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This study aims to examine the commonalities and contrasts in the tourism objectives and strategies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, thereby revealing the foundations and pillars underlying the strategic initiatives implemented.

This exploratory study applied the resource-based view (RBV) lens to the country level. A comparative analysis of the tourism strategy in each GCC country was undertaken to determine commonalities and contrasts between the different strategies and to classify them into clusters. In the next stage, in-depth interviews were carried out to validate the findings.

Four distinct clusters were identified in this paper: lifestyle glamor, emerging giant, sports-induced country branding and eco-friendly regional-based strategies.

The findings and cluster classification are pertinent to policymakers and industry marketers in crafting tourism development plans.

This study analyzed the economic diversification strategies adopted by GCC countries as new entrants in the tourism sector and classified them into four clusters.

Leveraging the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, this study proposes and validates a mediation model depicting the impact of health-promoting leadership (HPL) on innovation performance (IP), with the relationship partially mediated by two health-related factors: psychological well-being (PWB) and positive conflict (PC).

Employing a structured questionnaire developed from validated scales sourced from the existing literature, the study collected data from a sample of 310 employees across various organizations within the service sector of the United Arab Emirates. The dimensionality, reliability, and validity of scales were assessed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The study’s seven hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling in AMOS and mediation analysis using the Hayes process model in SPSS.

Support was found for all seven hypotheses, demonstrating that HPL exerts both a direct and an indirect effect on IP, with PWB and PC serving as partial mediators.

Distinct from the traditional leadership literature, which often views an employee’s psychological health as a personal matter, this study highlights the organizational role in promoting psychological well-being. It also provides significant theoretical contributions to the underexplored area of conflict management within the context of innovation.

By promoting employees' PWB, HPL can optimize human capital within organizations. Additionally, leaders can leverage the potential of PC to foster an environment conducive to innovation, resulting in enhanced organizational performance.

The findings enrich the leadership and IP literature by identifying inter-relationships between the three health related antecedents of IP.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of individual differences particularly self-efficacy (SE) and growth need strength (GNS) as antecedents of employee innovation performance (IP).

Using a sample of 354 employees in the United Arab Emirates service sector, the study used exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the model for IP. The predictors of IP were SE (conceptualized as a three-factor construct including initiative, effort and persistence) and GNS.

SE-effort, SE-persistence and GNS had a significant direct effect on IP with SE-effort displaying strongest relationship, followed by SE-persistence and lastly GNS, while SE-initiative did not have a significant direct effect on IP.

The present study contributes to scant literature pertaining to the relationship of GNS with IP. It is the first study to examine both SE and GNS together in the same model for their impact on IP.

In this viewpoint, the theme editors provide an overview of the theme issue that aims to address the role of rural tourism in supporting the wellbeing and socio-economic development of local stakeholders.

The paper covers different facets of rural tourism in promoting the socio-economic development of rural communities. Specifically, the articles in this issue capture the nuances of how local stakeholders in rural tourism in different geographical regions use various strategies to promote the well-being and socio-economic development of local communities.

The papers in this theme issue demonstrate the potential role of rural tourism in promoting the socio-economic development of rural communities. These papers make an important contribution to the theory and practice of rural tourism by providing in-depth insight into the recovery and growth strategies adopted by stakeholders in diverse rural tourism destinations, especially in the wake of turbulent times such as the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. These papers suggest frameworks for further research and provide case studies of innovation and adaptation.

This theme issue analyses stories of innovation, adaptation, and growth of rural tourism in various destinations that presented the industry with unique challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The discussion provides some lessons and charts direction for the industry. The significance is greater when stakeholders of rural tourism and policymakers view rural tourism as an engine for the recovery and growth of the rural and national economy.

This concluding paper summarizes the articles presented in this issue and the significant themes that emerged from the authors' contributions. The main objective of this theme issue on rural tourism is to examine different facets of rural tourism that are critical to short-term recovery as well as long-term sustainable development.

This article draws on the findings of the papers and revisits the question: how could rural tourism provide better support for well-being and socioeconomic development?

