No abstract

The literature on gender diversity in boards of directors has expanded significantly in recent years, due to the fact that women are increasingly holding higher management positions within the company hierarchy, clearly demonstrating that certain characteristics of women have a positive impact on different areas within the company. The objective of this paper is to analyze scientific articles on the presence of women in boards of directors, based on a literature review, in order to learn about the evolution of this concept over time. The search conducted for this paper produced 300 documents from the Web of Science, with a final total result of 168 documents after passing the initial results through various filters. VOSviewer software was used to analyze the information, which enabled the creation of bibliometric citation, co-citation and co-word maps. The results reveal the most relevant authors and studies on this subject and identify the most current studies, the main topic of which deals with sustainability and corporate social responsibility, in addition to highlighting the characteristics of women that are of vital importance to boards of directors within the current context: empathy, open innovation, concern for the needs of interest groups and a heightened perception of risks.

This article aims to improve the knowledge on Generation Z as employees within workforce and in the workplace, as well as on the main thematic trends that drive the research on the topic. To this end, and using bibliometric techniques, a sample of 102 publications on this subject from Web of Science between 2009 and 2020 is analyzed. Research discusses the most published and most cited authors and journals to have a broad view of the context of the subject. Later, through a longitudinal view, the study mainly focuses on analyzing the evolution of thematic clusters, to assess the progress of the themes, as well as the network around the principal motor cluster of each period. The obtained results suggest a hardly developed topic, which started to draw attention in 2018, while still having a wide margin for growth. The core of research on the topic has evolved around “Generation-Z” “generations,” “workplace,” “management” and “attitudes,” “leadership,” “career,” or “learning-teaching-education,” although a low keyword stability among periods was noted. There is a need for further development on a variety of aspects regarding this generation and the labor market, as the study shows a clear orientation toward management and generational diversity within the workplace.

Some academics are pushing for teaching staff to implement didactical practices to obtain sustainable behavior. Moreover, a fundamental element of gamification in all educational stages is the noteworthy effect it has on student motivation. In our study, we examined higher education students’ assessments in the University of Malaga on the design of educational gamification and the teaching criteria that relate to gamification, and its effect on student’s motivation, the applications of gamification, and the attitude towards sustainability. A questionnaire was administered to students studying for degrees in education from the University of Malaga. A total of 187 valid surveys were obtained. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was computed for these data based on an exploratory–confirmatory model and using SmartPLS version 3.3.2. A positive relationship between assessment of students’ motivation and sustainability attitude was found. We found that the opinions of the students about the role of their training and teaching design material in education would affect students’ motivation and the sustainability behavior, although the power of this last construct is moderate.

The pharmaceutical industry, concerned about the impact of its activity, has integrated responsible principles and practices with a view to improving its sustainable and financial performance. This study analyzes the relationship between environmental, social, governance, and controversy indicators and financial performance, measured through return on equity (ROA), return on assets (ROE), and Tobin’s Q, which are applied to the listed companies in the Nasdaq US Smart Pharmaceuticals Index. This index is composed of 30 international companies with a presence at the global level. All the data have been extracted from the Thomson Reuters database. The analysis was performed using structural equation modeling implemented with partial least squares. The results confirm the positive relationship between the construct composed of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) indicators and the aforementioned financial ratios. Additionally, a positive relationship of the controversy indicator with Tobin’s Q is supported. This suggests that the pharmaceutical multinationals focus their investments in sustainability on ESG and pay attention to controversies to boost the visibility of the company and thus increase its value. These conclusions confirm that investing in ESG is a profitable strategy. It is also relevant for managers as it increases the profits and the market value of multinational pharmaceutical companies.

This paper focuses on two concepts frequently used and studied by researchers: corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. In recent decades, many authors have questioned the relevance and connection between the two topics. A bibliometric analysis will be carried out with SciMAT over the period 2003–2021, to understand the evolution and relationship of the aforementioned terms, but also to show the relevance of the link between the different clusters, and to observe the breakdown of the driving themes over the period 2003–2021. The final purpose is to draw conclusions and indicate possible trends that will drive the path of CSR and sustainability, thus increasing scientific knowledge. The results show that the number of articles related to CSR and sustainability is steadily increasing and that the main driving themes have been CSR, sustainability and environment. Furthermore, a link between CSR, sustainability and business has been found in the analysis of the different thematic networks. The future direction of the research could be marked by a further development of the new driving themes, among which stakeholder focus and branding image stand out.

Previous studies have generated important insights into consumer behavior. However, no study has addressed how to persuade young people belonging to Generation Z to increase the purchase intention of food products from a gender perspective. Drawing on ambivalent sexism theory, this paper explores the influence of the attitude toward advertising and the ethical judgment to predict consumers’ food product purchase intention. We applied a quantitative method, partial least squares structural equation modeling, to 105 individuals. Two advertisements with different food products and female role stereotype categories are using: (1) women in a traditional role or housewife’s role (benevolent sexism), and (2) women in a decorative role or physical attractiveness (hostile). However, the results show that attitude toward advertising has a direct and positive influence on purchase intention in advertisement with benevolent sexism. In addition, the effect of ethical judgment on consumers’ food product purchase intention is not significant. In the advertisement with hostile sexism, both—attitude toward advertising and ethical judgment—directly and positively impact purchase intention. The study provides a novelty conceptual model in the food industry for Generation Z and recommendations on the use of female sexist stereotypes in food and beverage advertising.

This study is one of the few of its kind that explores the individual impact of each of the cognitive attributes of a tourist destination’s image on cruisers’ destination loyalty and overall satisfaction. It also analyzes the mediating role of satisfaction between each of the attributes and loyalty. Variance-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for this analysis, based on a survey of 457 cruisers visiting the city of Malaga. The results confirm that three of the five attributes, the destination’s environment image, the perceived value image of services and the accessibility image have a direct influence on cruisers’ overall satisfaction, where environment image has the most significant impact. Moreover, the results support the mediating role of satisfaction in certain cases. There is total mediation between perceived value and loyalty, as well as between accessibility image and loyalty while there is only partial complementary mediation between environment image and loyalty. The confirmation that overall satisfaction influences loyalty enables management organizations to develop more efficient loyalty strategies for their respective destinations.