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Innovation output around the world is concentrated in very few economies possessing the requisite skills, knowledge and market acumen to capitalize on emerging technologies. Within the broader European Union, Central and Eastern Europe countries persistently lag in innovation rankings compared to their Western Europe counterparts. The existence of cultural barriers to innovation has been offered as an explanation for the lag, in the sense that perceptions about innovation affect innovation performance. The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence-based analysis on whether there are divergent perceptions at the firm level between East and West.

The focus is on four countries with distinct socioeconomic profiles (Germany, Poland, Portugal and North Macedonia) for which innovation data of sufficient granularity exist. Using Probit analysis across the regressors of firm size, sector and innovativeness, a detailed picture of perceptions of innovation emerges naturally.

The analysis demonstrates that there is no discernible East-West cultural divide but rather a palette of shades regarding perceptions of innovation, entrenched in firm-level characteristics. Specifically, firm size colors perceptions of innovation and such perceptions in turn are moderated by whether a firm is involved or not in innovation activities.

A better understanding of innovation culture at the firm level is essential to drive policy interventions aiming to remove barriers to innovation. The results of this study provide sufficient clues for more refined interventions, both internal (“procedures”) and external (“policies”) to the firm, targeting well-defined size segments as well as addressing differently innovative and non-innovative companies.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of the Ponzi schemes and revocation of licences of some financial institutions in Ghana on financial threat.

The study adopted a quantitative research approach. Convenient sampling method was used to select 435 individuals from three regions in Ghana. Standardize questionnaire developed by the researcher was used as the main data collection instrument. The binary logistic regression was used to test the relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variables.

The results of the study showed a positive relationship between financial threat and job loss, general health, information search and loss of investment. However, negative relationship was identified between financial threat and total debt, stress, economic hardship and anxiety. Findings from this study imply that job loss, general health, information search and loss of investment are major factors that determined financial threat in Ghana.

This indicates that individuals in Ghana have become uncertain regarding the use of current and future financial services in Ghana because most individuals have lost their jobs in the financial institutions, cannot get access to safe drinking water and education, need to gather more information before investing in financial institutions in Ghana and losing of funds invested.

This study is the first to test the effects of the Ponzi schemes and the revocation of licences of some financial institutions in Ghana on financial threat using binary logistic regression.

This study aims to examine the effect of climate variability on smallholders’ crop income and the determinants of indigenous adaptation strategies in three districts (Mieso, Goba-koricha and Doba) of West Hararghe Zone of Ethiopia. These three districts are located in high-moisture-stress areas because of crop season rainfall variability.

Primary data collected from 400 sample households were used for identifying factors that affect households’ crop income. The study used ordinary least square (OLS) regression to examine the effect of climate variability. Given this, binary logit model was used to assess smallholders’ adaptation behavior. Finally, the study used multinomial logistic regression to identify determinants of smallholders’ indigenous adaptation strategies.

The OLS regression result shows that variability in rainfall during the cropping season has a significant and negative effect, and cropland and livestock level have a positive effect on farmers’ crop income. The multinomial logistic regression result reveals that households adopt hybrid crops (maize and sorghum) and dry-sowing adaptation strategies if there is shortage during the cropping season. Variability in rainfall at the time of sowing and the growing are main factors in the area’s crop production. Cropland increment has positive and significant effect on employing each adaptation strategy. The probability of adopting techniques such as water harvesting, hybrid seeds and dry sowing significantly reduces if a household has a large livestock.

The three districts are remote and accessibility is difficult without due support from institutions. Thus, this study was conducted on the basis of the primary data collected by the researchers after securing grant from Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA).

This paper aims to empirically investigate the factors attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into emerging economies.

This study uses secondary data from the World Bank and the Global State of Democracy Indices of 16 West African countries (WACs) over the period from 1989 to 2018. Fixed- and random-effects econometric regression models are used to assess the nexus between 12 macroeconomic indicators (including political risk and cultural factors) and FDI inflows into WACs.

The critical drivers of FDI inflows into WACs are the richness of natural resources, market size or gross domestic product (GDP), imports and exports of goods and services, trade openness and the currency's strength as measured by the exchange rate. The result also reveals that French-speaking countries attract more FDI than other English-speaking countries. The previously cited determinants of FDI, such as infrastructural development, inflation, tax and political stability, are insignificant in determining FDI inflows into WACs.

This study uncovers the critical drivers explaining the FDI inflows into WACs, where FDI accounts for 39% of external finance. The study's contribution is that Francophone WACs attract more FDI than Anglophone WACs. The most important drivers of FDI are abundant natural resources, GDP, imports, exports, trade openness and exchange rate.

This paper aims to ascertain whether and to what degree universities are becoming organizational actors globally. Utilizing an original dataset of a sample of 500 globally oriented universities, we explore how universities have increasingly become organizational actors as is the case of American universities. We consider the following indicators of university transformation into organization actors: development or institutional advancement, diversity or inclusion, legalization, and internationalization goals and structures. We find that these globally oriented universities have created international, development, and legal offices. Surprisingly, nearly half of the universities in our sample also have diversity offices. These “getting organized” indicators are somewhat similar to what holds for American universities, suggesting that there is globalization of organizational actorhood among universities. At the same time, however, we find that there are pronounced regional differences, especially when it comes to organizing around diversity and legal affairs.

Employees’ satisfaction and productivity is one of the main interests of employers. Psychological comfort can cause dissatisfaction with their work. Thus, it is important to understand what factors contribute to employees’ satisfaction in workplaces. The purpose of this paper is to identify the weight of contribution of each design parameter on increasing psychological satisfaction.

