Digitalization, as well as sustainability, are gaining increased relevance and have attracted significant attention in research and practice. However, the research already published about this topic examining digitalization in the retail sector does not consider the acceptance of related innovations, nor their impact on sustainability. Therefore, this article critically analyzes the acceptance of customers towards digital technologies in fashion stores as well as their impact on sustainability in the textile industry. The comprehensive analysis of the literature and the current state of research provide the basis of this paper. Theoretical models, such as the Technology-Acceptance-Model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT 2) enable the evaluation of expectations and acceptance, as well as the assessment of possible inhibitory factors for the subsequent descriptive and statistical examination of the acceptance of digital technologies in fashion stores. The research on this subject was examined in a quantitative way. The key findings show that customers do accept digital technologies in fashion stores. The final part of this contribution describes the innovative Digitalization 4 Sustainability Framework which shows that digital technologies at the point of sale (PoS) in fashion stores could have a positive impact on sustainability. Overall, this paper shows that it is particularly important for fashion stores to concentrate on their individual strengths and customer needs as well as to indicate a more sustainable way by using digital technologies, in order to achieve added value for the customers and to set themselves apart from the competition while designing a more sustainable future. Moreover, fashion stores should make it a point of their honor to harness the power of digitalization for sake of sustainability and economic value creation.

The paper investigates quality management in teaching and learning in higher education institutions from a principal-agent perspective. Based on data gained from semi-structured interviews and from a nation-wide survey with quality managers of German higher education institutions, the study shows how quality managers position themselves in relation to their perception of the interests of other actors in higher education institutions. The paper describes the various interests and discusses the main implications of this constellation of actors. It argues that quality managers, although they may be considered as rather weak actors within the higher education institution, may be characterised as having a strength of weakness due to diverging interests of their principals.

Growing interest in network dynamics has led to insights about patterns of network change, drivers of tie formation, and the temporal unfolding of the consequences of networks. To this area of inquiry, we introduce networking speed—the time that it takes for individuals to form a network tie—as an important but so far largely overlooked aspect. We develop a theory of networking speed that explains how different catalysts enable professionals to introduce variation into the speed with which they form interpersonal network ties. We discuss how such variation in the speed with which ties have been formed influences relational outcomes and the network returns that these ties generate. This discussion illustrates that high networking speed can entail advantages as well as pitfalls. We also explore temporal implications of networking speed—for instance, the persistence of the effects of speed over time. Overall, we conceptualize networking speed as a constitutive element of how interpersonal networks function in professional settings, and we propose a future research program for the integration of this novel concept into organizational network research.

The social stratification systems of major cities are transforming all around the globe. International research has been discussing this trend and focus on changing occupational classes. However, the precise effects on urban households, taking social welfare and different family arrangements into account, as well as the precise effects on people with a migration background, remain unclear. Using the example of Vienna, this article examines immigration as a key dimension for social stratification. Although household income structures in Austria have remained comparatively stable over the past two decades, the middle-income share in Vienna (as the sole metropolis in Austria) has dramatically decreased. This predominantly affects people from migrant backgrounds. Using a comprehensive dataset (two waves, N = 16,700 participants, including N = 4,500 migrants), we systematically examine the role of (a) migration-specific and (b) education- and employment-related factors to explain the decline of middle-income migrants. The results of multinomial logistic regression and decomposition analyses suggest that transformations in the labour market is the main driving force. Changing migrant characteristics have counteracted this process. If today's migrants displayed similar showed characteristics (e.g., origin and educational levels) to those prevalent in the past decade, the ethnic stratification disparities would have been even stronger.