Because of the problems of low mining precision and slow mining speed in traditional enterprise marketing investment data mining methods, a fast mining method for enterprise marketing investment databased on improved association rules is proposed. First, the enterprise marketing investment data is collected through the crawler framework, and then the collected data is cleaned. Then, the cleaned data features are extracted, and the correlation degree between features is calculated. Finally, according to the calculation results, all data items are used as constraints to reduce the number of frequent itemsets. A pruning strategy is designed in advance. Combined with the constraints, the Apriori algorithm of association rules is improved, and the improved algorithm is used to calculate all frequent itemsets, Obtain fast mining results of enterprise marketing investment data. The experimental results show that the proposed method is fast and accurate in data mining of enterprise marketing investment.

The major technological developments have changed the traditional way of doing business. These developments have facilitated whistle-blowing. Access to data is easier and faster and communicating with the public can be done in seconds. Another development is the artificial intelligence (AI) which enters the business workplace in different forms challenging the traditional working relations. The combination of these concepts gives the idea of artificial whistle-blowing or robot whistle-blowing. The concept is that a machine should conceive and report relevant wrongdoing avoiding the traditional model of whistle-blowing where the employee is the person who should report. This concept, yet unexplored, presents interesting positive and negative aspects. The purpose of this contribution is to present the idea of artificial whistle-blowing and its advantages and disadvantages for the business sector. As a conclusion, this paper suggests that the concept of artificial whistle-blowing needs still to be researched and an optimal solution, for the time being, is to permit artificial whistle-blowing as a helping tool for the employees to detect wrongdoings but report them themselves.

This paper compares the effect of social isolation on students enrolled in online courses versus students enrolled in on campus courses (called in this paper Face-to-Face or F2F). Grade data was collected from one online section and two F2F sections of a computer literacy course that was recently taught by one of the authors of this study. The same instructor taught all sections thereby providing a controlled comparison between the two forms of teaching (F2F and online). This paper first introduces the plan and the limitation of this study. It provides a literature review and notes the trend of social isolation found in online courses. This paper then presents a summary of the collected data; and offers a conclusion based on the collected data.

One effective way of accelerating the commercialization of university innovations (inventions) is to execute a “Technological Entrepreneurship” framework that helps the execution of agreements between universities and industry for commercialization. Academics have been encouraged to commercialize their research and findings yet the level of success of commercialization of inventions (innovations) in industry is questionable. As there is no agreed commercialization framework to guide the execution of processes to support inventions moving from laboratories to the right market. The lack of capabilities of appropriate processes have undermined the turning of innovation and products into wealth. The research questions are designed to identify the constraints and hindrances of commercialization and the characteristics of successful processes built from framework based on selected case studies of incubation capabilities within universities commercialization program.

One of the key attempts towards a collective African vision is the New Economic Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). Barnard and Vonk (2003) report that “53 countries have been urged to implement ICTs in three crucial development arenas: education, health and trade”. While NEPAD and other initiatives have contributed to the provision of ICT infrastructure with positive results as seen in the growth of Internet uses, the disparities in development across Africa are enormous. The challenge to Higher Education Institutions in Africa has been summarised by Colle (2005): “central to creating digital resources and academic infrastructure is the question of universities’ relevance to the world around them, and especially to the challenge of being an active player – ‘an anchor of a broad-based poverty alleviation strategy’ in an increasingly knowledge-based economy”. It can be inferred from Colle that the activities of HEIs in Africa ought to be geared towards contributing to the realisation of the Millennium development goals.

Aim/purpose The purpose of this article is to discuss the psychosocial and emotional outcomes of an introductory health science workshop designed to support and assist incoming health science students before starting their university study.   Background For the past two decades, a South Australian university offered an on-campus face to face workshop titled ‘Preparation for Health Sciences’ to incoming first-year students from eleven allied health programs such as Nursing, Physiotherapy and Medical Imaging. While many were locals, a good number came from regional and rural areas, and many were international students also. They consisted of both on-campus and off-campus students.   The workshop was created as a new learning environment that was available for students of diverse age groups, educational and cultural backgrounds to prepare them to study sciences. The content of the four-day workshop was developed in consultation with the program directors of the allied health programs. The objectives were to: introduce the assumed foundational science knowledge to undertake health sciences degree; gain confidence in approaching science subjects; experience lectures and laboratory activities; and become familiar with the University campus and its facilities. The workshop was delivered a week before the orientation week, before first-year formal teaching weeks. The topics covered were enhancing study skills, medical and anatomical terminology, body systems, basic chemistry and physics, laboratory activities, and assessment of learning.   Methodology In order to determine the outcomes of the workshop, a survey was used requiring participants to agree or disagree about statements concerning the preparatory course and answer open-ended questions relating to the most important information learned and the best aspects of the workshop. Several students piloted this questionnaire before use in order to ascertain the clarity of instructions, terminology and statements. The result of the 2015-2018 pre- and post-evaluation showed that the workshop raised confidence and enthusiasm in commencing university and that the majority considered the workshop useful overall. The findings of the survey are drawn upon to examine the psychosocial and emotional impacts of the workshop on participants. Using secondary qualitative analysis, the researchers identified the themes relating to the psychosocial and emotional issues conveyed by the participants.   Contribution The contributions of the article are in the areas of improving students’ confidence to complete their university degrees and increasing the likelihood of academic success. Findings Of the 285 students who participated in the workshops from 2015 to 2018, 166 completed the survey conducted at the conclusion of the initiative, representing a 58% response rate. The workshops achieved the objectives outlined at the outset. While there were many findings reported (Thalluri, 2016), the results highlighted in this paper relate to the psychosocial and emotional impacts of the workshop on students. Three themes emerged, and these were Increased preparedness and confidence; Networking and friendships that enhanced support, and Reduced anxiety to study sciences. Some drawbacks were also reported including the cost, time and travel involved. Recommendations for practitioners Students found the introductory workshop to be psychosocially and emotionally beneficial. It is recommended that the same approach be applied for teaching other challenging fields such as mathematics and physics within the university and in other contexts and institutions. Recommendations for researchers Improving and extending the workshop to provide greater accessibility and autonomy is recommended. A longitudinal study to follow up the durability of the workshop is also proposed. Impact on society The impacts in the broader community include: higher academic success for students; improved mental health due to social networking and friendship groups and reduced anxiety and fear; reduced dropout rate in their first year; greater potential to complete educational degrees; reduced wastage in human and financial resources; and increased human capital. Future research Addressing the limitations of cost, time and travel involved, and following-up with the participants’ academic and workplace performance are future directions for research.

Aim/Purpose: Bring your own device (BYOD) provides opportunities for both the organization and employees, but the adoption of BYOD also introduces risks. This case study of an organization’s BYOD program identifies key positive and negative influences on the adoption decision. Background: The consumerization of IT introduced the BYOD phenomenon into the enterprise environment. As mobile and Internet technologies improve employees are opting to use their personal devices to access organizational systems to perform their work tasks. Such devices include smartphones, tablets and laptop computers. Methodology: This research uses a case study approach to investigate how business priorities drive the adoption of BYOD and how resulting benefits and risks are realized and managed by the organization. Primary empirical data was collected using semi-structured interviews with 15 senior employees from a large South African financial services organization. Policy documents from the organization were analyzed as secondary data. Contribution: Thematic analysis of the data revealed six major themes: improving employee mobility; improving client service and experience; creating a competitive industry advantage; improving business processes; information security risks; and management best practices. Findings: The themes were analyzed using the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, showing the key positive and negative influences on the adoption decision. Recommendations for Practitioners: Organizations need to clearly understand the reasons they want to introduce BYOD in their organizations. The conceptual framework can be applied by practitioners in their organizations to achieve their BYOD business objectives. Recommendations for Researchers: BYOD remains an important innovation for organizations with several aspects worthy of further study. The TOE framework presents a suitable lens for analysis, but other models should also be considered. Impact on Society: The findings show that organizations can use BYOD to improve client service, gain competitive advantage, and improve their processes using their digital devices and backend systems. The BYOD trend is thus not likely to go away anytime soon. Future Research: The applicability of findings should be validated across additional contexts. Additional models should also be used.

