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The purpose of this study is to discover the motivating factors for cryptocurrency investment during an economic crisis in the MENA region, with reference to the economic crisis of 2019–2022, in Lebanon.

The authors used t-test, and logistic regressions on a sample of 254 Lebanese investors to differentiate between cryptocurrency investors, and non-investors. Linear regressions of a subsample of cryptocurrency investors determined the factors that explained increasing cash investment in cryptocurrencies. Data were collected from investors in Lebanon, which could limit the generalization of the research results across the MENA region.

Investors differed from non-investors in that they were male, owned investments in the stock, bond and commodity markets, had prior investment experience in cryptocurrencies, were risk-takers and had expectations of high returns. Investors increased the dollar investment in cryptocurrencies, if they were male, as they invested more funds in securities, had previously invested in cryptocurrencies and had stronger risk-taking propensity. Expectations of high returns drove investors to cryptocurrencies, but such expectations do not stimulate further cryptocurrency investment.

This study is an initial attempt to comprehend the reactions of investors in the MENA region to a currency crisis that triggered investment in cryptocurrencies following the collapse of fiat currencies, central bank default and restrictions on bank withdrawals.

This study aims to evaluate the enhancement in prosthetic supply chain capabilities resulting from the implementation of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies. The study presents an emerging model outlining the key areas that undergo changes when integrating 3D printing technologies into the prosthetic supply chain.

Employing a qualitative approach, data were collected through field observations and 31 in-depth interviews conducted within various Jordanian organizations associated with the prosthetic industry and 3D printing technologies.

The findings suggest that the adoption of 3D printing technologies improves the prosthetic supply chain’s capabilities in terms of customization, responsiveness, innovation, environmental sustainability, cost minimization and patient empowerment. The study sheds light on the specific areas affected in the prosthetic supply chain following the adoption of 3D printing technologies, emphasizing the overall improvement in supply chain capabilities within the prosthetic industry.

This study provides recommendations for governmental bodies and prosthetic organizations to maximize the benefits derived from the use of 3D printing technologies.

This study contributes as the first of its kind in exploring the impact of 3D printing technology adoption in the Jordanian prosthetic industry, elucidating the effects on the supply chain and identifying challenges for decision-makers in an emerging market context.

We aim to explore how the COVID-19 crisis has initiated entrepreneurship amongst micro-scale businesses in the notably vulnerable street food industry. We highlight Malaysian street food vendors’ remarkable resilience as they evolved from informal enterprises into innovative entrepreneurs during the pandemic. This involves comprehending the pandemic’s impact and the coping strategies these businesses adopt to endure, evolve and thrive.

We carried out a semi-structured interview with 20 street food vendors in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. By using a qualitative approach and integrating theories on appraisal, resource management and self-regulated activities, this paper explores vendors’ experiences on their journey towards becoming entrepreneurs regardless of limited resources.

Despite the disruption, COVID-19 offers a crucial wake-up call even for micro-scale businesses. We discover the capability of street food vendors to outlast crisis through transformation into individuals with an entrepreneurial mindset. They adapted by diversifying their offerings and implementing new strategies like digital marketing and e-commerce. We also emphasise the contribution of family members in providing psychosocial support and navigating business challenges as an advantage of employing a highly self-efficacious individual within the group. This transformation not only ensures the survival of micro-scale enterprises but also underscores their potential to thrive and innovate, even in the face of adversity.

This paper extends the existing literature on street vending by integrating the appraisal theory of emotion, resource-based view theory and self-efficacy theory to explore how street food vendors with limited resources have managed to transform the informal business nature into an entrepreneurial environment under the pressure of a crisis.

This paper aims to investigate technological innovations within the crypto space that have engendered novel financial crime risks and their potential utilization amidst geopolitical conflicts.

The theoretical paper uses an analysis of recent geopolitical events, with a key focus on using cryptocurrencies to undertake illicit activities.

The study found that cryptocurrencies and the innovations made within the crypto domain are used for both legitimate and illicit purposes, including money laundering, terrorism financing and sanction evasion.

