Search results

Over recent years, the multi-stakeholder role in sustainable ecotourism within Asia has emerged as a crucial narrative for sustainable ecotourism management across countries on the continent. This trend is perhaps due to the fact that ecotourism is one of the most rapidly growing sectors within the tourism industry. However, to date, no reviews have provided a comprehensive analysis related to the role of multi-stakeholders in the achievement of ecotourism sustainability, particularly in the Asian context. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap by examining the current knowledge regarding multi-stakeholder involvement in sustainable ecotourism within Asia.

A systematic review procedure was followed. 320 articles were finalized, from which 34 related pieces of research were selected from the Scopus and Web of Science databases.

Three themes emerged from this paper. Recommendations were highlighted to enhance sustainable ecotourism. The study concluded that a more enabling research environment should be provided to improve discourse and encourage policy interventions.

No previous studies have explored the multi-stakeholder's role in achieving Asian sustainable ecotourism, indicating a critical gap to be fulfilled. This paper uniquely contributes to the field by providing a comprehensive review of the roles and challenges of multiple stakeholders in sustainable ecotourism across Asia and proposing innovative policy solutions tailored to the region's unique socio-economic and cultural context. Moreover, it puts forward potential solutions to bolster sustainable ecotourism within Asia, benefiting both stakeholders and the destination.

Corporate governance is one of the most important topics available in the literature related to large-sized companies. However, the topic has rarely been discussed in the case of SMEs. However, the importance of the topic and mechanism has been in the limelight for more than one and a half decades. Although lack of knowledge especially regarding theoretical implications, literature and implications is still required to optimize the mechanism as well as its implications for SMEs. Therefore, this chapter has been formulated specifically concerning corporate governance mechanisms and their implications for SMEs. Hence, the scope of this study is much broader than those studies that focused on quantitative examination of variables of interest. Thus, the significance of this study has multiple folds as it is not only important for academicians and researchers but also for managers, entrepreneurs and policymakers.

The data for the case is a mix of both primary and secondary data, from the following sources: – personal interviews with the protagonist, Sofana Dahlan; – Tashkeil website; – official documents provided by the company: ■ “Tashkeil – Corporate Brief,” ■ “Saudi National Creative Initiative – Activities Report 2016”; and ■ “Tashkeil Global Company”. – published media sources.

The case outlines the story of Sofana Dahlan (Sofana) (she/her), a social entrepreneur and one of the first few women lawyers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She established Tashkeil as a social enterprise, helping creative entrepreneurs (creatives) with strategic, operational and legal inputs, thus enabling the creative industry in different parts of the Arab world, focussing on Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Her story can be used to inspire students on how a female entrepreneur fought against an extremely restrictive social and cultural environment and achieved her goals. It helps them to understand the challenges faced by women in the context of the Arab world and the key attributes required for them to succeed as an entrepreneur, especially in the context of certain social and cultural barriers. It also helps to understand the importance of resilience in entrepreneurs and to discuss how entrepreneurs can become more resilient.

The case can be used mainly in undergraduate Business Management Programs in courses such as Entrepreneurship, with specific reference to Women Entrepreneurship. The case would be a good fit for courses on Social Entrepreneurship and Creative Businesses.

Several factors influence OSC adoption, but extant literature did not articulate the dominant barriers or drivers influencing adoption. Therefore, this research has not only ventured into analyzing the core influencing factors but has also employed one of the best-known predictive means, Machine Learning, to identify the most influencing OSC adoption factors.

The research approach is deductive in nature, focusing on finding out the most critical factors through literature review and reinforcing — the factors through a 5- point Likert scale survey questionnaire. The responses received were tested for reliability before being run through Machine Learning algorithms to determine the most influencing OSC factors within the Nigerian Construction Industry (NCI).

The research outcome identifies seven (7) best-performing algorithms for predicting OSC adoption: Decision Tree, Random Forest, K-Nearest Neighbour, Extra-Trees, AdaBoost, Support Vector Machine and Artificial Neural Network. It also reported finance, awareness, use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and belief in OSC as the main influencing factors.

