BACKGROUND: As the growth of the Internet continues to impact the way that individuals and businesses interact, companies are forced to bring new online markets to the forefront of their strategic business decisions. In recent years online innovations in Internet content offerings have produced a myriad of highly interactive fantasy sports sites designed to entice users to wage funds on sports team. Although factors such as accessibility and anonymity encourage people to wager online, many hesitate to wager for reasons that must be examined if online fantasy sports (OFS) sites are to innovate and thrive. OBJECTIVE: Although research findings suggest that users have questioned the legitimacy and fairness of online fantasy sports sites, issues of trust do not yet appear to be negatively influencing the industry’s growth. Users continue to spend large sums of money without high confidence in OFS sites. To understand why this might be the case, we conducted a preliminary study to examine the nature and role of psychological contract violation (PCV) in OFS sites.Our research examines how OFS users’ past experiences and the perceived reputation of OFS sites influence psychological contract violation (PCV), as well as perceived institutional effectiveness as it pertains to OFS sites’ features and products. We also investigate the effect of institutional effectiveness on users’ concerns and their behavioral intentions. METHODS: We implemented previously validated scales to survey OFS users and test our hypothesized model. The original sample size included 198 individuals. After removing the incomplete and non-fantasy sports site user responses, the final sample dropped to 142. PLS-SEM was used to analyze measurement and structural models. RESULTS: Initial results suggest that OFS users have concerns about transactional information even though they tend to be less risk adverse than non-OFS users. Our study also found that psychological contract violation minimizes users’ protection perceptions concerning overall OFS structures’ effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS: This study creates new knowledge about minimizing risks in online fantasy sports sites, thereby assisting businesses that want to increase user participation and transactions.

BACKGROUND: Different preferences of the customers and their product judgments have been widely neglected in the literature despite their significant influence on decision-making. Hence, decision-makers must recognize customers’ rating evaluations based on their satisfaction that interact with their different behaviours (quality- and prestige-seeking). OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to ascertain the different behaviors of the customers that influence their product judgment in ratings which change the informational role of the ratings. METHODS: This study was empirically conducted based on survey results from 20000 mobile phone customers and showed their different behaviours in their rating evaluations by using a non-recursive SPSS model. RESULTS: The results of our study reveal that: the rating evaluation of quality-seeking customers is carried out with a higher average rating and a lower variance, for prestige-seeking customers are carried out with a higher average rating and a higher variance. Overall, the variance of ratings distribution varies towards two groups of the customers while their ratings evaluations carried out with similar average ratings, in the context of customers’ rating evaluation and their different behaviour. CONCLUSIONS: This study has provided preliminary evidence for different behavioral customer rating evaluations which is crucial in both business owners and potential consumers’ decision-making process.

BACKGROUND: As the digital economy evolving as a nation-level strategy of China, firm decision-makers have shown increased interest in implementing digital transformation. However, they lack strategic guidance towards the realization of digital transformation. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to provide a holistic and comprehensive understanding of the status quo of Chinese firms’ digital transformation. METHODS: We fulfill this task by combining qualitative and quantitative methods. First, a conceptual model and an associated survey tool are developed based on an in-depth literature review and field practitioners’ opinions. The status quo of digital transformation is decomposed into 5 dimensions. Second, empirical survey data collected from 282 Chinese firms are analyzed and interpreted both in general and across industry types and ownerships. RESULTS: We find that the majority of Chinese firms reach a consensus on the strategic importance of digital transformation and agree on the importance of technological and human resources. In general, firms in the information technology sector scored higher in all five dimensions compared with firms in the manufacturing sector, and private-owned firms scored higher in all five dimensions than state-owned firms. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study set a basis for the development of a maturity model of digital transformation and offers practical insights for Chinese firms to initiate and implement digital transformation projects.

BACKGROUND: As the COVID-pandemic has shown, the need for innovative (digitalized) solutions is in high demand across almost every field of interest. The implementation of advanced technologies in higher education provides an intriguing opportunity to expand its scope by reaching new audiences as well as ensuring a high quality of learning outcome. OBJECTIVE: In this article we tried to examine if virtual reality can be a suitable option by placing lectures into a virtual setup. METHODS: First, we explored the theoretical background if and how virtual reality has been adapted for usage in higher education. We then asked five lecturers from the IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems to test a virtual environment (Mozilla Hubs) and evaluate the platform for their teaching purposes. RESULTS: Among one of the results was, that 80 percent would recommend using the platform for lectures to their colleagues. Due to the small sample size the findings need to be further evaluated. CONCLUSIONS: In the foreseeable future virtual reality will become a valuable teaching assistance in higher education. Findings show that the response rate when training with virtual reality applications is much higher than to common studying methods.

BACKGROUND: The proliferation of ICT has transformed customers’ buying patterns. The organic consumption patterns based on online consumers’ reviews were reviewed through moderated mediation model. This research paper examines the mediating role of consumer attitude in the relationship between online consumers’ reviews and organic consumption. It further examines, if perceived irritation moderates this effect. METHODS: Data were collected from 287 respondents who were experienced in online buying of organic products. Applied the PROCESS macros in IBM SPSS Statistics 23 to assess latent hypothesized relationships. IMPLICATIONS: These results have urged marketers to reconsider their strategies to treat modern consumers and scheming more artistic web pages braced with social feedback mechanism to stream organic consumption. CONCLUSIONS: The results supported that online consumers’ reviews positively influences organic consumption of Chinese. However, this effect is stronger when perceived irritation of webpages is low.

