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Due to the growing complexity involved in leveraging the endless possibilities of ICT on all levels, the technical competence of faculties of higher education institutions (HEI) and effective methods for fostering e-readiness has become questionable.

This research has developed and validated an empirically supported e-readiness scale, which can be used by HEIs to assess faculty members’ preparedness toward online teaching. The measurement model and the structural model were developed as the results of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (n = 245). The previously identified components and their indicators were validated using the structural models and the final scale was developed with five dimensions (“online technological readiness, pedagogical readiness, institutional readiness, learning and delivery readiness and content readiness”).

The faculties’ e-readiness assessment tool, as a useful tool, could aid institutions in identifying problems that affect the implementation of e-learning or digitalization in the institutions and developing strategies in response.

Like any research this research also has some limitations and can be considered as future research probability like the responses for this research were collected from HEI in India; however, a cross-cultural study can be conducted to understand the parameters across the globe. Although the psychometric qualities of the e-readiness scale are acceptable, additional research in various higher educational environments, both nationally and internationally, is required to further establish the scale’s relevance, validation and generalizability.

Although many scales have been developed to assess the readiness level in the education sector, a scale, that holistically measures, the readiness level of faculties from an overall perspective was required. This scale can be used to recognize the e-readiness level of teachers in HEIs. This scale can also help the institutions assess the readiness level of their faculty members and address any improvements required in their teaching and learning pedagogy, further acknowledging training needs.

This study was designed to discover the readiness of the higher education commission (HEC)-recognized journals of Pakistan in terms of human, financial and technological resources, technical expertise, institutional support, availability of open access (OA) policy, availability of guidance and training, willingness, motivation and so on for OA journal publishing and to expose the challenges in OA journal publishing.

A quantitative research approach was used and a structured questionnaire was developed to meet the objectives of this study. A survey method was used to collect data from the editors of all 329 HEC-recognized journals in Pakistan.

The respondents of all the HEC-recognized journals of Pakistan are neutral and are not of the view that they have sufficient financial, human, technological/infrastructural resources and technical expertise to continue/initiate an OA journal publishing. ‘No academic reward’; and ‘no monetary reward for the editorial staff’ are both enormous challenges for OA journal publishing. The perceived challenges of OA have a negative impact on readiness for OA publishing. The readiness level of the respondents of the OA journals is higher as compared to the readiness level of the respondents of non-OA journals.

This study covered the lists of HEC-recognized journals of 2019. More studies may be conducted based on updated lists of HEC-recognized journals. Qualitative studies may also be conducted to discover the readiness of the HEC-recognized journals of Pakistan for OA journal publishing.

This study is the first comprehensive study on this phenomenon and is an effort to fill this gap to invigorate scholarly literature. It may attract the attention of policymakers, funding bodies, parent institutions of the journals and the HEC regarding the readiness of journals in terms of financial, human, technological/infrastructural resources, technical expertise of the journals and challenges of journals to prompt the OA journal publishing paradigm.

This study investigated university lecturers' attitudes, readiness and anxiety toward e-learning in response to the widespread transition to online education prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the interrelationships between these variables using a sample drawn from Nigeria.

The sample consisted of 168 university lecturers in Nigeria, comprising 94 males and 74 females. A questionnaire assessing university lecturers' attitudes, readiness and anxiety toward e-learning was administered to collect data. Descriptive, t-test and regression analyses were conducted to analyze the collected data.

The findings revealed significant correlations among lecturers' e-learning attitudes, readiness and anxiety. Specifically, significant relationships were observed between lecturers' e-learning attitudes and readiness, lecturer’s e-learning readiness and anxiety, as well as lecturers' e-learning anxiety and e-learning attitudes. Moreover, a notable difference was detected in the mean scores of e-learning attitudes between male and female lecturers, indicating that male lecturers exhibited more positive e-learning attitudes compared to their female counterparts. Additionally, male lecturers reported lower levels of e-learning anxiety and demonstrated higher readiness to embrace e-learning compared to female lecturers.

The COVID-19 pandemic posed significant limitations for this study. Firstly, due to restrictions on in-person interactions and mobility, conducting a pilot study was not feasible, which may have impacted the refinement of our methodologies. Additionally, the number of participants was limited as a result of challenges in recruitment and accessibility during the pandemic, potentially affecting the generalizability of our findings. Future research efforts should aim to mitigate these constraints and consider alternative methods for data collection to enhance the robustness of the results. Another research implication is the need to explore, through a qualitative approach, the lecturer’s use of e-learning and perception of the process, outcome and needs or areas of improvement. This could unearth deeper issues that threaten the effective transition to and use of e-learning by higher education teachers.

