Search results

The potential of digital technology and frugal innovation (FI) to bridge the socioeconomic divide in Africa is examined in this chapter. There are notable disparities in technology, limited access to essential services, and historical injustices throughout the continent. But with the advent of FI and recent developments in digital technology, there are never before been more chances for equitable growth and development. This chapter gives a general overview of the digital divide that currently exists across Africa, emphasizing the differences in mobile adoption rates, internet access, and technological infrastructure. This chapter explores how digital technology and disruptive FI have already started to close the gap in Africa, using case studies and examples from a variety of industries, including healthcare, agriculture, finance, and education. This chapter also examines the barriers and facilitators that affect digital technology adoption and diffusion in Africa as well as disruptive FI. It highlights the value of investing in digital infrastructure, creating supportive regulatory frameworks, and fostering cooperation amongst different stakeholders including governments, businesses, and civil society organizations in the digital domain. In addition to highlighting success stories and offering recommendations for how policymakers, practitioners, and academics may take advantage of these opportunities to promote inclusive growth and development in the region, it also offers insights into the current scenario and future research.

This research links the global advance of the franchise model to the geohistorical foray of shopping malls through an empirical longitudinal study in the largest emerging market in Latin America, Brazil.

We conducted an analysis of a multi-year set of qualitative interviews with the same franchised mall tenants (23 interviews in 2017 and 12 follow-up interviews in 2022) via an iterative procedure of transcript data coding and theme identification.

Shopping malls were key catalysts in the pre-pandemic growth of franchising in Brazil, yet during the pandemic, malls became liabilities. Attitudes towards malls as franchise hosts changed, flipping the mall perception from catalytic host to burdensome trap. Mall management companies, as key gatekeepers, deserve more research attention.

Our study reveals the detrimental role shopping malls, with their static rules and high cost structures, have played as franchise businesses struggled to survive during the global pandemic. While franchising represents one of the most influential retail business models today, shopping malls have been among the most important brick-and-mortar retail institutions since the 1950s. Jointly, they constitute a unique retail symbiosis with little attention in the academic literature.

Disruptive technologies have changed the way that firms model their business approach. The aim of this study is to analyse the influence of novel digital technologies (artificial intelligence [AI] and machine learning [ML]) and big data analytics on the digital transformation of digital marketing firms. This research study is based on a review of the extant literature, using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Gaps in the extant research literature were identified and emerged that are directly linked with the impact of AI, ML and big data analytics on digital transformation for digital marketing firms. Potential opportunities for digital transformation in digital firms were also unlocked, as well as related challenges. The research informs practice and policy for the current trends and provides future research directions. The study was limited to the application of the PRISMA methodology, which is incapable of fully providing testable results for a given study. Complementary cross-sectional research studies using the same methodology in different areas of study with the same topic can be applied to check for relevancy and applicability. This study contributes to digital marketing, information communication technologies, information systems practice and theory building. In addition, it provides researchers with an agenda for future digital transformation research directions.

This chapter aims to explore the potential for virtual reality (VR) technology to revolutionise human resource management (HRM) procedures. The comprehensive plan for integrating VR into HRM will positively impact various aspects such as recruitment, training, performance evaluation and employee engagement. This chapter provides practical insights and recommendations for organisations embracing this groundbreaking technology. It explores the design considerations, implementation techniques and potential impact of VR-based HRM programmes.

This study aims to investigate the Jordanian Telecommunications Company's implementation of business analytics and how it affects the caliber of its financial reporting. The staff members of Jordanian telecom businesses will receive a questionnaire. Previous research has indicated that organizational, technological, and environmental factors have a significant role in influencing the choice to use business analytics. It is also anticipated that pressure from competitors, top management backing, and cost savings would all have a significant impact on the intention to use business analytics. These financial reports have improved in quality as a result. These anticipated outcomes demonstrate how crucial it is for businesses to employ business analytics as a tool to improve their financial performance and ability to compete in the global marketplace.

Research on the living conditions of slum dwellers in the inner cities of developing countries has received much attention. Nevertheless, there is little empirical research on the influence of personal attributes on the poor environmental condition of the slum area. This study aims to examine the relationship between the socio-economic characteristics and the physical condition of the slum environment in the inner city of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Data was collected through the use of questionnaire administration from a household survey of 491 slum dwellers. Systematic random sampling was used in the selection of the respondents. The study used descriptive, factor and multiple regression to analyse the data collected.

The study used descriptive, factor and multiple regression to analyse the data collected. The study reveals an interplay between various socio-economic factors and environmental conditions. The results show that out of ten (10) socio economic variables that were submitted in the regression model, only eight (8) of these variables such as income, household size, occupation, level of education, age, marital status, year of residency and nativity were significant.

The study concluded that despite the fact that the condition of the slum environment is a product of multiple interrelated factors, personal attributes also contribute to the poor environmental condition of the slum area. The study recommended that improving the socio-economic conditions of slum dwellers would lead to improved environmental conditions.

This study explores luxury wine hospitality by considering (1) physical activities and (2) activities created by integrating the physical domain with digital technology. In doing so, it aims to identify the different types of wine tourism-related luxury experiences and build a framework for interpreting hybrid luxury experiences in wine hospitality in the digital era.

An explorative mixed-methods approach was adopted to investigate types of luxury wine hospitality using cluster analysis and in-depth interviews with producers of wines with controlled and guaranteed designation of origin in Italy’s Sangiovese area.

This study presents a framework for understanding hybrid digital and physical experiences in wine hospitality by examining the core components of luxury experiences. We identify six types of luxury experiences in wine hospitality that combine a physical experiential component with varying degrees of integration with digital technologies.

Our findings (1) provide wine businesses operating in hospitality within the luxury segment with a useful tool for optimising the integration of digital technology into physical experiences to add value to visitors’ activities and (2) highlight the importance of digital skills for wineries that organise luxury experiences.

This study systematises the integration of digital technologies into physical activities related to wine hospitality. It presents a hybrid physical–digital analytical framework that adopts an experiential outline of the strategic design of wine hospitality businesses.

To maximize the benefits of intercultural mentoring relationships, which are increasing in today’s diverse higher education environment, the current article conceptualizes the connection between intercultural mentoring and cultural competence among mentors and mentees as a learning process.

The conceptual paper discusses the nuanced aspects of intercultural mentoring. Ultimately, the current article presents a framework for a bidirectional relationship between intercultural mentoring and cultural competence through experiential learning theory and intergroup contact theory, resulting in implications for practitioners and actionable research directions.

The article highlights the interplay and interdependence of cultural competence and intercultural mentoring through experiential learning and intergroup contact theory. Cultural competence influences the quality of intercultural mentoring relationships. Conversely, intercultural mentoring relationships can develop cultural competence in mentors and mentees through experiential learning, producing positive intergroup contact behaviors. Findings suggest the need for active learning and unlearning among mentors and mentees in intercultural mentoring relationships to maximize developmental outcomes (e.g. cultural competence).

The proposed framework emphasizes that (1) the possession of cultural competence is a critical success factor for intercultural mentoring relationships, (2) the development of cultural competence is an outcome of successful intercultural mentoring relationships, and (3) intercultural mentoring relationships should be regarded as experiential learning platforms that can produce positive intercultural traits such as cultural competence.