Search results

Medical schools aspire to graduate doctors who are competent in interpreting, conducting and publishing scientific research. Hence, the purpose of the paper is explore the impact of a structured compulsory community-oriented, project-based research program in the undergraduate medical curriculum on medical graduates’ future careers, publications and motivation for scientific research.

An online questionnaire was sent through the Alumni Association of the Arabian Gulf University (AGU) to medical graduates who have valid email addresses, seeking information on their scientific productivity along with demographic and current employment data. Responses were collated and analyzed using a standard statistical software package. The chi-square test and p-value were calculated. P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Completed forms were received from 91 medical graduates. In this sample, almost a quarter of the respondents have published a research paper out of their undergraduate research project, and about 50% have published at least one paper (as main or co-author) after graduation. Both demographic and medical specialty was not related to the doctor's perception of the benefits they have attained from the compulsory undergraduate research program. However, medical graduates who are at senior levels in their medical careers and those who are employed in secondary healthcare are significantly more likely to publish research papers.

The compulsory community-oriented, project-based research program in AGU has positively contributed to the research productivity of graduates, and it would be worthwhile to include such programs as an integral part of the undergraduate medical curriculum.

Online reviews derived from peer communications have been increasingly viewed as an important approach for consumers to gather pre-purchase information. This study aims to examine factors affecting online reviews adoption in social network communities and then indicates the underlying mechanism of this process based on an extended information adoption model (IAM).

Using the data collected from 242 users of a social network community via an online survey, the proposed model is empirically assessed by partial least squares-based structural equation model (PLS-SEM).

The results show that both perceived diagnosticity and perceived serendipity are drivers of online reviews adoption in social network communities. Meanwhile, community identification is not only an antecedent of diagnosticity and serendipity perceived by community members, but also motivates source credibility which, in turn, positively influences argument quality. Finally, the importance of argument quality and source credibility in reviews adoption process is also presented.

This study extends the IAM and enriches the literature regarding online reviews adoption. It deepens the understanding of serendipitous experiences and community identification in social networking context by addressing their important roles in the authors' extended IAM.

The technology acceptance model (TAM) is a widely used framework explaining why users accept new technologies. Still, its relevance is questioned because of evolving consumer behavior, demographics and technology. Contrary to a research paper or systematic literature review, the purpose of this critical reflection paper is to discuss TAM's relevance and limitations in hospitality and tourism research.

This paper uses a critical reflective approach, enabling a comprehensive review and synthesis of recent academic literature on TAM. The critical evaluation encompasses its historical trajectory, evolutionary growth, identified limitations and, more specifically, its relevance in the context of hospitality and tourism research.

TAM's limitations within the hospitality and tourism context revolve around its individual-centric perspective, limited scope, static nature, cultural applicability and reliance on self-reported measures.

To optimize TAM's efficacy, the authors propose several strategic recommendations. These include embedding TAM within the specific context of the industry, delving into TAM-driven artificial intelligence adoption, integrating industry-specific factors, acknowledging cultural nuances and using comprehensive research methods, such as mixed methods approach. It is imperative for researchers to critically assess TAM's suitability for their studies and be open to exploring alternative models or methods that can adeptly navigate the distinctive dynamics of the industry.

This critical reflection paper prompts a profound exploration of technology adoption within the dynamic hospitality and tourism sector, makes insightful inquiries into TAM's future potential and presents recommendations.

Augmented reality (AR) technology presents novel opportunities for marketers to captivate consumers, enhancing their experiences with brands. Although recent research underscores consumers' favorable responses to AR within retail contexts, there remains a paucity of studies examining the specific factors motivating these responses, i.e. reasons for, such as the appeal of entertainment, trendiness, customization, interaction and augmentation quality. Conversely, reasons against AR acceptance, such as perceived lack of realism, skepticism or perceived deception, are also underexplored.

Guided by the behavioral reasoning theory, the current study delves into consumers' personal values and beliefs, their reasons for and reasons against using AR apps and how these factors influence their engagement and relationship performance with AR apps. The data were collected from 343 AR app users to test the developed theoretical framework.

