Business: Journal Articles

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Open Access
Growth-oriented management and employee outcomes: Employee resilience as a mechanism for growth
(2023) Franken E; Plimmer G; Malinen, Sanna
Purpose Support from managers that enables employee growth promotes adaptation to changing and complex job challenges. Guided by social exchange theory, this study establishes growth oriented management (GOM) as a key management capability to support employee growth. It also identifies employee resilience as a mechanism for growth in employees and examines its role in mediating the relationships between GOM and key employee outcomes: wellbeing and work engagement. Design/methodology/approach This study draws on survey data (n=751) from white-collar employees in Australia. Structural equation modelling was used to estimate the fit of the hypothesized model to the data. Confirmatory factor analysis was also performed to examine convergent and discriminant validity of the study variables. Findings Findings show GOM influenced wellbeing and work engagement, both directly and indirectly through employee resilience. This reveals more broadly that the unique combination of behaviors that comprise GOM plays a pivotal role in supporting growth-oriented outcomes in employees. Originality/value This is the first empirical study on the impact of GOM on wellbeing and engagement, as well as on the mediating mechanism of employee resilience in these relationships. GOM is an innovative contribution to scholarship on employee and organizational development, reflecting the changing nature of management, and responding to the increasingly diverse development needs of employees.
Open Access
Marketing and sustainability: Business as usual or changing worldviews?
(MDPI AG, 2019) Kemper, Joya A.; Hall, Colin Michael; Ballantine, Paul
Marketing, and the business schools within which most marketing academics and researchers work, have a fraught relationship with sustainability. Marketing is typically regarded as encouraging overconsumption and contributing to global change yet, simultaneously, it is also promoted as a means to enable sustainable consumption. Based on a critical review of the literature, the paper responds to the need to better understand the underpinnings of marketing worldviews with respect to sustainability. The paper discusses the concept of worldviews and their transformation, sustainability's articulation in marketing and business schools, and the implications of the market logic dominance in faculty mind-sets. This is timely given that business schools are increasingly positioning themselves as a positive contributor to sustainability. Institutional barriers, specifically within universities, business schools, and the marketing discipline, are identified as affecting the ability to effect 'bottom-up' change. It is concluded that if institutions, including disciplines and business schools, remain wedded to assumptions regarding the compatibility between the environment and economic growth and acceptance of market forces then the development of alternative perspectives on sustainability remains highly problematic.
Open Access
The interactive effects of emotions and numerical information in increasing consumer support to conservation efforts
(Elsevier BV, 2020) Septianto F; Chiew TM; Kemper, Joya A.
Nearly 50% of all Earths’ forests have been cleared and considering forests hold 80% of the world's diversity, it is crucial to support efforts by non-profit organizations (NPO) and government to stop deforestation. Yet, NPOs combat in an increasingly competitive donation sphere, with only 3% of donations going to conservation and animal welfare NPO's. The present research aims to develop a novel perspective to increase consumer support (financial and time resources) to NPOs by examining the use of emotion (hope vs. fear) and numerical information (range vs. point value). Across three experimental studies, we provide concrete empirical evidence that hope increases the effectiveness of numerical information specified as a point value format, whereas fear will increase the effectiveness of numerical information specified as a range format. Our results provide practical implications for conservation NPO marketers in terms of matching emotion and numerical format.
Open Access
An investigation into the digitalisation of New Zealand general practice services during COVID-19
(2023) Mashal N; Morrish, Sussie
aim: This study investigates the digital transition initiated by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the factors that enabled the digitalisation of general practices (GPs) in New Zealand. method: Using a multiple case study design, we conducted 86 in-depth interviews with staff from 16 GP centres in New Zealand. results: The critical enablers of digital transition in response to the pandemic were support from the community, agility and adaptability of GP medical centres and the ability to pragmatically create external operational processes to ensure business continuity and to meet patient expectations. Major barriers to digitalisation at the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (28 February to 30 August 2020) included lack of organisational leadership, financial support availability, systems management collaboration, and patient and staff knowledge and preferences. Digitalisation was characterised by the GP centre’s ability to provide telehealth services using existing systems and technology, embracing e-prescription, e-referrals, e-lab and video-only consults. conclusion: The decision to adopt digitalisation had a significant impact on GP centres, disrupting the norm but also allowing continued access to health services to patients who were the most vulnerable during the pandemic. The pandemic forced GP medical centres to change to digitalisation and led to significant changes in GP medical centres' business models. However, it remains to be seen how the rapid change effected at this time correlates with patient satisfaction and how the digitalisation capabilities that have been built impact on future primary care services. This study suggests that changes brought about by COVID-19 may pave the way to an expansion of GP telehealth services, which has the potential to permanently change the primary care landscape.
