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Technological advancement has forced academic libraries to change their traditional services and routines by adopting emerging technologies to respond to the changing information needs of their users who are now more technologically inclined and prefer to access information remotely and in a timely manner. Smart technologies are the recent trends in academic libraries. This research aims to investigate the level of smart information service implementation at academic libraries in Jordan. It also aimed to investigate the correlation between the level of smart information services offered by the libraries and the level of digital competencies among the library staff.

This research is designed using survey design to collect comprehensive information from the study participants. A questionnaire was disseminated to 340 respondents, and 246 questionnaires were returned and were suitable for analysis with a response rate of 72.4%.

The results indicated a moderate level of smart information service offered by academic libraries, as well as a moderate level of digital skills associated with the advocacy of smart information services. The results also indicated a strong and positive relationship between the level of smart information services at the investigated libraries and the level of digital competencies among the librarians.

The findings will help other academic libraries understand how to respond to the emergent change in users’ information-seeking behavior by understanding their available human resources competencies and the requirement to undergo this emergent change.

This paper provides insights and practical solutions for academic libraries in response to global information trends based on users’ behaviors. This research was conducted in Jordan as one of the developing countries and hence it provides insights of the situation there. It will help academic libraries in Jordan and the region to handle and cope with the challenges associated with technology acceptance based on its staff level of digital competencies. The contribution of this research that it was done in a developing country where progress in the filed can be considered slow because of many factors, mainly economics, where institutions focus on essential library objectives, which are information resources development and databases subscriptions.

The aim of this paper is to examine a model that combines barriers, drivers, government responses, recovery expectations, expected future changes in performance and the extent of digitalisation as a moderator in SMEs.

This study uses exploratory causal methodologies. The study employs a quantitative methodology based on utilising an electronic questionnaire to gather the opinions of home workers and entrepreneurs in Jordan. The cross-sectional data collection approach was conducted in a single time frame, and a total of 1,179 valid questionnaires were analysed using Smart PLS along with SPSS.

The findings demonstrate that the barriers lower the expectations of recovering performance, whilst the drivers and government responses raise the expectations of both performance recovery and change in performance. Concerning digitalisation, this study discovered that firms going digital had a significant positive direct impact on expectations of performance change. This paper also found that expectations of performance change are significantly positively impacted by the interaction between drivers and digitalisation. However, the moderating influence of digitalisation on the positive impact of government responses on expectations of performance change was not verified.

The study's conclusions led to the formulation of several policy recommendations aimed at easing the burden on SMEs.

This study adds something new to the body of knowledge on SMEs by investigating the effects of barriers, drivers and government responses on expectations of performance recovery and the expected future change in performance moderated by digitalisation.

The purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in the literature regarding the open innovation management approaches that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can use to access digital technologies and incorporate them into their organizational processes. The research question is: What organizational and process-level managerial actions do SMEs take to successfully access and implement digital technologies within their organizational processes?

Using Guertler et al.'s (2020) Action Innovation Management Research (AIM-R) framework, this study examines the digital transformation experiences of 10 European SMEs to gain insights into the managerial actions that foster successful digital transformation.

The findings of the paper reveal two major contributions. First, a digital transformation roadmap for SMEs is proposed, with a focus on accessing external resources and reconfiguring internal ones to ease their digital transformation journey. Second, three distinct paradoxes that influence the digital transformation process in SMEs are highlighted, providing useful insights into the challenges and tensions SMEs face during this journey.

This paper provides a unique perspective on the digital transformation of SMEs by examining the managerial actions required for successful technology adoption and revealing the paradoxes that may emerge during this transformative process. The findings form the basis for future research, deepening our understanding of digital transformation in SMEs and providing actionable advice to managers and practitioners navigating this journey.

The aim of this study is to discern the role of digital finance in driving rural industrial integration and revitalization. Specifically, it intends to shed light on how the deep development of digital finance can contribute to the optimization and transformation of the rural industrial structure. The research further explores the particular effects of this financial transformation in the central and western regions of China.

This research studies the influence of digital finance on rural industrial integration across 30 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2020. Utilizing the entropy weight method, a comprehensive evaluation index system is established to gauge the level of rural industrial integration. A two-way fixed effects model, intermediary effect model, and threshold effect model are employed to decipher the relationship between digital finance and rural industrial integration.

Findings reveal a positive relationship between digital finance and rural industrial integration. A single threshold feature was identified: beyond a traditional finance development level, the marginal effect of digital finance on rural industrial integration increases. These effects are more noticeable in central and western regions.

Empirical outcomes contribute to policy discourse on rural digital finance, assisting policymakers in crafting effective strategies. Understanding the threshold of traditional finance development provides a new perspective on the potential of digital finance to drive rural industrial integration.

The rapid development of urban areas in Sleman District, Indonesia, has created new challenges for firefighting response services. One of the primary challenges is to identify the optimal locations for new fire stations, to improve service quality and maximize service coverage within the specified time.

