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The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of supply chain (SC) partnerships on sustainable performance (SP) and investigate the potential mediating role of total quality management (TQM).

A total of 185 responses were collected from pharmaceutical industry employees. The research data were analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling approach.

The results reveal that relationships with suppliers (RS), distributors (RD) and intermediaries (RI) have a direct impact on SP. In addition, this study found that TQM serves as a mediator between RS, RD, RI and SP. This study enhances the understanding of the significance of TQM, SC and SP in business environment development. The findings suggest that organizations in the Jordanian pharmaceutical industry should prioritize the enhancement of their RS, intermediaries and distributors to improve their SP.

By providing decision-makers with valuable information, this study enables them to identify and implement TQM and SC practices to enhance the SP of pharmaceutical companies in Jordan.

This study investigates the effects of top management commitment (TMC) and Kaizen on quality management practices (QMP) and how the latter influence the performance of Jordanian public hospitals in the aftermath of COVID-19.

A survey-based questionnaire was employed to collect data from 222 practitioners and professionals working in public hospitals in Jordan. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was undertaken to analyze data.

Significant and positive effects of TMC and Kaizen (continuous improvement) on QMP are highlighted by the results. The findings also show that QMP has a positive and significant impact on public hospitals' performance. Furthermore, the effects of TMC and Kaizen on performance were also found to be significant.

Practitioners and researchers will gain a greater understanding of how implementing QMP can enhance the performance of public hospitals in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. The results underline the important role of Kaizen and TMC in the success of QMP and their effect on performance. This research is a cross-sectional study, and there is a need to conduct further empirical investigation based on secondary data or objective measurement of performance.

This research is one of the first studies to investigate the effects of QMP on public hospitals' performance following the COVID-19 outbreak. This study is one of the empirical examinations of QMP and Kaizen in developing countries by investigating Jordanian public hospitals.

This paper presents an empirical study of a Syrian refugee workforce in textile export from Jordan. The purpose of this study is to determine the challenges of integrating Syrian refugees into the local workforce and to consider the implications of these challenges for the global supply chain aiming to create stable trade.

Data were collected via three face-to-face focus group interviews with refugee workers and managers at a clothing factory site in Al-Duleil, Zarqa. Data were analysed using the Gioia methodology.

Worker attitudes, factory environment, and government support are important factors for refugees' workforce participation. The success of integrating Syrian refugees into the Jordanian workforce was largely a matter of their attitudes, commitment and motivations for taking up manufacturing work. Misconceptions about the roles refugees will undertake were identified, which results in fewer people becoming self-sufficient through employment.

This research contributes to understanding refugees' long-term integration in the host country by investigating refugee workers' and their managers' perspectives. Considering the views of multiple stakeholders enrichs the literature on refugees' integration.

Understanding refugees' perspectives facilitates their integration in the host country which leads to improvement in their wellbeing and quality of life. More broadly, Jordan's approach to integrating refugees into the economy is seen as a development opportunity rather than a crisis to be handled.

Rather than focus on the procedures of integrating refugees in the host country, this study provides the voices of refugee migrant workers themselves, thereby offering a more complete picture of those factors shaping refugees' (dis)integration in local communities.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of electronic collaboration (e-collaboration) including information sharing, resource sharing and joint knowledge creation in value creation within pharmaceutical supply chain (SC) and achieving competitive priorities for pharmaceutical companies in Jordan.

A descriptive analytical methodology was used through a comprehensive review of published and unpublished work from secondary sources of information in the areas of specific interest: e-collaboration and competitive priorities. The study was conducted at Jordan Food and Drug Administration (JFDA) (of which many pharmaceutical companies are linked electronically through JFDA workflow system). Data were collected (using paper questionnaire) from 90 electronically collaborating pharmaceutical companies and 81 complete responses were received, forming a 90 percent response rate. The analysis of collected data was performed using partial least square structure equation modeling.

