tool to improve knowledge management in organisations and extract information. The cluster analysis revealed the presence of five thematic clusters of studies on the topic.Originality/valueThe study’s originality lies in providing a new perspective on AI for MDs. In particular, the analysis reveals a new classification of research streams and provides fruitful research questions to continue research on the topic.

DegreEmbed: Incorporating entity embedding into logic rule learning for knowledge graph reasoning

Knowledge graphs (KGs), as structured representations of real world facts, are intelligent databases incorporating human knowledge that can help machine imitate the way of human problem solving. However, KGs are usually huge and there are inevitably missing facts in KGs, thus undermining applications such as question answering and recommender systems that are based on knowledge graph reasoning. Link prediction for knowledge graphs is the task aiming to complete missing facts by reasoning based on the existing knowledge. Two main streams of research are widely studied: one learns low-dimensional embeddings for entities and relations that can explore latent patterns, and the other gains good interpretability by mining logical rules. Unfortunately, the heterogeneity of modern KGs that involve entities and relations of various types is not well considered in the previous studies. In this paper, we propose DegreEmbed, a model that combines embedding-based learning and logic rule mining for inferring on KGs. Specifically, we study the problem of predicting missing links in heterogeneous KGs from the perspective of the degree of nodes. Experimentally, we demonstrate that our DegreEmbed model outperforms the state-of-the-art methods on real world datasets and the rules mined by our model are of high quality and interpretability.

Building upstream supplier capabilities for downstream customization: The role of collaboration capital

AbstractOffering highly customized products and services is an attractive strategic option for firms in business‐to‐business (B2B) markets. However, as effective customization for downstream customers requires significant reliance on upstream suppliers, capabilities of upstream suppliers become central to firm strategies to produce customized offerings. Despite the importance of upstream supplier capabilities for downstream customization, there is a scarcity of research on how firms build their suppliers' capabilities for effective customization. Building on the foundations of research streams on customization, capabilities, and collaboration, this research tests a model which illustrates that (i) upstream supplier capabilities can result in positive customization outcomes for downstream markets and (ii) a firm's collaboration capital can build upstream supplier capabilities directly and also indirectly through supplier communication. Analyses of data collected from 189 organizations that extensively engage in downstream customization reveal the role of collaboration capital—conceptualized as a higher order factor with collaboration orientation, collaborative flexibility, and collaborative communication as first‐order dimensions—in building upstream supplier capabilities for downstream customization. We conclude with a delineation of the contributions, theoretical and practical implications, and limitations of this research.

Souvenirs in Tourism Studies: A Thematic Analytical Framework

Among the most common cultural tourism consumption practices is the purchase of products as souvenirs, frequently acquired as symbols of local heritage and extension of memorable tourist experiences, and sometimes as gifts permitting a sharing of those experiences. These items are complex, diverse, and multidimensional in their nature, format, and meanings. This article contributes to the debate of the role of souvenirs within tourism, through a comprehensive literature review highlighting two dominant perspectives: a) the economic and b) the symbolic. Results further reveal as thematic research categories those focusing on a) the object, b) its consumption, and c) the territory of its origin, from both mainly economic and symbolic perspectives. This research provides an analytical framework to help researchers navigate through past research and integrate new contributions into the identified research streams. It shall help identify research gaps, potential new themes, and interesting and relevant approaches to be considered in future souvenirs research.

Look in to look out: strategy and family business identity during COVID-19

COVID-19 challenges the value systems of family firms and urges them to adapt their behaviors, affecting their identities. This study aims to explore how and why family businesses strategically respond to challenges to their identity during COVID-19. Based on a qualitative case study of six German family firms, we propose a process model of family business identity variations during COVID-19 with three propositions, highlighting the interplay between strategy and identity. Counterintuitively, we found that an exogenous shock like COVID-19 can have a positive effect on family business identity, leading to identity clarification or consolidation. We contribute to the growing stream of research investigating the impact of COVID-19 on SMEs, as well as research on family business identity heterogeneity and organizational identity literature by illustrating the interplay between strategy and identity.