Open Access
The power of beauty? The interactive effects of awe and online reviews on purchase intentions
(Elsevier BV, 2020) Septianto F; Choi J; Kemper, Joya A.
Prior research has established that online consumer reviews can have significant influences on the evaluations of a product or a service. In particular, studies show that negative (vs. positive) reviews lead to unfavorable evaluations because they heighten purchase risk. The present research seeks to examine a contextual cue that can alleviate this potential problem. Across three studies, this research demonstrates how the emotion of awe – elicited by a beautiful product in the advertisement – can reduce the perception of purchase risk, leading to favorable consumer evaluations of a product or service even though it has negative reviews. The implications of this research are beneficial for advertisers by highlighting the potentials of eliciting awe (e.g., by utilizing beauty) in their advertisements.
Open Access
Thanks, but no thanks: The influence of gratitude on consumer awareness of food waste
(Elsevier BV, 2020) Septianto F; Northey G; Kemper, Joya A.
Food waste is a major burden on the planet due its effect on increased greenhouse gas emissions (from landfill and lost production) and issues associated with food security. To reduce the human propensity to waste food, behaviour change studies have mostly focused on cognitive aspects of selection and consumption. However, evidence suggests emotional, rather than cognitive, appeals may be a fruitful avenue for reducing food waste. Yet linking food waste, emotions and framing remains an understudied research area. Our research undertakes three quantitative studies to examine the positive emotion (gratitude) as a message component to effect behavioral change. Study 1 demonstrated an advertisement with a ‘gratitude for having’ message led to higher intentions to reduce food waste when paired with loss framed implications (increased environmental damage) than when paired with gain framed implications (less environmental damage). In contrast, an advertisement with a ‘gratitude for not having’ message led to higher intentions to reduce food waste when paired with gain framed implications than when paired with loss framed implications. Studies 2 and 3 further showed that a ‘gratitude for having’ message was more effective when combined to loss framed implications, while ‘gratitude for not having’ message was more effective when combined to gain framed implications, to encourage participants to receive additional information and volunteer to help with food waste than when combined with gain framed implications. The research demonstrates that food waste reduction campaigns should pay attention to how messages are framed. Overall, this research builds on current theory involving food waste and behaviour change, presents a number of areas for future research and discusses managerial implications, particularly to improve social marketing and education campaigns.
Open Access
Motivations, barriers, and strategies for meat reduction at different family lifecycle stages
(Elsevier BV, 2020) Kemper, Joya A.
The consumption of animal products, especially meat, contributes heavily to climate change. Despite an increased number of individuals reducing their meat consumption, little research has explored flexitarianism. The objective of this study was to explore the motivations, barriers, and strategies for reduced meat consumption. The qualitative study, utilizing six focus groups in New Zealand, explores the cognitive, affective, and cultural components of meat reduction through the examination of the different stages of the family lifecycle. The research finds significant differences in motivations for meat reduction between young adults, families, and retirees, with health, environmental and cost important factors but to different degrees. However, all continue to eat meat due to cravings, taste and nutrition beliefs. Strategies for substitution are similar for young adults and families but differ from retirees, with the former populations exhibiting greater creativity and exploration, not seeing meat reduction as ‘meat replacement’ but instead as a recreation of the main meal. The barriers to meat reduction are similar across the family lifecycle with a lack of information and cultural, media, and institutional discourse large inhibitors to reduction. Yet, social and cultural factors also encourage individuals to reflect on their meat consumption and social connections (including social media) provide accessible and persuasive messaging for meat reduction. Consequently, public education and social marketing campaigns need to be implemented to provide information and recipes, and such information should be in varied formats to appeal to different consumer segments.
