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Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face difficulty with educational attainment because of to their inability to interact with others. One intervention that is used to increase social skills in individuals with ASD is social stories. This study aimed at exploring the impact of digital social stories in improving social skills of two students with ASD in the UAE.

An experimental AB single-subject study was conducted to investigate the impact of digital social stories on nonverbal communication, targeting two specific behaviors: raising hands before leaving one’s seat (TB1) and playing and sharing toys with peers (TB2). Two digital social stories (DSS1 and DSS2) were developed for the purpose of this study and transformed using a digital platform to be displayed on an iPad (tablet).

This study involved two male participants with ASD (10 and 11 years old). Participant one demonstrated improvement in TB1 (mean of 1.11) because of DSS1 in the intervention phase. Participant two demonstrated improvement of 18% in TB2 ( mean of 0.18) as a result of DSS2 in the intervention phase.

Both students that participated in the study showed a positive change in their target behaviors during the intervention phase intervention at different levels. Using an ABA study design would have been stronger in establishing a more valid causal relation in this single-subject design study. However, due the COVID-19 closures and curfews, the researchers had to switch to the AB design.

This study demonstrated how social stories had a positive impact on ASD social skills. Further, it indicated the potential effectiveness of using digital social stories to reduce undesirable behaviors or increase a desirable behaviors in children who have ASD.

The economy of the Palestinian Territories (PT) is small, poorly developed, and highly dependent on Israel; at the same time, the land is limited, Israel controls 80‐85 per cent of the Palestinian water, and there is large‐scale unemployment. Faced with this situation, small and micro‐enterprises have come to play a critical role in the economy of the PT. Donors, the Palestinian Authority (PA), and UNRWA have recognised that many of the managers suffer from managerial weaknesses, and training is one of the long‐term keys to promote the development of small and micro‐enterprises and alleviate the problem of persistent unemployment in the PT. To support the peace agreement, the International Community promised to support the Palestinian economy. Part of this aid has been spent for small and micro‐enterprise development, and for establishing managerial training programmes. These programmes aim to encourage economic development of the PT, through supporting small business education and entrepreneurship training. These programmes suffered from various problems, such as lack of professional trainers, the majority of the managers did not attend the training programme courses, some of these programmesmissed funding. Therefore, some training programmes were closed during the last two years. On the other hand, the managers of small businesses still suffer from various managerial problems. However, this article presents a description of the current situation in PT. Especially, the economic and managerial situation, particularly for the SMEs and TPs in the PT.

Hospital structures serve to protect and improve public health; however, they are recognized as a major source of environmental degradation. Thus, an effective performance evaluation framework is required to improve hospital sustainability. In this context, this study presents a holistic methodology that integrates the sustainability balanced scorecard (SBSC) with fuzzy Delphi method and fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making approaches for evaluating the sustainability performance of hospitals.

Initially, a comprehensive list of relevant sustainability evaluation criteria was considered based on six SBSC-based dimensions, in line with triple-bottom-line sustainability dimensions, and derived from the literature review and experts’ opinions. Then, the weights of perspectives and their respective criteria are computed and ranked utilizing the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process. Subsequently, the hospitals’ sustainable performance values are ranked based on these criteria using the Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution.

A numerical application was conducted in six public hospitals to exhibit the proposed model’s applicability. The results of this study revealed that “Patient satisfaction,” “Efficiency,” “Effectiveness,” “Access to care” and “Waste production,” respectively, are the five most important criteria of sustainable performance.

The new model will provide decision-makers with management tools that may help them identify the relevant factors for upgrading the level of sustainability in their hospitals and thus improve public health and community well-being.

This is the first study that proposes a new hybrid decision-making methodology for evaluating and comparing hospitals’ sustainability performance under a fuzzy environment.

Authenticity/ الصحة (as-sehah) serves as a criterion or predictor variable for the purpose of a comparative theological investigation of employment relations parameters in light of social teachings from Sunni Islam and Roman Catholicism. Authenticity finds initial, shared significance in both religious traditions because of its critically important role in judgments concerning the legitimacy of source documents. It also stands in both traditions as an inspirational goal for human life.

