Narcyz Roztocki, Wojciech Strzelczyk, Heinz Roland Weistroffer

2023, 45, 1-25. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.01

Aim/purpose – Disasters or catastrophic events create unforeseen circumstances and require new approaches from local and national administrations in addressing the negative impacts on society and the economy. Determining the role of e-government in providing the kind of services that are especially needed has become particularly relevant during COVID-19. This paper aims to assess the progress and current state of research on the role of e-government during or in the aftermath of catastrophic events. The purpose of this research is twofold: one, to benefit scholars by providing directions and a basis for further research, and two, to offer guidance to decision-makers involved with disaster management.

Design/methodology/approach – The methodology used in this study is a systematic literature review. Multiple databases, including EBSCO, Elsevier, Emerald, JSTOR, Google Scholar, SAGE, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Springer, Taylor and Francis, and Wiley Online Library were searched for appropriate papers. In total, 36 papers published between 2004 and 2022 met our inclusion criteria and were analyzed.

Findings – The study produced three types of findings. First, an analysis of the themes and trends in the existing literature. Second, a synopsis of the published research findings in the reviewed papers. And third, a description of the needs and opportunities for further research.

Research implications/limitations – This study should help other researchers in directing their efforts in further exploration, and it should help people involved with real-life disaster management to navigate through the effective role and application of e-government. The main limitation is that we found only 36 research papers that met our inclusion criteria.

Originality/value/contribution – Despite the potentially critical role that e-government may have in mitigating the negative effects of catastrophic events, research on e-government in disaster management seems to be still underdeveloped, and to our knowledge, there is no published systematic review of such research.

Keywords: disaster management, e-government, literature review.

JEL Classification: H11, H12, I31, O21, O35.

Musa Adeiza Farouk, Zik-Rullahi Abubakar Ahmed

2023, 45, 26-43. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.02

Aim/purpose – Higher compensation and increased share ownership are believed to drive fewer earnings management. Therefore, the study examines the moderating impact of share ownership on the relationship between executive compensation and earnings management of listed Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach – Panel Least Square regression and Stata 13 were used for the estimation. The secondary data source was employed and extracted from the banks’ published financial statements covering the period from 2007-2018. Postestimation tests, including normality tests of standard error, heteroscedasticity, and multicollinearity, were carried out to validate the outcome. Executive compensation variable is represented by Chief Executive Officer Pay (CEO Pay), Board Chairman’s compensation, and the highestpaid director, while executive share ownership represents the mod-erator variable. Chang et al. (2008) model was used to proxy earnings management.

Findings – The findings revealed that CEO Pay increases the banks’ level of earnings management, while after moderation with executive share ownership; CEO pay decreases the possibilities of earnings management by banks. Compensation to Chairmen of the banks decreases the level of earnings management of banks. However, an increase in share ownership of the board with an increase in compensation to chairmen of banks’ boards increases the earnings management practices of the management of the banks.

Research implications/limitations – The findings imply that the executive ownership interest should be made to align with that of the minority shareholders following an increase in their stake so that they can act in the overall best interest of the owners. The study is limited to only the banking sector and some specific executive compensation variables.

Originality/value/contribution – The utilization of the highest paid director variable and use of share ownership as a moderator between executive compensations and earnings management.

Keywords: earnings management, executive, share ownership, compensation, and expectancy theory.

JEL Classification: M21, M41, M42, G32.

Rshood M. Al-Khraif, Ibrahim Elsegaey, Mohammed Al-Mogarry, Asharaf Abdul Salam
2023, 45, 44-46. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.03

The original article: Al Khraif, R. M., Elsegaey, I., Al Mogarry, M., & Abdul Salam, A. (2022). Saudi Arabia’s City Ranking Index (SACRI) methodology executed: Preliminary findings. Journal of Economics & Management, 44, 376 392. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2022.44.15

Theophilus Ehidiamen Oamen

2023, 45, 47-67. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.04

Aim/purpose – The study was based on social exchange theory and addressed the effects of firm-based organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) on normative and continuance organizational commitment (OC). Multigroup behavioral differences among pharmaceutical executives were also evaluated.

