The Business School - Te Kura Kaipakihi

Permanent link for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10292/1066

The Business School - Te Kura Kaipakihi conducts disciplinary research that is at the fore front of international knowledge. Their researchers are recognised experts in their fields and produce research of relevance to their academic and non-academic stakeholders. The Business School has research strength in: Accounting, Business Information Systems, Economics, Finance, International Business, Management (including Human Resource Management and Employment Relations), Marketing, Advertising, Retailing and Sales.

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New Zealand Ethical Consumption Driven by Universalism and Personal Achievement; Can It Also Be Fun?
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2024-10-28) Hasan, S; Wooliscroft, B; Ganglmair-Wooliscroft, A
Overconsumption and environmental pollution in New Zealand are leading to the depletion of its resources, threatening its ecosystem. This paper explores New Zealanders’ ethical and sustainable consumption behaviour, and the motivations and values that drive them. Seventy in-depth interviews with a variety of ethical consumers were conducted and analysed using laddering technique to uncover drivers behind ethical consumption habits. Results reflect the complexity and variety inherent in ethical consumption, and its motivations and drivers. Most ethical behaviours are environmentally focused, aimed at pollution reduction and environmental conservation. Ethical behaviours with a social focus are directed at the local or the international community. Social justice, equality and unity of nature (all sub-values of universalism) are revealed as drivers of ethical behaviours, and are complemented by personal achievement (feeling capable) and feelings of enjoyment–consuming ethically can also be ‘fun’. The complexity of the findings highlights the need for customised messaging from policymakers and businesses to increase ethical consumption behaviours in New Zealand.
Underemployment and Wage Growth During COVID-19
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2024-08-28) Meehan, Lisa; Pacheco, Gail; Turcu, Alexandra
This study provides new insights into the labour market outcomes of underemployed individuals, particularly the full-time underemployed who are often not included in official statistics. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on earnings progression for underemployed individuals in New Zealand relative to their fully-utilised counterparts. We find that both the employment and earnings-growth gap between the underemployed and fully-utilised decreased during the pandemic years. These results highlight the importance of considering the impact of economic shocks on different labour market groups and that while existing literature highlights that more vulnerable groups are less resilient to economic shocks, in line with previous New Zealand research, our results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic was different.
A Narrative Synthesis of the Empirical Literature on Social Value Creation in Social Entrepreneurship: Gaps and Opportunities for Future Research and Action
(Informa UK Limited, 2023-04-18) Lorenzo-Afable, D; Lips-Wiersma, M; Singh, S
Social value creation defines the mission of social entrepreneurship in that, through it, complex social problems are addressed, and the needs of beneficiaries are met. Despite scholarly calls for a definition, current depictions lack clarity and focus. This systematic literature review is the first to aggregate the current body of empirical literature on social value creation in social entrepreneurship. Results from the review of studies in leading academic journals yielded 14 relevant studies, mostly originating from North American and European contexts. A narrative synthesis of these studies depicts social value creation as a processual phenomenon that takes shape in response to opportunities to realise social impact. The process is enacted by multiple actors through innovation and collaborative, reciprocal relationships within a specific context. Findings suggest a paucity of social value creation research in leading academic journals, which denotes a narrow contextual view of the phenomenon. The review discusses implications on social entrepreneurship practice and suggests directions for future research that pursue a more inclusive and diverse contextual view of social value creation.
Naïve Hope or Common Occurrence? Caring Leadership and Its Impact on Employee Performance and Wellbeing in Hospitality and Tourism
(Informa UK Limited, 2025-11-23) Smollan, Roy K; Mooney, Shelagh K
When caring leadership becomes a norm, and therefore part of organizational culture, it improves employee wellbeing and performance. The interviews conducted for this study reveal how demonstrations of care from the organization as a whole, and from individual leaders, had a beneficial impact on employees in hospitality and tourism. The study also underscores the potential downside of caring leadership in terms of leader burnout and diminished follower self-efficacy. This double-edged sword has implications for Human Resource Management practice, regarding what organizations can do to develop caring leadership as a key element of the culture, but also to train and support leaders in appropriately caring for others.
