Objective: The objective of the article is to identify the relationship between work flexibility and organisational trust, as well as the moderating role of remote work disadvantages in this relationship. Specifically, this study explores how work flexibility influences trust between organisations and remote workers and the role that remote work disadvantages play in this dynamic. Research Design & Methods: The study employed survey data gathered by a professional research firm that used the Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI) method and involved a randomly selected sample of 322 Polish remote employees. The Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis were used. Findings: The findings indicate that work flexibility positively affects organisational trust, and reveal that remote work disadvantages, such as excessive monitoring and communication challenges, negatively impact organisational trust. Interestingly, our findings suggest that in challenging remote work environments, employees may place greater value on work flexibility as a mechanism for maintaining trust. Implications & Recommendations: These insights hold practical implications for policies, suggesting that employers aiming to enhance organisational trust should focus on fostering a culture of mutual trust rather than relying excessively on monitoring mechanisms. Additionally, employers should implement flexible work arrangements that support employees in managing remote work-related challenges. Contribution & Value Added: The findings of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the relationship between work flexibility and organisational trust, emphasising the moderating role of remote work disadvantages. Our results confirm that work flexibility positively influences organisational trust, aligning with prior research indicating that remote work environments necessitate a higher level of trust due to the shift in responsibility from employers to employees.
Objective: The objective of the article is to comprehend the effectiveness of African immigrant entrepreneurs in acquiring the financial capital required to venture into entrepreneurship in the host country. Research Design & Methods: The study’s objectives were met using a qualitative research methodology based on an interpretive research paradigm. In a face-to-face interaction, personal interviews collected data from a purposive sample of 12 African immigrant entrepreneurs (owners/managers). The Gioia method systematically coded related interview extracts into first-order concepts, then grouped them into second-order themes and aggregate dimensions. Findings: The results revealed that African immigrant entrepreneurs acquire the financial capital to start up their businesses from their personal savings. Moreover, the study found that family members play an important role in providing financial capital to assist African immigrant entrepreneurs in their venture creation. Contrastingly, the findings show that host country commercial banks, other microfinance institutions and persons other than family members offered no recourse to African immigrant entrepreneurs to turn to for financial assistance. Implications & Recommendations: The research on African immigrant entrepreneurs’ financial capital acquisition strategies yields important implications for entrepreneurial economic growth, offering transferable lessons for other entrepreneurs. Based on the empirical findings, we offered recommendations for the host country’s monetary policies to include African immigrant entrepreneurial endeavours for effective business creation. Contribution & Value Added: The study promotes understanding of African immigrant entrepreneurship by conceptualising access to financial capital in South Africa. Its emphasises financial challenges, alternative financial mechanisms, entrepreneurial support programmes, the role of social networks, offering insights for policy makers, and financial institutions.
Objective: The objective of the article is to identify the employability skills gap between multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in the global business services (GBS) sector and prospective graduates, and analyses how divergent institutional logics shape competence expectations at labour-market entry. Research Design & Methods: The study drew on focus-group data from GBS sector employers and university students in Poland in early 2021, offering a reference point from a period preceding the widespread adoption of generative artificial intelligence in workplace processes. The framework integrates institutional logics and signalling theory to interpret the mechanisms underlying observed competence misalignments. Findings: The study suggests a systematic misalignment between an academic logic that privileges codified, measurable knowledge outputs such as technical proficiency and analytical capability and a market logic prioritising behavioural adaptability, proactivity, and interpersonal resilience under uncertainty. This misalignment reflects fundamentally different informational bases. Employers in MNCs select dispositional and contextual performance signals inherently resistant to credentialing, whereas educational institutions signal through standardised, measurable outputs. Proactive personality, communication competence, and adaptability emerge as bridging competencies spanning both logics. Implications & Recommendations: The article offers a reference point for research on how generative artificial intelligence may reshape skills demand in the GBS sector. Educational institutions should reform credentialing and curriculum design, particularly around dispositional competencies, rather than treating the gap as individual student preparation. Contribution & Value Added: The article advances person-environment fit theory by adding curriculum design as a structural conditioning factor in person-job fit. It proposes a competence-logic misalignment model potentially transferable to MNC contexts across other national and sectoral settings, subject to empirical validation.
