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This paper aims to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurial motivation and pharmapreneurial intention among pharmacists in Jordan.The authors also assessed the moderating effect of gender and the COVID-19 pandemic on the relationship between these two variables.

This study is a quantitative study targeting pharmacists and using a nonprobability sample. A structured questionnaire was distributed through official channels to the entire population of registered pharmacists in Jordan. SmartPLS 3 was used for carrying an advanced structural equation model analysis, and SPSS 26 for the descriptive statistics.

The three entrepreneurial motivation variables (behavioral control [BC], risk tolerance and desirability of self-employment) affected pharmapreneurial intention, with BC contributing more to pharmapreneurial intention among pharmacists in Jordan than the other variables examined. On the other hand, gender and COVID-19 did not moderate this relationship.

The authors find that entrepreneurial motivation affects pharmapreneurial intention. Consequently, the authors provide insights to policymakers and educators regarding dovetailing the recent financial literacy programs implemented in Jordanian schools with medical education in Jordan to better motivate the formation of pharmapreneurial intention.

Policymakers and educators should be dovetailing the recent financial literacy programs implemented in Jordanian schools with medical education in Jordan to better motivate the formation of pharmapreneurial intention.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine pharmapreneurship in Jordan.

This paper aims to enlighten the importance of the risk management process which is considered as a major procedure to effectively handle the potential inherent risks in the construction industry. However, most traditional risk analysis techniques are based on theories that deal with each risk factor as an independent, which does not take into consideration the causal relationships between risk factors.

This study aspires to identify the overall risk of the administrative construction projects in Egypt and to recognize the most influencing risk factors through the project life cycle by using Bayesian belief networks (BBN). Through a review of the literature, 27 risk factors were identified and categorized as the most common risk factors in the construction industry. A structured questionnaire was performed to estimate the probability and severity of these risks. Through site visits and interviews with experts in the construction field, 200 valid questionnaires were collected. A risk analysis model was developed using BBNs, then the applicability of this model was verified using a case study in Egypt.

However, the outcome showed that critical risks that manipulate administrative construction projects in Egypt were corruption and bribery, contractor financial difficulties, force majeure, damage to the structure and defective material installation.

The proposed study presents the possibilities available to the project parties to obtain a better forecast of the project objectives, including the project duration, total project cost and the target quality by examining the causal relationships between project risks and project objectives.

This study aspires to identify the overall risk of the administrative construction projects in Egypt and to recognize the most influencing risk factors through the project life cycle by using BBNs.

Despite the widespread use of social media globally, SMEs exhibit a below-average adoption rate. This raises critical questions about the reasons behind SMEs' limited engagement with this ubiquitous platform. The primary objective of this research is to explore the factors influencing the utilization of social media by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and assess its influence on brand awareness and customer engagement in the Jordanian context.

This study utilizes a quantitative research approach to examine SMEs' adoption of social media. Data are collected from 290 SMEs in Jordan through paper-based and online surveys employing purposive sampling. The validity of the proposed model is confirmed using a partial least squares (PLS) approach, specifically employing SmartPLS 4 for analysis.

The results reveal that the examined model successfully captures the dynamics of social media usage among SMEs, shedding light on the significant drivers influencing their decision to use social media in their activities. The findings also underscore the pivotal role of social media usage in SMEs, particularly in enhancing brand awareness and fostering customer engagement within the Jordanian business landscape.

This study significantly contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the practical implications of social media activity, specifically in the context of SMEs. Using the UTAUT2 model to examine the drivers of social media use among SMEs and extend it to assess the broader impact of social media usage on brand awareness and customer engagement adds uniqueness to the study, providing a more nuanced view of social media usage in the SME sector.

Grounded on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examines the relationship between tyrannical leadership and knowledge hiding. Additionally, this study aims to investigate the mediating role of psychological distress and the moderating role of psychological safety.