The results of the analysis indicated that e-collaboration dimensions, information sharing and resource sharing, have a positive impact on competitive priorities, while joint knowledge creation was not significantly related to them. The results suggest that value creation in SC electronic systems is contingent on mutual resource synergy and joint collaboration among trading partners.

The sample size for this study does not include all pharmaceutical companies in Jordan, as this electronic linkage within the pharmaceutical companies is at its early stage. Moreover, competitive priorities examined in this research are limited to a single industry context.

This study offers a new insight into information technologies (IT)/business values that can be beneficial to IT and SC managers. By proposing the association between e-collaboration activities and competitive priorities, IT and SC managers are provided with a useful tool to link IT with collaborative activities that lead to value creation. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of the early studies about e-collaboration in pharmaceutical SC and competitive priorities in Jordan. As such, managers of manufacturing companies can use the outcome of this study to establish more collaborative partnerships within their SCs. This research contributes to encouraging pharmaceutical firms to focus on their export and marketing capabilities regionally and abroad which would establish a globally competitive pharmaceutical technology industry in Jordan.

It reveals that the adoption of IT alone to manage SC relationships is not sufficient to generate value. Both information- and resource-sharing activities are the core to do so .The results suggest that value creation in SC electronic systems is contingent on mutual resource synergy and joint collaboration among trading partners. The results of the analysis indicated that the dimension of e-collaboration, joint knowledge creation, was not significantly related to competitive priorities.

This study offers a contextual contribution. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of the early studies about e-collaboration in pharmaceutical SC and competitive priorities in Jordan.

This study aims to apply the resource-based and upper-echelons perspectives to integrate concepts of strategic decision-making (i.e. speed and quality) and transformational leadership behavior (i.e. inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration and idealized influence) to examine how these resources are influenced by the characteristics of top managers (i.e. demographic backgrounds and entrepreneurial orientation) to affect firm performance.

Using evidence from a sample of 111 top managers from different firms in Taiwan, this research examined the relationships among the selected variables using two versions of the designed questionnaire: one for the leader, and the other for the followers. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data.

The findings reveal the following: the entrepreneurial orientation of top managers does affect their leadership style, which affects firm performance; if top managers display traits of transformational leadership, then firm performance will be higher, likely because transformational leaders tend to make high-quality decisions and strategic decision-making speed was influenced by the experience of top managers and the inspirational motivation provided by transformational leadership.

This study makes three specific contributions: improving the limitations of demographics-based top-management studies by investigating both demographics and psychological characteristics; advancing research on the relationships between entrepreneurial orientation and performance by integrating transformational leadership behaviors and examining the proposed research model from a resource-based perspective.

This paper aims to explore the factors of social media adoption by zakat institutions.

This study uses qualitative data as the main source of evidence. Data were collected using semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Ten respondents from eight zakat institutions across Malaysia were interviewed. Judgement sampling and snowballing techniques were used to select respondents. Data analysis was done in three phases, namely, data reduction, data display and conclusion confirmation.

The findings of this study found perceived benefits, ease of use, accessibility, formalization, training, management push and indirect public push to be the determinant factors that contribute to the adoption of a social media application in zakat institutions. They are discussed and organized into a few groups under four categories, namely, technological, organizational and environmental contexts based on the TOE framework.

This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge in technology adoption understanding with the engagement of a range of Technology Organization Environment (TOE) framework. However, for future research, quantitative data involving the zakat payers should be anticipated to further understand the issue.

Output from this study may be useful to the adoption champions within zakat institutions, such as decision-makers and marketing officers. These people can help to provide guidelines and steer managers to focus on the identified factors in this study when adopting social media.

The finding from this study may help to increase the efficiency of two-way communication between zakat institutions and the community. It was found that the adoption of social media improved communication activities with the public and better handling of negative perceptions towards zakat institutions. The findings proved that using social media applications in zakat institutions can help create a better organizational image for the public by publishing instant and continuous news feeds on activities that specifically cater to the need of the asnaf. This can alleviate negative perceptions that zakat institutions are only good in collecting money, but not effective in helping the poor.

