Managers' understanding of artificial intelligence in relation to marketing financial services: insights from a cross-country study

PurposeGiven that managers play a crucial role in developing and deploying AI for marketing financial services, this study was aimed at better understanding their awareness regarding AI and the challenges they are facing in providing the attendant technologies, as well as highlighting key stakeholders and their collaborative efforts in providing financial services.Design/methodology/approachExploratory, inductive research design. The data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with 47 bank managers in both developed and developing countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Nigeria and Vietnam.FindingsManagers are aware of the prospects of AI and are making efforts to address AI as a business need but find that there often exist certain challenges in accelerating AI adoption. The study also presents a conceptual framework of AI in relation to financial service marketing, which captures and highlights the interactions among the customers, banks and external stakeholders, as well as the regulators.Research limitations/implicationsBanks must understand their business objectives, the available resources and the needs of their customers. Managers should keep the ethical implications of their working relationships in mind when selecting a team or collaborating with partners. In addition, managers should be trained and assisted in comprehending AI in relation to financial services, while the regulators must be involved in the development of AI for financial service marketing. Finally, it is critical to communicate the prospects for AI to consumers.Originality/valueThis study provides empirical insight into the opportunities, prospects and challenges pertaining to the use of AI in the area of financial service marketing. It also specifically calls into question certain preconceptions regarding AI and its role in financial services, the chatbots adopted for financial service delivery and the role of marketing managers in developing AI.

Banks and Economic Growth: A Basic Disequilibrium Model with Five Rationing Regimes

In this paper, an inductive research methodology and the principle of parsimony are applied to reconsider a central issue in economics and macro-finance, namely the determinants of economic growth and the role of the financial sector. A simple framework is derived, characterised by information imperfections and the absence of market clearing. The literature on rationing has identified the need to consider differing rationing regimes but has not included a banking sector. Such a set-up is presented in this paper, which identifies the link between credit and economic growth under differing rationing regimes, with varying consequences for inflation. The familiar case of money creation resulting in inflation features as a special case within the general framework. Others are the possibility of asset price bubbles and collapses, non-inflationary growth despite full employment, and instability in banking systems. The model is consistent with empirical evidence that has been difficult to reconcile with conventional equilibrium models. It is found that within this simple rationing framework, banks, left to their own devices, do not necessarily deliver stable, non-inflationary growth, and there is no reason to expect their behaviour to optimise social welfare. Some implications for research and policy are discussed.

Landscape management strategy of pekarangan to increase community immunity during the covid-19 pandemic in Java Indonesia – inductive research

The research results in the last two decades show the important role of pekarangan as a micro-scale landscape unit in providing space for growing various types of plants, i.e., multi-layers from the grasses to the trees, livestock, and fish. Pekarangan is defined with distinctive spatial patterns and elements as a representation of the harmonious relationship between the owner and the ecological character. Perceptions and preferences based on different social, cultural, and environmental factors shape the pekarangan pattern and function to become more diverse as a form of community local wisdom. The important role of pekarangan needs to be deeper elaborated in efforts to increase community immunity during the Covid-19 pandemic. Pekarangan has great potential to be developed as a mitigation and rehabilitation space by providing a variety of medicinal plants as well as outdoor activity spaces with a healthy environment quality. This research was designed for three years with three main approaches: (1) inductive method, which focuses on building theory from practices that have been known and carried out for generations, (2) implementation as an effort to actualize local knowledge, (3) multiplicative for the benefit of the important value of pekarangan. Studies start from basic research of pekarangan; research on the development of spatial planning and elements forming pekarangan; research on nutritional content contributed from pekarangan products. Data were obtained through pekarangan mapping, structured questionnaires at four selected locations in Cisadane, Citarum, Kali Progo, and Brantas Watersheds. The results of this research are expected to be implemented in public spaces on a meso scale and macro scales.

