Businesses, Volume 3, Issue 1 (March 2023) – 15 articles

E-commerce is an area in which success largely depends on the e-commerce applications used. Currently, there are many studies that focus on various technological innovations in e-commerce systems, but a comprehensive concept of their improvement is lacking. In this regard, the main objective of the article was to explore the technological possibilities for the improvement of e-commerce systems and to propose a conceptual framework for their maintenance and development. The chosen research approach included a combined methodology–text mining analysis of existing developments and identifying the key themes and trends in papers and deep scientific analyses of the most-cited developments. As a result, a conceptual framework for the maintenance and development of e-commerce applications was proposed. To test the approach, publications from the scientific literature database Scopus, on the topic “e-commerce applications” were used. Experiments and text processing were performed with the software RapidMiner Studio. Several main directions for the development of e-commerce systems have been defined: the application of modern development tools; the technological base; and the possibilities of integration. Future research may focus on detailing each direction. Full article

This article aims to explain the innovative behaviour of large Spanish companies by comparing the hospitality industry with other service providers and industrial manufacturers. Several hypotheses are proposed and tested for different innovation stages: innovation effort, outcome and performance. The sample includes 2944 Spanish companies with 200 or more employees. Using one-way ANOVA analysis, this study fills an important gap in the impact of innovation and technology on the performance of the hospitality sector. The results show that catering establishments have differentiated innovation behaviours not only to manufacturers but also compared to service providers. The findings support the hypothesis and suggest that hotel companies complement in-house R&D with other innovative activities. Furthermore, hospitality organisations have the highest percentage of innovation revenue due to fewer innovation efforts and innovation outcomes, mainly due to the organisation’s innovations. Full article

The purpose of this paper is to identify whether a person’s entrepreneurial characteristics can be sought in written texts, and it deals with aspects such as understanding hidden feelings by looking only at a person’s written texts. The transcripts of their speeches, interviews, and press conferences were analyzed in terms of semantic categories of words that were included with the use of General Inquirer software, which was developed in Harvard in order to support content analysis. Representatives clearly articulate and work together to establish the organization’s values, ascertain its objectives, create and carry out a strategic plan, and cultivate and interact with the organization’s perspective. A leader needs to be appointed, but they also need to have the ability to demonstrate their aspirations, excite their audience, and visualize their followers. In addition to this, they need to have the determination to take risks. This paper could be helpful for assessors of modern businesses as well as investigators of political and social sciences who are seeking to determine the perspective that is encountered in the literary documents of a particular person. A large variety of written documents from numerous people that have lived in a variety of historical eras and countries, regardless of gender and educational or professional background were examined. The common characteristic is that they were leading personalities in any of the following categories: their country, social movements, sports, art, business and social life. Full article

The Asian disease problem has long been studied since first introduced by Tversky and Kahneman in 1981. This study explores the mechanics of the Asian disease problem to a scenario reflecting deaths attributed to climate change. The study examines the gain/loss frame setup of the Asian disease problem. To research the Asian disease problem, in partnership with a Qualtrics panel, we surveyed 1209 customers of Utah utilities. Through statistical tests on the survey data, we confirmed the existence of the gain/loss framing effect. Moreover, the framing effect held when separating and examining responses based on unique socio-economic characteristics (i.e., age, gender, race, marital status, income, educational attainment, political preference, living status, household size, years at current residence, and energy-saving preference). In short, like the original Asian disease problem, the framing impact varied regardless of the characteristic studied. Based on these findings, we recommend implementing the framing effects of the Asian disease problem to an expanded realm for energy- and climate-related programs, initiatives, and academic research. We believe that this framing could spur action to mitigate climate change. Moreover, we recommend an expanded empirical study of the Asian disease problem to novel and understudied realms beyond our focus area. Full article

Research on the career expectations of employees and the potential (mis)match with their lived reality is abundant, yet the research field has paid less attention to the expectation–reality gap of the self-employed. Self-employed people’s attitudes towards work are, however, important for determining business success and persistence. Therefore, research is needed to examine their expectations as well as how self-employed people’s expectations materialize in their experiences. By analyzing in-depth interviews with 19 self-employed workers without employees in Belgium, both desired and undesired career expectations were revealed. After becoming self-employed, these expectations sometimes materialized in reality, in both a positive (e.g., independence and doing what you love) and a negative (e.g., risk and insecurity) sense. Our results also imply that expectation–reality gaps going in two directions exist. We identified positive expectations being met by less-positive experiences (e.g., loneliness, increased responsibility, being unable to do what you like, overestimated financial success, and unavailable or expensive formal support), as well as negative expectations being met by better experiences (e.g., social support between self-employed colleagues). The study signals that the social environment of the solo self-employed (SSE) merits policy attention. Efforts need to be made to create self-employed networks, where professional and social ties can be formed. Full article

