This paper examines the impact of the hashtag social movement #BalanceTonPorc on women in France who have experienced workplace sexual harassment. The study aims to explore the extent to which the movement has inspired targets to report incidents of harassment and to seek justice, as well as to evaluate its influence on their self-awareness of harassment. Moreover, it identifies factors within the movement that may have limited its effectiveness in achieving positive outcomes. Drawing on interview data, the findings reveal that although participants expressed awareness of and appreciation for the movement, they perceived it as ineffective in driving meaningful change in their daily lives, workplace practices, or societal recognition of their rights. These results challenge the perception of hashtag activism as a definitive solution to workplace sexual harassment, underscoring the need for more comprehensive strategies and systemic efforts to address this pervasive issue.

Advances in AI and Industry 4.0 technologies are reshaping society, yet consumer resistance to innovations like autonomous vehicles (AVs) remains significant. Despite the proven benefits of fully autonomous vehicles, adoption lags. This study addresses gaps in AV adoption research by developing a sequential theoretical framework to explore the psychological relationships between AV stressors, benefits, trust, adoption difficulty, and consumer resistance. Grounded in trust, JTBD theory, and inspiration theories, the model was tested on 671 consumers in Australia and the USA, revealing that trust and inspiration play a crucial role in reducing resistance. Notably, inspired consumers exhibit lower resistance, suggesting a focus on AV benefits to foster inspiration and facilitate adoption. The study’s findings have practical implications for promoting AV adoption, highlighting the pivotal role of trust and inspiration in reducing consumer resistance. Marketers and policymakers can benefit from this research by designing strategies that inspire consumers and ease adoption barriers.

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Purpose – The widespread adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) post pandemic has reshaped remote work, yet its implications for employee well-being and work outcomes remain inconclusive. This study proposes a research model to examine how IT consumerization influences employees’ flow, a state of control, enjoyment and focus on work. Design/methodology/approach – Grounded in the job demands-resources (JD-R) model theory. This study employs structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze survey from 476 full-time remote workers across various sectors in Mauritius, a developing economy where IT consumerization has surged to support remote connectivity. Findings – The results highlight IT consumerization as a “double-edged sword”, enhancing autonomy while simultaneously generating techno-pressure. However, autonomy buffers the negative effects of techno-pressure, ultimately improving flow. Techno-pressure, autonomy and work-life conflict serve as mediators, deepening the understanding of how IT consumerization impacts flow. Practical implications – Practical implications are suggested for organizations seeking to optimize remote work remote conditions. Strategies that balance autonomy and mitigate techno-pressure can improve employees’ flow in remote work environments. Originality/value – This research contributes to the telework literature by examining IT consumerization within remote work settings, particularly in a developing economy context. By highlighting its dual role as both a resource and a demand, the study enriches understanding of its impact on flow.

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This study explores how women entrepreneurs in a resource-constrained setting adopt and experience personal technology for business purposes within the broader context of digital transformation. Drawing on the technology acceptance model (TAM) and work–life border theory (WLBT), qualitative data were collected through 32 semi-structured interviews with women entrepreneurs operating micro and small enterprises in Mauritius. Findings reveal that perceived usefulness, ease of use, and institutional support drive the adoption of personal devices, enabling flexibility, cost savings, and improved responsiveness to clients. However, constant connectivity also blurs boundaries between work and family life, heightening stress, emotional fatigue, and security concerns, particularly in the absence of technical support. These dynamics unfold in gendered contexts shaped by cultural expectations and caregiving responsibilities, with technology simultaneously supporting business needs while intensifying work–life conflict. Building on these insights, this study proposes a conceptual model highlighting personal technology's dual impact on business performance and well-being, as well as the moderating and mitigating roles of gender norms, structural constraints, and support systems. The findings contribute to scholarship on gender and digital entrepreneurship, offering implications for gender-sensitive policies that promote equitable and supportive technology adoption in similar Global South (GS) contexts.

Purpose – This study explores how hybrid work is implemented and experienced in a Global South (GS) context, with a focus on Mauritius, a small island developing state (SIDS) where remote work was virtually non-existent before the COVID-19 pandemic. It investigates how hybrid arrangements reshape job demands, resources and employee outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model and a practice-oriented lens on Human Resource Management (HRM), the study examines hybrid work through two focus groups comprising professionals from 14 organisations across IT, finance, education and creative industries. Thematic analysis was used to identify key patterns in the data. Findings – Four interrelated themes emerged: technological enablers of performance, autonomy and flexibility, tensions in virtual collaboration and inequalities in hybrid work. The findings reveal how job resources such as autonomy, digital infrastructure and supportive leadership buffer demands such as technostress, role ambiguity and over-monitoring. Human resource (HR) professionals play a key role in mediating these dynamics through both formal and informal practices. Research limitations/implications – The study has limitations due to the focus on professionals in Mauritius, a SIDS, which limits the generalisability of its findings to other GS contexts with varying technological and cultural landscapes. The qualitative design, relying on a limited number of focus groups, further restricts the breadth and empirical generalisability of the insights. Additionally, the reliance on self-reported data, particularly from managerial-level participants, introduces a potential for social desirability bias. Finally, the exclusive theoretical grounding in the JD-R model may have inadvertently constrained the emergence of other relevant constructs beyond its framework. Practical implications – The study offers actionable insights for HR practitioners and organisational leaders designing hybrid work systems in digitally uneven environments. Emphasis is placed on the need to address equity in access, enhance virtual collaboration and support employee autonomy through tailored HRM practices. Social implications – The findings highlight that hybrid work exacerbates social inequalities and strains. HR must address the uneven distribution of job demands and resources across demographic lines. Older employees often struggle with digital tools, while younger staff face heightened monitoring and blurred work-life boundaries. The loss of informal connections and spontaneous interactions also risks social isolation and reduces organisational cohesion. Inclusive HRM practices are essential to mitigate these socio-technical divides and ensure sustainable transformation. Originality/value – This study extends the JD-R model to an under-researched GS setting and contributes to understanding how hybrid work evolves in contexts lacking a pre-existing culture of remote working, adding depth to theory and informing inclusive practice. A conceptual model is proposed to illustrate how hybrid work experiences are shaped by the interaction between structural enablers, job characteristics and HRM practices.