Reciprocity: Finding the Right Balance in Work-Integrated Learning
(Work-Integrated Learning New Zealand (WILNZ), 2025-11-26) Wilkinson, Helene; Lucas, Patricia; Hogg, Robert
The debate surrounding financial support in work-integrated learning (WIL) has intensified. This paper explores whether paying all placement students is both sustainable and equitable. Through duoethnographic narratives from WIL educators, it examines contemporary experiences and perceptions of payment and value. For WIL relationships to be meaningful, agreements between students and organizations must be mutually beneficial. The paper examines how this mutuality might be achieved by rethinking the notion of ‘payment.’ Drawing on indigenous Māori knowledge systems of value, it introduces concepts of utu and koha, to shift focus from transactional payment to relational value. Embracing reciprocity in WIL fosters a spirit of collaboration and unity, emphasising the significance of relationships and shared commitments. Further embracement of the foundational frameworks associated with utu challenge traditional transactional mindsets, advocating for a more holistic, culturally sensitive, values-based approach to financial support in the context of learning and professional development.
The Mindful Marketplace: Ideological Repackaging in Influencer Marketing
(Elsevier BV, 2026) Errmann, Amy; Leban, Marina
Amid the broader cultural rise of contemplative traditions, social media influencers, particularly those promoting mindfulness, blend commercial self-promotion with the ideological commitments of this philosophy. This study examines how they navigate authenticity and commerciality by repackaging mindfulness into marketable products. Using a qualitative analysis of 16 mindfulness influencers on Instagram, we identify two strategies, discourse and practice, that enable them to maintain authenticity while commercializing a belief system. Our findings challenge the assumption that authenticity and commerciality are inherently oppositional. This study demonstrates how these dynamics can coexist, while raising ethical concerns around authenticity inflation, informal expertise, and the monetization of belief systems.
Cognitive Influences in Second-hand Markets: From Perception to Purchase in Rural Smartphone Consumption
(Emerald, 2025-10-23) Ibrahim, Khaled; Sarfo, Christian; Ezel Sertkaya, Canan; Burnett, Megan; Pampari, Arpana
Purpose This study aims to examine how rural consumers make second-hand purchase decisions beyond economic necessity. Using schema theory, we explore how perceived price fairness, product features, product quality and sustainable community influence drive purchase intentions in the rural second-hand smartphone market. Design/methodology/approach The authors surveyed 225 rural New Zealand second-hand smartphone users and tested our hypotheses using partial least squares – structural equation modelling to analyse key factors influencing purchase intentions. Findings This study challenges the assumption that rural consumers evaluate second-hand goods solely on objective attributes, showing that decision-making is shaped by past experiences, social influences and perceived price fairness. Rather than a purely economic assessment, price fairness integrates product quality and features, influencing consumer engagement. In addition, community norms and sustainability messaging shape purchasing decisions, emphasising social influences over rational education. Practical implications Businesses and policymakers must move beyond price incentives and leverage social networks and sustainability messaging to shape consumer schemas. Trust in second-hand markets depends on perceived fairness, quality and social validation, highlighting the importance of community-driven interventions over traditional rational education efforts. Originality/value This study extends schema theory by demonstrating how rural consumers use cognitive shortcuts and social learning to navigate information asymmetry, reframes perceived price fairness as a cognitive framework rather than a transactional factor and highlights sustainability as a dynamic consumer heuristic.