Frontier Markets and Sustainable Entrepreneurial Competences: An Exploratory Study of the Impact of a New Industry in Guatemala

There is growing interest among scholars and policy makers to develop sustainable entrepreneurial competences in pre-emerging, frontier markets characterized by limited access to advanced capital, high protectionism, and weak formal institutional environments. To become internationally competitive, these markets need to radically rethink their long-standing, embedded practices, which have often been linked to socioeconomic inequality. Our study, grounded in corporate entrepreneurship, is an exploratory analysis of why and how well-established firms, operating in the financial service industry, created more equity-based businesses practices to enter the new industry of mobile banking. The firms in our study needed a combination of both economic incentives and social pressures to do so but, in the process, developed new entrepreneurial competencies. Successful firms were those that significantly altered their embedded practices and engaged in fostering new informal relationships with previously overlooked stakeholders, particularly customers from indigenous backgrounds. Our multi-case, inductive research design offers theoretical and practical insights regarding how incorporating internal and external corporate entrepreneurial factors in an underserved market setting, such as the frontier market of Guatemala, not only fosters socioeconomic equality but also creates international attractiveness and competitiveness.

Breaking the Norms of Bulgarian Language Online: Language Adaptation or Language Illiteracy

The purpose of the research was to explore the experiences of Bulgarian university students, representatives of generations Y and Z, with breaking the rules of the Standard of Bulgarian language when communicating with textual posts on the Facebook social network site (SNS) and social networking applications (apps). Breaking language norms is due to the perception of the SNS and social apps communication as speaking rather than writing. Therefore, many of the language rules applicable to the writing are broken. The research employed a phenomenological inductive research strategy. It used a narrative literature review from 2011 to 2021 and an in-depth interview of 15 university students as research instruments. The theoretical framework was built on the theory of communication accommodation and audience design. Two main themes crystallized in the in-depth interviews: 1) communication in SNS and social apps – visual, verbal, and informal and 2) context and communicator determine the level of the Bulgarian language rules observance. In these themes, perceiving SNS communication as speaking, not as writing, hurrying up to join the communication, and the perception of the online environment as informal, explained the breaking the language rules. The research is the first to study the issue in the context of the experiences of the language users, and it opens the scientific field to further research.

Sensing and seizing in the apparel industry: the role of dynamic capabilities in fostering sustainable strategic orientations

Purpose This paper aims to explore how the dynamic capabilities sensing and seizing could support a sustainable (either instrumental or stewardship) strategic orientation in the apparel industry. Design/methodology/approach Through qualitative and inductive research design, ten companies from the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, specifically focusing on brands, were researched. Employees in strategic positions were interviewed. Subsequently, thematic analysis was realized to extract findings from both instrumental and stewardship organizations. Findings Instrumental organizations focus on increasing their brand, mainly by following market demands. They sense opportunities via a hierarchical organizational structure that allows for incremental innovation based on internal competition. Stewardship organizations believe in a collective approach toward conducting business effectively. While building a “sustainable case for business”, a stewardship-oriented company senses by involving their stakeholders and seeks unorthodox opportunities using a long-term internal compass as a beacon for decision-making. Originality/value Key capabilities are revealed that allow businesses and managers to reach higher levels of sustainability in a specific sector: the apparel industry. Especially the capabilities of stewardship-oriented companies and its ambidexterity provide a fertile base for future research at the nexus of organization development and sustainability.

The role of sociomaterial assemblage on entrepreneurship in coworking-spaces

PurposeCoworking-spaces are considered as a new formula to facilitate autonomy, creativity, self-efficacy, work satisfaction and innovation, yet they also might overburden their users who in that course intend to limit social interaction and collaboration in the workspace. Thus, the question is how coworking-spaces shape entrepreneurial ventures.Design/methodology/approachThis study used an inductive research methodology based on data from three different data sources, including observations, archives and interviews from managers and entrepreneurs.FindingsThe findings suggest that the materiality in the form of spatial architectures (working, socialization and support structures) shared facilities and infrastructures (utilities, luxuries and specialties), and integrated digital technologies (applications and platforms) influence the flow of communication, internal and external linkages, as well as functional uniformity and distinctiveness. However, there exists an inherent dualism in sociomaterial assemblage in coworking-spaces, which can lead to instrumental and detrimental outcomes for entrepreneurs.Originality/valueThis study explains the role of sociomaterial assemblage on the working of entrepreneurs in shared workspaces.