Data were primarily collected among the NCI professionals/workers and the whole exercise was Nigeria region-based. The research outcome, however, provides a foundation for OSC adoption potential within Nigeria, Africa and beyond.

The research concluded that with detailed attention paid to the identified factors, OSC usage could find its footing in Nigeria and, consequently, Africa. The models can also serve as a template for other regions where OSC adoption is being considered.

The research establishes the most effective algorithms for the prediction of OSC adoption possibilities as well as critical influencing factors to successfully adopting OSC within the NCI as a means to surmount its housing shortage.

In recent years, a shift in economic focus has occurred, recognizing humans as the primary resource and indispensable element in economic relationships. This shift has given rise to a new economic model known as the knowledge-based economy, which places emphasis on human resources, experiences, skills, ideas, and knowledge generation. The knowledge-based economy relies heavily on information as a strategic commodity to enhance services and national income while increasing employment rates. This economic model has found application across various fields, including education, commerce, medicine, and urban planning. Particularly, the concept of smart cities has emerged as a modern notion linking the knowledge-based economy with urban development. Despite global interest in these concepts, the literature suggests a lack of attention to the knowledge-based economy and smart cities in the Arab Gulf region, including Qatar. This chapter aims to explore the relationship between smart city initiatives and the transformational processes of the knowledge-based economy, especially in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries like Qatar. It argues that smart cities and the knowledge-based economy are mutually interdependent. Smart city initiatives rely on the information and knowledge produced by the knowledge-based economy, while the latter requires better utilization of knowledge by smart applications to flourish. Using the case of Lusail smart city in Qatar, the chapter examines how the integration of smart city technologies contributes to Qatar’s progression toward a knowledge-based economy. It emphasizes the strategic significance, facilitation of innovation, and practical implementation of sustainable urban development strategies in Qatar’s development trajectory.

After the COVID-19 epidemic, educational paradigms experienced radical changes, especially in the way that architecture was taught. This chapter explores how architecture education evolved because of the current economic crisis, and how COVID-19 has affected instructional approaches. The main goal is to expose emerging educational strategies and their consequences for encouraging flexibility and resilience in architectural instructors and students. The study used a mixed-methods research methodology to gather information from stakeholders, educators, and students of architecture by combining document analysis of academic theses and publications with semi-structured interviews. Data analysis techniques such as thematic coding and pattern recognition revealed distinct categories of influencing factors, such as technological advancements, pedagogical modifications, student engagement and support, curriculum changes, faculty development, resource allocation, assessment and evaluation, as well as global and cultural considerations. The results highlight the varied and dynamic character of the pandemic’s effect. The crisis sparked a faster adoption of digital technologies, bringing forth blended learning and novel pedagogical approaches. As a significant result, resilience helped instructors and students overcome uncertainty by enhancing flexibility and using transdisciplinary methods. It also demonstrates how architectural education has persevered in the face of the COVID-19 epidemic and has the potential to spur larger changes in education. The possibility of sample bias and the crisis’s dynamic character are limits, though. Future research might examine the long-term effects of these emerging methods beyond crisis situations to expand the study’s results and influence the ongoing development of architectural pedagogy in a continuously changing global environment.

This study aims to address the key issues concerning supplier selection in traditional construction procurement by proposing an innovative, novel, state-of-the-art prototype plugin building information modelling – supplier search and ranking (BIM-SSR) and an associated conceptual framework. It enhances building information modelling (BIM) capabilities through web crawling and analytical hierarchy processes (AHP). It uses the World Wide Web to procure construction material suppliers.

Prevalent issues in traditional procurement of material suppliers have been identified through a rigorous literature review. Field experts vetted these issues. A framework has been presented to address these issues based on integrated web crawling and AHP as a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method. A BIM prototype (BIM-SSR) has been developed using Python and plugged into Autodesk Revit to automate the search and evaluation of material suppliers based on precise material specifications from the BIM design. The BIM-SSR prototype is tested through a case study and validated by field professionals for its efficiency in tackling the identified issues.

