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The purpose of this article is to identify the role of cloud computing services in business continuity and disaster recovery plans and delineate responsibilities for their execution. In recent times, there has been a huge upsurge in the usage of cloud service models such as infrastructure-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, software-as-a-service and disaster recovery-as-a-service. However, in case of an emergency event or during contract negotiations, a question might arise as to who should be accountable and responsible for the content and execution of recovery plans. The main stakeholders in this scenario are cloud service providers and cloud consumers.

After a review of academic articles, standards, guidelines and vendor documentation, a proposal for assigning accountability and responsibility for business continuity and disaster recovery plans is presented, based on the RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted and informed) matrix. In this regard, a critical information infrastructure protection plan, a disaster recovery plan, an information systems contingency plan and a business continuity plan have been elaborated on in the article.

RACI matrices are presented for three general cloud service models and for three DRaaS models (managed, assisted and self-service). Accountability and responsibilities depend on the deployed cloud service model and the roles of cloud service providers and cloud consumers.

The proposed model for accountability and responsibility assignment provides a guideline for the allocation of responsibilities to roles not only during recovery but also during contract negotiations between cloud service providers and cloud consumers. By delving into business continuity and disaster recovery processes and activities, similar yet nuanced RACI matrices should be developed, as presented in this paper. They need to be customised for the specific context.

This scoping review investigates the factors influencing succession planning in Sub-Saharan African family-owned businesses.

Employing the Arksey and O’Malley (2005) framework, a systematic approach was followed. Major databases (JSTOR, Sage Journals, Scopus and Web of Science) were searched and supplemented by reference list reviews. Inclusivity was ensured through collaboration with an academic librarian. Inclusion criteria covered literature from 2010 to 2023, focussing on Sub-Saharan African studies related to family-owned business succession planning.

The study emphasises the need for gender inclusiveness, resource management and family dynamics in family-owned business succession planning in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study also aligns with the sustainable development goals (SDGs), emphasiing gender inclusivity and environmental responsibility. However, the unique context of Sub-Saharan Africa introduces additional complexities, necessitating tailored strategies for business sustainability.

The study emphasises the importance of skill development, leadership development, open governance and open family relationships in succession planning in Sub-Saharan African family-owned firms. It suggests policies supporting education, mentorship, knowledge-sharing networks, strategic resource management, financial management, human capital development and sustainable business practices to address succession concerns and contribute to societal advancement.

The distinct socio-economic, cultural and political backdrop of Sub-Saharan Africa is highlighted in this study, with a focus on the necessity of customised succession planning frameworks because of post-colonial governance systems, tribal affiliations and colonial legacies.

This paper sets out why reskilling is an essential element of an effective talent strategy and outlines the key steps to successful reskilling.

A qualitative review of methodologies and practices for reskilling is presented in this paper.

Reskilling is an essential organisational practice allowing employers to respond effectively to turbulent business conditions. Organisations need to engage in three priority actions: strategic workforce planning, adopting flexible work design practices and developing targeted upskilling and reskilling programmes.

This is a synthesis of a variety of ideas about how to approach reskilling and reflects practices adopted by organisations.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the incorporation, prioritization and depth of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives in tourism industry restart policies of Canadian provinces and territories. This study investigates how the detailing of EDI in policies determine the priority in emancipating tourism workers from the inequities exacerbated during the pandemic. Such investigation enables a better understanding of the complexities, tendencies and rationale of involving EDI in the tourism industry’s recovery.

The research investigated the presence and prioritization of equity, diversity, and inclusion using systematic text analytics of 38 publicly available restart plans and statements from 52 government and non-government agencies. Using web-based software Voyant Tools to assist in text analytics, a hybrid deductive-inductive coding approach was conducted.

Key outcomes from the analysis revealed scarce to no full and dedicated content on EDI as a holistic initiative necessary for tourism industry relaunch. This lack of EDI content was a result of the greater impetus to prioritize economic generation and limited data due to practical and ideological issues. Results also suggested the tokenizing of EDI in some policies.

Difficulties in data used for research include the lack and availability of restart policies specifically for tourism; most policies were generalized and referred to economic recovery as a whole. Studies of tourism-specific EDI issues were also limited.

The research is revelatory for investigating EDI prioritizations in restart policies even among well-developed and worker-diverse tourism industries such as in Canada, where inequities and injustices to women, Black, Indigenous, gender-diverse, and newcomer tourism workers among others have been withstanding.

