Innholdsfortegnelse for March/April 2024 i The European Business Review

BRAND LOYALTY According to a McKinsey study (2020), members of loyalty programmes are 30 percent more likely to spend more on the brand after subscribing. Even more, Ourself, a beauty brand recognised for its tech-centric products, attributes 40 percent of its sales to its rewards programme (Morris 2023). Research shows that loyalty programmes are also a crucial step in enhancing the share-of-wallet (Leenheer et al., 2007). Many brand managers have yet to fully realise the great potential of loyalty programmes, given the significant number of brands that resort to unoriginal, standard loyalty approaches like basic point-collection systems for discounts, which may not engage consumers effectively. The cosmetics industry represents a vital area for studying loyalty programme usage, as it remains ahead of many other industries in digital marketing innovation. While…

LEADERSHIP INTRODUCTION Trust is the foundation of any successful relationship, whether it be personal or professional. Building trust requires effort and time, but the benefits of a trustworthy relationship are immeasurable. Trust can lead to increased communication, better collaboration, and a stronger sense of community. In this article, we will explore the strategies and techniques available to leaders that can be used to establish trust in their relationships. Trust is an essential concept in many of the articles, books, and research focus of the coauthors of this article. Dolan (2011 and 2020), for example, refers to TRUST as the “Super-Value”, the “Value of Values” or the “Mother of all Values”.1 Garti and Tzafrir (2022), in a recent book, suggests trust to be a powerful concept for synchronising work-family relationships.2 As…

Managing organisations to be highly aligned and capable of implementing their chosen strategy is an age-old challenge. It has only become harder now that many firms and public sector organisations embrace ecosystem principles in their organisational design. Because they are more open, flexible, and integrated than the industrial-age hierarchy, ecosystem-based organisations can leverage external resources (think partners) to offer customers enhanced value upstream (think novel product and service development) and downstream (think flexible delivery) than they ever could be if relying upon internal resources alone.1 However, published research indicates that up to 75% of ecosystems are considered failures.2 The leaders we spoke to acknowledge the considerable potential of ecosystem thinking for their businesses but also expressed concern over the complexity of organising along such lines. We studied a sample of…

SUPPLY CHAIN INTRODUCTION TO SUPPLY CHAIN CYBERATTACKS The SolarWinds breach serves as a compelling case study, revealing the widespread consequences of vulnerabilities within supply chains. Drawing parallels with incidents in Switzerland, where the financial sector remains a prime target, this article aims to outline the complexities of safeguarding supply chains against evolving cyber threats. While the Swiss financial sector has responded with comprehensive regulations, the spotlight shifts to broader industrial supply chains where similar regulations either do not exist or are not followed with adequate priority. Examining examples of supply chain cyberattacks on manufacturing companies unveils the vulnerabilities and challenges faced by these critical sectors. In the United States, many industries have experienced targeted supply chain cyberattacks, disrupted operations, and compromised sensitive data. Recent incidents have illuminated the need for…

The hidden side of such achievement is also common to all entrepreneurs: failure. According to the Bureau of Lahor Statistics1, in the US, at least 20% of businesses will fail in their first two years, and up to almost 50% will do so by age five. Therefore, we question what is there to be said (and known) about failure, and most importantly, what do we know about eventually coming back? FAILURE IS MORE COMMON THAN WE THINK Embarking on an entrepreneurial journey is a rollercoaster ride filled with trials and triumphs. Some entrepreneurs face unexpected roadblocks that force them to pause or close their businesses for an extended period. Despite the setbacks, many individuals force themselves through a process of time and resilience that helps them reactivate themselves and recreate…

There is Freudian psychological and psychiatric business literature on narcissism. We are now used to discussing our politicians as well as business leaders, movie stars, and models in this terminology. The PR-hungry narcissistic CEO and politician is clearly driven to gain power, glory, and the admiration of others. They can be visionaries and risk takers, seeing the big picture while downplaying the rules, laws, and conventions which handicap them. They can also be amazingly self-absorbed, deluded, and destructive. Narcissists can be energetic, charismatic, leader-like, and willing to take the initiative to get projects moving. They can be relatively successful in management, sales, and entrepreneurship, but usually only for short periods. However, they are arrogant, vain, overbearing, demanding, self-deceived, and pompous, yet they are so colourful and engaging that they often…

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE GenAI has taken a leading role in supporting and enhancing activities, drawing on cognitive functions in many facets of our society. Unlike the robotic revolution that impacted mostly blue-collar workers in the manufacturing and assembly industries of the end of the 20th century, GenAI has most directly impacted white-collar and creative workers over the past year. OpenAI’s ChatGPT was the first major GenAI out of the gate in late 2022. It started an avalanche of entries in the field from start-ups to the leading large tech corporations of Microsoft, Google, Meta, IBM, and more. Now, with more than 100 million weekly users, as well as more than 92 per cent of the Fortune 500 companies,9 OpenAI remains in the lead of this massive movement to integrate artificial intelligence…

