S-TEAM 2023

Digital Disruptions and Sustainable HR Practices

Human capital is the differentiating force and an active asset of the organisation (Fitzenz, 2009). Much like every other part of the organization, the digital transformation of HR is essential in an age where technological disruption is the norm (Makridakis, 2017). The current workplace has seen nothing short of tremendous transformations due to digital technology in the twentieth century (Valenduc & Vendramin, 2017). The essence of HR’s digital transformation lies in creating a culture of digitalization (Xin & Vincent Kow, 2022). This involves not just learning how to use automated solutions but learning how to use them so that they enhance human capabilities. According to Cijan et al., 2019, a digital workplace is a virtual, modernized form of traditional employment. Digitalization has an immediate and significant impact on the workplace and business, and it is more than simply a buzzword (Bresciani et al., 2021).

In order to ensure long-term commitments to internal and external stakeholders, businesses must adapt to digitalization to fulfill their sustainable development goals. The view of the accelerated enterprise digital transformation of market offerings, processes, and ways of working, HR managers must step up their game in areas that can directly affect the success of these programs. It is vital for HR to “recognize that building a sustainable capability in-house is a huge undertaking, requiring leadership, people development, career paths, roles and skills clarification, and a culture of lifelong learning and feedback.”

According to Ehnert et al. (2014), the relationship between HRM and social sustainability has increasingly gained profound attention from industry and academia. The core competency of any organisation is its human resources or HRs. At the intersection of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and human resource management (HRM), another specific research strand has been forming and considerably flourishing over the past years, contributing to the burgeoning academic debate of what has been called “socially responsible human resource management” (SRHRM). Socially responsible HRM practices help organizations increase their employees' ethical awareness and meaningfully motivate them to engage in CSR activities (Cantele, 2018).

However, the strategic formulation of CSR priorities and their translation into everyday managerial practices have represented a critical challenge for many organizations. As Jamali argued, organizations responded to this challenge by emphasizing the role of HRM (Jamali et al., 2015). Indeed, HRM assumes a critical role as HR activities are highly intertwined with humanistic approaches in organizations (Nejati et al., 2019) while contributing to business value creation simultaneously [(Dal Zotto & Gustafsson, 2008).

Keeping the themes mentioned above in mind, we invite original manuscripts that can be empirical, conceptual, survey-based, general reviews, or case studies on the following topics, but not restricted to those listed below:

Evolving Face of Finance with AI, Digitization, and SDGs

Research practices and literature in Accounting & Finance focused on the firm's profitability, which further aids the shareholder's wealth creation. These practices have led to sustainable finance, financial performance, and enhanced reporting style. This evolution is because short-term financial performance does not contribute to corporate sustainability (Lo & Lio, 2021). The dual advantage of environmental and economic performance leads the way toward the concept of circular economy with the core theme of extended usage of products, materials, or resources (Gregson et al., 2015).

A circular economy leads to sustainable business management by impacting strategic planning, cost management, supply chain management, quality management, environmental management, process and reverse logistics, service management, and research and development (Barros et al., 2021). However, there need to be more studies connecting the aspects of the circular economy and financial reporting or financial performance of firms (Gunarathne et al., 2021). This development creates a room of opportunity for researchers to explore and observe empirical evidence in the niche area along with firms. Firms need to align their strategic plans around the circular economy theme as many countries like China have announced it as a part of their Economic and Sustainable Plans (13th-five-year plan, 2016–2020). Kuo and Chang (2021) found empirical evidence of higher sustainable growth rates and return on equity by firms that disclosed more circular economy information and aligned reporting to the circular economy. Therefore, firms can achieve better shareholder returns by adopting circular economy practices. However, this needs to be aligned with the reporting practices of firms too.

Based on the above empirical evidence and open areas of literature, we invite original manuscripts which can be empirical, conceptual, surveys, reviews, and case studies on the following areas but not limited to:

AI, Digitization, Sustainable Development Goals & Global Disruptions

In this era of disruption across the world, technology has become central to the management of business operations, more than ever. The emergence of new-age technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT), generate vast amounts of data that are stored in global storage data centers.

Big data, characterized with high volume, variety, and velocity, increasingly drives decision-making and is changing the landscape of business intelligence, from governments, organizations, communities to individual decision making. Such a large amount of data can enable digital firms to develop data-driven innovations such as introducing new products or upgrading existing product lines or services (Ransbotham and Kiron, 2017). With the technical advancement, the sustainability aspects of the technology, including its impacts on the economic, social and environmental issues are lesser discussed. Risk assessment, mitigation, and detection of early warning signals needs more focus.

First adopters of digitization in many industries have gained a competitive edge over their competitors as it creates many opportunities to create value, raise the efficiency of processes and also reduce emissions. Companies can better manage the energy consumption, rising cost challenges, inefficient uses of raw materials, logistic problems, emissions and overall process complexities (Boakye, Winters, & Simske, 2022). The human machine interface is undergoing a paradigmatic shift. For example, the new age smart cars will no longer be a single function transport but will become an intelligent mobile terminal providing mobility service. The relationship between the driver and the car will alter dramatically. We can no longer hold on to the old paradigm of human machine relationship as one of control-oriented machine interface (Chen, Ma, & Zhang, 2021).

The world of marketing and brand management has been significantly impacted by this wave of digitization and AI. AI provides a tool for endless options for customers and helps narrow down the information to curate customized services and products for all customers. Digitization across social media has given wings to the aforementioned process. Influencing Smart retail and customer interactions, categorising social media influencers, branding and customer information processing have all seen massive evolutionary development (Hagan, Jahankhani, Broc, & Jamal, 2021).

Research needs to focus around the future of work itself. We need a lens on the future of work that is neither reduced to a robots or jobs dichotomy nor polarized by assessments of lousy and lovely jobs (Goos & Manning, 2007). The potential of this new age revolution to touch our lives significantly is immense and hence we invite papers on all the impact of AI and Digitization to every field. Papers are welcome from quantitative as well as qualitative research methods domain along with Mixed-method studies. Provided, these are all previously unpublished, original piece of work on the following issues, but not limited to:

Reimagining Marketing in the Era of Digital Disruption

The dominant disruptive force in the modern period is ‘digital’. According to a recent report by International Data Corporation, businesses will spend nearly twice as much money on digital transformation technology and services by 2026 than they did in the pre-Covid period, or around 3.4 trillion USD (Shirer, 2022). Despite this exorbitant investment, only a few firms are reaping the full benefits of their digital transformation. One of the most common misconceptions among executives is that digital transformation is about improving the present; rather, it is an investment to extract a greater opportunity by redesigning a company model to make it more efficient, effective, and, eventually, profitable.

As we all know, customers are more connected to human-mimicking technology than ever before. They give more importance to the value-offered by a product while making any buying decision. Organizations therefore cannot afford to rely on their legacies. We currently live in a time where clinging to outdated beliefs will only limit our ability to advance. Do we upgrade ourselves for performance, relevance, and agility, or do we have to reset as a digital representation of our former selves? Understanding how to do and be better for stakeholders, customers, partners, the planet, and people in general is the first step in bringing about meaningful change.

This conference encourages contributions that reflect the spirit of marketing by informing and contributing practical solutions to the world's pressing concerns of the day. We welcome multidisciplinary, multi-method, and cutting-edge research articles on the following topics, but not exclusively, as long as they are all unique, previously unpublished works that make theoretical, practical, and conceptual advances.