Unintended Consequences of Scaling Social Impact Through Organizational Growth Strategy in Social Enterprises
(Elsevier BV, 2025-11-08) Islam, Syrus
Social enterprises are hybrid organizations aiming to achieve both financial sustainability and social impact. Because of their active role in creating social impact by addressing pressing social problems, they are recognized as important agents to help attain the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In the social enterprise context, organizational growth is considered a major strategy to scale social impact since it helps them offer more products/services to a larger number of beneficiaries. However, little is known about when and how this strategy may not work as intended. By synthesizing prior research and using real-life examples, this article presents ten conditions under which scaling social impact through an organizational growth strategy can create unintended consequences in social enterprises. The article also develops a holistic framework articulating how these ten conditions can emerge via seven growth-related activities in social enterprises. The developed framework facilitates a comprehensive understanding for managers and social entrepreneurs about the pitfalls to avoid while pursuing organizational growth as a social impact scaling strategy in social enterprises. Finally, this article introduces a diagnostic tool — ImpactProtect: A Growth Risk Assessment Tool for Social Enterprises — designed to help social enterprises evaluate their vulnerability to unintended consequences associated with organizational growth.
Leveraging the Influencer Marketing Power of Influential Consumers: Toward a Theory of Impression Management for Brand Recovery From Brand Crisis
(SAGE Publications, 2025-10-07) Yap, SF; Tan, LP; Lim, WM; Lim, TW
Though the role of influential consumers in shaping brand sentiment has been well recognized, especially with the advent of digital and social media and the rise of influencer marketing, little effort has been made to extrapolate their influence for impression management, which is critical for brand legitimacy and brand recovery following brand crisis. To address this gap, this conceptual article adopts a theory synthesis and model approach to develop a theoretical framework that explains and predicts the relationships characterizing the utility of influential consumers for impression management following brand crisis. In doing this, this article consolidates existing research streams, identifies novel connections, and presents a set of theoretical propositions that explain the sequence of events, including the boundary conditions, that translate the power of influential consumers into an impression management asset that brands can rely upon to reaffirm brand legitimacy and navigate toward brand recovery following brand crisis. Therefore, this article pioneers a strategic reevaluation of influencer marketing, extending its application from promoting brand positivity in stable times to a critical tool for brand restoration during crises.
Borrowed Competence: Socially Extending the Mind to Extend Digital Practices
(SAGE Publications, 2025-11-07) Stewart, Cordelia; Yap, Sheau-Fen Crystal; Kubacki, Krzysztof
This study extends current understanding of digital competence by exploring alternative skill sets harnessed by digitally disadvantaged groups that enable their practices to continue. By combining practice theory with the socially extended mind framework, we address the research question: What forms of offline competence support the integration of digital practices among a disadvantaged consumer group, and how do these competences influence the cohesion and continuity of their practices? Through an ethnography of a ‘Street Church’ community, we demonstrate how different forms of offline social interaction (i.e., sequential, synchronised, substitutive) and group culture function as valuable resources for guiding digital practices, without requiring practice carriers to embody digital skills. This study challenges conventional conceptualisations of competence, illustrating that competence no longer needs to be embodied but can be 'borrowed'. This shifts the focus away from 'what' defines competence to 'how' different forms can produce similar outcomes in practices.
Perceived Value versus Intrusiveness: The Role of Privacy Self-efficacy and Decision Quality in Mobile Augmented Reality Try-ons
(Emerald, 2025-11-10) Xu, Yingzi; Ling, I-ling
Purpose This study examines how Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) app features – virtual mirrors versus photo-based try-ons – influence consumers' perceived utilitarian and hedonic values, decision quality and regret (a form of post-purchase dissonance). It contributes to the growing literature on MAR by addressing the underexplored role of MAR in shaping regret and repurchase intention. Design/methodology/approach Two field experiments were conducted using YouCam Makeup, a leading MAR app and AI selfie editor, with 460 participants randomly assigned to interact with either the virtual mirror or the photo-based try-on feature. After the interaction, participants completed an in-person survey. Data were analyzed using multivariate statistical techniques to test the relationships among app features, perceived value, decision quality, regret and intention to repurchase through the app. Findings Results show that the virtual mirror feature provides greater utilitarian and hedonic value than photo-based try-ons, leading to higher decision quality and lower regret. However, the benefits are reduced by perceived intrusiveness, particularly among individuals with low privacy self-efficacy. While utilitarian value significantly enhances decision quality, hedonic value does not. Improved decision quality, in turn, reduces regret and increases the likelihood of repurchasing cosmetic products via the MAR app. Originality/value This research fills a gap in the MAR literature by empirically examining regret in immersive shopping contexts. It offers theoretical insights into how MAR design features influence consumer decision-making and practical guidance for developers and retailers seeking to balance utility, enjoyment and privacy to optimize the online shopping experience.