This study adopts a positive and contextually grounded representation of married women in Global South (GS) countries through the theory of gender and power (TGP) and Kabeer's empowerment framework, to examine factors driving financial independence (FI) and empowerment among women in Mauritius and Zimbabwe. Drawing on 55 in-depth interviews with married women (28 in Mauritius and 27 in Zimbabwe), findings indicate that gendered power relations and institutional forces are pivotal in shaping empowerment for married women. Three interconnected themes emerged: “societal and institutional factors,” “context-embedded financial independence and autonomy,” and “women's relational empowerment.” Theoretically, we intersect Kabeer's empowerment framework with the TGP to illustrate how FI operates at the nexus of resources, agency, gendered power relations, and structural constraints, both aligning with and challenging universalized assumptions in gender, development, and empowerment research. Empirically, the paper advances scholarship by providing nuanced insights into empowerment processes within under-researched GS contexts.

Drawing on self-expansion theory, social identity theory, and social influence theory, this study examines how two sources of brand communication - offline friend communities and online communities—shape online purchase intention through self-expansion and brand identification. It also addresses a core limitation of dominant technology acceptance models, which treat social influence as monolithic and fail to capture source-level psychological effects. A quantitative survey of millennials (n = 224) is analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis. Results show that offline friend community belonging activates self-expansion, while online community belonging drives brand identification—two distinct pathways to purchase. A significant gender split emerges: both mechanisms predict purchase intention for males but not for females. Managerial implications include gender-specific budget allocation guidance between offline referral and online community strategies, and differentiated messaging to activate self-expansion and brand identification respectively.

Purpose – This study examines how the decisions and traits of top managers translate into indirect, symbolic and procedural barriers to organizational learning (OL) and sustainable change within fragmented higher education institutions (HEIs) that are increasingly characterized by digitally enabled, globally disparate online workforces (faculty and students). It addresses the critical issue of whether current managerial selection and development models are sustainable, specifically investigating how non-academic leaders, often ill-equipped for complex intellectual capital management, impede the development required for a modern, global online HEI. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative analysis was conducted on the Pedagogic Innovation Project, a strategic, digitally relevant change initiative across 10 French campuses. This context provides a rich context for observing managerial practices and outcomes associated with leading highly specialized, distributed workforces through transformation. We employ upper echelons theory (UET) to investigate how the top management team (TMT) acts as a barrier to OL in a fragmented, knowledge-intensive HEI. We move beyond general applications of UET to focus on the indirect, symbolic and procedural forms of managerial influence. By analysing these underreported mechanisms, we contribute novel insights into how the values of TMT shape learning failures and defensive routines at the organizational level. Findings – The findings show that non-academic senior leaders, often recruited via informal networks and overly focused on procedural control, tend to cultivate unsustainable human resource management (HRM) practices that undermine organizational capacity. Such leaders inhibit double-loop learning (DLL) and suppress faculty expertise, which constitutes the core intellectual capital of a global HEI. Their reliance on defensive routines (rebranding top-down mandates) fosters distrust, opposing the autonomy needed for online work. By promoting commodified “plug-and-play” staffing and prioritizing superficial compliance over genuine integration, these leaders fail to implement sustainable performance management or authentic employee well-being during digital transformation, both of which are detrimental to sustainable HRM practices. Their reliance on defensive routines (rebranding top-down mandates) fosters distrust, opposing the autonomy needed for online work. By promoting commodified “plug-and-play” staffing and prioritizing superficial compliance over genuine integration, these leaders fail to implement sustainable performance management or authentic employee well-being during digital transformation, both of which are detrimental to sustainable HRM practices. Research limitations/implications – This study offers fresh insights into top management's role in innovating the business model within a fragmented French HEI, which therefore limits the generalizability to other HE contexts or sectors beyond education. Findings may not hold in systems with stronger academic leadership or less marketized environments. The study reflects only faculty perspectives, omitting direct input from top managers, which limits visibility into executive constraints. Confidentiality also restricted analysis of TMT demographics, narrowing the use of UET. The single-case design reduces comparative scope. Practical implications – HEIs and organizations managing global, digitally enabled workforces must overhaul manager recruitment, prioritizing candidates with expertise in intellectual capital stewardship and sustainable HRM, not just procedural control. They must invest in developing existing managers to champion DLL and authentic employee well-being over superficial compliance. For HR departments, this study signals the immediate need to discontinue unsustainable practices such as “plug-and-play” staffing models that erode expertise, favouring long-term talent development and management that empowers faculty autonomy. Social implications – The managerial suppression of faculty expertise, coupled with the use of “plug-and-play” staffing, actively contributes to the erosion of academic identity and professional morale. This suggests a counter-productive societal trend where bureaucratic control and metric-driven compliance supersede deep intellectual capital, thereby marginalizing practitioner-led innovation. Moreover, the reliance on defensive routines breeds a culture of distrust, undermining the high autonomy necessary for effective knowledge work. Over time, public resources are invariably diverted towards symbolic governance (accreditations) instead of genuine pedagogical investment, raising concerns about the long-term quality and integrity of public service outputs. Originality/value – The originality of this study lies in its extension of established theory and its application to an understudied, non-corporate context. It provides a crucial, non-corporate extension of UET, highlighting the specific mechanisms (namely, indirect, symbolic and procedural managerial influence) by which TMT characteristics actively obstruct organizational adaptation and deep learning in fragmented public sector environments. It offers empirical evidence that top managers' decisions, particularly those rooted in non-academic managerial expertise and focused on procedural/metric compliance, can systematically undermine a university's core mission (teaching and research integration).

