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This article explores challenges for rural Australian local governments during the transition to high-speed broadband infrastructure. Despite the National Broadband Network’s promised ubiquitous connectivity, significant access discrepancies remain between rural and urban areas.

Empirical findings are drawn from a full-day workshop on digital connectivity, which included participants from seven rural local governments in New South Wales, Australia. Thematic analysis of the workshop transcript was undertaken to extrapolate recurring nuances of rural digital exclusion.

Rural communities face inequitable prospects for digital inclusion, and authorities confront dual issues of accommodating connected and unconnected citizens. Many areas have no or poor broadband access, and different digital engagement expectations are held by citizens and local governments. Citizens seek interactive opportunities, but rural authorities often lack the necessary resources to offer advanced participatory practices.

While this research draws from a small sample of government officials, their insights are, nonetheless, heuristically valuable in identifying connectivity issues faced in rural Australia. These issues can guide further research into other regions as well as civic experiences of digital inclusion.

There is a need to reconceive Australia’s current policy approach to broadband. Greater rural digital inclusion may be achieved by focusing on connectivity as a public interest goal, targeting infrastructure developments to suit local contexts and implementing participatory digital government practices.

The actions suggested would help ensure equity of digital inclusion across Australian municipal areas. Without such changes, there is a risk of rural citizens facing further marginalisation through digital exclusion.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of infrastructure on economic development in developing economies.

A panel data analysis approach is utilised to evaluate the influence of various types of infrastructure on economic development in Vietnam over the period 2003–2013. Specifically, this study uses spatial night-light data taken from NASA’s satellite as an alternative proxy for economic development.

The analyses indicate that infrastructure enhancement consistently exerts a positive effect on the economy. Upon further investigations of the channels through which infrastructure could affect economic development, the empirical results reveal, in addition, that the developmental impact of infrastructure tends to be stronger if more rigorous government supervision and oversight of the construction and delivery of infrastructure projects are in place to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of the private sector’s investment in infrastructure facilities. Finally, the interaction of infrastructure with human capital appears to exert an especially important influence upon economic development.

This study contributes to the debate over whether infrastructure has a real developmental effect in developing countries. Some important policy implications are then drawn from the empirical analysis. As a result, this paper will be of value to other researchers, economists, business leaders and policy-makers attempting to understand the economic benefit of infrastructure development.

The presence of digital learning space is widely seen as there is an active engagement between educators and learners. However, the challenge raised mainly amidst the pandemic age, which is potentially leading to the interference on the active engagement in education process. The necessary act to have a critical response from the student’s feedback towards the online learning services should be taken into consideration in ensuring the continuance of teacher education in enabling to grab the potential chance to advance the assessment of strategic approach in online learning. This paper aims to examine the digital access during the pandemic age through elaborating the extensive value of better learning service or adaptation for the online learning achievement amidst the pandemic age.

This study is conducted with a qualitative approach through the particular method of data collection, namely, structured interview. This qualitative approach was selected to enable obtaining the richness of information and related data. The insightful feedback will be coming from 27 higher education learners.

The finding revealed that better design of achievement pathway on the digital access could be enhanced in supporting the online learning performance through the online services. The main point refers to look into detail about digital online infrastructure insufficiency for online access support and improvements on digital online infrastructure for accessibility of learning service. The main occupations are clearly pointed in the following phase. Those are empowering digital access for learning service support and enhancing digital-adaptation for online learning achievement.

This study is supposed to contribute in assisting the value contribution with an extensive point to continue the digital access during pandemic age through the adaptation empowerment of higher learner’s online learning services.

Both Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland governments recognise the current infrastructural deficits in their respective jurisdictions which, if not addressed, will undermine the future economic prosperity of both regions. This paper considers the adoption of a collaborative approach on the island to addressing the deficit, using public private partnerships (PPP) as the delivery vehicle. It presents a critical perspective of the challenges and opportunities posed by adopting such a cross‐border approach. Whilst PPPs have the potential to bring about North‐South co‐operation, bridge gaps in infrastructure capacity and facilitate the advancement of sectoral knowledge, their adoption on a cross border basis will require significant reorganisation and change at administrative and sectoral levels. This review concludes that governments and construction sector representatives in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have still some work to do in order to enhance the capability and readiness of public and private partners to evolve an all‐island PPP infrastructure development approach.

This paper aims to analyze how smart city construction affects destination competitiveness and elucidates the potential mechanisms of digital economy. Also, the regional heterogeneity of smart city construction’s influence on destination competitiveness is discussed.

