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The research aims to identify the effectiveness of using the blended learning strategy on achievement among students of higher colleges of technology in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), through the answer to the following question: Is there a statistically significant difference at the significance level (a = 0.05) in students' achievements in general studies courses at higher education attributed to the method of teaching (blended learning, traditional).

The research applied a Quasi-experimental. The current research used two groups experimental group and controlled group across two phases: pilot study and experimental study. Phase 1 examined the difference between the pilot group and the nonpilot group at Sharjah colleges across three different courses: Fundamentals of Applied Mathematics, Professional Communication and Reporting and Basic Research Methods during the spring semester 2019 at Sharjah colleges. Phase 2 examined the difference between the experimental group (using blended learning during summer 2019) and the controlled group (learned the same courses during summer 2018) across three different courses and the same three courses.

There is no statistically significant difference at significance level (a = 0.05) in students' achievements in the Fundamentals of Applied Mathematics (LSM 1000) course between the experimental and controlled groups. There is a statistically significant difference at significance level (a = 0.05) in students' achievements in the Professional Communication and Reporting (LSC 1103) in favor of the experimental group course at higher education attributed to the method of teaching (blended learning, traditional). There is no statistically significant difference at significance level (a = 0.05) in students' achievements in the Basic Research Methods (LSS 1123) between the experimental and controlled groups.

1. The study is limited to students of Higher Colleges of Technology in the UAE. 2. The study is limited to the General Studies Department at Higher Colleges of Technology. 3. The achievement test used in the study is a standardized test developed by the college.

This research considered the first research to discuss the effectiveness of using blended learning where three teaching strategies are combined together (normal face-to-face classes, flipped classroom and online face-to-face classes) in students' achievement at higher education in the UAE.

The purpose of this study was to gather insights from sport marketing professionals and identify key opportunities, challenges and knowledge that sport marketing educators and researchers could utilize in developing curriculum and research agendas.

A qualitative approach was used, and data were collected through in-depth interviews with 15 sport marketing professionals. Participants were asked questions related to the knowledge, skills and experiences that they believe are important for students to have to be successful in the industry, as well as the types of research that would be most useful in their day-to-day work.

Industry professionals noted collaboration, transformation in digital marketing, data and analytics and experiential marketing as key trends facing the industry today. The findings suggest that sport marketing curriculum should focus on soft skill development such as communication, relationship building and empathy alongside hard skill development such as data analysis and storytelling. As well, findings show research areas where scholars can aid practitioners with a focus on consumer insights, technology, measuring ROI and experiential marketing.

With these findings, educators and scholars can better prepare students for successful careers in industry and contribute to the ongoing advancement of the scholarly field. This study serves as a starting point for further research in this area, and it is hoped that it will spark continued collaboration between academia and industry.

Information technology (IT) personnels’ technical, business and behavioral skills are critical enablers for generating IT value. In an increasingly digitalized working environment where non-IT employees participate in digital innovations, a focus on IT personnels’ skills only doesn’t meet researchers’ need for a framework to study digital skills and managers’ need to address digital skills challenges across an enterprise’s workforce. Nevertheless, the digital skills topic is complicated by conceptual ambiguity and a lack of theoretically derived and empirically validated model. The purpose of this study is to address this problem.

Theoretically, this study draws on human capital (HC) and resource-based view (RBV) theories. Empirically, it follows mixed method combining interviews and a survey.

The digital skills construct is a multidimensional second order reflective construct. While its development is influenced by an organization’s commitment and exposure to digitalization, it influences the value organizations obtain from digitalization.

This study conceptualizes the digital skills construct, identifying technology agnostic subdimensions that are meaningful beyond a particular digital domain [information and communication technology (ICT), information, Internet, Inter of Things (IoT)] and establishing a valid measure. Other researchers can improve both the indicators of the existing four conceptually distinct and managerially recognizable workplace digital skills dimensions as well as testing new ones.

Managers can use the instrument to assess the extent to which their non-IT workforces are equipped with digital skills and get strategic insights for specific interventions such as upskilling or buying in skills.

The main theoretical contribution of the paper is the conceptualization and validation of the digital skills construct for the non-IT workforce. Furthermore, we provide a theoretical framework to explain the factors that could influence the development of digital skills and demonstrate the impact that digital skills have on selected digitalization value indicators. This contribution provides the foundation for investigating the drivers, outcomes and the relationship of digital skills to other constructs such as digital transformation, innovation and firm performance.