Design/methodology/approach – This study employed an empirical, explanatory cross-sectional study with online questionnaires administered to four hundred and one randomly selected pharmaceutical executives in Nigeria. The covariance-based structural equation modeling technique was used for testing hypotheses. Firm-based OCB domains –conscientiousness, sportsmanship, and civic virtue were regressed on OC domains of continuance, and normative. The hypothesized effects of firm-based OCB on the domains of OC were examined using Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS).

Findings – The structural model had acceptable fit measures. Conscientiousness and sportsmanship behaviors were negatively related to normative OC while civic virtue had a positive significant relationship with normative OC. Multigroup comparisons based on gender, profession, and type of organization revealed significant effects on the relations between civic virtue and normative OC. Employees highly vested with enhancing and representing their company’s image, tend to be more obligated to continue and remain with the organization. The more self-directed, and less-complaining employees are, the lower the tendency to remain with the organization. The nuances of group differences among employees had an impact on examined relationships.

Research implications/limitations – Human resource managers should adequately stimulate and motivate employees to be ambassadors of the organization. This is achievable by instilling a sense of ownership and loyalty in employees. Further implications are discussed.

Originality/value/contribution – The study disentangled the relations between OCB and OC in the context of pharmaceutical executives in a developing country. The study highlighted the essence of group-specific differences in behavioral evaluation among pharmaceutical executives.

Keywords: organizational citizenship behavior, normative commitment, continuance commitment, pharmaceutical industry, structural equation modeling, social exchange theory.

JEL Classification: C38, D21, D23.

Irena Ozimek, Grzegorz Maciejewski, Pavol Kita, Julita Szlachciuk

2023, 45, 68-101. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.05

Aim/purpose – The paper aims to present a preliminary consumer typology based on the declared nutritional behaviors and selected lifestyle elements of Polish and Slovak consumers.

Design/methodology/approach – The research was conducted in the first half of 2019, among non-randomly selected subjects representing their households from Poland and Slovakia. The empirical part of the work is based on the results of research employing a structured standardized interview. Cluster analysis was used in the analysis of the results.

Findings – The results of the research showed that the eating behaviors of Polish and Slovak consumers differ. Some Polish and Slovak consumers follow the principles of healthy eating. Among Polish consumers we distinguished four types of consumers: I – “Driven by the principles of healthy eating”; II – “Implementing the principles of healthy eating”; III – “Ordinary bread eaters”; IV – “Consciously unaware.” In turn, among Slovak consumers, we distinguished also fourth types: I – “Driven by the principles of healthy eating”; II – “Exercise and drink milk!”; III – “Not attaching importance to healthy eating”; IV – “Eat tastily and healthily.” The distinguished types of consumers can be the basis for the food market segmentation. Knowledge of the typology based on declared eating behaviors and selected aspects of the lifestyle may enable food producers to develop an appropriate marketing strategy.

Research implications/limitations – A certain limitation may be the non-random sample selection. An important aspect would also be to expand the analyzed research thread with additional aspects related to eating behavior and lifestyle. Another limitation is that the clusters were delivered in two separate processes for Poland and Slovakia, respectively. As a result, the clusters are different and represent two different typologies.

Originality/value/contribution – The research may be an important source of information for researchers dealing with consumer typology. The distinguished types of consumers can be the basis for the food market segmentation.

Keywords: nutritional behavior, consumer behavior, consumers, typology, cluster analysis.

JEL Classification: D11, D12.

John Michael Riveros Gavilanes

2023, 45, 102-136. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.06

Aim/purpose – This paper aims to examine with new empirical evidence the joint relationships between violence, income inequality, and real income per capita in a simultaneous equation framework using a worldwide sample at the country level.

Design/methodology/approach – To examine the several simultaneous relationships between the variables, this study uses the Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) and Three-Stage Least Squares (3SLS) with two-way fixed effects on a linear system of regression equations. The data used for analysis are sourced from the World Bank, the SWIID inequality database, and the Penn World Table. The final sample for the estimations includes 110 countries in the period between 1994 and 2019.