The papers in this issue can be classified into one of three clusters: (1) cultural traditions; (2) support for rural tourism service providers and (3) embracing new technologies. In addition to classifying these papers, the authors propose a conceptual framework to achieve sustainable rural tourism and development comprising four critical success factors for sustainable rural tourism and development.

The main objective of this theme issue is to examine different facets of rural tourism that are critical to short-term recovery as well as long-term sustainable development. Here the authors summarize the findings and propose a conceptual model for the benefit of managers. The authors think that the model could be helpful in designing a strategy for developing sustainable rural tourism projects. It includes reference to (1) stakeholder engagement and support for capacity-building, (2) gradual and organic growth processes, (3) valorization of sociocultural traditions and preservation of cultural heritage and (4) leveraging digital technology in marketing strategy.

This paper aims to investigate the major challenges faced and lessons learned during the unplanned transition to online examinations (OE) at a traditional university following the COVID-19 pandemic.

This exploratory study involved two distinct samples (110 students and 30 instructors) drawn from a large public university and triangulated the qualitative and quantitative data to analyze how the university navigated the unplanned transition to OE.

The university faced several challenges related to a lack of proper institutional infrastructure, non-familiarity of the stakeholders with OE, lack of effective communication, limited student access to technology resources because of socio-economic impediments and academic integrity issues.

Short- and medium-term recommendations are proposed to enable continuity of teaching and learning in future emergency situations, including the establishment of technology-enabled exam centers, as well as strategies to assure instructor readiness for OE, academic integrity among students and the validity of the evaluation procedure for future OE.

This study shows how the unplanned transition to OE in a public university exposed new challenges for conducting OE, particularly in resource challenged emerging countries, where full integration of OE was a new experience and prior knowledge of potential issues was lacking.

In a fiercely competitive industry, credit card issuers need to develop a loyal customer base and motivate their card holders to use their cards at a sufficient level to assure profitability. The purpose of this article is to propose a consumer model of customer loyalty in the credit card industry.

A model of customer loyalty incorporating service quality, value and involvement is developed theoretically and validated empirically through SEM using data collected from a global sample of 114 credit card holders.

The loyalty model proposed was validated, showing that the independent variable, i.e. customer involvement, had path loadings of 0.32 and 0.26 on quality and value, respectively, while both service quality and value had direct effects on loyalty, with path loadings of 0.30 and 0.51, respectively.

Customer involvement has been shown to directly influence both service quality and value, and it should be further investigated for its effect on sustaining relationships, as well as a variable for segmenting customers.

In order to develop sustainable relationships, marketers of credit cards should leverage involvement in their customers by employing strategies such as branding, positioning, and attractive and flexible frequent use benefits. Further, credit card customers desire high service quality, but at an affordable cost, therefore making value a prime consideration for achieving loyalty.

This study has identified “involvement” as an independent variable that provides stability and sustainability to the firm‐customer relationship. Despite its pertinence, this customer characteristic that may be also used to segment customers has not been investigated in prior quantitative studies.

The purpose of this paper is to model the factors influencing the quality of learning experiences (LE) of students in blended learning (BL) environments in higher education (HE) sector, and to assess whether these factors differ across gender.

A literature review combined with in-depth interviews of a broad range of stakeholders were used to develop a conceptual study model, which was then empirically tested using data collected from a global sample of 267 students from diverse BL environments. Factor analysis and binary logistic regression were used to test the study model.

A five factor solution emerged for both genders, therefore concluding that the identified factors did not play a statistically significant role in predicting the gender of students. Thus, the same factors may be used to enhance the quality of LE of both male and female students.

Even though the sample represents respondents from different universities around the world, and the methodology used has authenticated the findings, the results need to be implemented carefully due to the non-probabilistic sampling. Therefore, similar studies can be repeated in future in other BL environments to validate the results in a broader context.

The findings suggest that managers of HE institutions may use similar factors to achieve quality LE for both male and female students.

Effective design of courses suitable for both genders will support better LE potentially leading to higher retention and enrollment rates for students and supporting lifelong learning.

While universities worldwide are increasingly using BL environments as delivery mode, limited research has focused on the factors that affect the quality of LE in such settings. This paper addresses this gap and tests whether the same factors are relevant for both genders.