Obesity is a physically experienced and visually perceived adversity that affects more than a billion people worldwide. This paper investigates how poorer health and psychosocial experiences of persons with obesity influence their entrepreneurial intentions and actions. Based on the German Socioeconomic Panel, there is no total effect of obesity on the probability of transitioning to entrepreneurship, but this hides contrasting underlying mechanisms. By estimating a mediation model, we show that obesity has a positive indirect effect on entrepreneurial intention through health and psychosocial mediators but a negative indirect effect on transitioning through the health mediator. The contrasting indirect effects on psychologically distant intention and psychologically near transitioning are consistent with construal level theory. This study has theoretical implications for research on entrepreneurship in response to adversity, employment outcomes of obesity, and the intention-action link in entrepreneurship. For individuals with obesity, starting their own business is often a desirable goal, but this goal is also hard to achieve. The World Health Organization estimates that more than a billion people globally are affected by obesity, impacting their career opportunities. Research suggests that those facing adverse employment outcomes, including individuals with obesity, may consider entrepreneurship as a viable alternative. This study argues that the health and social challenges associated with obesity can increase the intention to be an entrepreneur but can also hinder an actual transition to entrepreneurship. Using general population data from Germany, our findings reveal that obesity indirectly influences entrepreneurial intentions through health and workplace experiences and entrepreneurship transition through health. This study offers practical implications for entrepreneurship support providers, policymakers, educators, and employers of individuals with obesity.
Past behavior has been suggested as a potential predictor of future behavior in social cognition models but has not been tested in the context of consumer medicating behavior. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between past behavior, operationalized as the frequency of past use, and intention, as defined by the theory of planned behavior. First, based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study tested the predictive utility of an intention of Vietnamese mothers to administer non-prescription anthelmintic medications to their school-age children. Second, it examined the predictive validity of past use on intention. Third, it identified moderating effect of demographic variables on the relationship between past use and intention. A convenient sample of 395 mothers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, was included in the present study. The original model of TPB explained 32.3% of the variance in the intention to use non-prescription anthelmintics. The addition of past use frequency added 11.7% of the variance in the intention after controlling for the TPB original constructs. Monthly household income of mothers significantly moderated the relationship between past use and intention. Age and educational levels of mothers did not moderate the relationship. Theoretical and managerial implications as well as research limitations are discussed.
The present research addressed whether mothers' perception that their children are vulnerable to and threatened by a certain health problem increases their intention to use over-the-counter (OTC) medications to prevent it. The research aimed to examine the predictive validity and the moderating effects of perceived vulnerability and perceived threat on mothers' intention to administer over-the-counter preventive medications to their school-aged children. Derived from social cognition models, a causal model was developed and tested with data collected from 299 mothers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, regarding the vitamin supplement category. The model was found to significantly predict mothers' intention to use OTC medications. Perceived vulnerability and perceived threat did not predict intention but moderated the relationship between perceived benefit and intention to administer vitamin supplements. Theoretical and managerial implications and limitations of the research are also discussed.
Technological advances are beginning to change the timeline and finality of death, and these emerging death technologies affect the dying, survivors, and society in unprecedented ways. We systematize current, emerging, and imagined technologically mediated or enabled human-death relationships through our REAL framework, which considers three areas of death technologies: digital Remembrance, life Extension, and digital AfterLife. These technologies extend consumption beyond the consumer life cycle into a consumer death cycle, raising profound ethical and marketing questions. Based on a thematic synthesis of recurring ethical principles, we conceptualize the CARE principles—Control, Accountability, Respect, and Equity—and illustrate implications for the (future) deceased, the bereaved, providers, and policymakers. Our work offers a starting point for understanding the complex ethical and marketing challenges of death technologies and the digital afterlife by developing a conceptual and ethical framework that clarifies how these technologies are organized, embedded, and governed within market systems. We also extend foundational concepts of consumer vulnerability, co-creation, and extended self into posthumous contexts, and lays out a research agenda.
Entrepreneurial firms are heavily relying on digitalization to enhance environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and sustainability performance (SP) these days. This study investigates the effect of digital capabilities (DC) on sustainability performance of Chinese manufacturing firms. In addition, the study investigates the mediating impacts of data-driven decision-making, (Environmental, social, and governance) ESG performance, and innovation performance between DC and SP. Moreover, the study examines the moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Data were gathered from 395 managers/owners of SMEs in China, employing PLS-SEM to explore the multiple mediation effect of data-driven decision-making, ESG performance, and innovation performance between DC and SP. The results revealed a positive relationship between digital capabilities and SP. Thus, data-driven decision-making plays a mediating role in DC and SP. The study further showed that ESG performance has a mediating role between DC and SP, whereas innovation performance has a mediating role between DC and SP. Moreover, EO significantly moderated between DC, data-driven decision-making, and SP. This study shows that digital capabilities, data-driven decision-making, and innovation boost sustainability performance. It highlights the role of entrepreneurial orientation in enhancing ESG outcomes. Firms can leverage these insights to improve sustainability strategies. This study offers new empirical insights by examining the various mediating roles of digital capabilities, ESG performance, and innovation performance in the relationship between DC and sustainability performance through the theoretical lens of resource orchestration theory.