Thirteen key issues have been identified concerning traditional construction procurement pertinent to supplier selection. Best-value procurement was encouraged by identifying supplier selection criteria such as cost, delivery time, experience, compliance with quality management standards, warranties, and claim period. The presented BIM-SSR prototype has an efficiency of 80%–95% in addressing the issues identified in this study and 97.5% effectiveness in improving the overall procurement management process.

The BIM-SSR prototype developed in this study is a novel and innovative addition to the body of knowledge that has been integrated into Autodesk Revit as a Plugin. Automation of supplier search and selection through digital technologies, including web crawling and integration of traditionally accepted MCDM methods such as AHP in BIM, is another innovation in the current study. Overall, this study presents a holistic, innovative system, from conceptual design to practical implementation and demonstration. This is one of the steps to help the traditional construction procurement process evolve into a more modern and digital procurement.

In recent decades, advancements in biosensors technology have made fluorescent biosensor pivotal for biomolecular recognition. This paper aims to provide an in-depth analysis of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) fluorescent biosensor detection technology for identifying Escherichia coli (E. coli), setting the stage for future developments in the field.

The review of literature on PCR fluorescent biosensor detection technology for E. coli over the past decades includes discussions on traditional biological fluorescent detection, quantitative PCR fluorescent detection and digital fluorescent detection technology.

Advancements in fluorescent biosensor technology enable precise measurement of fluorescent signals, and when integrated with microfluidic technology, produce compact, reagent-efficient digital sensor devices.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of recent fluorescent detection technology for pathogenic E. coli, assessing method efficiencies and offering insights to advance the field.

The globe faces a difficult job in maintaining a sustainable ecosystem. Sustainable development goal (SDG-2030) is an important agenda for United National Organization. By 2030, the United Nations aims to have eliminated hunger, poverty, social protection, environmental protection, social security and inequality as described in different goals of SDG-2030. This cannot be accomplished without diligent work from each member. This study focuses on the strategy to removal of poverty with go green concept. The study is based on secondary data which was collected from different websites and previous research papers. This is analyst-based research. The go green notion is stressed in this chapter as aim to achieved SDG-1. The go green idea and its supporting industries were stressed in this chapter as a means of achieving SDG-1. This chapter discussed the many forms of poverty and an examination of their causes, as listed in SDG-1. Environment degradation is crucial for the SDGs. This chapter links SDG-1, 2, 6 and 7, which are concerned with hunger, clean water and sustainability of energy sources. This study explores achieving SDG while protecting the environment. This chapter explains how green growth policies, technology, good healthcare equipment, a strong education sector and effective communication technologies can all work together to achieve SDG-1 in a sustainable manner. This study focused on the resources needed to eradicate poverty in various regions. It is a crucial component of sustainable endeavours that help preserve a healthy environment for coming generations. Human development was dependent on a healthy environment. This study emphasised green growth, eco-friendly transportation and clean energy concept while achieving SDG-1. The study analyses different parameters to remove poverty with go green concept.

This chapter is about the role Islamic finance has been able to stay on the track of facing social–economical predicaments and on the way to sustainable development with the involvement of social prosperity. When trying to investigate the convergence between social finance and Islamic standards, what is argued is that a need for observing financial operations in the same way as prodevelopment theories arise. It is considered that in a holistic approach, which assumed a social justice as the basic ethic of the Islamic financial system, the final result tends to be more appropriate. One of the main elements that makes Islamic banking stand up in a high grade is maqasid al-Shari'ah due to its responsibility to assess social performance and apply new updated technologies for sustainable growth based on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In addition to that, the situation is critically observed and the gap between ambitions functions and the reality in Islamic banking and finance is also pointed out to find some reconciliation between aspirations and facts. While its ancient foundations did point to the prospect of Islamic banking to serve as a major contributor to the social and economic development, the industry players of today have now been preoccupied with the profit-making objectives and financial performance rather than social banking. This chapter focuses on the role of Islamic finance as a breakthrough force and shows the way that this influence could shape the discussions of financial systems, so that economics follow, and ethical principles and become factors for the national economy to grow more robustness.