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South African public debt has recently increased significantly and has reached worrying levels. This study aims to examine the debt threshold effects on economic growth in South Africa, with an objective of suggesting a debt threshold as South African policymakers will seek to reduce debt to a sustainable level in the coming years.

The study applies a recent novel methodology advanced by Hansen (2017) that allows modelling a regression kink with an unknown threshold.

The findings of this study indicate a robust debt threshold of 37% of gross domestic product (GDP). Below this threshold, debt is growth-enhancing, but above 37% of GDP, debt is harmful to growth in South Africa.

Among other things, to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio, South Africa will need a fiscal consolidation policy by undertaking reforms to state-owned companies to reduce their reliance on public funds, as well as putting in place economic measures to boost long-term growth. The country should also improve tax collection in order to realize additional tax revenue through enhancing compliance and other revenue collection measures.

Most of the existing studies on debt threshold effects in Africa are panel data studies, which assume parameter homogeneity, by determining a single debt threshold value applicable to all countries. This can be misleading as the debt-growth nexus is country-specific, being conditional on several factors, such as institutional quality. The present study applies a recent novel methodology, which allows to model a regression kink with an unknown threshold, for the case of South Africa. The methodology endogenously determines the debt threshold while also allowing a country-specific analysis.

This paper aims to examine the impact of the assurance and advisory role of internal audit (ADRIA) on organisational, human and technical proactive measures to enhance cybersecurity (CS).

The questionnaire was used to collect data for 97 internal auditors (IAu) from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The authors used partial least squares (PLS) to test the hypotheses.

The results show a positive effect of the ADRIA on each of the organisational proactive measures, human proactive measures and technical proactive measures to enhance CS. The study also found a positive effect of the confirmatory role of IA on both human proactive measures and technical proactive measures to enhance CS. No effect of the confirmatory role of IA on the organisational proactive measures is found.

This study focused on only three proactive measures to enhance CS, and this study was limited to the opinions of IAu. In addition, the study was limited to using regression analysis according to the PLS method.

The results of this study show that managers need to consider the influential role of IA as a value-adding activity in reducing CS risks and activating proactive measures. Also, IAu must expand its capabilities, skills and knowledge in CS auditing to provide a bold view of cyber threats. At the same time, the institutions responsible for preparing IA standards should develop standards and guidelines that help IAu to play assurance and advisory roles.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind that deals with the impact of the assurance and ADRIA on proactive measures to enhance CS. In addition, the study determines the nature of the advisory role and the assurance role of IA to strengthen CS.

Digital technology is crucial to improving a firm’s core competitiveness. However, the existing research on the relationship therein shows heterogeneity. Using digital technology can enhance competitive advantage, which is crucial for enterprises and scholars. Thus, based on the digital technology affordance theory, this study explores the relationship between digital technology affordance and digital competitive advantage.

Survey data were collected from 509 large and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in China, and multiple regression and structural equation modelling were used to test the hypotheses. Specifically, we discuss the mediating role of digital business capability and the moderating role of organisational legitimacy.

Editability, association and visibility positively affect digital competitive advantage, and their coordination is strong. Further, they can help enterprises gain a competitive advantage through the mediating role of digital business capability (digital strategy, digital integration and regulation). However, the influence effect and action path differ per in different dimensions. Organisational legitimacy positively moderates the mediating effect of digital integration and regulation, and there is a moderated mediating effect. However, the moderating effect on the mediating effect of digital strategy is not significant.

Existing studies neglect the relationship between the coordination of digital technology functions and digital competitive advantage. This study provides a new theoretical explanation for an in-depth understanding of these issues. These findings promote the development of innovation theory and provide valuable insights for guiding the application of digital technology in enterprises.

Researchers explore the impact of an intelligent assistant in virtual teams by applying the theoretical lens of a transactive memory system (TMS) to understand the relationships between trust in a specific technology, knowledge sharing and knowledge application.

An online survey was administered to a Qualtrics-curated panel of individual, US-based virtual team members utilizing an intelligent assistant with team collaboration software. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was utilized to examine the hypothesized relationships of interest.

Results suggest that knowledge application is strongly influenced by trust in a specific technology and knowledge sharing. Additionally, a transactive memory system positively increases trust in the intelligent assistant, and similarly, trust in the intelligent assistant has a significant positive relationship with knowledge sharing.

The research model contributes to our understanding of the impact of an intelligent assistant in virtual teams. Although the transactive memory system construct has been explored in various contexts and models, few have explored the impact of an intelligent assistant and trust in a specific technology.

This study aims to empirically examine how corporate social responsibility (CSR) facilitates the employee's affective commitment in the hospitality sector.

A total of 408 questionnaires were distributed among the employees of the selected 13 hotels in Delhi-National capital region (NCR). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the proposed hypotheses.

The study results confirm that CSR has a positive influence on the employees' affective commitment. Further, this study demonstrates that CSR facilitates work meaningfulness and trust among employees and consequently enhances employees' commitment.

This study enhances the understanding of the CSR-affective commitment link in the hospitality sector. This will add a new perspective to the literature, especially in the context of micro-foundation factors of “work meaningfulness” and “organizational trust.”

This study investigates the impact of big data analytics capabilities on export performance. Moreover, it assesses the mediating effect of the supply chain innovation and moderating effect of supply chain agility.

