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This study aims to explore the challenges faced by the tourism and hospitality industry following the COVID-19 pandemic and to propose effective strategies for recovery and resilience of this sector.

The study analysed the challenges encountered by the tourism and hospitality industry post-pandemic and identified key strategies for overcoming these challenges. The study utilised the modified Delphi method to finalise the challenges and employed the Best-Worst Method (BWM) to rank these challenges. Additionally, solution strategies are ranked using the Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) method.

The study identified significant challenges faced by the tourism and hospitality industry, highlighting the lack of health and hygiene facilities as the foremost concern, followed by increased operational costs. Moreover, it revealed that attracting millennial travellers emerged as the top priority strategy to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on this industry.

This research contributes to understanding the challenges faced by the tourism and hospitality industry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It offers valuable insights into practical strategies for recovery. The findings provide beneficial recommendations for policymakers aiming to revive and support these industries.

This study aimed to detect the relationships between mindfulness and events participation, and then between the later and psychological empowerment.

The proposed model's underlying hypotheses were empirically tested with data collected through an online survey addressed to a convenience sample of frequent leisure participants (n = 199). The authors applied the structural equation model (SEM) to confirm the aforementioned relationships. To assess the adequacy of the psychometric properties of the measures, the authors performed a confirmatory factor analysis of the measurement model, with a maximum likelihood estimation method.

Under the effects of the lockdown period environment, the results express a positive relationship between a mindful state of mind – related to observation/attention – and the yearnings and perceptions about the participation in events. This relationship for consistency was proven to be moderated by the perception of the participation importance to the individual subjective well-being/mental health. Due to participation insights, there was a positive effect on psychological empowerment, supporting the relationship that had been hypothesized.

The authors propose and test a new model that contributes to the theory and examines how mindfulness behavior can effect more alluring and intense participation in events and what are the anticipated outcomes in terms of psychological empowerment.

Open innovation (OI), by now one of the major concepts for the analysis of innovation, is seen as a methodology for collaboratively designing and implementing solutions by engaging stakeholders in an iterative and inclusive service design process. This paper aims to empirically investigate OI capacities, defined as a cooperative, knowledge-sharing innovation ecosystem, and to explore how it can lead to improved performance of firms in Central and Eastern European (CEE) and Southeastern European (SEE) countries.

The study builds on the World Bank/European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD’s) Business Environment Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) dataset for 2009, 2013 and 2019. Primarily, the research model was estimated using log-transformed ordinary least squares (OLS). Taking into consideration that this method might produce substantial bias, yielding misleading inferences, this study is fitting Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood estimators with robust standard errors and instrumental variable/generalized method of moments estimation (IV/GMM) approach for comparative results. Secondarily, the research model was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) to investigate the relationship between five OI capacities and firm performance.

The findings indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between most OI capacities and firm performance, except for innovation, which did not show a statistically significant relationship with firm performance. Specifically, research and development (R&D), knowledge and coopetition are statistically significant and positively associated with firm performance, whereas transformation is statistically significant but negatively associated with firm performance. The IV/GMM estimations’ findings support the view that the firm performance is significantly affected by OI capacities, together with some control variables such as size, age, foreign ownership and year dummy to have a significant impact on firm performance.

This paper fills an identified gap in the literature by investigating the impact of OI on firm performance executed in the specific CEE and SEE country context.

Recently, powerful instruments for biomedical engineering research studies, including disease modeling, drug designing and nano-drug delivering, have been extremely investigated by researchers. Particularly, investigation in various microfluidics techniques and novel biomedical approaches for microfluidic-based substrate have progressed in recent years, and therefore, various cell culture platforms have been manufactured for these types of approaches. These microinstruments, known as tissue chip platforms, mimic in vivo living tissue and exhibit more physiologically similar vitro models of human tissues. Using lab-on-a-chip technologies in vitro cell culturing quickly caused in optimized systems of tissues compared to static culture. These chipsets prepare cell culture media to mimic physiological reactions and behaviors.

The authors used the application of lab chip instruments as a versatile tool for point of health-care (PHC) applications, and the authors applied a current progress in various platforms toward biochip DNA sensors as an alternative to the general bio electrochemical sensors. Basically, optical sensing is related to the intercalation between glass surfaces containing biomolecules with fluorescence and, subsequently, its reflected light that arises from the characteristics of the chemical agents. Recently, various techniques using optical fiber have progressed significantly, and researchers apply highlighted remarks and future perspectives of these kinds of platforms for PHC applications.