This research contributes to understanding the critical role cryptocurrencies play amidst geopolitical conflicts and emphasizes the need for regulatory considerations to prevent their misuse. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first scholarly contribution that considers the evolving mechanisms afforded by cryptocurrencies amidst geopolitical conflicts in undertaking illicit activities.

Online shopping has recently been evolving more toward the subject area of collaborative online shopping (COS), and customer satisfaction is one of the key determinants for the success of COS. In this study, we investigate the effect of product type and gender and their interaction with customer satisfaction through user involvement in a collaborative online shopping context.

We developed a lab experiment with a mixed two-by-two factorial design to test the proposed research model. We chose gender (male versus female) as the between-subjects factor and product type (utilitarian product versus hedonic product) as the within-subjects factor.

The obtained results indicate that collaborative shopping may require group members to be more involved for a hedonic product than a utilitarian product. When collaboratively shopping for utilitarian products, male groups tend to show a higher level of involvement than female groups. In contrast, female groups show a higher level of involvement than male groups when collaboratively shopping for hedonic products. Furthermore, our results indicate that greater involvement in COS may lead to higher satisfaction.

Websites that sell hedonic products should first adopt the design elements that support COS. Meanwhile, online sellers should be aware that the gender gap still exists as online shopping evolves toward social online shopping. In addition, COS websites should provide more design elements (e.g. co-browsing, avatar embodiment, video chat and voting tools) to stimulate user involvement.

In this paper, we employ the theory of consumption values, which decomposes COS value into the utilitarian and hedonic dimensions, as a theoretical foundation to investigate the effect of product type and gender together as well as their interactions in the COS context. The obtained findings may provide various insights and empirical evidence to improve the understanding of how to target male and female customers across different product types in the COS context.

This paper aims to analyze the importance of big data analytics (BDA) and supply chain analytics for sustainable supply chain management in all types of enterprises in the footwear industry. The importance and implementation of BDA in supply chain management have been discussed in this research paper, and a conceptual framework is proposed for the implementation.

The previous research indicates that the application of BDA and supply chain analytics is the key point to establishing sustainable supply chain management. Even though there are several types of research on the implications of BDA, there is still a gap in practical implications in organizations. For a better understanding, comparison of frameworks has been done for literature support. Further, 11 in-depth, semi-structured interviews have been conducted with four organizations from the footwear industry, and a conceptual framework has been proposed.

This research demonstrates an important gap in the literature through a thorough investigation of how firms can improve operational efficiency and productivity through the framework application and whether it is feasible to apply this within the global footwear industry or not. In conclusion, the research has denoted that despite lack of understanding related to sustainability agendas and not having proper ERP or BDA systems, the organizations operating in Pakistan still met some standards of sustainability and are moving toward achieving more.

The research has pointed out the importance of the integration of all stakeholders in the supply chain through a proposed framework that aligns and guides the stakeholders so that the policies and other constraints may be taken into consideration while revising sustainable supply chain strategies.

This study will help increase sustainability through the application of BDA technology, which will benefit various stakeholders, particularly those in the footwear industry.

This study has proposed a framework based on three stages of the implementation of BDA in the existing supply chain to maintain and achieve sustainability in the organization in the footwear industry. This three-stage framework covers many aspects that were not covered in the literature before.

The purpose of this study is to provide evidence to support an emerging theory that interpersonal conflict is the primary cause of workplace stress among a self-selected sample of Irish construction managers.

Eighteen construction managers working in Ireland were recruited for this study. Using semi-structured interviews and interpretative phenomenological analysis as the research methodology, the causes of their workplace stress were investigated.

Participants reported that the principal cause of their workplace stress was high levels of interpersonal conflict between colleagues. The effects of this interpersonal conflict included avoidance behaviour, ill health, absences from the workplace and loss of productivity issues. Deadlines, penalty clauses, lack of appreciation, cliques, costs, communication, temporary contracts and delays were also reported stressors.

A limitation of the study is the small sample of 18 construction managers and the limited geographical area.