Overall, our findings illuminate the importance of targeted policy and practice interventions to address attitudes, readiness and anxiety among lecturers, facilitating the successful implementation of e-learning initiatives within Nigerian higher education institutions.

The study underscores implications for e-learning integration, emphasizing the importance of considering various human and social factors alongside technical aspects.

This study adds to the existing literature by examining the level of lecturers' attitudes, readiness and anxiety toward the adoption of mandatory e-learning in schools and how these variables relate to drawings on a Nigerian sample.

This study aims to develop a model for readiness measurement and to study readiness levels for online testing of undergraduate students in Thailand’s distance education programs.

In total, 870 undergraduate students enrolled in the 2022 academic year of a Thai university were sampled for the study. The samples were divided into two groups: Group 1 comprised 432 students who underwent exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Group 2 comprised 438 students who underwent second-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Both were multi-stage random samples. Descriptive statistics, item-total correlations (ITCs), coefficient correlations, EFA and second-order CFA were used.

The readiness for the online testing model comprised 5 factors and 33 indicators. These included self-efficacy (SE) in utilizing technology (nine indicators), self-directed learning (SL) for readiness testing (six indicators), adequacy of technology (AT) for testing (five indicators), acceptance of online testing (AC) (seven indicators) and readiness training for testing (six indicators). The model was congruent with empirical data, and the survey results indicated that students were highly prepared at the “high” level.

This study disclosed several factors and indicators involved in the readiness for online testing. The university may use these findings in preparing its students for online testing for better achievement.

These findings may serve as a framework for the analysis of the readiness issues for online testing of undergraduate students and also offer guidance to the universities preparing to offer online testing.

Enterprising individuals are frequently portrayed as rational agents who maximize their own interests. At the same time, an increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) use social responsibility strategies, incorporating collective interests into their business agenda. This study aims to analyze the interplay between the rational and emotional aspects of the entrepreneurial personal identity and address its implications for the socially responsible behavior of businesses by drawing on the literature on entrepreneurial identity, the objectivism (rational egoism) philosophical perspective and the concept of entrepreneurial passion.

A sample of 333 Russian SMEs is used to test the research hypotheses. The study follows the quantitative research strategy, wherein the main assumptions are examined based on mediation testing techniques.

The results suggest that entrepreneurs whose personal identities are rooted in objectivism values are less likely to foster culture of social responsibility within their firms. At the same time, their entrepreneurial passion mitigates the negative effect of objectivism on social responsiveness of the venture.

This research enhances the understanding of entrepreneurial personality and can help policymakers promote social responsibility in small and medium businesses, showing that they need to communicate effectively with SMEs’ leaders and align their policies with entrepreneurial values and beliefs.

This study aims to investigate the effects of digital overload on job autonomy and job satisfaction among civil servants in the Nigerian public sector using the job demand–resources model.

A questionnaire survey was conducted among mid-career and senior-level officers in five federal ministries in Nigeria. The collected data were analyzed by using structural equation modeling partial least squares to test the research hypotheses and necessary condition analysis to assess the necessary conditions for high satisfaction among civil servants.

The study reveals that the use of information and communication technology (ICT) has a significant positive impact on digital overload. Furthermore, digital overload has a significant negative effect on job autonomy and adversely affects job satisfaction. Additionally, job autonomy partially mediates the relationship between digital overload and job satisfaction. Job autonomy and ICT use were found to be necessary conditions for high satisfaction.

The study acknowledges certain limitations, such as the focus on civil servants in federal ministries in Nigeria and the reliance on self-reported data.

The findings of this study have practical implications for policymakers in the Nigerian civil service. They highlight the importance of reducing digital overload and promoting job autonomy to enhance job satisfaction, as well as to improve the overall performance and efficiency of the public sector.

This study contributes to the existing literature by providing insights into the detrimental effects of digital overload on civil servants’ job autonomy and satisfaction in the Nigerian public sector. It explores a relatively unexplored aspect of digitalization and emphasizes the need to address the negative implications of digital overload. Additionally, it examines the necessary conditions for high satisfaction among civil servants.

