The paper aims to investigate the perceptual displays of UAE business students on selecting entrepreneurship education as a career option along with challenges faced in the present pandemic... Show More

The paper aims to investigate the perceptual displays of UAE business students on selecting entrepreneurship education as a career option along with challenges faced in the present pandemic situation. The study collected the opinions of 500 business program students from different universities in the UAE by administering questionnaires and personal interviews. Then, the compiled data were encapsulated and inscribed using Software R Studio and Microsoft Excel. The study emphasized that UAE business pupils are not concerned about selecting entrepreneurship as their career option during the pandemic due to the risks involved. Mobilizing capital, uncertainty, and risk of failure impede the UAE business students from becoming entrepreneurs during the pandemic. On the other hand, the empirical evidence indicates that entrepreneurship education is vital to motivating students' professional preferences. Therefore, higher education institutions must play a pivotal role in promoting entrepreneurship as another career option.

Information systems have become part and parcel of today’s business operations, with competition on its rise. The security challenges related to information systems could have a severe impact on the... Show More

Information systems have become part and parcel of today’s business operations, with competition on its rise. The security challenges related to information systems could have a severe impact on the overall business objectives of an institution if not handled at the right time. A well-meaning institution must take a full-blown step towards information security management to achieve information security. Information security management has been seen as any management system to address the security issues affecting an institution and align security needs to the overall business objectives. Conversely, Information security policy is the foundation upon which institutions base their entire information security management. This study looks at the uptake of information security policy among Nigerian institutions. The survey result created a clear picture of the uptake of information security policy among Nigerian institutions.

Few financial market innovations offer the opportunities to enhance transaction efficiency, as does the potential of the blockchain and cryptocurrencies. The author demonstrates that this industry's... Show More

Few financial market innovations offer the opportunities to enhance transaction efficiency, as does the potential of the blockchain and cryptocurrencies. The author demonstrates that this industry's unusual demand and supply relationship results in ever-increasing energy consumption if Proof-of-Work currencies rise in price faster than mining rewards decay. This previously undocumented challenge poses global warming risk. In addition, the accessibility and opacity of many cryptocurrencies create financial risks for inexperienced speculators. Digital currencies also reduce the ability of central banks to conduct monetary policy and challenge regulatory authorities to promulgate rules to protect the economy and consumers. The author explores these various risks, demonstrates how the design of Proof-of-Work cryptocurrency mining frustrates the efficiency they promise and describes mechanisms that would allow cryptocurrencies based on the blockchain to live up to their immense potential.

Informal risk management is widely practiced as it can be more agile and flexible compared to formal methods. There are abundant research studies covering areas such as technical and social aspects... Show More

Informal risk management is widely practiced as it can be more agile and flexible compared to formal methods. There are abundant research studies covering areas such as technical and social aspects of informal risk management. Often a holistic approach is advocated integrating inputs coming from informal networks to consider, inter alia, social, cultural and emotional factors. These studies, though, fail to explore the motivation and do not account for the role of mutual benefit. Using ethnographic and interview data, we tackle the issue of how decision makers consider the interests of all relevant stakeholders, the role mutual benefit plays in informal risk management and the impact of the formal structure on informal risk management. The findings show that mutual benefit is an essential pillar for informal risk management by both stimulating the required response and balancing interests. Also, the formal structure impacts the informal network through the influence and ranks it confers on members, and by setting consequential limits.

The primary objective of this study is to create the first examination of the global stock markets using the ARDL method. The ARDL model provides a solution that shows the short-run and long-run... Show More

The primary objective of this study is to create the first examination of the global stock markets using the ARDL method. The ARDL model provides a solution that shows the short-run and long-run relationships together by removing the constraint of the series that are stationary in the traditional cointegration models. The period examined in the study, in which daily data is used, is between 01/03/2000 – 12/31/2022. Two significant results were obtained as a consequence of the implementation phase. First, there is a causal cointegration relationship between European stock markets, BRIC stocks, and American stock markets in the short run and long run. The cointegration relationship between global stock markets transforms national economies into international economies. The interdependence between global stock markets is considerably strong. This situation diminishes the utility of international diversification explained in portfolio management. Second, the relatively new ARDL technique gives similar results to conventional cointegration tests.