This paper proposes a method for precisely calculating travel time that integrates delay time caused by traffic lights, intersections and congestion. The study highlights the importance of precise calculation of travel time in order to provide a more accurate understanding of the service area covered by the fire stations. The proposed method utilizes network analysis in ArcGIS, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and simple additive weighting (SAW) to accurately calculate travel time and to identify the best locations for new fire stations. The identification of new site was based on service safety, service quality, service costs and demographic factors and applied to the Sleman district in Indonesia.

The results showed that the total area covered by old and new fire stations decreased from 61% to 31.8% of the study area when the adjusted default speed scenario was implemented.

The results indicated that the default speed scenario could provide misleading information about the service area, while the adjusted default speed scenario improved service quality and maximized service coverage.

The proposed method provides decision-makers with an effective tool to make informed decisions on optimal locations for new fire stations and thus enhance emergency response and public safety.

The current study mainly focuses on the effect of varying diameter recycled steel fibers (RSF) on mechanical properties of concrete prepared with 25 and 50% of recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) as well as 100% natural aggregate (NA). Two types of RSF with 0.84 mm and 1.24 mm diameter having 30 mm length were incorporated into normal and recycled aggregate concrete (RAC).

The fresh behavior, compressive, splitting tensile, flexural strengths and modulus of elasticity of all the mixes were investigated to evaluate the mechanical properties of RACs. In addition, specimen crack and testing co-relation were analyzed to evaluate fiber response in the RAC.

According to the experimental results, it was observed that mechanical properties decreased with the increment replacement of NA by RCA. However, the RSF greatly improves the mechanical properties of both normal concrete and RACs. Moreover, mixes containing 1.24 mm diameter RSF had a more significant positive impact on mechanical properties than mixes containing 0.84 mm diameter RSF. The 0.84 mm and 1.24 mm RSF addition improved the mixes' compressive, splitting tensile and flexural strength by 10%–19%, 19%–30% and 3%–11%, respectively when compared to the null fiber mix. Therefore, based on the mechanical properties, the 1.24 mm diameter of RSF with 25% replacement of RCA was obtained as an optimum solution in terms of performance improvement, environmental benefit and economic cost.

The practice of RCA in construction is a long-term strategy for reducing natural resource extraction and the negative ecological impact of waste concrete.

This is the first study on the effects of varying size (0.84 mm and 1.24 mm diameter) RSF on the mechanical properties of RAC. Additionally, varying sizes of RSF and silica fume added a new dimension to the RAC.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed many challenges in almost all sectors around the globe. Because of the pandemic, government entities responsible for managing health-care resources face challenges in managing and distributing their limited and valuable health resources. In addition, severe outbreaks may occur in a small or large geographical area. Therefore, county-level preparation is crucial for officials and organizations who manage such disease outbreaks. However, most COVID-19-related research projects have focused on either state- or country-level. Only a few studies have considered county-level preparations, such as identifying high-risk counties of a particular state to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to prioritize counties in a state based on their COVID-19-related risks to manage the COVID outbreak effectively.

In this research, the authors use a systematic hybrid approach that uses a clustering technique to group counties that share similar COVID conditions and use a multi-criteria decision-making approach – the analytic hierarchy process – to rank clusters with respect to the severity of the pandemic. The clustering was performed using two methods, k-means and fuzzy c-means, but only one of them was used at a time during the experiment.

The results of this study indicate that the proposed approach can effectively identify and rank the most vulnerable counties in a particular state. Hence, state health resources managing entities can identify counties in desperate need of more attention before they allocate their resources and better prepare those counties before another surge.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to use both an unsupervised learning approach and the analytic hierarchy process to identify and rank state counties in accordance with the severity of COVID-19.

Achieving swift and even flow of cargo through the border, the ultimate objective of cross-border logistics (CBL) requires the close coordination and collaboration of a multitude of stakeholders, as well as optimally configured systems. To achieve and sustain competitiveness in a dynamic international trade environment, CBL processes must undergo periodic analysis, improvement and optimization. This study aims to develop a modelling framework to capture CBL processes for analysis and improvement.

Relying on the extant literature, a meta-model is developed incorporating significant perspectives required to model CBL processes. Popular process modelling notations are evaluated against the meta-model and their ease of comprehension is also evaluated. The selected notation through evalution is augmented with addendums for a comprehensive depiction of CBL processes.

The capacity of role activity diagrams (RADs) to depict all perspectives, including interactions in a single diagram, makes them particularly suitable for modelling CBL processes. RADs have been complemented with physical flow diagrams and methods to capture temporal dimension, enabling a comprehensive view of CBL processes laying the foundation for insightful analysis.

The meta-model developed in this paper paves the way to develop an analysis framework which requires further research.

