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. © 2023 The Authors

Using the Lefebvrian triad, we explore spatial organizing of classed-gendered work and working bodies in a cafe space that emerges from urbanized claims of empowering “rural poor women” to become entrepreneurs by employing them in a cafe. Our critical-interpretive ethnography analyses the process of installing a neoliberal-managerial path along which foodwork and working bodies are hierarchized and disciplined, creating spatialized hegemonic gendered positionalities interlaced with elite urban-working class rural binaries. The womanized workers came to embody the binaries and the dialectical contradictions they created, yet performing alternative femininities in the free spaces and times in the cafe. © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

One of the innovative alternatives to the traditional cooperative structure has been the new generation cooperatives or cooperative companies, known as producer companies (PCs) in India since the early 2000s. This paper examines the impact of PCs on the member farmer livelihoods, which is not well studied, with the help of member and non-member farmer interview survey in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is found that though the PCs were inclusive of small farmers in their membership, the PC interface with members for farm inputs was not very strong and the output linkage was poor, reaching only a small proportion of member farmers. The Sufal Bangla public supermarket franchise by some PCs was found to make a large difference to the PC performance and its impact on member farmers. The small size of membership in most case study PCs hindered the equity size, leading to working capital and market interface constraints. Therefore, it is important to encourage members to contribute more equity and to reward their output linkage. © 2023 Edgard Milhaud Foundation.

This article examines the rationale and experience of Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) in the context of their promotion and public funding on a large scale. Simultaneously, corporate players have been provided a larger and free space under the APLM and CF&S Acts of 2017 and 2018, respectively. At the state level, the agricultural market reforms started with the model APMC Act of 2003, and the Producer Companies Act was passed in 2002. India is the second Asian country after Sri Lanka (where they mostly failed) to try this hybrid form of producer organisation. Based on empirical evidence from across states, the article assesses their (FPCs’) physical and financial performance and impact and examines their market interface to improve farmer incomes by creating a producer agency. It dwells on their experiences with corporate players/buyers and their own efforts to create alternative market mechanisms to connect small farmers effectively with modern mainstream or alternative markets. © 2022 Indian Sociological Society.

The achievement of several sustainable development goals and the Paris Climate Agreement depends on rapid progress towards sustainable food and land systems in all countries. We have built a flexible, collaborative modeling framework to foster the development of national pathways by local research teams and their integration up to global scale. Local researchers independently customize national models to explore mid-century pathways of the food and land use system transformation in collaboration with stakeholders. An online platform connects the national models, iteratively balances global exports and imports, and aggregates results to the global level. Our results show that actions toward greater sustainability in countries could sum up to 1 Mha net forest gain per year, 950 Mha net gain in the land where natural processes predominate, and an increased CO2 sink of 3.7 GtCO2e yr−1 over the period 2020-2050 compared to current trends, while average food consumption per capita remains above the adequate food requirements in all countries. We show examples of how the global linkage impacts national results and how different assumptions in national pathways impact global results. This modeling setup acknowledges the broad heterogeneity of socio-ecological contexts and the fact that people who live in these different contexts should be empowered to design the future they want. But it also demonstrates to local decision-makers the interconnectedness of our food and land use system and the urgent need for more collaboration to converge local and global priorities. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.

In this article, we discuss an exact algorithm for solving mixed integer concave minimization problems. A piecewise inner-approximation of the concave function is achieved using an auxiliary linear program that leads to a bilevel program, which provides a lower bound to the original problem. The bilevel program is reduced to a single level formulation with the help of Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) conditions. Incorporating the KKT conditions lead to complementary slackness conditions that are linearized using BigM, for which we identify a tight value for general problems. Multiple bilevel programs, when solved over iterations, guarantee convergence to the exact optimum of the original problem. Though the algorithm is general and can be applied to any optimization problem with concave function(s), in this paper, we solve two common classes of operations and supply chain problems; namely, the concave knapsack problem, and the concave production-transportation problem. The computational experiments indicate that our proposed approach outperforms the customized methods that have been used in the literature to solve the two classes of problems by an order of magnitude in most of the test cases. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

