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Society places demands on companies to act responsibly and to include CSR reporting in the annual report. Within the clothing industry, there are significant challenges linked to the social dimension of CSR, especially when it comes to following ethical guidelines for employee rights, health and safety. This study focuses on five companies in the clothing industry and aims to investigate how large companies socially impact both the environment and society, with particular attention to employee working conditions, the supply chain and the local environment. The study deals with four central questions about how these companies communicate and argue about CSR, which stakeholders they strive to influence,and how this relates to practical events, such as scandals. It is a qualitative study based on peer-reviewed articles and reports from subject matter experts, including annual reports and previous research in the field. The data collection has been coded for each company and to facilitate answering the research questions.The conclusion shows that the scandals make clear the lack of human rights, the existence of sexual harassment and that some companies refuse to pay salaries. It also appears that the content of annual reports on the social dimension of CSR does not always correspond to reality. The study is limited to five companies in the clothing industry. For future studies, it is recommended to include more industries and companies, as well as to consider field studies in Asia to deepen the understanding of the social dimension of CSR.

The distinctive advantage in an entrepreneurial venture derives from the adoption of embedded knowledge to create and renew cultural capital. Champagne houses pursue a knowledge transfer strategy to achieve a competitive advantage related to the cultural and managerial orientation of the defined champagne house cluster. The distinctive advantage in an entrepreneurial setup derives from adopting embedded knowledge within the organization to create and renew cultural capital.

Both business networks and institutional forces are relevant to firm internationalization but they have seldom been studied together. We investigate under what circumstances firms are more likely to adopt non-predictive strategy in light of the influence of the business networks, the institutional forces, and the home market background affecting their internationalization. Based on survey data from 758 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from Brazil, China, Poland, Italy, and Sweden, our results support the effects of formal institutional distance and cultural differences on the use of non-predictive strategies by SMEs in internationalization decisions, as well as the contingency effects of business network stability and of having an emerging market background. We integrate research on the liability of foreignness and the liability of outsidership and find that business network stability is critical. It does not moderate the relation between cultural difference and NPS adoption but attenuates the negative relation between institutional distance and NPS adoption, indicating that the liabilities of foreignness and outsidership play different roles in internationalization. © 2021 The Author(s)

Purpose: The authors seek to advance the understanding of small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) internationalization at the regional level and examine the role of home market institutions in this process. Design/methodology/approach: The authors analyze hypotheses with data from SMEs in five country markets and from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. A cluster analysis establishes the regional diversification patterns (based on regional diversification scope, speed and rhythm) and a multinomial regression tests the effect of home market institutions on their adoption. Findings: The results offer a refined picture of SME regional diversification by revealing three patterns: intra-regionally focused firms, late inter-region diversifiers and early inter-region diversifiers. They also suggest that the adoption of these patterns is determined by SMEs' home market institutions. Originality/value: The authors develop a nuanced understanding of SME internationalization by building upon and expanding the regionalization rationale in the internationalization patterns literature. Additionally, the authors address the acknowledged, yet rarely investigated, country-level determinants of internationalization patterns. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

This study investigates the performance implications of the distinct mechanisms represented by business and social networks in the effectual internationalization. Our hypotheses consider the influence of both network types on firms’ decision-making during internationalization, including the use of effectuation’s overarching principle of non-predictive strategy and the analysis of affordable losses as preferred criterion for selecting between action paths. We test our structural model on a sample of 469 SMEs from Brazil, China, and Poland. The analysis demonstrates that the knowledge circulating in the firms’ business networks negatively moderates the relationship between non-predictive strategy and affordable losses, while social networking mediates the relationships between both non-predictive strategy and affordable losses, on the one hand, and international performance, on the other.

Sport is constantly developing, and competition is getting tougher between sports clubs. For sports clubs to remain competitive, financial resources are required from outside parties such as for-profit companies. As a result, sponsorship has become commonplace in the sportsworld. Sponsorship collaborations between a sponsor and a sponsored party go beyond the mere transfer of financial resources. There is also an association between the parties. Tha tmeans that the choice of sponsorship collaborations is significant as it can affect the sportsclub's image. The purpose of this study is to find out how consumers perceive the image of sports clubs when they are being sponsored by a brewery company. Existing research usually focuses on how the sponsor is affected by the sponsorship collaboration and not the sponsored sports club. It's therefore interesting to carry out a study in the opposite direction to find out the effects the sports clubs get from sponsorship collaborations. Based on the purpose of the study, the following question was phrased.- How do young consumers perceive the image of sports clubs that are sponsored by a brewery company? The study has identified factors that combined provide a holistic view of how sports clubs' image is affected by brewery companies.

The majority of studies on internal brand equity examine its various dimensions and relationships between them. While prior research specifies organizational practices relevant for successful internal branding, the insights about the impact of essential organizational factors on internal brand equity are still limited. This study focuses on organizational resilience that is vital for the existence of organizations not only during a crisis, but also during everyday operations. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of organizational resilience on internal brand equity considering the effects triggered by self-service technology (SST) in retailing. Since retailing had been significantly transformed by technological innovations over the past decade, we explore the effects of employees’ perceptions about performance of SST. The results of a survey conducted among retail employees in Sweden demonstrate that organizational resilience and employees’ perceptions about technological innovations are critical for enhancing internal brand equity, which includes brand orientation, internal brand knowledge, internal brand involvement, and internal brand commitment.

