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Avatars have become increasingly prevalent on brand websites, yet their impact on consumers' use of these sites remains underexplored. The current study focuses on avatars, which are three-dimensional animated graphical web interfaces that verbally aid the brand stakeholders (e.g. customers, employees and suppliers). Avatars provide administrative and technical information through the brand website. Drawing upon the stimuli–organism–response (S-O-R) paradigm, this research examines the impact of avatars as an information provision and interacting tool (vs a traditional format) on consumers' perceptions, attitudes and behaviors toward a brand. It also investigates the roles of familiarity with avatar use and the language used by an avatar in shaping consumers' responses.

Across two laboratory experiments, the authors examined and confirmed causal relationships between the use of avatars (vs a traditional format) on a website and attitudinal and behavioral constructs.

We show that avatars (vs written information) had a significant effect on controlling information. The users in our experiments had greater control over the information provided when it was presented as text on a website compared to the case of avatars “telling” the information. Different languages and familiarity with avatar use also affected the consumers' hedonism in terms of website use.

We advance the understanding of avatar use in website design, particularly avatars' verbal interaction, in shaping consumers' cognitive, affective, attitudinal and behavioral responses and add important empirical evidence to the growing body of research and practices involving avatar use in interactive marketing.

The current research aims to analyze the literature to determine its strengths and weaknesses and extract the required information, which will be used to identify the characteristics of the highly competitive organization (HCO), define it and identify the HCO's critical success factors (CSFs). Finally, the future research agenda will be proposed.

A multiple stages research methodology was used to fulfill the research objectives. The research started with the systematic literature review (SLR). Then, focus group discussions and Pareto analysis were used to fulfill research objectives.

Eleven points were identified in the research to represent the characteristics of the HCO. Then, the HCO was defined based on the elements of these points. Moreover, the vital few CSFs to successfully implement many research scopes were identified. Then, the CSFs of the HCO was generated based on these vital few CSFs.

The main limitation of the current research is the literature sample size. A larger sample selection could enrich the generated lists with many other CSFs.

Many implications points were highlighted in this research which showed the importance of the current research for academic and practical audiences.

The SLR process showed that the reviewed literature lacked a consolidated list of the HCO characteristics and a clear definition of the HCO. Moreover, the reviewed literature lacked a unified list of the HCO CSFs. Therefore, the current research approach is novel and original.

This paper aims to determine the factors that influence the consumer’s online shopping intention in the current pandemic context (COVID-19). For this purpose, a conceptual model has been developed by introducing the constructs “attitude,” “perceived utility,” “intention” as well as the variable “perceived risk of contagion.”

After collecting data from the questionnaire diffused in Moroccan e-commerce websites, this study used various statistical analyses with the multiple regression model on the SPSS statistical software to confirm or refute the research hypotheses.

The results indicate that attitude and perceived utility positively affect online shopping intention. However, the variable “perceived risk of contagion” has a weak effect on such intention, which can be explained by the period in which the survey was started (a few months after the confinement).

The scientific contribution of this study lies in the insertion of a new factor that will be called “perceived risk of contagion” in the research model. This factor has been inspired by the perceived risk theory of Bauer (1960). Furthermore, all studies dealing with this topic have been carried out in developed countries, such as France, Great Britain, Germany and the USA. For this reason, the researcher believe that it is more appropriate to study the intention to buy online during the COVID-19 pandemic in one of the developing countries, such as Morocco. This is based on the fact that to develop theories, it is necessary to examine a given problem in several countries. The context plays a determining role in such situations.

This paper analyses changes in the activity pattern of Damascus city from late modern era (late Ottoman rule) to the contemporary era. The research objective is to explore the impact of the socio-historical process on the evolving morphological structure of the urban core and to draw implications for post-war reconstruction.

Space Syntax methodology was employed to trace the historical and morphological changes in the urban core of Damascus. The timeframe was divided into five periods covering the city's socio-political transformation and five maps depicting these periods. Local and global integration measures were used to analyse the changes in the urban core across each period. Normalised angular choice (NACH) measure was used to identify the changes in the city planning system.

The results revealed that the urban core corresponded to the main streets, which had socio-economic importance across history. However, introducing a new planning system influenced by Western planning ideals led to the creation of multi-morphological patterns. At the city level, the study found that the urban core was more accessible in the preplanned areas, while the organic expansion of the informal settlements was exclusive of the core area. At the local level, some informal settlements showed an intense core. Intelligibility analysis revealed that earlier periods showed considerably higher values, implying declines in the ease of navigation of the city over time.

This study did not account for the political, economic and cultural factors that could shape morphological changes in Damascus. In addition, the study adopted historical reference points to understand the morphological changes, as high-quality geospatial data was not available to monitor the recent post-war situation.

The research findings give a foundation for a more contextualised historical understanding of spatial structure and changes, which can contribute to the post-war reconstruction and redevelopment of Damascus city.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to trace historical spatial changes in Damascus from a space syntax approach, weaving together socio-historical and configurational studies. In doing so, it shows how historically informed and spatially aware urban planning and design policies can support policymakers and built environment professionals in planning and redevelopment.