Open Access
Encouraging intelligent failure in an MBA class
(Wiley, 2022) Walsh, Christian
Failure has an important role to play in learning how to navigate highly uncertain orga- nizational environments. But “failing fast” just for its own sake may in fact undermine learning if not set up or handled correctly. Using failure-based pedagogy, including generative failure, whole-person learning, and entrepreneurial thinking, an MBA course was designed and experienced by 48 students in three instances. Structured around a novel guiding framework of “brains, bravery, and belief,” the course has resulted in highly impactful learning for students. Student experiments are typically based around either exploring an entrepreneurial idea, developing or enhancing a particular skill, or applying skills and knowledge to help improve a societal problem. In each case, stu- dents are supported but also challenged to go beyond their comfort zones and encounter some intelligent failure in the journey. Regular reflection on their experiences, both from a cognitive and an affective perspective, is an essential element built into the course experience. The course, which itself was an experiment and not without its own instructive failures, is now an essential part of the MBA experience.
Open Access
Brands Taking a Stand: Authentic Brand Activism or Woke Washing?
(SAGE Publications, 2020) Vredenburg J; Kapitan S; Spry A; Kemper, Joya A.
In today’s marketplace, consumers want brands to take a stand on sociopolitical issues. When brands match activist messaging, purpose, and values with prosocial corporate practice, they engage in authentic brand activism, creating the most potential for social change and the largest gains in brand equity. In contrast, brands that detach their activist messaging from their purpose, values, and practice are enacting inauthentic brand activism through the practice of “woke washing,” potentially misleading consumers with their claims, damaging both their brand equity and potential for social change. First, the authors draw on theory to inform a typology of brand activism to determine how, and when, a brand engaging with a sociopolitical cause can be viewed as authentic. Second, a theory-driven framework identifies moderate, optimal incongruence between brand and cause as a boundary condition, showing how brand activists may strengthen outcomes in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Third, the authors explore important policy and practice implications for current and aspiring brand activists, from specific brand-level standards in marketing efforts to third-party certifications and public sector partnerships.
Open Access
Socio-Technical Transitions and Institutional Change: Addressing Obesity through Macro-Social Marketing
(SAGE Publications, 2017) Kemper, Joya A.; Ballantine, Paul
Obesity, climate change and poverty are some of the most serious health, environmental and social issues of the 21st century. Current initiatives to address these wicked issues typically focus on the individual and community, with social marketing being a common tool. However, the effectiveness of social marketing in helping to combat these wicked issues has been mixed at best. We use the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions (MLP) to further our understanding of how macro-social marketing might be used to address the wicked problem of obesity. In doing so, we further conceptualize how formal and informal institutions might contribute to the emerging field of macro-social marketing.
Open Access
Global warming and sustainability: Understanding the beliefs of marketing faculty
(Wiley, 2017) Kemper, Joya A.; Ballantine, Paul; Hall, Colin Michael
Addressing climate change and sustainability topics in university research and teaching is paramount; however, the majority of marketing studies and courses do not examine these concepts. We investigate global warming beliefs and the sustainability values, attitudes, and beliefs of marketing faculty to understand how these may impact upon the state of sustainability research and teaching within the marketing academy. Using an online survey method, marketing faculty were surveyed from around the world. We found that belief in global warming was high and that this was affected by political ideology and research area. We also found broad perceptions of sustainability (i.e., beyond the environmental domain) in marketing faculty, possibly more so than previous higher education studies have revealed. However, a greater belief in market ideology to solve sustainability issues also exists. We found significant effects or associations between gender, political ideology, religion, expertise, region of current residence, and region of conferred highest degree on sustainability beliefs (definition, conception, and attitudes). Considering that we find a high belief in global warming and a broad and holistic understanding and positive attitude towards sustainability, questions remain about why only limited research and teaching has been done on the intersection between marketing and sustainability.
Open Access
What do we mean by sustainability marketing?