Literature on participation in the informal food sector in cities of the Global South is conventionally characterized by a survivalist or opportunistic perspective. The main difference is that opportunists, in contrast to survivalists, are motivated by entrepreneurial choice rather than necessity and see opportunities for economic and social advancement in the sector. Recent studies in Brazil and India conclude that research on informal sector participation requires a “both/and” rather than “either/or” approach. The main problem this paper addresses is whether the “both/and” model is also applicable in the African context. This is the first study to investigate the issue in the informal food sector of an African city; in this case, the capital city of Namibia, Windhoek. The paper evaluates five potential ways of distinguishing between survivalist and opportunistic food vendors and concludes that entrepreneurial motivation (EM) provides the most useful set of metrics. Selected EM responses are then used to construct four regression models—two survivalist and two opportunistic—in order to determine which individual and business characteristics are most strongly and consistently associated with survivalism and opportunism. Few vendors are both survivalist and opportunistic in orientation. There is a possibility of survivalists becoming more opportunistic over time but the models do not confirm this hypothesis. Apart from differences in EM, there are many similarities between the two groups and both would therefore benefit from a more enabling policy environment. The primary distinguishing business characteristic is the enterprise type with street food vendors most likely to be opportunistic. Ironically, it is street vendors who are seen as unsightly, unhealthy, and uncontrollable, and face the most difficult operating environment. Full article

The purpose of this study is to find a way to maintain the sustainability of YouTube quality by identifying the relationship between user satisfaction, perceived achievement, and continuous use intention of YouTube content quality that provides ski technology information. Moreover, with the recent emergence of the recent emergence of COVID-19, face-to-face activities have been limited and skiing technique is commonly conveyed through YouTube. Therefore, it is urgent to develop and provide meaningful skiing technique content and information to YouTube users. To this end, this study focuses on YouTube content on ski techniques provided by the Education Committee of Korea Ski Instructors Association. The subjects of this study were 322 individuals who watched five YouTube videos produced by the Education Committee at High1, Yongpyeong, Phoenix Park, and Welli Hilli 4 ski resorts located in Gangwon-do from November 2021 to March 2022. Frequency analysis, Cronbach’s α, and correlation analysis were performed using SPSSWIN 24.0. In addition, AMOS 24.0 was used for confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model analysis for hypothesis validation. All statistical significance levels were set to p < 0.05. The findings support the suitability of the research model. Full article

Green technology is the new trend for combining technology, innovation, and sustainability. However, China faces several problems in this regard, given the high cost of green products and services. To accelerate the establishment of green technology, it is necessary to solve the financial system problems faced by the various companies and to build a system that promotes green technology innovation. Based on an analysis of articles published in top international journals and official documents from 2016 to 2022 about the relationship between green technology and financial services in China, this paper tries to present specific policy recommendations to create a market that supports green technology in China. Our results show that the financial system must include, first of all, a model for financing and risk management at the level of the stock market, investment, insurance, and guarantees to face the reluctance of banks to lend. In addition, government incentives, including incubation, guarantees, interest rate subsidies, etc., mitigate the environmental externalities of green projects and limit the costs of financing green technology enterprises. Then, long-term funding needs to be provided to address the cost-effectiveness of selected green technology projects; and finally, the use of digital technology is required to improve green valuation capabilities and establish a set of environmental benefit definitions and valuation criteria that is suitable for green technology and green venture capital funds. Full article

Protean and boundaryless careers have emerged as new ways of handling careers in organizations. This concept is gaining a significant place in career studies. In line with this, the current study examines the relationship between the underlying dimensions of protean (self-direction and value-driven), boundaryless (boundaryless mindset (BM)) and mobility preference (MP) career attitudes and organizational commitment (OC) (affective, normative and continuance). Organizational commitment is important for all kinds of organizations. For data collection, 600 IT professionals employed in different organizations in the Delhi-NCR region of India were approached. Descriptive statistics, correlation and structural equation modeling (SEM) were utilized to validate the research outcomes and test hypotheses. Prior literature studies focusing on the effects of protean and boundaryless career attitudes on organizational commitment have not been much explored. The current study suggests that mobility preference has a significant contribution towards individuals’ continued commitment to the employing organization. Other variables assert an insignificant relationship with organizational commitment. These results demonstrate how decision-makers and managers should proceed to design a blueprint for the education of employees in conjunction with the underlying dimensions of protean, boundaryless and mobility preferences, career attitudes and organizational commitment (OC). Full article