Findings – Based on the estimations, the results confirm a strong positive relationship between violence and income inequality. Conversely, a negative but non-robust relationship exists between violence and real income per capita. Additionally, the findings show that human capital based on years of schooling plays a critical role in reducing both inequality and violence.

Research implications/limitations – The negative relationship between income and violence is sensitive to the sample size. The institutional framework characterized by high levels of democracy does not ensure by itself a reduction in violence. The SUR model is limited to the endogeneity of the variables. Instruments selected for the 3SLS are based on previous lags of the endogenous variables, no external instruments were used. Data availability also compromises extending the estimations with a greater number of controls.

Originality/value/contribution – This study considers the explicit joint simultaneous endogenous behavior of income inequality, violence, and real income in a worldwide sample, which contrasts most of the traditional individual-type analysis of previous studies with limited samples. Furthermore, it provides evidence of the importance of human capital and the existence of the non-robust relationships between income and violence.

Keywords: violence, inequality, income, simultaneous, worldide.

JEL Classification: O11, O50, F52.

Sirong Chen,Ke Zhang,Xiaonan Li,Huiyue Ye,Katsy Jiaxin Lin,Rob Law

2023, 45, 37-146. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.07

Aim/purpose – Cultural differences play an influential role in driving tourism development and varying outcomes of technology acceptance. The impact of ChatGPT on tourism is yet to be explored. Therefore, this study discussed how ChatGPT may influence tourism development and management in different cultural contexts.

Design/methodology/approach – Drawing specifically on individualism and collectivism from Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory, this study compared the differences in the perception of ChatGPT between Oriental and Western cultures.

Findings – Individualism and collectivism explain the diversity of perception on ChatGPT between Oriental and Western cultures.

Research implications/limitations – Implications and suggestions are provided to academia and industry accordingly. Particularly, the difference between technological concepts and tools is highlighted to avoid having excessive expectations toward tools.

Originality/value/contribution – This study extends the research on tourism and Artificial Intelligence and advocates additional attention to the imperative of cross-cultural differences regarding ChatGPT and tourism.

Keywords: ChatGPT, large language models, tourism, cross-cultural analysis.

JEL Classification: L83, L86, M14, O33, Z32.

Sulemana Mumuni, Aloysius Mom Njong

2023, 45, 147-181. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.08

Aim/purpose – This study examined the impact of public sector spending and governance on economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and further assessed the role of governance in the causal relationship between public sector spending and economic growth in the sub-region.

Design/methodology/approach – The study employed the Panel Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) estimator on data spanning the period 2002 to 2020 across a sample of 31 selected countries in SSA. To check for the robustness of the results, we adopted the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) panel non-causality test to detect Granger causality in the relationships among the variables.

Findings – The findings show that spending in the public sectors alone, such as education and health, does not always yield the needed outcome of promoting economic growth. Government education expenditure stimulates economic growth in SSA, albeit the effect is statistically insignificant, whereas government health expenditure has a growth-limiting effect in SSA. The results reveal that government effectiveness, rule of law, political stability, and absence of violence/terrorism are among the governance indicators that can help to fast-track economic prosperity in SSA. However, the results further show that good governance can act as a stimulant to invigorate the effectiveness of public sector spending in achieving economic growth in SSA. The growth-enhancing complementary role of good governance to public sector spending is robust across all governance indicators except political stability for government education spending and regulatory quality for government health spending.

Research implications/limitations – The findings imply that strengthening good governance in SSA is non-negotiable in managing and using public funds allocated to the public sectors and in achieving sustainable economic growth, poverty alleviation, and income inequality reduction in the sub-region. However, the findings of this study are limited to the SSA region and may not apply to other regions of the globe.

Originality/value/contribution – The contribution of this paper is that it examines the moderation effect of governance in the causal relationship between public spending and economic growth in SSA while accounting for cross-sectional dependence. The paper also contributes to the existing literature by using disaggregated governance and public sector spending components to ascertain the robustness of the results and better inform policy.

