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This study aims to explore how multinational lead buyers can play an active role in ensuring worker voices in garment supplier factories where workers have limited space to raise their voices, and how buyers’ involvement increases the possibilities of worker voices mitigating barriers to social dialogues and enhancing mutual interests of buyers and workers in garment factories.

Using a qualitative research approach and multiple embedded case study method, this study considered buyer−supplier dyads as the unit of analysis, i.e. two multinational lead buyers and their four corresponding suppliers in the garment industry of Bangladesh. Focus group discussion and key informant in-depth interviews were techniques applied to collect factory-level data, and within and cross-case analysis techniques were applied to develop an overall understanding.

The results of this study reveal that the opportunities for workers to voice their concerns through social dialogue in garment supplier factories are limited due to various obstacles. Similarly, the role of multinational lead buyers in addressing these issues is found to be less than ideal. This study also shows that buyers can take short-term and long-term initiatives to ensure social dialogues. Moreover, this study presents how social dialogues can meet the expectations of multinational buyers and their garment suppliers.

While this study focuses exclusively on the garment industry, similar scenarios also exist across a multitude of other industries. Thus, future research could extend this study’s scope to various sectors, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the general state of worker voices in Bangladesh. This study stands to make significant contributions to literature in the fields of global value chains, human relations and international business. It will pose critical perspectives on how upstream value chain suppliers can fortify worker rights through social dialogue, and elucidate the means and motives for lead buyers to play a more active role in this endeavour.

This study is distinct in its approach, integrating buyer−supplier roles to pave the way for enhanced worker voice opportunities through social dialogue in garment supplier factories.

This study aims to analyze the individual and joint effects of institutional support by government and nongovernment institutions on early internationalizing firms’ (EIFs) performance. It also investigated the moderating impact of firm age and size on the institutional support-firms’ export performance relationships.

Data were collected from 705 EIFs in the apparel industry of Bangladesh and analyzed with hierarchical regression.

The positive influence of institutional support on exporting firms’ financial performance is stronger for the joint effect of government and nongovernment assistance than the individual impact. Firms’ size positively moderates the impact of individual government and nongovernment assistance, while age positively moderates their resource-bundling effect.

The findings suggest the necessity of integrating resources from diverse but complementary sources of institutional support for superior export performance. The findings also show the presence of the liability of smallness and liability of newness in the standalone and joint influence of institutional support, respectively.

Firms need to bundle resources obtained from the government (unrequited) and nongovernment (reciprocal) institutional support to overcome the liability of smallness they might encounter while availing of support from only one source.

Distinguishing between government and nongovernment institutional support, this paper sheds light on exporting firms’ resource-bundling mechanism for these two sources of support in the backdrop of an emerging economy. It also offers fresh insights into the critical role of the liabilities of newness and smallness in early internationalization, especially with regard to the home-country institutional environment.

The purpose of this study is to understand the determinants affecting behavioral intention (BI) to use ePharmacy services. The moderating role of technology discomfort in the relationship between BI and the actual use of ePharmacies in the context of Bangladesh is also examined.

A descriptive, quantitative approach was used to consider the UTAUT-2 model. Using the convenience sampling method, 255 responses were collected. The data were analyzed using Smart-PLS 3.2 software to investigate the hypothesized relationships.

The findings reveal that website information, doctors’ services, performance expectancy, return policy, social influence, perceived reliability and facilitating conditions are significantly related to the BI to use ePharmacy services. Interestingly, the structural equation modeling results also confirmed that technology discomfort has no moderating effect on the relationship between BI and actual usage behavior.

This research provides theoretical contribution by extending the practical knowledge focusing on the relationship of ePharmacy, BI and actual usage behavior by using UTAUT-2 model – a relevant and unexplored issue in the easting literature, offering several research opportunities as the future avenue.

The result highlights the economic and social relevance from the perspective of a developing country. As people are showing their intention toward ePharmacy, managers and decision-makers need to take strategic decision to overcome any difficulties. Policymakers need to improve their services for the expansion of ePharmacy through different development projects.

This study advances past studies on the use of ecommerce in the pharmaceutical industry and provides a general understanding of customers in developing countries.

This research aims to examine the role of consumers' brand trust and attachment on advocacy intention before and after the occurrence of brand misconduct in retail banking. In addition, the influence of brand attachment on consumers' willingness to switch, advocate for and forgive brands is examined in a post-misconduct scenario.

Data were collected through a self-administered online survey questionnaire. A total of 304 valid and usable responses from Australian participants were analysed using IBM SPSS 27.0.

The findings reveal that brand attachment mediates the positive relationship between trust and advocacy intention. Furthermore, brand attachment (1) dilutes consumers' switching intention and (2) strengthens their willingness to forgive the bank after misconduct.

