This study investigates how senior directors in multinational corporations coordinate and direct geographically dispersed teams in post-COVID virtual and hybrid work environments. It builds a three-layer framework covering leadership enactment, coordination mechanisms and contextual navigation, drawing on e-leadership, leader–member exchange, media synchronicity, trust and intercultural collaboration research. Using a multiple interpretive case study design with 12–15 interviews of senior directors and supplementary input from team members, analysed through reflexive thematic analysis, it aims to help leaders design coordination mechanisms and build trust across borders.

This paper examines how corporate governance should be conceptualized in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), where formal boards are often absent or play only limited roles. This creates a central board paradox: governance research remains largely board-centred despite the limited relevance of boards in many SMEs. Building on insights from SME heterogeneity and organizational life-cycle research, the paper reconceptualizes governance as a dynamic configuration of formal and informal mechanisms that structure decision-making and accountability. Formal mechanisms include boards, management teams, and reporting systems; informal mechanisms encompass ownership arrangements, relational governance, and founder authority. This perspective shifts the analytical focus from governance structures to governance functions, and accommodates the diversity of SME organizational forms as well as the transitions they undergo over time. The paper contributes by challenging board-centred and agency-dominant approaches and introducing a configurational and dynamic framework that better captures the variety and evolution of governance in SMEs. It also provides a conceptual foundation for future empirical research that moves beyond board-based proxies.

This study explores how managers can effectively lead and structure work when roles are fluid rather than fixed in hybrid, project-based and AI-assisted environments. Drawing on role theory, identity theory and future-of-work literature, it proposes a mixed-methods design combining semi-structured interviews with managers and employees and a survey of 100–150 professionals across technology, education and consulting. Expected findings suggest that fluid roles increase autonomy but also role ambiguity and stress, calling for a shift from role management to role orchestration.

Blue bonds are increasingly used to close conservation financing gaps, yet their effectiveness depends on governance that links capital to credible outcomes. This study provides the first market-wide characterization of all 139 live blue bonds outstanding as of November 2025, representing over USD 30 billion in aggregate financing. We examine how sustainability objectives are communicated through Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) alignment and test whether disclosure varies systematically with credit quality, using descriptive evidence and multivariate models. The results reveal a highly heterogeneous market with strong environmental dominance centered on SDGs 6 and 14, while social and governance-related goals are comparatively underrepresented and decline over time. SDG disclosure increases sharply after 2021, but the breadth of SDG mapping narrows, indicating growing adoption alongside increasing selectivity. The relationship between credit quality and SDG breadth is non-monotonic: intermediate investment-grade bonds tend to disclose more SDGs than the highest-rated issuances, although this pattern weakens when controlling for issuance year and bond characteristics. Issuance timing emerges as a stronger predictor of disclosure than credit quality. These findings indicate that the blue label currently functions as an incomplete, non-standardized signal of sustainability commitment. Strengthening market integrity requires clearer taxonomies, harmonized disclosure frameworks, and robust verification mechanisms to reduce risks of definitional dilution and bluewashing. A coherent governance architecture is essential for translating blue finance into measurable and equitable outcomes for aquatic ecosystems.

This study examines the impact of predetermined and emergent supply chain management (SCM) strategies on the performance of startup e-commerce firms. While prior research has extensively explored supply chain strategy in established organizations, limited empirical work has examined how startups navigate strategic trade-offs between planning and adaptability under uncertainty. Drawing on strategy formation theory (deliberate vs. emergent) and the dynamic capabilities perspective, this research investigates how different SCM approaches influence key performance outcomes, including order volume and revenue (GMV). A mixed-methods research design was employed. Phase 1 utilized a survey of e-commerce supply chain professionals to test hypothesized relationships using regression analysis, incorporating measures of predetermined strategy, emergent strategy, environmental uncertainty, and strategic ambidexterity. Phase 2 adopted a multiple-case study approach, using semi-structured interviews with executives across four startup firms to develop theory through within-case and cross-case analysis grounded in replication logic. Quantitative results indicate that supply chain strategy alone is not a primary driver of revenue performance. Instead, firm age and product assortment expansion emerged as the strongest predictors of both order volume and GMV. Predetermined strategy demonstrated a positive but only marginal relationship with operational scale (order volume), whereas emergent strategy showed no significant direct effect on performance outcomes. Measures of strategic ambidexterity were not statistically significant predictors. Overall, support for the superiority of a predetermined strategy was partial, while an emergent strategy was not supported as a primary performance driver. Qualitative findings provide deeper insight into these results, revealing that predetermined strategies enable operational scaling through standardization and infrastructure development, whereas emergent strategies function as adaptive mechanisms in response to environmental uncertainty. Importantly, cross-case analysis indicates that successful firms tend to exhibit strategic specialization rather than ambidexterity, and that operational scale serves as the primary pathway linking supply chain strategy to financial performance. The study contributes to theory by reframing supply chain strategy as an enabler of operational scaling rather than a direct determinant of financial outcomes, and by introducing a sequential model that links strategy, scale, and performance. It further challenges the prevailing assumption that strategic ambidexterity is universally beneficial in startup contexts. From a managerial perspective, the findings suggest that startup leaders should prioritize deliberate supply chain planning to support scaling while selectively leveraging emergent strategies to navigate uncertainty.