Theorising Robotic Process Automation as Socio-Technical Change: A Process Study
(Australasian Association for Information Systems, 2025-10-13) Doolin, Bill; Techatassanasoontorn, Angsana A; Waizenegger, Lena; Wallace-Carter, Erin
Robotic process automation (RPA) is increasingly adopted as a relatively inexpensive automation solution to reduce routinised and repetitive tasks and to initiate an organisation’s broader automation programme. Prior research has focused on highlighting RPA benefits for organisations with suggestions on how to maximise benefits and avoid challenges in RPA implementation. There is less understanding of the emergent and dynamic nature of RPA implementation. Drawing on key elements of socio-technical change, we conducted a process study of RPA implementation in a university. From our analysis, we identified five process patterns: initiation, mobilisation, configuration, adaptation, and evaluation, each of which has different implications for organisational trajectories of RPA implementation. Our findings also offer insights into how the changing role of RPA as an epistemic, technical, and agentic object is intertwined with the dynamics of automation and augmentation in RPA’s conception, development, incorporation into work routines, and evaluation of the initiative’s future.
Weathering the Storm: Wine, Tourism, and Hospitality Resilience in the Face of Extreme Events
(Emerald, 2025-09-01) Woodfield, Paul; Rasmussen, Erling
Purpose: This study examines the resilience of family SMEs in New Zealand's wine, tourism, and hospitality sectors in the face of extreme events. We first focus on the New Zealand wine industry relationship with tourism and hospitality and explore how these industries maintain innovative and sustainable wine systems. Our research concentrates on job attractiveness issues as they relate the seasonal nature of New Zealand’s interconnecting wine, hospitality, and tourism industries where job attractiveness can be exasperated when businesses are affected by extreme events, therefore affecting wine systems. Thus, we will address the question: in the context of extreme events, how do seasonality and job attractiveness affect wine systems for family SMEs in New Zealand's wine and related tourism and hospitality sectors? Design/methodology/approach: Secondary data were collected from media and industry outlets to identify Hawke’s Bay businesses in wine, tourism and hospitality industries that have struggled, and endured, a recent crisis. A case study design was employed as a suitable way to simultaneously reflect on historic experiences and focus on contemporary events. The case study of the Hawke’s Bay region is in the context of the extreme weather events that took place in early 2023. We draw upon empirical research of organisational resilience from other regions and how it relates to the evolving experiences in innovative and sustainable wine systems. Findings: In the face of extreme events we found that careful attention needs to be paid to rebuilding the service sector around the winegrowing industry to create high-value, sustainable businesses with quality jobs. Notably, we found that smaller family businesses were vulnerable in terms of preparedness and organisational resilience. Moreover, the job attractiveness and employer reputation issues need to be tackled in the context of extreme events particularly in industries where there are transient seasonal workers. Originality: We have drawn upon complex theoretical discussions of wine systems and their tourism and hospitality interactions in the context of an extreme event in the Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. We employed an Event System Theory (EST) framework to guide our study. Several weaknesses in organisational resilience and preparedness were highlighted, including the impact of seasonality and employment conditions on the industries’ job attractiveness. While there are studies on organisational resilience in wine enterprises and family businesses in hospitality, none explicitly focus on the intersection of these three industries. Research limitations/implications: Focusing on the wine, tourism and hospitality industries plays directly into the largest economic arena in New Zealand. This research discerned practical interventions and challenges for sustained growth and resilience in some of New Zealand’s most vulnerable industries and locations. Practical implications include bringing to the forefront the need for preparedness and organisational resilience in the case of extreme events. This includes better business-government collaboration and having measures in place to mitigate job attractiveness issues.
