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This study demonstrates the necessary and significant role of national formal institutional frameworks in shaping the quality of e-governance in Asian countries. Moreover, it presents a robust model of e-governance as a necessary and significant driver of sustainable human development.

This study applied the cross-lagged panel method in path modelling and conducted competing model and necessary condition analyses to test the lagged, necessary and positive effects of formal institutions on the level of e-governance and sustainable human development in 45 Asian countries from 2012 to 2022.

Formal governance institutions have necessary direct and indirect (through e-governance development) causal effects on a country’s sustainable human development.

Future studies should explore how informal institutions such as culture, industry and government norms and practices shape the extent of e-governance development and sustainable socio-economic development in Asia and beyond over time.

A renewed focus on the institutional fundamentals of governance and development should be the legislative priority of policymakers and leaders of Asian countries.

Proactive digital citizen engagement in institutional building in respective countries is critical to developing sound, human-development-centred institutional governance in Asia.

The study presents robust necessary condition models that offer more nuanced explanations of the institutional imperatives of enabling Asian countries to strengthen their e-governance towards sustainable human development.

This study aims to investigate the relationship link between societal and governmental support factors, individuals’ self-efficacy, experience and outcome expectations in framing nascent social entrepreneurs' intentions to establish e-government service centres in rural areas by using the integrated model approach of Hockert’s (2017) social entrepreneurial intentions (SEI) theoretical model and social cognitive career theory (SCCT).

Using a convenient sampling strategy, 615 survey samples were obtained through a questionnaire from e-governance-based social entrepreneurs in Karnataka. The primary data and theorised model are analysed and tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

This research findings indicate that appointing agency support, perceived societal support (PSS), government support, social entrepreneurial self-efficacy (SE-SE), public image, prior experience and outcome expectations substantially predicted SEI to establish an e-government service centre. Hence, prior experience and PSS were insignificant regarding direct influence outcome expectations towards establishing e-governance social ventures.

The present research study initially explored the social entrepreneur's intention to provide e-public services to people in rural and distant areas to fulfil social needs. Furthermore, this research revealed that new antecedents of government support, appointing agency support and public image influence the social entrepreneur's intention to establish e-governance service centres. These research findings evaluate the contribution of the government, appointing agencies, social entrepreneurs and citizens to make a framework for the inclination of e-government service centres to create a social impact in rural and remote areas.

Across the globe, cities have contemplated practical measures to handle sustainable development issues which vary from environmental, social and to economic problems. Despite this, Africa has continued to fall behind in the implementation of smart city development. Yet, one of Africa's most cherished goals is achieving sustainable human settlements to keep up with the present and future urbanisation rates. The backbone to achieving sustainable human settlements is having efficient, well-capacitated, municipal systems and committed public servants. African Governments, however, continue to have failing municipalities with corruption being rife in both small towns and cities, yet there are chances to evolve and become smarter. Blockchain technology is a novel and disruptive innovation that has the potential to empower smart cities by providing a platform for interoperability, coordination and governance among multiple smart city initiatives and actors. However, the adoption of blockchain technology also faces several challenges and barriers to its adoption and implementation in smart cities, especially in Africa, where there is lack of awareness, regulation, infrastructure and access to ICT. This chapter examines the current state, opportunities and challenges in the adoption of blockchain technology in smart city development in Africa, a continent that faces multiple urbanisation issues, such as poverty, inequality, environmental degradation and lack of infrastructure. As such, the study adopts two theories, the diffusion of innovation (DOI) and the technology–organisation–environment (TOE) framework to view the use and opportunities placed by adopting blockchain technology through municipal stakeholders and citizens to enhance smart city development.

Drawing on work from home (WFH), job demand-control and street-level bureaucracy literature streams, this paper specifically focuses on the emerging trend of WFH for public sector employees in a developing country context of Egypt.

The empirical sample comprises focus group discussions with a total of 40 public sector employees in Egypt. Thematic analysis was subsequently used on focus group discussion transcripts to bring out main themes linked to this topic.

Our findings show that employee (marginal discretion power, pharaonism, corruption), citizen (unfamiliarity with digital services) and country (lack of proper info-structure, overstaffing in the public sector)- level challenges hinder and/or slow down the potential for WFH in Egyptian public sector.