Rice blast disease is strongly dependent on environmental and climate factors. This paper demonstrates the integration of a rice blast disease severity prediction model based on climate factors... Show More

Rice blast disease is strongly dependent on environmental and climate factors. This paper demonstrates the integration of a rice blast disease severity prediction model based on climate factors, providing a decision-support framework for farmers to overcome these problems. The major contribution of the proposed study is to predict the severity of rice blast disease using the linear SVM model. Prediction of rice blast disease severity is divided into four classes: 0, 1, 2, and 3. Data imbalance is the most challenging problem in multi-class classification. This study has efficiently handled imbalanced data using k-means SMOTE and SMOTE oversampling techniques to balance training and testing data. Finally, cross-location and cross-year models are developed using a linear support vector machine and predict the severity of rice blast disease to the classes 0, 1, 2, 3, respectively. Cross-year and cross-location models are cross-validated using five-fold cross-validation.

This study investigates integrating quality management systems (QMS) into an organization's management information system (MIS) and the risks involved in this integration. Quality management is a... Show More

This study investigates integrating quality management systems (QMS) into an organization's management information system (MIS) and the risks involved in this integration. Quality management is a serious concern among organizations in the developing world, including Nigeria. Customers and investors gravitate to where there are quality products and services. Multiple case study research method was applied; this involves three organizations within Adamawa state in Nigeria. The three organizations examined for this study operated in three different economic sectors: educational, service industry, and manufacturing. Two IS theories adopted were IS success model and the technology acceptance model (TAM). After the data analysis, the initial research model was redesigned, and a new construct was added. The study revealed that the organization investigated runs MIS and QMS as separate systems but was confident that integrating the two management systems would help manage quality.

Although contingency allocation management is widely accepted as a proactive concept rich in theories, its applications do not seem to be well embraced in many countries due to many factors. This... Show More

Although contingency allocation management is widely accepted as a proactive concept rich in theories, its applications do not seem to be well embraced in many countries due to many factors. This study aims to broadly investigate this theory-practice gap concerning contingency allocation in building projects in Sri Lanka. Twelve case studies with a desk review on seven local projects were carried out to explore the contingency allocation practice at the site level. Fifteen independent consultants were interviewed to share an understanding of the practical relevance of this research while largely eliminating the need for further justification. Code-based content analysis was used to analyze data. Nearly 44 incremental approaches were found to have theoretically evolved in a history of 35 years. It was revealed that the practice of ascertaining contingency sums is ad-hoc, informal, and subjective. More than 25 gaps were detected, while nearly 50 strategies were introduced. An impression among the practitioners is that the formal methods are overly theoretical.

Abundant research has documented the negative effects of confirmatory bias in a broad range of managerial decision-making contexts. However, insufficient research has been conducted on the effect of... Show More

Abundant research has documented the negative effects of confirmatory bias in a broad range of managerial decision-making contexts. However, insufficient research has been conducted on the effect of confirmatory bias on risk and contingency management. This article addresses the research gap by examining how confirmatory bias may affect global leaders’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a comprehensive literature review of prior research and empirical evidence, the authors illustrate the relationship between confirmatory bias and organizational performance in disaster management and identify several important mediators and moderators, which influence the relationship between confirmatory bias and the performance of human collectives in disaster management.

The Covid-19 global pandemic has threatened the global economy; and pose serious daily challenges to companies, organizations, and firms worldwide. Our paper focuses on the adaptations to changes... Show More

The Covid-19 global pandemic has threatened the global economy; and pose serious daily challenges to companies, organizations, and firms worldwide. Our paper focuses on the adaptations to changes made by retailers through their online retail systems in response to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 & 2021. This study begins with the benefits of online retail then explaining the differences between thriving and failing businesses. These changes are derived from CDC recommendations and guidelines that drove businesses to implement new marketing and business techniques and resort to online sales. Also discussed are the challenges of online retail systems such as security and fraud, customer loyalty and trust, inventory management, and malfunctions of online retail infrastructure. These challenges lead our paper into the complications of any business which failed to adapt to the pandemic. Furthermore, we highlight implications for theory and research.

The book, “The Psychology of Climate Change Communication: A Guide for Scientists, Journalists, Educators, Political Aides, and the Interested Public” created by the Centre for Research on... Show More

The book, “The Psychology of Climate Change Communication: A Guide for Scientists, Journalists, Educators, Political Aides, and the Interested Public” created by the Centre for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED), is a useful guide for climate change communicators to make climate change communication more effective. It shows the centrality of (social) psychology for effective climate change communication that results in positive behavior change in people. The guide breaks down the psychology-based strategy for effective communication for behavior change into clear, easy to follow steps with real life examples to illustrate the steps.