Aim/Purpose: In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tracks the disease activity using data collected from medical practice's on a weekly basis. Collection of data by CDC from medical practices on a weekly basis leads to a lag time of approximately 2 weeks before any viable action can be planned. The 2-week delay problem was addressed in the study by creating machine learning models to predict flu outbreak. Background: The 2-week delay problem was addressed in the study by correlation of the flu trends identified from Twitter data and official flu data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in combination with creating a machine learning model using both data sources to predict flu outbreak. Methodology: A quantitative correlational study was performed using a quasi-experimental design. Flu trends from the CDC portal and tweets with mention of flu and influenza from the state of Georgia were used over a period of 22 weeks from December 29, 2019 to May 30, 2020 for this study. Contribution: This research contributed to the body of knowledge by using a simple bag-of-word method for sentiment analysis followed by the combination of CDC and Twitter data to generate a flu prediction model with higher accuracy than using CDC data only. Findings: The study found that (a) there is no correlation between official flu data from CDC and tweets with mention of flu and (b) there is an improvement in the performance of a flu forecasting model based on a machine learning algorithm using both official flu data from CDC and tweets with mention of flu. Recommendations for Practitioners: In this study, it was found that there was no correlation between the official flu data from the CDC and the count of tweets with mention of flu, which is why tweets alone should be used with caution to predict a flu out-break. Based on the findings of this study, social media data can be used as an additional variable to improve the accuracy of flu prediction models. It is also found that fourth order polynomial and support vector regression models offered the best accuracy of flu prediction models. Recommendations for Researchers: Open-source data, such as Twitter feed, can be mined for useful intelligence benefiting society. Machine learning-based prediction models can be improved by adding open-source data to the primary data set. Impact on Society: Key implication of this study for practitioners in the field were to use social media postings to identify neighborhoods and geographic locations affected by seasonal outbreak, such as influenza, which would help reduce the spread of the disease and ultimately lead to containment. Based on the findings of this study, social media data will help health authorities in detecting seasonal outbreaks earlier than just using official CDC channels of disease and illness reporting from physicians and labs thus, empowering health officials to plan their responses swiftly and allocate their resources optimally for the most affected areas. Future Research: A future researcher could use more complex deep learning algorithms, such as Artificial Neural Networks and Recurrent Neural Networks, to evaluate the accuracy of flu outbreak prediction models as compared to the regression models used in this study. A future researcher could apply other sentiment analysis techniques, such as natural language processing and deep learning techniques, to identify context-sensitive emotion, concept extraction, and sarcasm detection for the identification of self-reporting flu tweets. A future researcher could expand the scope by continuously collecting tweets on a public cloud and applying big data applications, such as Hadoop and MapReduce, to perform predictions using several months of historical data or even years for a larger geographical area.

Aim/Purpose: This work aims to present a knowledge modeling technique that supports the representation of the student learning process and that is capable of providing a means for self-assessment and evaluating newly acquired knowledge. The objective is to propose a means to address the pedagogical challenges in m-learning by aiding students’ metacognition through a model of a student with the target domain and pedagogy. Background: This research proposes a framework for social and meta-cognitive support to tackle the challenges raised. Two algorithms are introduced: the meta-cognition algorithm for representing the student’s learning process, which is capable of providing a means for self-assessment, and the social group mapping algorithm for classifying students according to social groups. Methodology : Based on the characteristics of knowledge in an m-learning system, the cognitive knowledge base is proposed for knowledge elicitation and representation. The proposed technique allows a proper categorization of students to support collaborative learning in a social platform by utilizing the strength of m-learning in a social context. The social group mapping and metacognition algorithms are presented. Contribution: The proposed model is envisaged to serve as a guide for developers in implementing suitable m-learning applications. Furthermore, educationists and instructors can devise new pedagogical practices based on the possibilities provided by the proposed m-learning framework. Findings: The effectiveness of any knowledge management system is grounded in the technique used in representing the knowledge. The CKB proposed manipulates knowledge as a dynamic concept network, similar to human knowledge processing, thus, providing a rich semantic capability, which provides various relationships between concepts. Recommendations for Practitioners: Educationist and instructors need to develop new pedagogical practices in line with m-learning. Recommendation for Researchers: The design and implementation of an effective m-learning application are challenging due to the reliance on both pedagogical and technological elements. To tackle this challenge, frameworks which describe the conceptual interaction between the various components of pedagogy and technology need to be proposed. Impact on Society: The creation of an educational platform that provides instant access to relevant knowledge. Future Research: In the future, the proposed framework will be evaluated against some set of criteria for its effectiveness in acquiring and presenting knowledge in a real-life scenario. By analyzing real student interaction in m-learning, the algorithms will be tested to show their applicability in eliciting student metacognition and support for social interactivity.

Aim/Purpose: This study aims at (1) extending an existing theoretical framework to gain a deeper understanding of the technology acceptance process, notably of the Facebook social network in an unexplored Middle East context, (2) investigating the influence of social support theory on Facebook adoption outside the work context, (3) validating the effectiveness of the proposed research model for enhancing Facebook adoption, and (4) determining the effect of individual differences (gender, age, experience, and educational level) amongst Facebook users on the associated path between the proposed model constructs. Background: Social networking sites (SNSs) are widely adopted to facilitate social interaction in the Web-based medium. As such, this present work contends that there is a gap in the existing literature, particularly in the Middle East context, as regards an empirical investigation of the relationship between the social, psychological, individual, and cognitive constructs potentially affecting users’ intention to accept SNSs. The present research, therefore, attempts to address this deficit. The relevance of this work is also considered in light of the scarcity of empirical evidence and lack of detailed research on the effect of social support theory with regard to SNS adoption in a non-work context. Methodology: A quantitative research approach was adopted for this study. The corresponding analysis was carried out based on structural equation modelling (SEM), more specifically, partial least squares (PLS), using SmartPLS software. Earlier research recommended the PLS approach for exploratory studies when extending an existing model or developing a new theory. PLS is also a superior method of complex causal modelling. Moreover, a multi-group analysis technique was adopted to investigate the moderating influence of individual differences. This method divides the dataset into two groups and then computes the cause and effect relationships between the research model variables for each set. The analysis of an in-person survey with a sample of Facebook users (N=369) subsequently suggested four significant predictors of continuous Facebook use. Contribution: This study contributes to the body of knowledge relating to SNSs by providing empirical evidence of constructs that influence Facebook acceptance in the case of a developing country. It raises awareness of antecedents of Facebook acceptance at a time when SNSs are widely used in Arab nations and worldwide. It also contributes to previous literature on the effectiveness of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) in different cultural contexts. Another significant contribution of this study is that it has reported on the relevance of social support theory to Facebook adoption, with this theory demonstrating a significant and direct ability to predict Facebook acceptance. Finally, the present research identified the significant moderating effect of individual differences on the associated path between the proposed model constructs. This means that regardless of technological development, individual gaps still appeared to exist among users. Findings: The findings suggested four significant predictors of continuous Facebook use, namely, (a) performance expectancy, (b) peer support, (c) family support, and (d) perceived playfulness. Furthermore, behavioral intention and facilitating conditions were found to be significant determinants of actual Facebook use, while individual differences were shown to moderate the path strength between several variables in the proposed research model. Recommendations for Practitioners: The results of the present study make practical contributions to SNS organizations. For example, this research revealed that users do not adopt Facebook because of its usefulness alone; instead, users’ acceptance is developed through a sequence of variables such as individual differences, psychological factors, and social and organizational beliefs. Accordingly, social media organizations should not consider only strategies that apply to just one context, but also to other contexts characterized by different beliefs, perceptions, and cultures. Moreover, the evidence provided here is that social support theory has a significant influence on SNSs acceptance. This suggests that social media organizations should provide services to support this concept. Furthermore, the significant positive effect of perceived playfulness on the intention to use SNSs implied that designers and organizations should pay further attention to the entertainment services provided by social networks. Recommendation for Researchers: To validate the proposed conceptual framework, researchers from different countries and cultures are invited to apply the model. Moreover, a longitudinal research design could be implemented to gather data over a longer period, in order to investigate whether users have changed their attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and intention by the end of the study period. Other constructs, such as individual experience, compatibility, and quality of working life could be included to improve the power of the proposed model. Impact on Society: Middle Eastern Facebook users regard the network as an important tool for interacting with others. The increasing number of Facebook users renders it a tool of universal communication and enjoyment, as well as a marketing network. However, knowledge of the constructs affecting the application of SNSs is valuable for ensuring that such sites have the various functions required to suit different types of user. Future Research: It is hoped that our future research will build on the results of this work and attempt to provide further explanation of why users accept SNSs. In this future research, the proposed research model could be adopted to explore SNSs acceptance in other developing countries. Researchers might also include other factors of potential influence on SNSs acceptance. The constructs influencing acceptance of other social networks could then be compared to the present research findings and thus, the differences and similarities would be highlighted.

