Human resource management and circular economy: a critical perspective

While there is an increase in the number of organisations disclosing their commitment or intentions to embrace the circular economy for sustainable futures, the role of individuals found within these organisations and their management remains inconspicuous. Current disclosures on Human Resource (HR) and the role of Human Resource Management (HRM) at firm level Circular Economic (CE) transitions and practices are conceptual and few, which limits both academics and practitioners’ understanding regarding the practical implications of CE on organisations HR and how these could be managed. This research, therefore, addresses this gap and intends to provide critical, empirical evidence and interpretations of HR and the role of HRM within organisations CE pursuits – using six organisations (case studies). The case studies included in this paper forms about ten per cent of the cases - to be analysed for the second part of the study. These six case studies are selected to facilitate a pilot study, to test the research approach/methods adopted to derive the research findings. Previous research findings on firm-level CE functional areas has predominantly focused on product and process design, supply chain, marketing and sales management; however, analysis of these case studies found that currently, HRM role as a functional area that includes training, recruitment/selection, performance and rewards management process are not captured in firm-level CE transitions. Nonetheless, in terms of a critical perspective of HR and the role of HRM within CE organisations, the analysis of these case studies captured the broader social outcomes such as job creation, improvement in wellbeing and a change in organisational culture. But it remains to be seen if similar trends would be identified within a wider sample of business cases the researchers intend to examine to extend this research

On the consequences of scarcity mindset:How 'having too little' means so much for ethnic venture failure

Drawing on the psychological concept of scarcity mindset as a lens, we explore UK-based ethnic entrepreneurs' accounts of their behaviors and choices to theorize ethnic business venture failure. Our findings suggest the constraints of 'having too little' entrepreneurial resources can induce three organizing tensions in organizing, community embeddedness, spatial and segment spawning, and dispositional optimism––which may operate in combination or serially to precipitate ethnic venture failure. Our findings contribute to research on conflicting demands in entrepreneurship by showing how resource constraints, sometimes played out in the form of enduring inequalities within markets and society-at-large stymies the conversion of contradictory yet mutually constituting demands in organizing into potentially productive outcomes

Drivers of Big Data Analytics’ Adoption and Implications of Management Decision-Making on Big Data Adoption and Firms’ Financial and Non-Financial Performance: Evidence from Nigeria’s Manufacturing and Service Industries

Despite advances in Big Data Analytics, its utilitarian discourse is yet to move beyond early capture to focus on its post adoption impacts on firms’ financial and non-financial performance, especially in Nigeria’s manufacturing and service industries. This study advances BDA beyond organizational readiness for change by empirically and analytically focusing on the reality of 261 Nigerian professionals by drawing on business-to-business marketing, dynamic capabilities, and Technology-Organization-Environment theoretical frameworks to contribute a conceptual model (Figure 1) on factors which really impact on organizations' readiness to adopt BDA. Consequently, our study’s findings were used to develop Figure 2, showing the direct and moderating nature of interactions between BDA and TOE variables on BDA adoption. However, whereas hypotheses three and four confirm top management’s support and overall organizational readiness, paradoxically, this study’s hypotheses five and seven contribute to existing BDA discourse by highlighting that environmental, competitive pressure, including regulation do not support the adoption of BDA. Additionally, while external support (H6) was found conducive for BDA adoption, interestingly, hypotheses eight, nine and 10a were also found supportive of not only financial but also non-financial performance. However, contrary to current theorisation, hypotheses 10b was not supportive of non-financial performance. Our results contribute to BDA’s business competitiveness and regulation

Ethnic business failure: a scarcity mind-set perspective

We integrate insights from the psychological concept of ‘scarcity mindset’ and mixed embeddedness to theorise ethnic venture failure. We explore the sentiments and choices of UK-based ethnic entrepreneurs to theorise the ‘cause-of-death' of their unsuccessful ventures. The scarcity mind-set lens we develop suggests the constraints of ‘having too little’ can induce four organising tensions – spatial spawning, ethnic embeddedness, dispositional optimism, and service nepotism – which operate in combination or serially to precipitate ethnic venture failure. We contribute to research on conflicting demands in entrepreneurship by finding that a paucity of resources stymies the conversion of contradictory yet mutually constituting demands into productive outcomes. In this way, we illuminate contextualised entrepreneurial organising demands that require reconciliation to capture value. In advocating the purposeful pursuit of paradoxes as a means of addressing failure, our study analyses stories of unsuccessful ventures in ways that explicitly acknowledge enduring inequalities within markets and society at-larg

Psychic Distance in the Buyer-Seller Relationship: Insights from a Systematic Literature Review

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to systematically review and critically examine how psychic distance (PD) influences the buyer-seller exchange relationship. Design/methodology/approach – A two-stage systematic review of the extant literature was conducted focusing on peer-reviewed journal articles published during a 40-year period – from 1980 to 2023. Findings – A systematic analysis of 67 journal articles reveals that research on PD in the buyer-seller relationship is a vibrant and rapidly growing stream of the broader international marketing domain, and that it is theoretically, methodologically, and thematically diverse. The findings also highlight several literature trends and shortcomings, as well as the complex nature of the relationship between PD and the buyer-seller relationship. Originality/value – Based on the systematic literature review, we developed research suggestions that raise exciting new research questions for the academic research community and help promote future theory advancement within the international marketing context and other related fields

Working with Emotions: Cultural Employee Perspectives to Call Centre Service Expectations

Purpose – Drawing on the emotional labour theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of cultural orientation on emotion regulation and display processes for service employees. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a Nigerian study where literature is scarce, data were gathered from semi-structured interviews conducted with 40 call centre service agents. Findings – The findings identified three key values around reinforcing social cohesion, anticipated self-curtailment, hierarchy and expressions of servility based on broader societal needs to promote relational harmony when managing customer relations during inbound calls into the call centre. Research limitations/implications – The extent to which the findings can be generalised is constrained by the limited and selected sample size. However, the study makes contributions to the service work theory by identifying the extent to which communication of emotions is informed in large parts by local culture and seeks to incite scholarly awareness on the differences of emotional display rules from a developing country other than western contexts. Originality/value – This paper is among the first to focus on the interface between culture and emotional labour from a Sub-Saharan African context. Keywords: Service employees, Emotion and culture, Nigeria and call centre