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Technology and knowledge have become the buzzwords of the new millennium. Technological changes and demanding customers are creating a more knowledge intensive, turbulent, complex and uncertain environment. Organizations, which are able to continually build faster and cheaper new strategic assets than their competitors, create long-term competitive advantages. Thus, the growth of companies is directly associated with innovativeness and technological development, especially for small organizations that are more vulnerable to dynamic changes in market place. Organizations need a strategic framework that can help them to achieve the goal of technology development and competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to develop such strategic framework for small organizations for their technology development and, hence, survival in marketplace.

Options field methodology, options profile methodology, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy set theory are utilized to generate various options and profiles to propose a conceptual framework for technology development.

The results from the study showed that “mixed approach,” “strategic simulation approach” and the “regulatory environment approach,” in this order, emerged as the top three important options for the strategic technological development of small manufacturing enterprises.

This result can provide an original and more accurate implementation pathway toward technological innovative development in emerging economies. The proposed framework can provide valuable guidelines and recommendations to practicing managers and analysts for policy development to promote innovative and technological developments.

The purpose of this paper is to fabricate pre-existing geometries of the stents using solvent cast 3D printing (SC3P) and encapsulation of each stent with heparin drug by using aminolysis reaction.

The iron pentacarbonyl powder and poly-ɛ-caprolactone blend (PCIP) were used to print stent designs of Art18z, Palmaz-Schatz and Abbott Bvs1.1. The properties of antithrombosis, anticoagulation and blood compatibility were introduced in the stents by conjugation of heparin drug via the aminolysis process. The aminolysis process was confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy due to presence of amide group and nitrogen peak in the respective analysis. Biological studies were performed to depict the cell viability, hemocompatibility and antithrombotic properties. Besides, mechanical behaviors were analyzed to study the behavior of the stents under radial compression load and bending load.

The amount of heparin immobilized on the Art18z, Palmaz-Schatz and Abbott Bvs1.1 stents were 255 ± 27, 222 ± 30 and 212 ± 13 µg, respectively. The cell viability studies using L929 fibroblast cells confirmed the cytocompatibility of the stents. The heparinized SC3P printed stents displayed excellent thrombo-resistance, anticoagulation properties and hemocompatibility as confirmed by blood coagulation analysis, platelet adhesion test and hemolysis analysis. Besides, mechanical behavior was found in context of the real-life stents. All these assessments confirmed that the developed stents have the potential to be used in the real environment of coronary arteries.

Various customized shaped biodegradable stents were fabricated using 3D printing technique and encapsulated with heparin drug using aminolysis process.

The purpose of this paper is to study the corrosion inhibition tendency of cigarette waste (water extracts of cigarette butts, WECB) on an iron surface in an acid medium.

The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and polarization techniques were used to analyze the performance of WECB on the iron working electrode. Electrochemical polarization curves were used to determine the intensity of the metal corrosion, specifically to see the effectiveness of the anodic and cathodic reactions in the corrosive medium having WECB. Moreover, the electrochemical impedance of WECB with electrode was analyzed qualitatively. The electrochemical data that relate isotherm adsorption of WECB with iron were analyzed; furthermore, the scanning electron microscope was used to analyze morphology change during the corrosion inhibition.

After analyzing the impedance data, it is seen that there exists a single capacitive semicircle at the higher frequency range corresponding to a one-time constant in the Bode-phase plot. In the polarization curves studies (Tafel slopes), the current densities of both cathodic and anodic branches are greatly affected in the presence of WECB in the corrosive medium, suggesting that WECB performs as a mixed inhibitor. The free energy data and Temkin adsorption isotherm process show that the adsorption process of WECB on the metal surface follows a physisorption. Furthermore, the WECB-coated metal surface analyzed by scanning electron microscopy confirms the corrosion inhibition of WECB in the acid medium.

An in-depth characterization of the corroded scales is recommended to endorse the results of this study.

There may be some people who may challenge that the research may encourage smoking; however, if taken positively, the research offers a very cost-effective and eco-friendly solution to tackle the cigarette waste.

Idea of the present work is to reuse the WECB as corrosion inhibitors for the metal surface, as this waste contains large amount of nicotine, which exhibits corrosion inhibition properties. The present work deals with the study of corrosion inhibition properties of WECB on the iron surface in acid medium. The findings of this study can be very useful from scientific, as well as industrial application point of view. Moreover, the research is important as there is no proper recycling process for this waste so as to maintain a clean environment.

In the last 10 years, India has amended its laws dealing with sexual offences against women with the changes ranging from increasing terms of imprisonment for the offence of rape to state-funded compensation schemes for women and child victims. In this regard, challenges persist for the agencies of the criminal justice system in India especially the courts to realise the vision of restorative justice as these forums have to navigate the relevant statutory provisions and binding precedents. This chapter seeks to analyse the challenges faced by courts in proper reintegration of victims and offenders of sexual offences, the institutional responses of the courts and suggests reforms to the criminal justice system in India in consonance with the principles of restorative justice acknowledged in the restorative justice movement in the international discourse.

The study investigates whether the customer experience, satisfaction and continuance intention interrelationships in mobile banking services vary across Generation (Gen) Y and Gen Z consumers.

The data were collected using online surveys from 224 Gen Y and 238 Gen Z mobile banking users. The study uses the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique and an asymmetrical analytical approach through fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine the effects of five experience dimensions (pragmatic, usability, affective, sensory and social) and satisfaction on continuance intention.