Keywords: education expenditure, economic growth, governance, health expenditure, panel-corrected standard errors estimation, public sector spending.

JEL Classification: H, I, O.

Jolanta Maj

2023, 45, 182-215. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.09

Aim/purpose – Creativity and innovation are crucial for attaining a competitive advantage for organizations. However, dynamic changes in the environment, like the ones induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, and also other developments force scholars and practitioners to critically assess solutions once considered valid and functioning. The pandemic has affected the ICT sector in two ways, on the one hand, by impacting organizations’ work and operations and forcing employees to work remotely, and on the other, through the global transition to a virtual world. This shift has forced the ICT sector to act quickly and deliver. Adopting an interpretive approach, this research aims at identifying these characteristics of an organizational culture and leadership style which foster creativity and innovation.

Design/methodology/approach – As a result of the adopted interpretivist exploratory approach, a qualitative research design was chosen. 19 in-depth interviews with representatives of the ICT sector in Poland were conducted. A purposeful and theoretical sampling was used. For the analysis, a combination of deductive and abductive reason-ing was employed.

Findings – The analysis has shown that a pro-innovative leader should have traits of all the leadership styles: transformational, authentic, and servant, with an additional, new component – cooperative leadership. A pro-innovative organizational culture should foremost be characterized by openness. The importance of open communication but also openness towards the possibility of making mistakes was emphasized.

Research implications/limitations – The theoretical implications include the presentation of characteristics of a pro-innovative organizational culture and leadership style in a post-COVID-19 reality but also a very specific context of the ICT industry. The paper also contributes to the literature on leadership by introducing the cooperative leadership style.

Originality/value/contribution – The originality of the paper lies within the adoption of the interpretivist approach and a new perspective on well-known processes. The value of the paper is that the analysis has been conducted in the most innovative sector, the ICT sector, considering the impact of COVID-19 on its operation.

Keywords: innovation, creativity, organizational culture, leadership.

JEL Classification: M14, M15, O31.

Marek Sylwestrzak

2023, 45, 216-236. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.10

Aim/purpose – This paper analyzes the role of Benford’s law in the detection of earnings management in Poland. Previous research that uses Benford’s law does not split the sample into a fraud and a control group; however, this method is used in logistic regression and data mining analysis.

Design/methodology/approach – The sample comprises 126 observations of Polish non-financial companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange for the years 2010-2021. The author uses first, second, and first-two digits analysis as a proxy for earnings management detection.

Findings – The results indicate that fraudulent companies have different deviations in the digits than control firms. Accordingly, the statistical test results indicate that control companies have weaker conformity with the Benford distribution than fraudulent companies.

Research implications/limitations – The study sample is limited to 126 observations, which is due to the small number of listed firms that received a monetary fine from the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (UKNF Board) for violation of IAS/IFRS principles related to their financial statements during the study period.

Originality/value/contribution – The author offers a significant contribution to the accounting literature by proposing the separation of fraudulent and control observations in Benford analysis due to differences in the deviations of digits. Also, analyzing the full sample may lead to the identification of inappropriate areas for further auditor analysis.

Keywords: earnings management, digital analysis, Polish companies

JEL Classification: C46, M40, M42.

Joanna Krywalski Santiago

2023, 45, 237-289. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.11

Aim/purpose – This paper systematically reviews the literature of employer branding (EB) and employee-based brand equity (EBBE) using the Application Programming Interface (API) provided by Google Scholar. While combining EB and EBBE this paper considers both the perspective of current, as well as potential employees and provides a systematization of knowledge related to organizational attractiveness and the impact of employees on the organizational brand.

Design/methodology/approach – This study reviews the progresses in employer branding since 2009 to 2022, therefore ranging from the time that the concept of employee-based brand equity was proposed by King and Grace (2009). A four-stage process empowered by was used to review the existing literature: 1) to identify the current tendencies Google Trends search was applied; 2) to search the databases and to identify the most active contributors (publishers and authors) the scholar API was used; 3) PRISMA-S checklist was applied to ensure the rigorousness of systematic literature review; 4) to expose the interdependence of the concepts a bibliometric analysis was conducted using VOSviewer 1.6.18 software; 5) finally this study proposes a comprehensive framework of employer branding.

