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The study aims to explore the validity of the modern renewable energy-environmental Kuznets curve (REKC) while considering the relevance of financial development in the consumption of modern renewable energy in East Africa Community (EAC). Modern renewable energy in this study includes all other forms of renewable energy except traditional use of biomass. The authors controlled for the effects of urbanization, governance, foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade openness.

Panel data of the five EAC countries of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda for the period 1996–2019 were used. The analysis relied on the use of the autoregressive distributed lag–pooled mean group (ARDL-PMG) model, and the data were sourced from the World Development Indicators (WDI), World Governance Indicators (WGI) and International Energy Agency (IEA).

The REKC hypothesis is supported for modern renewable energy consumption in the EAC region. Financial development positively and significantly affects modern renewable energy consumption, whereas urbanization, FDI and trade openness reduce modern renewable energy consumption. Governance is insignificant.

The concept of the REKC, although explored in other contexts such as aggregate renewable energy and in other regions, has not been used to explain the consumption of modern renewable energy in the EAC.

This study aimed to explore the relationship between supply chain resilience (SCR) and organizational performance (OP), with innovation (INN) serving as a mediator and information sharing (IS) acting as a moderator.

The study comprehensively examined the connections between SCR, OP, INN and IS. An exploratory approach and quantitative methods were employed. The data were collected from small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises of three cities Xian, Hainan and Guangzhou of China via online questionnaire surveys conducted through Emails and WeChat. SmartPLS-4 was used for data analysis.

The findings indicated that SCR has a positive effect on sustainability efforts. Additionally, INN and effective IS both mediated and moderated this relationship, playing crucial roles in improving sustainability within the supply chain.

The study offered practical insights for businesses to enhance their sustainability efforts. Managers can use these findings to develop strategies that improve SCR, foster INN and encourage effective IS, ultimately resulting in a more sustainable supply chain.

This study enriched the existing knowledge base by investigating the intricate relationships among SCR, OP, INN and IS, all within the context of achieving sustainability. By exploring these elements holistically, the research introduced originality and highlighted effective strategies for sustainable supply chain management.

As sustainable performance has a central role in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) performance literature, this study aims to examine the influence of networking capabilities in enhancing sustainable performance through knowledge workers’ productivity and digital innovation. It also examines the sequential mediating role of knowledge workers’ productivity and digital innovation on networking capabilities and SMEs’ sustainable performance relationship.

Data were collected from 308 knowledge workers in the information technology sector and analyzed using the Hayes Process Macro bootstrapping method to test the proposed hypotheses.

Results indicate that knowledge workers’ productivity and digital innovation individually and sequentially mediate the relationship between networking capabilities and SME’s sustainable (economic and environmental) performance, surprisingly, they do not act as a mediator between networking capability and SME’s social performance. SMEs should prioritize investments in the professional development of their knowledge workers through training and skill enhancement programs. This investment equips knowledge workers with the tools to effectively use the knowledge and resources acquired through networking. Thus, knowledge workers may improve performance by using these resources to tackle challenges.

Although this research focused on this specific context, it is prudent to acknowledge that additional factors may also exert influence on sustainable performance within SMEs, factors that managers may consider when making decisions. Methodologically, the cross-sectional design of this research poses a potential limitation, as it does not allow for the complete elimination of endogeneity concerns. However, it is worth noting that scholars have endorsed the use of cross-sectional data in cases where management researchers aim to expand beyond well-documented and longitudinal data sets.

This research offers practical recommendations for SMEs to improve their sustainable performance through networking. SMEs should seek partnerships with complementary knowledge to improve operations and for other performance-oriented benefits.

This study adds significantly to the literature on sustainable SME performance by studying the interdependent effects of networking capabilities. It also represents the individual and sequential mediation mechanism that links networking capabilities to SME success through knowledge worker productivity and digital innovation.

Leadership has a decisive role in the success of all types of businesses and firms, including small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the ethical behavior of leaders is a key component which brings a sense of respect, fulfillment, trustworthiness and acceptance among the employees, which later become visible in their job performance (JP). This study aims to check the immediate effect of ethical leadership (EL) on employee’s JP (EJP) and also explore the indirect mediating effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on this EL and EJP nexus.

Primary data was obtained from the employees of manufacturing SMEs of Northern Italy using a cross-sectional design from the end of 2019 to the start of 2020. This paper circulated 450 self-administered questionnaires using simple random sampling, and 202 (44.88%) valid questionnaires were returned. The PROCESS macro was performed using statistical package for social sciences to ensure whether or not EL affects EJP and is there any mediation effect of CSR present in this nexus.