Aim/Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine empirically the effects of certain key Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems on the comprehensive achievement of the crucial roles of Computer-Based Information Systems (CBISs) Background: The effects of the CSFSs were examined in the higher education sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) using a case study of the ERP adoption in Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University. Methodology: A theoretical model was proposed based on the literature written on the CSFs and the roles of CBISs in business. The model encompasses six key CSFs and their associations with the realization of the crucial roles of CBISs. To test the proposed model, a questionnaire was developed by considering the most frequently used measurements items in the ERP’s literature. The data were collect-ed from 219 key stakeholders. Contribution: This study acts as one of the few empirical studies in assessing the effects of the important CSFs for ERP implementation upon its successful implementation. Its outcomes provide more insights and clarifications about the effects of six key CSFs on the comprehensive achievement of the crucial CBIS’s roles. Particularly, the uniqueness of this study lies in addressing the effects of these CSFs on the achievement of the vital CBIS’s roles collectively rather than the achievement of each role individually. Moreover, the study examined these effects in the higher education environment, which is characterized by its own special business processes and services. Findings: The results reveal that the six key CSFs have a positive relationship with the comprehensive achievement of the crucial roles of CBISs. These findings are consistent with many previous studies on the effects of the CSFs on the realization of the expected benefits of the enterprise systems. Recommendations for Practitioners: The managers and other key stakeholders should carefully manage the vital aspects of the CSFs in order to realize the promised ERP’s benefits, including the CBIS’s roles. Future Research: Additional empirical examinations are needed to investigate the effects of the rest of the CSFs on realizing the roles of information systems.

Aim/Purpose: Vis-à-vis management of crisis and disaster situations, this paper focuses on important use cases of social media functions, such as information collection & dissemination, disaster event identification & monitoring, collaborative problem-solving mechanism, and decision-making process. With the prolific utilization of disaster-based ontological framework, a strong disambiguation system is realized, which further enhances the searching capabilities of the user request and provides a solution of unambiguous in nature. Background: Even though social media is information-rich, it has created a challenge for deriving a decision in critical crisis-related cases. In order to make the whole process effective and avail quality decision making, sufficiently clear semantics of such information is necessary, which can be supplemented through employing semantic web technologies. Methodology: This paper evolves a disaster ontology-based system availing a framework model for monitoring uses of social media during risk and crisis-related events. The proposed system monitors a discussion thread discovering whether it has reached its peak or decline after its root in the social forum like Twitter. The content in social media can be accessed through two typical ways: Search Application Program Interfaces (APIs) and Streaming APIs. These two kinds of API processes can be used interchangeably. News content may be filtered by time, geographical region, keyword occurrence and availability ratio. With the support of disaster ontology, domain knowledge extraction and comparison against all possible concepts are availed. Besides, the proposed method makes use of SPARQL to disambiguate the query and yield the results which produce high precision. Contribution: The model provides for the collection of crisis-related temporal data and decision making through semantic mapping of entities over concepts in a disaster ontology we developed, thereby disambiguating potential named entities. Results of empirical testing and analysis indicate that the proposed model outperforms similar other models. Findings: Crucial findings of this research lie in three aspects: (1) Twitter streams and conventional news media tend to offer almost similar types of news coverage for a specified event, but the rate of distribution among topics/categories differs. (2) On specific events such as disaster, crisis or any emergency situations, the volume of information that has been accumulated between the two news media stands divergent and filtering the most potential information poses a challenging task. (3) Relational mapping/co-occurrence of terms has been well designed for conventional news media, but due to shortness and sparseness of tweets, there remains a bottleneck for researchers. Recommendations for Practitioners: Though metadata avails collaborative details of news content and it has been conventionally used in many areas like information retrieval, natural language processing, and pattern recognition, there is still a lack of fulfillment in semantic aspects of data. Hence, the pervasive use of ontology is highly suggested that build semantic-oriented metadata for concept-based modeling, information flow searching and knowledge exchange. Recommendation for Researchers: The strong recommendation for researchers is that instead of heavily relying on conventional Information Retrieval (IR) systems, one can focus more on ontology for improving the accuracy rate and thereby reducing ambiguous terms persisting in the result sets. In order to harness the potential information to derive the hidden facts, this research recommends clustering the information from diverse sources rather than pruning a single news source. It is advisable to use a domain ontology to segregate the entities which pose ambiguity over other candidate sets thus strengthening the outcome. Impact on Society: The objective of this research is to provide informative summarization of happenings such as crisis, disaster, emergency and havoc-based situations in the real world. A system is proposed which provides the summarized views of such happenings and corroborates the news by interrelating with one another. Its major task is to monitor the events which are very booming and deemed important from a crowd’s perspective. Future Research: In the future, one shall strive to help to summarize and to visualize the potential information which is ranked high by the model.