Data was gathered from 435 employees in the corporate sector in China. The study used the partial least squares structural equation modelling approach to assess the proposed connections and analysed the data collected with the help of SmartPLS 4 software.

In the study, it was found that there is a positive relationship between tyrannical leadership and knowledge hiding, and this association is mediated by psychological distress. Additionally, the results asserted that the positive effect of tyrannical leadership on knowledge hiding through psychological distress is less pronounced when there is a greater degree of psychological safety.

Leaders should avoid being tyrannical and adopt a supportive leadership style. They should be aware of the effects of their behaviour on employee well-being, provide resources to help employees cope with distress and foster a culture of psychological safety. This approach promotes knowledge sharing, innovation and employee well-being within the organisation.

This study contributes to the existing literature by investigating a new factor that influences knowledge hiding: tyrannical leadership. Furthermore, it explains that employees who experience tyrannical leadership are more prone to psychological distress, such as anxiety and fear, and are likelier to engage in knowledge-hiding behaviours. Finally, the study identifies psychological safety as a factor that can mitigate the negative effects of tyrannical leadership on knowledge hiding.

This study aims to explore the factors that influence job satisfaction among women in Jordan and contribute to the growing interest in women’s workplace happiness in the context of the Middle East.

The authors used an explanatory sequential mixed-method approach. During the first phase, 250 female respondents were surveyed from the private sector in Jordan. The authors analyzed the impact of various employment-related attributes and other variables, including educational level, position, work experience, daily work hours, income level, relationships with colleagues and supervisors and internal career opportunities on job satisfaction. During the second stage, the authors interviewed 23 supervisor female respondents and conducted a thematic analysis to explore in more depth the determinants of job satisfaction of females working in the private sector in Jordan.

The quantitative findings of this study indicate that job satisfaction is positively influenced by education level and income, while notably, it was negatively impacted by work experience and daily work hours. Relationships with colleagues and supervisors, as well as internal career opportunities, positively affect job satisfaction. The qualitative findings of the study indicate that positive corporate culture, developing subordinates, financial independence, self-worthiness, work-life balance, internal career opportunities and factors that spillover from the personal life domain contributed highly to job satisfaction.

The findings of this study can help employers in gaining a deeper understanding of the needs and behaviors of female workers in the Middle East, potentially resulting in decreased job turnover and heightened productivity.

This study offers valuable insights into the cultural dynamics at play and sheds light on the psychology of the Arab female workforce. Given the limited research on job satisfaction among women in the Middle East and the Arab world, this study holds significant importance for practitioners.

This paper aims to investigate the zakat disclosure of Islamic banks at the global level. It is important for depositors and shareholders of Islamic banks to know whether the bank is paying zakat on their behalf or not. Additionally, disclosing the calculation method used is also necessary to eliminate uncertainties resulting from ambiguous reporting that can mislead the stakeholders. This issue becomes more obvious when considering that depositors and shareholders may have different accounts with different Islamic banks, which makes it quite confusing to have multiple ways of zakat calculation or different approaches on who is the party that pays it. This study analyzes the current practices across 13 countries and recommends best practices.

The objective of the paper objective is achieved through analyzing the annual reports of 34 Islamic banks in 13 countries for the years 2014 and 2019. It further quantifies the zakat disclosure by constructing a zakat disclosure index. This index considers the disclosure of four major constituents covering the amount and the responsibility for payment, the calculation method, the involvement of the Shariah board and the zakat duty on investment account holders. For further robustness, this study is further supported by content analysis measures using the zakat word count in annual reports.

The results indicate a major issue in zakat disclosure. The overall average of disclosure index is low. Most of the banks disclose limited information about zakat, such as the amount and the responsibility for payment, in their annual reports. Less than 40% of the examined banks disclose information about the role of the Shariah board in zakat calculation, and a very limited number of banks (9%) are found to disclose enough details about the zakat calculation method. Furthermore, none of the examined banks mentions the zakat due for the investment accounts. Overall, zakat disclosure of most of the banks, whether following Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions or otherwise, are found to be not up to the expected best practices.