The study included 579 employees in five offices in The Netherlands through an online survey. The typologies of offices vary in terms of office layouts, orientations and façade. Additionally, a parameter of desk location was included as this factor may be associated with user satisfaction. Kruskal–Wallis H test, categorical regression, and logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the impact of these design parameters on psychological user satisfaction.

The results revealed the impact of design parameters on the psychological satisfaction. The parameters of office layouts and desk locations were the significant predictor factors for the probability of satisfaction variables (e.g. privacy, concentration, communication, social contact and territoriality). The parameters for optimal satisfaction were found in cellular office, north-west oriented workstation and 4 m away from a window.

Psychological comfort is an inevitable aspect in user satisfaction studies. This paper, therefore, measures and predicts the relationship between design factors and employees’ satisfaction through case studies in The Netherlands. The findings help designers, architects, planners and facility managers to develop user-focussed office design principles supporting employees’ work performance.

The purpose of this study is to critically review the book Islamic Law and International Law by Emilila Powell.

The book review is undertaken from a comparative legal and political science perspective, including arguments and insights from international relations, international law, Islamic law, Islamic culture, religious studies, legal history and European as well as international political history.

While the empirical part of Powell’s work (chapters 5, 6 and 7) shows a methodologically veryc well done approach and at the same time highly interesting insights, both foundation and context show several critical points, in particular, a lack of differentiation with respect to the Western politico-legal tradition, its concepts and the resulting implications.

The book represents an excellent starting point that should inspire new, more intensive as well as exhaustive research on this topic.

The book generates valuable insights for practitioners such as judges at international courts dealing with issues involving so-called Islamic law states, as well as politicians or public service officials in the context of international law and international politics.

As the paper is a comprehensive review of the book based upon comparatively based insights from international relations, international law, Islamic law, Islamic culture, religious studies, legal history and European as well as international political history, the arguments of Powell are analyzed and commented upon in a comprehensive, well-founded and fair way. This should give potential readers a good understanding of Powell’s arguments, inspire a critical lecture of the book and contribute to the important discourse on the connex between international law and Islamic law.

This study aims to analyze the perceptions of smallholder farmers on climate change and events and further explores climate change adaptation strategies and associated challenges. The findings provide useful information for enhancing the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers to adjust to climate-related hazards and improve their resilience and disaster preparedness in northern Ghana.

This study uses a multistage sampling procedure and sample size of 150 farmers, the Binary Probit Model (BPM), to identify and examine the determinants of climate change adaptation strategies adopted by smallholder farmers. Also, the constraints of adaptation were analyzed using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance.

The results from the BPM and statistics of Kendall’s coefficient revealed that the farm risk level, ability to adapt, farmer’s income, age, farming experience, climate change awareness and extension visits were factors that significantly influenced the adaptation strategies of smallholder farmers (in order of importance). The majority (60%) of the farmers ranked farm risk level as the major constraint to adopting climate change strategies.

The findings of this study enhance understanding on access to relevant and timely climate change adaptation information such as an early warning to farmers during the start of the farming/rainy season to support their adaptive responses to climate change.

This article explores brand positioning and authenticity within the global-local continuum, utilizing the evolution of the Italian rock band, Måneskin, as a case study.

Employing Greimas’s (1987) semiotic framework, I analyze social media and media articles on Måneskin’s success, unveiling consumer perceptions of global, local and intermediate brand positionings and related authenticity dimensions. I particularly uncover a narrative centered on “global” versus “local” brand positioning and their counterparts (i.e. “not global” and “not local”), forming a semiotic square.

In the “global” perception, the band is evaluated in terms of conforming to global standards, while, in the “local” understanding, the emphasis shifts to connections to local roots. In the “glocalization” perspective (global and local), the band’s activities are assessed concerning an integration between global conformity and local connections. The “glalienation” viewpoint (neither global nor local) is related to consistency, in the sense of being unique and avoiding a commitment to either global or local values. The data also highlight issues of inconsistency regarding brand positioning’s contradictions, such as the band’s incoherently merging local and non-local elements.

The proposed structural semiotics approach enriches previous theories by examining authenticity within global-local dynamics, offering insights into various authenticity dimensions and their interplay. It underlines shifts in authenticity perceptions and challenges binary brand positioning, advocating for strategic placement across the global-local continuum. Moreover, it emphasizes leveraging cultural elements and semiotics to effectively communicate authenticity.

Background: A range of local social and environmental factors has an impact on farmers' views of climate change and choices on the use of coping mechanisms. This study examines the factors that are limiting farmers' perceptions of climate change and their coping mechanisms in Gimbi district, Western Ethiopia.

Methods: A household survey and focus group discussion were employed to collect relevant data. A total of 402 randomly selected households and six focus group discussions containing 72 participants were used to gather data. Binary logit models were used to analyze the collected data.

Results: Farmers noted that some of the signs of climate change included increasing temperature, erratic rainfall, late onset of rainfall, and early cessation of rainfall. We discovered that there are three distinct sets of climate adaption strategies used by farmers: crop management, soil and water conservation and intensive farm management. The primary determinants of farmers' perceptions of climate change and adaptation techniques were household head age, education, soil fertility, market access, and agricultural training. Age, education, and soil fertility level were the characteristics that significantly impacted farmers' perspectives and coping mechanisms among the primary drivers evaluated in the area. Use of agroforestry, shifting planting dates, and fertilizer application were all essential farming practices used as climate adaptation measures.

Conclusions: Both socioeconomic and environmental factors have found to affect farmers' perceptions of climate change in the area. The existing socioeconomic and environmental factors, in turn, affect their choice of strategies to adapt to climate change. When implementing climate change adaption strategies, it is critical to assess farmers' level of awareness of climate change and their coping strategies, as well as the factors limiting their ability to adapt to climate change.