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The need for context-specific adoption models led to the development of the firm technology adoption model (F-TAM) model. Among small to medium-scale enterprises (SMEs); however, firm-level factors were rather insignificant in engendering SME level adoption of technological innovation. This study aims to examine the effect of firm size and other moderating and mediating factors on the relationships between personal, firm, societal and technological factors proposed in the stakeholder-oriented F-TAM among SMEs.

A research instrument was developed, reviewed by experts, and pilot tested with a sample of 25 respondents. Data were purposively collected from four hundred (400) SMEs and analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The study discovered that employees, societal and technological factors moderate the relationship between firm factors of adoption and firm adoption. Without these moderating effects, firm factors of adoption would have been insignificant at the SMEs’ level of organizational technology adoption. The study further discovered that firm size, as well as risk propensity, also affect the relationships proposed in the model.

Data was collected on voluntary adoption from the most cosmopolitan area of a developing country. It, therefore, needs further contextual validation across the country and different countries.

The engagement of innovations in firms must be planned with employees and society as major stakeholders.

The significance of this finding is the study’s emphasis on an eco-system approach for examining the phenomenon of innovation adoption. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the effect of firm characteristics on is proposed eco-system of stakeholders.

The synthetic application and interaction of/between the internet, Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data, Industry 4.0 and other new patterns and new technologies shall breed future Web-based industrial operation system and social operation management patterns, manifesting as a crowd cyber eco-system composed of multiple interconnected intelligent agents (enterprises, individuals and governmental agencies) and its dynamic behaviors. This paper aims to explore the basic principles and laws of such a system and its behavior.

The authors propose the concepts of crowd science and engineering (CSE) and expound its main content, thus forming a research framework of theories and methodologies of crowd science.

CSE is expected to substantially promote the formation and development of crowd science and thus lay a foundation for the advancement of Web-based industrial operation system and social operation management patterns.

This paper is the first one to propose the concepts of CSE, which lights the beacon for the future research in this area.

Smart tourism (ST) needs the development of smart business. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the future of the smart component of tourism companies, what their perspectives are and what factors can help to accelerate it.

A survey of 133 managers of tourist companies is the basis of the empirical information. The study was a personal survey carried out during FITUR 2019 International Tourism Fair of Madrid. The main element of the study is the future development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and smart tourism (ST) in business.

The results indicate that there is little development at present of the smart business eco-system and that development will continue to be slow in the future. Moreover, this is not a critical issue in the agendas of companies. It was found that tourists pressure tourism through the extensive use of their smartphones, but only at the level of tourism resources. Furthermore, it will be the consolidation of the smart tourism destination that marks the medium and long-term design of smart business.

The limitations concern the problems of a sampling procedure. Firstly, it operates with a database of managers’ opinions; secondly, there are specificities of each company in particular.

The design of the smart tourism destination must incorporate the integration of tourism companies, both with a useful vision of ICTs towards the creation of experiences.

Research on smart business tourism is very scarce compared to smart destination and smart tourists. Also, the data are supported by managers of important tourism companies, as their companies are present at FITUR.

This article explores the potential of an emerging group of farmers in Kenya, namely the growing segment of urban-based medium-size farmers, often called “telephone farmers”. To what extent do they benefit from an emerging ecosystem to support them in operating their farms, and what does that mean for the Hidden middle of agricultural value chains, the actors between the farmers and consumers? Unlocking the potential production of telephone farmers will require more services from collectors, traders, transport firms, the storage facilities, wholesalers and processing units and retailers. Ultimately, optimized telephone farm production benefits the business of Hidden middle value chain actors, increases incomes and jobs and improves food security.

Based on a survey and in-depth interviews a profile of the telephone farmers is given and their role as innovators is analyzed. The Latia Resource Centre (LRC) provides assistance to medium-size farmers, like the telephone farmers, helping them to prepare business plans and use modern technology and contributing to an emerging ecosystem providing support to all farmers.

The article analyzes the medium-size telephone farmers. It documents the contributions of this new agricultural actor to developing value chains and a dynamic ecosystem. The paper profiles the telephone farmers first and then identifies what they need and the support they receive. The emerging innovative ecosystem impacts agricultural productivity and production and hence the development of value chains. Small farmers gain access to opportunities offered by telephone farmers, working for them as outgrower or farm worker.