The results indicate that EL has a strong positive connection with EJP and CSR. Interestingly, CSR positively influences EJP. Furthermore, the results also report the strong mediating effect of CSR in the nexus of EL and EJP.

This scholarly work seeks to contribute not only to the literature of EL and EJP but also enriches the understanding of this EL-EJP association by highlighting the indirect effect of mediating variable CSR in the SME sector.

This paper aims to identify and report the differential effects of activity control and capability control on role stressors, which subsequently affect salespeople’s job satisfaction and sales performance.

Drawing on job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, the authors defined active control and customer demandingness as the job demands and capability control as the job resource, and designed their relationship with role stressors, which are indicated as role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload. The authors enrolled a sample of 223 industrial salespeople from pharmaceutical companies. After collecting the data, the authors used structural equation modeling using AMOS to test and estimate causal relationships along with a two-step approach to examine the interaction effect. The authors have also tested the simple slope of two-way interactions. All of the measured variables were identical to those used in previous studies.

The study findings indicate that behavior-based control can be counterproductive. Reducing activity control can decrease role stress, increase job satisfaction and improve job performance; increasing capability control, however, can reduce role stress and increase job satisfaction and performance. It is also important to acknowledge the external environment of the sales context in which behavior-based control is most effective: whereas high customer demandingness and capability control are related to reduced role stress, high customer demandingness and activity control are related to increased role stress.

Sales managers should recognize that different control management regimes reinforce or mitigate salespeople’s job stressors and outcomes under specific conditions (i.e. work environments marked by higher or lower customer demandingness).

Drawing on JD-R theory, the research shows that a behavior control (i.e. activity control and capability control) has differential, and even opposite, psychological consequences.

This study aims to explore the development of trust in relation to security and privacy concerns, as well as the influence of perceived risk on the intention to use e-wallets. The research focused on the Colombian context because of its characterization as an underdeveloped financial system that has experienced considerable security and privacy violations in recent years. Additionally, this geographical area is relatively under-researched, and the target demographic for this investigation was Generation Z, given their pivotal role in driving the adoption of e-wallets.

Based on measurement scales that had already been tested in the academic literature on mobile payment systems, a questionnaire was developed and distributed electronically. A total of 424 responses were obtained from young Colombians. Structural equation modeling (SEM), specifically the PLS-SEM method, was used to process the data to study the explanatory and predictive power of the proposed model.

The findings revealed that security and privacy have a positive and significant effect on perceived trust, and that this at the same time has a positive and significant effect on attitude, perceived usefulness, perceived ease and intention to use, as well as a significant but negative effect on perceived risk. On the other hand, perceived risk showed an inverse, but not significant, relationship with intention to use.

This research explored the adoption of e-wallets by young people in Colombia, which has been widely claimed in the academic literature. In a turbulent context with a high distrust of financial institutions, as well as a change in digital money consumption patterns, it is critical to understand the factors that contribute to the adoption of mobile payment services. The findings, in addition to contributing to the academic debate, have important implications for e-wallet providers, as they offer information that allows designing strategies to attract and keep current and potential users. At the same time, the recommendations by the authors allow the design of tools, especially related to security and privacy, to improve their trust and build loyalty, thus contributing to the consolidation and development of the mobile payment system.

Este estudio explora el desarrollo de la confianza en relación con las preocupaciones sobre seguridad y privacidad, así como la influencia del riesgo percibido en la intención de utilizar monederos electrónicos. La investigación se centró en el contexto colombiano debido a su caracterización como un sistema financiero subdesarrollado que ha experimentado violaciones considerables de seguridad y privacidad en los últimos años. Además, esta área geográfica está relativamente poco investigada, y el público objetivo de esta investigación fue la Generación Z, dado su papel clave en la adopción de monederos electrónicos.

Basado en escalas de medición ya probadas en la literatura académica sobre sistemas de pago móvil, se desarrolló y distribuyó electrónicamente un cuestionario. Se obtuvieron un total de 424 respuestas de jóvenes colombianos. Se utilizó el modelado de ecuaciones estructurales, específicamente el método PLS-SEM, para procesar los datos y estudiar el poder explicativo y predictivo del modelo propuesto.

Nuestros hallazgos revelaron que la seguridad y la privacidad tienen un efecto positivo y significativo en la confianza percibida, y que esto, a su vez, tiene un efecto positivo y significativo en la actitud, la utilidad percibida, la facilidad percibida y la intención de uso, así como un efecto significativo pero negativo en el riesgo percibido. Por otro lado, el riesgo percibido mostró una relación inversa, pero no significativa, con la intención de uso.

