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The article addresses the issue of the level of trust in the Catholic clergy in Poland among the youngest adult Catholics. The authors formulate their conclusions on the basis of a literature review and their own extensive research conducted among young adult Catholics born after 1995 (Generation Z). The research focused on the level of trust assessed with regard to the hierarchical division of the clergy in the Catholic Church as well as scandals involving priests exposed in recent years. The performed analyses took into account the level of religious commitment of young Catholics and their attitudes towards the role of the hierarchical Church in solving their problems. The research results indicate a significant level of trust in the Pope, a slightly lower level of trust in parish priests, and a very low level of trust in bishops and the institution of the Catholic Church in general. The decisive majority of those following religious observances and declaring compliance with the moral principles in line with Church teachings maintain trust in the institution of the Church. The final conclusions point to the need to manage the trust of the faithful as beneficiaries and clients of religious organisations such as the Church.

Using a national survey of US consumers, this study demonstrates the positive effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication factors on consumers' CSR knowledge, trust, and perceptions of corporate reputation. The study also examines the role of a stakeholderspecific factor of consumer-company identification in the process of CSR communication. The findings suggest that the positive effects of CSR informativeness are enduring and independent of consumers' identification levels with a company, whereas the positive consequences of the personal relevance, transparency, and factual tone of CSR communication intensify as the identification levels increase. Although CSR communication in which a selfpromotional tone is adopted has a negative relationship with consumer trust and corporate reputation, such negative effects are not evident among consumers with very high identification levels with a company. Such CSR communication in fact improves consumers' CSR knowledge and, in turn, has a positive effect on corporate reputation.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how blockchain has moved beyond cryptocurrencies and is being deployed to enhance visibility and trust in supply chains, their limitations and potential impact. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative analysis are undertaken via case studies drawn from food companies using semi-structured interviews. Findings Blockchain is demonstrated as an enabler of visibility in supply chains. Applications at scale are most likely for products where the end consumer is prepared to pay the premium currently required to fund the technology, e.g. baby food. Challenges remain in four areas: trust of the technology, human error and fraud at the boundaries, governance, consumer data access and willingness to pay. Research limitations/implications The paper shows that blockchain can be utilised as part of a system generating visibility and trust in supply chains. Research directs academic attention to issues that remain to be addressed. The challenges pertaining to the technology itself we believe to be generalisable; those specific to the food industry may not hold elsewhere. Practical implications From live case studies, we provide empirical evidence that blockchain provides visibility of exchanges and reliable data in fully digitised supply chains. This provides provenance and guards against counterfeit goods. However, firms will need to work to gain consumer buy-in for the technology following repeated past claims of trustworthiness. Originality/value This paper provides primary evidence from blockchain use cases “in the wild”. The exploratory case studies examine application of blockchain for supply chain visibility.

We construct a measure of corporate purpose within a sample of U.S. companies based on approximately 500,000 survey responses of worker perceptions about their employers. We find that this measure of purpose is not related to financial performance. However, high-purpose firms come in two forms: firms characterized by high camaraderie between workers and firms characterized by high clarity from management. We document that firms exhibiting both high purpose and clarity have systematically higher future accounting and stock market performance, even after controlling for current performance, and that this relation is driven by the perceptions of middle management and professional staff rather than senior executives or hourly or commissioned workers. Taken together, these results suggest that firms with midlevel employees with strong beliefs in the purpose of their organization and the clarity in the path toward that purpose experience better performance. The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2018.1230 .

Successful university–industry collaborations require high levels of trust among participants, yet achieving this goal is complex. In this study, we provide a fine-grained qualitative analysis of thirty interviews from four collaborative, government-funded case studies over a 2-year period to analyze how trust can facilitate and/or impede project outcomes. We identified two levels of trust (individual and organizational), at multiple stages of the collaboration. Scientists’ reputation and shared values about information sharing helped build trust among individual scientists, while organizational-level trust centered on efficiency, including alignment with contract provisions and time commitment to the project. Our analysis shows that only one project had a positive outcome, demonstrating that the interaction of trust across levels and over time helps explain collaborative success or lack thereof. Such a holistic perspective can widen understanding of the outcomes of university–industry collaborative efforts.

The aim of this study is to understand how performance management systems (PMS) affect the strategy development process. The research examines PMS implementation and evaluates how the implementation of PMS links measures with rewards, i.e., financial and non-financial, to influence strategy formation. This qualitative study is based on 74 semi-structured face-to-face in-depth interviews with board members, mid-level managers, and other employees in nine organizations. Theory-building is comprised of the transcribed and analyzed interviews using MAXQDA 12 software. Theory-testing, i.e., a verificatory stage, consisted of analyzing previously identified phenomena. Results suggest that PMS affects strategy development processes by influencing both employee relational and calculative trust in their superiors. It also indicates a direct behavioral effect on employee knowledge sharing and manager trust in their subordinates. As a result, this may determine the extent to which managers exploit shared knowledge while formulating a strategy. The research demonstrates there is a trade-off between PMS implementation and strategy development. A gap in the literature is filled by integrating relational and calculative trust with PMS implementation and showing how such changes in trust mediate knowledge sharing behavior and strategy development.

