The wellbeing of employees, consumers and other stakeholders of markets

Research cluster

Background

With the increasing recognition of wellbeing of entrepreneurs, employees, consumers and other stakeholders of markets as an outcome of exchange process and products, and the adverse impact of COVID-19 on individuals, communities and nations, the research in business has started focusing on personal, professional, community and global wellbeing.

We bring together marketing, entrepreneurship and sustainability experts, as well as business managers and opinion leaders to understand how attitudes and behavioural changes lead to wellbeing of all stakeholders of markets. We employ a quantitative method approach and develop new insight into entrepreneurship, consumers and employees' wellbeing and sustainability for dynamic markets, services and social responsibility.

Program of research

Entrepreneurship and Innovation: This stream focuses on entrepreneurial attributes and innovation, that drive the success of start-ups and new ventures. This stream is interested in leadership styles, R&D and innovation management, gender and cultural impacts on start-ups performance outcomes.

Wellbeing: This stream focuses on the wellbeing of consumers, employees and other stakeholders of a market. This stream focuses on psychological mechanisms, external and internal environmental factors and contextual variables that may be at play in contributing to or inhibiting the wellbeing of stakeholders of a market.

Sustainability: This stream focuses on the diverse systems, processes, products, services and solutions that contribute to green innovation, environment and sustainability. It is interested in organisations' initiatives, strategies, investments and innovations to improve the culture of sustainability in organisations and societies.

The proposed cluster aims to link its research to community needs and dynamics. More specifically, we are focused on changing needs of our community in the post-COVID-19 world. Our other areas of interest include food safety, vulnerable communities such as Aboriginal and Torres State Islander (locally) and women entrepreneurs in third world countries (globally). More recently, our two projects have attracted several awards for community engagement. The short case summaries of these two projects are presented:

Engagement project 1: Positive emotions and asylum seekers and migrant communities

by Dr Syed Muhammad Fazal-e-Hasan

Collaborative partners: IHC, Canberra, Alamdar Association Sydney, IML Association, Sydney (three not-for-profit community organisations), 500 + Australian families

Case summary:

The project highlights the importance of positive emotions such as love, hope and resilience in shaping up the behaviour of migrants and asylum seekers to cope-up with the Australian culture. The project entailed three 10-day workshops from 1–10 September in 2019 and then 20–29 August in 2020 in collaboration with three not-for-profit organisations of Canberra and Sydney. Broadly the content delivered in this workshop was related to religiosity, spirituality and morality and its implementation in Western society. The participants were comprised of 500 migrants and asylum seekers from South Asia.

Outcomes:

• This project changed asylum seekers and migrants' paradigm of being isolated and without identity.
• The researcher persuaded them that they could contribute to several projects that aim at improving the wellbeing of vulnerable and oppressed communities.
• They realised that it is possible to live a happy and productive life in Australia that is full of religious, spiritual and moral values.
• They felt that working for the vulnerable and oppressed communities is as important as contributing to one's own life.
• This engagement project won the Vice-Chancellor Award and Medal, culminated three publications in A-ranked journals and secured an internal engagement grant for its extension.

Engagement project 2: First value offering commercialisation by new technology ventures (NTVs) by Dr Hormoz Ahmadi

Collaborative partners: ACU, Collaborate Plus, SSD

Case summary:

The project highlights the importance of founding team compositions and how the initiators should plan it from inception. Configuration of the team initiating and managing a start-up; people outside the family with different skillsets might be needed. Also, we discussed that marketing is often the missing element in managing start-up businesses; they lack resources and have no established brand; hence personal selling and marketing become important.

Outcome:

1. This project has engaged several stakeholders, such as entrepreneurs willing to initiate start-ups, business students, industry managers and founding teams of small businesses.
2. The researcher facilitated practical seminar and workshops focusing on first product development and first product sales skills in the incubator program.
3. The project engaged a diverse audience, including entrepreneurs, business students, industry managers, start-ups, and professional staff.
4. After workshops, the researcher often receives several enquiries from practitioners for further consultation sessions or for providing helpful material/tools for skills improvement.
5. This engagement project culminated two publications in an A* and A-ranked journals and secured an internal engagement grant for its extension.

Cluster members

This cluster has collaborators from Australia, UK and China. This combination of researchers is strategic and allows cluster members to employ Australia, European and Asian contexts for their research and engagement activities.

The researchers in this cluster have been working in collaboration for the last five years.

If you are interested in exploring the opportunities to work with cluster members, please contact the cluster leads.

• Dr Hormoz Ahmadi (Entrepreneurial Marketing and Innovation Stream), Hormoz.Ahmadi@acu.edu.au – Cluster leader
• Dr Syed Muhammad Fazal-e-Hasan (Consumer Behaviour, Wellbeing and Sustainability Stream), syed.fazal-e-hasan@acu.edu.au – Cluster leader
• Professor Gary Mortimer – Queensland University of Technology
• Associate Professor Balaji Makam – Nottingham University Business School China
• Associate Professor Harjit Sekhon – Coventry University, UK
• Associate Professor Sujana Adapa – University of New England
• Dr Muhammad Abid – Macquarie University

Selected publications

Fazal-e-Hasan, S.M., Ahmadi, H., Kelly, L. and Lings, IN, 2019. The role of brand innovativeness and customer hope in developing online repurchase intentions. Journal of Brand Management, 26(2), pp.85-98. [ABDC A]

Fazal-e-Hasan, S.M., Ahmadi, H., Mortimer, G., Grimmer, M. and Kelly, L., 2018. Examining the role of consumer hope in explaining the impact of perceived brand value on customer–brand relationship outcomes in an online retailing environment. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 41, pp.101-111. [ABDC A]

Fazal‐E‐Hasan, S.M., Ahmadi, H., Mortimer, G., Lings, I., Kelly, L. and Kim, H., 2020. Online Repurchasing: The Role of Information Disclosure, Hope, and Goal Attainment. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 54(1), pp.198-226. [ABDC A]

Fazal-e-Hasan, S.M., Ahmadi, H., Mortimer, G., Sekhon, H., Kharouf, H. and Jebarajakirthy, C., 2020. The interplay of positive and negative emotions to quit unhealthy consumption behaviors: Insights for social marketers. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ). [ABDC A]

Getnet, H., O'Cass, A., Ahmadi, H. and Siahtiri, V., 2019. Supporting product innovativeness and customer value at the bottom of the pyramid through context-specific capabilities and social ties. Industrial Marketing Management, 83, pp.70-80. [ABDC A*]

Adapa, S., Fazal-e-Hasan, S.M., Makam, S.B., Azeem, MM and Mortimer, G., 2020. Examining the antecedents and consequences of perceived shopping value through smart retail technology. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 52, p.101901. [ABDC A]

Yadav, R., Balaji, MS and Jebarajakirthy, C., 2019. How psychological and contextual factors contribute to travelers' propensity to choose green hotels?. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 77, pp.385-395. [ABDC A*]