Peter R. J. Trim

The United Nations (UN) has championed sustainability, which is to protect the environment and mankind's quality of life. Organizations have supported the UN by devising and implementing corporate social responsibility programs that also support environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities. The purpose of this paper is to make clear how senior managers can place corporate social responsibility policy within the context of environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting and apply the enterprise risk management approach. Taking cognizance of this, the logic model approach is utilized to construct a framework outlining the benefits of environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting and its link with corporate social responsibility. From the findings, it can be deduced that the enterprise risk management approach can help managers share information and knowledge with organizational partners relating to various forms of risk. The framework proposed will also help senior managers promote to various publics how corporate social responsibility programs involving sustainability and social innovation align with UN objectives.

This Special Issue is dedicated to developments in cybersecurity and includes a number of theoretical perspectives

Purpose: Virtual influencers (VIs) are increasingly used for brand endorsements. While consumer interaction with VIs is growing, little is known about the motivations behind these interactions and how they influence consumer behavior. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through an online survey of 298 users who interact with VIs. The model was tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings: Consumers interact with VIs to satisfy their intellectual, novelty, entertainment and social needs. These needs positively influence self-expansion, which in turn enhances brand identification and purchase intention. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited by its cross-sectional design, reliance on self-reported data, and focus on predominantly individualistic respondents in the UK. Future studies should examine cross-cultural samples, employ longitudinal or experimental designs to establish causality, and explore additional psychological mechanisms that might shape consumer-VI interactions. Practical implications: The findings of this study can help marketers and VI developers understand how to use VIs to enhance consumer interaction and stimulate purchase intention. Social implications: VIs are shaping new forms of consumer-brand interaction and raising important questions about identity, technology and trust in AI-driven media. Social implications: VIs are shaping new forms of consumer-brand interaction and raising important questions about identity, technology and trust in AI-driven media. Originality/value: This study is the first to integrate uses and gratifications (U&G) theory with self-expansion theory to explain the psychological and behavioral effects of VI interaction, offering a novel framework for understanding digital consumer engagement.

The 17 sustainable development goals advocated by the United Nations have played a big role in focusing the minds of policy makers in terms of sustainability issues and have also highlighted the issue of social inclusion and the need to make society more equitable. As well as referencing the sustainable development goals, attention is given to the planetary health concept as it is known to deepen our understanding of the ecological interdependence brought about by cultural, environmental and socio-economic factors, which have relevance in terms of mankind achieving the sustainable development goals. This paper addresses the following question: How can a framework to foster global partnerships leading to sustainable development be underpinned by a philosophical argument that strengthens the case for social inclusion? Consequently, a wide body of literature is reviewed, with key concepts such as collaboration being placed in context and reinforced through stakeholder theory. A philosophical discussion is entered into embracing Moore’s open question argument regarding the reliance on Intuitionism to explain how actions can be coined as immoral or moral. Such arguments are useful for raising moral issues that often end in moral disagreements, and which raise and help solve ethical problems. To effectively deal with the complexity involved, policy makers should support the use of frameworks that can be used to support and encourage social inclusion. In adopting this viewpoint, we put forward a sustainable partnership framework that provides guidance to policy makers and their advisors in terms of tackling the issue of social inclusion. In order to achieve social inclusion, policy makers need to understand the role that symbolic representation plays and how the influence of major influencers generates collaborative knowledge that is reappraised through philosophical argument. The outcome of the philosophical argument is a change in a nation’s cultural value system and the implementation of social inclusion policy.

Since COVID-19, there has been an increase in the utilization of food banks owing to a number of factors, including a reduction in household income due to job losses and an increase in the cost of living, which has affected people on low incomes. In this paper, we explain how people that are in need of assistance and have limited knowledge of service provision can be remotivated through regaining their self-esteem. This is achieved through various forms of intervention. By adopting a metaphorical approach, we conceptually explore how intervention provided by a social inclusion community center stimulates recipients to re-ignite their desire for self-improvement. This is achieved through an analogy made, comparing a Formula 1 motor racing team servicing a car during a pit-stop and a person (recipient) in need of food visiting a food bank to collect a food parcel. Based on a conceptual analysis, we propose a framework outlining the interactional process involving the social inclusion community center staff and a recipient, whereby the recipient becomes, through empowerment, an external operant actor and resource integrator for the social inclusion community center. This is achieved through a circular value co-creation process. Through the circular motion of the value co-creation, an external operant actor regains self-confidence due to gaining a sense of belonging and feeling inspired to contribute to the community they are associated with.

Not-for-profit organizations provide a range of services that satisfy the needs of individuals and help a community to be sustainable. To explain how staff based at a social inclusion community center contribute to social impact, we undertake a case study and incorporate the stakeholder approach that draws on the activities of Pembroke House in south London. Pembroke House engages in social action and provides a number of services considered beneficial to the local community it serves. By adopting this approach, we place emphasis on how the value co-creation concept, which is reinforced by the social marketing approach, helps staff to provide different forms of intervention that ultimately give rise to trust-based relationships involving those providing the service and those receiving the service. To explain this, we make an analogy between a Formula 1 motor racing team servicing a car during a pit-stop while competing in a grand prix and a vulnerable person who visits a food bank seeking assistance in the form of a food parcel. Through the process of drawing on the use of metaphors and making a link with Formula 1 motor racing, we elucidate the value co-creation process and reveal how the social impact provision provided by Pembroke House can be intensified through the deployment of the stakeholder approach, which gives rise to a social inclusion community center partnership framework.

Cyber security is supportive of robotic service provision, the objective of which is to help marketers achieve their aim of providing a high level of service. Marketers need to be aware of cyber security issues and adhere to established cyber security policies. We investigate trust and commitment in relation to customer retention while assessing the mediating role of robotic service quality (RSQ). We employ a survey-based study that utilises 231 valid responses from customers in São Paulo, Brazil. To analyse the data, we used partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results show that trust and commitment have a positive impact on customer retention. RSQ has a partial mediation effect on the relationship between the latent constructs of trust, commitment, and customer retention. Thus, it can be suggested that RSQ, which embeds trust and commitment, assists in building a loyal customer base. Marketers outside the Latin American region can benefit from the results of this study since it incorporates cyber security awareness and policy within marketing strategy implementation, ensuring that RSQ is aligned in terms of the digitalisation goals of the company.

Cyberattacks have increased in intensity and sophistication in recent years, resulting in defensive actions to safeguard company assets and vulnerable people

Cyber security is high up on the agenda of senior managers in private and public sector organizations and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.

Social media usage is a direct result of Internet connectivity and is gaining increased prominence in business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), and consumer-to-business (C2B) relationship building, which is allowing marketers to devise and implement digital marketing strategies that are perceived as enhancing a customer’s well-being. Through the process of utilizing social media (SM) to share information with consumers, marketers are affording themselves with the concept of value co-creation and ensuring that the development of knowledge is given priority. To explain how this happens in an emerging economy, in-depth personal interviews were undertaken with the owners of five retail fashion companies in Vietnam. The findings indicate that fashion retail companies in Vietnam are deploying digital marketing strategies that deliver perceived enhanced value to consumers through the process of value co-creation. This highlights the advantage of using SM in relation to increasing retail staff’s ability to convert information into usable resources such as intelligence and knowledge. By achieving knowledge conversion, retail staff fulfill the role of ‘knowledge broker’ and ‘knowledge connector’, and identify how organizational intervention, such as new operating structures, can help to deliver perceived enhanced value to customers.