The aim of this research was to investigate the consumer perception of corporate social responsibility initiatives of companies in the vegan food industry, considering the consumers’ dietary choice and socio-demographic characteristics. The study is based on primary, quantitative data which was collected through anonymous surveys (N = 816). A social media sampling strategy was adopted, and a questionnaire was distributed among Europeans above the age of 18. The data was analysed with descriptive statistics, Cronbach Alpha reliability tests, one-way analysis of variance, and independent sample t tests. The findings showed that vegans care significantly more about CSR in the vegan food industry than non-vegans, hence they should be the target audience for CSR advertisements. Socio-demographic characteristics did not have an influence on perceptions among vegans, and only the characteristic of gender showed to be of importance, as women care more about CSR than men among vegetarians and omnivores. Therefore, the second target audience for CSR advertisements should be non-vegan women. CSR in the vegan food industry was rated as more legitimate compared to the rest of the food industry by all consumers, and all-vegan companies were rated as more socially responsible than companies that recently introduced vegan products in addition to their non-vegan range.

This paper addresses one of the pedagogical challenges that followed the presence of increasingly multinational student groups, particularly the increased diversity of academic backgrounds among students. Theoretically, this challenge can be understood as an encounter between different teaching and learning regimes (TLRs). TLR, coined by Trowler and Cooper (2002), implies a constellation of assumptions, rules, relationships, and practices regarding the conduct of higher education that colours academic staff members’ performance in their profession. It has become a widely used heuristic tool in the reflection process among university staff. It is shown in this paper that TLRs are not only a heuristic tool that can be applied in teacher reflection but may also be fruitfully applied in the classroom in student-teacher interaction. Consequently, we decided to bring the TLR into the classroom. The written student reflections constitute the empirical material that this analysis is based on. We approach these reflections as expressions of confessions of the Self, as laid out by Michel Foucault. We conclude that it is useful for the students to reflect upon TLR’s, but simultaneously, such an approach runs the risk of enhancing pedagogical and epistemological conformism at the neoliberal university. © 2023. Elin Bommenel, Richard Ek and Stuart Reid.

This study analyses the relationships of the antecedents of “extreme negative affect” toward luxury brands. The results show that the first-order predictors of luxury brand hate were negative stereotypes of people who use the luxury brand, consumer dissatisfaction with the brand, and negative word-of-mouth. The following three strategic approaches: (a) proactive, (b) neutral, and (c) reactive can be considered as a template to address the causes and implications of brand hate.

The job of management accounting and management control is not only to gather data/information about the company’s or organization’s past, but also to use and develop tools to form the future. While some tools are simple cost calculations to find breakeven points in price-setting, other tools can include far-reaching strategic purposes. Strategy decisions within business that focus on sustainability and mitigate climate change generally tend to focus on specific components or activities (even in the supply change) to make replacements or even cancel altogether. Onus is on the big decisions with major impact. There is another perception of strategy: practices through which strategy is enacted. Less as a grand plan by the top management, and more as a gradual managing that takes key decisions close to the everyday of business life.  With the global emergency of mitigating climate change, an area of near-untapped potential is management accounting. Research has pointed to the importance of middle level management and the role of the controller, where change happens, and problems need solutions. Recently there has been an increased interest in the way internal pricing (which includes transfer pricing) within a corporation can support a corporate strategy on climate change mitigation. Traditionally seen mainly as a manipulative method to avoid tax in multinational companies, there is new interest on the possibility of creating price mechanisms within companies that mimic the supply-demand curves of market economies, for example ways that cap-and-trade mechanisms on GHG emissions can be utilized inside corporations. The concept that underlies market price-setting is scarcity, but rather than using market price as a reflection of scarcity, the interest is in using corporate control and accounting devices to create situations of scarcity. This would create an accounted price on specific goods and services that reflects strategic concerns and a way of implementing corporate policies on climate change into the ‘nitty-gritty’ of everyday business decisions has choices between different burdens on the climate. It is our suggestion that similar mechanisms could broadly support and serve companies’ transition into a circular economy through the design of business choices. The concept of “choice architecture” from  behavorial economics with influence from marketing, most notably with the term ‘nudging’ in order to promote individual choices through design and gradually form norms in a way that would be beneficial to the environment. We want to make the point that the perception of strategizing ties in well with the ideas both of choice architectures and of implementing a circular economy policy in a business. If the concept (or ideal) of the circular economy is a promotion of resource re-use that can reach levels of complete or near-complete containment, then the switch from a linear perspective (of reducing waste, emissions and of not depleting finite resources) to a circular perspective means that ‘only’ megaprojects for re-use and production with lower energy consumption are not sufficient. The realization of the need for re-using spent materials and an avoidance of virgin resources has to permeate the organization. A first step is to review existing survey research of internal pricing that deviate from a cost accounting mandate and instead implement strategic ambitions and outcomes, and among such efforts, focus on those that can support business development towards GHG emission mitigation and circular thinking. 

Vi har studerat vilka behov som uppstår för anställda vid hybridarbete. Vårt syfte med arbetet är att identifiera vilka behov anställda har vid hybridarbete och hur dessa behov hanteras av ledaren. Vårt teoretiska ramverk utgår från tidigare forskning om hybridarbete och behov som kan uppstå vid hybridarbete. Vi gör även kopplingar till Maslows behovshierarki för att förklara sociala behov och trygghetsbehov som är vanliga behov som uppstår vid hybridarbete. Tidigare forskning visar att dessa behov är svåra att uppfylla vid hybridarbete. Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ metod där vi genomfört semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex respondenter. Vi har gjort två fallstudier där vi studerar två enheter i en organisation. I den första fallstudien kommer våra respondenter från HR-avdelningen som är en stödfunktion i organisationen och i den andra fallstudien kommer respondenterna från en avdelning för data- och informationshantering som arbetar med kärnverksamhet i organisationen. Vårt resultat visar att de anställda har ett behov av att arbeta på den fysiska arbetsplatsen för att uppfylla sociala behov samt trygghetsbehov. Vårt arbete visar att ledaren bär ansvaret över att hantera de anställdas behov och behöver ta till åtgärder för att de anställda ska känna att behoven uppfylls.

