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In light of the shift in focus from information communication technology (ICT) access (access divide) and skills (skills divide) to the tangible impacts of ICT use (impact divide), a growing number of scholars have called for further investigation into the inter-territorial and multi-dimensional aspects of the digital divide in China. This study aims to address these gaps by examining the disparities across 31 provinces, particularly emphasizing the transition from the traditional access and skills divides to the impact divide.

Multivariate regression analysis extensively investigates the transition from the access and skills divides to the impact divide across 31 provinces. Additionally, ArcGIS software is used to analyze spatial agglomeration and the auto-correlation (Moran-i) and predict mapping patterns in the data corresponding to all three levels of the digital divide.

According to the study's findings, poverty is a significant factor in the digital divide between different regions in China. The research shows that provinces with advanced administrative systems, such as Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu, Shandon and Zhejiang, have high scores on the digital development index (DDI). However, regions with poverty-ridden and rural areas, primarily located in southwest, central and western China, tend to have lower DDI scores.

This study offers a novel contribution to the literature by presenting an innovative conceptual framework that explores the impact divide within China's provinces. The authors also address this lacuna in the literature by developing and testing two dimensions to examine the relationships statistically under a wide range of socioeconomic and ICT indicators.

This paper aims to investigate the role of corporate governance on the bank profitability of Indian banks vis-à-vis South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations.

For the Corporate Governance Index, the authors examined board accountability, transparency and disclosure and audit committee, while Tobin’s Q, return on equity and return on assets are used to measure the bank’s profitability. The study used a two-stage analysis based on balanced panel data for robust findings. Sample of this study consists of 60 commercial banks from India and 60 banks from SAARC nations for the period of 2009–2021. This study used panel regression and a generalized method of moment approach using the CAMELS framework on banking industry-specific variables to determine their respective impacts.

The findings of this study suggest that board accountability is positive and significantly affects the profitability of banks as indicated by return on assets, return on equity and Tobin’s Q. In contrast, the audit committee has a positive and insignificant impact on return on assets, return on equity and Tobin’s Q, while transparency and disclosure have a negative and significant impact on these metrics. Furthermore, the country dummy result shows a significant positive impact on all the bank performance parameters, implying that Indian banks have the highest degree of convergence with corporate governance as compared to other SAARC nations.

This study provides insight to the regulators, policymakers and financial institutions to evaluate the role of corporate governance in emerging economies. However, the findings of the study should be interpreted with caution, as the results are sensitive to the disparity between India and other SAARC nations' government policies, climatic circumstances and cultural or religious traditions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to gauge the performance of Indian banks vis-à-vis SAARC nations using the CAMELS framework approach. Further, findings of this study suggest some novel evidence tying corporate governance quality with the profitability of banks among SAARC nations.

Using an integrated theoretical model, this study aims to examine the moderating role of gamification in influencing intentions to use mobile payment applications in Bahrain.

The current examination happens to be the first approximation in the context of Bahrain wherein an extended TPB-based model integrating variables from TAM and UTAUT2 is used along with gamification and situational influence to examine the intentions to use m-payment applications.

The findings revealed that among the variates of the TPB, AT and PB significantly affect the intentions (IN) to use m-payment applications in Bahrain, but SN fails to affect intentions, similarly SI also fails to affect intentions thereby proving that the pandemic fails to drive the intention of the population under study toward using m-payment applications. However, when the application offers gamification (GM) features, SI significantly affects intentions through GM, thus experience along with situation drives intentions and this becomes the major theoretical contribution of the study.

This examination offers useful practical implications in the form of the findings revealing that GM affects intentions to use m-payment applications and that GM moderates the relationship between perceived risk (PR) and IN, as well as SI and IN, which can be used by the service providers to improve the user experience and achieve better acceptance of their application.

The novelty of the study lies in testing the integrated theoretical model in the context of a GCC nation, Bahrain.

The paper aims to analyse the impact of economic and governance factors on remittance inflows to India from the UK, USA and UAE. India is globally recognised as the largest recipient of remittances.