The social implications of this study could be to clearly identify that interpersonal conflict may be under reported in the construction industry, and there is a possibility that it is being misclassified as other workplace behaviours such as bullying, harassment and workplace violence. If this is so, this could aid future researchers in addressing this challenging workplace behaviour.

The current consensus in the literature is that the three main causes of workplace stress are bullying, harassment and violence. However, the role and importance of interpersonal conflict as reported in this study, with the exception of North America and China, is not reflected in the wider health and safety research literature. In addition, interpersonal conflict and its reluctance to be reported is largely absent from construction safety research. The findings of this study may be explained if the workplace stress research community is currently misclassifying interpersonal conflict as a manifestation of bullying, harassment or violence. If this is the case, interpersonal conflict needs further research. This is to establish if this cause of construction-related workplace stress needs to be reconsidered as a standalone phenomenon in the wider family of challenging workplace behaviours.

Considering the transition of communicational channels from physical to digital spaces, this study aims to provide a theoretical foundation for understanding engagement in electronic word of mouth (eWoM) among managers and customers in the hospitality and tourism industry.

This study uses the four aggregate dimensions, namely, performance expectancy, efforts expectancy, social influence and facilitations condition. Further, this paper uses the 14 second-order themes of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology with a data set that represents elements that can trigger eWoM, both from managers’ and customers’ perspectives. The process of data structuration follows thematic analysis and axial coding techniques.

The results of this study show that performance expectancy, facilitation conditions, social influence and effort expectancy all trigger positive eWoM generation in the hospitality and tourism industry indicating customers’ and managers’ perspectives.

This novel study provides a theoretical foundation and novel propositions for future research work on the role of novel antecedents that can trigger eWoM in the hospitality and tourism industry. This paper also provides a benchmark for practitioners and policymakers in their strategic decisions-making towards improving business performance through positive eWoM.

This study aims to examine the relationship between leadership style and job performance by multiple mediating roles of career satisfaction and job satisfaction using the longitudinal approach for frontline employees in the Jordanian hotel sector.

This study used a survey questionnaire based on a five-year longitudinal approach. Data were collected in two-period among frontline employees in five-star hotels in Jordan. Leadership style (transformational leadership and transactional leadership) was measured in the first period, whereas job performance, career satisfaction and job satisfaction were measured in the second period. The final sample for the first and second periods comprised 314 questionnaires valid for more analysis. The statistical software of SPSS (version 25) and SmartPLS (version 3.3.5) have been used for data analysis.

The results demonstrated that leadership style (transformational leadership and transactional leadership) has a positive significant effect on job performance. The results demonstrated also that leadership style (transformational leadership and transactional leadership) has a positive significant effect on career satisfaction and job satisfaction. As well the results demonstrated that career satisfaction and job satisfaction have a positive significant effect on job performance. Regarding multiple mediating roles, the results demonstrated that career satisfaction and job satisfaction mediated the relationship between leadership style and job performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to examine the relationship between leadership style and job performance by multiple mediating roles of career satisfaction and job satisfaction using the longitudinal approach among frontline employees in the hotel sector.

This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework for comprehending and identifying the dimensions of corporate communication management (CCM) over time. To achieve this objective, it synthesizes existing research and reviews the literature on the dimensionality of CCM.

Using a literature search on Web of Science (WoS), a total of 17 articles from 8 referred journals and international conferences published from 2012 to 2022 are systematically reviewed employing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework.

It has been found that despite the growing interest in CCM, academic literature on CCM is limited. The results highlight that there is a nonuniformity in terminology within the field and that the most repeated dimensions are media relations, dimensions related to strategy, corporate advertising, public relations, investor relations, employee communication, public affairs and internal communication. However, an overview of the findings allows for the proposal of an integrative framework for CCM.

The paper offers a thorough compilation of publications on the dimensionality of CCM and categorizes them based on various attributes. This outcome aims to assist researchers and corporate communication practitioners by elucidating the subject matter through the conceptualization of CCM dimensions. The study underscores the necessity for future research utilizing quantitative or mixed-method approaches to further develop the concepts examined, thereby contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the dimensions and applications of CCM.