Exercising the “Right to Repair”: A Customer’s Perspective

Concerns over the carbon footprint resulting from the manufacturing, usage and disposal of hardware have been growing. The Right to Repair legislation was introduced to promote sustainable utilisation of hardware by encouraging stakeholders to prolong the lifetime of products, such as electronic devices. As there is little empirical evidence from a consumer perspective on exercising the right to repair, this study aims firstly to examine the factors that underpin consumers’ intention to repair their hardware, and secondly to investigate the perceived outcomes of repair practices. Based on 510 responses, the results showed that intention to repair is dependent on three groups of factors, namely, the facilitators of pro-environmental behaviour, repair-related factors and beliefs about legislation. If consumers have a stronger intention to repair, they have a stronger feeling of emotional self-assurance, satisfaction with the repair decision and the technology manufacturer, an intention to engage with the manufacturer and a positive perception of a repaired device’s performance. The findings contribute to the literature on sustainable behaviour and the right to repair, offering insight for policymakers and manufacturers about the strategies facilitating the wider adoption of repair practices

General data protection regulation: a study on attitude and emotional empowerment

\ua9 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.Over the last few years, digitalisation has accelerated its pace, fuelling the creation of a massive amount of data. This has resulted in a need to introduce legal mechanisms to protect the privacy and security of data being exchanged between people and organisations. However, little is known about the individuals’ perspective on such mechanisms. Given the gap in the literature, this research investigated the drivers and the implications of individuals’ attitude towards GDPR compliance. To test the research model, structural equational modelling was employed using 540 responses. The result showed that perceived threat severity, self-efficacy and response efficacy determine a positive attitude towards GDPR compliance, which results in emotional empowerment. The findings contribute to the literature on legal privacy-preserving mechanisms, by providing a user’s view on the coping and threat appraisal factors underpinning attitude and demonstrating the implications for driving confidence in control over personal data. The findings also contribute to the literature on protection motivation by demonstrating that attitude towards adaptive behaviour drives emotional empowerment. The study offers suggestions to policymakers on how to enhance public perception of the GDPR. The findings also provide guidelines for organisations on how to inform individuals’ understanding of compliance with the legal framework

The Current State and Future Trajectory of the Sharing Economy: A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a transformative impact on social and economic value, as well as the role of mediating technology and regulation driving participation in the sharing economy. Considering the consequences that such transformations entail, in this paper, we provide a multi-stakeholder perspective of the pandemic\u27s impact on sharing economy enablers and drivers, and the resulting short and long-term implications for customers, providers, platform companies, and policymakers. Through the amalgamation and exploration of these multiple perspectives, we then present a roadmap of the key research themes, considerations, and policy gaps, supplemented with insights contributing toward the vision for a sustainable sharing economy. The comprehensive overview provided in this paper offers multiple avenues for future research across social, economic, technological, and regulatory domains

ESCRT machinery mediates selective microautophagy of endoplasmic reticulum in yeast

ER-phagy, the selective autophagy of endoplasmic reticulum (ER), safeguards organelle homeostasis by eliminating misfolded proteins and regulating ER size. ER-phagy can occur by macroautophagic and microautophagic mechanisms. While dedicated machinery for macro-ER-phagy has been discovered, the molecules and mechanisms mediating micro-ER-phagy remain unknown. Here, we first show that micro-ER-phagy in yeast involves the conversion of stacked cisternal ER into multilamellar ER whorls during microautophagic uptake into lysosomes. Second, we identify the conserved Nem1-Spo7 phosphatase complex and the ESCRT machinery as key components for micro-ER-phagy. Third, we demonstrate that macro- and micro-ER-phagy are parallel pathways with distinct molecular requirements. Finally, we provide evidence that the ESCRT machinery directly functions in scission of the lysosomal membrane to complete the microautophagic uptake of ER. These findings establish a framework for a mechanistic understanding of micro-ER-phagy and, thus, a comprehensive appreciation of the role of autophagy in ER homeostasis

How Pride Triggered by Pro-environmental Technology Adoption Spills Over into Conservation Behaviours: A Social Business Application

© 2021 The Authors. Based on a new social business initiative, aiming to reduce CO2 emissions in China with the development of a new solar photovoltaic/thermal system that promises higher overall energy efficiency, lower costs, and better monitoring and control settings than existing systems, this study examines how pride triggered by environmentally-friendly technology adoption spills over into conservation behaviours. The study used an online survey of 163 Chinese customers and a pride-inducing methodology to investigate how pride in purchasing pro-environmental technology could lead to positive spillovers. A Partial Least Squares approach to Structural Equation Modelling was used to analyse the results. Feelings of pride elicited by the intentions to purchase the novel technology positively affect subsequent behaviours of reducing energy consumption by other means (same domain), as well as recycling and reusing materials (different domain). Pride appeals can be leveraged by social businesses as by definition they focus on the social good and, according to our findings, pride-inducing messages enhance the impacts of the pro-environmental technology adoption. Such spillovers can be beneficial to society, thus allowing social businesses to satisfy social and financial goals at the same time.EP/R004684/2; part of a technology development project: TSB 70507-48154

Metaverse-Retail Service Quality: A Future Framework for Retail Service Quality in the 3D Internet