Role of theory of consumption values in consumer consumption behavior: a review and Agenda

ABSTRACT The theory of consumption values (TCV) as marketing theory provides insights related to consumer consumption behavior through consumption values. This study reviews the last 30 years’ literature (120 articles) from 1991 to 2022 through content analysis and bibliometrics citation analysis. Additionally, the seven research streams are identified in the literature: (1) TCV and consumer behavior toward digital consumer products and services, (2) TCV and consumer behavior toward brands, (3) TCV and consumer behavior toward information technology, (4) TCV and consumer behavior towards green products and sustainable development, (5) TCV and consumer behavior towards tourism and hospitality industry, (6) TCV and consumer behavior towards durable and non-durable goods, and (7) TCV and consumer behavior toward educational industry. This review presents the taxonomy of TCV in marketing research, influential aspects of literature, and future research agenda.

Refugees at home: the role of hospitableness in fostering pro-social attitudes and behaviours towards refugees

PurposeThis study aims to examine the role of hospitableness towards refugees, as embraced by local hosts, in engendering positive social outcomes, including fostering favourable attitudes and empathy towards refugees, satisfaction from hosting refugees in private dwellings and advocacy for hosting them.Design/methodology/approachRooted in the contact theory and drawing on a hospitality social lens framework, the study uses a mixed-methods approach using a sequential quantitative-qualitative design to understand the interface between hospitableness, attitudes and empathy towards refugees, satisfaction from hosting refugees in private dwellings and advocacy for hosting them. A conceptual model is proposed and tested using 160 valid surveys collected from individuals hosting Ukrainian refugees in Slovakia. SEM-PLS is used to test the proposed model. A total of 25 in-depth interviews with Slovakian individuals hosting refugees in private dwellings were also conducted to explain and further explore the initial quantitative results.FindingsThe findings indicate that hospitableness has a positive effect on attitudes towards refugees, fosters a sense of empathy and results in satisfaction from hosting refugees. Interestingly, while hospitableness per se does not directly affect advocacy for hosting refugees, it does so indirectly via favourable attitudes towards refugees and satisfaction from the hosting experience. While qualitative findings largely support and further explain the quantitative results, interesting insights are also obtained.Practical implicationsThe study advocates that hospitableness should be addressed through a social lens beyond its traditional commercial boundaries. Several implications for policymakers, NGOs and other stakeholders involved in hosting refugees are proposed. Overall, policies need to be oriented towards harnessing the power of refugee hosting schemes, thus increasing the role of hospitableness in addressing societal challenges such as the refugee crisis.Originality/valueWhile not new, private hosting of refugees has recently gained momentum following the outbreak of the Ukrainian refugee crisis. In spite of some valuable research delving into hosting experiences from the refugees’ and hosts’ perspectives, this research stream is notably fragmented and largely exploratory. Specifically, there seems to be no comprehensive understanding of how hospitableness towards refugees, as embraced by hosts, can engender positive social outcomes, including fostering favourable attitudes and empathy towards refugees, satisfaction from hosting refugees and advocacy for hosting refugees in private dwellings. Overall, hospitality research is notably biased towards commercial settings, focusing on instrumental benefits rather than societal outcomes. This study focuses on the societal outcomes of hospitableness as a tool to address the refugee crisis.

The influences of boundary spanning capabilities and long–term orientation on opportunism in inter–firm relationships

ABSTRACT Opportunism is a common issue in inter – firm relationships, which increases transaction costs, impairs firm performance and supply chain efficiency, and deteriorates relationship quality. Previous studies have intensively investigated factors influencing opportunism but overfocusing on the organisational level. Recently, supply chain researchers have called for identifying factors influencing opportunism at the individual level to gain a more comprehensive understanding of opportunism. Based on transaction cost theory, resource dependence theory, and boundary spanning theory, this study seeks to advance the emerging research stream on opportunism at the individual level by investigating how buyer agents’ boundary spanning capabilities and firms’ long – term relationship orientation can help manage supplier agents’ opportunism. Using a cross – sectional data set of 406 buyer agents from manufacturing companies collected from February to April 2021 in Japan, we tested a set of hypotheses through regression and conditional process analyses. Our findings suggest that buyer agents’ strategic communication and firms’ long – term relationship orientation are critical factors that reduce supplier agents’ opportunism.

Transfer of informal learning: The role of manager support in linking learning to performance

Organizations face increasing demand for employees to develop their skills, and managers play an important role in supporting employees’ learning and development. In contrast to the large body of research evidence on formal training, the emerging findings on informal learning have yet to provide managers with the necessary guidance to support employees’ informal learning activities. Adopting a coaching analogy, we integrate these two research streams to introduce a model with which managers can simultaneously support employees’ formal and informal learning. We elaborate on three critical dimensions of support, including direct assistance, guidance, and emotional support. We then present specific steps managers can adopt along each of these dimensions to better engage in employees’ needs assessment, enhance their motivation to learn, and facilitate learning. Finally, we explain how managers can use a strategic learning plan for each employee and create synergy across formal and informal learning support, resulting in a positive learning climate.

