As financial fraud becomes more sophisticated and financial services are increasingly digitized, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are emerging as pivotal technologies for risk management and compliance. While research into AI-driven fraud detection is advancing rapidly, the intellectual structure and theoretical underpinnings remain fragmented. This paper provides a systematic review of 118 peer-reviewed articles published between 2015 and 2025, combining bibliometric science mapping with the SPAR-4-SLR protocol to ensure rigour, transparency and replicability. Through co-word network analysis, thematic mapping and conceptual clustering, the study traces the field’s evolution from rule-based systems to adaptive anomaly detection, explainable AI and compliance models, with a focus on digital payment ecosystems and blockchain-enabled applications. The analysis highlights key theoretical anchors, including Fraud Triangle Theory, Agency Theory, Game Theory, Trust and Signalling Theories and regulatory compliance perspectives. It also identifies underexplored areas such as federated learning, algorithmic auditing and cross-jurisdictional intelligence. By mapping theoretical foundations and thematic development, this study offers an evidence-based account of how AI in fraud detection has evolved. It concludes by proposing a future research agenda emphasizing transparency, ethical assurance and global governance alignment, advancing financial risk management through conceptual clarity, methodological guidance and actionable pathways for responsible AI adoption.
This study explores how managers discursively construct innovation cultures as relational phenomena in Finnish innovation-oriented companies. Drawing on critical discursive psychology (CDP) and a collective case study design, this research analyses in-depth interviews with five senior managers to uncover the interpretive repertoires and subject positions they employ when discussing innovation. The findings reveal three key repertoires: (a) culture-through-communication , where managers function as communicative facilitators fostering shared understanding; (b) collaborative development , positioning managers as partnership builders engaging internal and external stakeholders; and (c) purposeful integration , where managers serve as community developers aligning individual purpose with collective innovation goals. These repertoires highlight how innovation cultures are co-constructed through everyday dialogue, relational practices, and meaning-making processes. Rather than viewing innovation culture as a static or top-down construct, this study emphasizes its dynamic, discursive, and relational nature. Theoretically, the research contributes to organizational discourse studies by providing a nuanced framework for understanding managerial agency in shaping innovation cultures. Practically, it emphasizes the importance of communicative leadership and relational competence in fostering innovation. The study invites further exploration into how discursive practices shape innovation across diverse organizational and cultural contexts.
The current research case examines how the new ₹ 2,500-million Jagannath Temple in Digha (West Bengal) is changing the branding identity of the destination to a spiritual tourism destination, and how this transition has influenced how tourists perceive, construct stories and form emotional– symbolic attachments to the destination. It answers three questions: the extent to which the temple has contributed to visitors’ perceptions of Digha as a spiritual destination; the specific symbolic and emotional connections visitors have developed during their temple visit; and the resultant socio-economic and community developments after its opening. Theoretically, the research combines destination brand love, self-congruity theory, place attachment theory, destination identity, social identity theory, brand community theory, experiential marketing and symbolic interactionism to understand identity congruence, ritual-based bonding, communal pilgrimage experiences and the reformation of Digha’s semiotic landscape. It is methodologically a mixed qualitative research design comprising phenomenological interviews with domestic tourists, participant observation, semi-structured interviews with hospitality providers and hospitality government officials, analysis of documents and focus groups with repeat tourists and residents, which is backed by phenomenological thematic-based analysis, discourse analysis, visual ethnography and NVivo-based sentimental analysis. The results show that spiritual and tourist participation intensifies, the duration of stay is longer, and entrepreneurship and arrivals are higher during festivals, as well as pressures on local trade and the necessity of more comprehensive and inclusive planning. The research contributes to theoretical knowledge by developing temple-induced place attachment and provides practical insights into the balance between spiritual tourism growth and the involvement of multiple generations in the community, as well as sustainable religious heritage-based destination branding.