The purpose of this article is to study the signaling potential of “supplier awards” in creating shareholder value for the award-giving and the award-receiving firm. We use event study methodology with supplier awards as events that signal mutually beneficial buyer–supplier relationship (BSR) efforts to estimate the firm value generated from these efforts. Supplier awards, apart from being a supplier development (SD) activity in themselves, are also a signal of a mutually beneficial relationship between a buyer and a supplier. This article performs a deep study by investigating the impact of traits, such as award exclusivity and award satiation, on the efficacy of supplier awards as a signaling mechanism. We find that shareholders of firms that give awards (buyers) and those of firms that receive awards (suppliers) react positively to such events, thereby establishing the signaling potential of supplier awards that signal the mutually beneficial BSR and SD efforts. We find that a more exclusive award has a higher positive impact on the buyer's shareholders. We also find that there is a higher impact on the supplier's market value when that supplier receives awards less frequently. This article pioneers a study of interorganizational awards that considers traits, such as exclusivity and award satiation, that are not frequently studied in extant research. IEEE

This paper presents a modification of the q-BFGS method for nonlinear unconstrained optimization problems. For this modification, we use a simple symmetric positive definite matrix and propose a new q-quasi-Newton equation, which is close to the ordinary q-quasi-Newton equation in the limiting case. This method uses only first order q-derivatives to build an approximate q-Hessian over a number of iterations. The q-Armijo-Wolfe line search condition is used to calculate step length, which guarantees that the objective function value is decreasing. This modified q-BFGS method preserves the global convergence properties of the q-BFGS method, without the convexity assumption on the objective function. Numerical results on some test problems are presented, which show that an improvement has been achieved. Moreover, we depict the numerical results through the performance profiles. © 2023 by the authors.

Despite their widespread popularity in the United States, MBA programs have received considerable and sustained criticism. The chief complaint is that MBA graduates lack key skills required to be competent managers, and the main suspect has been identified as a less than relevant curriculum. Previous studies determined that the required MBA curriculum did a poor job of delivering the managerial competencies prized by incumbent managers. However, these researchers suspected that across-the-curriculum delivery of managerial competencies could mitigate this misalignment. This study advances the field by implementing an intercompetency approach, by including previously excluded coursework, and by using an updated dataset. The results show that the required curriculum of MBA programs in the United States is on average more closely aligned with the prescribed coverage benchmarks than previously believed, and that across-the-curriculum delivery of content via intercompetency coursework substantially aids in this alignment. The findings have actionable implications for program managers, faculty members, and researchers in the field of graduate management education. © The Author(s) 2022.

In this paper we model an infectious disease epidemic using Multi-type Branching Process where the number of offsprings of different types follow non-identical Poisson distributions whose parameters may vary over time. We allow for variation in parameters due to the behavior of citizens, government interventions in the form of lockdown, testing and contact tracing and the infectiousness of the variant of the virus in circulation at a time-point in a location. The model can be used to estimate several unknown quantities of interest in an epidemic such as the number of undetected cases and number of people quarantined following contact tracing. The model is fitted to the publicly available COVID-19 caseload data of India, South Korea, UK and US and is seen to provide good fit. It also provides good short-term forecast of the caseload for these countries. This model can be useful for health policy planners in assessing the impact of various intervention strategies such as testing, contact tracing, quarantine etc. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