This study aims to investigate the determinants of United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar consumers’ perceptions of organic food.

Using a survey approach and focusing on six known determinants identified from empirical studies, data were analysed using a mean difference analysis and a multi-regression model.

Citizens in both countries had similar access to organic food products, yet consumer perceptions differed significantly. Given the geographical, cultural and topographical proximity and similarities of these countries, differences in the mean values indicate that targeted or bespoke marketing is required to attract customers.

One limitation of this study its sample size that may limit the generalizability of its results. However, the highly statistically significant results offset this to some extent as the differences the authors have demonstrated are likely to be real. These do require confirmation by further similar studies. The study relied on a random sample of respondents who might have exhibited bias in answering questions.

The two countries central to this research study, the UAE and Qatar, have vested interests in supporting the organic food product market that mainly concern supporting and promoting the health of their citizens and the environment. As shown in this paper, the key obstacles preventing consumers’ accessing organic products are availability and price. With appropriate governmental subsidies and logistics support, however, these barriers can be overcome.

If governments are sincere in their declarations that the health and welfare of their citizens is of prime importance, they will support attempts to promote the sale and consumption of organically grown food. The results of this study can help to inform such policies.

This study provides insights into the most important factors that influence consumers’ attitudes towards organic foods. This study fills a gap in the existing research on consumer buying behaviour for organic food in two Middle Eastern countries.

The purpose of this study is to investigate manufacturing industry leaders’ perspectives on the prevailing skills gap in the current Illinois workforce. The insights gained hold significant importance for the emerging generation of workers, helping them discern the essential proficiencies and plan their educational and career paths in response.

Guided by Becker’s (1962) human capital theory (HCT) framework, a qualitative study was conducted to identify the skills gap and explore the perspectives of manufacturing industry leaders. Fourteen industry leaders participated in this study, representing various occupational industries.

The findings underscore the prominence of the skills gap as perceived by manufacturing industry leaders, with notable aspects including limited durable skills and difficulty transitioning from content-based knowledge to practical skills.

The findings of this study can offer insights to researchers, scholars and practitioners in the field of human resource development, as well as to leaders in the manufacturing industry who aim to address the skills gap. Furthermore, this research can inform policy decisions and assist higher education institutions in preparing students for careers in the industry.

Phytochemicals are known for their iron chelation ability with no side effects. Lignans and polyphenols in flaxseed have iron-chelating and antioxidant abilities. Therefore, this study aims to assess the ability of flaxseed to reduce iron overload and minimize its negative health effects.

A randomized control trial was conducted. A total of 96 patients were enrolled in this study and randomized into three groups: two intervention groups had 3 or 7 g of whole flaxseed and a control group took a placebo (gram seeds). Interventions were administered for 12 weeks. A hematological profile, ferritin quantification in serum, and liver function tests were performed to evaluate the effects of flaxseed.

It was observed that flaxseed with synthetic iron chelators caused a significant reduction in ferritin levels compared with synthetic chelators. The pre-transfusion hemoglobin level was also improved in the intervention group. A significant reduction (p value 0.0003) in ferritin levels among intervention groups indicated that flaxseed reduced the iron overload. It can be concluded that flaxseed reduced iron overload in thalassemia major patients with no side effects and may reduce iron overload solely when taken in adequate quantity.

Although the study targets a non-specific protein-ferritin for the evaluation of iron-overload, the initial ferritin value and reduction in these levels indicate the efficacy of ferritin for reducing iron overload in thalassemia major patients. Moreover, this is the first study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, that demonstrates the iron-chelation ability of flaxseed in thalassemia major patients, suggesting the use of flaxseed for iron chelation.

Food waste (FW) is a significant problem in the hospitality sector worldwide. The Covid-19 pandemic has imposed a health protocol on the hospitality sector to protect the customers and the community. This paper aims to evince a new understanding of the tourist city during the Covid-19 pandemic by exploring the effects of the new health protocol on FW management at the consumption stage in the hospitality sector in Dubai.

In this study, the authors use a scale assessment method and a survey distributed to 202 tables in 35 restaurants offering open buffet catering in Dubai.