Configuring strategies to ensure a health service provider’s resilience when extreme disruptions occur is not simple. Optimal configuration in such circumstances is rare. Therefore, this research has relied on the dynamic capability view (DCV) to develop a decision-support framework for configuring resilience strategies that will mitigate the worst challenges and improve the performance of health service providers during “extreme” disruptive events.

The research adopted a multi-study, multi-method approach comprising interviews, quality function deployment (QFD), and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

The findings reveal that, during a crisis, standalone resilience strategies are not enough. To guarantee performance, healthcare services require a combination of resilience strategies and a negation of challenges.

This research extends our current knowledge of healthcare operational management by offering optimal configurations of resilience strategies to manage performance during extreme disruptions. Thus, it offers strategic insights into how health-service managers can be more resilient during a crisis.

Despite the fact that chatbots have been largely adopted for the last few years, a comprehensive literature review research focusing on the intention of individuals to adopt chatbots is rather scarce. In this respect, the present paper attempts a literature review investigation of empirical studies focused on the specific issue in nine scientific databases during 2017-2021. Specifically, it aims to classify extant empirical studies which focus on the context of individuals' adoption intention toward chatbots.

The research is based on PRISMA methodology, which revealed a total of 39 empirical studies examining users' intention to adopt and utilize chatbots.

After a thorough investigation, distinct categorization criteria emerged, such as research field, applied theoretical models, research types, methods and statistical measures, factors affecting intention to adopt and further use chatbots, the countries/continents where these surveys took place as well as relevant research citations and year of publication. In addition, the paper highlights research gaps in the examined issue and proposes future research directions in such a promising information technology solution.

As far as the authors are concerned, there has not been any other comprehensive literature review research to focus on examining previous empirical studies of users' intentions to adopt and use chatbots on the aforementioned period. According to the authors' knowledge, the present paper is the first attempt in the field which demonstrates broad literature review data of relevant empirical studies.

The adoption of digital technology has not been able to overcome the problem of patient healthcare service quality in Indonesian hospitals, especially in lower middle-class hospitals that are widely distributed in the regions, because its utilization has not been well coordinated. This research explores the influence of Digital Adoption Capability (DAC) on Hospital Performance (HP) for these service problems.

This research used a quantitative methodology design approach. Survey data were collected from 285 leaders of class C and D hospitals throughout Indonesia, who were selected at simple random from March to August 2023. Data analysis was carried out using the structural equation modeling method with the help of LISREL version 8.80 software.

The research found a positive and significant influence of DAC on HP. Digital Leadership (DL) plays an important role in performance, both directly and indirectly. ICT Literacy (ICT) and Patient-Centric (PC) do not have a direct influence on HP but provide significant results through DAC. This research also found Environmental Dynamism (ED) factors that significantly drive the need to improve performance through digital adoption.

Providing insight into increasing the role of digital technology to connect healthcare workers and patients to produce safe and quality healthcare services in an ever-changing environmental condition.

This model is very important for the management of small hospital organizations in the context of adopting digital technology to be able to provide better services to patients and improve hospital performance.

Post-pandemic sovereign authorities in several economies have nudged primary education institutions to adopt platform-based teaching. The shift to platform technology attempts to ensure continuity in the teaching–learning process. In the context of predominantly digitally mediated teaching process, this shift may exacerbate disparities and social injustice by limiting access to primary education in resource-constrained developing economies. The purpose of this study is to explore the efficacy of such a digital framework provided by government and private partners and the challenges faced by the teachers in absence of proper scaffolding.

Using an integrative theoretical framework that is composed of capability theory, technology adoption theories and the scaffolding framework, this paper analyses the challenges faced by primary school teachers when adapting to platform-based teaching. Social media analytics along with text analytics using Natural Language Processing and latent Dirichlet allocation-based topic modelling approach to extract latent topics or themes used by users during their tweets related to e-teaching.

The findings of this study highlight that adopting a platform-based and hybrid approach improves access to education and flexibility and highlights the importance of scaffolds in achieving desired learning outcomes. EdTech companies can play a significant role through private-public partnership models to offer technical scaffold. Collaborative efforts between educational institutions and EdTech service providers are essential for ensuring the long-term sustainability of platform-based teaching and learning.

After the pandemic, there has been no published literature available which examined the role of scaffolds and EdTech companies in ensuring digital ecosystem for better teaching–learning outcome through platforms.