The Dynamics of The Role Oil Palm Smallholders in Implementing ISPO Certification: Looking Back to Moving Forward

The author tries to holistically present the intellectual structure of scientific work with the keywords independent smallholders, certification, oil palm plantations, analyzes the concept keywords and study results to see the direction of the study as well as the empirical results of the study to see the dynamics of independent smallholders in fulfilling ISPO certification. The research flow uses bibliometric analysis techniques. Design/methodology/approach – By conducting a bibliometric analysis of 100 research articles published during 2006 - 2023 with the keywords disbursement of Independent Smallholders Certification of Oil Palm Plantation, taken from Scopus indexed articles, this study provides comprehensive insights from abstraction and keyword analysis. Emerging research streams were further evaluated using VOSviewer software. Findings - This study illustrates the year-over-year trend of overall increase in publications, key words used as research drivers as well as the reality of study content. Furthermore, this study evaluates trends in three cluster areas namely impact, Implementation, Sustainability Certification and the dynamics of the role of independent smallholders.

Sociomateriality as a theoretical lens for understanding digital platforms: Integration of architectural and managerial perspectives

Digital platforms research is divided into two streams namely, the architectural/information technology stream, and the management/economics stream. Despite several calls to merge them, research efforts remain limited. Examining digital platforms' architecture can provide valuable insights into the management of platform organizations, but management scholars have been inattentive to the "digitality" inherent in platforms, resulting in a research gap. This conceptual work addresses that gap by showing how three types of digital architectures (viz. Ancillary, Additive, and Autonomous) influence four types of value-offerings of a platform (viz. Applications, Physical products, Services, and Content) and their implications for the engagement of users and complementors in the platform's business model. Using sociomateriality theory, it shows how the sociomaterial properties of digital architectures (represented by their “openness” and “generativity”) result in three distinct architectural roles that have significant implications for a platform's management of four different value-offerings. In doing so, it uncovers a significant relationship between digital architectures (i.e., I.T.) and business models (i.e., Management), thereby identifying the connection between the two diverse platform research streams and introducing a framework for management scholars to examine the “digitality” of platforms. More importantly, it reveals the critical role of a platform's digital architecture in determining the products/services, business models and governance mechanisms for a platform business, and develops several propositions for future research.

Combining speech biomarkers for cognition and mood improves diagnostic accuracy between MCI and subjective cognitive decliners in a memory clinic sample

AbstractIntroductionDepressive symptoms are a common comorbidity in an old age memory clinic population. Cognitive and affective syndromes coexist, and supposedly modulate each other. While, there have been separate research streams on analysing speech to infer cognitive performance, as well as mood related symptoms, they are seldom investigated side‐by‐side. We present results from a small sub sample of a larger MCI and dementia cohort indicating that modelling both depressive symptoms and cognitive problems from speech can improve the diagnostic accuracy for MCI above speech biomarkers for cognition alone.MethodsThe ki:e Speech Biomarker for cognition (ki:e SB‐C; Tröger et al., 2022) and a free speech task were collected from 35 memory clinic participants (12F) with 10 of them having an MCI diagnosis (compare Table 1). From the free speech tasks (“Tell me about your upcoming vacation plans.”) we extracted speech features using ki:elements proprietary speech analysis engine SIGMA. Free speech features were corrected for cognitive performance, sex and age and then combined into a mood speech biomarker. To benchmark the diagnostic utility of both cognitive and mood speech biomarker side by side, we trained two groups of simple classifiers (tree based classifiers with leave one participant out cross validation) once with SB‐C alone and once with both SB‐C and the newly‐composed mood speech biomarker.ResultsBy combining the speech biomarker for cognition and mood diagnostic performance was significantly improved (AUC of 88%) as compared to classification with the SB‐C alone (AUC of 74%). The mood biomarker correlates significantly with the Geriatric Depression Scale (r = 0.39, p < 0.05). Most important free speech features were jitter, number or pauses, mean pause duration or pronoun rate.ConclusionOverall we present rare evidences that combining speech‐based digital biomarkers tapping both into cognition but also mood‐related symptoms helps to improve diagnostic accuracy in MCI patients. Though just a small feasibility study, the results are clearly encouraging and point towards potential application in both clinical practice as well as clinical research.