Using a comprehensive time series data set spanning 1996 to 2022, the authors use an innovative non-linear autoregressive distributed lag model approach to examine the influence of economic growth, corruption control and employer availability in the three source countries on remittance inflows to India.

The results indicate that in the UAE, changes in economic growth and corruption control directly affect remittance outflows. However, the presence of employers in the UAE has minimal impact on remittance outflows to India. Regarding the UK, fluctuations in economic growth primarily drive remittance outflows to India. The effect of corruption control and employment opportunities on remittance outflows is marginal. In the USA, economic growth does not notably impact remittance outflows, whereas corruption control and employment opportunities significantly influence the outflows to India.

These findings have important implications for policymakers. Analysing macroeconomic factors from key remittance-sending nations offers valuable insights for Indian policymakers and their international counterparts to enhance remittance inflows. The study focuses on three countries that collectively contribute to about 50% of India's remittances, providing a unique contribution compared to the usual country-specific or regional focus in existing literature. Finally, leveraging these findings, NITI Aayog, an organisation dedicated to achieving India's sustainable development goals, can effectively monitor macroeconomic indicators related to significant remittance-sending countries.

An ever-increasing number of companies outsource logistics activities to third-party logistics (3PL) providers to beat the competition. From the buyer's (shippers') perspective, selecting the right 3PL provider is crucial, and from the 3PL provider's perspective, it is imperative to be attractive and to retain clients. To this aim, a potential lever can be physical assets, such as warehouses, which the literature has traditionally neglected. The objective is to benchmark the importance of warehouses for 3PL providers to attract/retain clients and for shippers to select the right 3PL provider.

The authors performed an empirical investigation through interviews on dyads (3PL providers/shippers) and utilized the Best-Worst Method (BWM) to rank the criteria used in the 3PL buying process and allow the warehouse's role to emerge.

Results show that the 3PL buying process consists of four phases and three evaluation steps. The selection criteria are classified into three groups: order qualifiers, order winners and retention factors. The warehouse has different levels of importance throughout the process. It appears that it can indirectly enhance the attractiveness and retention capability of 3PL providers through other selection criteria.

By combining the resource-based view and the customer value theory, this research extends the theory on logistics outsourcing by studying the phases of the 3PL buying process and scrutinizing the criteria used in different evaluation steps. The research adds a double perspective of analysis (3PL providers and shippers), which is missing in the literature, and focuses on the importance of warehouses.

As a result, the current study attempted to investigate the impact of green human resource (GHR) practices on long-term performance, and the path has been explained through organizational identification, which is supported by social identity theory.

To achieve the present study's primary goal, data were obtained from manufacturing businesses and analyzed using partial least square (Smart PLS) on the data of 284 Pakistani small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) registered with the small and medium-sized enterprises development authority (SMEDA).

As a result, the findings show that organizational identification explains the indirect relationship between sustainable performance and green human resource management (GHRM).

To limit the limited negative effect on the environment and society, the findings provide several suggestions for the government authorities and policymakers to adopt green practices and policies.

Green practices are essential for a company to limit its negative environmental effect. Environmental critical problems among shareholders put pressure on the firm to implement GHR practices and organizational identification with long-term success.

This study aims to examine the moderator effect of religiosity on the relationship between halal brand awareness and habit towards purchasing decisions of halal products.

The quantitative method is used in this study. Descriptive and statistical (multiple and moderated regression) analyses are employed to test the hypothesis according to the research model. The data is collected using a cross-sectional design from 197 respondents consisting of business owners in North Sumatera, Indonesia.

It is found that both halal brand awareness and habit have a positive and significant effect on the purchasing decision of halal products. Meanwhile, religiosity significantly acts as a moderating variable in the relationship between awareness and purchasing decisions, as well as habit and purchasing decisions.

This study revealed the important factor of religiosity as a moderating factor in purchase decisions of halal products. The government may need to collaborate with Islamic educational institutions to raise awareness of the halal concept and product awareness. It is assumed that individuals who know about the Islamic religion will have a higher degree of awareness of halal products compared to individuals with limited knowledge of Islam; thus, providers of Islamic education play a crucial role in raising the level of awareness of halal products. Schools may serve as catalysts for the dissemination of knowledge of halal products.

