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This paper aims to analyze the scholarly approach to examine the issues at the intersection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and human rights (HRs) and ways to address, to examine broad categories of approaches used by the scholars in examining this conflict, their justification and to provide concrete directions for HRs framework of intellectual property.

The study conducted systematic literature review of 94 research articles published between 1996 and 2021, focusing on cross roads between IPRs and HRs.

The in-depth content analysis of 94 published research papers revealed the polarization of scholarly opinion on the HRs perspective of IPRs.

Very limited efforts were made in past to synthesize and organize scholarly research on the conflict between IPRs and HRs covering the right to education, to access information, to food, etc. besides the right to health care. This study synthesized and analyzed the scholarly research on the crossroad between IPRs and HRs, revealed critical conflict areas and collated the justifications of opposing approaches to provide inputs to international organizations, policymakers and governments for the enforcement of IPRs from the perspective of HRs.

This paper aims to examine the prevailing Rohingya refugee crisis from political and humanitarian perspectives and explores the political and humanitarian aspects of the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Relevant literature has been reviewed for conceptual understanding. This study is descriptive and qualitative in nature and based on secondary sources of data.

The main causes of the Rohingya crisis such as political and humanitarian aspects. Issues such as discrimination and homelessness, and national security concerns that regional politics scapegoated the Rohingya to exacerbate regional tensions. Moreover, armed conflicts, political radicalization, security concerns, human rights violations and low media attention compared to other displaced families have made the future of the Rohingyas very uncertain.

The Rohingya crisis has far-reaching implications for domestic and regional politics as well as for relations with major world powers. In the context of regional security and geopolitics, this study provides insight into the polarization and politicization of the Rohingya minority.

This research offers a vital exploration of the Rohingya refugee crisis, delving into its multifaceted political and humanitarian dimensions, contributing fresh insights to address a pressing global concern.

This study aims to examine the impact of national culture on classification shifting in Eastern European Member States of EU Eastern European countries (EEU) vis-à-vis the Western Member States of EU (WEU). The EEU provides a unique sample to study the quality of financial reporting that the authors measure with classification shifting given that for more than five decades they were following the model of a centrally planned economy, where market-based financial reporting was absent. Yet, the EEU transitioned to a market-based economy and completed its accession to the EU.

This study uses a panel data set of firm year observations from 1996 and 2020 that covers the full transition of EEU. This empirical analysis is based on fixed effects panel regression analysis where the authors report a plethora of identifications.

This study finds classification shifting in the EEU countries since their transition to the market-based economy, though they have no long record of market-based financial reporting. This study also notices that cultural factors are associated with classification shifting across all Member States of the EU. This study further examines the impact of interactions between cultural characteristics and special items and reveal variability between WEU and EEU. As part of the robustness analysis, this study also tests the impact of culture on real earnings management measures for both WEU vs EEU, confirming the variability of the impact of culture on earnings management.

Future research could explore the role of religion differences in WEU vis-à-vis EEU states, as they are also subject to cultural differences.

The findings are important for regulators, external monitors and investors, as they show that cultural factors affect earnings management with some variability across countries in the EU, and they should be acknowledged in policymaking.

The findings show that cultural differences between EEU and the “old” Member States of the EU could explain classification shifting.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that sheds light on the impact of national culture on classification shifting in EEU of EU vis-à-vis the “old” WEU of EU.

Currently, consumers of financial products and services have become more vulnerable to predatory financial institutions, especially in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, financial consumers like the persons with disabilities (PWDs) should be equipped with knowledge and skills to help them to evaluate complex financial products on offer in financial markets, especially in developing countries to avoid being victims of fraudulent lending. The purpose of this study is to establish whether customized financial literacy mediates the relationship between financial consumer protection and financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs in rural Uganda post Covid-19 pandemic.

SmartPLS 4.0 was used to construct the measurement and structural equation models to test whether customized financial literacy significantly mediates the relationship between financial consumer protection and financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs in rural Uganda post Covid-19 pandemic.

The results revealed a partial mediating effect of customized financial literacy in the relationship between financial consumer protection and financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs in rural Uganda post Covid-19 pandemic. Conducting customized financial literacy increases financial consumer protection by 12 percentage points to promote financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs in rural Uganda post Covid-19 pandemic.

