Purpose This paper aims to investigate the dynamic interaction of Human Resource Management Practices (HRM), Employee Creativity (ECR), Organizational Support for Creativity (OSC) and Employee Task Performance (ETP) within a structured Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling deployed to analyze the empirical survey results. Design/methodology/approach This empirical research aims to explain how Strategic Human Resource Management practices can foster an environment that enhances task performance by harnessing ECR, grounded in an integrated theoretical framework comprising Social Exchange Theory, the Resource-Based View, Self-Determination Theory and the Componential Theory of Creativity. Findings The analysis indicates that the relationship between HRM practices and ECR is positively moderated by perceived OSC. Consequently, creative outputs are enhanced and ETP will be proliferated. The results corroborate that HRM practices have a direct impact on ETP, but its contribution to this important outcome is fostered with the development of an environment that encourages creativity. Practical implications The empirical study emphasizes the crucial role of aligning HRM policies with supportive organizational structures to improve employee performance and creativity. Originality/value The existing literature on HRM is anticipated to be enriched by this research, which demonstrates how perceived OSC influences the connection between HRM practices, creativity and performance. This provides valuable insights for organizations aiming to maximize their human resources and in particular the ones operating in Asia.
Purpose This paper asks how employee stock ownership plans (ESOP) should be designed for corporate startups, and why such designs so often fail to align expectations. It aims to examine the tension between employees who ground equity claims in effort and leaders who ground them in risk-bearing. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative case study was conducted at a major Thai conglomerate operating two parallel innovation tracks: a relationship-based flagship venture and a merit-based stage-gate programme. Twenty-three semi-structured interviews covered 15 internal and eight external informants. Data were analysed thematically following Braun and Clarke (2006). Findings Employees and leaders reasoned from different premises about what equity compensates: effort versus risk-bearing. A convergent theme was reluctance to trade salary for equity – but that equity had never been specified. Its amount, the contribution required to obtain it, and the route by which it could become cash were all undefined. Differing accountability across the two tracks destabilized the design further. Research limitations/implications Findings derive from a single Thai conglomerate, so analytical rather than statistical generalization applies. Future research could test whether the effort–risk tension persists once the equity offered is fully specified. Practical implications The paper offers a four-step framework: classify the venture by intended destination; define what risk equity compensates; apply consistent rules across tracks; and define how ownership becomes cash. Unrealizable equity is not compensation. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first inside-the-firm account of ESOP design across parallel corporate startup programmes in an Asian conglomerate, identifying an institutional precondition – an exit market – that equity practice assumes but rarely examines.
Purpose Focusing on customer experience quality (CEQ) as a central mechanism, this study aims to examine how social commerce stimuli influence continued engagement intention (CEI) and, ultimately, intended customer citizenship behaviour (CCB). Design/methodology/approach A sequential mixed-methods design was employed: qualitative interviews contextualised established CEQ dimensions and identified context-specific manifestations of social commerce stimuli, followed by a survey testing a model that integrates Belk’s situational framework with the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) framework and Social Exchange Theory. Findings Results show that most platform attributes (stimuli), including social support, interactivity, community, personalised recommendation and perceived discount, influence selected CEQ dimensions (organism), although the effects are dimension-specific. Interestingly, cognitive and social experiences predict both CEI and intended CCB, whereas affective–sensory and behavioural experiences predict intended CCB only indirectly through CEI. Notably, interdependent self-construal has a statistically significant, although modest, effect on the CEI–CCB linkage. Practical implications The findings offer theoretical and managerial implications for experience-driven social commerce in emerging markets. Originality/value This study identifies a situated experiential reciprocity process in which social commerce situational cues generate distinct dimensions of CEQ, which in turn translate into intended CCB through CEI. Interdependent self-construal further provides a boundary condition for this process. The study also offers exploratory evidence of possible differences between brand and seller pages.
Purpose The rapid growth of e-grocery has driven an increasing demand for last-mile delivery services (LMD), making it an important element in the retailing supply chain. However, little is known about the customers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for this service in developing markets. Most of existing studies have focused on developed countries, and overlooked the heterogeneity in customers’ behavior. This study aims to estimate the distributions of customers’ WTP for LMD’s attributes and explore the sources of customer heterogeneity in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Design/methodology/approach The data was collected from a discrete choice experiment on 438 shoppers in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The authors use the generalized multinomial logit model in the WTP space to estimate the distributions of customers’ WTP for LMD’s attributes, allowing for individual taste and scale heterogeneity. Findings Around 75% of consumers have a positive WTP for home delivery. The demand for LMD is found to be highly sensitive to shipping fees. In addition, the WTP for each attribute also largely varies across consumers due to the heterogeneity in both customers’ unobserved and observed characteristics. Specifically, unobserved heterogeneity arises from differences in tastes as well as variations in the error components across choice situations while observed heterogeneity includes differences in demographic characteristics and order value. Originality/value This study highlights the need to account for both taste and scale heterogeneity in modeling consumer choice of LMD. Findings also imply that retailers had better offer customized LMD for omnichannel grocery shoppers rather than one-size-fits-all one.
Purpose Public sector organizations increasingly rely on employees who will act beyond their prescribed role to deliver value for citizens. In practice, encouraging this kind of discretionary, socially oriented behavior is difficult, and it is not well explained by traditional motivational accounts. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the study aims to examine how servant leadership (SL) influences social orientation behavior (SO) among public sector employees in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Job fulfillment (JF) is proposed as the psychological mediator linking SL to SO. Social impact Human Resource Management (HRM) (SIHRM) and compassion are then introduced as moderators, the former operating at the organizational level and the latter at the individual level. Design/methodology/approach Dyadic data were collected from 185 employee–supervisor pairs across several UAE public organizations. The mediation and moderated mediation hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling and Hayes’ PROCESS Macro (Model 21), with bias-corrected bootstrapped confidence intervals. Findings Four results emerged. SL was positively associated with SO. JF mediated this relationship. SIHRM strengthened the effect of SL on JF. Compassion strengthened the effect of JF on SO. Practical implications For public sector managers, the findings point to a few concrete moves. Leadership development programs should give explicit attention to servant leadership behaviors rather than treating them as soft skills picked up on the job. HRM practices need to make societal contribution legible in things such as appraisal criteria, recognition and recruitment messaging. In addition, compassion should be treated as a trainable capability, not just a personal disposition. These priorities sit comfortably with the UAE’s policy emphasis on citizen happiness and public value. Originality/value Three contributions sit at the center of the paper. First, SIHRM is proposed as a new construct that distinguishes socially oriented HRM from more conventional performance-focused HRM. Second, JF is positioned as the psychological route through which SL translates into SO, addressing a gap in how the SL–SO link has usually been explained. Third, compassion is examined as a moral condition that strengthens prosocial behavior rather than only a felt response to suffering. The UAE setting, with its collectivist orientation and explicitly citizen-facing public services, gives the model a context where prosocial action carries real institutional weight.