(Informa UK Limited, 2019) Kemper, Joya A.; Ballantine, Paul
Sustainability in marketing has gained some traction over the years, yet we still remain uncertain about exactly what ‘sustainability marketing’ means. Utilising the Scopus database, a discourse analysis was conducted on nearly 200 published journal articles. The analysis categorises multiple sustainability views and outlines three conceptualisations of sustainability marketing: Auxiliary Sustainability Marketing (which focusses on the production of sustainable products), Reformative Sustainability Marketing (which extends the auxiliary approach through the promotion of sustainable lifestyles and behavioural changes) and Transformative Sustainability Marketing (which further extends the auxiliary and reformative approaches through the need for transformation of current institutions and norms, and critical reflection). This paper then discusses how these three conceptualisations might be used by scholars and practitioners to interpret and implement sustainability marketing going forward.
Open Access
The role of imagery in promoting organic food
(Elsevier BV, 2019) Septianto F; Paramita W; Kemper, Joya A.
While prior research has examined the importance of organic food and the reasons why consumers might purchase it, how marketers can develop effective advertising strategies to promote organic food remains unclear. Drawing upon construal level theory, the present research investigates the role of visual imagery (illustrations vs. photographs) and advertising claims (altruistic vs. egoistic) in promoting organic (vs. conventional) food. Across three experimental studies, this research demonstrates that matching illustrations (photographs) with organic food (conventional) food increases advertising effectiveness (Study 1). Furthermore, matching illustrations (photographs) with altruistic (egoistic) claims can increase likelihood of purchasing (Study 2) and willingness to pay for organic food (Study 3). The findings of this research contribute to the literature on construal level and offer practical implications for marketers and how they can promote organic food.
Open Access
Combining the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of teaching sustainability: the case of the business school academics
(Informa UK Limited, 2019) Kemper, Joya A.; Ballantine, Paul; Hall, Colin Michael
Faculty are key to bringing about ‘bottom-up’ change for sustainability education. Yet, research is still needed on the backgrounds and experiences of change agents in universities and the challenges they face. This study focuses on the marketing discipline, a field fraught with epistemological tensions in seeking to integrate sustainability, mainly revolving around profit maximisation and continuous consumption while living on a planet with finite resources. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with sustainability marketing academics in Australasia, Europe and North America. The contribution of this paper lies in the development of a sustainability educator typology linking why and how integration occurs. The sustainability ‘transformer’ wishes to engage in transformational learning, changing student mindsets, the ‘thinker’ wants to encourage critical thinking to bring about the discussion of worldviews, while the ‘actioner’ hopes ‘learning by doing’ (community projects) will provide an appreciation for sustainability. We discuss implications for those disciplines which struggle with philosophical tensions and colleague resistance to the integration of sustainability in the form of suggestions for professional development (i.e. creation of positive nature experiences) and pedagogical approaches (critical, transformative and community-service learning).
Open Access
The role that marketing academics play in advancing sustainability education and research
(Elsevier BV, 2020) Kemper, Joya A.; Ballantine, Paul; Hall, Colin Michael
To advance sustainability education and research sustainability needs to be integrated into subjects, such as marketing, which do not currently actively promote such topics. Instead, the marketing discipline promotes continuous consumption and advocates for material accumulation as indicators of national and individual success, even when research has shown this does not make individuals happy. This qualitative research seeks to understand the experiences of marketing faculty engaged with sustainability and their perceived ability to create impact in their own institution and the larger academic community. This research utilizes institutional theory which can offer theoretical insight into the ability for change in higher education, especially through the individual as an institutional entrepreneur. The contribution of this research lies in its discussion of a framework which explores how academic actions may be classified according to their perceived and anticipated reward and societal impact, as well as tactics which can be employed by academics to create institutional change.
Open Access
Enablers and Barriers of digitalisation impacting the innovation life cycle of primary health organisations specifically General Practices Medical Centres during a pandemic: A New Zealand study
(2023) Mashal N; Morrish, Sussie
Technological innovation in General Practice (GP) medical centres in New Zealand (NZ) is proven to be the most important factor needed for the sustainability of primary care during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, GP Medical centres faced many barriers that eventually impacted the dynamic sustainability of the primary care system, specifically GP in NZ. This paper focuses on using the identified barriers and enablers to the innovation life cycle to develop a System Dynamic (SD) framework that would provide the required direction towards the sustainability of the GP Medical Centres.