The authors assembled several microfluidic chips through cell culture and immune-fluorescent, as well as using microscopy measurement and image analysis for RNA sequencing. By this work, several chip assemblies were fabricated, and the application of the fluidic routing mechanism enables us to provide chip-to-chip communication with a variety of tissue-on-a-chip. By lab-on-a-chip techniques, the authors exhibited that coating the cell membrane via poly-dopamine and collagen was the best cell membrane coating due to the monolayer growth and differentiation of the cell types during the differentiation period. The authors found the artificial membrane, through coating with Collagen-A, has improved the growth of mouse podocytes cells-5 compared with the fibronectin-coated membrane.

The authors could distinguish the differences across the patient cohort when they used a collagen-coated microfluidic chip. For instance, von Willebrand factor, a blood glycoprotein that promotes hemostasis, can be identified and measured through these type-coated microfluidic chips.

This study aims to investigate the effect of monetary policy on housing prices for US economy. It specifically examines whether nominal or real interest rates are the key drivers behind fluctuations in housing prices in US.

Monthly data from January 1991 to July 2023 and various appropriate analytical tools such as unit root tests, Johansen’s cointegration test, vector error correction model (VECM), impulse response function and Granger causality test were applied for the data analysis.

The Johansen cointegration findings reveal the presence of a long-term relationship among the variables. VECM results indicate a negative correlation between nominal and real interest rates and housing prices in both the short and long terms, suggesting that a strict monetary policy can help in controlling the housing price increase in the USA. However, housing prices are more responsive to changes in nominal interest rates than to real interest rates. Additionally, the study reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the upsurge in housing prices in the USA.

This study contributes by examining the role that nominal or real interest rates play in shaping housing prices in the USA. Moreover, given the recent significant upsurge in housing prices, this study presents a unique opportunity to investigate whether these price increases are influenced by the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decisions regarding nominal or real interest rates. Additionally, using monthly data, this study provides a deeper understanding of the fluctuations in housing prices and their connection to monetary policy tools.

Proponents of micro-credentials envision them as vehicles for upskilling or re-skilling individuals. The study examines how integrating micro-credentials in the higher education ecosystem enhances employability. It aims to offer insights from the perspective of stakeholders who may benefit from these credentials at an institutional or individual level.

Online in-depth interviews are conducted with 65 participants from India, Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom to explore how micro-credentials can be a valuable addition to the higher education ecosystem. A multi-stakeholder approach is adopted to collect data.

The analysis highlights two possible methods of integrating micro-credentials into the higher education ecosystem. First, micro-credentials-driven courses can be offered using a blended approach that provides a flexible learning path. Second, there is also the possibility of wide-scale integration of micro-credentials as an outcome of standalone online programs. However, the effectiveness of such programs is driven by enablers like student profiles, standardization and the dynamics of the labor market. Finally, the study stipulates that micro-credentials can enhance employability.

The study's findings suggest that, for successful integration of micro-credentials, an operational understanding of micro-credentials, their enablers and strategic deliberation are critical in higher education. Institutions must identify the determinants, address technological limitations and select a suitable delivery mode to accelerate integration. However, micro-credentials can augment employability, considering the increasing emphasis on lifelong learning. An overview of the findings is presented through a comprehensive framework.

Entrepreneurship is one of the significant drivers of economic growth, development and job generation in several countries worldwide. Realizing its significant contribution to the nation’s development, policymakers and educators have also drawn attention to fostering entrepreneurship among the youth. Researchers attempted to comprehend the dynamics and investigate the factors influencing entrepreneurial intention (EI). As is true for other abilities and response tendencies, individual differences exist for EI also. This study aims to explore the relationship of emotional intelligence (EIn) and cognitive flexibility (CF) with EI and mediating effect of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) in the relationship between CF, EIn and EI.

The cross-sectional survey was conducted to gather responses from 635 individuals aged 17–26 years (M = 19.2, SD = 1.49). The hypotheses were tested using correlation, regression and mediation analysis.

The findings indicated that EIn and CF were significantly and positively related to EI. Furthermore, ESE was found to be a partial mediator between EIn and EI and a full mediator between CF and EI.

Results reflected the critical significance of ESE and implied that EI might be strengthened by intervening in ESE through various sources.

This study adds to the existing literature by incorporating less studied individual factors (EIn and CF) to better understand EI by explaining the mediation mechanism through ESE.