This study explores why resource-constrained small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries and weak institutional contexts embrace corporate sustainability (CS), focusing on a Sri Lankan apparel firm that institutionalized CS, despite systemic challenges. Drawing on institutional, resilience, and identity framing theories, the study adopts an exploratory single-case design to examine how internal leadership decisions interact with external pressures and are interpreted and embedded through leadership framing. The findings question the common belief that CS in the Global South is driven by external forces, symbolic actions, or structural limits. Instead, sustainability is shown as a moral and risk-management-oriented survival strategy, shaped by a strong underdog identity and close-knit operations. An emergent conceptual framework highlights how SMEs translate buyer demands and local constraints into embedded practices, through purpose-driven adaptation. It offers fresh insights into how SMEs in low-capacity and weak institutional environments lead sustainability efforts and suggests the need for context-aware policy support.
Analysing differences of leadership styles in the economies of the United States and India has provoked discourse. Finding the ‘sweet spot’ as a tool for community engagement will resolve the issues that exist. Those skills previously required in policy development, advocacy, teaching and stakeholder engagement that socially impact communities have been transferred into an operational model. In this article, sustainability discourse was addressed by finding the ‘sweet spot’ as it is related to management practice in the holistic implementation of programmes that improved human welfare, education and mental health. Implementation of sustainable programmes can now be used as a model for those that stagnate. Objectives developed that reflect the model that moved organizations towards goal achievement have been elucidated. The methodologies of Appreciative Sharing of Knowledge (ASK) and Positive Design have been reflected as proposed frameworks for developing trans-organizational collaborations among stakeholders and nonprofit government organizations (NGOs) to improve lives in the United States and India. The qualitative methodology adopted in this article is based on the case method and ethnographic approach. The study is relevant as it presents real examples of the implementation of best community practices advancing SDG 3 and SDG 17.
Cross-sectoral knowledge spillover in the apparel value chain enables incumbent firms in the Global South to transform industry challenges into social innovation (SI) opportunities, redefining B2B dynamics through collaborative learning. This study explores knowledge spillover mechanisms in the B2B apparel value chain, particularly between dominant buyers in the Global North and apparel industries in the Global South. Still, it is largely unclear what knowledge spillover is made of and how it happens. It investigates how buyers facilitate SI practices and how local production firms adapt them to their operational environments. The research employs a qualitative approach using a single case study method. Data collection includes document analysis and in-depth interviews with managers, supervisors, and employees. Thematic analysis, supported by NVivo software, is used to interpret the data. The study finds that SI is embedded within new business models introduced by incumbent firms. Several SI practices contribute to sustainability transitions, enhancing corporate image and legitimacy amid global competition. Additionally, buyer-imposed conditions such as job quality, gender equality, and inclusion are transformed into economic empowerment and livelihood improvements for machine operators in local firms. The research provides valuable insights into how businesses in the Global South can effectively localize global SI practices to enhance sustainability and improve working conditions. It highlights the role of international buyers in shaping responsible business practices through knowledge spillover. The study underscores the importance of SI in addressing human rights concerns, improving labour conditions, and promoting economic empowerment within the apparel industry. This study contributes to the ongoing discourse on the business-society relationship by highlighting the transformative potential of SI in the apparel sector. It offers a nuanced perspective on how firms localize global knowledge to drive sustainability transitions, thereby enriching the understanding of knowledge spillover in the global value chains.
Entrepreneurship education has increasingly been recognized as a key context for shaping students’ entrepreneurial identities. However, less is known about how students discursively construct the meanings of risk, responsibility and reward within university-based entrepreneurship communities. This study addresses this gap by examining how risk, responsibility and reward are discursively negotiated in students’ narratives. Drawing on qualitative interview data from participants engaged in higher education entrepreneurship initiatives, the study applies grounded theory within a discourse-analytic framework. The findings reveal that risk is framed as a voluntary acceptance of uncertainty that signals courage and commitment; responsibility is constructed both as individual self-governance and as relational accountability within entrepreneurial communities; and reward is primarily articulated as intrinsic meaning, personal growth and future-oriented fulfilment rather than immediate financial gain. These discursive constructions interrelate to form a triadic model through which entrepreneurial identity is legitimized and sustained over time. The study contributes to entrepreneurship education research by demonstrating how identity formation is shaped through language and by highlighting the importance of community-based environments in cultivating ongoing entrepreneurial identity work.