Aim/Purpose: This study aims to identify the main factors influencing consumers’ adoption of social commerce (s-commerce). Based on the socio-technical theory, the study suggests a research model that investigates the key social and technical factors driving consumers’ decision to purchase from social commerce websites. In addition, the research model explores the interactive relationship among these factors. Background: The phenomenon of social commerce (s-commerce) has emerged due to the increased penetration of social media and the rapid development of Web 2.0 technologies. Electronic commerce (e-commerce) companies have made significant efforts to shift their operations to s-commerce. Therefore, to facilitate their efforts to transform, various research has been conducted to investigate the main factor influencing the adoption of s-commerce. Most of these studies have emphasised the social aspects related to s-commerce design features to understand how the use of advanced web technologies influence how customers interact with each other in s-commerce environments. However, s-commerce is viewed as a socio-technical system that requires the investigation of both social and technical factors to help in the design of effective s-commerce platforms. Methodology: To validate the proposed research model, 418 paper-based and online questionnaires were collected from online shoppers in Jordan. The Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) approach was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Contribution: This study offers a research model that serves as a theoretical framework for investigating customers’ behaviour in s-commerce environment. It represents a strong context-specific model that includes both the technical and social facilitators of s-commerce. The research model participates in gaining an improved understanding of how customers’ intention, actual purchase and post-purchase experience are formed in the s-commerce environment. Findings: The results of Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) reveal that s-commerce constructs, familiarity and user experience have a positive influence on the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of s-commerce. In addition, perceptions of its usefulness and ease of use have a positive influence on trust, which in turn influences the purchase intention and the actual purchase. Finally, the post-purchase experience significantly influences both trust and purchase intention. Recommendations for Practitioners: This study shows that social commerce constructs strengthen customers’ perceptions of usefulness. S-commerce service providers are required to provide their customers with various channels to seek social support. Both familiarity and user experience are key enablers of customers’ perceived ease of use. S-commerce service providers consider the variation in customers’ familiarity and experience with s-commerce websites because this has a significant influence on purchase intentions and behaviour. Consequently, system designers should offer useful and sufficient information and tutorials that effectively guide customers in their searching, decision-making and purchasing activities throughout the shopping process. S-commerce service providers should understand the importance of providing secure payment systems and make their privacy policies clear to customers. Post-purchase experience has an influential role in reinforcing customers’ trust and purchase intention. The findings confirm the important role of post-purchase experience in retaining customers by improving their trust and repurchase intention. Therefore, making a customer’s post-purchase experience pleasant should be a key priority for s-commerce service providers because it has a significant influence on customers’ trust and repurchase intentions. Recommendation for Researchers: This study offers a unidimensional conceptualisation of the design features of s-commerce. These features include three main forms: recommendations and referrals, communities and forums, and reviews and ratings. Such conceptualisation provides additional insights and an understanding of the activities of information sharing in s-commerce. The significance of the technical side of s-commerce is highlighted and empirical proof is provided that social interactions guided by social technologies enhance customers’ perceived usefulness of an s-commerce website, thus increasing their trust and intention to purchase which leads to an actual purchase. This offers insights into the various types of s-commerce characteristics that contribute to facilitating customers’ purchase behaviour on s-commerce websites. Impact on Society: The findings offer insights which have important implications for research and practice to help facilitate the adoption of s-commerce. Future Research: This study considered the s-commerce websites as a homogenous online environment. Additional research could collect data from diverse online communities, such as professional groups, to provide a comprehensive understanding of how a wider variety of user behaviour is affected. Second, this was a quantitative study based on data collected in a questionnaire. Further studies may consider using qualitative or mixed methodologies (i.e. focus groups and interviews) to explore other technical and social factors that influence the use of s-commerce.

Aim/Purpose: This study seeks to investigate if participation in business association’s programs through the traditional and new media platforms influences family businesses in South Eastern Nigeria to diversify into similar or different businesses. Background: Before the advances in information and communication technology, businesses were carried on via the traditional media. The application of these advances has changed the way business communications and transactions are conducted globally in both family and non-family businesses. Businesses are adapting to today’s turbulent environment by opening similar or different businesses in the same or different locations that are hinged on the traditional and new media platforms. Nigerians are largely involved in social network through the traditional (face-to-face contact) and new media (e.g., Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram). Moreover, in spite of the commonplaceness of family businesses in Nigeria, these businesses still experience weak diversification, bankruptcy and loss of socio-emotional wealth. Consequent upon the foregoing, this paper specifically investigates if involvement in social network via the traditional media (i.e., participation in business association’s meetings, workshops, seminars) and the new media (i.e., participation in the business association’s interactive sessions on trending business issues through the association’s online social platform like WhatsApp, Twitter), influence family businesses in South Eastern Nigeria to diversify into similar or different businesses. Methodology: The study adopted a qualitative methodology. The qualitative data were generated via interview involving 30 purposively selected businesses from South Eastern Nigeria. This comprises 15 family businesses each that have respectively adopted related and unrelated diversification strategies. Two respondents (i.e., the business owner and a top level manager) each were drawn from the selected businesses. In all, 60 respondents were interviewed. Since the unit of analysis is the family business, the interview transcriptions from all the respondents were subjected to thematic content analysis on the basis of the family businesses. Contribution: Active involvement and participation in all the meetings, discussions, workshops and seminars of the social network via the traditional and new media platforms facilitates the adoption of related or unrelated diversification in family businesses. Moreover, the adoption of similar social network platforms like WhatsApp and Twitter in all the relationships among and between employees and managers, and the transactions of the businesses is one of the key factors for achieving successful related or unrelated diversification in family businesses. Findings: In spite of the risky nature of the business environment, the adoption of related diversification strategies is significantly influenced by resources such as business consultancy services garnered through the traditional and new media platforms of the social network. Also, family businesses that are actively involved in a social network where the actors interact through the traditional and new media are influenced by the resources acquired to consider adopting unrelated diversification. These resources include: better understanding of the nature of business challenges, environments and experiences; and different lines of businesses. Thus, the traditional and new media platforms are complementary in their roles. Recommendations for Practitioners: Family business owner-managers could use the findings to develop related or unrelated strategies for diversifying into existing or new markets. This can be through the localization of manufacturing plant, improvement of product packaging, sitting of sales outlet closer to the consumers, introduction of lower prices for products/services, introduction of new and better ways of service delivery, or development of more compelling promotion strategies. Recommendation for Researchers: As a veritable guide, this study could guide future researchers in the formulation of their objectives, selection of instrument for data collection and respondents, and adoption of method of data analysis. Impact on Society: Successful diversification suggests the establishment of new or more businesses. Consequently, these new or more family businesses are expected to translate to more employment opportunities and by extension reduction in unemployment and poverty rates in the society. Future Research: Further studies should be carried out to enhance the development of family businesses, contribute to the existing literature and ensure the generalization of the findings.

Aim/Purpose: This study aimed to examine the effect of marketing knowledge management (MKM) on bank performance via the mediating role of the Fintech innovation in Jordanian commercial banks. Background: An extensive number of studies found a significant relationship between Marketing knowledge management and bank performance (e.g., Akroush & Al-Mohammad, 2010; Hou & Chien 2010; Rezaee & Jafari, 2015; Veismoradi et al., 2013). However, there remains a lack of clarity regarding the relationship between marketing knowledge management (MKM) and bank performance (BP). Furthermore, the linkage between MKM and BP is not straightforward but, instead, includes a more complicated relationship. Therefore, it is argued that managing marketing knowledge management assets and capabilities can enhance performance via the role of financial innovation as a mediating factor on commercial banks; to date, however, there is no empirical evidence. Methodology: Based on a literature review, knowledge-based theory, and financial innovation theory, an integrated conceptual framework has been developed to guide the study. A quantitative approach was used, and the data was collected from 336 managers and employees in all 13 Jordanian commercial banks using online and in hand instruments. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze and verify the study variables. Contribution: This article contributes to theory by filling a gap in the literature regarding the role of marketing knowledge management assets and capabilities in commercial banks operating in a developing country like Jordan. It empirically examined and validated the role of Fintech innovation as mediators between marketing knowledge management and bank performance Findings: The main findings revealed that marketing knowledge management had a significant favorable influence on bank performance. Fintech innovation acted as partial mediators in this relationship. Recommendations for Practitioners: Commercial banks should be fully aware of the importance of knowledge management practices to enhance their financial innovation and bank performance. They should also consider promoting a culture of practicing knowledge management processes among their managers and employees by motivating and training to promote innovations. Recommendation for Researchers: The result endorsed Fintech innovation’s mediating effect on the relationship between the independent variable, marketing knowledge management (assets and capabilities), and the dependent variable bank performance, which was not addressed before; thus, it needs further validation. Future Research: The current designed research model can be applied and assessed further in other sectors, including banking and industrial sectors across developed and developing countries. It would also be of interest to introduce other variables in the study model that can act as consequences of MKM capabilities, such as financial and non-financial performance measures