A debate on whether new ventures should be supported with public funding is taking place. Adopting a position on this discussion requires rigorous assessments of implemented programs. However, the few existing efforts have mostly focused on regional cases in developed countries. To fill this gap, this paper aims to measure the effects of a regional acceleration program in a developing country (Medellin, Colombia).

The economic notion of capabilities is used to frame the analysis of firm characteristics and productivity, which are hypothesized to be heterogeneous within the program. To test these relationships, propensity score matching is used in a sample of 60 treatment and 16,994 control firms.

This paper finds that treated firms had higher revenue than propensity score-matched controls on average, confirming a positive impact on growth measures. However, such financial growth is mostly observed in service firms rather than other economic sectors.

Further evaluations, with a longer period and using more outcome variables, are suggested in the context of similar publicly funded programs in developing countries.

These findings tip the balance in favor of the literature suggesting supportive programs for high-growth firms as opposed to everyday entrepreneurship. This is an insight, especially under the context of an emerging economy, which has scarce funding to support entrepreneurship.

This study aims to examine the relevance of strategic marketing planning in this agile era and its effect on firms’ international performance and explores conditions under which the influence of planning changes.

Based on contingency theory, a conceptual model is tested based on survey data from internationalizing firms. Data were analyzed using partial least squares -structural equation modeling.

Marketing strategy planning is (still) associated with enhanced performance, and depends on external and internal contingencies. While the planning−performance relationship is amplified by market sensing (external contingency), surprisingly, it is decreased in presence of high tolerance for failure (internal contingency).

Findings seek to transform marketing planning in international business practice by requiring that its implementation receives the attention of senior management.

Marketing strategy planning should not be deemphasized. While planning appears to be undergoing an identity crisis, practitioners’ attention to marketing planning is warranted.

Authorities have set up numerous security checkpoints during times of armed conflict to control the flow of commercial and humanitarian trucks into and out of areas of conflict. These security checkpoints have become highly utilized because of the complex security procedures and increased truck traffic, which significantly slow the delivery of relief aid. This paper aims to improve the process at security checkpoints by redesigning the current process to reduce processing time and relieve congestion at checkpoint entrance gates.

A decision-support tool (clearing function distribution model [CFDM]) is used to minimize the effects of security checkpoint congestion on the entire humanitarian supply network using a hybrid simulation-optimization approach. By using a business process simulation, the current and reengineered processes are both simulated, and the simulation output was used to estimate the clearing function (capacity as a function of the workload). For both the AS-IS and TO-BE models, key performance indicators such as distribution costs, backordering and process cycle time were used to compare the results of the CFDM tool. For this, the Kerem Abu Salem security checkpoint south of Gaza was used as a case study.

The comparison results demonstrate that the CFDM tool performs better when the output of the TO-BE clearing function is used.

The efforts will contribute to improving the planning of any humanitarian network experiencing congestion at security checkpoints by minimizing the impact of congestion on the delivery lead time of relief aid to the final destination.

Amidst escalating sustainability challenges, product and brand managers face a pressing need to foster responsible consumption and marketing strategies. Guided by the theory of planned behavior, this paper aims to explore consumers’ motivation to purchase second-hand clothing, a type of product that contributes to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 on Responsible Consumption and Production by democratizing the brand, extending the life-cycle of the product, promoting a circular economy, while reducing economic costs for consumers and environmental costs for companies.

A two-stage study was conducted: 20 consumers were initially interviewed to identify the salient beliefs about second-hand clothing, and following that, a survey was conducted with 449 consumers to statistically analyze consumers’ motivation to purchase second-hand clothing. The data were analyzed using partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and necessary condition analysis (NCA).

From a “should-have” perspective (PLS-SEM), the study reveals that behavioral beliefs, injunctive normative beliefs, descriptive normative beliefs and control beliefs positively shape attitudes, injunctive norms, descriptive norms and perceived behavioral control toward second-hand clothing, whereas attitudes, injunctive norms, moral norms and perceived behavioral control positively influence consumers’ purchases of second-hand clothing. From a “must-have” perspective (NCA), the study shows that behavioral beliefs, injunctive normative beliefs and descriptive normative beliefs are necessary conditions to positively shape attitudes, injunctive norms and descriptive norms toward second-hand clothing, whereas attitudes, injunctive norms and perceived behavioral control are necessary conditions to stimulate second-hand clothing purchases.

The study offers a deep dive into consumers’ motivation to purchase second-hand clothing using a multimethod approach that enables not only the elicitation of salient beliefs (through interviews) but also the empirical examination of these beliefs alongside varying subjective norms in motivating consumers to purchase second-hand clothing (via survey). Given that beliefs are deeply rooted, the rigorous unfolding and validation of consumers’ beliefs about second-hand clothing, including the “should-haves” versus the “must-haves,” provide finer-grained insights that product and brand managers can strategically use to encourage consumers to purchase second-hand clothing.

