Co-opetition models for governing professional football

In recent years, models for co-creating value in a business-to-business context have often been examined with the aim of studying the strategies implemented by and among organisations for competitive and co-operative purposes. The traditional concepts of competition and co-operation between businesses have now evolved, both in terms of the sector in which the businesses operate and in terms of the type of goods they produce. Many researchers have, in recent times, investigated the determinants that can influence the way in which the model of co-opetition can be applied to the football world. Research interest lies in the particular features of what makes a good football. In this paper, the aim is to conduct an analysis of the rules governing the “football system”, while also looking at the determinants of the demand function within football entertainment. This entails applying to football match management the co-opetition model, a recognised model that combines competition and co-operation with the view of creating and distributing value. It can, therefore, be said that, for a spectator, watching sport is an experience of high suspense, and this suspense, in turn, depends upon the degree of uncertainty in the outcome. It follows that the rules ensuring that both these elements can be satisfied are a fertile ground for co-operation between clubs, as it is in the interest of all stakeholders to offer increasingly more attractive football, in comparison with other competing products. Our end purpose is to understand how co-opetition can be achieved within professional football

Dark side of sharing economy: examining the unethical practices and its impact on coopetition and firm performance

The business model for the sharing economy is becoming popular in business-to-business marketing literature. Firms can utilize resources of other firms lying idle and reduce cost, optimize resource utilization and achieve greater flexibility. Some organizations also share their resources with rival firms. However, there are concerns about unethical practices by rival firms, which may be due to the misuse of data, human resources, and intellectual property, and so on. Few studies have investigated the unethical practices that may take place in the sharing economy, but there is a growing interest among the practitioners, researchers, and academicians in this area. Therefore, this study examines the unethical practices that could take place in the sharing economy and their impact on B to B cooperation and competition among rival firms and on firm performance. From the literature review and theories, a theoretical model has been developed. The model is later validated using the structural equation modelling technique considering samples from 16 firms involved in sharing resources. The study found that there is a significant negative impact of unethical practices in the sharing economy for B to B coopetition, which in turn negatively impacts firm performance

Determinants of funding intention of crowdfunding campaigns from India – a subregional cultural variation and transnational migrants perspective

Purpose-This paper aims to explore how sub-national or regional cultural differences influence backers’ willingness to crowdfund projects. The paper also explores how migrant transnationalism influences the impact of backer’s sub-national culture and crowdfunding relationships. Design/methodology/approach- This paper is based on the experimental design technique using analysis of covariance methods. The authors tested the study hypotheses on a sample of 790 respondents.Findings- The study results suggest that individuals differ in their intent to crowdfund product campaigns depending on value congruence between their cultural values derived from the region to which they belong and the nature of the product category, such as environmentally friendly or happiness-enhancing products.Originality/value- This paper explores the role of regional cultural differences in determining the intention to crowdfund different campaigns based on the nature of the product. Value congruence, as driven by regional cultural differences with crowdfunding campaigns, has not been explored before

Can salespersons help firms overcome brand image crisis? Role of facial appearance

Facial appearances bias human decisions. This study’s objective, leveraging facial impression bias, is to explore the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions under which baby-faced salespersons, in comparison to mature-faced salespersons, influence consumers’ decisions to reconcile with the brand after an organizational crisis. We test mediation and moderated mediation models in the UK context using experimental designs. Our findings suggest that consumers determine a salesperson’s morality by their appearance, perceiving baby-faced agents as having higher moral character than mature-faced agents. This phenomenon, in turn, influences consumers’ decision to reconcile with a brand. Our findings have implications for sales representatives’ roles in brand reconciliation

Adoption of ubiquitous crm for operational sustainability of the firms: Moderating role of technology turbulence

Ubiquitous CRM (UCRM) enhances customer relationship management. It can sense customer needs and demands, to which firms can respond quickly. Therefore, UCRM helps to improve a firm’s agility. There is a growing interest among researchers and practitioners to understand how the adoption of UCRM impacts the sustainability of firms’ operations, but not many studies have investigated this issue. In this context, the aim of this study is to examine how firms’ absorptive capacity and dynamic capability could impact the adoption of UCRM to influence the operational sustainability of the firms and their performance. The study also investigates the moderating role of technology turbulence on the relationship between a firm’s operational sustainability and its per-formance. Using absorptive capacity theory and dynamic capability view theory and reviewing the existing literature, we developed a conceptual model. The model was then validated using a structural equation modeling technique considering 309 usable respondents from different firms that use UCRM for their operational activities. The study found that firms’ absorptive capacity and dynamic capability significantly and positively impact the adoption of UCRM, which in turn significantly and positively impacts firms’ operational sustainability and improves their performance. The study also shows that there is a significant moderating role of technology turbulence on the relationship between operational sustainability and firm performance