Perceived Organisational Support, Work‐Life Balance, and Employee Engagement and Job Satisfaction: A Moderated Mediation Study of Grandparent Status
(Wiley, 2025-10-03) Harris, Candice; Haar, Jarrod; Myers, Barbara
While older workers have received considerable attention from researchers, far less is known about the work experiences of grandparents. This study examines how perceived organisational support (POS) influences work‐life balance (WLB) and work outcomes (employee engagement and job satisfaction) with grandparent status as a moderator. Using a moderated mediation model tested on 783 New Zealand employees (including 155 grandparents) with the PROCESS macro, we find support for all direct effects. Importantly, when POS is high, grandparents report significantly higher WLB than non‐grandparents. Moderated mediation analyses further show that the indirect effect of POS on engagement and job satisfaction, via WLB, is strongest for grandparents. These findings position grandparents as a distinct and often under‐recognised segment of the workforce, suggesting they may engage with social exchange relationships in unique ways. For HR practice, this recognition goes beyond demographic categorisation—it calls for a critical evaluation of policies related to flexibility, leave, and wellbeing through the lens of later‐life caregiving responsibilities. By doing so, HR practitioners can better support the engagement and retention of this group, while researchers are encouraged to consider grandparent status as a meaningful variable in future HRM scholarship.
Trust-Materiality Theory of Social Exchange: The Evolution of Social Exchange Through Relationship Trust and Object Materiality Interplays
(Emerald, 2025-09-10) Abarashi, Jamal; Edirisingha, Prabash Aminda
Purpose This research paper aims to understand the relationship between interpersonal trust and the material aspects of social exchange. It explores how interactions between exchange partners and their material objects contribute to the development of social exchange approaches. Design This research adopted a qualitative approach that included two main stages: a non-participatory netnography and semi-structured online interviews. The netnography focused on an online community that discusses designer handbags, with YouTube being used to recruit participants for the online interviews. A thematic analysis was conducted to identify recurring patterns and concepts in the data. Findings The findings of this research reorient the current understanding of social exchange as a dynamic and materially mediated process, unfolding through three progressive stages including perplexity, clarification and stabilisation. Furthermore, the findings reveal that interactions between exchange partners and the materials involved in exchange can both empower and constrain interpersonal trust, thereby shaping the course of social exchange relationships. Additionally, the continuous interaction between materiality and interpersonal trust gives rise to three concurrent approaches to social exchange: conditional, unconditional and prohibitive. Research limitations/implications This research provides novel insights into the multifaceted nature of social exchange in the context of designer handbags. Future research could apply the proposed conceptual framework to contexts where exchange materials carry lower sentimental and market value, to further examine the interplay between materiality and interpersonal trust. Additionally, as the study did not trace individuals’ movement across exchange stages, it remains limited in explaining how trust developed in one form of exchange may translate to others. Practical implications The results allow practitioners and managers of peer-to-peer sharing platforms to synthesise ways to alleviate concerns of risk involved in collaborative and peer-to-peer consumption. Originality/value This research contributes to a deeper understanding of social exchange by showing how the interaction between materiality and interpersonal trust plays a central role in shaping exchange relationships. It moves beyond traditional explanations focused solely on reciprocity and indebtedness, providing a more nuanced account of how social exchange is enacted.
A Dual-Theory Examination of Price Guarantee Advertising Believability and Its Impact on Consumer Trust, Satisfaction, and Repurchase in Retail
(Elsevier, 2025-10-03) Hoo, Khim; Wooliscroft, Ben; Phillips, Megan
This study investigates how the believability of price guarantee (PG) advertising influences key psychological and behavioural outcomes: trust, satisfaction, and repurchase intentions in retail consumers. Drawing on Signalling Theory and Expectation-Confirmation Theory (ECT), we conceptualise a Believability–Trust–Behavioural (BTB) model to explain how consumers cognitively evaluate and affectively respond to PG messages. A quasi-longitudinal field study was conducted, using a real-world sample of 1219 loyalty programme members from a major New Zealand retailer. Participants were exposed to two PG formats, Price-Beating Guarantees (PBG) and Automatic Price-Adjustment Promises (APP), and they responded to measures before and after purchase. Results from covariance-based structural equation modelling (SEM-AMOS28) confirm that advertising believability significantly enhances trust, which mediates satisfaction and repurchase intentions. APP was perceived as more credible, while PBG produced stronger behavioural outcomes when trust was established. The model explains 82 % of the variance in satisfaction and 26 % in repurchase intention. These findings advance marketing theory by demonstrating how advertising believability functions as a psychological signal that builds trust and drives loyalty. Methodologically, the study offers a novel empirical application of dual-theory integration in a real-world retail context. Practically, it provides actionable insights for designing psychologically credible PG advertising that enhances brand trust and long-term consumer engagement in increasingly competitive and value-conscious markets.