Previous zakat literature has focussed on different issues such as the determinants of zakat compliance behaviors, zakat fund management, distribution of funds, zakat information system and digital marketing; however, little is known about how and why zakat institutions adopt social media applications as a communication tool with the public. Thus, this research makes a difference by focussing on a new aspect of study in the zakat environment, which aims to explore the factors of social media adoption by zakat institutions. This study also proposes the new appropriate TOE framework to understand the adoption behaviour by the zakat institution towards social media application.

This study aims to examine the current state of literature on structural equation modeling (SEM) studies in “cloud computing” domain with respect to study domains of research studies, theories and frameworks they use and SEM models they design.

Systematic literature review (SLR) protocol is followed. In total, 96 cloud computing studies from 2009 to June 2018 that used SEM obtained from four databases are selected, and relevant data are extracted to answer the research questions.

A trend of increasing SEM usage over years in cloud studies is observed, where technology adoption studies are found to be more common than the use studies. Articles appear under four main domains, namely, business, personal use, education and health care. Technology acceptance model (TAM) is found to be the most commonly used theory. Adoption, intention to use and actual usage are the most common selections for dependent variables in SEM models, whereas security and privacy concerns, costs, ease of use, risks and usefulness are the most common selections for causal factors.

Previous cloud computing SLR studies did not focus on statistical analysis method used in primary studies. This review will display the current state of SEM studies in cloud domain for all future academics and practical professionals.

The study applied the Unified Theory of Technology Acceptance and Use Theory 2 (UTAUT2) to predict blended learning acceptance by students in universities in Zimbabwe. Blended learning is a heterogeneous mode of teaching and learning that combines face-to-face (F2F) and online modes. Owing to advances in technology, and recently, the advent of pandemics, such as COVID-19, the need for multimodal teaching approaches, such as blended learning, to enhance access to education in universities has become very important.

A quantitative approach that used a structured questionnaire for data collection from a sample of 432 postgraduate students was used. Data validation was done using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The structural equation modelling technique was used for data analysis.

Results showed that out of the seven factors of the UTAUT2, the factors such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influences, facilitating conditions and hedonic motivation significantly and positively influenced the behavioural intentions of students in universities to accept blended learning. On the other hand, habit and price value did not significantly influence university students' behavioural intentions to accept the bended learning mode. It was further shown in the study that behavioural intentions significantly influenced the acceptance of blended learning by university students. In light of the above results, it was concluded that the UTAUT2 could be used to predict the acceptance of blended learning by university students.

The main study limitation was that it was only carried out at universities that had information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure challenges owing to the fact that the economic situation in Zimbabwe is depressed. Limited ICT infrastructure in the universities might have had some impact on the nature of behavioural intentions of students to accept blended learning as a learning mode. Further research could be carried out in countries with better economies that are able to fund ICT infrastructures of their universities and to establish whether the results of the current study could either be confirmed, disconfirmed or enriched.

The paper suggests that universities need to increase investment in ICT infrastructure as well as in capacitating students with the necessary ICT skills for the effective use of institutional ICT when learning using the blended learning mode. Without adequate and appropriate ICT infrastructure as well as necessary ICT skills, students may develop low motivation levels and negative attitudes towards blended learning, which may eventually may affect their acceptance of the learning mode.

There is no known study that has been conducted using the UTAUT2 to establish antecedents of behavioural intentions of students to accept blended learning in the context of Zimbabwean universities. This study therefore opens new ground on factors influencing the acceptance of blended learning in the context of Zimbabwean universities. Also, the results showed that habit and price value do not significantly contribute to the behavioural intentions of university students to accept blended learning, which is not consistent with findings of past studies. This inconsistency opens new opportunities for further studies on the conditions under which these two factors can be used to significantly contribute to the development of behavioural intentions of students to accept blended learning.