Methods After an initial scan of all predatory publishers and journals included in the so-called Beall's list, a sample of 613 journals was constructed using a stratified sampling method from the total of over 11,000 journals identified. Information about the subject field, country of publisher, article processing charge and article volumes published between 2010 and 2014 were manually collected from the journal websites. For a subset of journals, individual articles were sampled in order to study the country affiliation of authors and the publication delays. Results Over the studied period, predatory journals have rapidly increased their publication volumes from 53,000 in 2010 to an estimated 420,000 articles in 2014, published by around 8,000 active journals. Early on, publishers with more than 100 journals dominated the market, but since 2012 publishers in the 10␣99 journal size category have captured the largest market share. The regional distribution was highly skewed, in particular Asia and Africa contributed three quarters of authors. Authors paid an average article processing charge of 178 USD per article for articles typically published within 2 to 3 months of submission. Conclusions Despite a total number of journals and publishing volumes comparable to respectable (indexed by the Directory of Open Access Journals) open access journals, the problem of predatory open access seems highly contained to just a few countries, where the academic evaluation practices strongly favor international publication, but without further quality checks.

Purpose: This chapter examines two rather extreme examples of non-human entities in home assemblage, interior objects, and companion animals, and how their agency appears distributed with human consumers in assembling home. The authors aim at drawing conceptual contrasts and overlappings in how agency expresses itself in these categories of living and non-living entities, highlighting the multifaceted manifestations of object agency. Methodology/Approach: This chapter employs multiple sets of ethnographi-cally inspired data, ranging from ethnographic interviews and an autoethno-graphic diary to three types of (auto-)netnographic data. Findings: The findings showcase oscillation of agency between these three analytic categories (human, non-human living, and non-human non-living), focusing on how it is distributed between two of the entities at a time, within the heterogeneous assemblage of home. Furthermore, the findings show instances in which agency emerges as shared between all three entities. Originality/Value: The contribution of this chapter comes from advancing existing discussion on object agency toward the focus on distributed and shared agency. The research adds to the prevailing discussion by exhibiting how agency oscillates between different types of interacting entities in the assemblage, and in particular, how the two types of non-human entities are agentic. The research demonstrates the variability and interwovenness of non-human and human, living and non-living agency as they appear intertwined in home assemblage.

In their treatise on meta-organization, Ahrne and Brunsson theorize a distinctive organizational form, the association of organizations. Meta-organizations have the properties of formal organizations—boundaries set by determinations of membership, goals, a centre of authority, and ways of monitoring and sanctioning member behaviors. The theory draws a strong distinction between meta-organizations and networks, suggesting that similarity among members is the primary characteristic of meta-organizations, whereas networks signify complementarity and difference. Meta-organizations serve and are governed by their members, though the meta-organization itself may develop its own agency and may regulate its members. It is on this basis that Ahrne and Brunsson develop an account of the dynamics of meta-organizations, placing less emphasis on external sources of change than on the internal relationships between members and the meta-organization itself. This paper appraises the theory of meta-organizations, using a case study of Partners in Paediatrics, a subscription association of health care organizations, as the empirical reference point. Data about this partnership’s membership and its activities are drawn from 12 ‘annual reports’ covering a 17-year period. Focusing, particularly, on the membership composition of the Partnership and its relationship to the changing environment, the case analysis traces the changing character and circumstances of the Partnership, identifying four distinct phases, and raising questions for meta-organization theory and its account of meta-organization dynamics.

In order to succeed in today's dynamic and competitive marketplace, it is of paramount importance for firms to manage their brand and product portfolios such that they not only create or acquire new brands/products, manage the existing ones, but also delete the ones that are underperforming. Brand/product deletion is an important but daunting strategic choice for firms. It deserves focused academic research attention, especially theory development, due to the fragmented nature of the literature in this field. This article conducts a comprehensive bibliometric review on relevant publications in the brand/product deletion literature with an aim to provide insights into the field's current intellectual structure and thematic classification of the published studies, and offers avenues for future development of this critical area of strategic brand and product management.

This perspective paper considers the current state of retail and retail logistics and supply chain management to discuss what the future may hold for it through four important issues: changing consumer expectations, the impact of e-commerce, and the relationship with the natural environment all of which are influenced by the economic environment. These issues apply to retailing globally and have been exacerbated by events such as the global COVID-19 pandemic, and examples are provided from various retail markets to illustrate them. Retailers will need to think strategically how to adapt their business models to address these issues by recognising the needs of new consumer segments, focussing on niche service and products to avoid direct clashes with larger physical store and Internet retailers, embracing more fully opportunities in e-commerce, and ensuring their activities are sustainable economically, socially and ecologically.

This paper conceptualises customer ecosystems, which are defined as systems of actors related to the customer that are relevant concerning a specific service. Moving from provider-driven dyads and service systems to customer ecosystems, the paper uncovers multiple implications for service marketers regarding the definition of the customer, configurations of value units, scope of value formation, as well as relevant actor systems. The paper extends the perspective on service and suggests implications for research and practice.

The prior Venture Capital research (VC) has examined the micro processes of syndication and alliance formation. However, a macro and more systemic view is lacking, where past research has neglected the global VC-ecosystem. Using a qualitative method and an abductive approach, we combine and integrate two strands of research, on VC and ecosystems, to shed light on the crucial dynamics in the VC industry. We provide a VC-ecosystem definition and portray the ecosystem architecture in a segmentation matrix of investor types and roles, including Active Hubs and Complementors. Moreover, our findings identify and explain central Hub orchestration mechanisms: enablers, governance, partner management, co-specialization, and nurturing. The study concludes with a discussion on the theoretical and managerial implications, and suggestions for future research on a global ecosystem, which operates at a higher level than the traditional firm-level ecosystems on which the previous research generally focuses.

In this paper we study the strategies through which Emmanuel Macron was able to emerge as a hegemonic leader in French politics in the context of the populist moment. In particular, we analyse (1) Macron’s interventions that contributed to redraw the political map and renew the establishment, as well as (2) how some of those interventions focused on building his digital movement-party LaREM through personalisation. Drawing on Laclau, we emphasise how, for political leaders, politics is about boldly adapting to contingency­ – and we use Machiavelli’s concept of virtù to illuminate how Macron adopted these strategies in his rise to power. We contribute to the power and leadership literature by showing how, through virtù, a leadership practice can emerge and become hegemonic. Relatedly, we contribute to the political organising literature by suggesting how the digital movement-party En Marche! (later La République En Marche) and its alternating opening and closing was used strategically in Macron’s conquest of power. Thus, we illuminate how a movement-party was used instrumentally for a highly personalised conquest of power. Finally, we make a theoretical contribution by suggesting how Machiavelli and Laclau can be combined in order to understand the populist moment: as a political space full of contingency in which Machiavellian insights are relevant to understand how leaders seize opportunities; and from a Laclauian perspective, as a space of opportunity for some of the virtù interventions to make a hegemonic project successful.