The paper’s findings provide evidence that: first, the tourist city has faced substantial changes during the pandemic as the new health protocol imposed by the Covid-19 circumstances has mitigated the waste of food in the open buffet services. Second, the highest waste has been observed for vegetables, followed by grains (especially rice) and bread. The lowest waste has been observed for meat and fruits. Third, FW per table varies considerably by consumer groups. The FW quantity of residents is significantly higher than that of tourists. Family gathering tables with an essential number of children waste more food than the other group types. Fourth, consumers claimed to become more conscious about the quantum of FW as a direct response to the socio-economic circumstances imposed by the lockdown such as food availability, salary reduction, economic uncertainty and employment instability. Fifth, the attitude to keeping food on the plate does not change considerably.

This paper offers many practical implications. Using newly discovered pieces of evidence from practitioners, hoteliers and policymakers, this paper highlights current hospitality practices that can reduce the waste of food in a postpandemic world. Furthermore, our paper suggests a set of actions for restaurants offering open-buffet services to reduce FW at the consumption stage.

This paper adds significance to the extant tourist city literature. The tourist city served as an example of a recent urban development characterized mainly by tourist consumption. This research advances the understanding of FW management and customers’ behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic in an important touristic city “Dubai” and suggests a set of actions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) level of participation in human resource development activities during a labor shortage. Drawing on human capital theory, it examines whether SMEs’ profiles, determined according to their participation in different types of training activities, relate to perceived benefits of training, barriers to participation in training and learning culture.

This study applies latent profile analysis (LPA) to 10 training practices of 427 SMEs in Quebec, Canada.

The LPA distinguished four profiles of SMEs, reflecting differing capacities for mobilizing training resources during a labor shortage. These four profiles show differences with regard to perceived training benefits, barriers to participation in training and learning culture.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to focus on the specific ability of SMEs to invest in their human capital in the unique and recent context of a labor shortage.

The study examines the impact of emotional intelligence on service innovation capabilities. Furthermore, it explored the mediating role of diversity climate and the moderating role of innovation culture.

An online questionnaire helped to collect data from 257 public sector employees in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The proposed hypotheses were analysed using structural equation modelling.

Building on the ability model, the study found that employees' emotional intelligence has a positive impact on diversity climate; that diversity climate does not mediate the relationship between emotional intelligence and service innovation capabilities and that innovation culture has a moderating effect between diversity climate and service innovation capabilities.

The paper clarifies the emotional intelligence of the workforce and its ability to influence innovation culture and diversity climate in public organisations, ultimately benefiting service innovation capability research. As such, the study contributes to the literature by proposing and analysing some antecedents of service innovation capabilities in the context of public organisations. The study also offers policymakers information on what prevents innovation, which they can use to raise the bar on service quality requirements in the public sector.

Amidst the turbulent tides of geopolitical uncertainty and pandemic-induced economic disruptions, the information technology industry grapples with alarming attrition and aggravating talent gaps, spurring a surge in demand for specialized digital proficiencies. Leveraging this imperative, firms seek to attract and retain top-tier talent through generous compensation packages. This study introduces a holistic, integrated theoretical framework integrating machine learning models to develop a compensation model, interrogating the multifaceted factors that shape pay determination.

Drawing upon a stratified sample of 2488 observations, this study determines whether compensation can be accurately predicted via constructs derived from the integrated theoretical framework, employing various cutting-edge machine learning models. This study culminates in discovering a random forest model, exhibiting 99.6% accuracy and 0.08° mean absolute error, following a series of comprehensive robustness checks.

The empirical findings of this study have revealed critical determinants of compensation, including but not limited to experience level, educational background, and specialized skill-set. The research also elucidates that gender does not play a role in pay disparity, while company size and type hold no consequential sway over individual compensation determination.

The research underscores the importance of equitable compensation to foster technological innovation and encourage the retention of top talent, emphasizing the significance of human capital. Furthermore, the model presented in this study empowers individuals to negotiate their compensation more effectively and supports enterprises in crafting targeted compensation strategies, thereby facilitating sustainable economic growth and helping to attain various Sustainable Development Goals.

The cardinal contribution of this research lies in the inception of an inclusive theoretical framework that persuasively explicates the intricacies of a machine learning-driven remuneration model, ennobled by the synthesis of diverse management theories to capture the complexity of compensation determination. However, the generalizability of the findings to other sectors is constrained as this study is exclusively limited to the IT sector.