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This study aims to construct a theoretical framework that combines the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and other variables related to life insurance adoption among customers. This will explain the factors that influence customers’ decisions to use Life InsurTech services in the future.

A hybrid method combining theory-driven analysis and thematic analysis was used for content analysis, allowing for a holistic perspective, and developing a conceptual research model.

The paper contributes significantly by creating a conceptual framework designed to understand and explain the factors that impact customers’ intentions to adopt Life InsurTech services. By emphasizing technology-related factors, behavior-related factors, knowledge-related factors and individual-related factors, one could potentially identify and explain the factors influencing the intention to use Life InsurTech services.

The limitation of the current research is the lack of prior research on InsurTech services. This study contributes to reviewing and organizing earlier knowledge to help researchers address the key factors affecting Life InsurTech services adoption.

The study has suggested a conceptual framework that Life InsurTech managers can use to implement the effective adoption of Life InsurTech services.

With the significant importance of life insurance for consumers as well as for the country’s economic development and the advent of InsurTech innovations, there is a need to understand the online life insurance purchase behavior of consumers.

The outcomes presented in this study will lay the groundwork for future investigations that aim to address the research question regarding the factors influencing customers’ intentions to utilize Life InsurTech services. With very few studies conducted on InsurTech services, this novel study proposes a new conceptual framework to better understand the adoption of Life InsurTech services.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the existing mechanism of school management committees (SMCs) and to propose an improved framework for strengthening its process and outcomes. In 2005, the Education and Literacy department, Government of Sindh decentralizes the administrative and operational authorities to school level in the form of SMCs. These committees have been vested with several roles and responsibilities in accordance with the objective of SMCs set in by government in assistance with different international donor agencies.

The purposively selected respondent that includes 35 stakeholders among which 25 stakeholders has been interviewed individually while other ten has been interviewed in the form of two focused groups consisting of five members each. The findings based on the interviews are analyzed using the thematic analysis. This study analyzes the formation of SMCs, roles and responsibilities of members, Allocation SMC funds and its utilization methods. The study includes the challenges faced by these committees in school administration and operations with their recommendations for overcoming such challenges. Some common challenges include limited financial resources, interference of landlords and potential people of the community, limited administrative authorities and lack of interest of government toward government schools.

The recommendations have been categorized into three broad themes: strengthening of mechanism, strengthening through functions, roles and responsibilities and revising SMC fund allocation and its utilization.

The study proposed an improved framework for strengthening the process and outcomes of SMC.

The basic unit of the family is the married couple who are brought together through various means, the internet being an additional medium. This study is an attempt to capture changes in the realm of family through a detailed analysis of the matrimonial websites in India from a sociological perspective. With the advent of the internet technology, it explores whether and how the internet as a new medium of spouse selection influences marriage choices and family dynamics during match-fixing. It seeks to unweave the individual–family–community dynamics in the context of changing gender norms. The findings of the study are based on mixed-methods through the use of both qualitative and quantitative data gathered from the website and personal interviews. These data were further strengthened through the walkthrough method and participant observation. The findings of this study reflect upon the prescriptive, restrictive and supportive role played by the family in the context of online spouse selection. It also documents resilience and change (in terms of family structure and norms) in the realm of the family in the context of changing matrimonial preferences.

Despite more than 50 years of research into gender and work, the impact of female expatriates persists to be underrepresented in mainstream international human resource management (IHRM) literature. The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore the perceptions of married Indian information technology (IT) women regarding career and expatriating discussions they have with their husbands and its impact on their decision making to undertake international assignments.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 married Indian IT women who had undertaken international assignments after marriage. The study includes two data sets, 1: women on less than one-year assignment; 2: women on greater than one-year assignments.

The study found that women who went on short-term assignments of less than one year travelled alone and found it fortunate and convenient to leave their children in the care of their husbands, in-laws, parents and maids. While in the cases of women travelling for longer-term assignments, most husbands accompanied them. The study suggests that while spousal support was the key, having a shared purpose with husbands along with extended family support was equally significant to facilitate women undertaking an international assignment. As an impetus, the authors note a change within the Indian society where both partners come together to make decisions about expatriating.

The authors discuss the implications for IHRM as they relate to gender diversity within organisations.

The research, underpinned by the early workings of a theory of career hierarchy, explores the complexities in expatriation decision-making processes of married women from the emerging economy of India with traditional family values, who are working within a modern and liberal IT industry.

This chapter reviews the Metaverse’s inception and digitalization’s impact on the fashion and apparel retail industry. This review demonstrates how digital clothing rooted in the Metaverse assists industry environmental sustainability, the planet, and consumers, providing business strategies for growth through research in theory and an analysis of practices. Virtual checkout uses digital tools to help marketers and designers better understand their target audience. In the foreseeable future, the Metaverse of our works will be a well-known and safe space for budding designers. Designers will find it much simpler to bring their concepts to life thanks to the immediate relationship that Metaverse technology creates with humans.

Eco-friendly methods and technology found in the Metaverse will transform the industry. Expanding acceptance of Metaverse could lead to a 97% decrease in the amount of carbon dioxide in approximately per item 4,000 L of water, reducing its carbon footprint by around thirty percent during the company’s design and development phases.