The study aims to identify a model of commercializing entrepreneurial ideas in information and communication technology (ICT) knowledge-based companies.

A mixed method has been used in the research. The participants of the qualitative part were 15 key informants selected by sampling method purposefully and theoretically, while a sample of 205 experts was randomly chosen for the quantitative part. Data collection was completed through a semistructured interview in the qualitative part and by a researcher-made questionnaire in the quantitative part. The reliability of the research was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha. The validity of the qualitative and quantitative parts was approved, respectively, by the criteria of Corbin and Strauss (2008) and by the content validity. Data analysis was done in the qualitative part through open, axial and selective coding, while in the quantitative part through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS).

The commercialization model of ICT entrepreneurial ideas was depicted by the paradigmatic version of Corbin and Strauss (2008). The model has been consisted of six sectors as follows: causal conditions (including stimuli of science and technology parks, interests and motivation of managers of ICT knowledge-based company and environmental stimuli), contextual conditions (including skills and abilities of managers of ICT knowledge-based company, status of ICT knowledge-based company and enabling and facilitating legal framework), intervening conditions (including the complex nature of the ICT industry, science and technology parks’ support of companies, facilities and equipment for commercialization of ICT entrepreneurial ideas and economic system stability), strategies (including marketing research, planning and feasibility study of ICT entrepreneurial idea, design and production of ICT product and release and supply of ICT product), consequences (successful commercialization of ICT entrepreneurial ideas in the post-COVID-19 era) and the central phenomenon (ICT entrepreneurial ideas: commercialization in the post-COVID-19 era). Then, the main factors were confirmed through PLS-SEM and ANFIS. Among the factors, interests and motivation of managers of ICT knowledge-based companies, status of ICT knowledge-based companies, facilities and equipment for commercialization of ICT entrepreneurial ideas and release and supply of ICT products were identified as the most influential factors.

The model can help solve the challenges of managers and policymakers to commercialize ICT entrepreneurial ideas. Therefore, innovative production will increase, value will be created for the beneficiaries and economic, social and political growth will occur in the post-Corona era.

Commercialization of ICT entrepreneurial ideas has the potential to affect many aspects of economic and societal activities in the society such as GDP growth, employment, productivity, poverty alleviation, quality of life and education.

The research includes innovation in presenting a multidimensional commercialization model based on an entrepreneurial perspective in the special field of ICT with a mixed approach including grounded theory, PLS-SEM and ANFIS in ICT knowledge-based companies. But the most important innovation of the study is related to the findings. The main categories, subcategories and concepts of the research have been presented in the form of a theory entitled “ICT entrepreneurial ideas: commercialization in the post-COVID-19 era.”

Entrepreneurship education (EE) through innovative teaching techniques (ITEE) and entrepreneurial intention (EI) are two essential components of entrepreneurship development. Using the assumptions of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), we took three constructs: attitude (ATT), subjective norms (SUBNs), and perceived behavioral control (PBC), and from the assumption of Human Capital (HC) theory, we constructed another variable, ITEE. Thus, the fundamental objective of this study is to find out the essential predictor of EI between entrepreneurial antecedents (ATT, SUBNs, PBC) and ITEE through an artificial neural network (ANN).

Using the snowball sampling technique, a highly structured questionnaire was sent to respondents. Finally, a sample size of 397 business graduate students was chosen.

The findings revealed that two dimensions of entrepreneurial antecedents (attitude and subjective norm) positively impacted EI. Furthermore, ITEE partially mediated the relationship between two dimensions of entrepreneurial antecedents (attitude and subjective norm) and EI. Moreover, through ANN, we found that attitude (ATT) was a crucial predictor of EI among business graduate students in Bangladesh.

In this study, only business graduate students were included as respondents; thus, further research should include students from other departments or disciplines to generalize the findings.

This study covers numerous actors in terms of practical contributions, including students, academics, the government, and the state. This article should draw the attention of Bangladesh government policymakers regarding the significance of ITEE for developing entrepreneurship. The research framework of this study proposed that ITEE should implement antecedents of entrepreneurship into business education, boosting the ability of students to make judgments, which will also enhance EI in the future.

Integrating the TPB theory with human capital theory represents a significant scholarly advancement in business education for graduate students in Southeast Asia, namely Bangladesh. Furthermore, we developed a novel ITEE scale by synthesizing information from many literary sources, providing valuable insights for future researchers.