Bakgrund: Personalomsättning orsakar ekonomiska förluster för revisionsbyråerna i form av kostnader att anställa och utbilda personal. Personalomsättning utgör ett hot mot den upplevda revisionskvalitén men det finns fördelar med personalomsättning också, om den hålls till en rimlig nivå då det kan bidra med ny personal med djupare kunskap. Personal är en viktig resurs i organisationer då de bidrar till att organisationer når framgång och uppnår konkurrensfördel.

Syfte: Studiens syfte är att ta reda på vilka faktorer som kan påverka samt orsaka personalomsättning på revisionsbyråer, vilka faktorer är det som gör att revisorer och revisorsassistenter väljer att lämna yrket.

Metod: Primärdata har insamlats till denna studie genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Respondenterna i denna studie är tidigare anställda revisorsassistenter och revisorer som har arbetat på en revisionsbyrå i Dalarna men som idag har valt att byta yrke.

Slutsats: Resultatet i denna studie visar att det finns flera faktorer som gör att revisorer och revisorsassistenter väljer att lämna revisorsyrket. En gemensam faktor som respondenterna tar upp är att arbetsbelastningen var hög i förhållande till lönen och obalansen mellan privatliv och arbetsliv.

Sustainability is a concept that has been dominating developmental and political debates during at least the last two decades. It is a contested concept, flexible enough to match diverse or even conflicting viewpoints and interests. In tourism, this vagueness is related to the value-based character of the sustainable tourism concept. The concept is often related to broad and sweeping ethical and ideological considerations and to a simplified and harmonic view on sustainable development where inescapable conflict of interests between social, cultural, economic and environmental issues are neglected. The aim of this research is to critically discuss discourses of sustainability of a disputed tourist project in rural Sweden as communicated in mass media. More specifically, the research is examining the case of Sälen mountain resort and look on how the development process of a new international airport, inaugurated in 2020, was presented and debated in newspapers. The project was considered controversial with many proponents as well as opponents raising conflicting interests and points of view. We have analysed material in newspapers for the period 2011-2019. Preliminary findings indicate that the project of the development of an international airport is presented as hopeful and good with indications of intrinsic though utilitarian values. Pro-growth discourses around increasing numbers of international tourists and job generation, or even of positive environmental impacts are evident in the media. Opposition on the other hand, comes as debate articles and develops around tax-payers money, responsibility to future generations and environmental concerns. Discourses of weak and strong approaches and pro-growth vs degrowth become part of the discussion of the results to inform the theoretical framework of analysis. As this transportation project and the discourses around it analysed rely a lot on the premise of growth and international tourism, aspects of circularity become also part of the discussion.  The role of an international airport as a transportation mega-project to compensate for rurality and peripherality as well as social sustainability is evident also in the discourses. Aspects of locality and proximity are ignored in these discourses and pinpoint its relevance to circularity paradigm and its contribution in advancing sustainability discourses. 

The topic of human resource (HR) analytics has recently attracted growing interest. Despite numerous advantages, adopting HR analytics in practice is still limited, especially in a public sector context. The aim of this study is to investigate why this is the case. The study applies the Ability, Motivation, and Opportunity (AMO) framework to examine public sector HR professionals’ preconditions for HR analytics. A total of 30 interviews were conducted with HR practitioners in three public administration authorities in Sweden and they were analysed using thematic template analysis. The results show that despite the high motivation to comply with governments’ political agendas, improve decision-making, and ensure transparency, HR practitioners report a lack of analytical skills and technical knowledge. They are also limited by data availability, technical support, scarce resources, and complex organisational structures. The study adds to a growing body of HR analytics literature and highlights the complexity involved in HR analytics adoption. 

The use of data analytics has gained popularity among various managerial functions, aligning with the principles of evidence-based management. Reflecting this trend, human resource management has also embraced the managerial fashion, framing it as human resource (HR) analytics. HR analytics represents a relatively recent HR innovation, generally understood as a technology-driven organisational practice of analysing HR and other data to make better people-related decisions.

Despite the growing interest among HR scholars and practitioners, empirical evidence remains limited, particularly in the context of public sector organisations, which have also begun leveraging HR analytics, albeit with some delay. Thus, the aim of this study is to describe the process of HR analytics implementation from a translation perspective. We seek to answer the following research question: How is HR analytics being translated in the practices of public sector organisations?

HR analytics implementation is seen as a broader concept, but it is not sufficient to explain the changes that occur in the process and why the results do not always meet expectations. To increase understanding, we use the concept of translation. Drawing on Scandinavian institutionalism and the organisational translation perspective, we show how the practice of HR analytics has been adapted for use in two public administrations in Sweden: a state authority and a regional administration. We employ a longitudinal research design comprising three phases of data collection conducted over a period of three years. This includes a total of 51 in-depth interviews with organisational practitioners involved in HR analytics implementation, observation of project meetings, and document analysis. The process data are analysed using a visual mapping strategy combined with thematic analysis. 

Our preliminary findings show that during the process of translation, the concept of HR analytics underwent significant transformation to meet specific organisational needs. One previously deemed important aspect of the concept, namely predictive and prescriptive analyses, was omitted during the translation process. Conversely, another aspect, namely descriptive statistics, received significantly more attention compared to the conceptualisation in existing literature within the field.