Findings – The research on employer branding has grown substantially in the past decades and various conceptual and empirical studies have advanced the knowledge of both employer and internal branding. Still, the progression in the literature is narrow due to complexity of the field. This study identifies the main dimensions of employer branding and offers a comprehensive framework to systematize the current state of art.

Research implications/limitations – The multidisciplinary nature of employer branding has led to a dispersed understanding of constructs and applications in the academic studies. This study focuses on the marketing/branding perspective and does not consider the studies grounded purely in human resource management.

Originality/value/contribution – This study increases our understanding of the current literature and new research trends in employer branding and employee-based brand equity. Additionally, it explains the link between EB and EBBE. While applying the recently developed scholar API and artificial intelligence empowered software to conduct the systematic review, this study creates a procedure that can be used by researchers in an array of fields.

Keywords: employer brand, employee-based brand equity, scholar API-based systematic literature review.

JEL Classification: M51, M31.

Oleg Gurshev

2023, 45, 290-318. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.12

Aim/purpose – This paper surveys three decades of empirical literature on foreign direct investment (FDI) and international trade across the former Soviet economic space. In this survey, we outline the current state of research, discuss data limitations, and identify topics for further studies.

Design/methodology/approach – The methodology used in this study is a systematic literature review. Multiple databases were searched, including Google Scholar, IDEAS (RePEc), JSTOR, Web of Science, and others. In total, 59 papers published between 1990 and 2023 were analyzed.

Findings – Our findings are severalfold. First, we highlight severe data collection problems related to foreign equity and trade outside the Baltics, Ukraine, Russia, and some Central Asian Republics (CARs). As a result, we point out the limited availability of studies that use contemporary data and cover important economic events, such as the European accession of the Baltics, the formation of new preferential trade agreements, and economic re-integration centered around Russia, and Ukraine’s political stability.

Research implications/limitations – This study should assist researchers in identifying prospective research directions in postcommunist economic research. The main limitations of this survey are i) the total number of papers surveyed (59), ii) the focus on em-pirical studies, and iii) the specific geographical area considered.

Originality/value/contribution – Despite the critical role of FDI and trade in transitional economies, plenty of relevant topics have remained undiscovered (e.g., the relationship between outward FDI and profit shifting). To the best of our knowledge, no systematic survey has been done on these two areas of research.

Keywords: Foreign direct investment, international trade.

JEL Classification: F13, F15, F23, P33.

Bing Zheng, Yuqing Yuan, Huizhuan Li, Yihan Jiang

2023, 45, 319-343. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.13

Aim/purpose – Not only have micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) been regarded as a driving force of the national economy, but they have also become important in promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. In general, today’s MSMEs face problems, such as high business costs, insufficient innovation, and inadequate management capabilities, that have all forced the digital transformation of MSMEs. However, in existing studies, the impact of digital transformation on performance is controversial, and the subjects are generally listed companies. In this paper, we have decided to use micro business survey data and analyze them from a spatial perspective to explore how MSMEs’ digital transformation plays a role in influencing performance and the path of its effect.

Design/methodology/approach – We use a sampling method with a dual directory-regional sampling frame to investigate MSMEs in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, China and then delve into the impact of digital transformation on enterprise performance from a spatial perspective by the spatial weighted logit model.

Findings – Hierarchical analysis shows that there is a large room for improvement in the Digital transformation of enterprises. The digitalization level of an enterprise has a positive impact on performance. While from a spatial perspective, the digitalization level of neighboring enterprises has a negative impact on the performance of the enterprise. Path analysis shows that the digital transformation of enterprises can increase innovation, reduce costs, and improve the performance of enterprises.

Originality/value – We provide an empirical basis for vigorously promoting the digital transformation of enterprises, jointly building digital parks, and improving enterprise performance by reducing costs and improving efficiency. At the same time, it provides relevant suggestions for digital transformation for manufacturing MSMEs that are hesitant to see or are at a loss in the digital transformation and helps manufacturing MSMEs to achieve cost reduction and increase efficiency.