Esta investigación exploró la adopción de monederos electrónicos por parte de los jóvenes en Colombia, un tema ampliamente mencionado en la literatura académica. En un contexto turbulento con alta desconfianza hacia las instituciones financieras, así como un cambio en los patrones de consumo de dinero digital, es crucial comprender los factores que contribuyen a la adopción de servicios de pago móvil. Nuestros hallazgos, además de contribuir al debate académico, tienen importantes implicaciones para los proveedores de monederos electrónicos, ya que ofrecen información que permite diseñar estrategias para atraer y retener a usuarios actuales y potenciales. Al mismo tiempo, nuestras recomendaciones permiten diseñar herramientas, especialmente relacionadas con la seguridad y la privacidad, para mejorar la confianza y fomentar la lealtad, contribuyendo así a la consolidación y desarrollo del sistema de pago móvil.

本研究探讨了与安全性和隐私问题相关的信任发展, 以及感知风险对使用电子钱包意图的影响。研究集中在哥伦比亚的背景下, 因为该国的金融系统被认为是欠发达的, 近年来经历了相当大的安全性和隐私侵犯问题。此外, 这一地理区域的研究相对较少, 本研究的目标人群为Z世代, 考虑到他们在推动电子钱包采纳中的关键作用。

基于已经在移动支付系统学术文献中测试过的测量尺度, 开发并电子分发了一份问卷。共获得了424份哥伦比亚年轻人的回应。使用结构方程建模中的PLS-SEM方法处理数据, 以研究所提出模型的解释力和预测力。

研究发现, 安全性和隐私对感知信任有显著正向影响, 同时, 感知信任对态度、感知有用性、感知易用性和使用意图也有显著正向影响, 并对感知风险有显著负向影响。另一方面, 感知风险与使用意图之间呈现出反向但不显著的关系。

本研究探讨了哥伦比亚年轻人对电子钱包的采纳, 这在学术文献中已有广泛讨论。在一个对金融机构高度不信任的动荡背景下, 以及数字货币消费模式的变化中, 理解促使移动支付服务采纳的因素至关重要。我们的研究结果不仅有助于学术讨论, 还对电子钱包提供商具有重要意义, 因为这些结果提供了信息, 有助于设计吸引和留住当前及潜在用户的策略。同时, 我们的建议有助于设计特别与安全性和隐私相关的工具, 以提高用户信任并建立忠诚度, 从而促进移动支付系统的巩固和发展。

The study aims to assess how corporate branding affects firm performance in the context of the Oman hotel industry, listed on the Muscat Stock Exchange (MSX).

This study approach was made by way of a mixed method. First, it examines qualitative and exploratory information collected from companies’ internet sites, audited annual reports (the financial year 2019) published in MSX, web searches and websites of companies and travel agencies from all the eight listed hotel companies in the MSX to examine the impact of corporate branding on firm performance proxied by return of assets (ROA) and return of equity (ROE) and secondly, it assesses the measurement and structural models by applying partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The findings recommend that well-thought-out web marketing on corporate branding by hotel companies leads to firm performance. The findings indicate that corporate branding on travel agency websites and a company’s own website can help businesses become more profitable. In addition, there is a synergistic connection on corporate branding of the hotel industry, including the presentation of a novel hotel narrative, the conception of a cornerstone loyalty program, the demonstration of excellence in hospitality and service, information on timely amenities like Covid-19 safety measures and the use of technology and experiential elements through platforms like the company website or the website of the travel agent all essential to achieve firm financial performance. As per the importance–performance matrix map, websites of travel agents (agoda.com, booking.com and hotels.com) had the importance (agoda.com 0.616, booking.com 0.959 and hotels.com 1.036) to impact companies’ corporate branding and firm performance, whereas Google search shows a value of −1.954, which has no impact on companies’ corporate branding.

The study considered only one hotel/tourism industry to know the effect of corporate branding on firm performance. Further studies may be chosen on other industries needed to allow for generalization.

This study aims to provide insights into how the hotel industry can make use of corporate branding through the company website, Google sites and websites of companies’ travel agency by providing timely updated promotion, facilities, quality services and hygiene matters to enhance firm performance.

This study provides empirical evidence to find various factors of corporate branding of the hotel industry’s firm performance. In addition, the study offers valuable insight into the nonmonetary measures of achievements.