The study contributes to the existing HR analytics literature by providing empirical evidence from the underexplored context of public sector organisations. The study makes a general theoretical contribution to the literature on how managerial ideas are adapted during the process of translation. We demonstrate that ideas may not only be transformed through adaptation, but some important aspects may be lost in the translation process, resulting in the loss of the original meaning. 

Rapid developments in technology, such as the ever-increasing speed of computer processing, the availability of vast amounts of data, and improved methods of data analysis, have had a profound impact on organisations and their operations, including human resource management (HRM). Human resource (HR) analytics, an HR practice that involves technology-driven statistical analysis of various data to make more objective employee-related decisions, has generated significant interest from organisations and has been a topic of discussion among HR practitioners and academics for over a decade.

However, empirical evidence on HR analytics remains limited, with existing literature predominantly focusing on private firms, suggesting potential business-related benefits, and reporting multiple implementation challenges. Business-related benefits are less relevant for public sector organisations that are not driven solely by profit maximisation and market competition but are instead faced with pressures from values such as democracy and societal welfare. Moreover, the contemporary shift from New Public Management to a more trust-based approach may also raise questions about the superiority and relevance of private sector solutions. Therefore, it remains unclear what motivates public sector organisations to embrace HR analytics. Addressing this gap, this study examines the rationale behind the utilisation of HR analytics in public sector organisations and attempts to answer the following research question: What reasons for the adoption of HR analytics could be identified in public sector organisations?

Drawing upon a general consensus in the broader HRM literature that organisations adopt HR practices due to either competitive factors or institutional forces, we conducted a qualitative study in three organisations representing distinct levels within the Swedish public sector: the state (authorities), regional (regions), and local (municipalities). These organisations are governed by democratic elections and, unlike private firms, are driven by goals that prioritise citizens' service and safety over profit, as they do not have the same requirements for return on capital. All three organisations feature complex organisational structures with diversified units, employ a large number of employees, and collect substantial amounts of personnel data, which is an important prerequisite for HR analytics.

All three participating organisations confirmed their general interest in utilising HR analytics. However, at the time of data collection, none of them had fully implemented it in their HR operations beyond some basic practices and an ambition to further develop them. The level of HR analytics maturity in the studied organisations is at the initial stage, representing descriptive HR analytics. This stage is primarily based on HR administrative data, focusing on what happened in the past. The studied organisations utilise HR data for reporting personnel records and various descriptive HR measurements. They benchmark these metrics with those of other similar organisations and visualise them through various data visualisation tools, such as Power BI, to facilitate data understanding for organisational decision-makers.

A total of 51 in-depth interviews were conducted with different HR practitioners and other professionals involved in HR analytics practices, including representatives from IT, finance, and organisational line managers. The exploratory interviews broadly focused on the current state of organisational strategic and operational work with HR-related data and their analysis, encompassing the reasons for HR analytics adoption, as well as organisational expectations and aspirations for the future. Thematic analysis of the data was inspired by the Gioia methodology, the primary characteristic of which is the development of a data structure combining 1st-order and 2nd-order themes, along with aggregate dimensions, to construct a theoretical model to make sense of the findings.

The study reveals three types of reasons for the adoption of HR analytics in public sector organisations: economic rationality, legitimacy, and individual interests. HR analytics is utilised to gain cognitive, socio-political, and technological legitimacy through the improvement of several organisational outcomes linked to economic rationality, including HR-related outcomes and better data management and analysis. Personal interests of certain individuals are also found to drive the adoption. The study findings indicate that the reasons for HR analytics adoption reported in the existing literature can, to some extent, also be applied to the public sector but need to be adjusted to fit the distinctive context of public organisations striving for legitimacy.

The study contributes to the HR analytics literature by providing empirical evidence from the public sector. Moreover, it argues for the combination of economic rationality with legitimacy gains and individual interests in explaining the rationale behind the adoption of HR analytics.

HR analytics (HRA) is a new activity within the field of HR that companies recently have shown a strongly growing interest in. The practical interest has generated a stream of research with the aim to increase formal knowledge about the phenomenon. Following this development several early literature reviews have been conducted. They mostly focus on enabling and preventing factors for HRA without clearly relating to theoretical perspectives and standpoints. This paper therefore aims to achieve more in-depth formal knowledge by placing the early flow of HRA research in relation to the practice theory reflecting the general “practice turn” in social sciences. Inspired by the HRM-as-practice framework this paper systematically reviews existing research based on the four pre-defined categories: HRA practices, HRA praxis, HRA practitioners and intersections between them. This paper makes two theoretical contributions. First, it conceptualizes HRA-as-practice, describing what practices are involved in HRA, by whom and how they are enacted. And second, it suggests that HRA technology, HRA outcomes and HRA hinders and facilitators might act at the intersections between the three elements.

Geopolitical tensions and a world where state interventions are driven by national security and ideology present novel challenges for emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs). Often, individual companies are targeted, and their corporate growth gets curbed. These phenomena are derived from non-market factors, which are generally absent in the springboard view of the international business discourse that explains the foreign expansion of EMNEs by viewing these firms as ambidextrous organisations capable of handling conflicting requirements. This research aims to understand the international expansion of EMNEs under geopolitical tensions by incorporating non-market factors into the ambidexterity model to enrich the springboard view. A case study of Huawei and its exclusion from the telecommunications industry in Sweden forms the empirical base of this research. The contributions are twofold. First, within the springboard view, the ambidexterity model can be upgraded by incorporating non-market factors that better explain the international expansion of EMNEs in changing geopolitical and business contexts. Second, the research highlights the management of EMNEs' subsidiaries while considering geopolitical tensions. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