This study is based on primary data that were collected from the manufacturing sector operating in Jordan. A total of 327 responses were used for the final data analysis. Data analysis was performed via a partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach.

The results of the data analysis supported a positive relationship between big data analytics capabilities and the export performance as well as a mediating effect of supply chain innovation. It was confirmed that supply chain agility moderated the relationship of supply chain innovation and export performance.

This study developed a theoretical and empirical model to investigate the relationship between big data analytics capabilities, export performance, supply chain innovation and supply chain agility. This study offers new theoretical and managerial contributions that add value to the supply chain management literature by testing the moderated-mediated model of these constructs in the manufacturing sector in Jordan.

Based on the resource-gain-development framework, this study aims to explore the mediating mechanism of work–family enrichment (WFE) and psychological distress, and the potential positive effect of co-worker support, on employees’ work behaviour.

Data was obtained via a three-stage survey with 400 frontline employees from 13 distinct industries.

This study found that family-supportive leadership (FSL) has a positive impact on employees’ taking charge behaviour (TCB). WFE and psychological distress partially mediated the effect of FSL on TCB and WFE and psychological distress played a serial mediating role between FSL and TCB. Co-worker support positively moderated the relationship between FSL and WFE, TCB and psychological distress.

Managers should consider the problems and difficulties that employees may encounter in completing their work tasks and performance and minimise the interference of non-work factors on employees’ work status. Organisations should also facilitate diversity training for managers to respond to employees’ work and life problems and display family support behaviour.

This study confirmed the role of FSL in WFE, psychological distress and TCB. The results can provide guidance for managers to motivate employees’ TCB.

Based on the trait activation theory, the current study systematically integrates how autonomy interacts with proactivity to influence the relationship between ethical leadership style and employee creativity.

Using simple random sampling and questionnaires, a sample of 475 engineering employees of 3 leading telecommunication companies in Ghana were obtained. The analysis was done using structured equation modeling (SEM), using SmartPLS.

The results showed that ethical leadership style provides employees with job autonomy which facilitates individual creativity. Employee proactivity also moderates a positive relationship between autonomy and creativity such that high-proactive employees are well placed to produce more creative outcomes when given autonomy. At the individual level, personal characteristics determine the degree of creativity.

The current study implies that telecommunication companies should put in more efforts to train and encourage leaders to be ethical in leaders' dealings with employees and employees must be rewarded for taking initiative.

With a focus on the integrative approach from a developing economy, this work is novel in exploring how contextual and personal features impact creativity.

The purpose of this paper is to present an explanatory model of the factors that determine parental support for possible entrepreneurial initiatives of the parents' children. This is one of the most important challenges to promote the next generation of entrepreneurs.

A perspective based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) is adopted, and the model is extended to integrate the antecedents of personal attitude toward children's entrepreneurship. The model is tested on a sample of 400 parents.

Perceived behavioral control (PBC), namely the perception that parents have about the readiness of the children to be entrepreneurs plays the greatest effect on the intention of supporting children's entrepreneurial behavior. In addition, parents' perceptions of how people from the immediate surroundings value the children's possible entrepreneurial behavior are the second most influential variable in the parents' intention to support such behavior. Finally, a parent's personal attitude toward the parent's children's entrepreneurship is the third most relevant variable to explain intention to support, practically with the same weight as subjective norms (SNs).

The results seem to confirm the importance of entrepreneurship development policies that focus on family characteristics and mindsets rather than on more traditional formal institutional support, such as business advice or financial resources. Family emerges as a key mediator to transfer the rules of normative and cultural-cognitive dimensions. Moreover, the results indicate the important role of entrepreneurship education in enhancing entrepreneurship not only due to the positive direct impact on students' entrepreneurial intentions, but also by changing parents' perceptions regarding the children's capabilities and, therefore, influencing the support for entrepreneurial behavior.

Previous studies have analyzed the influence of support from the immediate environment, especially the family, on young people's entrepreneurial behavior and have defined the types of support the family environment can provide. However, there is a missing link in the literature regarding the determinants of family support, despite the determinants' importance in configuring the normative and cultural-cognitive dimensions and the determinants' impact on society, promoting entrepreneurship.

Due to the vital role of innovation for firms to respond to the change and achieve competitive advantage, the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of knowledge-oriented leadership (KOL) on innovation performance (IP) via the mediating role of knowledge sharing (KS). This study also clarifies the KS-IP relationship by exploring the moderating role of market turbulence.

Analysis of moment structures and structural equation modeling are applied to examine the relationship among the latent factors in the proposed research model using data collected from 281 participants in 112 manufacturing and service firms in Vietnam.

The findings revealed that KOL serves as a key precursor to foster IP, directly or indirectly, through knowledge-oriented leaders’ effect on tacit and explicit KS behaviors. In addition, the paper highlights the moderating role of market turbulence in strengthening the impact of KS activities on IP.

By highlighting the important role KOL practice for stimulating KS behaviors, this paper provides a valuable understanding and novel approach for firms to improve IP. The research findings support the idea that market turbulence significantly contributes to increasing the effects of KS behaviors on IP.

This study contributes to bridging research gaps in the literature and advances the insights of how KOL directly and indirectly fosters IP via mediating roles of tacit and explicit KS processes under the effects of market turbulence.