Assessment of abandoned properties in geopolitical conflict zones

PurposeIn geopolitical conflict zones, the phenomenon of abandonment often correlates with challenges of legal definitions and ownership status. The abandoned properties in conflict zones share similar characteristics with what is commonly known as a brownfield site. However, due to the nature of geopolitical conflict zones, which is mixed with people and sentiments other than technical challenges, the usual solutions to the brownfield question, cannot provide enough tools to deal with the land management of areas engulfed in conflicts. This paper, therefore, aims to discuss and propose a land-use typology that describes abandoned properties in a geopolitical context.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed land-use typology serves as the main conceptual framework that integrates the sustainable brownfield regeneration approach with social theories of space and place. As an inductive research approach, this conceptual framework brought the fundamental and comparative literature on brownfield regeneration to support the main argument related to the similarities and challenges of the regeneration of abandoned properties in conflict zones. The approach used in this paper addresses the broader consideration of land management in geopolitical contexts and urban conflict zones that considers the relationship of exercise of extreme power over space.FindingsThe findings highlight an insufficient understanding of the origin of the property problems in geopolitical conflict zones, especially after a power struggle, producing significant land management issues. In a geopolitical context, urban planners and economists' perspective on definitions of space and place defined by maps, GIS data sets, Excel and other similar tools may not bring any practical or long-term solution to the land management challenges. The study suggests that dealing with abandoned properties and regeneration plans in conflict zones requires identifying and evaluating geo-political, geo-social, geo-economic characteristics of the area before any further action.Practical implicationsThis paper's findings are of particular interest to decision-makers and conflict stakeholders in geopolitical conflict zones, such as local governments, policymakers and peacekeeping agencies. The findings of this research can clarify and help them have an alternative understanding of the space engulfed in the conflict, other than a technocratic, mapping, GIS, statistical way of understanding and approaches to the complex aspect of a space.Originality/valueThis paper's conceptual framework provides a value-added contribution to the literature on land management in conflict zones by taking the reader's attention to the origin of the problems and their associated real estate issues in geopolitical contexts. For the first time, this inductive research proposes a land-use typology that considers the complexity of the interrelationship between land policies, land-use theory, social theories of space and place and the exercise of extreme power over space. This paper produced a concept that is not easily measurable by quantitative nor qualitative approaches.

Qualitative Virtual Team Research as Training Method in a Postgraduate Program in Administration

This study is a retrospective review of methodological strategies employed during a virtual team-based training qualitative study about the emergent process of adapting to remote education among students and professors from a Master Management Program. The aim of this study was to test the technique of collaborative research as an educational and training strategy for Ph.D. students of management who are inexperienced in qualitative inductive research carried out in a virtual environment. A professor and eight Ph.D. students formed the research team and applied a qualitative inductive approach. As a result, 18 methodological steps emerged, which required just over one hundred hours of work. We describe advantages and challenges faced during the process, including greater credibility and validity for the results, technical and interactional difficulties of the virtual research environment, and difficulty reaching consensus in the data analysis stage. The findings also highlight the importance of coordination, active participation, and continuous assessment as Ph.D. educational and teaching strategies. Qualitative Virtual Team Research has proved to be a potential training tool for beginning researchers. We also contribute to the body of research on Ph.D. education and teaching by detailing the procedures used to coordinate the project and clarifying details regarding the strategies used to reach consensus in data analysis development.

Got to be real: An investigation into the co-fabrication of authenticity by fashion companies and digital influencers

This article investigates how fashion companies build their relationships with digital influencers (DIs), a new group of cultural intermediaries who are increasingly central to brand communication strategies. Scholars have mostly studied DIs’ role in influencing the market, but largely neglected the process through which they build their work. Through a qualitative inductive research directed at 21 Italian fashion companies, we describe the process through which companies fabricate the authenticity work, while collaborating with DIs. By taking the overlooked perspective of the company brand owner, we identify the underlying dynamics of achieving co-fabricated authenticity, unpacking the mechanisms through which companies select DIs, shape the connections and regulate the reciprocity with them. Our findings highlight how companies and DIs’ practices become intertwined, with the commodity of authenticity being constructed at the crossroads between the former’s commercial needs and the latter’s grassroots narratives and practices. ‘Co-fabricated authenticity’ ultimately emerges as the result of the work of those actors who are engaged in managing the authenticity or processes of authentication of marketable goods: the intangible and ephemeral value of authenticity is made tangible and co-produced through the collaboration between brands and cultural intermediaries such as DIs.