Aim/Purpose: This paper examines the behavior of financial firm employees with regard to information security procedures instituted within their organization. Furthermore, the effect of information security awareness and its importance within a firm is explored. Background: The study focuses on employees’ attitude toward compliance with information security policies (ISP), combined with various norms and personal abilities. Methodology: A self-reported questionnaire was distributed among 202 employees of a large financial Corporation Contribution: As far as we know, this is the first paper to thoroughly explore employees’ awareness of information system procedures, among financial organizations in Israel, and also the first to develop operative recommendations for these organizations aimed at increasing ISP compliance behavior. The main contribution of this study is that it investigates compliance with information security practices among employees of a defined financial corporation operating under rigid regulatory governance, confidentiality and privacy of data, and stringent requirements for compliance with information security procedures. Findings: Our results indicate that employees’ attitudes, normative beliefs and personal capabilities to comply with firm’s ISP, have positive effects on the firm’s ISP compliance. Also, employees’ general awareness of IS, as well as awareness to ISP within the firm, positively affect employees’ ISP compliance. Recommendations for Practitioners: This study can help information security managers identify the motivating factors for employee behavior to maintain information security procedures, properly channel information security resources, and manage appropriate information security behavior. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers can see that corporate rewards and sanctions have significant effects on employee security behavior, but other motivational factors also reinforce the ISP’s compliance behavior. Distinguishing between types of corporations and organizations is essential to understanding employee compliance with information security procedures. Impact on Society: This study offers another level of understanding of employee behavior with regard to information security in organizations and comprises a significant contribution to the growing knowledge in this area. The research results form an important basis for IS policymakers, culture designers, managers, and those directly responsible for IS in the organization. Future Research: Future work should sample employees from another type of corporation from other fields and should apply qualitative analysis to explore other aspects of behavioral patterns related to the subject matter.

Aim/Purpose: This study examines the kind of community value companies should provide when strengthening the relationship between customers and brands through the establishment of an online brand community, and how this kind of community value promotes customers’ sense of community engagement and willingness to spread brand reputation. The paper also discusses how an enterprise’s brand symbolism affects the relationship between community value and customers’ engagement in online brand community. This study explored the important role of brand symbolism in the establishment of an online brand community. Background: Many companies want to create online brand communities to strengthen their relationships with consumers as well as to provide better service and value to consumers, for example, Huawei’s Huafen community (club.huawei.com), Apple’s support community (support.apple.com/zh-cn), and Samsung’s Galaxy community (samsungmembers.cn). However, these brand communities may have different interests and consumer engagement about the kind of community value to offer to their customers. Methodology: This study uses data collection from questionnaire surveys to design a quantitative research method. An online questionnaire survey of mobile phone users in China was conducted to collect data on social value, cognitive value, brand symbolism, customer community engagement, and brand recommendation. The brands of mobile phone include Apple, Huawei, Samsung, OPPO, VIVO, MI, and Meizu. The researcher purchased a sample service of WJX, an online survey company (www.wjx.cn), and WJX company distributed the questionnaire to research participants. The WJX company randomly selected 240 subjects from their sample database and then sent the questionnaire link to research participants’ mobile phones. Among the 240 research participants, the researcher excluded participants who lacked online brand community experience or had invalid data to qualify for data collection. After the researcher excluded participants who did not qualify for data collection, only 203 qualified questionnaire surveys advanced to the data collection and analysis phase, which was the questionnaire recovery rate of 84.58%. For the model analysis and hypotheses testing, the researcher used statistical software IBM SPSS Statistics and AMOS 21 and Smartpls3. Contribution: This study deepens the body of literature knowledge by combining online brand community value and brand symbolic value to explore issues that companies should consider when establishing an online brand community for their products and services. This study confirms that brands with high symbolic value establish communities and strengthen social values in the online brand community rather than reducing brand symbolism. Online brand community involves a horizontal interaction (peer interaction) among peers, which can have an effect on the symbolic value of brand (social distance). Findings: First, online brand community value (both cognitive and social value) has a positive impact on customer community engagement. Second, customer community engagement has a positive impact on customers’ brand recommend intention. Third, the customer community engagement is a mediator between the online brand community value and the customer brand recommend intention. Most importantly, fourth, the symbolic value of the brand controls the relationship between community value and customer community engagement. For brands with high symbolic value, the community value should emphasize cognitive value rather than social value. For brands with a low symbolic value, the community provides cognitive or social value, which is not affected by the symbolism of the brand. Recommendations for Practitioners: Practitioners can share best practices with the corporate sectors. Brand owners can work with researchers to explore the characteristics of their online brand communities. On this basis, brand owners and researchers can jointly build and manage online brand communities. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers can explore different perspectives and factors of brand symbolism that involve brand owners when establishing an online brand community to advance consumer engagement, community value, and brand symbolism. Impact on Society: Online brand community is relevant for brand owners to establish brand symbolism, community value, and customer engagement. Readers of this paper can gain an understanding that cognitive and social values are two important drivers of individual participation in online brand communities. The discussion of these two factors can give readers and brand owners the perception to gain more understanding on social and behavior activities in online brand communities. Future Research: Practitioners and researchers could follow-up in the future with a study to provide more understanding and updated research information from different perspectives of research samples and hypotheses on online brand community.

Aim/Purpose: This study investigates social media use and its effect on knowledge sharing. Based on the review of related literature, we hypothesised that social media use has a significant effect on outward and inward knowledge sharing. Background: While the notion of social media use in work organisations has been progressively developed, empirical studies linking social media to the context of knowledge sharing have only begun to emerge. Even so, literature on social media use and its impact on public organisation is still tentative and remains a developing area. Methodology: The partial least square method was utilised in testing of hypotheses with data collected from 103 employees, who by virtue of their position and job function(s) interface with the public for the purpose of sharing knowledge via the social media space. Contribution: The study made contributions to the social knowledge management literature in two ways. First, the study developed a research model that links social media use to the two distinct dimensions of knowledge sharing. Second, the study provides a quantitative approach, where statistical techniques were applied to validate the social media use and knowledge sharing link. Findings: Statistically, the public organisations utilise social media partly for knowledge sharing, with its effect being significant on outward knowledge sharing and insignificant on inward knowledge sharing. This indicates that social media were deployed mainly for information dissemination “outward knowledge sharing” and not for stakeholders’ feedback and interaction “inward knowledge sharing”. Recommendations for Practitioners: Public organisations should develop a policy framework and guidelines for social media use to encourage the full use of this technology to inform and interact with stakeholders. It is important for this policy document to adopt best practices regarding interactive spaces so that both knowledge sharing dimensions manifest themselves in social media communications. Second, it is necessary to carry out staff training for the professional use of this technology for knowledge sharing. Recommendation for Researchers: Future studies should extend to more populations in different contexts to validate findings Impact on Society: This paper intends to influence practices adopted by organisations in the public sector to improve the knowledge sharing dimensions via the social media space. Future Research: Future studies may extend to public organisations in other geographical locations around Nigeria. It will be useful for studies to provide an international perspective by sampling public organisations from different countries or by comparing and contrasting the findings of other studies, specifically those from other countries. A longitudinal study should be encouraged to detect advancement or development with regards to the subject matter over a period of time.