This paper argues that service quality in retailing in 3D Collaborative Virtual Environments (aka Metaverses) is distinct from service quality in the more familiar 2D mainly menu-driven web internet store (e-SQ). The study identifies and conceptualises the determinants of Metaverse Retailing service quality (MR-SQ) through a combination of focus groups and Critical Incident Technique. A set of four overarching determining elements of MR-SQ was revealed including customer service, product dimension, store dimension and 3D platform dimension. These incorporate some of the features found in 2D e-SQ but importantly the study indicated new characteristics, unique to MR-SQ. The CVE context presents opportunities for retailers in enhancing social experience, responsive service and creative co-production opportunities. It is within these gaps that respondents identified in 2D retailing that current CVEs and the future Web 3.0 hold appealing prospects for enhancing and producing creative and co-operative online retailing service quality (MR-SQ). The study provides a framework for guidance for retailers as well as for future research. Summary Statement of Contribution: The paper establishes new understanding of the determinants of Metaverse Retailing-Service Quality (MR-SQ). For virtual worlds in general and for service quality in particular, this study shows new MR-SQ dimensions, overlapping dimensions with different meanings to MR-SQ compares to e-SQ, and similar dimensions in both MR-SQ and e-SQ

E-commerce transactions in a virtual environment: Virtual transactions

E-commerce is a fundamental method of doing business, such that for a firm to say it is trading at all in the modern market-place it must have some element of on-line presence. Coupled with this is the explosion of the "population" of Massively Multiplayer On-line Role Playing Games and other shared virtual environments. Many suggest this will lead to a further dimension of commerce: virtual commerce. We discuss here the issues, current roadblocks and present state of an e-commerce transaction carried out completely within a virtual environment; a virtual transaction. Although technically such transactions are in a sense trivial, they raise many other issues in complex ways thus making V-transactions a highly interesting cross-disciplinary issue. We also discuss the social, ethical and regulatory implications for the virtual communities in these environments of such v-transactions, how their implementation affects the nature and management of a virtual environment, and how they represent a fundamental merging of the real and virtual worlds for the purpose of commerce. We highlight the minimal set of features a v-transaction capable virtual environment requires and suggest a model of how in the medium term they could be carried out via a methodology we call click-through, and that the developers of such environments will need to take on the multi-modal behavior of their users, as well as elements of the economic and political sciences in order to fully realize the commercial potential of the v-transaction. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

“So what if ChatGPT wrote it?” Multidisciplinary perspectives on opportunities, challenges and implications of generative conversational AI for research, practice and policy

Transformative artificially intelligent tools, such as ChatGPT, designed to generate sophisticated text indistinguishable from that produced by a human, are applicable across a wide range of contexts. The technology presents opportunities as well as, often ethical and legal, challenges, and has the potential for both positive and negative impacts for organisations, society, and individuals. Offering multi-disciplinary insight into some of these, this article brings together 43 contributions from experts in fields such as computer science, marketing, information systems, education, policy, hospitality and tourism, management, publishing, and nursing. The contributors acknowledge ChatGPT's capabilities to enhance productivity and suggest that it is likely to offer significant gains in the banking, hospitality and tourism, and information technology industries, and enhance business activities, such as management and marketing. Nevertheless, they also consider its limitations, disruptions to practices, threats to privacy and security, and consequences of biases, misuse, and misinformation. However, opinion is split on whether ChatGPT's use should be restricted or legislated. Drawing on these contributions, the article identifies questions requiring further research across three thematic areas: knowledge, transparency, and ethics; digital transformation of organisations and societies; and teaching, learning, and scholarly research. The avenues for further research include: identifying skills, resources, and capabilities needed to handle generative AI; examining biases of generative AI attributable to training datasets and processes; exploring business and societal contexts best suited for generative AI implementation; determining optimal combinations of human and generative AI for various tasks; identifying ways to assess accuracy of text produced by generative AI; and uncovering the ethical and legal issues in using generative AI across different contexts

Metaverse beyond the hype: Multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice and policy

The metaverse has the potential to extend the physical world using augmented and virtual reality technologies allowing users to seamlessly interact within real and simulated environments using avatars and holograms. Virtual environments and immersive games (such as, Second Life, Fortnite, Roblox and VRChat) have been described as antecedents of the metaverse and offer some insight to the potential socio-economic impact of a fully functional persistent cross platform metaverse. Separating the hype and “meta…” rebranding from current reality is difficult, as “big tech” paints a picture of the transformative nature of the metaverse and how it will positively impact people in their work, leisure, and social interaction. The potential impact on the way we conduct business, interact with brands and others, and develop shared experiences is likely to be transformational as the distinct lines between physical and digital are likely to be somewhat blurred from current perceptions. However, although the technology and infrastructure does not yet exist to allow the development of new immersive virtual worlds at scale - one that our avatars could transcend across platforms, researchers are increasingly examining the transformative impact of the metaverse. Impacted sectors include marketing, education, healthcare as well as societal effects relating to social interaction factors from widespread adoption, and issues relating to trust, privacy, bias, disinformation, application of law as well as psychological aspects linked to addiction and impact on vulnerable people. This study examines these topics in detail by combining the informed narrative and multi-perspective approach from experts with varied disciplinary backgrounds on many aspects of the metaverse and its transformational impact. The paper concludes by proposing a future research agenda that is valuable for researchers, professionals and policy makers alike