The purpose of this essay is to show how wool production takes place in practice on different types of sheep farms and to investigate how the value is created in wool. As well as examining and illustrating how the value chain for farms with sheep where wool is produced. To carry out the work, information has been collected with the help of qualitative approach and triangulation as a method. The theoretical framework has been developed from current research that can be linked to the chosen subject. Since there is not much research that focuses on wool and the farmers' entrepreneurship, this was developed into the subject of the essay. The framework of reference has then been built up by relevant and current research that creates understanding and to analyze empiricism. The discussion and conclusions of the study reveals that the sheep farmers have no economic value in the wool if they do not choose to develop it into products themselves. The work on the essay has shown that the farmers have a strong value in the wool, and they want it to get a stronger position in society so imports of wool can decrease.There is also some uncertainty about what the sheep farmers can do with the wool when it is cut. Where they can sell it and what can be done with it as a raw material. Results from the interviews show that the farmers help to keep the landscape open and praise that comes from the surroundings is something that motivates them to continue.

Bakgrund: Bakgrunden till detta arbete är dagens linjära och ohållbara förhållningssätt inom klädindustrin. Utvecklingen av klimatpåverkan inom denna bransch fortsätter öka samtidigt som klimatforskningen menar att klimatpåverkan måste minska. Ett tillvägagångssätt för att minska klimatpåverkan är genom cirkulär ekonomi. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att få en inblick i hur svenska sportvarumärken praktiskt implementerar cirkulär ekonomi samt vilka utmaningar och möjligheter denna nya kontextinnebär. Metod: För att genomföra studien användes en kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerade intervjuer. Sekundärkällor har använts för att komplettera intervjuerna. Det insamlade datamaterialet analyserades utifrån en tematisk analys med abduktiv ansats. Studieobjekten identifierades utifrån ett målstyrt urval med kriterier. Teori: Arbetet är baserat på ett teoretiskt ramverk som innehåller de övergripande ämnena: cirkulär ekonomi, materialval och produktdesign, tillverkning och distribution, kommunikation av hållbarhetsarbete, eftermarknad, utmaningar och möjligheter. Empiri: Den insamlade empirin utgörs av semistrukturerade intervjuer med fyra svenska sportvarumärken. Slutsatser: Slow fashion-principer presenteras som praktiska förslag på hur implementering av cirkulär ekonomi kan se ut för verksamheter inom klädindustrin. De främsta möjligheterna med implementering av cirkulär ekonomi är en ökad efterfrågan av hållbara produkter hos konsumenterna samt en ökning av lagar och regleringar på marknaden som främjar hälsosam konkurrens. De främsta utmaningarna med implementering av cirkulär ekonomi är minskning av klimatpåverkan i tillverkningsfasen, intern kommunikation med tillverkningsledet, spårbarhet av produkter, mätning av hållbarhetsarbeten, höga kostnader och återvinning.

In contemporary developed Western societies, structural discrimination often bars ethnic minorities from entering mainstream entrepreneurship and labor markets. Consequently, minorities engage in microentrepreneurship for economic survival and to retain their social identities. Yet despite the economic value of ethnic minority microbusinesses, little is known about the underlying forces that develop fundamental resources which shape their performance. Based on Bourdieu’s forms of capital and the resource-based view of the firm, our study presents a novel culture-induced entrepreneurship model. This model explains how ethnic minority culture shapes the development of human capital resources and how these resources contribute to business performance in communities which are often characterized as “left behind.” Our study challenges the dominant underdog discourse of (cultural) capital deficit among ethnic minority entrepreneurs. © 2023 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

We explored and found that a set of key resources, that we call human capital resources, play an important role in ethnic minority microbusinesses in an ethnic majority social and economic space. We have also found that these key resources are developed and maintained within the coethnic niche economic space shaped by coethnic cultural value systems. Building on qualitative interview data and drawing on Bourdieu’s forms of capital and the resource-based view of the firm, our study presents a novel microentrepreneurship model that we call the culture-induced entrepreneurship model. Overall, our model provides insights into how ethnic minority culture informs the creation of a set of human capital resources and how these key resources contribute to business performance in regional ethnic minority microbusinesses. Our model also shows relationships between these key human capital resources. © 2023 International Council for Small Business.

Business researchers and policymakers frequently overlook ethnic minority microbusinesses. Yet, together with small and medium-sized organizations, microbusinesses drive both local and national economies. Combining social capital theory with the resource-based view and building upon 43 in-depth interviews, this study proposes a model of ‘compassionate customer service’. In ethnic minority microbusinesses, coethnic culturally sensitive customer service is an important strategic resource for sustainable success, which high street chains lack. A key challenge for ongoing business survival and success is to ensure that future ethnic minority generations sustain coethnic compassionate customer service.(PDF) Compassionate customer service in ethnic minority microbusinesses. 

Bakgrund: Begreppet artificiell intelligens blev först känt av allmänheten år 1997 när en dator slog världsmästaren Garry Kasparov i ett parti schack, sedan dess har AI-tekniken utvecklats i rask takt. Fördelarna med AI som arbetsredskap har upptäckts av redovisning- och revisionsbranschen, som nu står inför stora förändringar. Integreringen av AI innebär inte enbart fördelar, utan kommer även med hinder som behöver beaktas.   Syfte: Hur använder sig mindre redovisnings- och revisionsföretag av AI och  kan de se hinder med att använda AI i beslutsprocessen, i så fall vilka? Metod: Studien bygger på en kvalitativ forskningsmetod baserad på semistrukturerade intervjuer. Slutsats: Genom att ta del av tidigare forskning fann vi att de stora aktörerna inom redovisnings- och revisionsbranschen redan använder sig av artificiell intelligens. Däremot saknas kunskap i hur långt de mindre aktörerna kommit i integreringen av AI. För att svara upp till detta kunskapsgap genomfördes 13 semistrukturerade intervjuer med mindre redovisnings- och revisionsföretag. Studien redogör för hur mindre redovisnings- och revisionsföretag använder sig av artificiell intelligens och för vilka hinder som uppstår i att integrerar AI inom beslutsprocessen. Vi har identifierat en rad faktorer som utgör detta hinder, där de primära faktorerna är brist på tillit, rädsla för att förlora kontroll, samt brist på kunskap om hur artificiell intelligens kan bidra till det dagliga arbetet. Med studiens genomförande identifierades oavsiktligt att respondenterna tycker sig vänta på att AI-tekniken ska utvecklas, oavsett om de erhöll ett positivt eller negativt förhållningssätt mot tekniken. 