This study evaluates the portfolio diversification potential of different classes of assets-equity, cryptocurrency and precious metals-using total, asymmetric and frequency-based spillover transmission framework. The VAR-based generalized variance decomposition method is used to analyse the daily prices of S&P 500, bitcoin, gold, silver and platinum between April 2011 through January 2021. The results of aggregate spillover support bitcoin as a potential diversifier due to its isolation from other sets of assets. The decomposition of overall spillover into downside and upside spillover reveals a higher downside connectedness than the upside, suggesting an asymmetric interdependence amongst these markets. Moreover, the frequency based aggregate spillovers suggest the connectedness is driven mostly by the shorter time-horizons. The study provides important policy implications for market participants with distinct investment objectives. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Purpose: There is ambiguity regarding whether coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a boon or bane for the IT services industry. On the one hand, it has created opportunities, especially with the growth of collaborative technologies. On the other hand, many firms have reduced their IT budgets owing to the ongoing recession. This study explores how IT firms have assessed the risk of the pandemic in the early days and informed capital market participants. In addition, it examines the impact of such online disclosures on information asymmetry. Design/methodology/approach: The authors analysed annual reports of publicly listed firms in the USA filed on the Securities and Exchange Commission website in 2020 and examined whether the disclosure scenario of technology firms was different from that of the other industries. Moreover, the risk sentiment of COVID-19-related disclosures was assessed by employing text analytics. Information asymmetry was measured using the bid–ask spread. Findings: Overall, it was found that IT services firms were less likely to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic in their annual reports. Interestingly, it was observed that technology firms that chose to communicate about the pandemic had a lower incidence of words related to risks. Furthermore, communicating about COVID-19 in annual reports calms investors and improves the information asymmetry situation about the firm. Variation in the severity of the pandemic and the responses of state governments was controlled for by employing state-fixed effects in the empirical models. Originality/value: The authors inform the literature on corporate disclosures and technology and highlight the importance of effectively communicating about the pandemic. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Rapid shift from traditional energy intensive pathways is required to pace-up economic growth before exhausting remaining carbon budget under 2 °C global stabilization target. Within this larger context, in this paper we have used AIM/End-use, a bottom-up, techno-economic model to analyze India's energy security and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the year 2000 to 2050 with a focus on possibilities of coal continuance in India. Our analysis shows that by adopting advanced coal technologies and carbon dioxide capture and sequestration (CCS) options, up to 45% CO2 emission reduction can be achieved over business-as-usual scenario (BAU) by 2050. This is possible even when coal use would increase to nearly 2200 Mt in 2050 as against 870 Mt in 2017-18. Without CCS, coal use could peak at 1200 Mt with 22% CO2 reduction over BAU in 2050 but in that case nuclear and renewable energy would become pivotal in meeting energy demand. The paper concludes that a win-win integration of energy security and deep GHG emission mitigation is possible through a large-scale integration of advanced coal technologies and CCS in Indian energy systems. We have also provided a brief PESTLE analysis for finding the enabling environment necessary for achieving the results discussed in various scenarios. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Traditional Word-of-Mouth (WOM) literature shows that emotions embedded in advertising appeals or referrals/reviews influence consumer buying journey. However, there is a paucity of research exploring the distribution and impact of emotional content in “online” consumer reviews (OCRs). Hence, in this study, an attempt is made to examine the emotional content in OCRs and to study the influence of discrete positive and negative emotions on the perceived OCR helpfulness, by classifying them based on their valence and arousal. Further, the impact of the inconsistency between the star rating of a review and the qualitative review-related factors (i.e. emotions and valence) is analyzed. This study uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) and text-mining techniques to retrieve valence and emotions from 100,000 reviews from Yelp.com and employs model testing methods to verify the hypotheses. The results reveal that: (1) both qualitative/latent (emotions and valence) and quantitative/manifest review message factors (star ratings, word count) are important in determining the OCR helpfulness; (2) the difference in arousal (high/low) and valence (positive/negative) has a differential impact on OCR helpfulness; (3) within high-arousal emotions, negative-valence emotions influence OCR helpfulness more than positive-valence emotions; and (4) consumers’ perceptions of OCR helpfulness depends on the consistency between the qualitative and quantitative content factors. © 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Smart city (SC) experts in India often center-stage citizens as an alternative to a technology-led transformation. A substantial body of literature on smart cities sustains this resultant binary between techno-centrism and citizen-centrism. Mobilizing ANT sensibilities, we generate an ethnographic narrative on how the smart city discourse has translated into everyday processes of city administration and urban governance in India. Our account unmutes more-and-other-than-human actants—event-stage, glossy publications, ceremonial awards, conference producers, and decision-makers—in the translation of SC discourse, with following effects: the uncertainties in the translation process are foregrounded which potentially destabilize center-staged actor identities; and the work of heterogeneous actants in articulating the citizen as the center of their efforts is revealed, thereby de-naturalizing the binarized reality. Furthermore, when unmuted, more-and-other-than-humans spell out their ongoing collaborations and negotiations and generate a nuanced reading of the clashes and accommodations made in the process of translating SC discourse in everyday settings of city administrations. These effects lead us to emphasize the translation of SC discourse as an uncertain socio-material process proceeding through episodic clashes and tentative accommodations. They also invite a conceptual expansion of translation as constitutive of the ontological politics of organizing, which insists on attending to ongoing collaborations and negotiations among more-and-other-than-humans that compose organizational realities. Thus, we address critical organization and management studies’ concerns regarding ANT’s alignment with its objectives by locating politics in the performance of, and interference into, the multiple realities that are being enacted through practices that assemble experts, decision-makers and non-humans. © The Author(s) 2023.