ESG In October 2023, the EU defeated an attempt by some of its Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to water down the requirements regarding its European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), thereby ensuring that, through the incorporation of double materiality, it would achieve its ultimate goal of giving non-financial and financial reporting total parity. Following this news, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) claimed that “a high level of interoperability between the new ESRS and the GRI Standards - already widely used by thousands of organizations in Europe and around the world - [had] been achieved.”1 Although the GRI acknowledged that ESRS is mandatoiy and the GRI voluntaiy, their claim nevertheless called attention to the issue of fungibility, implying that the GRI stood alone in providing organisations with a truly global…

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AI is everywhere and almost everyone is frightened by ChatGPT. Sure, some are excited, believing that AI will eliminate boring tasks and write their emails, articles, and books. This point of view does not consider that a system, in this case AI, aka ChatGPT, is only as successful as we, the humans, make it. So the question comes up of whether it will lead to change or transformation in our business world. If you look for the difference between change and transformation, you come across the following definitions. Change is the exchange of one thing for another of similar type. Transformation, on the other hand, is a complete change in the appearance or character of something or someone in a way that the thing or person is improved…

In businesses’ quest for profitability, in a world that seems to be more and more demanding, and also in a journey where achieving success is increasingly challenging for most business leaders - high competition, rapid technological changes, various sorts of crises (economic, political, health, …) and so on, to be able to better understand and obtain a certain excellence in timing could the most promising way to secure a reasonable profit margin. To know when to accelerate one’s engagement in a business, as well as when to decelerate, appears key. It seems to be a matter of skill regarding “ins and outs”. It is also important to consider that these “ins and outs” are not only about entering and exiting a business, but rather can also refer to turning on…

AI GOVERNANCE As artificial intelligence becomes more embedded across sectors, governments respond with new regulations to manage risks while enabling innovation. However, complex and fragmented regulatory approaches could undermine trust in AI among key decision-makers. This analysis compares emerging AI governance laws and regulations in the EU, US, and UK, specifically examining their potential impact on trust for executives, managers, and workers adopting AI systems. The EU’s AI Act categorises risks and sets rules to protect rights while enabling innovation. The US has an AI Bill of Rights and order for safe AI, but no comprehensive laws yet. The UK takes a pro-innovation approach with guidelines for responsible AI use overseen by existing regulators. BUILDING TRUST IN AI EU: The EU Act promotes accountability and transparency in AI. This can…

THE GENDER GAP IN WORKPLACE FLEXIBILITY Research commissioned by LinkedIn, involving over 2,000 workers and 503 hiring managers, reveals a stark reality: 52% of women have left or considered leaving a job due to inflexible working conditions. This statistic is a testament to the widespread impact of rigid work cultures on women’s careers. Moreover, a survey conducted by Brand Champions sheds light on another dimension of the issue: the lack of support and understanding surrounding women’s health issues in the workplace. With 61% of female respondents perceiving a gap in support and 52% reporting increased stress levels at work due to women’s health issues, it’s clear that these challenges contribute significantly to the gender disparity in workplace flexibility. BEYOND GENDER: WORKPLACE FLEXIBILITY While women are at the epicentre of the…

Scott Zoldi fights crime across the globe. His superpower is data - and an unprecedented, innovative process to amass that data. He’s got his work cut out for him. Every day, hordes of criminals work to exploit systemic vulnerabilities in how you and I shop. Their relentless work chips away at the very integrity of consumer commerce at large. I’m talking about fraud. Crooks obtain your card details so that they can perform a transaction and make off with the spoils. In 2021, payment card fraud losses reached $28.58 billion worldwide.2 The United States suffers more than any other country, accounting for more than a third of that loss. To make matters worse, fraud increased during the pandemic, in part due to the increase in “card not present” virtual transactions.…

A common comparison on walking the streets of developed versus developing economies is witnessing garbage in the streets. This is observed in the South Asian and African regions due to weak and inadequate municipal solid waste management (MSWM) practices (Munyai & Nunu, 2020). The global MSW generation is expected to reach 3.4 billion tons per year by 2050 (a 50% increase from the current levels) and 53% of this growth is likely to come from developing economies (Tiseo, 2022). The collectivist national culture of most developing economies holds the key to establishing sustainable MSWM. Looking after one another, being collective, thoughtful, and striving for win-win solutions for all involved should be incorporated as part of the strategies for all stages of MSWM from collection to processing. Examples of these strategies…