Given the quasi-natural experiment characteristics of China's smart city construction pilot, this study applies a time-varying difference-in-differences approach using a panel dataset of 272 Chinese prefectural-level cities to examine the causal effects of smart city construction on destination competitiveness.

Results indicate substantial enhancement of urban destination competitiveness from smart city construction, with this effect escalating annually. Digital infrastructure and digital finance serve as influence mechanisms. The positive impacts of smart city construction on urban tourism competitiveness do not differ by geographic location, rather there are significant differences between cities of different administrative levels. The impact of smart city construction on destination competitiveness is more significant in low administrative level cities. The improvement of economic development level and innovation ability helps to exert the positive impact of smart cities on tourism competitiveness.

This study constructs a new panel data set for smart city construction and destination competitiveness based on multi-source data and posits a theoretical linkage among smart city construction, digital economy and destination competitiveness. This paper provides invaluable insights on how to boost destination competitiveness by creating smart cities and leveraging the digital economy. Tourism sectors should proactively engage in smart city construction and foster the digital transformation of tourism.

本文旨在分析智慧城市建设如何影响目的地竞争力, 并阐明数字经济的潜在机制。此外, 还讨论了智慧城市建设对目的地竞争力影响的区域异质性。

鉴于中国智慧城市建设试点的准自然实验特征, 本研究基于272个中国地级城市的面板数据集, 采用双重差分方法检验了智慧城市建设对目的地竞争力的因果影响。

研究结果表明, 智慧城市建设显著增强了城市目的地竞争力, 这种影响每年都在增加。数字基础设施和数字金融是影响机制。智慧城市建设对城市旅游竞争力的积极影响不因地理位置而异, 不同行政级别的城市之间存在显著差异。智慧城市建设对低行政级别城市目的地竞争力的影响更为显著。经济发展水平和创新能力的提高有助于发挥智慧城市对旅游竞争力的积极影响。

本研究基于多源数据构建了一个新的智慧城市建设和目的地竞争力面板数据集, 并在智慧城市建设、数字经济和目的地竞争之间建立了理论联系。本文就如何通过创建智慧城市和利用数字经济来提高目的地竞争力提供了宝贵的见解。旅游部门应积极参与智慧城市建设, 促进旅游业的数字化转型。

El objetivo de este artículo es analizar cómo afecta la construcción de ciudades inteligentes a la competitividad de los destinos y dilucidar los posibles mecanismos de la economía digital. Se aborda también la heterogeneidad regional de la influencia de la construcción de ciudades inteligentes en la competitividad de los destinos.

Dadas las características de experimento casi natural del proyecto piloto de construcción de ciudades inteligentes en China, este estudio aplica un enfoque de diferencias en diferencias temporales utilizando un conjunto de datos de panel de 272 ciudades chinas de nivel de prefectura para examinar los efectos causales de la construcción de ciudades inteligentes sobre la competitividad de los destinos.

Los resultados indican una mejora sustancial de la competitividad de los destinos urbanos gracias a la construcción de ciudades inteligentes, efecto que aumenta cada año. La infraestructura digital y las finanzas digitales actúan como mecanismos de influencia. Los efectos positivos de la construcción de ciudades inteligentes sobre la competitividad Del turismo urbano no difieren en función de la ubicación geográfica, sino que las diferencias significativas se producen entre ciudades de diferentes niveles administrativos. El impacto de la construcción de ciudades inteligentes en la competitividad de los destinos es más significativo en las ciudades de bajo nivel administrativo. La mejora del nivel de desarrollo económico y la capacidad de innovación contribuyen al impacto positivo de las ciudades inteligentes en la competitividad turística.

Este estudio construye un nuevo conjunto de datos de panel para la construcción de ciudades inteligentes y la competitividad de los destinos basado en datos de múltiples fuentes y plantea un vínculo teórico entre la construcción de ciudades inteligentes, la economía digital y la competitividad de los destinos. Este artículo ofrece un valioso conocimiento sobre cómo impulsar la competitividad de los destinos mediante la creación de ciudades inteligentes y el aprovechamiento de la economía digital. Los sectores turísticos deberían participar de forma proactiva en la construcción de ciudades inteligentes y fomentar la transformación digital del turismo.

The aging population, a higher proportion of older adults (aged 65+), is considered a global and severe problem, while the information systems (IS) literature on detecting the relationship between the aging population and the development of electronic commerce (e-commerce) is limited and insufficient. Hence, the main objective of this paper is to examine whether an aging population can moderate the effect of infrastructure constructions on e-commerce sales and whether an aging population can affect e-commerce sales.