Aim/Purpose: Based on the social exchange theory, this study aimed to explore the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions between organizational socialization and knowledge sharing. Background: With the advent of the era of the knowledge economy, knowledge has been replacing traditional resources such as capital, labor, and land to become the critical resources of enterprises. The competitiveness of an organization depends much on the effectiveness of its knowledge management; the success of its knowledge management largely relies upon employees’ motivation and willingness to engage in knowledge sharing. Methodology: This study is a longitudinal analysis of data collected from 281 newcomers in Chinese enterprises at two-time points with a one-month interval. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to test hypotheses by calculating standardized path coefficients and their significance levels. Contribution: The study examined models linking organizational socialization and knowledge sharing that included organizational links and sacrifice as mediators and trust as a moderator. Findings: Results show that the influences of organizational socialization on knowledge sharing change regularly over time. In the role management stage, coworker support and prospects for the future impact the practices of knowledge sharing through links and sacrifice. Moreover, the findings show that trust moderates the effect of links and sacrifice on employees’ knowledge sharing. Recommendations for Practitioners: This study can help enterprises develop targeted human resource management strategies, improve the degree of job embeddedness within the organization, and thus encourage more knowledge sharing among employees. Recommendation for Researchers: First, researchers could pay attention to more underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions in the relationship between organizational socialization and knowledge sharing. Second, focusing on specific cultural context and dimension of concepts may provide a new insight for the future study and help add greater theoretical precision to knowledge sharing. Impact on Society: First, this study suggests that coworker support and prospects for the future improve knowledge sharing within the organization. Second, understanding how job embeddedness (organizational links and organizational sacrifice) acts as a mediator enhancing knowledge sharing, managers should consider raising their attachment relationship to organizations from two aspects: links and sacrifice. Third, knowledge sharing takes place in a team-oriented context, where the success of the team requires high-quality relationships among individual team members within the team as a whole. Future Research: Researchers in the future should employ experimental research design or utilize longitudinal data to ensure that the findings reveal causation. In addition, future research can investigate how the initial level and later changes of organizational socialization are associated with knowledge sharing beyond the observational scope of traditional cross-sectional and lagged research designs.

Aim/Purpose: This study investigated a model of mobile esports acceptance among urban citizens based on an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Background: Currently, esports are increasingly popular and in demand by the public. Supported by the widespread development of mobile devices, it has become an interactive market trend to play games in a new model, mobile esports. Methodology: This study collected data from 400 respondents and analyzed it using partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Contribution: This study addresses two research gaps. The first gap is limited esports information systems studies, particularly in mobile esports acceptance studies. The second gap is limited exploration of external variables in online gaming acceptance studies. Thus, this study proposed a TAM extended model by integrating the TAM native variables with other external variables such as visual appeal, enjoyment, social interaction, and competition to explore mobile esports acceptance by urban citizens. Findings: Nine hypotheses were accepted, and four were rejected. The visual appeal did not affect the acceptance. Meanwhile, social interaction and enjoyment significantly affected both perceived ease of use and usefulness. However, perceived ease of use surprisingly had an insignificant effect on attitude toward using mobile esports. Moreover, competition significantly affected the acceptance, particularly on perceived usefulness. Recommendations for Practitioners: Fresh and innovative features, such as new game items or themes, should be frequently introduced to enhance players’ continued enjoyment. Moreover, mobile esports providers should offer a solid platform to excite players’ interactions to increase the likelihood that users feel content. On the other hand, the national sports ministry/agency or responsible authorities should organize many esports competitions, big or small, to search for new talents. Recommendation for Researchers: Visual appeal in this study did not influence the perceived ease of use or usefulness. However, it could affect enjoyment. Thus, it would be worth revisiting the relationship between visual appeal and enjoyment. At the same time, perceived ease of use is a strong driver for the continued use of most online games, but not in this study. It could indicate significant differences between mobile esports and typical online games, one of which is the different purposes. Users might play online games for recreational intention, but players would use mobile esports to compete, win, or even get monetary rewards. Therefore, although users might find mobile esports challenging and hard to use, they tend to keep playing it. Thus, monetary rewards could be considered a determinant of the continuation of use. Impact on Society: Nowadays, users are being paid for playing games. It also would be an excel-lent job if they become professional esports athletes. This study investigated factors that could affect the continued use of mobile esports. Like other jobs, playing games professionally in the long term could make the players tedious and tired. Therefore, responsible parties, like mobile esports providers or governments, could use the recommendations of this study to promote positive behavior among the players. They will not feel like working and still con-sider playing mobile esports a hobby if they happily do the job. In the long run, the players could also make a nation’s society proud if they can be a champion in prestigious competitions. Future Research: A larger sample size will be needed to generalize the results, such as for a nation. It is also preferable if the sample is randomized systematically. Future works should also investigate whether the same results are acquired in other mobile esports. Furthermore, to extend our knowledge and deepen our understanding of the variables that influence mobile esports adoption, the subsequent research could look at other mobile esports acceptability based on characteristics of system functionality and moderator effects. Finally, longitudinal data-collecting approaches are suggested for future studies since behavior can change over time.

Aim/Purpose: Based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model, the current study investigated social commerce functions as an innovative retailing technological support by selecting the three most appropriate features for the Chinese online shopping environment with respective value co-creation intentions. Background: Social commerce is the customers’ online shopping touchpoint in the latest retail era, which serves as a corporate technological tool to extend specific customer services. Although social commerce is a relatively novel platform, limited theoretical attention was provided to determine retailers’ approaches in employing relevant functions to improve consumer experience and value co-creation. Methodology: A questionnaire was distributed to Chinese customers, with 408 valid questionnaires being returned and analyzed through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Contribution: The current study investigated the new retail concept and value co-creation from the consumer’s perspective by developing a theoretical model encompassing new retail traits and consumer value, which contributed to an alternative theoretical understanding of value creation, marketing, and consumer behaviour in the new retail business model. Findings: The results demonstrated that value co-creation intention was determined by customer experience, hedonic experience, and trust. Simultaneously, the three factors were significantly influenced by interactivity, personalisation, and sociability features. Specifically, customers’ perceptions of the new retail idea and the consumer co-creation value were examined. Resultantly, this study constructed a model bridging new retail characteristics with consumer value. Recommendations for Practitioners: Nonetheless, past new retail management practice studies mainly focused on superficial happiness in the process of human-computer interaction, which engendered a computer system design solely satisfying consumers’ sensory stimulation and experience while neglecting consumers’ hidden value demands. As such, a shift from the subjective perspective to the realisation perspective is required to express and further understand the actual meaning and depth of consumer happiness. Recommendation for Researchers: New retailers could incorporate social characteristics on social commerce platforms to improve the effectiveness of marketing strategies while increasing user trust to generate higher profitability. Impact on Society: The new retail enterprises should prioritise consumers’ acquisition of happiness meaning and deep experience through self-realisation, cognitive improvement, identity identification, and other aspects of consumer experiences and purchase processes. By accurately revealing and matching consumers’ fundamental perspectives, new retailers could continuously satisfy consumer requirements in optimally obtaining happiness. Future Research: Future comparative studies could be conducted on diverse companies within the same industry for comprehensive findings. Moreover, other underlying factors with significant influences, such as social convenience, group cognitive ability, individual family environment, and other external stimuli were not included in the present study examinations.

Aim/Purpose: The major challenges for firms to initiate corporate social responsibility (CSR) arise from resource constraints, complexity, and uncertainty. Consuming considerable financial and human resources is the main difficulty for smaller firms or those operating in less profitable industries, and the lack of immediate outputs from CSR initiatives poses a challenge for firms in prioritizing and assessing their effectiveness. Background: To better integrate CSR management into overall business strategy and decision-making processes, Blockchain technology (BCT) could potentially offer a feasible and optimal alternative to CSR reports. Methodology: This study uses the fixed effects regression by way of the Least Squares Dummy Variable (LSDV) approach in STATA to analyze the direct effect of CSR management on business performance and the moderating effect of BCT adoption on this relationship with a panel data set of 5810 observations collected from the 874 listed companies in 2015 in Taiwan Stock Exchange through 2021. Contribution: This study contributes to the literature by shedding light on the organizational factors that influence BCT adoption. Findings: The findings show that firms with high levels of CSR management have better business performance. Additionally, the adoption of BCT strengthens the positive relationship between CSR management and business performance, but it cannot replace the fundamental principles of CSR. Finally, firm size does not significantly affect BCT adoption, indicating that companies of all sizes have an equal opportunity to adopt BCT, which can help to level the playing field in terms of resources available to different firms. Recommendations for Practitioners: This study suggests that firms managing CSR practices have better business performance, and the adoption of BCTs further enhances this positive relationship. However, BCT adoption does not have the same positive effect on business performance as CSR practices. Additionally, this research can help to inform public policy related to BCT adoption and diffusion. Recommendation for Researchers: By exploring the factors that influence BCT adoption, future researchers can provide insights into the key challenges and opportunities faced by organizations of different sizes and help to develop strategies for promoting the effective adoption of BCT. Impact on Society: Given the limitations of current CSR reporting, the understanding gained from BCT applications can provide companies with an alternative mechanism to foster progress in CSR implementation. Future Research: Firstly, while the fixed-effects model might have dampened the power of explanation because it only captures within-unit variation and ignores between-unit variation, the explanatory power is further limited due to only integrating two independent variables in this model. Because of limited data availability, this study only utilizes CSR_Report and firm_size as independent variables. Future studies can consider more key factors and may lead to different results. Additionally, panel data is collected from Taiwan and, therefore, may not be representative of the broader population. Future researchers integrating the Stock Exchange of different countries are recommended.