Keywords: MSMEs, digital transformation, double sampling frame, performance analysis.

JEL Classification: C13, C81, M30, O33.

Zdeněk Mikoláš, Marek Matejun

2023, 45, 345-373. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.14

Aim/purpose – This paper aims to introduce and describe a new paradigm (model) of evolutionary dynamism of family business potential in the succession process and its empirical simulation in family enterprises from culturally close “post-socialistic” countries: the Czech Republic and Poland.

Design/methodology/approach – The conceptual basis for developing the evolutionary model of family business was our research on the sample of 235 small and medium-sized family enterprises from the Czech Republic and Poland. A practical experimental simulation of the model was carried out in 12 Czech and 19 Polish family companies.

Findings – The proposed model is based on economic and natural laws, including optimization proportions of the golden ratio, laws of time economics, theory of innovation, and “Moore’s law.” This model allows us to simulate and analyze the pace of accelerating innovation cycles and the dynamism of intergenerational changes of family business potential in the succession process.

Research implications/limitations – The social and industrial revolution 5.0 is getting near and global economic, social, cultural, ecological, and other contemporary turbulences, built on the “microcosm optimization” of living matter, having two extreme marginal variants for the subsequent (evolutionary) development of family business: (a) an option of “harmony” or (b) an option of “tragedy.” One limitation of the model is its general nature, making it sensitive to outlier cases.

Originality/value/contribution – The proposed model provides valuable analytical guidelines for family business succession and significantly highlights the role of intrafamily dynamics in this process. It also represents a novel analytical approach to assessing and predicting the longevity of family business as well as an opportunity for the development of mixed research in family entrepreneurship.

Keywords: Family entrepreneurship, family business, succession, innovation, potential.

JEL Classification: L26, M21, O31, P47.

Claire Dupont, Romina Giuliano, Cécile Godfroid

2023, 45, 374-412. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.15

Aim/purpose – The impact of teleworking on the work-life balance is still not clear. Since women are the ones who tend to assume most of the domestic tasks, our paper aims to determine, in gender terms and with a theoretical approach, how the effects of teleworking may affect the division of domestic tasks and the reconciliation of the private and professional spheres.

Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on a literature review and focuses on theoretical perspectives.

Findings – On the one hand, the flexibility offered by teleworking during the health crisis may have enabled women to achieve a better work-life balance by offering them the possibility of not having to stop working despite the family responsibilities they had to assume. On the other, the unequal distribution of unpaid domestic work, which has continued and even increased during the crisis, has forced many women to quit their jobs.

Research implications/limitations – The health crisis has shown that as long as teleworking is not organized in a way challenging the assumption of the home as a female environment, the office will stay a male environment with gender inequalities always prevailing between home and work.

Originality/value/contribution – This paper contributes to the literature on teleworking by highlighting that generalizing teleworking without considering gender aspects may be harmful to female workers. Such a finding is important in the actual context of the development of hybrid organizations.

Keywords: Teleworking, gender, repartition of domestic tasks, work-life balance.

JEL Classification: O15, J16.

Romina Giuliano, Cécile Godfroid, Laure Radermecker

2023, 45, 413-440. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.16

Aim/purpose – This study examines the relationship between staff turnover and performance in the microfinance industry in a dynamic perspective and investigates some contingency factors that moderate this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach – We ran random-effects and GMM models based on a database of 2,814 branch-month observations from a specific microfinance organization.

Findings – It takes three months to see a significant negative impact of turnover on the volume of a branch’s loan portfolio. Moreover, it takes four months after the turnover event for this negative impact to be counterbalanced. After four months, turnover stops having negative consequences and even becomes advantageous in terms of loan portfolio growth, but this positive effect lasts only one month. The effect of turnover thus appears to be particularly limited in time. Finally, we find that the negative relationship between turnover rate and performance is weakened by the seniority level of departing loan officers and by the recruitment rate.