PurposeProcess management principles are challenging owing to the increasing need for sustainable operations. The demand for rapid deliveries implies accelerated changes and increased flexibility. Therefore, this study aims to facilitate process improvements based on change-driven needs.Design/methodology/approachThe research is conducted using holistic multiple case studies of eight Swedish organisations (with employees from Sweden, France and Germany), representing the automotive, energy, medical technology, healthcare, telecom and social services sectors.FindingsA process management model with four change-driven phases is presented. The model fulfils demands for both speed and quality in process changes, providing specific guidance on working methods for (1) control and stability, (2) creativity and stability, (3) creativity and change and (4) control and change.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is limited to eight organisations in Sweden, France, and Germany that participate in the automotive, energy, medical technology, healthcare, telecom and social services sectors. Future research should explore broader international contexts.Practical implicationsThe proposed model helps decision-makers adapt process management to evolving business and operational needs; thus, leaders can make grounded decisions on when and how to change operations based on changing internal and external requirements.Originality/valueThis study challenges the current process management paradigm with new knowledge of how process management can be adapted to new business opportunities.

PurposeTrust is an increasingly important requirement for any business and as a result has become a contemporary design criterion for business processes. However, the literature to date is very much focused on the technical (security) aspects, which are provider centric, as opposed to trust that is customer centric. In this paper, the authors extended an initial meta-model of trust-aware process design by proposing a way to capture trust-intensity for four trust dimensions, i.e. input, people, process and output and an organizational trust position. The authors also investigate the deployment of the extended meta-model in practice.Design/methodology/approachAn extensive literature study is conducted to derive an understanding of the dimension's customer trust when interacting with an organization. Based on the findings of the literature review and a previously developed trust meta-model, the authors propose a way to describe an organizational trust position, i.e. the depiction of how much uncertainty is prevalent in the trust dimensions. Next, the authors conducted an exploratory case study using secondary data to validate the extended meta-model.FindingsThe case study demonstrated the applicability of the extended trust meta-model and derived actionable practices. In this case, the Indonesian food delivery company GoFood, the authors identified trust concerns in the input, process, resources and output of their business at the start of their operations. Since then, GoFood took specific actions to reduce their operational, behavioral and perceived uncertainty and these identified trust concerns. To a lesser degree, GoFood has managed vulnerability issues and invested in measures to increase customers' confidence. As a result of reduced uncertainties, GoFood's business has grown and became the number one in food service delivery in Indonesia.Research limitations/implicationsThe approach to capture trust (in the trust dimensions) is still a simplified version and a pre-step for a fully developed management tool or method. The use of a secondary data from a single case study also limits the validity and generalizability of the findings.Practical implicationsThe extended meta-model proposed in this paper has several implications related to the organization's BPM capabilities. The result also demonstrates how trust measures related to reducing uncertainty, reducing vulnerability and increasing confidence can be applied in practice. Strategies used by the case company presented here such as rating systems to increase confidence can be used by other firms within a similar context.Social implicationsHaving an empirically validated framework for the management of trust, allows organizations to execute an operational model for the development of trusted engagement with the main benefactor being the customer.Originality/valuePrevious trust-related studies focused on conceptual ideas only, relied on fictive examples or were very much focused on the technical (security) aspects of business processes. This study is the first empirical validation of a trust meta-model that serves managers to understand their trust position and to guide trust-building actions.

The growth of alliances has generated considerable interest in this topic among both academics and practitioners. While multiple factors may affect alliance success, partner selection emerges as one of the most influential. Previous studies on alliances present general models that assume the factors (e.g., trust, commitment, complementarity, financial payoff) that drive partner attractiveness and, in turn, the likelihood of selection, are consistent across varying alliance projects and situations. In contrast, the present study proposes a contingency approach grounded in management control theory that suggests the criteria managers use in choosing alliance partners will vary by alliance project type. Specifically, it introduces a framework that addresses when and why managers select partners with certain, specific characteristics. The results of the present study strongly support hypotheses that the critical criteria for assessing alliance partner attractiveness and selection vary depending on the differential levels of process manageability and outcome interpretability inherent in a strategic alliance. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Since the introduction of Ethereum in 2015, blockchain technology (BT) has been evolving, and BT has been associated with the concept of the sharing economy by business academics. Despite the marketing research on the sharing economy that has been extensively conducted in the last decade, the linkage between BT and ethical marketing in the sharing economy remains unclear. Through a systematic literature review of 163 articles and a co-citation analysis, this study identifies the key elements of blockchain capabilities, blockchain attributes, and the underlying economic theories of blockchain. It also synthesizes and proposes a shift of ethical marketing logic in the blockchain-based sharing economy that delineates the principles of stakeholder capitalism. The article concludes with a list of future research directions that underline three approaches of stakeholder theory (i.e., the descriptive, instrument, and normative approaches). These directions aim to guide marketing scholars concerning how BT enables an institutionally embedded view of ethical marketing activities and practices that enhance collaborative marketing and subsequently innovate value chains and create sustainable business models in the sharing economy, as well as to the metaverse.