Aim/Purpose: The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that impact the behavioral intention to use social media (SM) for knowledge sharing (KS) in the disaster relief (DR) context. Background: With the continuing growth of SM for KS in the DR environment, disaster relief organizations across the globe have started to realize its importance in streamlining their processes in the post-implementation phase. However, SM-based KS depends on the willingness of members to share their knowledge with others, which is affected by several technological, social, and organizational factors. Methodology: A survey was conducted in Somalia to gather primary data from DR practitioners, using purposive sampling as the technique. The survey collected 214 valid responses, which were then analyzed with the PLS-SEM approach. Contribution: The study contributes to an understanding of the real-life hurdles faced by disaster relief organizations by expanding on the C-TAM-TPB model with the inclusion of top management support, organizational rewards, enjoyment in helping others, knowledge self-efficacy, and interpersonal trust factors. Additionally, it provides useful recommendations to managers of disaster relief organizations on the key factors to consider. Findings: The findings recorded that perceived usefulness, ease of use, top management support, enjoyment in helping others, knowledge self-efficacy, and interpersonal trust were critical factors in determining behavioral intention (BI) to use SM-based KS in the DR context. Furthermore, the mediator variables were attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Recommendations for Practitioners: Based on the research findings, it was determined that management should create different discussion forums among the disaster relief teams to ensure the long-term use of SM-based KS within DR organizations. They should also become involved in the discussions for disaster-related knowledge such as food supplies, shelter, or medical relief that disaster victims need. Disaster relief managers should consider effective and adequate training to enhance individual knowledge and self-efficacy since a lack of training may increase barriers and difficulties in using SM for KS during a DR process. Recommendation for Researchers: The conceptual model, further empirically investigated, can be employed by other developing countries in fostering acceptance of SM for KS during disaster relief operations. Impact on Society: Disaster relief operations can be facilitated using social media by considering the challenges DR practitioners face during emergencies. Future Research: In generalizing this study’s findings, other national or global disaster relief organizations should consider, when applying and testing, the research instruments and proposed model. The researchers may extend this study by collecting data from managers or administrators since they are different types of users of the SM-based KS system.

Aim/Purpose: This paper aims to empirically quantify the financial distress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on companies listed on Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). The paper also aims to identify the most important predictors of financial distress pre- and mid-pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge toll, not only on human lives but also on many businesses. This provided the impetus to assess the impact of the pandemic on the financial status of Jordanian companies. Methodology: The initial sample comprised 165 companies, which was cleansed and reduced to 84 companies as per data availability. Financial data pertaining to the 84 companies were collected over a two-year period, 2019 and 2020, to empirically quantify the impact of the pandemic on companies in the dataset. Two approaches were employed. The first approach involved using Multiple Discriminant Analysis (MDA) based on Altman’s (1968) model to obtain the Z-score of each company over the investigation period. The second approach involved developing models using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) with 15 standard financial ratios to find out the most important variables in predicting financial distress and create an accurate Financial Distress Prediction (FDP) model. Contribution: This research contributes by providing a better understanding of how financial distress predictors perform during dynamic and risky times. The research confirmed that in spite of the negative impact of COVID-19 on the financial health of companies, the main predictors of financial distress remained relatively steadfast. This indicates that standard financial distress predictors can be regarded as being impervious to extraneous financial and/or health calamities. Findings: Results using MDA indicated that more than 63% of companies in the dataset have a lower Z-score in 2020 when compared to 2019. There was also an 8% increase in distressed companies in 2020, and around 6% of companies came to be no longer healthy. As for the models built using ANNs, results show that the most important variable in predicting financial distress is the Return on Capital. The predictive accuracy for the 2019 and 2020 models measured using the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) graph was 87.5% and 97.6%, respectively. Recommendations for Practitioners: Decision makers and top management are encouraged to focus on the identified highly liquid ratios to make thoughtful decisions and initiate preemptive actions to avoid organizational failure. Recommendation for Researchers: This research can be considered a stepping stone to investigating the impact of COVID-19 on the financial status of companies. Researchers are recommended to replicate the methods used in this research across various business sectors to understand the financial dynamics of companies during uncertain times. Impact on Society: Stakeholders in Jordanian-listed companies should concentrate on the list of most important predictors of financial distress as presented in this study. Future Research: Future research may focus on expanding the scope of this study by including other geographical locations to check for the generalisability of the results. Future research may also include post-COVID-19 data to check for changes in results.

Aim/Purpose: Social commerce is an emergent topic widely used for product and service sourcing. It helps companies to have frequent interaction with their customers and strive to achieve a competitive advantage. Yet there is only little empirical evidence focusing on social commerce and its adoption in SMEs to date. This study investigates the key factors affecting social commerce adoption in SMEs. This research designed a theoretical model using the Technology, Organization, and Environment (TOE) Model Background: Despite its rapid growth and usage, social commerce is still in its evolution phase and its current conception is vague and restricted. Therefore, considering the benefits of social commerce for consumers and businesses, it is important to explore the concept of social commerce. Methodology: The research floated a self-administered questionnaire and surveyed 218 Jordanian SME businesses. The data was analyzed using smart PLS and the results were drawn that covers the detail of the characteristics of respondents, study descriptive, results of regressions assumptions, e.g., data normality, reliability, validity, common method biases, and description of the measurement model, followed by the findings of hypothesis analysis. Contribution: This study has many significant contributions to the existing studies on firms’ adoption of social commerce. It indicates that organizational readiness from the organizational perspective and consumer pressure from the environmental dimension of the TOE model are significant influential elements in the adoption of social commerce in business, followed by high-level management support and trading partner pressure, respectively. This shows that organizational readiness to adopt social commerce and consumer pressure has a vital role in Jordanian SMEs’ adopting social commerce. Findings: The results were drawn from a survey of 218 Jordanian SMEs, indicating that organizational readiness from an organizational dimension and consumer pressure environmental perspective, followed by top management’s support and trading partner pressure, significantly predicts the adoption intentions of social commerce. However, perceived usefulness and security concerns from a technological context do not significantly impact behavioral intentions to utilize social commerce. Recommendations for Practitioners: Lack of awareness about new technology and its potential benefits are not well diffused in the Jordanian context. In short, both organizational and environmental dimensions of the TOE framework significantly influence the behavioral intentions for social commerce adoption in the Jordanian context whereas the third-dimension technological factors do not affect the behavioral intentions of SMEs to adopt social commerce. In the technological context, SMEs need to invest in technology and must spread awareness among Jordanian consumers about the potential benefits of technology and must encourage them to use social commerce platforms to interact because of the high significance of social commerce for businesses as it facilitates the quick completion of tasks, enhances the productivity, and improves the chances of high profitability. Recommendation for Researchers: First, the study is limited in scope as it discusses the direct links between the TOE framework, behavioral intentions to use social commerce, and the actual usage of social commerce in the Jordanian context rather than testing the mediation, and moderation. Future research may examine the mediators and moderators in the conceptual model. Second, the research examined the behavioral intentions of SMEs rather than consumers to adopt social commerce. Further research might consider the consumer perspective on social commerce. Impact on Society: This research aims to identify the key factor that impact the behavioral intentions of SME businesses to practice social commerce. The theoretical underpinning of the study lies in the TOE model, as using its basic assumptions the conceptual grounds and hypothesis of the study are developed. Future Research: The study findings are not generalizable in different contexts as it was specifically conducted by gathering data from the Jordanian population. However future studies may consider different contexts, sectors, cultures, or countries to examine the model. Lastly, the research collected data using convenience sampling from 218 SMEs in Jordan, which may create difficulty in the generalizability of the research, so needs to examine a larger sample in future studies.