The authors used a small sample of 51 farmers and covered only a two-year period.

Small farmers are being helped through the emerging eco-system and farm labor acquire skills, which they can also you on another or their own farm.

Based on the analysis an even more effective ecosystem is suggested and policy recommendations are formulated before the conclusion is drawn that these medium-size farmers contribute to innovation diffusion, inclusive value chain development and food security and are becoming part of this expanding, innovative ecosystem. Following the debate on food security the results suggest to pay more attention to the development of telephone farmers given their role in developing agricultural value chains and innovative ecosystems.

Firms increasingly rely on both external and internal crowdsourcing to capture ideas more broadly and enhance innovative problem-solving. Especially in internal crowdsourcing, knowledge sharing that contributes to develop or further the understanding of the problem the idea is focused on solving can take place between critical employees, and in that way improve ideas generated by others. This far, most crowdsourcing practices have focused on identifying solutions to proposed problems, whereas much less is known about how crowds can be used to share problem-related knowledge. There is thus an untapped potential in leveraging crowds not just to generate solution-oriented ideas but also to share knowledge to improve ideas and even to reframe problems. This paper aims to explore the effect of problem- and solution-related knowledge sharing in internal crowdsourcing for idea development.

Data on ideas and comments were collected from an idea management system in a Swedish multinational company. The investigation captures the influences of the problem- and solution-related knowledge sharing on ideas based on content analysis and logistic regression analysis.

The results from this study show that sharing knowledge related to solutions in idea development impacts idea acceptance positively, whereas sharing knowledge related to problems in idea development has a negative effect on the likelihood of idea acceptance and these effects of knowledge sharing are moderated by the active author responses.

This research provides managerial implications for firms to deliberately manage knowledge sharing in peer communities in internal crowdsourcing, especially by providing suggestions on problem reframing and solution refining for ideas.

The results contribute to existing theory in terms of extending the view of crowdsourcing in ideation to include how crowds contribute to the development of the problem and the solution during the development of ideas and providing new insights on knowledge sharing in internal crowdsourcing based on problem-solving theory.

Based on the service eco-systems perspective, this paper evaluates the strategies and actions adopted by the Government of Pakistan to handle the COVID-19 crisis with the involvement of multiple actors including public, private, third-sector organizations and civil society.

The paper is based on an in-depth analysis of secondary sources including research articles, policy documents, policy briefs, governmental reports, third party evaluations/reports and media publications.

A multi-stakeholder approach was evident during the pandemic with an effort to better manage the crisis which has exerted immense social, cultural, economic and political impacts on the lives of the citizens. Collaborative efforts among stakeholders (government, private and third sector) were witnessed, resulting in a coherent response. The successful management of COVID-19 in Pakistan is attributed to multiple factors including the formation of a specialized public organization which effectively and proactively took data-driven informed decisions and aggregated the efforts of the federal and provincial governments for a timely response.

This paper gives insights for policymakers to create a sustainable post-pandemic socio-economic environment by building resilient structures across the government while promoting cooperation and collaboration. It suggests strategies for policymakers responsible for providing sustainable societal solutions to combat the social, economic and administrative challenges under the pandemic. As Pakistan has managed and contained the pandemic in a relatively efficient way, it is hoped that this paper can provide a learning experience for other countries with similar national contexts.

This study aims to investigate gamification-based training program through the lens of self-determination theory and in the context of corporate training programs. It integrates the self-determination theory, game elements and learning outcomes in gamified training programs to derive insights.

Data is sourced from software development companies operating in the city of Bangalore in India. It applies the partial least square structural equation modeling to investigate the relationship between the self-determination learning theory and game elements and the impact it has on learning outcomes.

As a precursor to the development of a game-like learning ecosystem, the authors study the perception of trainers and human resource managers toward game-based training programs in the organization. The authors find that game-based learning makes training more engaging, immersive and contextual for the learners.