Results reveal that while perceived value compatibility does not influence reasons for using AR apps, it negatively influences reasons against using AR apps and positively influences connectedness to AR apps. Interestingly, openness to change does not significantly influence users’ connection to AR apps, and no association was found between reasons-against and connectedness to AR apps and relationship performance. However, a positive relationship was observed between users’ connectedness to AR apps and their relationship performance.

By offering these insights, this study contributes to a foundational understanding of the behavioral intricacies and dynamic interaction patterns within the rapidly emerging AR user base.

This paper aims to analyse the role of a network in the development of female business experiences through the study of the Industrie Femminili Italiane (I.F.I.) (Italian Women’s Cooperative Enterprise), founded in 1903 in Rome to promote women’s work and their economic conditions.

This study applies the embeddedness theory for women’s empowerment that provides a valuable lens to explore the interactions between female entrepreneurs and their social, cultural and economic contexts.

With this study, the authors found that the network structure was used at the beginning of the past century in Italy as a useful instrument for female emancipation and empowerment, extending to common/not exceptional women entrepreneurial opportunities otherwise reserved for rich and noble women. In the interplay among the different “contexts” (political, social, cultural and cognitive), it seems to emerge the incidence of female social relationships in facing an unfavourable political and cultural context, breaking out the norms and allowing the business to exist and influencing, with the activity of the high social standing women, the cognitive structure of the other female workers, make them active participants in this entrepreneurial activity.

This is a single case study that has shed light on a specific female network, and the authors’ findings and considerations are influenced by the shortage of data and sources available. Demonstrating that I.F.I. is the result of the collaboration of women from different social classes involved at different organisational levels, this work shows, from a historical perspective, the importance of female mutual support for their emancipation and the role played by the network structure as an amplifier of possibilities otherwise limited to rich women, the emancipation of women and minorities in countries characterised by important barriers to entrepreneurship.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper analysing a female entrepreneurial network from a historical point of view and its role in overcoming gender barriers within the analysis of the interplaying contexts.

Augmented reality is one of the technologies that developed and became widespread, especially after the 2000s. It is seen that innovations such as 3D virtual reality glasses, artificial intelligence-supported smart chatbots that communicate with customers in a virtual environment, keyless hotel systems, the Internet of Things, augmented reality applications, smart personal assistants, digital infrastructure concepts and face recognition systems are used in tourism businesses. The place and use of augmented reality technologies in tourism enterprises are discussed in this study. This study was evaluated from the perspective of UTAUT2. The purpose of this study is to examine the usability of augmented reality technologies in tourism businesses.

Within the scope of the study, interviews were held with augmented reality application developers, digital marketing agencies and accommodation business managers. The obtained data were processed with the MAXQDA analysis program.

It has been determined that augmented reality is a useful and informative technological tool for tourists, it can help sales, promotion and marketing activities, and its usability potency in accommodation businesses is high.

When the literature is reviewed, it is understood that the studies that apply to the opinions of the application developers and the managers of the accommodation establishments are limited. Therefore, this study has been prepared to contribute to the literature in this respect. This study examines and discusses the use of augmented reality technologies in tourism enterprises, the benefits and difficulties they will create from the perspective of application developers and accommodation business managers and their place in tourism enterprises. This study was evaluated from the perspective of UTAUT2. There is a need for research developed using UTAUT models in technology acceptance studies. In this respect, it will contribute to the literature.

Clinically, it is often observed that autistic people may have a heightened need for rules and may find rule violations very distressing. It is clinically plausible that autistic individuals may be prone to hyper-morality and greater reactivity and adverse experiences arising from moral threats and violations. Such adverse experiences may, in some instances, lead to moral distress (MD) or in more extreme cases moral injury. Thus, this study aims to examine how MD can operate in the context of autism.

The authors explore clinical hypotheses on how MD can intersect with different features of autism by drawing on clinical and research knowledge of autism spectrum disorder and how it contextualises experiences of morality.

Based on a review of the literature and theory, the authors hypothesise that autistic individuals may be more prone to MD where they have a lower threshold for MD. As a result of this lower threshold, they may have more frequent exposure to MD, experience more immediate and intense subjective reactions to moral transgressions, for more protracted periods. Also, they may find it more difficult to over-ride and neutralise moral outrage. As a result, they may be more susceptible to mental health sequelae and impaired social and occupational functioning. Practical recommendations are made for clinicians supporting people with autism with a propensity for MD or moral injury, to improve their quality of life.

