Byron G. Adams, University of Amsterdam

Michael Bender, Tilburg University

Personnel selection research remains heavily concentrated in Western populations despite the journal's international scope. Geographic imbalances persist in authorship and samples, with Europe and North America dominating while Africa, South America, and other regions remain underrepresented. Although many papers reference culture, explicit cross-national research with formal measurement equivalence testing is rare, creating methodological concerns about the validity and fairness of selection tools applied globally.

Selection instruments developed in Western contexts are routinely applied internationally without verifying they function equivalently across different cultural, linguistic, and national boundaries. This risks producing biased assessments, inequitable hiring outcomes, and systematically misrepresenting human diversity. Without rigorous equivalence testing, observed differences between groups may reflect measurement artifacts rather than genuine psychological differences.

Appel publié par International Journal of Selection and Assessment. Lire l'appel complet sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Cultural context and its influence on the meaning, fairness, and effectiveness of selection and assessment tools in diverse and heterogeneous settings
• Challenging the generalizability of Western-derived selection findings and actively including underrepresented geographic regions and populations
• Measurement equivalence testing and test adaptation methods, including invariance testing and differential item functioning analysis
• Factor structure and criterion-related validity equivalence across national and cultural contexts
• Cultural moderators of selection tool performance and theoretical frameworks explaining cultural variation
• Configural, metric, and scalar invariance in psychometric instruments across groups
• Subgroup differences in selection tool scores and fairness implications across cultures
• Best practices for adapting and translating selection measures for new cultural contexts
• Evidence base for selection tool validity in underrepresented regions such as Africa, MENA, Latin America, and Southeast Asia
• Cross-cultural differences in impression management, self-presentation, and response styles affecting validity and fairness
• Prevalence and practical implications of differential item functioning in cross-cultural selection applications
• Role of national culture, institutional context, and legal frameworks in selection system design and adoption
• Applicant reactions to selection procedures and their consistency or variation across cultural contexts

Timeline

• Invalid DateTime: Publication of special issue
• July 1, 2026: Call for Papers and Invitation to Workshop released
• October 1, 2026: Workshops delivered and recorded
• February 1, 2027: Letter of Intent (LOI) window opens
• August 31, 2027: Initial manuscript submission deadline
• September 1, 2027: First round of reviews
• November 1, 2027: Revision and resubmission period
• February 1, 2028: Second round of reviews
• April 1, 2028: Final acceptances

In 2025, record-breaking temperatures, escalating global political unrest, and a looming economic recession have intensified consumer anxiety, increasing pressure and expectations around their purchasing decisions worldwide. As people face these global challenges, they are more frequently choosing sustainable options, which fundamentally transform the connection between consumption and societal well-being. Sustainability is defined as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Although often linked to environmental issues, sustainability includes three interrelated dimensions: environmental (the natural world), social (people and communities), and economic (long-term prosperity), commonly referred to as the triple bottom line, or the "3Ps": people, planet, and profit.

Appel publié par International Marketing Review. Lire l'appel complet sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Consumer Identity and Orientation: How do consumer identities—such as global, local, or cosmopolitan—influence the choice between global sustainable brands and local eco-friendly alternatives?
• Country-of-Origin Effects: How does a product's country of origin interact with its sustainability claims? How do consumers evaluate a "green" product from a country perceived to have a poor environmental or labor record?
• Consumer Ethnocentrism and Animosity: Beyond general product evaluations, how do ethnocentric or animosity-driven tendencies specifically affect consumer receptivity to foreign sustainable innovations or environmental campaigns?
• Global vs. Local Brands: Do consumers place more trust in the sustainability promises of global brands or local brands? How do consumers perceive and respond to local brands that use sustainability as a point of differentiation against multinational competitors?
• Psychic Distance: How does the perceived psychic or cultural distance to a foreign country influence a consumer's engagement with sustainability issues originating from that country (e.g., concern for distant labor practices or environmental disasters)?
• Pro-Environmental Behavior: What are the key cross-cultural drivers of and barriers to pro-environmental behaviors? How do cultural values such as individualism/collectivism, long-term orientation, or uncertainty avoidance explain variations in consumer engagement?
• Circular Economy Practices: What cultural factors facilitate or hinder consumer participation in the circular economy as a customer, user, or end-of-life product holder? How do perceptions of hygiene, ownership, and waste influence the adoption of practices like renting, repairing, or buying secondhand or refurbished/reconditioned products across markets?
• Sustainable Communication and Persuasion: What is the cross-cultural effectiveness of different sustainability appeals (e.g., guilt, hope, social norms) in global advertising? How do consumers in high-context versus low-context cultures interpret green messaging?
• Perceptions of Greenwashing: Are consumers in some cultures more skeptical or adept at detecting corporate greenwashing? How does the level of institutional trust in a country affect consumer perceptions of the credibility of corporate sustainability claims?
• Ethical Consumption Trade-offs: How do consumers in different parts of the world prioritize and navigate trade-offs between different dimensions of sustainability (e.g., choosing between a locally produced product with more packaging versus an imported fair-trade product with a higher carbon footprint)?

Timeline

• January 15, 2026: Special session at 2026 Global Fashion Management Conference submission deadline
• May 15, 2026: Virtual paper workshop registration deadline
• November 1, 2026: Opening date for manuscript submissions
• January 31, 2027: Closing date for manuscript submissions