Whilst Gen Z values pragmatic and affective experiences more than Gen Y and assigns less importance to usability experience (Uxp), both PLS-SEM and fsQCA did not find any significant impact of sensory experience (Sxp) in any cohort. In contrast, fsQCA suggests that social experience could play a significant role for specific segments within both generations. Furthermore, PLS-SEM demonstrates a greater impact of satisfaction on continuance intention for Gen Y than for Gen Z.

The sample consists of high/middle-income urban consumers in one country. Future research could investigate low-income and semi-urban/rural consumers and consumers living in other countries.

Banks must recognise the diversity within and between Gen Y and Gen Z, adopting a segmented user experience approach. Users within each generation may prioritise distinct aspects of the mobile banking app and understanding the specific differences between Gen Y and Gen Z preferences is crucial.

Encouraging mobile banking users to engage in community-driven financial initiatives can inspire non-users, promoting digital financial inclusion.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to compare the customer experience-based psychological patterns of continued mobile banking use in Gen Y and Gen Z.

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) is progressively reshaping the dynamics of human interaction, communication, lifestyle, education and professional endeavors. The purpose of the study is to comprehend and address the barriers which are impeding the implementation of Generative AI Technologies, such as ChatGPT in the educational landscape.

The study used the Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model to analyze the responses gathered from 149 academicians belonging to the northern states of India.

The study established that the three most important criteria that influence the adoption of generative AI in the education sector are Risk of Academic Integrity, Risk of biased outcomes and Erosion of Critical Thinking.

The present study was confined to Fuzzy AHP to extract the critical criteria influencing the decision-making. Various other techniques such as PF-Delphi and PF-CoCoSo can be used further. The results provide significant inputs for future research to understand the effect of adoption of Generative AI in different contexts including both opportunities and the challenges faced by them.

The study will be beneficial to various stakeholders including students, educators, society and policymakers as the study will highlight the importance of AI tools, introduce the various challenges associated with and explain the use of these tools as productivity-enhancing tools.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, the present study is a novice as the use of AI in Academia is unexplored and the major criteria influencing the choices have yet been undiscovered.

This research explores the relationships between financial awareness and investor satisfaction about retirement planning, particularly in the Indian context. We developed a conceptual model involving double moderation effects of post-retirement objectives and external factors influencing investor satisfaction.

A carefully crafted survey instrument was designed to collect data from the 480 employees working in six administrative departments in the northern part of India. After checking the measurement properties of the survey instrument through the Lisrel package of structural equation modeling, the hypotheses were tested using Hayes PROCESS macros.

The results indicate that financial awareness is positively related to (1) investor satisfaction and (2) investment purpose; investment purpose is positively related to investor satisfaction; post-retirement objectives moderate the relationship between financial awareness and investment purpose; external factors moderate the moderated relationship between financial awareness and post-retirement objectives (first moderator) and investor satisfaction mediated through investment purpose.

The outcomes of this study have important implications for the employees embarking on making decisions concerning their retirement. The conceptual model provides a simple framework explaining how financial awareness and investor satisfaction are affected by the post-retirement objectives of individuals. This study highlights the importance of considering the effect of external factors influencing financial decisions.

The three-way interactions in this exploratory research contribute to the growing literature on behavioral finance, particularly concerning retirement planning involving pension.

The purpose of this paper is to design a low-cost stress bimorph RF-MEMS switch which is the desired transmission area application.

The bimorph structure of the low-temperature plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of thermal oxide and gold are utilized to create the vibrating membrane. The effects of process conditions of low-temperature oxide deposited using the PECVD technique enable stress-free deposition of the key structural layer.

Scanning electron microscope images of the RF micro-switch confirms negligible stress in the released structure. The RF performances of this device exhibit isolation around 43 dB of up to 50 GHz in the OFF-state position and an insertion loss of less than 0.18 dB in the ON-state.

The finite element method results show good isolation of 43 dB and less insertion loss of 0.18 dB.

Despite internet banking’s popularity, there is a rise in phishing attacks related to online banking transactions. Phishing attacks involved the process of sending out electronic mails impersonating the valid banking institutions to their customers and demanding confidential data such as credential and transaction authorisation code. The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical model of individual and technological factors influencing Malaysian internet banking users’ intention in responding to malicious uniform resource locator (URL) in phishing email content.

It applied the protective motivation theory, the theories of reasoned action and planned behaviour, the habit theory and the trust theory to examine the factors influencing internet banking users’ intention to click URLs in phishing emails. The study identifies individual and technological factors with ten hypotheses. A total of 368 Malaysian respondents voluntarily participated in an online survey conducted in the first week of March 2021. The partial least squares method provided in SmartPLS-3 was used to model the data.

The results revealed that individual factors, namely, internet banking experience, understanding the phishing meaning, response cost, trust and perceived ability were the significant influencing factors of internet banking users’ intention to click the link in phishing emails. This study also suggested that technological factors were not relevant in describing the behavioural intention of internet banking users in clicking the links in phishing emails.

The findings could contribute to Malaysian banking sectors and relevant government agencies in educating and increasing internet banking users’ awareness towards phishing emails.

The outcomes demonstrated the individual factors that influenced internet banking users’ intention in responding to phishing emails that are specific and relevant to Malaysia’s context.