The lack of well-accepted modelling notations for studying CBL processes prompts researchers to search and adapt different formalisms. This study has filled this gap by proposing a comprehensive modelling framework able to capture CBL processes at different granularities in rich detail. Not only does the developed meta-model aid in selecting the notation, it is also useful in analysing the constituent elements of CBL processes.

This research examines the impact of the National Rural E-commerce Comprehensive Demonstration Project (NRECDP) on poverty reduction and income growth in rural China.

The study develops a theoretical framework, which considers the role of geographical, technological, institutional and cultural factors for the e-commerce poverty alleviation (e-CPA) model. Empirically, this study applies the difference-in-differences (DID) model and the event study approach to evaluate the effectiveness of NRECDP on the basis of large-scale county-level and household-level panel data spanning 2010 to 2020.

The study found that the NRECDP, as a government-led, information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled, market-based program, has led to a significant increase in per capita output of primary industry employees, as well as in the disposable income of rural residents, especially those in national-level poverty-stricken (NP) counties. The interventions of the NRECDP achieved these positive outcomes through transportation and Internet infrastructure improvement, ICT adoption and human capital accumulation in impoverished towns and villages in remote rural areas. These effects are larger in the eastern region of China, followed by the central region, whereas the weakest effects were found in the western region. However, we found little evidence of the NRECDP increasing household developmental expenditure.

The study findings have important practical and policy implications for rural e-commerce development and self-sustained poverty alleviation solutions. The research revealed the significance of government NRECDP interventions for increasing rural income, reducing living costs, and empowering the rural population in its multiple social roles, namely, as consumers, producers, employees and microentrepreneurs. The local cultural context may also play a role in ICT adoption and entrepreneurship cultivation with a downstream effect on the effectiveness of e-CPA practices. Policymakers would need to ensure a supportive entrepreneur-friendly environment for rural e-commerce development and continue implementing progressive policies for poverty alleviation.

This study explores poverty alleviation issues in China by developing for the first time a multi-faceted framework that is subsequently tested by both county-level and household-level large-scale observations. Also, it is the first study to provide nationwide empirical evidence on the effectiveness of e-CPA in narrowing down the spatial and digital divides in China. In addition to the impact of geography, technology and governmental support, this study also sheds light on the role of culture in the adoption and diffusion of digital technologies and as a source of local entrepreneurial opportunities.

The purpose of this study is to test the hypotheses proposed by Konadu et al. (2023) for the first time and provide empirical insight on the subject. Corruption concerns affect all economies, but those attempting to avoid foreign grants are especially vulnerable. Stakeholders in these economies have pushed for more honest public sector (PS) workers and better oversight of public funds in an effort to build a more trustworthy and efficient government to improve PS performance. Just as the mechanisms through which employee integrity (EI) influences work performance (WP) have not been proven empirically, neither has the effect of EI on WP in African economies. Also, how purposeful leadership (PL) interacts with EI to boost WP is yet to be empirically examined in the integrity literature.

This paper surveyed and analysed the responses of 875 workers across the three most corrupt large PS organisations in Ghana using Smart PLS 4. Perceived organisational support and contract fulfilment functioned as control factors influencing job satisfaction (JS, a mediator). Psychological need satisfaction and perceived procedural justice serve as control factors for organisational identification (OI, an additional mediator). Education, tenure, job position, sex and age were used as control variables in WP. Product indicator and variance accounted for (VAF) methods were used to estimate the impacts of moderation and mediation, respectively. A 5% level of significance was determined.

As hypothesised, this study found that EI and WP had a significantly positive connection (ß = 0.119, p = 0.026), and both JS (VAF = 25.16%) and OI (VAF = 39.59%) partially mediated this connection. Moreover, PL positively moderated the EI–JS (ß = 0.155, p = 0.000) and EI–OI (ß = 0.095, p = 0.000) connections.

This paper affords empirical insight on the EI–WP relationship, how this relationship is mediated and how the EI–JS and EI–OI relationships are amplified. In this context, it sheds light on new ways in which EI and WP in the PS are improved. In addition, this paper provides a roadmap for forthcoming academics to test the hypotheses in diverse PS contexts globally to triangulate the results.

Leadership in PS organisations must maintain a “values-grounded approach” to all parts of human resource (HR) practices, including hiring, performance reviews, leadership enhancement programmes, training and promotions, if they are to attract, develop and retain employees who stand for the sector’s ethics and beliefs.

This research gives African nations proof that enhancing EI in the PS is important, and it lays out the many ways in which EI transforms into WP. It also draws attention to the challenges that purposeful leaders may help alleviate and the opportunities that they may present.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the hypotheses put forward in the conceptual research by Konadu et al. (2023) are tested empirically for the first time in this study. It also adds to the empirical literature that already exists on EI, JS, OI, WP and PL in the PS. This contributes to the disciplines of integrity, performance and leadership by enhancing theoretical frameworks and expanding upon existing knowledge.