The paper examines the implementation of hybrid work arrangements (HWAs) in response to the covid-19 pandemic. It reflects upon the hybrid work phenomenon across various organisational and sectoral contexts and identifies areas for future research through a literature review and two pilot studies in Sweden. HWAs offer job quality benefits such as increased autonomy in terms of flexibility (i.e. in how, when, and where work is done) and improved work-life balance. However, hybrid workers also experience higher workloads and challenges in maintaining work-life boundaries. In the case of non-hybrid workers (i.e. workers who work exclusively on-site), previous research and our interviews point to almost exclusively negative effects: for instance, increased workloads due to difficulties in collaborating with hybrid colleagues, reduced autonomy, and worsened work-life balance. 

The purpose of the paper is to discuss hybrid work arrangements in relation to job quality across various sectors and organisational contexts. Moreover, as part of the process of designing an interdisciplinary HWA-research project in Sweden, between business administration and work science at Dalarna University, the paper also wants to discuss identified areas for future research and also the research project outlined in this paper.

Syftet med workshopen är att öppna upp för idé- och erfarenhetsutbyte gällande digitalisering och dess verksamhetsspecifika möjligheter, begränsningar och (etiska) konsekvenser kopplat till företagsekonomisk utbildning och forskning. Vi vill även bidra till nätverksskapande för forskare och lärare som intresserar sig för denna kunskapsutveckling och hur den påverkar framtidens företagsekonomiska utbildning.Vi inleder workshoppen med en kort presentation av våra påbörjade forskningsaktiviteter inom bl a HR-analytics, e-ledarskap, projektledning kopplat till digitalisering av produktionssystem och Business Intelligence samt hur dessa kunskaper kan inkluderas i våra kurser. Därefter öppnar vi upp för smågruppsdiskussioner med dessa frågeställningar: - Vilka forskningsfrågor inom digitalisering och dess verksamhetsspecifika möjligheter, begränsningar och (etiska) konsekvenser är ni intresserad av? Vilka teorier och metoder används (planerar att användas)? - Hur jobbar ni (vill ni jobba) med utveckling av digitaliseringskompetens som kunskaps- och färdighetsområde i era utbildningar?Deltagarna kommer under smågruppdiskussioner kunna föra anteckningar via onlineverktyg (Padlet), vilka sedan används för sammanfattning och erfarenhetsutbyte mellan grupperna i slutet av workshopen. Möjligt att ansluta eller lämna i samband med pausen. Svenska och engelska mixas.

There is from a political perspective and need for how to measure effects of training initiatives. Research indicate that this is connected to a diversity of challenges ranging from definitions of training and training initiatives to valid operational measures. As this is a fragmented interdisciplinary research area with on-going discussions in a wide range of journals there is a need to analyze and synthesize previous research - what do we know? 

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights on the views of firms regarding corporate sustainability (CS) and how the structure of the board affects this. We surveyed the CEOs, CFOs, and Environment Officers of about 850 Swedish firms (response rate 21%) affected by mandatory sustainability reporting after the implementation of the EU Directive 2014/95/EU. The six-transcending ambition levels (namely: pre-CS, compliance-driven, profit-driven, caring, synergistic, and holistic) of corporate sustainability proposed by van Marrewijk & Werre (2003) were used to classify the views of key officers on the sustainability agenda of their respective firms. We find that the drive by firms for higher CS ambition levels is positively influenced by a diverse board (i.e., representation of female board members), and the effect is more pronounced if the board is constituted with a female top executive. Moreover, younger top executives are more likely to have a higher CS ambition level. On the other hand, external CEOs, external board members, and forceful disclosure of sustainability activity (e.g., EU Directive 2014/95/EU) do not significantly influence CS ambition levels, whereas firm size and industry affiliation do. Our findings are useful for top managers and regulators interested in corporate governance issues and influencing the sustainability efforts of their firms. Methodologically, the use of a survey method is an extension to an otherwise high reliance on archival research in the field of CS. Furthermore, the dataset is unique, and the results are robust to various sensitivity analyses.

Den här uppsatsen fokuserar på hållbarhetsrapportering och hur hållbarhetsstrategier kan påverka innehållet i dessa rapporter. För att ge en grundläggande bakgrund till ämnet har tidigare forskning kring hållbarhetsrapporter studerats och strategier och variabler för vidare undersökning har identifierats. Uppsatsen genomfördes genom en granskning av företagens årsredovisningar och hållbarhetsrapporter för att identifiera hållbarhetsstrategier. De resultat som företagen redovisar i årsredovisningarna och hållbarhetsrapporter representerar konkreta exempel på hur de har översatt strategierna till praktiska åtgärder. Till exempel kan ett sådant resultat vara att ett företag, i enlighet med hållbarhetsstrategierna att minska utsläppen, lyckats minska utsläppen med 20% under det aktuella året. Detta innebär att strategin är att minska utsläppen och resultatet blir en minskning med 20%.