Companies have increasingly acknowledged the strategic value of lean philosophy and the potential for developing a competitive edge via rigorous lean implementation. However, many companies have... Show More

Companies have increasingly acknowledged the strategic value of lean philosophy and the potential for developing a competitive edge via rigorous lean implementation. However, many companies have struggled to establish and sustain lean. Considering this opportunity, the purpose of this paper is to thoroughly and systematically review the development of lean literature focused on the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for lean adoption in contemplation of identifying what CSFs have been addressed since the genesis of the lean concept through the assessment of secondary data from the literature published during the period 1990 – 2021. The findings of this study will assist companies in making more mature and prudent judgments on how their resources and capabilities can be configured for a successful lean initiative deployment. To the author's best knowledge, this study advances existing knowledge by being perhaps one of the most comprehensive systematic literature reviews covering three decades of lean literature on manufacturing and service industries.

Market vulnerability, uncertainty, and risk have always posed challenges to businesses and supply chains. Firms are working hard to survive and sustain themselves in a world of high susceptibility... Show More

Market vulnerability, uncertainty, and risk have always posed challenges to businesses and supply chains. Firms are working hard to survive and sustain themselves in a world of high susceptibility in supply chain networks and intense competition. This study attempts to fill a gap in the literature by looking into how companies in a developing country like Nigeria manage supply chain logistics challenges and capitalize on opportunities in the country's most crisis-prone territory while mitigating the constraints. This was conducted through empirical investigation within the Nigerian supply chain logistics setting to analyze and compare the challenges, tactics, and strategies adopted by two enterprises situated in the North-Eastern region of Nigeria, where the insurgency is rampant. The findings from the analyzed examples serve as the foundation for the analysis. The respondents' answers to the research questions offer more insight into the various constraints and tactics firms employ in the region.

The study's main aim is an analysis of economic growth in G7 countries. The period examined in the study in which annual data was used covers 2001-2021. For this purpose, a panel data analysis was... Show More

The study's main aim is an analysis of economic growth in G7 countries. The period examined in the study in which annual data was used covers 2001-2021. For this purpose, a panel data analysis was conducted. Economic growth is a function of account balance, employment, inflation, and investment, and there is a positive relationship between economic growth and employment and between inflation and investment. Conversely, there is a negative relationship between economic growth and account balance. The results are statistically significant. The highest contribution to economic growth in G7 countries comes from technological innovations. Economic growth is a dynamic area. Many factors affect economic growth, including geography, democracy, market form and technology, and cultural and religious factors. For this reason, economic growth covers a broad study area.

This study is about team adaptation from a continuous change perspective. The purpose was to investigate how agile software development teams in a Nordic financial institution adapt to task-based... Show More

This study is about team adaptation from a continuous change perspective. The purpose was to investigate how agile software development teams in a Nordic financial institution adapt to task-based triggers. A single case study was conducted of three software development teams in a product unit reporting that they worked in agile ways. One of the main findings is that the agile software development teams sought to define tasks to be worked on individually. The adaptation triggers occurring during taskwork mainly prompt task-related interaction. In addition, the findings support that these adaptation triggers can either prompt small adjustments to taskwork or be more severe and move the focus to evaluation and planning activities before taskwork can be continued. We propose a model describing how agile software development teams adapt to task-based triggers based on the findings.

Agro-tourism based on organic cultivation environments has increased both domestic and international tourism sectors. Homestay in the Farm of Happiness is a form of community-based agro-tourism that... Show More

Agro-tourism based on organic cultivation environments has increased both domestic and international tourism sectors. Homestay in the Farm of Happiness is a form of community-based agro-tourism that incorporates the theme of organic cultivation and cultural landscapes into tourism destinations. However, the existing homestay program needs further attention and development initiatives due to conservation and urbanization difficulties. The purpose of this study is to spread the knowledge of agro-tourism and its relevance to the economy. This study assesses organic cultivation, including cultural landscape preservation through tourism and better knowledge for future generations. The study provides insight into how an ordinary rural agricultural land is transformed into an attractive tourist destination.