Cultures and Management

1 Through its different research events (ISMO, JM, Innovation and Digital Economy, etc.), IDRAC Business School is honored to present this first special issue in English, composed of excellent works by researchers from around the world (Algeria, Canada, France, Kosovo, UK).

2 The first article aims to explore oppositional loyalty of the individual concept as it acquires a new component borrowed from symbolic consumption and anti-consumption literature constituting this study theoretical framework. The author demonstrated the existence of oppositional loyalty based on positive attitudes and behavior towards the chosen brand and negative ones towards the avoided brand. These results allow managers to define strategies for defending brand equity and to resist their competitors’ attacks.

3 Based on a qualitative study, the second article tries to understand Muslim consumer behavior in a society facing Islamic revival, the objective is to explore decision-making in the choice of distribution point for halal meat. The results of the study reveal the extent to which consumer choice is influenced by not only traditional marketing variables (particularly price and proximity), but also by the values and principles of Islam. By this research, the author contributes to existing literature by putting forward a contemporary explanation of the reasons leading Muslim consumers to choose a halal butcher to buy meat rather than other places of distribution.

4 The third research aims at investigating how cloud computing is perceived by students of different universities and to identify which factors have a tendency to encourage or discourage them to accept the cloud computing. Authors highlighted that Perceived Usefulness, Perceived risk, Cloud computing awareness and E-skills have direct impact on usage of cloud computing services, whereas only Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Self-efficacy were not statistically significant.

5 The fourth paper studies the opportunity to introduce and explore new clarity over the use of the term “business model” within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), whilst suggesting that it might be usefully developed to enable HEIs to grow in influence and market-share.

6 The advantages and disadvantages of differentiating between both a strategic enterprise and a tactical, product-based approach to business modelling a specific value proposition have been explored and implications for HEI leadership articulated.

7 To foster innovation, firms must be able to access external knowledge from their customers and to assimilate and combine it with their internal knowledge. Authors of the fifth paper draw upon research on organisational ambidexterity to assess the combined impact of internal and customer integration on the innovative capacity of the firm. Using data from an international survey of 835 manufacturers in 20 countries, they test the potential of performance improvement of combined efforts on customer and internal integration.

8 The aim of the sixth paper is to know the main cultural lines that could influence the Algerian-foreign partnerships strategic management performance. A survey was carried out from interview data sourced derived from 190 managers and employees in 10 organizations which are on partnership or that have established an experience with foreign company. The results focus on the distances that have the greatest influence on the performance of the strategic management of the Algerian-foreign partnership.