Purpose: The overall purpose of this study is to enhance understanding of how businesses in mill-towns network and to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of networking in such settings. Method: A qualitative method has been used in the study and data have been collected through semi-structured interviews. The data was then analyzed through thematic analysis with an abductive approach. Scientific articles have been used to gather material for the theoretical framework. Conclusion: The study shows that companies in mill-towns network through various networking meetings, collaborations and through private ties. The companies exchange both tangible and intangible resources. The study shows that relationships between actors are important when networking in mills-towns and entails both advantages and disadvantages.

While the relevance of non-predictive strategies for the international expansion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been increasingly discussed, available studies tend to ignore the possibility of synergistic effects between predictive and non-predictive approaches in such a context. This paper contrasts the effects of both strategies on SMEs’ international market performance, considering that their combination can make room for synergistic effects. The analysis combines primary survey data from 851 SMEs in Brazil, China, Italy, Poland, and Sweden with secondary data retrieved from the World Bank. Besides supporting both independent and synergistic performance effects of predictive and non-predictive strategies, the results indicate that foreign market institutions affect each of these effects differently and suggest firm size effects worth consideration. Contributions include the test of the consensus that has been formed around the superiority of non-predictive strategies and the contextualization of SMEs’ decision-making strategies in both external and internal organizational terms.

The possibility that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) mix and match prediction and non-prediction while making decisions during internationalization remains a highly unaddressed scenario. The rare studies considering it do not go beyond domestic effects when contextualizing the decisions that guide SMEs' foreign expansion. This study links SMEs' decision-making strategies to performance and suggests that such a relationship is moderated by the host market's institutional development and the associated institutional voids. The analysis combines primary survey data from 851 SMEs in Brazil, China, Italy, Poland, and Sweden with secondary data retrieved from the World Bank. Besides supporting both independent and synergistic performance effects of predictive and non-predictive strategies, the results indicate that foreign market institutions affect these effects differently and suggest firm size effects worth consideration. Contributions include the expansion of the debate on the relationship between prediction and non-prediction beyond the either-or reasoning that prevails in existing research and the contextualization of SMEs' decision-making strategies in terms of the institutional dynamics that SMEs encounter abroad.

The popularity of hybrid teaching, which blends on-campus and online instruction to cater to students both physically present and engaged remotely, has surged in response to the COVID 19 pandemic. Students, having adapted to online learning during the pandemic, now desire the flexibility it offers. As educational institutions transition back to on-campus education, students continue to advocate for online study options. Recent research studies highlight the growing prevalence of hybrid teaching. Thus, this paper aims to present current research insights into hybrid teaching in higher education and pinpoint areas for future research.

The paper begins by identifying the key themes addressed in articles on hybrid education/teaching published between 2018 and 2024, systematically gathered from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Following this, a discussion is conducted on the advantages and disadvantages of hybrid teaching. Among the benefits identified are enhanced accessibility and inclusion, increased student attendance, improved quality of students’ life, health safety, lower costs for commuting, individualized learning, or attracting new students’ groups.

Conversely, studies also highlight various pedagogical, social, and technological challenges associated with hybrid teaching. Teachers face heavy workloads due to the need of course redesign, and higher cognitive load when managing hybrid classes. Furthermore, challenges encompass communication hurdles, difficulties in monitoring student progress, as well as potential unfamiliarity with interactive teaching designs. Challenges further include technical difficulties arising from poor infrastructure or technical problems, as well as issues of data privacy and surveillance. Students also encounter difficulties, such as reduced interactions, altered social dynamics, a diminished sense of belonging and motivation. Online-only students are particularly at risk of disengagement, leading to feelings of isolation and impeding the development of essential soft skills. Challenges related to equitability and parity of experience between on-campus and online students can affect relationship building and social cohesion within the cohort.

Based on the analysis of previous research findings, the paper concludes by identifying areas for future research in the field of hybrid teaching. These include explorations into online students' sense of belonging, the social dynamics and performance comparison between online and on campus students in hybrid learning environments, and the identification of specific teaching and learning activities where hybrid teaching is most effective or less beneficial. Additionally, there is a need to address questions related to equity and parity in student experiences in hybrid education, considering who benefits and who may face disadvantages. Furthermore, future research is recommended to delve into the assessment of audio quality, acoustic testing, and the evaluation of spatial impacts on the learning environment in the hybrid settings, as well as to examine more thoroughly ethical considerations related to students' privacy, surveillance, and data usage.

In business higher education, developing critical thinking skills has been a longstanding objective, yet many educators find it difficult to achieve. With the recent public availability of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools, this challenge has taken on new dimensions. How should we approach the concept of critical thinking in the age of generative AI tools, and can these tools be effectively used to develop students' critical thinking skills?

The purpose of this paper is to present an innovative instructional practice, specifically a workshop, aimed at developing students' critical thinking skills through the utilization of ChatGPT. Furthermore, the paper aims to reflect on the outcomes of this practice and provide inspiration and practical recommendations for other higher education instructors. 

The workshop, conducted within the Business Studies Master programme at Dalarna University, Sweden, sought to enhance students' understanding of generative AI tools while fostering critical thinking and analysis. Through collaborative group work, students, ranging from complete beginners to proficient users of generative AI, engaged in writing seminar papers using ChatGPT. This experiential learning facilitated constructive discussions on the potential and limitations of ChatGPT in academic settings, resulting in the acquisition of fundamental knowledge about generative AI tools. Interestingly, even experienced users reported gaining new insights, particularly concerning ethical considerations in ChatGPT usage.