Aim/Purpose: This study presents a novel deep learning-based framework designed to enhance spontaneous micro-expression recognition by effectively increasing the amount and variety of data and balancing the class distribution to improve recognition accuracy. Background: Micro-expression recognition using deep learning requires large amounts of data. Micro-expression datasets are relatively small, and their class distribution is not balanced. Methodology: This study developed a framework using a deep learning-based model to recognize spontaneous micro-expressions on a person’s face. The framework also includes several technical stages, including image and data preprocessing. In data preprocessing, data augmentation is carried out to increase the amount and variety of data and class balancing to balance the distribution of sample classes in the dataset. Contribution: This study’s essential contribution lies in enhancing the accuracy of micro-expression recognition and overcoming the limited amount of data and imbalanced class distribution that typically leads to overfitting. Findings: The results indicate that the proposed framework, with its data preprocessing stages and deep learning model, significantly increases the accuracy of micro-expression recognition by overcoming dataset limitations and producing a balanced class distribution. This leads to improved micro-expression recognition accuracy using deep learning techniques. Recommendations for Practitioners: Practitioners can utilize the model produced by the proposed framework, which was developed to recognize spontaneous micro-expressions on a person’s face, by implementing it as an emotional analysis application based on facial micro-expressions. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers involved in the development of a spontaneous micro-expression recognition framework for analyzing hidden emotions from a person’s face are playing an essential role in advancing this field and continue to search for more innovative deep learning-based solutions that continue to explore techniques to increase the amount and variety of data and find solutions to balancing the number of sample classes in various micro-expression datasets. They can further improvise to develop deep learning model architectures that are more suitable and relevant according to the needs of recognition tasks and the various characteristics of different datasets. Impact on Society: The proposed framework could significantly impact society by providing a reliable model for recognizing spontaneous micro-expressions in real-world applications, ranging from security systems and criminal investigations to healthcare and emotional analysis. Future Research: Developing a spontaneous micro-expression recognition framework based on spatial and temporal flow requires the learning model to classify optimal features. Our future work will focus more on exploring micro-expression features by developing various alternative learning models and increasing the weights of spatial and temporal features.

Aim/Purpose: This paper intends to answer the question regarding the extent to which political postings with value differences/similarities will influence the level of implicit knowledge sharing (KS) among work colleagues in organizations. More specifically, the study assesses contributors’ responses to a workmate’s publicity about politics on social media platforms (SMP) and their eagerness to implement implicit KS to the co-worker. Background: Previously published articles have confirmed an association between publicity about politics and the reactions from workfellows in the organization. Moreover, prior work confirmed that workers’ social media postings about politics may create unfavorable responses, such as being disliked and distrusted by workfellows. This may obstruct the KS because interpersonal relations are among the KS’s essential components. Therefore, it is imperative to assess whether the workfellows’ relationship affected by political publicity would impede the KS in the office. Methodology: Data was gathered using the vignette technique and online survey. A total of 510 online and offline questionnaires were distributed to respondents in Indonesian Halal firms who have implemented knowledge-sharing practices and have been at work for no less than twelve months in the present role. Next, the 317 completed questionnaires were examined with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Contribution: Postings about politics on SMP can either facilitate or impede the level of KS in organizations, and this research topic is relatively scarce in the knowledge management discipline. While previously published articles have concentrated on public organizations, this research centers on private firms. Moreover, this work empirically examines private companies in Indonesia, which is also understudied in the existing literature. Findings: The outcomes confirm that perceived political value similarity (PPV) in a co-worker’s social-media publicity has a significant and indirect influence on contributors’ eagerness to perform implicit/tacit KS. Further, colleague likability and trustworthiness significantly influence the level of KS among respondents. As PPV significantly forms colleague likability, likability strongly and positively shapes trustworthiness. Recommendations for Practitioners: The study shows that political publicity significantly affects implicit knowledge sharing (KS). As a result, managers and leaders, particularly those in private firms, are strengthened to instruct their staff about the ramifications of publicity embedded in employees’ SMP postings, particularly about political topics, as it may result in either negative or positive perceptions amongst the staff towards the workmate who posts. Recommendation for Researchers: As this study focuses on examining KS behavior in a large context, i.e., Indonesia Halal firms that dominate the Indonesian economy, and the fact that much polarization research focuses on society at large and less on specific sectors of life, it is important and interesting for researchers to conduct similar studies in a specific workplace as political agreements and disagreements become so important and consequential in everyday lives. Impact on Society: This article makes the implication that a person’s personality can influence how they react to political posts on SMP. It is difficult for the exposers to know the personality of each viewer of publicity in daily life. Workers’ newfound knowledge can motivate them to use SMP responsibly and lessen the probability that they will disclose information that might make their co-workers feel or perceive anything unfavorably. Future Research: There is a need for further studies to examine if the results can be applied to different locations and organizations, as individuals’ behaviors may vary according to the cultures of society and firms. Furthermore, future research can take into account the individual characteristics of workers, such as hospitability, self-confidence, and psychological strength, which may be well-matched with future work models. Future research may potentially employ a qualitative technique to offer deeper insights into the same topic.

Aim/Purpose: This study aims to analyze the factors that influence user addiction to AR face filters in social network applications and their impact on the online social anxiety of users in Indonesia. Background: To date, social media users have started to use augmented reality (AR) face filters. However, AR face filters have the potential to create positive and negative effects for social media users. The study combines the Big Five Model (BFM), Sense of Virtual Community (SVOC), and Stimuli, Organism, and Response (SOR) frameworks. We adopted the SOR theory by involving the personality factors and SOVC factors as stimuli, addiction as an organism, and social anxiety as a response. BFM is the most significant theory related to personality. Methodology: We used a quantitative approach for this study by using an online survey. We conducted research on 903 Indonesian respondents who have used an AR face filter feature at least once. The respondents were grouped into three categories: overall, new users, and old users. In this study, group classification was carried out based on the development timeline of the AR face filter in the social network application. This grouping was carried out to facilitate data analysis as well as to determine and compare the different effects of the factors in each group. The data were analyzed using the covariance-based structural equation model through the AMOS 26 program. Contribution: This research fills the gap in previous research which did not discuss much about the impact of addiction in using AR face filters on online social anxiety of users of social network applications. Findings: The results of this study indicated neuroticism, membership, and immersion influence AR face filter addiction in all test groups. In addition, ARA has a significant effect on online social anxiety. Recommendations for Practitioners: The findings are expected to be valuable to social network service providers and AR creators in improving their services and to ensure policies related to the list of AR face filters that are appropriate for use by their users as a form of preventing addictive behavior of that feature. Recommendation for Researchers: This study suggested other researchers consider other negative impacts of AR face filters on aspects such as depression, life satisfaction, and academic performance. Impact on Society: AR face filter users may experience changes in their self-awareness in using face filters and avoid the latter’s negative impacts. Future Research: Future research might explore other impacts from AR face filter addiction behavior, such as depression, life satisfaction, and so on. Apart from that, future research might investigate the positive impact of AR face filters to gain a better understanding of the impact of AR face filters.