To Örebro University

Purpose: This study explores the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the pre-hiring stage of recruitment, focusing on the design of job advertisements. As AI tools become more prevalent in human resources management, understanding their perceived effectiveness and neutrality is essential to support informed integration into recruitment practices. Grounded in signalling theory, we conceptualize job advertisements as signals that shape perceptions of job appeal, job fit, job-pursuit intentions and ad informativeness.

Design/methodology/approach: Three experimental studies were conducted. Studies 1 and 2 surveyed business students in Sweden and the UK, who were randomly exposed to a real, expert-written, or AI-generated job advertisement. Their perceptions of job appeal, fit and informativeness were analyzed. Study 2 examined how respondents' characteristics influenced their perceptions. Study 3 assessed how HR professionals evaluated and identified the advertisement creator.

Findings: Results show that AI-generated job advertisements are perceived as equally effective and informative as human-written advertisements by both students and HR professionals. Human-written advertisements were more appealing to applicants with specific personality traits, while AI advertisements showed no such pattern, suggesting neutrality. HR professionals were sceptical but often failed to identify AI-generated content.

Research limitations/implications: The study relies on relatively modest sample sizes and self-reported measures.

Practical implications: Generative AI can support fairer, more effective recruitment communication, though human oversight and targeted design remain important.

Originality/value: This research investigates the application of AI in job advertisements, a key stage in the recruitment process and provides empirical evidence in the form of tangible findings. We contribute to signalling theory by showing the ability of AI-generated job advertisements to accurately portray the content and tone of an organization and how receiver characteristic differences influence the interpretation of job advertisements generated by different methods. It offers novel insights into how AI-generated advertisements are perceived by applicants and HR professionals, and their potential for bias reduction. The multi-study design enables comparison across applicant and professional perspectives.

Our chapter explores how technological innovation and socio-behavioral change interact in shaping the future of energy systems in the quest for carbon neutrality. We present a strategic analysis of four divergent scenarios—Disrupt, Downsize, Scaleup, and Conserve. Drawing on data from a Swedish research project that includes case studies, a Delphi study, and scenario analysis, we highlight the importance of imagining desirable futures, policy frameworks, and adaptive strategies, and offer a comprehensive framework for understanding potential pathways toward achieving the Paris Agreement targets. By examining each scenario’s implications for stakeholders such as utilities, investors, consumers, and policymakers, our chapter highlights different approaches to decarbonization. The implications can guide stakeholders to better anticipate future developments, identify risks and opportunities, and make informed decisions that contribute to a resilient and equitable energy future.

Despite regulatory efforts and market availability, the adoption of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) in the road freight sector is limited. This paper investigates the influence of managers' policy mix perceptions on the uptake of ZEVs in Sweden. Based on a survey of transport operation managers, we analyse the interaction between their perceptions of how technology-neutral the prevailing policy mix is, the anticipated regret of premature technology adoption, the rate of technology change and their mutual influence on the decision to delay ZEV adoption. The study's findings reveal a positive correlation between managers' perceptions of technology neutrality and adoption delay. We further explain the mechanism in this relationship by confirming that anticipated regret mediates the positive correlation between perceived technology neutrality and the ZEV adoption delay decision: The more technology-neutral the policy mix is perceived, the more anticipating regret over adopting ZEVs is expressed by the managers, which, in turn, increases the likelihood to delay ZEV adoption. Moreover, managers' perceptions of the rate of technological change affect their anticipated regret. The work contributes to the transition literature by unveiling how a specific policy mix perception, namely technology neutrality, could delay the adoption of ZEVs and calls for a nuanced re-evaluation of the current policy mix to facilitate a faster transition towards net-zero goals. It also underscores the importance of paying closer attention to how individual actor-internal factors (such as perceptions and emotions) of individual decision-makers in organisations may influence transition processes.