Do mission-driven financial institutions accept efficiency tradeoffs to bank underserved communities, and if so, to what extent? We examine this question using the Low-Income Designation (LID) program for U.S. credit unions, which provides regulatory benefits in exchange for serving majority low-income membership. Using a two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach with bias-corrected efficiency scores for a balanced panel of 2,067 federally insured credit unions from 2015-2024, we find LID institutions operate with 1.03 percentage points lower efficiency scores (p<0.01) compared to non-LID institutions. This efficiency penalty persists after controlling for size, credit quality, growth, and state/time fixed effects. Mechanism analysis reveals the penalty operates primarily through higher operating costs rather than inefficient capital allocation. Despite lower efficiency, LID institutions experience positive member deposit growth, suggesting stakeholders accept operational costs in exchange for intangible social mission objectives. We find larger efficiency penalties for Minority Depository Institutions (-2.56 percentage points, p<0.01), confirming that broader social mission commitments involve efficiency tradeoffs. Our findings contribute to the stakeholder theory and financial inclusion literature, demonstrating that institutions serving underserved markets face real resource costs that their stakeholders willingly bear.

The adoption of Plug-In Electric Vehicles (PEVs) worldwide has been a key research topic for the past twenty years. Particularly in the United States, we now find ourselves on the other side of the chasm described by Moore’s (2014) adaptation of Rogers’ (2003) technology diffusion curve – at the beginning of the early majority phase. Much of the previous research on PEV adoption was based on data obtained from potential buyers, innovators, and early adopters. This study draws on prior research grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior to examine PEV adoption in the United States by actual adopters in the early majority. The study incorporates the influence of public policy on PEV adoption, intending to understand how it serves as both a moderator of adoption by the early majority and a direct correlate of it. Secondary data was used to examine the relationship between public policy and PEV adoption in the first part of the study. The research confirmed a positive correlation between public policy (represented by infrastructure deployment and financial incentive strength) and PEV adoption among the early majority. The second part of the dissertation evaluated the relationship between the four components of customer value as defined by Sweeney and Soutar (2021) and PEV adoption. Using survey data from actual adopters, the study yielded mixed results. Only financial incentive positively moderated the relationship between pricing value and PEV adoption. The study did not support the early majority considering quality a significant deciding factor for adoption, and it did not meet the statistical threshold to confirm that the early majority does not consider social benefit a deciding factor. The second study also failed to confirm that public policy influences the relationship between emotional value and PEV adoption. This research provides a fresh perspective on plug-in electric vehicle adoption in the United States by focusing on actual adoption as opposed to intentions to adopt.

This constructivist grounded theory study investigates how senior HR executives make sense of and cope with widening mandates, regulatory shifts, macroeconomic uncertainty and technological disruption, and how their coping practices shape and are shaped by organizational context. It critically examines job crafting theory, drawing on structuration, sensemaking, identity work, temporal agency, dramaturgical and coping perspectives. Data will come from semi-structured interviews with 20–30 CHROs, Chief People Officers and HR Directors, aiming to extend job crafting research to executive populations where agency is recursive rather than unidirectional.

The fact that a single executive or a small management team must simultaneously handle strategic, tactical, and operational functions is a challenge faced by executives and entrepreneurs in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), whereas their counterparts in large corporations rarely find themselves in such a situation. This article examines the consequences of this situation for leadership effectiveness and organisational performance, using the ‘Think, Design and Do’ triad as an analytical framework to analyse how managerial attention is distributed, and how its bias towards operational execution comes at the expense of strategic clarity and organisational design. This paper argues that the deliberate allocation of time across the three levels is not merely a productivity technique, but a structural leadership discipline with measurable implications for the organisational effectiveness of SMEs. It also incorporates the emerging role of generative artificial intelligence as a facilitating mechanism capable of reducing the cognitive and time burden of low-value operational tasks, thereby creating space for higher-order strategic attention. Finally, this article adopts a practice-based conceptual research approach, grounded in the author’s longitudinal executive experience in the financial and industrial sectors, as well as my previous doctoral research on disruptive entrepreneurship. It proposes a diagnostic framework that includes an ‘Organisational Complexity Index’, a ‘TDD Balance Matrix’ and a task taxonomy to help SME leaders achieve a more effective and sustainable managerial balance. The contribution lies at the intersection of strategic leadership, organisational design and management practice.

Language barriers in healthcare continue to affect the quality of communication for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). Although professional interpretation services are widely used, less is known about how communication unfolds when interpretation is mediated through video remote interpretation (VRI), particularly in pediatric subspecialty care. This study examines how patients, providers, and language services leaders experience communication during VRI-mediated clinical encounters and identifies themes related to interpretation quality, understanding, and meaning negotiation. Grounded in Communication Accommodation Theory, this study uses a qualitative, multi-method design to examine communication within technology-mediated interpreted encounters. Clinical visits were observed in a pediatric neurology clinic serving Spanish-speaking caregivers of children with complex conditions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with healthcare providers, language services leaders, and Spanish-speaking caregivers to capture diverse perspectives on interpreted communication. Data were analyzed using an iterative thematic analysis to identify recurring patterns across observations and interviews. The findings reveal that interpreted communication in VRI encounters is shaped by three interrelated domains: interpretive experience and meaning transformation, structural reliance, uncertainty, and risk, and monitoring and adaptive response. Across stakeholder groups, participants described how interpretation actively reshapes meaning, creates conditions of reliance and uncertainty within communication, and prompts both patients and providers to continuously monitor and adjust their communication behaviors to sustain understanding. These findings contribute a conceptual framework that reconceptualizes interpreted clinical communication as a mediated, interactional process rather than a simple translation mechanism. By illuminating how meaning is transformed, how reliance and risk are embedded within communication structures, and how participants adapt in real time, this study provides a foundation for future research on language access and communication within technology-mediated healthcare environments.