Developing halal product markets can be done by enhancing the religiosity level of consumers, one of them through attending formal or informal religious classes.

This study aims to investigate the influence of green human resource management (Green HRM) on employee ecological behaviour (EEB) using the mediating role of green commitment.

Data were gathered using convenience sampling by surveying 308 academicians in five public research universities across Malaysia. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) tested the hypothesised model.

The results offered support for the hypotheses. Green HRM was related positively to EEB, and Green HRM influenced EEB indirectly via green commitment.

This study has significant implications for policymaking regarding higher education institutions that maintain an eco-friendly environment in Malaysia. The study offers guidelines to decision makers for enhancing EEB and environmental commitment in the workplace.

This study contributes to the current literature on green behaviour and Green HRM by examining these relationships and testing the mediation effect of green commitment from the developing economy of Malaysia. It also offers guidelines for policymakers and HR practitioners to promote environmental friendliness at work and create an environmentally friendly organisational culture.

This study attempts to answer how values and holiday preferences were shaped by the pandemic, how travellers view the future of tourism and how they are willing to contribute to potential changes. Furthermore, it examines the impact of socio-structural background factors, basic values and holiday preferences, and pandemic-related factors on the views of post-pandemic tourism.

A longitudinal online survey was conducted in which 155 frequent travellers were interviewed both before and during the pandemic about their values and holiday preferences, attitudes towards travelling during the pandemic, and their prospective views regarding tourism.

The findings revealed that values remained rather stable, but nature experiences, heritage tourism and beach offers gained more relevance when it came to holiday preferences. Concerning travellers’ expectations of future tourism, environmental concern was ranked higher than economic profit. However, those striving for self-direction, stimulation and city tourism offers stated to be less willing to restrict their travel behaviour in the future.

Although our study is just based on a convenience sample, the authors were still able to address notable research gaps. First, because a longitudinal design was selected, it was possible to investigate any potential transitions in basic values and travel style and trace these changes back to the pandemic. Second, thanks to a sophisticated online survey, all concepts could be measured with well-developed scales, which increased the quality of the measurements and led to stable results. Third, young travellers can be considered proponents of future travel styles. Their way of acting and thinking about future tourism could significantly impact the prospective direction of tourism.

This study makes a valuable contribution to changing holiday preferences and provides useful insights for the tourism industry about travellers’ willingness to change their travel behaviour.

Since this study primarily considers human values and socio-structural factors, the findings are of particular interest from a sociological perspective and are also interpreted from this viewpoint.

This study is one of only a few longitudinal studies focusing on holiday preferences and shifting values during COVID-19 and attempting to detect crucial drivers of potential tourism transformations in terms of perceptions from the demand side.

This study aims to probe the relationship of facial disfigurement, stigmatization, burdensome, hopelessness and suicidal ideation in acid attack survivors and to scrutinize the mediating role of perceived burdensome and hopelessness in connection between facial disfigurement, social stigmatization and suicidal ideation among acid attack survivors.

Data was collected from Holy Family Hospital which is located in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Acid Survivors Foundation and social media sites. Purposive sampling technique was used to collect the sample. Sample comprised of N = 74 acid attack survivors. English version of discrimination and stigma scale, interpersonal needs questionnaire perceived burdensome scale, suicidal ideation attributes scale, Beck hopelessness scale and observer-rated facial disfigurement scale were used for the assessment. Statistical analysis includes correlation and mediation analysis through process macro.

Results indicated significant positive relationship between facial disfigurements, unfair treatment, stopping self and perceived burdensome with suicidal ideation, whereas overcoming stigma, hopelessness and positive treatment present a negative relationship with suicidal ideation. Results of the current study also showed that burdensome and hopelessness appear as significant mediator in association between facial disfigurement, social discrimination and suicidal ideation. This study provides the awareness about how by decreasing the hopelessness and perceived burdensome and resolving social stigmatization can minimize suicidal ideation and risks accompanying it.

This research covers a topic that violates human rights, it is a topic that never gets old and people are still facing its effects.