Particular issues of theological method for cross-cultural analysis are addressed by the use of insight-based critical realism as a transcultural foundation. Workplace parameters, the minimal enabling conditions for the possibility of authentic employment relations, are then identified and compared. The authors explore shared expectations for authenticity enabling conditions in terms of the direct and indirect employer: those national laws, systems and traditions that condition the functional range of authenticity that can be actualized within national or other work settings as experienced in the direct employment contract.

The study found remarkable consistency in the minimal conditions identified by Roman Catholic and Sunni Islam social teachings for the prospects of authenticity in employment relations. These conditions addressed seven parameters: work and the concept of labor; private property; the nature of the employment contract; unions and collective bargaining; the treatment of wages; the relationship between managerial prerogative and employee participation; and the crucial role of the state as indirect employer.

Specific minimal or threshold conditions of employment are described to ensure the prospect for authenticity in modern employment relations according to religious traditions. These include just cause employment conditions, unions and collective bargaining support, some form of management consultation/Shura, a living wage and a consultative exercise of managerial prerogative.

The study offers prescriptive and analytical aid to ensure assessment of circumstances fostering authenticity in employment relations.

The method and findings are a first effort to clarify thought and aid mutual understanding for inter-faith employment circumstances based on Roman Catholic and Sunni Islam social teachings through a transcultural foundation in cognitional operations. The criterion variable specification of authenticity conditions offers a fully developed basis to support further empirical research in management spirituality, corporate social responsibility and enterprise sustainability.

The main objective of this paper is to discuss the relationship between obstacles and weaknesses facing the development of MTPs and SMEs. In recent years many management training programmes (MTPs) of an off‐the‐job nature have been established in Palestine, after the peace agreement, in order to find a solution for apparent lack of managerial strength, especially amongst SMEs.

To demonstrate the effects of obstacles on SMEs, different but relevant sets of variables were employed. The logistic regression model was used to determine and analyse the effects of the independent variables on the dependent variables.

To a large degree the variables established the validity of the research hypothesis that “there is a relation between some obstacles and weaknesses and SMEs' development”. However, the primary data were generated through a survey of SME managers who have participated in management development training programmes in Palestine. It can be concluded quite clearly that generally there is a relationship between the acquisition of some obstacles and weaknesses and the development of SMEs. Moreover, managerial factors are prime determinants of the development, failure or survival of SMEs. Logistic regression shows that the relation between the development of SMEs and obstacles and weaknesses is significantly positive. Previous findings and research results can be used to enhance the strategic planning and hence the performance of small businesses. However, there is much to be done in terms of managerial development for greater efficiency.

Provides trainers with a means of evaluating and assessing training and thereby improving the quality of training while it is in progress via measurement of the individual needs of managers.

In recent years management training development has secured an increasingly important place in the life of the business managers. In the Arab countries, the management and development efforts have largely been found to be somewhat inadequate and ineffective. Many management‐training programmes (MTPs), of an off‐the‐job nature, have been established in the Palestinian territories (PT), after the peace agreement, in order to find a solution for the apparent lack of managerial strength, especially amongst the small and micro‐enterprises (SMEs). Discusses the contribution of these programmes towards the development of these managers by dividing the managerial skills offered into three main categories. The primary data have been generated through a survey of the SME managers who have participated in management development training programmes in Palestine. The results of the study highlighted the question of the importance, interrelationship and interaction of managerial skills used for developing SMEs.

Technology plays an important role in assisting elderly people to live independently, longer and improve their quality of life and health, in supporting their daily activities, etc. The ageing population becomes a global phenomenon. The population of Saudi Arabia continues to age (>60 years of age) currently (5%) compared to other group ages. In 2050, it will increase rapidly to 20.9% of the Saudi population. The current research aims at examining the barriers that health-care providers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are experiencing in the adoption of ambient assisted living (AAL) technologies among the elderly. The study aims to identify a challenging issue with the increasing the number of elderly among the population in the country, which has highlighted the need to use AAL technology to improve the quality of life among the elderly.

This study involved a community of practice (CoP) study as a method of data collection where data collected were presented and discussed in line with the existing literature review findings.