This paper explores the use of gendered language in purchasing and supply management job advertisements across three English-speaking countries. We use secondary data from a global job advertisement website to analyse the extent to which gendered language is used. We explore if agentic, traditional masculine wording, or communal, traditional feminine wording, is used at different hierarchical levels of advertising for purchasing and supply management jobs. Our findings show that there is no significant evidence of a glass-ceiling effect. However, there may be evidence of a sticky-floor effect due to the communal language used in the assistant buyer and buyer job advertisements, which decreases significantly at higher levels. Agentic language use remained constant across the levels. We also found that certain agentic words are more often featured in senior-level advertisements.

This study explores the future of Sweden's electric utility network and its transition towards sustainability and resilience by combining traditional scenario analysis with foresighting, an anticipatory, non-predictive approach. The research focuses on potential disruptive innovations and changes within the industry, such as increased electrification, electromobility, and advances in grid infrastructure, using a Delphi study. This approach involves gathering expert opinions from various stakeholders, including industry, academia, and government experts, to anticipate multiple future scenarios and better prepare for potential challenges and opportunities. The interconnected nature of the electric utility network and the relationships between various actors play a critical role in shaping the industry's future. Foresighting allows stakeholders to anticipate and prepare for disruptive changes, such as the increasing role of prosumers, local microgrids, and novel value propositions. By employing the Delphi methodology, the study systematically gathers and synthesizes expert insights, offering a comprehensive understanding of the electric utility network's future development. The findings highlight the importance of improving end-customer relationships and enabling the use of prosumer products and services. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the need to address existing challenges within the Swedish power grid and increase transmission capacity to support the introduction of new technologies and a more efficient and sustainable energy system. By integrating the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) network perspective, the study demonstrates that foresighting is more effective in accounting for exceptional events and non-linear growth patterns in the electric utility market. The results also provide insights into the emergence of new business models and the role of emerging technologies, such as energy storage, in shaping the future of the electric utility network.

Global public procurement spend is significant and although its central goal is essentially the acquisition of goods and services for governments at the best possible value, it must also serve to promote equal treatment of all interest groups in the process. Although a number of different policies and measures have been adopted to increase access for female-led companies to successfully bid for public sector contracts, progress has been slow. This suggests that barriers exist that are preventing the full implementation of gender-responsive procurement and this paper explores the possibility that there is gender-biased language in a range of public sector Invitations to Tender. 

This paper investigates the potential tensions that may arise between technology-neutral innovation policy and the advancement of sustainability-related objectives, specifically in the context of road freight transport. Despite the availability of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) and regulatory actions, widespread adoption of ZEVs among transport operators has been slow. To shed light on potential reasons for this, the paper examines the relationship between perceived technology neutrality of existing policies, contestations over future technological pathways, and anticipated regret on innovation adoption intentions of transport operators with a survey. The findings suggest that technology-neutral policies may contribute to increased uncertainties over future technology pathways and anticipated regret over adoption decisions which may make transport operators hesitant to invest in already available ZEVs. The paper contributes, therefore, to innovation policy development by high-lighting the need to reconsider the principle of technological neutrality and calls for caution when implementing such policies, as it underscores the importance of considering sector-specific challenges and uncertainties when designing effective sustainability-oriented innovation policies.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel multidimensional typology of free-to-play gamers, based on the theory of consumption values and to test whether these types of gamers differ in their premium content consumer purchasing behavior. The study uses a survey of 839 Czech free-to-play gamers, where the players' values are tested across 27 items. Factor analysis is used to identify 6 different factors (values) influencing the gamers, which are then used as variables in a cluster analysis to identify 5 distinct gamer types. Results show that each identified gamer type differs not only in gaming (length of gameplay) but also in purchasing behavior (current purchase and future purchase intention, average monthly spend). One new gamer type, previously unidentified in the literature, has been identified (the enthusiasts), alongside the development of additional details for three of the more "standard" game types (economic aesthetes, identification seekers and killers). Gamers from the Czech Republic are used in the sample, limiting the generalizability of the study. The research complements existing gamer typologies by developing an empirically supported view of free-to-play gamers that is based on value, which results in the identification of one new gamer type. We also extend consumption values theory by identifying the multi-dimensional impact of value characteristics on purchase behavior in a context of emerging commercial and social importance.