This study explores how organizational structures shape firms’ dynamic capabilities and agility, contrasting traditional firms with those operating in Industry 4.0 environments. As agility becomes vital in digital business, understanding how structural configurations enable or constrain adaptability is essential. A thematic literature review of 70 studies reveals that traditional firms, often hierarchical and centralized, face structural rigidity that limits responsiveness. In contrast, Industry 4.0 organizations adopt flexible, decentralized structures that enhance innovation, real-time decision-making and competitive advantage. These agile configurations significantly strengthen dynamic capabilities, enabling superior performance in digital contexts. The findings underscore the strategic importance of structural adaptability and highlight the advantages of decentralized approaches to managing digital transformation. While traditional firms struggle to adapt to dynamic markets, Industry 4.0 organizations demonstrate greater resilience. This review offers practical insights for managers and strategists while calling for empirical research to validate and extend these conclusions in strategic and organizational management.
Micromanagement remains one of the most prevalent yet under-theorized forms of controlling leadership in high-pressure industries like the information technology (IT) sector. This study examines why micromanagement persists in India’s IT industry despite its well-documented harms. It also investigates how micromanagement affects employees’ basic psychological needs. Drawing on self-determination theory (SDT) and the Gioia methodology, we analyse 37 in-depth interviews with IT professionals across India’s leading technology firms. The findings reveal three paradoxes. First, efficiency-oriented control erodes productivity and innovation. Second, autonomy suppression fosters compliance rather than resistance. Third, employees who recognize micromanagement’s harm nonetheless normalize and reproduce it upon promotion. Together, these paradoxes position micromanagement not as an individual managerial flaw, but as an organizational pathology. It is a condition structurally reproduced through industrial pressures, managerial insecurity and cultural deference to hierarchy. This study extends SDT beyond its conventional application. We demonstrate that need frustration in high-power-distance contexts produces counterintuitive compliance rather than disengagement. Practically, the findings call for systemic interventions. These include shifting from input monitoring to outcome-based trust, strengthening leadership development and building psychological safety to disrupt entrenched cycles of overcontrol.
This study examines the orchestration of consumer habit shifts within digital service ecosystems across the Asia-Pacific region, moving beyond individual technology adoption models to conceptualize behavioural change as a stakeholder-driven, ecosystem-level process. Through a theory-building systematic literature review synthesizing 143 articles from 2020 to 2025, this research integrates service-dominant logic (SDL), ecosystem orchestration theory and habit formation theory into a hierarchically organized analytical lens that traces causal pathways from macro-level value co-creation through meso-level stakeholder coordination to micro-level habit internalization. The analysis identifies seven core sectors undergoing significant habit transformations—led by financial services and e-commerce— facilitated by orchestration mechanisms including artificial intelligence (AI) personalization, gamification, trust-building and regulatory alignment, coordinated across platform operators, government bodies, financial providers and content creators. Consumer segmentation across geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioural dimensions reveals that institutional voids in emerging markets accelerate leapfrogging behaviours, psychographic drivers consistently override demographic predictors and habit consolidation follows non-linear pathways with critical vulnerability points. The study contributes a Digital Habit Transformation Framework that advances three causal pathways as testable theoretical propositions—infrastructure–access–habit (P1), personalization–engagement–automaticity (P2) and trust–adoption–consolidation (P3)—each operating under specified boundary conditions and offered for future empirical validation rather than as empirically confirmed causal claims. The framework further introduces value co-destruction dynamics, drawing on SDL theory, to explain how orchestration mechanisms, such as AI personalization, can shift from habit reinforcement to habit disruption when consumer tolerance thresholds are exceeded. Managerially, the three pathways offer differentiated strategic guidance: emerging market operators should prioritize infrastructure accessibility over feature sophistication, digitally mature platforms must calibrate personalization below intrusiveness thresholds and financial providers in low-trust environments should leverage institutional endorsement as the primary adoption driver.