Results suggest that retail banks should create strong brand attachments with their consumers. In addition to brand trust, brand attachment will generate greater advocacy intention among consumers. Moreover, practitioners in retail banking can leverage brand attachment to mitigate the negative impact of brand misconduct.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to examine the impact of brand attachment on the consumer–bank relationship within the context of brand misconduct. The study is also unique in its analysis of the mediating role of brand attachment between brand trust and advocacy. This research further adds to the current literature by suggesting that strong and positive customer connections to the brand facilitate communication and marketing efforts after brand misconduct and that these are effective in maintaining consumer-bank relationship.

COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the lives of people and businesses around the world in different ways. France, Spain, Italy and the UK are among the worst affected countries by this pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to identify and compare different corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities taken by the clubs and player of the major football leagues of these four countries to develop a more comprehensive model of intervention.

This paper has analyzed the initiatives taken by these football clubs and players to address financial vulnerabilities, mental health problems and domestic violence among the stakeholders and compared them with the existing CSR and humanitarian models. A case study approach has been used to collect and analyze data related to the CSR activities taken by the players and club management. Official websites of the clubs, newspaper and journal articles were among the major sources used to collect data for the paper.

Football clubs and players of the four major leagues have raised funds through different campaigns and delivered foods and essential medical supplies to the communities and hospitals to address financial vulnerabilities, mental health issues and domestic violence within their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. They have provided guidance to their followers using social and television media to improve their physical and mental health during the pandemic. Online competitions, quizzes or virtual hangouts have also been used by the players to engage the stakeholders on a frequent basis. Football clubs have also initiated campaigns to raise awareness within the community on available medical services for the victims of domestic violence and also provided them with shelter, food, medical, legal and online counseling services.

Football clubs and players of the major leagues were always at the forefront to help the communities and hospitals to address issues related to mental health problems, financial vulnerabilities and domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of this paper could help and guide other entities in designing a more comprehensive model of CSR interventions during pandemics or crisis situations to address financial vulnerabilities, mental health problems and domestic violence within their communities.

Although corporate social responsibility is a well-researched concept, very few studies have studied organizational social responsibility in the face of internal/external crises. Therefore, this paper aims to examine various firms' organizational social responses to COVID-19 as an external crisis, particularly in terms of the way organizations use their resources to address social problems and the real intention behind these, and the changing organizational drivers influencing such behaviors.

The authors explore the initiatives of seven organizations from three different industries in several countries and their actions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. A case study approach was taken to collect data and reach a conclusion. A combination of interviews, online communication using semi-structured questionnaires and documentary information available in the public domain was used to collect data and analyze and triangulate the events.

Similar internal resources and capacities of the seven organizations resulted in similar responses as they launched proactive initiatives to prepare sanitizers. This research indicates that these organizations pursued other goals besides economic one. When society needed help, these organizations responded quickly, using and reorganizing their resources to assist communities in need. Different organizations from different sectors all behaved in a similar manner, making genuine contributions to the pandemic as each was uniquely capable of doing. These organizations also used their unique capabilities to offer their resources to local communities and governments.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, efforts by corporate entities to facilitate social reform and recovery have been seen around the globe. The findings could help in understanding the responses of organizations engaging in socially responsible behaviors to overcome external crises. This paper also identifies changing organizational values and their possible impact on society and overall industry philanthropy practices in the future.

Although both institutional export assistance and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) contribute separately and positively to export performance, the interplay between them has received little attention. This study examines the role of international EO in deriving performance benefits from governmental and nongovernmental export assistance.

In this longitudinal study, two surveys were administered at two different times: In 2011, 705 Bangladeshi apparel exporters were surveyed, and in 2019, a subsequent survey of 198 firms in multiple industries was conducted. The aim of the surveys was to assess the relationships between governmental and nongovernmental assistance, EO and export performance.

The results of the first survey show that, while nongovernmental assistance influences performance directly and via EO, governmental assistance has only direct effects. Furthermore, the negative influence of government assistance on EO reduces the total effects and renders them nonsignificant. The results of the second survey demonstrate that government EPPs have both direct and indirect positive and significant effects on market performance, indicating a partial mediation, whereas quasi-governmental assistance has positive and significant direct effects as well as negative but nonsignificant indirect effects. Nongovernmental EPPs have both direct and indirect significant effects on international performance, indicating a partial mediation.

The study has important implications for researchers studying export assistance and its impact on firm performance. Instead of adopting a parochial view of government assistance, this study categorizes such assistance into three types – government, quasi-government and nongovernment. Furthermore, this study bridges the export assistance and international entrepreneurship literature by including EO.