Brand affiliation represents a signal about the future operating performance of a hotel that reduces information asymmetries between hotel buyers and sellers. However, information asymmetries vary across property-level and locational characteristics of hotels. We hypothesize that hotel brand affiliation as a signal is most valuable to investors when information asymmetries are higher due to hotel characteristics such as a lower-tier hotel class, suburban location, or poorer building condition. Using a sample of 23,323 hotel transactions from 1986 to 2021, we provide evidence that branded hotels with characteristics indicating higher information asymmetries achieve a higher transaction price and shorter marketing time than similar independent hotels. Transaction price and marketing time do not differ between branded and independent hotels with characteristics indicating lower information asymmetries. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

Purpose: This study aims to examine customers’ willingness to engage in service interactions enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) controlled voice assistants (VA). Drawing on the tenets of dual-factor theory, this study measures the impact of both enablers and inhibitors – mediated by trust in Alexa – on customers’ intentions to transact through VAs. Design/methodology/approach: Data from a survey of 290 users of VAs from Japan was collected through “Macromill”. The authors used a covariance-based path analysis technique for data analysis after establishing the validity and reliability of the measures. Findings: The results of this study demonstrate that convenience and status-seeking act as enablers and positively influence trust in VAs, whereas risk barrier acts as an inhibitor and negatively influence trust in VAs. In turn, trust in VAs positively influences the intention to use VAs for transactional service interactions. This association is positively moderated by technology comfort. Originality/value: This study applies dual-factor theory to the context of VAs – a context that scholars have, to date, examined solely from a technology adoption perspective. For the first time, the authors adopt a dual-factor approach to identify a new set of antecedents for customers’ intentions to use VAs for transactional service interactions. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose: Adapting a positive business ethics framework, the purpose of this paper is to offer a new perspective to manage bullying at work. Specifically, this paper reports an empirical study which examines how the good work of servant leadership may lower employees’ exposure to workplace bullying, with compassion as a mediator and social cynicism beliefs (SCBs) as a moderator. Design/methodology/approach: Survey data were gathered from 337 essential health professionals working in various public and private health-care organisations in Pakistan. Structural equation modelling was used to test the research model. Findings: This study found that perceived servant leadership helps in lessening employee exposure to workplace bullying by strengthening their compassion. However, SCBs moderate the mediating role of compassion in employees’ perceptions of the servant leadership–bullying relationship. Research limitations/implications: This study has implications in developing models of leadership to build employees’ empathetic resources to combat workplace bullying. The authors found that servant leadership and workplace compassion, embodying positive, ethical and sustainable attributes, play a crucial role in managing bullying at work by promoting relational dignity. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines the relationships between employee perceptions of servant leadership, workplace bullying and employee compassion while considering SCBs as a boundary condition. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

This article examines whether firms engaged in high levels of voluntary CSR (corporate social responsibility) alter their strategic choices in response to detrimental public policy - specifically India's Companies Act (2013) that mandates qualifying firms to spend 2% of their three-year average net profits on CSR. Drawing on the concept of organizational dormancy, we argue that firm capabilities, political awareness, exposure to political pluralism, and ownership identity may explain choice heterogeneity among these firms. Our key and non-intuitive finding is that even in the absence of discretionary choice in determining optimal CSR expenditure, firms are less likely to choose dormancy and instead embrace and even surpass the stipulations of the law in their CSR contributions. Also, politically aware firms are more likely to opt for dormancy over compliance. Managerial and policy implications are discussed. Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The International Association for Chinese Management Research.

The prior literature has discussed the benefits of the circular economy business model (CEBM) while working to streamline the environmental aspect, touching upon the social aspect and improving the economic aspect. These aspects have been widely recognised as pillars of sustainability. Thus, prior scholars have sought to identify the relationship between the CEBM and sustainability. However, the extant literature, which remains relatively nascent, has failed to clarify this linkage for each pillar of sustainability. To address this lacuna, we followed a systematic literature review (SLR) approach to determine the current state of research on the CEBM and sustainability. Our study identifies and presents the thematic foci in the prior literature, which highlight the linkages between the CEBM and the pillars of sustainability. These thematic foci include the CEBM and sustainability, the CEBM and the environmental dimension, the CEBM and the social dimension and the CEBM and the economic dimension. In addition, this SLR recognises various research gaps within each theme and offers actionable avenues for future research. We also propose a conceptual framework, rooted in social capital theory (SCT), that highlights the linkages between the CEBM and sustainability. Our findings reveal that research at the intersection of the CEBM and sustainability considers the CEBM an integral component of sustainability. We conclude by presenting our work's theoretical and practical implications, which can assist scholars and organisations to incorporate the pillars of sustainability within their CEBMs. © 2023 The Authors. Business Strategy and The Environment published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.