A major implication of our paper relates to highlighting the criticality of e-governance and WFH for public sector employees, as well as highlighting multilevel challenges associated with those. At the same time, socio-economic and political consequences of offering such options need to be considered in a country like Egypt where most public organisations are overstaffed, and those employees lack modern day employability skills. Hence, there needs to be an open debate in countries such as Egypt on the consequences of e-governance and WFH and whether it may facilitate delivering citizen services digitally. Also, high power distance culture plays a role in this context, and any change cannot be successful unless that specific aspect is confronted.

This study contributes to the emerging WFH literature by being one of the pioneering studies to offer a multilevel (micro, meso and macro) assessment of this phenomenon in the under-researched fragile developing country’s context.

This study aims to focus on sustainable supplier selection in a construction company considering a new multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method based on dominance-based rough set analysis. The inclusion of sustainability concept in industrial supply chains has started gaining momentum due to increased environmental protection awareness and social obligations. The selection of sustainable suppliers marks the first step toward accomplishing this objective. The problem of selecting the right suppliers fulfilling the sustainable requirements is a major MCDM problem since various conflicting factors are underplay in the selection process. The decision-makers are often confronted with inconsistent situations forcing them to make imprecise and vague decisions.

This paper presents a new method based on dominance-based rough sets for the selection of right suppliers based on sustainable performance criteria relying on the triple bottom line approach. The method applied has its distinct advantages by providing more transparency in dealing with the preference information provided by the decision-makers and is thus found to be more intuitive and appealing as a performance measurement tool.

The technique is easy to apply using “jrank” software package and devises results in the form of decision rules and ranking that further assist the decision-makers in making an informed decision that increases credibility in the decision-making process.

The novelty of this study of its kind is that uses the dominance-based rough set approach for a sustainable supplier selection process.

Paper-based records management systems remain dominant in Tanzanian Government organisations despite the increase in digital records management systems adoption across the globe. To create an understanding of this state, this study aims to investigate the use of records management systems in Tanzanian public sector organisations.

A descriptive research design was used in this study, alongside quantitative and qualitative approaches. A total of 81 respondents were drawn from three public sector organisations. To get a sample, non-probability (convenience and purposive) sampling techniques were used. A cross-sectional survey questionnaire and interview methods were used to gather quantitative and qualitative data. To analyse quantitative and qualitative data, the researchers used a mixed-methods analysis.

The study reveals different types of records management systems used in public sector organisations. Besides, the findings suggest that a large proportion of records are created through the digitisation of existing records. Aside from that, the study has revealed different types of records managed in the systems by government organisations. According to the study, there are various factors that determine the effective use of records management systems in public sector organisations.

The implications of the present study are diverse. Specifically, its findings expand the theoretical body of knowledge by adding new insights regarding records management systems usage in government offices. The findings also provide the government with a basis for formulating and improving legal and regulatory frameworks to enhance records management. Apart from this, the findings are likely to benefit records practitioners by orchestrating inclusive strategies that will promote, not only effectiveness, but also sustainability in records management.

In Tanzania, a few studies have been conducted to examine digital records management practices and systems. These studies have not extensively highlighted the systems used to manage the records. This makes little to be known on the systems used to manage records in government offices. The present study has ascertained records management systems used in public sector organisations.

Conscious consumers have been influenced to either cut back on their fashion consumption or switch to ethical clothing (EC) as a result of the detrimental social effects of fast fashion that have been seen over the past 10 years. It also reflects how the ethical belief of the young generation influences them to be conscious of the ill effects of their fashion choices or behave like an ignorant irresponsible buyer. This study aims to examine this issue in detail to find out the prevalence and impact of such beliefs on consumption choices over a period of time.

This study uses the cross-sectional data of 525 respondents from India to explore and unearth the EC phenomenon in emerging markets. It follows a two-step approach consisting of confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to examine the proposed hypotheses using AMOS 22 software.

It was found that consumers in developing economies are concerned about the ethical standards followed by the fashion industry (FI), which is reflected in the form of inhuman working conditions for FI workers.

This study emphasizes understanding attitude, subjective norms, behavioral control and EC related to ethical buying behavior and their interaction mechanisms that transform it into the actual buying intention of EC.