Originality/value/contribution – First, this paper examines the duration of the consequences of turnover event, which is poorly studied in the literature. Second, it focuses on microfinance, an industry where relational capital is of high importance. Third, it extends the theory on turnover by highlighting that the seniority level of departing employees is a moderator in the relationship between turnover and organizational performance.

Keywords: staff turnover, performance, context-emergent theory, microfinance, GMM.

JEL Classification: J63, G21.

Anna Kozak

2023, 45, 441-467. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.17

Aim/purpose – The purpose of this article was to identify the information and communication technology (ICT) tools fostering the co-production of social services, acknowledging that the technological environment is an important contextual condition enhancing the development of co-production.

Design/methodology/approach – The method used was systematic literature review (SLR).

Findings – As a result of the review, the catalog of solutions and tools offered by information and communication technologies was presented. The results of the research carried out indicate that the co-production of social services is favored by the use of such ICT tools as mobile applications, crowdsourcing, open data, big data, real-time data collection and analysis, gamification, and social media.

Research implications/limitations – The main implication of the research is the comprehensive catalog of ICT tools that can be used to facilitate social service co-production. ICT tools also favor the emergence of new forms of co-production; there-fore, the acquaintance of these tools can accelerate this process. The study is constrained by several limitations. The study is constrained by several limitations. First, applied methodology, which is qualitative, analyzes secondary data. Second, the co-production in the social services area includes many and various services, and ICT application and impact can differ by specific type of service.

Originality/value/contribution – This paper contributes to research on the co-production of social services, particularly in terms of the use of new technologies in this process, in two ways. First, the development of the catalog of ICT tools favoring social service co-production. Their application fosters the involvement of contextual actors, increasing the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of social services. In this way, the social service co-production contributes to better addressing the citizens’ needs, increasing their quality of life and well-being, and unleashing their potential. Second, by taking the PSL perspective and situating factors favoring co-production within a service ecosystem framework, this paper draws attention to public value emerging from new relations, extensive dialogue, deliberation, common arrangements, and collaborative activity in virtual communities.

Keywords: co-production, public services, social services, public management, ICT.

JEL Classification: H41, H83, O33, O35, Z18.

Adewale Abdulwaheed Soneye

2023, 45, 468-507. doi.org/10.22367/jem.2023.45.18

Aim/purpose – Street traders are seen selling all kinds of goods to patrons who pass-by or who are vehicular traffics on Nigerian roads, particularly major intra and inter-state roads in urban and rural areas. The study assessed the perspectives of salespersons from six selected FMCG companies regarding the extent to which street trading has contributed to the overall performances of their respective firms.

Design/methodology/approach – The study was done as a cross-sectional research, encompassing individuals from all levels of the sales departments of six selected FMCG companies in Lagos, Nigeria. It utilized a survey methodology by distributing a 39-item questionnaire, which employed a 5-point Likert scale to a sample of 174 participants. These individuals were picked from a larger population of 308 salespersons who were employed by the selected FMCG companies. The questionnaires were administered by email and the response rate was 56.32%. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test to determine the dependence or otherwise of the variables.

Findings – The research findings established that the respondents perceived street trading as a contributor to the sales performance of the FMCG companies they worked for. Among the findings was the perception that street trading had been an integral part of the channels used for distributing their companies’ products. This study also highlighted that salespersons did not consider the government’s actions as impeding their organizations from formally recognizing or as any hindrance to integrating street trading as a channel of distribution. The respondents’ views suggested that other factors are responsible for the lack of formal acknowledgement of street trading as a means through which end consumers are served.

Research implications/limitations – The study affirmed the economic importance of street trading and the positive impact it has on organizations in the formal sector. It also gave insight into how FMCG companies and street traders groups can collaborate to influence favorable government policies towards street trading. Urban development planners can also find ways to provide for street trading by allocating zones where this activity can be carried out in urban areas.

Originality/value/contribution – An attempt to synthesize the impact of an aspect of the informal economy on largely formal sector operators. The study provided a perspective on street trading, which has not received much scholarly attention as a channel of distribution.

Keywords: FMCG companies, informal retail, street trading, street vendors.

JEL Classification: D3, E2, F1.