The role of gender diversity on tax aggressiveness and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from Italian listed companies

The paper aims to examine the moderating role of gender diversity within a corporate board on the relationship between tax aggressiveness and a firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) approach. This analysis was conducted using a set of indicators of financial statements of 168 Italian listed firms between 2011 and 2018. In addition, the sustainability reports of the same companies were observed. To perform the analysis a logit regression model is used. This paper shows different empirical results. First, this study notes that there is not a direct relationship between tax aggressiveness and CSR reporting. Second, gender diversity in a board of directors increases the orientation of companies to CSR disclosure, but does not have an impact on the relationship between tax aggressiveness and CSR disclosure. Instead, CEO gender has a positive influence on the relationship between corporate tax planning and CSR reporting in accordance with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. This study emphasizes the key role of gender diversity in the growth of the CSR approach and the reputation of companies. Therefore, governments and policymakers of major countries should promote gender diversity in corporate decision-making bodies, which contributes to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Managerial values and sustainable oriented innovation: Examining the role of knowledge exploration versus exploitation practices

Purpose – Leveraging upper echelon theory and knowledge-based view of the firm, this paper aims toexplore how chief executive officers’ (CEO) sustainability orientation influences explorative and exploitativeknowledge management practices, which in turn influence incremental and radical sustainable innovationunder boundary conditions of CEOs’ temporal focus and regional affiliation in the home country.Design/methodology/approach – This study used a nonprobability convenience sampling strategy.Using survey-based research, the authors tested the study hypotheses using partial least squaresstructural equation modeling on a sample of 298 CEOs from Indian small and medium enterprises. Thisstudy also tested the reliability and validity of the study variables by using internal consistency tests andconvergent and discriminant validity procedures.Findings – The study finds that CEO sustainability orientation affects incremental and radical sustainableinnovation via the mediating effect of explorative and exploitative knowledge management practices.Furthermore, CEOs’ past temporal focus increases the influence of orientation on exploitative knowledgemanagement. In contrast, future temporal focus increases the influence of CEO sustainability orientation onexploratory knowledge management practices. Finally, CEOs from the southwest, west and northwest regionsof India increase the influence of exploratory knowledge management on radical sustainable innovation.Research limitations/implications – This study has significant implications for understanding upper echelonfactors that drive knowledge management practices. CEO temporal focus (time orientation) anddemographic aspects (regional affiliation) influence CEOs’ investment in different knowledgemanagement and, hence, sustainable innovation management practices. However, this study does notexplore cross-cultural differences and the role of the entire top management team in influencingsustainability values on sustainability innovation via knowledge management practices.Practical implications – This study comprehends upper-echelon factors that drive investment inknowledge management and sustainable innovation practices. Findings imply that CEOs with past andfuture temporal focus can influence sustainable innovation, but their investment in knowledgemanagement strategies differs. Past temporal-focused CEOs invest more in exploitative and futuretemporal focus more in explorative knowledge management for influencing sustainable innovation.Originality/value – The study provides novel insights into the influence of upper-echelon traits onknowledge management and sustainable innovation practices. Extant literature has largely explored firm levelfactors such as organizational culture influencing a firm’s knowledge management practices.However, by integrating the upper echelon with the knowledge-based view of the firm, we explain how thetraits of the CEO, especially the temporal perspective, influence knowledge management and sustainableinnovation practices of firms

A Three-Stage Model of Exporting: New Insights into SMEs\u2019 Internationalization Performance Relationship

The article presents the results of an empirical analysis on the relationship between exporting and profitability in a sample of 1,231 manufacturing SMEs. A sigmoid relationship between the degree of internationalization, measured by Export Sales Ratio (ESR), and the profitability of the firms (measured by Return on Sales, ROS) is hypothesized. The results indicate that exporting can be beneficial to SMEs, but only in the second stage of the process, when a certain degree of international commitment is achieved. In the first and in the third stage, when the incidence of sales internationalization is respectively lower and higher, the incremental costs of exporting exceed the related benefits, determining a declining performance. This research contributes to existent literature by deepening the internationalization and performance (I&P) relationship within a context of exporting small and medium enterprises