It was an eye-opener that collective societal culture and standards do not influence ethical purchase decisions but it is rather the individual’s own ethical rules which is a result of established core family values that significantly shape fashion consumption. This study advances existing literature by empirically verifying the relationship between consumer attitude, consumers’ subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, environmental concern with ethical buying behavior and ethical purchase intention. It could provide insightful information and support academic research as well as real-world marketing and environmental initiatives.

This study explores the intricate relationship between social media communication, consumer attitude and purchase intention within the context of lifestyle category products. With the rapid proliferation of social media platforms, businesses have turned to these platforms to connect with consumers and influence their purchasing decisions. This study aims to provide an in-depth analysis of how social media communication strategies impact consumer attitudes and, in turn, influence purchase intentions.

The study employs partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the data collected from a sample of consumers.

The results of this study present that lack of visibility (LV), low-efficiency levels (LEL) and unpredictable elements (UE) are ranked as the top three major risk hurdles whereas real-time information on a package’s location (LV1), putting a GPS tracking system to track last-mile journey (OT3) and users wants on time location of their package (LV2) are ranked as top three most significant criteria affecting the practices of modern last-mile logistics in e-commerce businesses.

The results of this study contribute to our understanding of how social media influences consumer behavior in the lifestyle product sector, shedding light on the underlying mechanisms that drive consumer purchasing decisions.

By constructing and testing experimentally a research model that reveals a thorough analysis of pertinent literature and identifies multiple important elements influencing consumer behavior in the lifestyle category, this paper adds to the body of knowledge on marketing. Practical ramifications for lifestyle firms are examined, along with suggestions for improving their social media tactics, in light of the findings.

Though academic study on the subject is still in its early stages, there is growing interest in using blockchain technology for transforming the supply chain. The academic literature is divided and yet only includes studies evaluating how the supply chain has changed organizations. To comprehend the new phenomena, this study aims to investigate the factors of blockchain technology in driving supply chain transformation. To be more precise, the authors developed from the literature the most prevalent criteria for determining if supply chain transformations are ready to be scaled up.

This study followed a combination of two multi-criteria decision making methods evaluation based on distance from average solution and complex proportional assessment) methodology in this research: planning, investigating, executing out, establishing a rating of the criteria and evaluating it.

The study shows that the “organizational driver” and the “technology driver” are the factors most important to the transformation of the supply chain, whereas the “financial driver” and the “regulatory driver” are less important. This study also makes some managerial recommendations to address the factors impeding the supply chain’s transformation. Each factor’s significance was explored, and a proposed study agenda was also presented.

Although the main forces behind the transformation of the supply chain have been recognized, further research into statistical correlation is required to confirm how the various elements interact.

This research aids decision-makers in comprehending the key forces behind supply chain transformation. Managers and decision-makers might better predict and allocate the necessary resources to start the road toward digitization and make well-informed choices once these aspects have been investigated and understood.

In light of the pandemic’s effects on the world and the increase in businesses embracing the digital economy, the supply chain transformation is more important than ever. Beyond blockchain deployment and the pilot studies on digital transformation, there is a gap. The topics and factors this study uncovered will operate as a framework and recommendations for more theoretical investigation and practical applications.

In industrialised economies, frugal innovation is increasingly becoming a strategic business requirement due to consumer demand for high-quality, reasonably priced and sustainable products. The present-day corporate leaders cannot afford to overlook this paradigm change. Frugal innovation enterprises are better positioned to overcome technological, financial, social and infrastructure constraints in emerging economies. However, little is known about how different actors and decision-makers perceive the challenges faced by family entrepreneurs in digitalising their entrepreneurial activities. Thus, this chapter aims to articulate the opportunities that can be potentially created for African family entrepreneurs and some challenges that can be anticipated when adopting disruptive digital technologies in their business enterprises. Using the social cognitive theory (SCT), interpretivism philosophy was adopted in this study. The authors utilised the interview guide to explore, probe and ask questions that addressed the objectives of the study. Snowball sampling was chosen for qualitative data collection, and the data were thematically presented. The population of the study was made up of family entrepreneurs in Harare Metropolitan Province in Zimbabwe; the saturation level determined the sample size. Twenty (20) participants were interviewed, as guided by the saturation point. A thematic approach was used to analyse participant's feedback. This study filled a critical gap considering that few studies have so far been conducted in this emerging area of family entrepreneurship. The chapter also highlights the opportunities that adoption of digital technologies can potentially unlock for African family entrepreneurs, once the identified obstructions have been successfully addressed.