This study aims to examine the direct influence of workplace bullying (WB) on internal auditors’ independence using the nexus between the agency theory and social exchange theory. From the internal auditors’ perspective, the investigation covered both government and private colleges and universities in one of the Middle East countries.

A survey was administered and delivered to internal auditors at each of the 85 educational institutions. A total of 267 valid questionnaires were analysed. The study’s measurement and structural models were tested and evaluated by using SmartPLS v.4 and partial least squares-structural equation modelling.

The study results indicated that bullying is common among senior managers, and that it has a significant, negative, high-level and direct effect on the independence of internal auditors in the higher education sector.

Regulators and other stakeholders should make a deliberate effort to promote positive behaviours and abandon negative ones regarding the independence of internal auditors and the performance of audit teams, which play a crucial role in enhancing the efficiency of audit units. For example, enhancing coordination and communication internally and externally. In addition to providing the internal auditors with equitable advancement and learning opportunities, senior management should also support their professional development.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to examine the relationship between WB and the internal auditor’s independence in the context of government and private organisations in Southwest Asian countries.

As numerous research studies have investigated the effect of the built environment on human contentment, building regulations have advanced as a direct impact on indoor environmental quality (IEQ) to include thermal, lighting, air quality and acoustics systems. Yet, while IEQ and residents' satisfaction have been discussed thoroughly in previous research, only a few studies have researched the role of building regulations as motivating factors in the housing context, specifically in Jordan.

A mixed-method approach was adopted to address this issue involving genotype analysis for building morphology and simulation using Design Builder software. This helped to understand the impact of building regulations variables, including building setback, the height of an adjacent building, orientation and building geometry. Meanwhile, an online survey was conducted to include 410 residents spread out in various building categories (A, B, C and D).

The results of this study revealed that building regulation of setbacks, the height of adjacent buildings and orientation are significant parameters that directly affect IEQ and residents' satisfaction. In addition, based on this study, the matter was clear that the highest total satisfaction resulted based on the highest comfort level in terms of temperature and daylight obtained due to larger setback and lower building height. Yet, this finding undermined smart growth principles due to the limited scope of building regulation that focused only on spatial and physical dimensions, so improving to include environmental aspects such as passive design strategies that appreciate natural ventilation and lighting is necessary, which positively impact IEQ.

The concept of IEQ and residents' satisfaction have been discussed thoroughly, but only a few studies have researched the role of building regulations as motivating factors in the housing context specifically in Jordan.

This study aims to shed light on the challenges and obstacles (organizational, economic, legal and legislative) to the issuance of Islamic Sukuk in Palestine.

The descriptive analytical approach was adopted to collect data through a questionnaire that was distributed to a simple random sample of (500) male and female employees working in those banks.

The study concluded that the issuance of Islamic Sukuk in Palestine suffers from economic, legal and legislative challenges and obstacles. This includes the lack of interest in using it as a suitable financing tool to finance various economic projects, as it requires the presence of investors with high financial solvency in light of the low contribution of Palestinian legislation and laws to facilitate and encourage their issuance. Hence, there are no regulatory challenges or obstacles.

Few studies examine the issuance of Sukuk in the Palestinian environment, despite the attempts of the Palestinian Monetary Authority to develop Islamic financing instruments.

The necessity of subjecting the issuance of Islamic Sukuk in Palestine and all Islamic financing products to a unified body It is also important to work on spreading the Islamic financing culture related to their issuance, given its positive role in developing and providing the necessary funding for various projects.

The study identifies the level of challenges and obstacles facing the issuance of Islamic Sukuk in Palestinian banks by studying the organizational, economic, legal and legislative dimensions. The study attempts to explore this through the respondents’ opinions. It also focuses on emphasizing the role of this performance in economic development and supporting the elements of investment as a desirable financing alternative.

The purpose of this study is to examine the state of research into adoption of machine learning systems within the health sector, to identify themes that have been studied and observe the important gaps in the literature that can inform a research agenda going forward.

A systematic literature strategy was utilized to identify and analyze scientific papers between 2012 and 2022. A total of 28 articles were identified and reviewed.

The outcomes reveal that while advances in machine learning have the potential to improve service access and delivery, there have been sporadic growth of literature in this area which is perhaps surprising given the immense potential of machine learning within the health sector. The findings further reveal that themes such as recordkeeping, drugs development and streamlining of treatment have primarily been focused on by the majority of authors in this area.

The search was limited to journal articles published in English, resulting in the exclusion of studies disseminated through alternative channels, such as conferences, and those published in languages other than English. Considering that scholars in developing nations may encounter less difficulty in disseminating their work through alternative channels and that numerous emerging nations employ languages other than English, it is plausible that certain research has been overlooked in the present investigation.

This review provides insights into future research avenues for theory, content and context on adoption of machine learning within the health sector.