Entrepreneurs must emphasize the use of government assistance in order to enhance export performance. However, to promote both entrepreneurship and performance, they must emphasize nongovernment assistance. Exporters should also capitalize on the assistance extended by various quasi-governmental agencies to bolster export performance.

Given the performance advantage of export assistance, this study highlights the contribution of the private sector in promoting export entrepreneurship while shedding light on the pernicious role of (quasi-)governmental assistance in export entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of business process innovativeness in the networking-export performance relationship in a developing country low-tech industry setting. Most innovation research in international business and entrepreneurship is conducted on high-tech industries in developed countries. Less research has focused on the low-tech industry context. This study bridges this research gap by testing whether international new ventures’ (INVs) networking resources impact their export performance through business process innovativeness.

The study tests the link between low-tech INVs’ networking, business process innovativeness and export performance using a sample of 647 export start-up apparel firms in Bangladesh, the second largest apparel exporter in the world.

The results recognize that an INV entrepreneur’s personal and inter-firm networking are directly and positively related to business process innovativeness and export performance. The findings also indicate that business process innovativeness acts as a mediator only between an INV’s inter-firm networking and its export performance.

The study was undertaken in a Bangladeshi low-tech industry setting-the apparel sector; thus, future research may include data collection from a range of industries across countries. Data collected for the purpose of this study used a cross-sectional research design, and this may only have confirmed the relationships in the model and not causality between the constructs.

The findings highlight that low-tech INVs should focus more on leveraging their personal and inter-firm networking resources, as this should result in improved export performance. The results also provide directives for INVs in regard to improving their business process innovativeness to achieve increased performance.

The study is not only carried out in the context of low-tech early internationalizing firms (i.e. INVs), but also contributes to theory and practice by testing whether INVs’ networking resources (personal and inter-firm) have an impact on business process innovativeness, which in turn leads to improved performance.

The study aims to bridge entrepreneurial capability, export market orientation and the international performance of international new ventures (INVs). Thus, multi-scale entrepreneurial capabilities have been adopted to provide more profound insights into the literature on early internationalisation. Since little is known about the antecedents of export market orientation, the performance outcome of this is ambiguous. This study aims to enhance knowledge in this pressing research area.

The sample of this study consists of data (354 firms) from INVs operating in the apparel industry of an emerging economy, namely, Bangladesh. Structural equation modelling has been used to investigate the hypothesised relationships.

For the Deshpandé and Farley (1999) scale, the effect of general entrepreneurial capability on intelligence dissemination and responsiveness is positively significant. Similarly, the effects of international entrepreneurial capability on customer orientation, intelligence generation, dissemination and responsiveness are positively significant. However, general entrepreneurial capability has non-significant effects on customer orientation and intelligence generation. The results also showed that export market orientation positively mediates the relationship between international entrepreneurial capability and firm performance. For the Morris and Paul (1987) scale, the hypothesised relationships between capabilities and market orientation are positively significant and, therefore, support the mediating relationships for both general entrepreneurial capability and international entrepreneurial capability.

Merely having capabilities without acknowledging the firm's strategic orientations is not sufficient to secure superior performance. The authors urge entrepreneurs to capitalise on their entrepreneurial capabilities to leverage organisation-wide export-market-oriented behaviour to achieve superior international performance in emerging economies.

The importance of smart tourism technologies (STTs) has been rising recently, but how STTs are related to tourists' psychological well-being has got little attention. The study intends to show how STTs increase tourists' psychological well-being by capitalizing on the theory of Tourism 4.0. The study investigates the associations between the factors of STTs with the perceived benefit and, subsequently, perceived benefit with the psychological well-being of tourists. Moreover, this study also examines the moderating impact of a growth mindset (GM) between perceived benefits (PB) and tourists' psychological well-being (TPW) in the tourism industry.

Using a structured questionnaire, 243 responses were collected through the convenience sampling method. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for the analysis.

Findings show that automation, security/privacy concerns, information accuracy, and personalization are significantly related to the PB of tourists. The results also confirm that a GM moderates the relationship between PB and TPW.

The results show the social and managerial importance of the perspective of tourism in developing countries. Based on the tourism 4.0 concept, this study presents a theoretical contribution by expanding practical information regarding the link between STTs and psychological well-being. Moreover, the study shows some directions to the tour operator about improving PB and psychological well-being. The notion of tourism 4.0 is a new paradigm that seeks to unlock the psychological well-being of visitors through the hyper-interconnectedness of humans and technologies.

This study contributes to prior research on technology-based tourism by exploring the uncharted STT variables, PB, GM and psychological well-being. Moreover, the study makes an empirical effort to conceptualize the tourism 4.0 concept on the proposed relationships. Tourist firms should focus on implementing this theory to develop their business.