Objective: The objective of the article is to identify how agricultural firms have used non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in international business, the challenges they have faced in implementing this technology, and the ways in which they can improve their results. As non-fungible tokens (NFTs) remain almost unstudied in the international (agricultural) management literature, this article helps fill this gap by addressing the following research question: how have agricultural firms used NFTs in (international) business, which challenges have they faced, and how can they improve their results? Research Design & Methods: The qualitative study drew on semi-structured in-depth interviews. It focused on two Estonian SMEs that, in addition to their traditional products (eggs and apple juice), also issued NFTs: digital chickens and digital apple trees. Findings: The results show that the studied firms had contrasting experiences from issuing NFTs. Both have remained mostly focused on their main products and have not yet achieved significant international success. Implications & Recommendations: Issuing NFTs can help firms advertise themselves, increase sales, and raise capital. However, it requires clear use cases and a well-defined purpose. Firms must understand clearly why they need NFTs and how to achieve their goals. It often requires a compelling story, active (social) media engagement, appropriate pricing, a well-functioning, reliable platform (also for an easier purchasing process), and a clear plan for what benefits the NFT holders will receive. Contribution & Value Added: This study contributes to the international (agricultural) management literature by mapping the advantages and disadvantages of issuing NFTs for doing (international) business. The firms’ experiences and satisfaction with NFTs varied. One firm increased visibility, found additional customers, and raised additional capital to develop new products and invest in production facilities and marketing activities. Notably, it avoided bankruptcy. The second firm did not meet its goals, and the project ended in a financial loss. Optimism towards NFTs remains, but the firms need a reliable, well-performing platform. Moreover, the firms must do more to achieve significant international success.
Objective: The objective of the article is to identify the scope and development of green public procurement as a research field over the last two decades. The article aims to provide a conceptual structure of literature in the field through identifying elaboration of research sub-areas and key words occurring in published papers on the topic of green procurement. In addition, based on the findings, article aims to suggest certain future directions of research. Research Design & Methods: Methods of bibliometric literature and co-occurrence network were applied to identify the most important topics and trends in green public procurement and discuss directions for further research in the field. In addition, primary pilot research was conducted using semi-structured interviews with public procurement managers to complement the theoretical part of the research and to emphasise areas of green public procurement which are important from the practical point of view. Findings: Results of the bibliometric analysis show that scientific interest for the field of green public procurement is significantly growing over the past twenty years. Based on the bibliometric analysis, the main six topics occurring within the green public procurement field are: (1) sustainability, (2) public procurement policies and process, (3) life cycle, (4) supply chain management and decision making, (5) cost analysis and (6) supplier selection. While the pilot research reveals significant scope to add more specific topics into the future research in the field. Implications & Recommendations: The literature review together with described bibliometric analysis results can serve as a reference for understanding how the field of green public procurement literature has recently evolved. Elaborated co-occurrence network of keywords indicates research gaps in the field. Based on that, we offer suggestions and recommendations for future research directions based on which academics in the field can develop and design their future research projects in the field of green public procurement. Moreover, based on practical insights into managers’ opinions from the pilot research, academics can develop new questions for more complex quantitative research in the field. Contribution & Value Added: This article addresses some limitations of previous bibliometric studies by broadening the period of research and by using a different bibliographic database as the data source: Scopus instead of Web of Science. Moreover, the article adds new practical knowledge based on the conducted pilot research on the sample of public procurement managers, which was suggested to be done in several previously published papers based only on bibliometric method. Both methods enabled recognition of new research gaps which can be investigated in future research in green public procurement field.