The workshop's impact transcended immediate outcomes, as students exhibited greater responsibility in utilizing ChatGPT for academic purposes in following programme courses. The paper provides practice-based recommendations for implementing similar workshops and highlight key insights gathered from student experiences.

Den tekniska utvecklingen i samhället har lett till att redovisnings- och revisionsbranschen digitaliserats i allt högre grad. Detta i sin tur har lett till att arbetsuppgifterna för redovisningskonsulter och revisorer skiftat från att vara repetitiva och enformiga till att idag bestå av mer värdeskapande arbetsuppgifter som exempelvis rådgivning till kunderna. På grund av dessa förändrade arbetsuppgifter har ett kompetensgap uppstått mellan den kompetens arbetstagare besitter och den kompetens branschen efterfrågar. Baserat på detta fokuserar vår studie på vilka kunskaper och färdigheter det är branschen saknar hos nyutexaminerade ekonomstudenter samt hur de anser att detta kompetensgap kan minskas. För att förstå och förklara vilka kunskaper branschen saknar utfördes studien med en kvalitativ ansats. Genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex respondenter från olika företag inom redovisnings- och revisionsbranschen kunde vi skapa oss en god bild av branschens uppfattning gällande nyutexaminerade ekonomstudenters kompetens. Då vi också inhämtade jobbannonser från dessa företag förstärktes ytterligare denna bild. Utifrån vår inhämtande data kunde vi konstatera att främst var det tekniska kunskaper inom exempelvis Excel som saknades. Vår mest förvånande upptäckt var att de företag som tillhandahöll revisionstjänster totalt saknade revisionskunskaper hos nyutexaminerade ekonomstudenter varav de helt enkelt antog att de inte kunde någonting gällande revision eller vad en revisor gör. Vidare kunde vi se att branschen i första hand hoppades på en bättre dialog och samarbete med utbildningsinstitutionerna för att tillsammans minska kompetensgapet som finns idag. Genom denna studie hoppas vi ha bidragit till att skapa en diskussion om detta kompetensgap samt hur det kan minskas.

Purpose

Current online business development redistributes last-mile logistics (LML) from consumer to retailer and producer. This paper identifies how empirical LML research has used and defined logistic performance measures for key grocery industry actors. Using a multi-actor perspective on logistic performance, the authors discuss coordination issues important for optimising LML at system level.

Design/methodology/approach

A semi-systematic literature review of 85 publications was conducted to analyse performance measurements used for effectiveness and efficiency, and for which actors.

Findings

Few empirical LML studies exist examining coordination between key actors or on system level. Most studies focus on logistic performance measurements for retailers and/or consumers, not producers. Key goals and resource utilisations lack research, including all key actors and system-level coordination.

Research limitations/implications

Current LML performance research implies a risk for sub-optimisation. Through expanding on efficiency and effectiveness interplay at system level and introducing new research perspectives, the review highlights the need to revaluate single-actor, single-measurement studies.

Practical implications

No established scientific guidelines exist for solving LML optimisation in the grocery industry. For managers, it is important to thoroughly consider efficiency and effectiveness in LML execution, coordination and collaboration among key actors, avoiding sub-optimisations for business and sustainability.

Originality/value

The study contributes to current knowledge by reviewing empirical research on LML performance in the grocery sector, showing how previous research disregards the importance of multiple actors and coordination of actors, efficiency and effectiveness.

Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur supporterkulturen påverkar sponsringen inom Allsvenska fotbollsklubbar och fylla i den kunskapslucka som finns i tidigare forskning. Kunskapsluckorna låg främst inom förståelsen av hur supporterkulturen och huliganism påverkar sponsringssamarbeten inom den svenska fotbollen. Studien genomfördes med en kvalitativ metod, främst genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med representanter från olika storstadsklubbar och ett företag som sponsrade dem. Genom att identifiera återkommande mönster i intervjuerna kunde relevanta teman skapas för att fördjupa förståelsen av fenomenet. De viktigaste resultaten av studien strukturerades kring fem centrala teman: syn på sponsring, kommunikation och relation med sponsorer, kommunikation och relation med supportrar, supporterkulturens positiva- och negativa konsekvenser på sponsringssamarbeten. Resultaten av studien visar att supporterkulturen har en betydande inverkan på Allsvenska fotbollsklubbars arbete med sponsringssamarbeten. Trots att negativa händelser kan påverka klubbens varumärke och relationer med sponsorer, överväger de positiva inslagen från supporterkulturen de negativa aspekterna när det kommer till sponsringssamarbeten. Kommunikationen mellan fotbollsklubbar, supportrar och sponsorer anses vara avgörande för att utveckla långsiktiga och framgångsrika samarbeten. Fynden av denna studie är värdefulla för fotbollsklubbar, sponsorer och forskare inom SportManagement. Studien bidrar till en djupare förståelse av hur supporterkulturen påverkar sponsringen inom Allsvenskan och ger insikter som kan användas för att förbättra och optimera sponsringsrelationer. Denna studie bidrar till en nyanserande bild av hur supporterkulturen påverkar sponsringen inom Allsvenskan och betonar vikten av att förstå och hantera denna dynamik för att främja hållbara relationer mellan fotbollsklubbar och sponsorer.

Challenged by demanding contextual conditions, public sector organizations struggle to succeed in internal branding. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of value congruence in internal communication and positive organizational practices on employees? brand perceptions. The study examines the impact of PSM on these variables. The results of a survey demonstrate the importance of value congruence and positive organizational practices for facilitating employees? brand identification, brand pride, and brand commitment. The findings show that PSM directly impacts employees? opinions about value congruence and positive organizational practices, and indirectly influences their affective responses to the organizational brand.