To investigate the relationship between the aging population and e-commerce sales, this study proposes two potential influential mechanisms: moderating the effects of infrastructure development on e-commerce sales and direct influence. Subsequently, a sample of 31 Chinese provinces from 2013 to 2019 is utilized to conduct regression analyses in order to examine these hypotheses.

The findings suggest that the development of urban transportation infrastructure and network constructions can significantly contribute to the enhancement of e-commerce sales, and the influence cannot be affected by aging population. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that an aging population can have a positive effect on e-commerce sales.

The findings can inform future infrastructure constructions by assessing the potential of infrastructure projects to boost e-commerce sales and examining whether this effect varies in an aging population context.

The findings substantiate the pivotal role of older adults in the e-commerce industry. Moreover, the obtained results establish a positive relationship between an aging population and e-commerce sales, thereby offering diverse perspectives on existing theories.

In this era of technological advancement, the capabilities of devices and telecommunications have changed the pattern of media consumption among consumers. This study examined the research landscape and advancements in OTT services.

This study adopted a hybrid review consisting of bibliometric and thematic analyses to present advancements in the OTT platforms. A hybrid review integrates both systematic and narrative approaches by emphasizing a literature search strategy and the study selection process.

This study focuses on previous literature to understand recent developments in the domain. The authors derive six major OTT themes: OTT infrastructure and technology advancement, OTT consumption behaviour, shifting trends towards OTT platforms, viewers’ engagement in digital media, OTT in the global market, OTT policies and regulatory mechanisms.

The findings of this study will be useful for marketers/stakeholders associated with the entertainment and media industries, such as sales promotion teams, media planners/advertisers, content management companies and policy regulators, to penetrate OTT viewers.

The literature related to OTT is progressively rising, but it remains highly fragmented because of inconsistencies in the methodologies and theories used in the domain of OTT. This study offers directions in terms of theory, methodology and future research on OTT services.

In terms of having the general idea of what the whole book entails, the first chapter gave an insight into all the chapters and what details each chapter holds. This chapter began with an introduction of the book title in relation to the construction industry and sustainable practice in a collaborative manner. In addition, sustainable infrastructure management (SIM) was discussed in relation to construction Industry 4.0 and the management qualities of the technologies incorporated into construction activities. The objective of the book gave the need for SIM in construction with the view of achieving sustainable practices beneficial to both the client and the construction professional.

The paper presents a literature review on research data management services in African academic and research libraries on the backdrop of the advancing open science and open research data infrastructures. It provides areas of focus for library to support open research data.

The literature analysis and future role of African libraries in research data management services were based on three areas as follows:open science, research infrastructures and open data infrastructures. Focussed literature searches were conducted across several electronic databases and discovery platforms, and a qualitative content analysis approach was used to explore the themes based on a coded list.

The review reports of an environment where open science in Africa is still at developmental stages. Research infrastructures face funding and technical challenges. Data management services are in formative stages with progress reported in a few countries where open science and research data management policies have emerged, cyber and data infrastructures are being developed and limited data librarianship courses are being taught.

The role of the academic and research libraries in Africa remains important in higher education and the national systems of research and innovation. Libraries should continue to align with institutional and national trends in response to the provision of data management services and as partners in the development of research infrastructures.

In an increasingly interconnected world, transportation infrastructure has emerged as a critical determinant of economic growth and global competitiveness. High-speed rail (HSR), characterized by its exceptional speed and efficiency, has garnered widespread attention as a transformative mode of transportation that transcends borders and fosters economic development. The Kuala Lumpur – Singapore (KL-SG) HSR project stands as a prominent exemplar of this paradigm, symbolizing the potential of HSR to serve as a catalyst for national economic advancement.

This paper is prepared to provide an insight into the benefits and advantages of HSR based on proven case studies and references from global HSRs, including China, Spain, France and Japan.

The findings that have been obtained focus on enhanced connectivity and accessibility, attracting foreign direct investment, revitalizing regional economies, urban development and city regeneration, boosting tourism and cultural exchange, human capital development, regional integration and environmental and sustainability benefits.

The KL-SG HSR, linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, epitomizes the potential for HSR to be a transformative agent in the realm of economic development. This project encapsulates the aspirations of two dynamic Southeast Asian economies, united in their pursuit of sustainable growth, enhanced connectivity and global competitiveness. By scrutinizing the KL-SG High-Speed Rail through the lens of economic benchmarking, a deeper understanding emerges of how such projects can drive progress in areas such as cross-border trade, tourism, urban development and technological innovation.