In total, 14 factors were identified in this study and discussed in the context of Saudi Arabia, which resulted in developing a decision-making framework for using AAL by health-care providers. Those factors are essential in boosting the usage of technology in improving elderly health in Saudi Arabia.

This study includes implications for developing a decision-making framework for using AAL.

This study clarifies that technology can connect elderly people with society.

In total, 14 factors were identified in this study and discussed in the context of Saudi Arabia.

In recent years, management training development has secured an increasingly important place in the life of the business managers. After the peace agreement, to find a solution for the apparent lack of managerial strength, many management‐training programmes (MTPs), of an off‐the‐job nature, have been established in the Palestinian Territories. The main objective of this paper is to explore the obstacles and weaknesses facing MTPs for business managers' development. The paper achieves this objective by dividing the identified weaknesses into four broad categories, namely, MTPs weaknesses, obstacles specific to the Palestine situation, and trainers' and managers' weaknesses. The primary data has been generated through a survey of the SME managers who have participated in MTPs in Palestine. To demonstrate the effects of MTPs on small businesses, different but relevant sets of variables were employed and subjected to statistical analysis. It is concluded that although there are major obstacles and weaknesses facing the development of SME managers, the findings, however, can be used to enhance the effectiveness of the future MTPs and indeed the performance of SMEs as a result. They also firmly point to the need for further management development in Palestine.

The paper assesses the moderating function of institutions in the financial development and environmental nexus covering India for the time period 1980–2019.

Deviating from extant literature which has mostly used emissions of major greenhouse gasses as a measure of environmental quality, the present study uses a broad measure of environmental quality called ecological footprint (EFP). Financial development is measured using a robust proxy recently introduced by International Monetary Fund (IMF). This index is multifaceted and covers three broad dimensions of financial sector in terms of depth, efficiency and access of both financial institutions and markets, thus outperforming the exclusively bank-based measures used in the past literature. Further institutional quality index is generated using the data from international country risk guide. Finally, autoregressive distributed lag model is used for the empirical estimation of short-run and long-run results.

The empirical estimates reveal that financial development and institutional quality are good for long-run environmental sustainability of India, whereas economic growth degrades the environment in the long- run. The results also attest to the existence of pollution heaven hypothesis in India for long run. Furthermore, regarding the moderating role of institutions, the study reveals that institutional quality complements financial development in affecting environment in the short run. While as, in the long run, they play a substitutive role whereby sound institutions cover-up the inefficiencies in financial system.

First, the paper uses the index of financial development developed by the IMF in order to quantify the level of financial development in India overtime. The index is based on three key dimensions of financial development such as the depth, efficiency and access of both financial institutions and markets. However, the index completely neglects the role of financial stability in determining financial development. Thus, future studies that are based on this IMF introduced index of financial development should incorporate the stability dimension to it. Second, this empirical study focused exclusively on India and employed aggregate EFP to measure environmental quality. Further studies can complement the content of this research by conducting similar studies to capture country-specific characteristics of other emerging economies and also scrutinize the impact on the six sub-indices of EFP.

The results of the study reveal that the effect of financial development, and institutions on ecological footprint is sensitive to time dynamics. Moreover, the findings offer important policy implications to government and policy makers in India on how to curb the menace of environmental degradation.

The paper addresses the gap in the literature by examining the moderating role of institutional quality in the financial development and ecological footprint nexus in India. Furthermore, the authors employ a robust proxy for both financial development and environmental quality unlike extant studies on India.

This paper assesses the contribution of management training and development programmes (MTPs) to the development of managerial skills in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Different sets of variables were used to explore the managers’ skills development by dividing the managerial skills into three main categories: self, people, and task‐related skills. After the peace agreement, many training programmes were established in the Palestinian Territories in order to solve managerial weakness, and these almost always use off‐the‐job training. A combination of survey questionnaire and interviews were used to collect the primary data (field study). The target respondents for this first time study were the managers of SMEs who participated in the MT courses. The results of the study highlighted the presence of clusters of managerial skills for SME managers and supported the evidence in the literature suggesting that managerial skills should be analysed as a system of interrelated skills.