BACKGROUND: Innovation is founded as a strong contributor to the formulation of competitive strategy and enhance organizational performance. Different organizations dropped drastically from the competition by not innovating their products and services. PURPOSE: To analyze the relationship of an organizational learning culture, workforce diversity and knowledge management with innovation and organizational performance, this topic is also has become an important topic in the field of management. With a few exceptions, however, the literature has focused on different business and small and medium-size enterprise, but this study intends to bridge this gap by testing the framework in educational institutes. METHODS: A quantitative research method is used to test the conceptual framework. The data was collected from Malaysian, and Thailand private sector universities; a closed-ended questionnaire was administrated to collect the data. Data is analyzed through statistical software SMART-PLS RESULTS: Findings of the study reveal that the exogenous variables knowledge management, organization learning culture, and workforce diversity has a significant and positive relationship with endogenous variable innovation and further innovation has a significant and positive association with organization performance. CONCLUSION: This study reveals that workforce diversity, knowledge management and organizational learning culture play a vital role to bring the innovation which further enhances the organization performance. Due to current pandemic COVID-19, educational institutes required more innovative process of teaching and operation, a learning culture, knowledge management systems and diverse workforce can play a vital role in the educational institute innovation process.

BACKGROUND: Upward ingratiation is a universal workplace phenomenon because leaders have more power and resources, which are closely related to the interests of subordinates. This phenomenon is especially common in Chinese culture due to the large power distance between superior and subordinate. Subordinate ingratiation appears to influence supervisors’ affective responses and punishment decisions. OBJECTIVE: The study’s purpose was to analyze the relationship between subordinate ingratiation and supervisor punishment omission in China, as well as the mediating role of interpersonal affect and the moderating role of authentic leadership. METHODS: Data were collected from 389 supervisor-subordinate dyads in China. The reliability and validity of measurement scales were demonstrated. Multiple regression analyses and bootstrapping tests were used to examine the research model. RESULTS: Subordinate ingratiation is positively related to supervisor punishment omission. Interpersonal affect fully mediates the relationship between subordinate ingratiation and supervisor punishment omission. Authentic leadership negatively moderates the relationships between both subordinate ingratiation and interpersonal affect and subordinate ingratiation and supervisor punishment omission. The moderating effect of authentic leadership between subordinate ingratiation and supervisor punishment omission is partially mediated by interpersonal affect. CONCLUSIONS: The findings contribute to the theory about the effect of ingratiation, with implications for practice and future research.

BACKGROUND: Research is focused on companies that offshored their production and operate in the international business environment, in the current globalized world placed generically under the 4.0 index, inspired by the fourth industrial revolution. OBJECTIVE: The paper aims to draw up a structured and multilayered framework for identifying sources of risks related to the work environment and to the human resources management in this context. METHODS: An extended analysis of information in the literature and on the web is conducted to define the mentioned conceptual structure and to identify domains, processes, and actions that should be considered hosting such risks. First filtered by the authors based on their experience as consultants and managers in international projects, results are then validated by successive feedbacks from their peers. RESULTS: Two levels of the framework are detailed, the first correlating globalization and 4.0 development stage challenges, identifying the risk sources within a matrix detailing on one dimension technological progress, governmental & legal issues, cultural patterns, and on the other, domains sensitive to risks regarding the human resource, such as work performance, working skills, working ethics & discipline, and working models, environment & tools. The second level focuses on the sources of risks arise due to a company’s digital transformation with regard to the choice of the working models configuration, employees’ recruitment & hiring, training, working planning, organization & control, and setting up working regulations. CONCLUSIONS: The results are intended to provide support for easier and more comprehensive identification of work and human resources related risks in the mentioned context.

BACKGROUND: Internal social capital in the cooperative firms has emerged in recent years as an important concept for improving innovation performance. OBJECTIVE: We explore whether the cohabitation of the different interacting social groups, namely cooperative members, and non-cooperative members, will generate disparate impacts on the circumstance for enhanced innovation. METHODOLOGY: A sample of 180 cooperative firms in Ethiopia, with two respondents per firm, consisting of one adherent and one non-adherent member, we reflected on the theory of social capital, and by adopting a relational, cognitive, and structural concept. We conducted Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through PLS to analyze the importance of each group for innovation performance. RESULTS: Our results suggested that the internal interaction between adherent and non-adherent members of cooperative enterprises positively influences their “innovation performance”. The findings also revealed that non-adherent members were more involved in building innovation than adherent members. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide empirical evidence that internal social factors are essential assets for effective innovation in cooperatives, and established a new line of research within an empirical perspective.

This paper presents a theoretical analysis based of virtue ethics. We examine the individual internal predispositions related to non-virtuous behavior in the context of an ethical dilemma. For Aristotle, the virtuous state of being requires certain dispositions, but the difficult context of a “genuine dilemma” can generate interference and obstacles to achieving a virtuous state. The genuine dilemma is a symptomatic situation that disrupts our ethical identity by the potential biases that affect our personality traits and moral acts. These disturbances cause a phenomenon described by philosophers as “akrasia”. We propose that this “weakness of will” influences the ethical decision-making process, thereby leading to non-virtuous acts. Within the empirical literature, we identify three types of disturbances that feed akrasia: bounded ethicality, denial, and moral cowardice. These ethical biases disrupt one’s moral conscience by moving the individual away from the pursuit of virtue. Understanding these ethical errors contributes to enhancing ethical decision-making models, especially in terms of examining the failure of one’s will to act according to one’s values. We propose a conceptual model that explains non-virtuous attitudes to ethical dilemmas in management.