The aim of this research is to analyze the effect of wine routes and Designations of Origin (DOs) on the competitiveness of wineries belonging to the Valencian Community, given that, to the best of our knowledge, such relationships have not been analyzed in this wine region. To this end, information was obtained on the operating income, results for the year, equity, level of indebtedness and number of employees of the 90 wineries belonging to this wine-growing territory. Subsequently, a comparison of means was made, calculating Student’s t-test for independent samples with the SPSS software, based on whether the wineries belonged to the wine routes and DOs existing in the Valencian Community. The results show the wineries that are members of a wine route and/or a DO have, on average, a higher operating income, higher equity and a higher number of employees, and these differences are statistically significant. This research may be useful for general managers who are considering the development of wine tourism activities, as well as for those who are thinking of joining DOs, since, as was empirically demonstrated, these actions can improve the economic performance of their wineries and, as a consequence, their competitiveness. Full article

Purpose: This paper seeks to consider the influence of organisational culture and its relationship to employees’ perception of the brand of the organisation they work for. It also aims to clarify where the responsibility lies for setting the organisational culture and whether that role is a board-driven function, falls within the influence of the CEO, or both. Design/methodology/approach: The research approach uses phenomenology, which focuses on participants’ lived experiences. Phenomenology is a segment of interpretivism that explores participants’ recollections and interpretations of events. From this, the researcher can gain insights into phenomena that can be grouped into themes for further analysis. A total of nine in-depth interviews were conducted with CEOs and senior management personnel from a range of service industries operating in Australia. Results: All participants considered organisational culture to be vital in guiding employee behaviour and highlighted the need for boards and CEOs to be cognisant of the necessity to communicate organisational values and culture to staff in a consistent manner. The implications of these results reveal that employees’ opinions of organisational culture can negatively or positively affect their attitude and engagement with the brand of the company within which they are employed. Full article

This research investigates the relationship between relational psychological contract and the retention of young talents in Vietnam. The study surveyed young employees pertaining to (Generations Y and Z) at BBB Company. The results show an equal weight of transactional and relational psychological contracts in the job satisfaction and retention of young Vietnamese employees. The research compared the relative importance of future growth potential against existing good practices. The results indicate that these two constructs have equal importance, as the value for r square is almost equal. This suggests that from a strategic standpoint Human Resource Management (HRM) ought to prioritise the development of practices that enhance both relational and transactional psychological contracts among young talents in Vietnam. This derives from a cultural transition, which means that both the weights of national culture and globalisation are influencing the choices and loyalty of the younger generations in the workplace. These findings have significant implications for the understanding of how generational differences and culture influence how a company retains their young talents and the importance of psychological contract for young employee commitment in Vietnam in an increasingly competitive environment. Full article

In the least developed countries, the informal sector faces great challenges in accessing healthcare services since most people are not mainstreamed. This has prompted the formation of groups as a way of empowerment. The objective of this study was to examine the factors contributing to health microinsurance uptake among the informal sector groups so as to enable companies to reposition in this market. Quantitative data was collected from 1600 informal sector groups, and Principal Component Analysis was used to extract the main factors. Structural Equation Modeling was applied to adjust for individual response styles, assess unobservable latent variables, provide numerical estimates for each of the parameters in the model and indicate the strength of the relationships. This study found that informal sector culture was highly rated in repositioning health microinsurance products, followed by the use of mobile phone technology, then the mode of communication, social capital and finally, perception. With the inclusion of mobile phone technology, payment options were insignificant. These findings implied that, for health microinsurance companies to reposition in the informal sector market, trust, product value, packaging design, group support and assets need to be prioritized. Full article

Digital technologies are being introduced in all areas of the construction industry with the overarching goals of increasing productivity while simultaneously simplifying work and reducing errors. Nevertheless, their use and the associated implementation in construction companies is currently still inhibited. One reason for this is the lack of a holistic implementation process for digital technologies. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to deliver a concept for such a holistic digital-technology-implementation-process which addresses current barriers. For this purpose, a qualitative literature analysis was conducted first, which reveals the current focus of research on digital technologies. In a second step, current barriers regarding the implementation of digital technologies were identified by conducting interviews with experts from German construction companies. The interview concept combined and adapted the survey instruments Technology Commitment by Neyer et al. and Technophobia by Sinkovics. Based on the findings of the qualitative literature research and the expert interviews, a holistic implementation process for the introduction of digital technologies for construction companies was developed, which specifically addresses the currently prevailing barriers. Therefore, the barriers Acceptance, Control and Competence were classified in a temporal context within the implementation process and recommendations for action are presented for the individual process steps of implementing digital technologies. Full article