This study focused only on customized financial literacy and financial consumer protection to promote universal financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs post Covid-19 pandemic. Future studies may use data collected from other vulnerable groups amongst the unbanked population in developing countries, Uganda inclusive. In addition, this study also collected only quantitative data from the selected population. Further studies can be conducted using key informant interviews and focused group discussion to get the perceptions of the PWDs on being protected from exploitation by unscrupulous financial institutions.

The findings from this study can help policymakers in developing countries like Uganda to revise the existing consumer protection law to include strong clauses on protection of people with special needs like the PWDs. The law must ensure that they are not exploited by financial institutions because of their conditions. The law ought to make sure that the PWDs are educated about their rights in the financial market place and all information on financial products offered by financial institutions should be simplified and interpreted to them before they make consumption decisions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is amongst the first few studies to provide a meticulous and unique discourse on the ever increasing role of financial literacy combined with consumer protection to reduce consumption risks within the financial markets, especially in developing countries in the aftermath of global pandemic shocks. This study uses the social learning theory, theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behaviour to elucidate how customized financial literacy can enhance consumer protection to increase financial inclusion of groups with special needs like the PWDs who have become more susceptible to exploitation by unscrupulous financial institutions in under-developed financial markets, especially in post Covid-19 pandemic.

This paper examines the role of co-inventor collaboration with China and/or the USA on a country's increase in centrality in global knowledge networks. It also explores the role of specific institutional factors – corruption and intellectual property rights (IPR) protection – on this relationship.

In the study, co-inventor data from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) applications have been used to construct networks of technological knowledge collaboration at the country level over the years 2002–2015. Using eigenvector centrality as the dependent variable, the study uses fixed effect regression analyses on a panel of 171 countries, contributing to recent debates on knowledge networks and international cooperation.

Building on research in economic development, innovation and social network theory, this research finds that co-patenting with Chinese inventors is positively related to a country's centrality in global knowledge networks and that this relationship is negatively moderated by collaboration with the current most central knowledge network – namely that of the USA – suggesting a substitution effect. It also finds a partial substitution between institutional factors, IPRs protection and transparency, and collaboration with China on a country's knowledge centrality.

Regarding policymakers, the findings can be used to encourage international collaboration for increased access to new sources of knowledge that fosters innovation while keeping a close eye on local institutions, especially emerging economies that want to increase their international knowledge network centrality.

This study creates a unique panel data set and extends the social networks approach in international business literature, focusing on institutional characteristics related to participation in knowledge networks.

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated unprecedented public fear, impeding both individuals’ social life and the travel industry as a whole. China was one of the first major countries to experience the COVID-19 outbreaks and recovery from the pandemic. The demand for outings is increasing in the post-COVID-19 world, leading to the recovery of the ride-sharing industry. Integrating protection motivation theory and the theory of reasoned action, this study aims to investigate ride-sharing customers’ self-protection motivation to provide anti-pandemic measures and promote the resilience of ride-sharing industry.

This study followed a two-phase mixed-methods design. In the first phase, the authors executed a qualitative study with 30 interviews. In the second phase, the authors used the results of the interviews to inform the design of a survey, with which 272 responses were collected. Both studies were conducted in China.

The present results indicate that customers’ perceived vulnerability of COVID-19 and perceived COVID protection efficacy (self-efficacy and response efficacy) are positively correlated with their attitude toward self-protection, thus leading to their self-protection motivation during the rides. Moreover, subjective norms and customers’ distrust appear to also impact their self-protection motivation during the ride-sharing service.

The present research provides one of the first in-depth studies, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, on customers’ protection motivation in ride-sharing services in the new normal. The empirical evidence provides important insights for ride-sharing service providers and managers in the post-pandemic world and promote the resilience of ride-sharing industry.

Research on online user privacy shows that empirical evidence on how privacy literacy relates to users' information privacy empowerment is missing. To fill this gap, this paper investigated the respective influence of two primary dimensions of online privacy literacy – namely declarative and procedural knowledge – on online users' information privacy empowerment.

An empirical analysis is conducted using a dataset collected in Europe. This survey was conducted in 2019 among 27,524 representative respondents of the European population.

The main results show that users' procedural knowledge is positively linked to users' privacy empowerment. The relationship between users' declarative knowledge and users' privacy empowerment is partially supported. While greater awareness about firms and organizations practices in terms of data collections and further uses conditions was found to be significantly associated with increased users' privacy empowerment, unpredictably, results revealed that the awareness about the GDPR and user’s privacy empowerment are negatively associated. The empirical findings reveal also that greater online privacy literacy is associated with heightened users' information privacy empowerment.