Among the limitations of this study is the sole dependence on annual reports of Islamic banks without considering other means that banks might be using to communicate zakat-related matters to stakeholders. Examples of such means include a website, social media and other direct or indirect marketing materials. Additionally, the results of this study shall not be overgeneralized regarding differences between countries because the sample does not include all Islamic banks in the selected country. Future research may use the proposed zakat disclosure index on a country-specific data sample.

The findings have significant implications as they raise a serious concern regarding the sufficiency of the Islamic banks’ disclosure about a core area of their responsibility, that is, the zakat. The index developed can be a tentative measure of zakat disclosure transparency pending further review. The result further suggests looking at the composition of members of Shariah boards to include at least one member with a sound accounting background. Zakat is a religious duty; therefore, a perceived lack of transparency on the amount, method of calculation and how the zakat is paid may affect the future injection of capital into Islamic banks.

An important contribution of this paper lies in the fact that the collected data is not provided in any available database. Rather, it is manually captured from the individual annual reports of reviewed Islamic banks. Further, this paper proposes an index to measure the zakat disclosure at bank and country levels.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of specific human resources (HR) practices (leadership, employee relations, employee safety, rewards and incentives and career opportunities) on organizational performance in the context of the Middle Eastern market, with a specific focus on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) hotel sector.

A comprehensive research methodology was used for this study. Two distinct questionnaires were crafted: one targeting 338 hotel employees who completed the HR practices survey, and the other for 109 general hotel managers who completed the organizational performance survey. All respondents were from five-star hotel establishments in the UAE. To validate the hypotheses, a multidimensional approach was adopted. This paper first applied factor analysis to understand correlations and groupings among the factors. This paper then undertook validity assessment by examining factor loadings, average variance extracted and the reliability values for all parameters. Discriminant validity was also carefully evaluated.

The results found that there is a direct correlation between leadership, employee relations and career opportunities, with boosted organizational performance. Contrary to prevalent assumptions, the data showed no discernible link between employee safety, rewards and incentives and the actual performance of organizations. The results highlight the crucial role of social exchange in interpreting the indirect relationship between HR practices and organizational performance. This insight offers a fresh perspective on the often-discussed 'black box' in HR research.

The novelty of this study lies in its intricate exploration of human resource management practices within a region experiencing swift socioeconomic transformations due to factors such as the significant expatriate presence and economic diversification. By underlining the significance of social exchange as a mediating factor, this research significantly contributes to the ongoing dialogue on HR-performance relationships, offering insights for both theoretical and practical applications in HR activities formulation in the context of the UAE.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to estimate the water demand elasticities using a parametric linear programming (LP) model to provide an insight into the accurate and flexible pricing policy of irrigation water in the Jordan Valley; and second, to highlight key risk aspects, related to water demand, which are likely to impact the community.

A parametric LP model was used in this research. Primary and secondary data were collected.

Results revealed that the demand elasticity is high in Spring and Summer than in Fall and Winter, meaning that during Spring and Summer farmers are willing to forgo larger amounts of water than in other months. This is because of areas planted during Spring seasons are much less than those of Autumn and Winter.

The Jordan Valley suffers from water scarcity risk, and consequently the area to be planted is not fully utilized, leading to lower cropping intensities. Responsible authorities in Jordan need to address these issues and propose proper solutions in order to reduce further escalation of this risk and subsequent impact on local communities. Insight into the value of water demand elasticities is essential to support and mitigate policy decision making under risk conditions, concerning investments in water supply systems; investments in the water distribution and irrigation systems; efficient allocation of water with competing sectors; setting water pricing and tariffs; setting cost recovery mechanisms, and the risks encountered under lack of mitigated policy decision making.

This is one of few studies that addresses in detail using a parametric LP model the issue of water scarcity, related risks and subsequent impact on society in Jordan. It is expected to help policy and decision makers better formulate future estimates and demand which subsequently reduce related risks.