Purpose – Sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) is gaining momentum as an innovative pathway for tackling global environmental challenges and fostering sustainable community development. Underpinned by the theory of planned behavior, this study aims to identify the main determinants influencing Higher Education students' intentions to undertake SE (a behavior essential for community-level transformation) while also examining the moderating role of perceived feasibility. Design/methodology/approach – Empirical data were collected from 280 university graduates in Tunisia, providing a critical “global insight” into youth engagement in sustainable practices within an emerging economy context. Findings – Data analysis using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) shows that several factors significantly and positively predict sustainable entrepreneurial intention (SEI): environmental values (a psychological factor), green consumption commitment (a sustainable behavior lever), environmental citizenship (a community engagement factor) and education for sustainable entrepreneurship (an innovative educational pathway). These intentions subsequently affect sustainable entrepreneurial behavior, and the relationship is significantly moderated by perceived feasibility. Originality/value – This research provides an original contribution by developing and expanding the literature on SE by identifying specific educational and psychological antecedents that empower youth, a key demographic for community change, to pursue sustainable ventures. Furthermore, it is among the rare studies to investigate the moderating role of perceived feasibility in the transition from sustainable entrepreneurial intention to concrete sustainable entrepreneurial behavior. This approach brings a novel perspective on how youth entrepreneurship can foster sustainable community development. It offers direct, evidence-based insights for managers and practitioners to design innovative strategies and educational programs that stimulate the sustainable entrepreneurial actions and mindsets necessary for community development.

Purpose – This study explores how millennial entrepreneurs in post-Soviet Eurasia acquire entrepreneurial skills in response to institutional voids, cultural constraints and generational influences. Design/methodology/approach – Based on qualitative data from 64 focus group participants and 20 follow-up interviews across Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan and Russia, the research uses a bricolage lens to examine how entrepreneurs construct context-sensitive skills. Findings – The study reveals a distinction between opportunistic bricolage in EU-integrated contexts and compensatory bricolage in state-centric environments. Millennial entrepreneurs creatively combine generational orientations and digital dexterity with locally embedded relational practices to respond to institutional voids and regulatory opacity. These adaptive processes yield a context-sensitive skill set that transforms institutional constraints into strategic capabilities. Originality/value – The study's primary contribution is the development of a conceptual model that categorises the outputs of skill bricolage into an E-D-I (Essential, Desirable, Instrumental) typology. This framework advances research on institutional entrepreneurship and generational theory by illustrating how the mechanism of bricolage enables adaptive skill acquisition in post-transitional economies.

This study explores the impact on employee well-being in higher education institutions (HEIs) following organisational change as a result of business model innovation. A phenomenographic approach was used involving auto-driven photo-elicitation interviews (PEIs) with 28 instructors in the UK and France, triangulated by focus group discussions with students. The study focused on how digitally-driven organisational change has an impact on the lived experience of occupational health risks and their manifestations (technostress, burnout, etc.) among staff. Findings reveal that digitally-driven organisational change produces a triad of latent stressors, namely technostress, unsustainable workloads, and eroded psychological safety. Critically, ‘health-washing’ emerged as a pervasive risk factor, wherein performative well-being initiatives increase cynicism and disengagement, rather than buffer burnout. Framed by the Job Demands-Resources model, we show how these tensions have direct ramifications for mental health and work-life balance. From this, we advise HEIs to take inspiration from Nordic models of participatory governance and workload transparency to mitigate psychosocial risks. Prioritising employee agency and sustainable business model innovation would foster sustainable work environments.