Strategic Management - International Journal of Strategic Management and Decision Support Systems in Strategic Management

Boards’ strategic involvement models: past, present, and future

2023-09-08T13:27:30+02:00

Background: The research on boards’ strategic involvement has increased dramatically in the last few decades due to the need for improving boards’ strategic effectiveness as a mechanism for improving organizational performance. The corporate scandals highlighted even more that boards’ strategic decisions have sizable consequences for organizational survival, and long-term implications for organizational development.

Purpose: The main research questions in this study are: 1. Which are the main elements of the concept of boards’ strategic involvement?; 2. Which models constitute the core of the concept and how we can classify them?; 3. How has the discourse on boards’ strategic role changed over time? Our purpose is to provide comprehensive answers to these questions and draft the future research agenda in this area.

Study design/methodology/approach: Having in mind that boards’ strategic involvement is a multi-disciplinary area, we first conducted an integrative literature review, to detect the competing groups of models, and afterwards we conducted a semi-structured literature review in order to identify the most important topics in this area and to draft the future research agenda.

Findings/conclusions: This paper contributes to research by identifying the models of boards’ strategic involvement, classifying them in three competing groups of models that represent the foundation in this research area, by identifying the most investigated topics in the past five years and finally, by drafting the future research agenda. Our conclusion is that the research in this multidisciplinary area is navigating around these three groups of models and that the most explored topics around which the future research is going to be conducted are boards’ involvement in the area of strategic human resource management and decisions regarding organizations’ sustainability.

Limitations/future research: The study’s main limitations are related to the fact that the identified models on boards’ strategic involvement have been developed, mostly by authors from the USA and UK, where the one-tier board system is used. In future research, the authors should focus on proposing new framework(s)/model(s) and supporting its insights with empirical evidence.

Financial inclusion and inflation in Southeast European countries

2023-12-25T13:12:59+01:00

Background: As a complex socio-economic concept, financial inclusion is related to the improvement of access and use of formal financial products and services (such as bank deposits, loans, insurance, etc.) by all participants in the financial system. More inclusive financial systems contribute to poverty reduction, decrease in inequalities among different income groups leading to economic growth, and economies more resilient towards macroeconomic shocks.

Purpose: This paper aims to assess the relationship between financial inclusion and inflation in Southeast European countries, focusing on Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia, and Turkey in the period from 2011 to 2021.

Study design/methodology/approach: The financial inclusion index was constructed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The connection between the financial inclusion index and inflation was investigated using panel regression modeling (OLS, fixed-effect, and random-effect models).

Findings/Conclusions: The research showed that countries with higher levels of financial inclusion are more resilient to inflation. This finding is consistent with other research implying that policymakers and other stakeholders within a financial system should contribute to promoting financial inclusion and building more inclusive financial systems.

Limitations/future research: The main limitation of the research is related to data availability for multidimensional index construction. Future research should be directed to providing a better understanding of whether the relationship between financial inclusion and inflation is under the influence of other monetary policy instruments, such as interest rates.

Effects of compulsive buying on debt avoidance and self-esteem: Can brand addiction serve as a socially responsible mediator?

2023-12-19T09:38:57+01:00

Background: Despite its controversial features, compulsive buying is gaining increasing attention in recent scientific marketing literature. A particular emphasis is focused on the overlap between compulsive purchasing and addiction to the brand, as well as an analysis of the combined effects of these two forms of addictive consuming on consumers.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the connection between brand addiction and compulsive buying, as well as the individual and combined effects of these constructs on self-esteem and debt avoidance. Testing differences between consumers of different genders was also carried out.

Study design/methodology/approach: Data were gathered using a questionnaire in the form of a self-assessment that included demographic questions as well as questions about compulsive buying, brand addiction, avoiding debt, and self-esteem. Upon gathering online data in Bosnia and Herzegovina, partial least squares analysis was performed to analyze the data using structural equation modeling.