The study is based on a specific sector, i.e. software development companies, and so the results may lack in generalizability. Future research, therefore, may consider other industrial sectors such as manufacturing, banking and telecom to understand the relationship between the constructs.

This study provides insights for the trainers, human resource managers and academicians on the effectiveness of gamification-based training programs. It also provides information on how the learning theory can be leveraged to understand gamification-based training programs.

This work fulfills an identified need of the training industry to understand new methods of training with an aim to improve the learning outcomes among the learners.

This study provides a deep understanding on the effectiveness of training tools such as gamified training programs in enhancing and improving the learning outcomes among the learners.

The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the economic models and assumptions that have given rise to current day tourism. It suggests alternate models based on new values to help tourism emerge from the current COVID crisis and “come-of-age.”

The paper delineates the assumptions of neoliberal economics upon which much of tourism has been based. It then summarizes the work of progressive economists in developing new models that value capital other than financial. Six of these models are briefly described and applied to tourism.

Some assumptions underlying the neoliberal economic model that need re-examining are the ideas that: self-interest drives ideal economic behavior; success comes from competition, not cooperation; encouraging consumption for its own sake; giving owners priority over other stakeholders; and more income translates into more happiness. Redesign of economic systems requires consideration of social capital, natural capital, intellectual capital, compassion capital, trust capital and spiritual capital to name a few. Examples of alternate systems using these capitals are the collaborative economy, the circular economy, the creative economy, the gift economy, the sacred economy and the regenerative economy.

The paper’s approach is to interlace modern economic thought with the future maturation of tourism and to suggest that tourism policymakers and leaders learn from these thinkers to create a new model for the future of tourism.

This paper aims to investigate and provide pathways for leveraging the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD’s) Ten Global Principles (TGPs) for countering tax crimes in the EU.

The study is guided by the combination of traditional and innovative research methods drawn from criminal law and justice, public regulatory theory and tax law, based on socio-legal and comparative methodologies.

The research shows that EU has achieved considerable amount of progress when it comes to meeting the TGPs. However, law and practice in EU Member States indicate that there are different legal, human and organisational approaches to fighting tax crimes. The TGPs could be strategically applied to complementing the EU’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD) and other initiatives on Administrative Cooperation.

Although the TGPs appear encompassing, there are opportunities to harness the potency of these principles and to provide more tailored principles that can help engineer sustainable remedies for countering tax crimes in the EU.

The paper critically analyses, through a multidisciplinary approach, the main legal, human and organisational factors influencing the prosecution of tax crimes in the EU Member States.

Realignment and harmonisation of tax enforcement paractices in the EU Member States thus help in the reduction of tax gap resulting from tax offences.

The paper provides novel approaches and findings based on empirical info obtained from face-to-face focus groups with end users and law enforcement agencies in tax enforcement eco-system in ten different EU Member States.

Applying both the dynamic capability and configuration theoretical perspectives, the paper showcases the role of network configuration and dynamics of hybrid offerings in both developed and emerging markets by high-tech firms.

The current paper uses an exploratory qualitative research methodology based on in-depth case studies of three Finnish high-tech firms operating in the medical technology industry globally.

The findings from the study showed that dynamic capabilities such as sensing and customer engagement along with internal coordination and adaptation capabilities are critical to the success of hybrid market offerings. Moreover, dynamic capabilities were found to be influential in those emerging and advanced international markets where case firms were less familiar with market dynamics. Moreover, the configuration of these capabilities within functional units and coordination of marketing and R&D activities can be effective for creating hybrid offerings in international markets. Ultimately, this was found to be the case even though target market selection for hybrid offerings was influenced by the level of convergence and fragmentation of the market.

Applying the configuration theory, this is one of the first studies to specifically analyze the differences in organizational network configuration changes in relation to hybrid market offerings in both developed economies and emerging economies. The findings contribute to hybrid market offering literature by pointing out that not only internal capabilities are important for enacting hybrid offerings, but the roles of ecosystems and knowledge centers are also extremely important to develop hybrid offerings. This paper also highlights the criticality of under-studied dynamic capabilities such as market sensing and customer engagement in the context of hybrid offerings in international markets. This showcases the wider role of ecosystems in enabling technology firms to develop hybrid offerings.