This study seeks to explore how enterprise resource planning (ERP) adoption in a manufacturing SME strengthens management accounting and controls, and how ERP-driven changes are sustained to ensure sustainable survival. A single holistic case study design was adopted to explore the ERP adoption process under an extended Burns and Scapens framework and dynamic capabilities as theoretical lenses at ABLT (a manufacturing SME in Pakistan). Fourteen semi-structured interviews, observations and documents were analysed using Gioia’s methodology to surface first-order codes, seven second-order themes and four aggregate dimensions. The findings reveal a multi-stage process. ERP adoption was triggered by the convergence of internal manual frustrations and external customer-driven pressure for traceable information. During implementation, managers negotiated financial, production and technical logics and embedded real-time accounting routines while drawing on existing standard operating procedures to reduce resistance. Once stabilized, these routines enabled team learning that built sensing, seizing and transforming capabilities. Dynamic capabilities, in turn, allowed the firm to reconfigure rapidly when COVID-19 disrupted supply lines, thereby protecting cash flow and accelerating post-crisis growth. A conceptual model shows how institutional alignment and capability building interact recursively rather than sequentially. The study contributes by integrating the extended Burns and Scapens framework with dynamic capabilities theory to understand ERP-driven management accounting and controls in the context of SMEs. For practitioners, the study highlights the significance of aligning customer expectations, internal policies and team learning to turn ERP from a technical project into a platform for ongoing resilience and growth.
The banking sector in an economy is one of the most important components of the financial system. It is not only affected by its own actions and industry dynamics, but also heavily relies on the macroeconomic aspects for successful management and operations. This study aims to investigate the macroeconomic facets of banking, illuminating the complex relationships that exist between banking management, macroeconomic indicators and economic stability. To this end, this article focuses on developing a conceptual framework, incorporating all elements that affect the management of banking operations in any country, through a structured examination of the literature. Two hundred seventy-eight articles, extracted from the Scopus database, were scrutinized and reviewed for understanding the literature and illustrating a conceptual framework. The framework draws on three aspects, that is, the macroeconomic determinants of bank outcomes, the short-term outcomes on banking operations, and the long-term outcomes. The study also highlights emerging areas of research which have scope for further exploration. It contributes to a deeper understanding of the macroeconomic perspectives of banking, and the findings hold significance for policymakers, financial institutions, and other stakeholders.
This article examines the leadership modes employed by the Promark Group, a Moroccan hidden champion, and their impact on the company’s internationalization trajectory and sustainable competitiveness. Drawing on an in-depth case study, the research aims to explore how context-sensitive and adaptive leadership practices can enable companies in emerging economies to overcome structural and institutional constraints while achieving strategic growth. The study shows that Promark’s success stems from a hybrid leadership style that combines visionary foresight, operational pragmatism and cultural adaptability as key elements for navigating market uncertainties and creating sustainable competitive advantages. Furthermore, this case highlights the importance of progressive, relationship-based internationalization strategies, which are often best suited to hidden champions in emerging markets. This article contributes to the growing literature on hidden champions by offering empirical insights into how leadership modes interact with internationalization processes. It also offers valuable insight into the mechanisms by which companies in emerging economies achieve global competitiveness without sacrificing their niche. By placing these dynamics in the context of the Moroccan business ecosystem, the article enriches our understanding of leadership and international strategy in little-explored geographical contexts.
Organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) is essential for organizational sustainability. Despite the numerous studies in this domain, there is a lack of comprehensive and objective reviews of the extant literature, constraining both theoretical understanding and practical application. Therefore, the primary aim of this study is to provide an extensive and rigorous review of OCB, analyse the thematic progression of research and identify future avenues. The study uses the SPAR-4-SLR framework, which has enhanced the credibility of the present research. This study employs both bibliometric and content analyses. While bibliometric analysis offers quantitative insights, content analysis provides qualitative insights into the thematic content of the literature. The co-citation analysis revealed five significant themes, namely ‘Organizational Identification and OCB’, ‘Social Exchange Theory (SET) and OCB’, ‘Dimensionality and OCB’, ‘Workplace Deviant Behaviours and OCB’ and ‘Leadership and OCB’. Content analysis was employed to examine and analyse the most relevant papers under each cluster. The results provide a thematic understanding of the progression and advancement of OCB research throughout the years. This nuanced exploration not only synthesizes key insights from past studies but also highlights potential pathways for future research, contributing to a deeper understanding of the dynamic and multifaceted nature of OCB. With its practical and theoretical implications, the article demonstrates the significance of OCB and offers several promising insights.
This article explores how entrepreneurial culture is constructed in a university setting through the discursive practices of students engaged in entrepreneurship communities. Drawing on discourse analysis and a theoretical framework that integrates identity theory, organizational culture (Schein), communities of practice (Wenger) and symbolic anthropology (Geertz), the study examines how students make sense of entrepreneurship as a cultural and identity-forming phenomenon. Empirical data were collected through thematic interviews with student entrepreneurs active in multidisciplinary university-based communities. The analysis identified three primary discourse categories: personal, communal and normative, each reflecting different dimensions of how students internalize and legitimize entrepreneurship. The findings reveal that entrepreneurial culture is not transmitted through formal teaching alone but emerges from peer interactions, shared narratives and symbolic practices that collectively shape identity and belonging. Entrepreneurial communities function as catalysts, offering both emotional resonance and social validation that make entrepreneurship a meaningful and attainable path. The study contributes to entrepreneurship education literature by demonstrating how discourse not only reflects but also actively constructs entrepreneurial realities in higher education. Implications are drawn for how institutions can support identity-sustaining structures that extend beyond individual courses and foster inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems.
In today’s dynamic and result-driven business environment, organizations expect accountability from public relations (PR) professionals to ensure their contributions align with organizational goals and objectives. Subsequently, PR practitioners must evaluate their PR activities to demonstrate PR effectiveness. This study aimed to explore current trends in PR evaluation research between 2010 and 2024 through bibliometric analysis, which revealed several challenges within the domain. Many themes and sub-themes were populated with the assistance of the VOSviewer software. Further, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 83 working PR executives. The interviewees discussed numerous evaluation techniques they used and their impacts and effects, such as awareness, attitude, opinion and behaviour. The finding offers credible inputs along with a conceptual model and insights for ensuing meaningful direction for future studies in the domain of PR.
The proliferation of digital gig platforms is revolutionizing the traditional employment landscape. Scientific studies present contrasting views concerning the underlying attributes driving or impeding its growth and rarely examine these dynamics from the stakeholders’ perspectives. This research endeavours to explore a comprehensive list of the attributes driving growth as well as the obstacles impeding the advancement of the gig economy from the stakeholders’ perspectives. This qualitative study explores the gig economy in the lower-middle income country context using focus group discussions (FGDs). Two FGDs were conducted to explore stakeholders’ perspectives on enablers and challenges of the gig economy growth. The attributes are summarized using the content analysis technique, and results are validated through an extensive literature review. The unique contribution of this article lies in a symbiotic relationship among workers, customers and platforms, with the state acting as the catalyst that either accelerates or impedes the progress of the gig economy. The research has implications for stakeholders in understanding the dynamics of various attributes of the gig economy.