While few advanced studies made systematic efforts to measure changes occurred on websites since the GDPR enforcement, it remains unclear, however, how individuals perceive, understand and apply the GDPR rights/guarantees and their likelihood to strengthen users' information privacy control. Therefore, this paper contributes empirically to understanding how online users' privacy literacy shaped by both users' declarative and procedural knowledge is likely to affect users' information privacy empowerment. The study empirically investigates the effectiveness of the GDPR in raising users' information privacy empowerment from user-based perspective. Results stress the importance of greater transparency of data tracking and processing decisions made by online businesses and services to strengthen users' control over information privacy. Study findings also put emphasis on the crucial need for more educational efforts to raise users' awareness about the GDPR rights/guarantees related to data protection. Empirical findings also show that users who are more likely to adopt self-protective approaches to reinforce personal data privacy are more likely to perceive greater control over personal data. A broad implication of this finding for practitioners and E-businesses stresses the need for empowering users with adequate privacy protection tools to ensure more confidential transactions.

The factors that motivate Generation Z individuals to use the Internet of Things for security purposes have yet to be explored. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to close a research gap by verifying the protection motivation theory using gender as a moderator.

The authors used a purposive sampling approach to collect data from Dhaka city, in which 370 valid responses were selected. Additionally, the quantitative and cross-sectional survey used a seven-point Likert scale. Afterward, the evaluation approach included three phases: a measurement model, a structural model and multi-group analysis.

Vulnerability, self-efficacy and response-efficacy were discovered to be critical predictors with a variance of 60.4%. Moreover, there was a significant disparity between males and females in two relationships, response efficacy and intention as well as response cost and intention.

This research expands our understanding of Generation Z consumers' behavioral intentions to take measures against household threats, allowing preventative programs to be improved. Further, in the case of applying coping strategies, a practical difference between males and females has been found that must be bridged through awareness campaigns.

This study has made a unique contribution to the information system literature. First, the role of protection motivation theory factors in addressing security concerns in homes has been assessed. Second, the coping evaluation process has a greater impact on users' intentions than the threat appraisal process. However, males and females use slightly different approaches to defending themselves against the threat.

This study aims to provides the insights on the advantages and disadvantages of international franchising and licensing from the perspectives of legal and business considerations in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Using a quantitative research approach, the authors conducted a survey with 150 business owners and franchisees in the GCC and analyzed the data using descriptive statistics, structural equation modeling and frequency analysis.

The findings reveal that while international franchising and licensing offer significant benefits for business expansion and revenue growth, they also pose risks related to legal compliance, cultural differences and intellectual property protection. Indeed, the results of this study provide valuable insights into the advantages and disadvantages of international franchising and licensing in the GCC from both legal and business perspectives.

There is limited research on the legal and business perspectives of international franchising and licensing in the GCC. This study contributes to the literature by providing a comprehensive analysis of the legal and business perspectives of international franchising and licensing in the GCC.

Despite the support of digital technology, there is a high degree of ambiguity and fluidity in the boundaries of digital products. This is because the addition of distributed innovation entities has an impact on the scope and scale of digital product innovation. Building upon the knowledge orchestration perspective, this study aims to construct a theoretical model, comprising distributed innovation, knowledge reorchestration and digital product innovation performance, and discuss the moderating roles of intellectual property protection and knowledge exchange activities.

Using a sample of 362 Chinese science and technology enterprises, the scholarship’s framework and hypotheses were tested using regression and bootstrap analysis.

The results confirm that distributed innovation positively enhances enterprises’ digital product innovation performance; knowledge reorchestration plays a partial mediating role in the linkage amongst distributed innovation and digital product innovation performance; and intellectual property protection and knowledge exchange activities negatively and positively moderate the mediating role of knowledge reorchestration amongst distributed innovation and digital product innovation performance, respectively.

This empirical scholarship explores the effect mechanism of intellectual property protection, knowledge exchange activities and knowledge reorchestration on the linkage amongst distributed innovation and digital product innovation performance. This paper expands the theoretical application of distributed innovation, knowledge orchestration and other related theories in the context of the digital economy and further provides a policymaking reference for the improvement of enterprises’ digital product innovations.