Findings/conclusions: The study’s findings show that brand addiction and compulsive buying are positively associated. Brand addiction serves as a beneficial mediator between compulsive buying and the goals of debt avoidance and self-esteem, acting as a counterbalance to the detrimental effects of compulsive buying. The study’s findings indicate that there are no appreciable differences in the aforementioned correlations between men and women. This study offers empirical proof that compulsive buying and brand addiction are separate but related behaviors. These findings improved the conceptual implications of these two crucial ideas and provided brand managers and marketers with a useful tool for strategic brand management and strategic marketing management in general.

Limitations/future research: Future research can develop conceptual models that are more appropriate, containing characteristics that predict addictive behavior, as well as models for marketing strategies that are sensitive to addictive consumption.

The impact of corporate social responsibility on the environmental performance of large organizations in Serbia

2022-06-07T21:01:00+02:00

Background: Modern business operations, which have resulted in a significant growth of major companies, both those operating within their national boundaries and multinational ones, have contributed to an increased exploitation of natural resources, environmental pollution, harmful gas emissions, drinking water scarcity, deforestation and many other negative consequences for the entire environment. This resulted in the emergence of the concept of CSR, first in large multinationals, which had sufficient funds to address this issue, and, in most cases, had contributed to environmental pollution.

Purpose: The authors of this paper investigate whether there is a relation between the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and environmental performance in Serbia.

Study design/methodology/approach: The research was conducted from November 2019 to August 2021 in large organisations on a sample of 165 companies. The author used Smart PLS software for data processing.

Finding/conclusions: The research results show that the application of the concept of CSR influences significantly the environmental performance in large organisations in Serbia.

Limitations/future research: The authors only investigated large companies, while the relationship between CSR and environmental performances in SMEs is a potential for future research.

Future-shaping themes: digital age foresight in Turkish university strategic plans

2023-12-08T15:32:02+01:00

Background: Universities affect their communities and ecosystems both directly and indirectly. The strategic plans of all Turkish universities with Higher Education Council accreditation were thoroughly examined within this context. An ecosystem where digital technologies are used more efficiently and extensively is necessary for the ideal of a more sustainable environment and a world with happy people.

Purpose: This study’s main aim was to discover how universities in Türkiye predict the digital age via the emphasis they place on digital themes in their future plans.

Study design/methodology/approach: The content analysis technique utilised within the scope of document analysis was chosen as the best method to satisfy this study's objectives.

Findings/conclusions: The study found five main themes regarding the future of higher education based on codes obtained from university strategic plans. Digital transformation, digital campus, digital education, digital infrastructure, and future-focused units were these themes. We analysed the content of these five areas in connection with four types of universities around the country to see if there was a significant difference in attitude towards the digital age. Only future-focused units significantly distinguished these four types of universities, it was found.

Limitations/future research: The research primarily examined the digital age themes that are evident in the strategic plans of universities. Academic studies for future research may involve an examination of the content of strategic plans in relation with different themes and categorizations. The collected results might be subjected to comparisons in order to assess the effectiveness of strategic plans.

Banking service quality perceived by students: implications to green services

2022-05-19T08:10:22+02:00

Background: The paper examines banking service quality perceived by students as a basis for determining implications for green services. The focus was on this market segment bearing in mind its potential effects on banks’ long-term profitability and students’ acquaintance with environmental issues. The attention was dedicated to the green banking concept taking into account the role which banks have in creating an eco-friendly society.

Purpose: The aim of the research refers to identifying banking service quality aspects that are important for students. Later, those can be used as a starting point in determining actions regarding green services in the case of the student population.

Study design/methodology/approach: The quality of a bank service was modeled as a hierarchical reflective-formative construct, because of which the SmartPLS software was applied. Five SERVQUAL dimensions (assurance, empathy, reliability, responsiveness, and tangibles) were specified as lower-order reflective constructs which form the higher-order formative construct (banking service quality). After testing the model, separately for reflective and formative constructs, path coefficients were presented.

Finding/conclusions: The results have shown that responsiveness and assurance represent dimensions that have the largest contribution to banking service quality, i.e. the highest path coefficients to higher-order construct. In accordance with those findings, certain implications concerning green services were given.

Limitations/future research: The omission of certain variables that may be related to banking services represents the limitation of this study; hereby, in future researches, some socio-demographic characteristics (such as gender, household income, etc.) could be included in the analysis.