Practical recommendations are made for clinicians supporting people with autism with a propensity for MD or moral injury, to improve their quality of life.

Understanding MD in an autistic context is important for detecting and treating the adverse impacts of MD on autistic individuals. Importantly, erroneous preconceptions about moral reasoning in autism need to be mitigated to fully understand the moral experiences and harness the many strengths of people with autism.

Applying the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theory in a wine museum context, this paper aims to examine how and why experience design characteristics influence visitor satisfaction, particularly investigating the role of epistemic (learning) and hedonic (having fun) values as the underlying mechanisms of this relationship.

The authors collected field survey data from 652 visitors at a world-leading wine museum. The authors tested the research model on ten modules of the museum using path analysis and a bootstrap approach; the authors further conducted mediation analyses to test how the design of the museum’s modules influenced perceived value and satisfaction.

Content comprehensibility and surprise, as well as interactivity and ease of use, are core design characteristics that drive visitor satisfaction. More significantly, hedonic and epistemic values play a significant mediating role in influencing the relationship between design characteristics and visitor satisfaction.

The authors provide clear and actionable recommendations to help managers design museums that provide educational, entertaining and satisfying visitor experiences.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to apply the S-O-R theory in a wine museum context. The significance of this study lies in demonstrating how and why experience design characteristics support the creation of an edutainment visitor experience that drives visitor satisfaction.

Drawing on appraisal theories, this paper aims to attempt to demonstrate how augmented reality (AR) strengthens relationships in the cognitive-affective-conative mechanism to shape visitors' recommendation of awe-inspiring heritage experiences.

A mixed-method approach was undertaken. First, an exploratory pre-study (n = 98) analyzed the multidimensionality of awe appraisals, eliciting the most salient dimensions in tourism experiences for informing the main study. Subsequently, an on-site survey was used to examine the relationships in the cognitive-affective-conative sequence, based on 316 questionnaires collected at a highly acclaimed religious heritage equipped with a multisensory AR activity.

Two distinct appraisals underlined in the awe concept were elicited during the exploratory phase: altered emotions (aggregating positive self-transformative dimensions) and the need for accommodation. The survey results demonstrated that the influence of authenticity on recommendation is shaped by emotions. Altered emotions hold a central mediating role and are differentiated from other discrete emotions. AR and the need for accommodation are revealed as contingencies that regulate the mediated mechanism.

This paper provides the hospitality and tourism stakeholders with a better understanding of how immersive technologies can be used for boosting recommendations, by enhancing the emotional responses toward authenticity perceptions.

This study introduces a novel conceptual framework to broaden our understanding of how cognitive and affective mental processes are linked to visitors’ recommendations, and how AR amplifies the outcomes. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first research to distinguish and document the specific effects of two different types of awe appraisal.

This study aims to investigate the extent to which audit committee (AC) members who are formally independent are truly independent in practice, and what challenges they face that undermine their independence.

The study utilizes semi-structured interviews with 18 members of the AC in Jordan.

The responses indicate that AC is mostly labelled as independent but fails to play an effective monitoring role due to different institutional factors. These factors include family ownership, government ownership, culture, compensation package and the lack of qualified directors.

This research addresses this gap by presenting qualitative evidence from a civil law jurisdiction, featured by a developing financial market, a prevalence of family businesses, limited investor protection and a low risk of litigation. Additionally, this study aims to rectify the current imbalance between qualitative and quantitative studies on AC and bridge the gap between research conducted in developed countries and their developing counterparts.

This study offers valuable insights for regulatory authorities to engage in a more profound contemplation of extant governance regulations. Also, this study offers useful feedback for nomination committees of public companies, and it also has an implication for shareholders as they rely on independent directors to protect their investment. Furthermore, implications of the findings derived from this research possess the potential for generalization to other developing nations characterized by akin institutional contexts, notably encompassing the countries situated in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

This research introduces novel qualitative empirical evidence from a distinctive jurisdiction governed by civil law, thereby enriching the existing scholarly discourse. It also contributes to the AC literature by suggesting that it is not only the existence of conventionally independent ACs that affect the integrity of financial statements, but also the absence of social ties and other contextual obstacles.