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Higher education institutions like Effat University play a critical role in realizing the ambitious goals of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which emphasizes adaptability, agility, and sustainability in the educational sector. With the higher education landscape undergoing rapid transformation globally, institutions are compelled to rethink curricula and align more closely with the changing needs of students, industry, and the government. Effat University, situated at the confluence of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), shows adaptability, agility, and sustainability in the higher education sector. At the heart of Effat’s mission lies the IQRA core values, anchoring its academic and administrative endeavors and fostering graduates who are holistic, ethically grounded, and attuned to global challenges. This book chapter investigates Effat University’s distinctive approach, fortified by innovative initiatives, transformative leadership, expansive research activities, and the unwavering IQRA principles, as it positions itself to further the goals of Vision 2030 and the SDGs. Effat’s research, diverse in its scope and impact, ranges from cutting-edge technological advancements to interdisciplinary collaborations that address both local and global challenges.

Using a mixed-method approach and drawing from internal data and insights from the university’s archives the chapter underscores Effat University’s commitment to innovation, interdisciplinary education, research excellence, international collaborations, and sustainable practices, all harmonized by the guiding IQRA values. These concerted efforts resonate deeply with Vision 2030 and the SDGs, setting the stage for sustained academic excellence and solid foundation for future academic and societal progress.

The objective of this research conducted in the city of Cuenca is to elaborate on the management platform model of the smart tourist destination (STD). The chapter provides the components to develop such a system as a pilot plan. To maximize the impact of the proposed approach and enhance the decision-making capacities of local actors, the metrics that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) developed for the so-called intermediate cities in the study “Cuenca Sustainable City” are used. The platform (www.smarturcuenca.com) considers the transcendence of the current reality of the tourism sector, which is open to multidisciplinary work with other sectors to promote the rational use of cultural and natural resources through the Internet of Things (IoT).

While the entrepreneurship literature historically supported the idea that the center and finality of the research is the entrepreneur or the entrepreneurial firm, current developments highlight the importance of the context in which the entrepreneur or the entrepreneurial firm operates. This modern view challenges how the entrepreneurship field has been evolved and illustrates the transformation of the research that calls for an accurate overview of where the entrepreneurship field is going. This chapter aims at providing the historical evolution of the field of entrepreneurship by highlighting the state of the art, the main theories, the research gaps, the trends, the current research discussion, and where the field of entrepreneurship is going. Thanks to this historical view, scholars could learn of the origins of the field, how the research discussion has been evolved and how some popular trends appear or disappear and therefore find some research directions and a future research agenda for the future of entrepreneurship.

War is one of the worst characteristics of human nature. Wars over territory, religion, and governance were and are always present through history. War and tourism seem dissonant at first glance. However, the post effects of war enable its components, such as battlefields and artefacts, to become tourist attractions. People share the impetus to visit war attractions such as battlefields, military museums, cemeteries, memorials, and other war-related sites. There is a supply for this type of tourism in exchange for the demand. This type of tourism is referred to in the literature as battlefield tourism. The meaning and definition of battlefield tourism are the main aim of this chapter. What is battlefield tourism? What are the components of battlefield tourism? How can battlefield tourism be defined? These are the primary questions this study tries to address.

This chapter offers a critical evaluation of the concept and application of global carceral archipelagos designed as punitive barriers to refugees. With a focus on policies and practices in Australia for over two decades, the chapter shows how more recently, the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) are also adopting similar strategies to Australia in a pattern of Western countries turning their backs on their human rights obligations. The histories of colonial practices of the racialisation of certain minorities within and outside nation-state borders are an important aspect of understanding contemporary bordering regimes that exclude refugees. The chapter discusses examples of resistance, as well as alternative politics emerging from refugees who have suffered from the carceral border complex, drawing on creative and collaborative work and practices.

This chapter will examine two questions. First, how can art and cultural heritage contribute to the health and well-being of a place within the context of the tourism industry? More specifically, can cultural tourism be a driver for community sustainability, that is, not only environmental sustainability but also social empowerment, cultural preservation, and economic vitality? To explore these questions, the author begins by establishing the ways art and environment are closely intertwined, while pondering how cultural production generally – along with the cultural tourists it attracts – can be a driver for sustainability in tourism settings. The benefits that the arts draw from the environment as well as the ways the environment benefits from the arts will be examined. In the next section, the author unpacks how cultural tourism, and more specifically art production, can be drivers for environmental sustainability through social and eco-entrepreneurship and the creation of a shared social value. In the third section, the author identifies some of the challenges inherent in government regulation and preservation of cultural heritage sites. The author argues that communication, cooperation, and relationship building, not just between governing bodies and private stakeholders, but with residents and tourists, should be prioritized in destination management and marketing strategies. In the end, the author proposes that this type of strategy is vital in order to move toward greater cultural, environmental, social, economic, and other kinds of sustainability in the tourism industry.

This chapter proposes that tax education, proxied by Master of Science in Taxation (MST) degree, has substantial influence on chief financial officers’ (CFOs) knowledge, skill sets, values, and cognitive preferences and further influences their decisions in tax reporting. By empirically examining the relation between CFOs with MST degree and their companies' tax compliance based on US data between 2004 and 2016, we find that CFOs with MST degree are associated with improved tax compliance, suggesting that US MST education, beyond general accounting education, cultivates graduates with higher levels of professionalism and ethics in the field of taxation. Moreover, we find that CFOs' tenure, age, and compensation influence the relation between tax education and tax compliance, suggesting company's compensation and employee policies influence executives' tax decisions. Finally, we find that pressures from financial reporting and CEOs with accounting educational background could alleviate the role of CFOs with accounting educational background in tax reporting, while institutional owners could strengthen the role of CFOs. This chapter provides evidence regarding the social implication of MST program and has important managerial implication to tax compliance, executive recruitment, and corporate governance.