Open Access
Targeting the structural environment at multiple social levels for systemic change: The case of climate change and meat consumption
(Emerald, 2020) Kemper, Joya A.; Ballantine, Paul
Purpose: This paper aims to explore how the socio-ecological model can be expanded to address wicked problems that are perpetuated by marketing systems through examining the ways the external environment can be targeted. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used an extended socio-ecological model to provide a framework for social marketers to combat climate change through the food system in the external environment. Findings: The socio-ecological model is extended to examine how social marketers can influence the micro and macro environment through targeting the physical structure, economic, political and socio-cultural environment of desirable (sustainable) and undesirable (unsustainable) food products. Practical implications: The authors highlight that social marketers should focus on the various ways the external environment at multiple levels can be targeted to produce systemic change. Originality/value: This paper broadens the current macro-social marketing knowledge by providing a framework to analyse where and how change can be affected at the various levels of society.
Open Access
Understanding Indigenous Exploitation Through Performance Based Research Funding Reviews in Colonial States.
(Frontiers Media SA, 2020) Hall CM; Love, Tyron
Countries with significant indigenous populations, such as Australia, New Zealand and the Nordic countries, are providing increased support for improvements in the number of indigenous academics represented in higher education and engaged in research. Such developments have occurred at the same time as the implementation of performance-based research funding systems. However, despite the significance of such systems for academic careers and knowledge diffusion there has been relatively little consideration of the way within which they meet the needs of indigenous academics and knowledges. Drawing primarily on the New Zealand context, this perspective paper questions the positioning of Māori researchers and Māori research epistemologies (Kaupapa Maori) within the Performance Based Research Fund and the contemporary neoliberal higher education system. It is argued that the present system, rather than being genuinely inclusive, serves to reinforce the othering of Māori episteme and therefore perpetuates the hegemony of Western and colonial epistemologies and research structures. As such, there is a need to raise fundamental questions about the present ecologies of knowledge that performance based research systems create not only in the New Zealand higher education research context but also within other countries that seek to advance indigenous research.
Open Access
Tax Policy Without Consultation: Is New Zealand on a ‘Slippery Slope’?”
(2022) Sawyer A; Sawyer, Adrian
This paper analyses recent developments in New Zealand’s tax policy development framework. Specifically, it contributes to the literature in several ways. First, it adds to the exploration of the tax policy process in New Zealand via the generic tax policy process (GTPP), especially the instances where the GTPP is not being utilised as originally intended. The paper also seeks to analysis this development in the context of the slippery slope framework (SSF), through extending the model to embrace the power and trust balance as between the government and taxpayers/practitioners in the context of tax policy development. These developments should give rise to concern, beyond New Zealand, such as in Australia, that a previously well-regarded process is in a precarious state. With the ongoing status of the GTPP in doubt at the time of writing the conclusions drawn remain tentative.
Open Access
The dynamics of cross-sector collaboration in disasters
(2023) Lee K; Nilakant V; Malinen, Sanna
Purpose This study examines challenges to cross-sector collaboration in disasters. We use Malaysian flooding as the context for the study and offer a framework to understand different types of collaborators in disaster settings. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected with semi-structured interviews, complemented with secondary data from government documents and news reports. We interviewed a total of 30 participants including six disaster aid recipients and 24 strategic and operational participants from 12 disaster management organizations. Thematic analysis was conducted including two cycles of coding, memoing, and constant comparisons. Findings We present two key theoretical contributions: key barriers to cross-sector collaboration and a typology of collaboration in disasters. Key barriers included: leadership approach and central vs. local decision-making, differing levels of motivation to collaborate, and the organizations' ability to collaborate in disasters. Despite these barriers, collaboration does occur in disaster settings. We suggest that the forms of collaboration may be driven primarily by differing motivations to collaborate and differing perceptions of others’ ability to collaborate, resulting in four types of collaboration: 1) enthusiastic, 2) mandate-driven, 3) reluctant, and 4) noncollaboration.