D91 - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision MakingReturn

This study examines how beliefs about emotions shape the emotional labour of senior business development managers in long-term, relationship-driven business contexts. While emotional labour research has primarily focused on short-term roles, less is known about how emotion regulation operates in sustained strategic client relationships. Based on semi-structured interviews with 12 senior managers in the Czech Republic, analysed using template analysis informed by Grandey and Gabriel’s framework, the findings show that beliefs influence emotional labour at three interconnected levels: as antecedents shaping initial orientations toward emotional demands; as evolving intermediaries recalibrating emotional engagement through experience; and as real-time components guiding moment-to-moment regulation or generating ethical tensions. By positioning beliefs about emotions not only as stable antecedents but also as evolving and enacted elements of emotional labour, the study extends understanding of how emotion regulation unfolds in long-term B2B relationships. The findings suggest that organisations can strengthen managerial resilience and authenticity by targeting underlying emotion beliefs, for example through coaching and reflective development practices.
Implications for Central European audience: This study suggests that beliefs about emotions play an important role in how senior business development managers perform emotional labour. While the concept of emotion beliefs has been examined internationally, this research explored it within the Czech context, offering insights relevant to Central European business culture. Building on Central European Business Review’s established interest in workplace well-being and the role of emotions in organisational life (Pauknerová, 2024; Globočnik Žunac, 2024), the findings suggest that resilience could be supported, and a sense of authenticity maintained, not only through skills training but also by addressing managers’ underlying beliefs about emotions. Coaching, reflective practice, and leadership development may provide useful avenues for supporting adaptive regulation in relationship-driven roles in the region.

The post-COVID period brought not only a change in the way of life but also in business. The aim of the paper is the investigation of possible changes in preferences in the context of retail as well as the identification of key elements of changes in behaviour for the needs of managerial practice. The paper is supported by a primary survey based on 370 respondents. Respondents responded to seven key statements that emerged from the professional literature as possible elements of change that occurred after COVID-19. For data processing, we use a number of statistical methods with an emphasis on descriptive statistics, correspondence analysis, and explanatory factor analysis. The results point to new trends in consumer behaviour to which retail must respond. This is primarily a change in purchase frequency and a change in distribution channels. The results provide not only an expansion of the knowledge base but also direct applications for practice.
Implications for Central European audience: Knowing the customer's needs and way of thinking helps shape the current trend of the new standard. The results will help not only to supplement the knowledge base of the subject matter but also offer knowledge applicable in management with an emphasis on the field of retail in Slovakia. It is possible to state the currently ongoing change and the need to react in terms of distribution management.

The coronavirus pandemic was one of the greatest global challenges in history – primarily as a health issue, but also as an economic challenge. The need to control the pandemic has led to a significant shift towards virtual collaboration, which has also exposed the lack of preparedness of most German companies for the abrupt virtualization of teamwork. This raises the question of approaches to the implementation and design of virtual collaboration in practice. This paper reviews and extends the current state of research into virtual collaboration by interviewing experts in the IT consulting industry, considering the challenges in the context of the pandemic. As a response, this paper proposes practical approaches to the implementation and design of virtual collaboration, including a guideline for adapting to the increasingly virtual collaboration environment within teams and beyond the pandemic.
Implications for Central European audience: The model presented in this paper includes factors that are relevant to current practice and can enhance efficient and productive virtual collaboration in the post-pandemic world.