Hauora: Relational Wellbeing of Māori Community Support Workers
(Cambridge University Press, 2025-01-21) Nicholson, Amber; Hurd, Fiona; Ravenswood, Katherine
There has been growing global interest in wellbeing over recent decades, yet what constitutes wellbeing depends on cultural and philosophical traditions, as well as worldview and knowledge systems. Our article offers an Indigenous Māori view on hauora – relational wellbeing – which emanates from the spiritual essence and ethic of hau, and traverses ecological, social, and economic spheres. We use the case study of Māori community support workers (CSWs), who, in our study, found that their hauora was affected by discrimination, racism, and a lack of cultural awareness and support from employers. Our participants, centred mostly within corporate community support providers, found that Western models of care and support did not allow for the expression of tikanga Māori, which limited their options for providing culturally appropriate care. Also prevalent was the lack of recognition by employers and funders of the importance of culture and culturally appropriate care. The implications of acknowledging hauora within Aotearoa New Zealand’s wellbeing frameworks are then examined, showing that Māori notions of wellbeing have the potential to deliver better outcomes not only for Māori but for all New Zealanders. In this article, we provide some recommendations and reflections on how organisations can prioritise and embed the cultural wellbeing of Māori CSWs, their whānau and their clients in the workplace.
Sustainable Provisioning Systems: Extending Alderson’s Transvection Analysis to Detect Value Loss, Power Asymmetry and Underperforming Markets
(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2025-06-25) Wooliscroft, Ben; Wilkes, James
Business research has offered many tools to understand the opportunity for single firms to create or realise value in the provisioning system. The majority of sustainability tools also relate to single firms, or households. Sustainability is a whole of system shift and we require tools to understand the relationship between different members of the provisioning system and the distribution of costs (internal and externalities) and profits through the system. Building on the work of Wroe Alderson, we provide a tool—the extended transvection—to analyse a provisioning system that provides insights into: information flows, value creation/capture/loss, risk, externalities, equity and fairness, and underperforming provisioning systems. Together these insights allow us to see the sustainability of the provisioning system. The extended transvection also allows for considering scenarios regarding adjusted/alternate provisioning systems.
Preserving Tradition Amidst Modernity: The Hybridity of Food Practices
(Informa UK Limited, 2025-08-04) Rai, M; Yap, SF; Yang, L; Stewart, C
Traditional socio-cultural practices surrounding food, vital for cultural preservation and continuity, are increasingly contested due to modern influences such as globalisation and economic growth. These shifts can significantly impact consumption routines and disrupt long-held traditions. While such lifestyle and food-practice shifts can threaten consumers’ sense of ontological security, more attention is needed to understand how these contestations are negotiated and managed. Drawing on theories of practice, we explore how consumers negotiate contestations amid the tensions arising between tradition and modernity. This ethnographic study of 31 middle-class households in India reveals how consumers actively (re)configure material and competence-based elements of food practices to preserve traditional meanings while negotiating modern influences. This study offers theoretical insights into the hybridisation of practices, illustrating how consumers fluidly adapt to sustain cultural continuity and restore ontological security.
Dollars and Scents How the Right Smells Can Encourage Shoppers to Buy Healthier Foods
(The Conversation, 2024-06-25) Phillips, Megan; Kapitan, Sommer

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