Digital apparel may be extremely helpful leading up to the real physical manufacturing of a garment, applied to sampling, marketing and modeling prior the actual variants are put into manufacturing, significantly lowering the environmental impact of a clothing item’s entire lifecycle. Computer-generated representations of clothing cannot replace real garments entirely, and they can help reduce waste and help address overproduction-related difficulties.

This chapter clarifies how digital fashion based on the Metaverse assists business environmental sustainability, users, and acts as a resource to improve approaches.

The purpose of this paper is to review previous research studies on mathematical models for entropy generation in the magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) flow of nanofluids. In addition, the influence of various parameters on the velocity profiles, temperature profiles and entropy generation was studied. Furthermore, the numerical methods used to solve the model equations were summarized. The underlying purpose was to understand the research gap and develop a research agenda.

This paper reviews 141 journal articles published between 2010 and 2022 on topics related to mathematical models used to assess the impacts of various parameters on the entropy generation, heat transfer and velocity of the MHD flow of nanofluids.

This review clarifies the application of entropy generation mathematical models, identifies areas for future research and provides necessary information for future research in the development of efficient thermodynamic systems. It is hoped that this review paper can provide a basis for further research on the irreversibility of nanofluids flowing through different channels in the development of efficient thermodynamic systems.

Entropy generation analysis and minimization constitute effective approaches for improving the performance of thermodynamic systems. A comprehensive review of the effects of various parameters on entropy generation was performed in this study.

Malnutrition is a serious public health problem, which occurs because of an inadequate supply of nutrients and therefore affects many children and women (especially pregnant and lactating women of low economic class) worldwide. There is a great need to develop cost-effective fortified food supplements to overcome this problem. Therefore, this study aims to examine the factors that should be considered in the development of low-cost supplementary foods for breastfeeding women.

A wide variety of relevant publications were identified through search in electronic databases (ScienceDirect, PubMed, SciELO, Google Scholar, SpringerLink and ResearchGate) based on different keywords such as malnutrition, specific considerations, supplementary foods and breastfeeding women, which were published before 2020. After looking for adequate literature, 71 articles were examined, which provided an overview of these aspects.

Various food supplements and food products already available in the market are generally expensive and go beyond the purchasing power of lower- or middle-class families. Traditionally, efforts have been made to prepare such supplements at home, but the composition of these products varies based on the economic status of consumers. Therefore, the nutritional status is clearly compromised because of the low standard of living, which requires a great need to develop low-cost nutritious food products, accessible to all and that meet the appropriate nutritional, sensory and economic attributes without ignoring the regulatory guidelines.

This review is majorly focused on the specific considerations, alternative sources, ensuring nutritional and sensorial attributes and economic aspects for the development of supplementary low-cost food products for breastfeeding women with the goal of eliminating malnutrition.

This study aims to propose a model to elevate the financial empowerment of Muslim women by rejuvenating the practice of Mahr in society and facilitating the affordability of men to pay that Mahr amount.

The approach of this study is to offer a model through the interest-free savings-based finance concept. The model comprises four stages; each stage of the model is mathematically formulated and graphically explained to ensure clarity and coherence. To further investigate the issue, the authors use a convenient sampling method to ask a small sample size of respondents (women) from different countries about their financial contribution and empowerment in the family.

This model enables women to turn their exclusive financial right into a source of earning without borrowing from any source or paying interest on the principal amount. Besides, it encourages accelerating men’s obligation to pay the Mahr to the women immediately during the marriage ceremony by facilitating men’s affordability. Almost 45% of respondents state that a woman’s financial contribution exalts her decision-making power and strengthens her financial position in the family.

The authors attempt to revitalize Mahr practice in Muslim society to accelerate the process of receiving a woman’s exclusive financial right and empower a family as a whole through the Mahr model.

Considering the model’s uniqueness, the developed and proposed Mahr model in this research is novel; to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other study has been conducted and developed such a model using the Mahr concept.

Women’s economic empowerment through entrepreneurship is increasingly being recognised as significant to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, women entrepreneurship in developing countries is characterised by an overrepresentation in the informal economy and exposure to high levels of gender disparities. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether formalisation of women’s entrepreneurial activities in the informal economy supports SDGs through ensuring empowerment and equality.

The research adopts a qualitative research design to explore the empowerment outcomes of the formalisation of women’s entrepreneurial activities in the informal economy of Kathmandu, Nepal. Data were collected through interviews with 30 women entrepreneurs engaged in a mix of formal and informal entrepreneurial activities.

By using Mayoux’s (1998) framework of empowerment at the individual, household and community level, the findings show the variation in empowerment outcomes as a result of women’s diverse motivations for engaging in entrepreneurship. Whilst informal entrepreneurial activities improve women’s confidence and life aspirations, they have limited potential in lifting women out of poverty and enable them to significantly challenge gender relations in the society. Formalization does further empower women at the household and community level but this is primarily the case of younger and more educated women.

The research contributes to the debates on entrepreneurship as “emancipation” and more specifically, on whether formalization contributes to the SDGs by furthering gender equality and empowerment. Formalization policies need to acknowledge the heterogeneity of women entrepreneurs.